May the Best Man Win |×| Fred Weasley | 1 |×|

×| SIXTY-EIGHT |×

"NO. NO WAY. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN." Evelyn said defiantly, crossing her arms over her stomach and leaning back against the low stone wall that stood opposite to the three broomsticks.

"Oh come on Evie," George pleaded with her, waving the red scarf in his hand towards her, "We've been planning this game all week."

"I don't care," Evelyn shook her head. She could feel Lee glaring at her irritatedly and knew Max would not be pleased about her reaction, "You are not going to get me to wander around hogsmead wearing a blindfold."

"We're not going to leave you to fend for yourself, " Max clarified, "I'll be walking with you and Lee will go with Fred and the others will meet us at the hogs head."

"I don't understand why we can't just go to the hogs head now," Evelyn grumbled back, "Harry and his friends invited us to some kind of meeting - I don't want to be late. It would be rude."

"That's an awful excuse and you know it," Evelyn's gaze shifted to her left as Fred sat easily on the wall beside Evelyn, arm hooking around her waist, "stop being such a spoiled sport, love. It's just a blindfold. Max won't let you accidentally walk off of a cliff. Not that there are any cliffs around here to walk off of."

Evelyn stuck out her bottom lip and sighed. When Max had told her the first game of their final year would take place on a hogsmead weekend, she had hoped that the point of it would be to make sure the castle was quiet whilst they competed over some strange but amusing competition like usual. Instead, she'd been dragged out of bead far too early for a Saturday and directed into hogsmead village itself right at 10 o'clock in the morning only to be told that the master plan George, Lee, Max, Nikki and Ashton had come up with was for her and Fred to navigate the cobbled streets with their eyes covered. The only rule was that they must keep their blindfold on at all times. Other than that, they could use whatever means necessary to get to their destination: the hog's head. The winner would be the one who reached the strange little pub first.

Evelyn stared at Fred in his galaxy chocolate eyes and tried her best not to give in to his frustrating charm. But with the eyes of five others also bearing down on her, Evelyn found her stubbornness crumbling and she groaned, conceeding and turning around so that George could tie the gryffindor scarf securely over her eyes.

"Don't ask me how many fingers you're holding up," she deadpanned, standing slightly disorientated as darkness overtook her vision. She heard laughter, felt somebody - probably, no, hopefully, Fred - put a quick kiss on top of her head and then caught a whiff of bonfire smoke and cinnamon that told her it certainly had been him.

Moments later, Evelyn felt a hand - presumably Max's - wrap around her wrist and she clawed at the presence to try and ground herself in this new strange dimension. George had wrapped the scarf twice around her head, though the knit was so thick and close that no light would have been able to seep through even if he'd wrapped it only once. Evelyn was suddenly acutely aware of the breeze flapping against her cheeks and of how solid and safe the ground felt beneath her feet as she waited for further instruction. The sensation of nothingness was unpleasant and unnerving. Curse you, Fred Weasley. You and your annoyingly pretty eyes.

"Off you go then," George's voice cut through the darkness, muffled by the wool covering Evelyns ears, "and don't you two give them any directions."

Evelyn imagined that Max had saluted George before she guided Evelyn a few steps in what was presumably the right direction, only to be shouted at for breaking the rules already. After that, Evelyn stumbled aroujd, trying to navigate the street for about a minute until an idea popped explosively into her head. She reached up to her head and felt around for her wand in her hair, pulling it down as soon as her fingertips grazed it's handle.