Except For You ~ {Fred Weasley}

Chapter 26

y/n's hair frames her hair perfectly, the sun catching on her freckles and the crinkles next to her eyes when she smiles genuinely. She looks so perfect in this moment, time frozen, the world tuning out and my eyes locked on her face, my smirk dropping into awe at her beauty.
Then I hit the water. The cool liquid washes over me and engulfs me like a hug, breaking me from my dazed trance.

Del and y/n are explaining some game I've never heard of, and by the looks of it, neither has George. Finally, they give up, and decide to show us.
Del dips under the water and y/n slides onto her shoulders, like a piggyback ride for your neck. Oh, I get what they meant by that now.
Anyways, Del stands up with y/n on her shoulders, and me and George look very concerned. They look like their about to tumble over, but somehow don't. Miraculously.
Then Del tips y/n back off her shoulders, gently letting her back into the water. "So yeah, first one off their partners' shoulders loses." Del explains, grinning.
"Seems easy enough." George responds. He turns to me. "You are so going down."
"Never!" I exclaim, then feel two hands on my shoulders. I look back, grinning at y/n.
"I need you to get under the water." She says flatly, and I roll my eyes. She exclaims, "What? It's not my fault your so freakishly tall!" I chuckle, then dip under the water. Everything goes quiet, and I can barely make out George, who is also under the water.
Once y/n is on my shoulders, I wrap my hands around her ankles and stand up.
When I break the surface, I blink violently to get the water out of my eyes. Then I feel Del and y/n's hand crash, trying to pull each other off mine and George's shoulders.

y/n wins the first and second round, Del the third and fourth, and y/n has just pushed Del off again when George decides he's too tired to keep going. Del breaks the surface and agrees with him, so they swim back to the shore and get out.
I'm still watching them, and have almost forgotten about y/n when I hear her exhale. I smirk and tilt my head to look up at her. She looks down at me, slightly confused.
"What?" Then realisation hits her. "No, Mr Trouble, don't even think-" Too late. I've thrown her back off my shoulders and into the water, knowing that she'll want to kill me after that. I wave as George and Del wrap towels around themselves and start leaving.
The water is dark, so I can't tell where y/n is while I wait for her to surface. Then, before I can even register what's happening, someone is on my back, hand covering my eyes and legs wrapped around my middle. I almost yelp in surprise, but smirk when I realise who it is.
"Now, now, that isn't very lady-like Miss Salty."
She chuckles and whispers in my ear, "That was the plan." I laugh and reach up, removing her hand from her eyes. She hooks her hands around the back of my neck, releases her legs, and swims to be in front of me. "I thought I deserved some payback for what you did to me earlier."
"Well I hope I didn't give it to you." I smirk.
"Can't say that you did." y/n unlatches her hands and drags them unknowingly down my arms as she swims away. One hand is already out of my grasp, but when the other reaches my finger tips I grab hold and pull her towards me.
"Now just where do you think you're going?" I ask, pulling her in with one hand on her waist.
"I was hoping to get away from you." She responds flatly, but I can see the pink lining her upper cheeks.
"Were you now?"
"I said what I-" She cuts off as I pull her closer, one of her hands still in mine and the other on my chest. My other hand is still on her waist. "Whudda doing?" She asks quietly, trying to pretend that her entire face isn't flushed.
"What do you want me to be doing?" I breathe back. She chuckles lightly and breaks eye contact with me, then pushes away.
"Nothing." She responds over her shoulder, swimming to the edge of the lake in freestyle strokes.
"Then that's what I'm doing." I call back, swimming after her.
We both grab our towels and start drying ourselves. y/n pats her towel over her hair, then pulls her shorts and my jersey back on. "Do you want help with the blanket?" I ask when she waves at me to step off it.
She shakes her head and starts folding it, like the blankets at home do by themselves in the air. I watch her, her face never changing from concentration as she packs things away.
Once everything is packed up, she pulls the basket onto her forearm, holding it steady with the other hand. I walk beside her, my towel over my shoulder and my hands in my pockets.
I watch y/n as she walks, the way her hair bobs slightly and how she doesn't look down like most people, but straight ahead in confidence I never knew she had. She peeks over at me.
"What are you staring at?" She asks, half laughing.
"Nothing." I respond, shrugging and looking ahead. She nods and looks ahead also. "You're awfully quiet right now. Haven't said a word since the lake." I glance down at her, and I can spot some colour coming to her cheeks.
"Oh." She starts fiddling with the zipper of my jersey. "Well... Um..."
I look at her, waiting for her response. "Yeah?" I prompt.
She blurts. "Were you going to kiss me if I didn't push back? Because that would have went terribly for you, I'm not allowed to date until I'm sixteen and that's all the way in April."
Chuckling softly, I respond, "Glad to know," as well as trying to hide my disappointment. Of course I would have tried to kiss her. But I can't do that until April? "When in April?" I ask, glancing down at her.
"Eleventh."
"Now I know when to give you a big birthday kiss." She whacks me in the arm and I laugh. "I'm just joking. I'll only give you a small one." I hold up my thumb and pointer finger, pulling them close together until their almost touching. She shakes her head, laughing under her breath.
"You exhaust me, Mr Gideon Trouble."
"Seriously, how do you know my middle name?" I laugh, and she laughs to. Then she looks up at me and squints.
"A witch never reveals her secrets." She whispers, looking ahead again.
"I bet I can get you to reveal your secrets." She laughs and turns around, now walking backwards so she can face me.
"I'd like to see you try!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
I lunge after her and she laughs, turning around and sprinting away. But my long legs are too fast compared to her surprising speed. I catch her from behind, pulling her in by the middle towards me. She laughs and tilts her head back to look at me. "You and your darned height." She whispers, squinting again. She smiles with her mouth open, and I just realise how her hair is soaking my shirt.

She wanted me to take my shirt off? Like, at that moment? She had taken off my jersey and her shorts.
I pretend not to notice her not looking at me unbuttoning my shirt, or the fact that Del was looking at her smugly. And knowingly.
I already knew that she knew that I knew that she had a thing for me. But she had never told me it straight. So there was no way I could do anything remotely romantic until we had spent at least a week as just friends.
In hindsight, I knew that was never going to happen.

She's wriggled out of my grasp, and is now tugging on my hand for her to follow her.
"Come on!" She's saying. "We'll catch colds if we stay in these wet clothes forever!" I snap back to reality, a smile breaking onto my face as I follow her.
"But what if I want to get sick? So you can take care of me?" She laughs, throwing her head back.
"Del is enough to deal with when she's sick. If you get a cold I'm taking you straight to madame Pomfrey, no question."
We're walking beside each other again, and I try not to notice her not noticing me looking at her. Which may be a good or bad thing if she does catch me.
Her hand slips from mine when we enter the Entrance Hall, and I try not to look disappointed or confused. We continue walking in silence, until we get to the part where we have to to split off to our own common rooms.
She looks to me and smiles. "You know you can be a pretty good friend."
"Yeah?" I ask, smirking. She rolls her eyes.
"Yeah. Except for when you push people into lakes." She adds, also smirking.
"Well, we all have flaws in our many talents."
"You have talents?" She jokes.
"Why you..." I sling my arm around her neck and pull her to me, messing up her hair with my fist. She laughs, one eye shut tight and the other squinting. She turns when I release her, heading up the staircase to her own common room.
I stare after her, a smile on my face without my knowledge. Then she turns back, mouths, 'Write me,' and dashes up the rest of the staircase. How the hell did this girl make me feel so light? And... giddy? Bloody hell, she's given me butterflies from mouthing two, seemingly normal and harmless words.
But those words meant more words, ones that I could keep forever.

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Hey, so, it's getting pretty cuteeee!
But, I want to know if you guys like 'y/n' or a chosen name for the main character?
Just comment what you like and I'll make any changes if there's a main consensus!
<3

((Also go check out my other storiesss!!!))