Amelia Merlin and the Game for Okamila

Part 31: I'm in love with you

Take a deep breath. Shoulders back. Chin up, don't look so sad. Maybe a small smile, not that small you can barely see it. That's better. Gods, you sounds like your mother. Stop slouching. Now keep this look. Fix your hair first. He's going to remember this and you want him to remember you looking good. Okay, are you ready? Let's go.

Amelia had spent the better part of an hour convincing herself she was ready to go talk to Fred. She had finally found the words to tell him how she felt, but she was still nervous as all hell. There was no way this would not be the hardest thing she had ever done. It's probably the hardest thing anyone does at any point in their lives, it's the biggest leap, the scariest jump, the hardest crash or the most blissful landing. What if he told her she was crazy? Or laughed at her? Or felt pity for her because he didn't feel the same way? What if she choked? Last time she tried doing this she had been hit by a train. What if something worse happened?

Stop. Control yourself. Deep breath. Calm down. You can do this.

"Fred," she put a hand on his shoulder. He was sitting on a couch with some of his friends, they had papers strewn everywhere. An ink bottle had fallen over and no one noticed it spilling dark liquid over the carpet. His fiery head craned around to look at her and his mouth whizzed into a smile the second he saw her.

"Amy!" he laughed lightly. "How are you, love?"

"I'm great," Amelia could feel her heart pounding inside her throat and her hands shook ever so slightly. "Can you come walk with me? I want to talk to you."

"Yeah of course." he jumped off the couch and walked with her out of the common room. She didn't say a word until they had left the castle. The grounds were still stiff from the cold but there was no longer any snow on them. Wind whipped across their pale cheeks turning them from white to red in an instant. Ripples tore across the Black Lake and Amelia felt the strength of the land inside her. She had always had a special connection to the grounds of Hogwarts, there was a certain strength that she gained from existing in such a powerful place.

"Do you remember that day, so many years ago, when I was really upset and I nearly killed you with those tree branches?" she said suddenly. Fred looked at her and nodded, smiling faintly.

"Do you remember that day we stole broomsticks and went and sat at the top of that tower over there?" Amelia nodded too and he laughed. "I can still remember your face, it was the first time you'd seen the grounds from that view and you were ecstatic."

"Can I tell you something Fred?" she said almost a little too loudly.

"Of course."

"I love my job." Amelia began but was soon interrupted.

"And here I thought you were going to confess your love for me." He joked.

"Can you let me finish?" She grinned and shoved him lightly before continuing. "Being a queen is what I was made for. I know it. Even when Al had me working for him over that summer and going to meetings at the ministry, I was so good at it Fred. And I know I can be a good ruler. I love talking to people and getting to know them. I love convincing people of what I know is right. I love fighting for these people and standing up for them. I love magic and I love that I am going to help save it. I love that I am going to defeat the horrible people who have tried to abolish that. It's what I was meant to do, who I was meant to be and I don't understand how I could love anything more than that."

The wind blew her hair out of her face. The sky was clouded over and the whole world was slightly grey. The rolling fields of Hogwarts were dramatically stoic in nature, everything from the forest to the lake was cast in this grey light and Amelia loved it because it made Fred's fiery red hair the most sensational sight she had ever seen.

"I don't see how anything could mean more to me than my kingdom, my people. How could anything come before that? It doesn't make sense right?" her hands shook and she could feel herself starting to freak out inside. "But the thing is, I do love something more than all that. More than everything in the whole entire world I love you Fred Weasley. I am in love with you." She smiled and her hands couldn't stop shaking, her whole body was vibrating. "You mean more to me than anything ever has. I would throw it all away to be with you. I would let it all go to waste for you. You mean more to me than all of it. I am so in love with you I don't even know what to do with myself sometimes. You're all I can think about, you're the highlight of my day. You're so fantastic and I want to spend every second of every minute of every day with you for the rest of my life. You're my favourite person, Fred and I can't even begin to express how much I adore you."

For a second the world froze, the wind stopped and all that existed were two teenagers in a grey field. One of them, the one with the hair kissed by fire took a step forward. His hands found their way to the one with the golden hair and with one palm on her cheek and the other on her waist, he kissed her. It lasted barely more than a moment and it wasn't passion or desire that drove this kiss. It was the slow, soft kiss that could echo throughout the universe as the mark of true love.

When he released her, Amelia looked up at him, her blue eyes were crinkled into a smile. Her hands had stopped shaking.

"I'm in love with you too Amy," Fred Weasley beamed at her. "Always have been."