Roses and Riots | f. weasley

Chapter 13: Patronus

A/N: Another chapter today because ily guys so much ;)

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After they watched Harry hurry away with the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauders' Map, Emilia and the twins began their walk into the  snow-covered village. George very obviously gave the two of them space to talk, walking fast ahead of them.

Fred cleared his throat awkwardly, "Emilia?"

"Mhm?" she answered, anxiously stuffing her hands into her coat pockets, realising that she was about to talk to Fred alone for the first time in three weeks without George as their mediator.

"I, um- I, well," he stuttered, fiddling with the zipper on his coat as they walked.

"Fred Weasley, are you speechless for once?" she asked with a hint of a smile, deciding that being cold to him took too much energy and she was tired of it.

Her joke eased the tension between them, and Fred let out a quiet laugh.

"I just...I wanted to apologise," he said, and she nodded, giving him a chance to continue.

"The stuff I said to you was stupid, I was out of line, and I was, quite frankly, being a tosser," he admitted sheepishly.

Emilia smirked, "you really were."

He snorted, "yeah, I was. I shouldn't have said that stuff, and I should've been more supportive about your...relationship. So I'm sorry. I guess I was just worried about you getting hurt."

"Worried? About little old me?" she teased.

"Don't make me say it again, but yes, I was," he said with a nod.

She felt her face warm at the sincerity in his voice and she smiled at him, "I accept your apology. And I'm sorry for the stuff I said too. I was cross with you, and I didn't mean it. So I'm sorry."

He grinned down at her, "so we're good?"

She laughed and linked her arm through his as they walked, "of course we are, Freddie. Just watch your tone next time or I'll write to your mother."

Fred laughed, "noted."

Emilia glanced at the figure walking quickly ahead of them, "George! We're fine again, you can stop running away now!"

George turned around and waited for them to catch up, and Emilia linked her other arm through his.

He sighed loudly, as if he had been dealt too many hardships in his fifteen years, "well thank Merlin's dirty beard for that. You were both being insufferable, the two most stubborn dickheads I've ever met, I swear."

"Alright, reign it in, dickhead," Fred replied.

They laughed and joked all the way to Hogsmeade, and the twins walked Emilia to the Three Broomsticks where Roger was waiting for her. 

She said goodbye to them and walked inside, quickly finding Roger standing near a table with a crowd of girls smiling wistfully up at him, "hey, Roger."

He turned around, "oh, there you are! I wondered where you'd gotten to."

He led her over to a table where his coat and scarf were strewn, "I saw you heading over to the Weasley twins before I left."

She pulled off her hat, scarf, and coat, and sat down, "yeah, they were helping me to sort out something for Harry."

"Mhm," Roger said, as if he wasn't really listening to her.

She ordered a Butterbeer when Madam Rosmerta came around, and then she glanced at the small flower in a jar on the table, "oh look! It's one of those eternally blooming flowers."