chaos ~ fred weasley

15. ten no ikari

I almost forget everything going on outside of the dorm room as I sit with my closest friends, sipping the firewhisky and laughing my head off.

                I sit beside Fred, and our shoulders touch when we both go to lean on Harry's trunk. Wordlessly, I pass him the firewhisky and he takes a large gulp. Angie and George sit beside us, and when Fred turns to pass the bottle, he finds the pair tucked against each other, talking with their noses almost brushing.

                Fred, for once, isn't quite sure what to say. He stares for a moment at the intimate position of his twin brother and his friend, and then he just bites his lip and looks away. I nudge him, and he looks over at me. "Good job," I murmur in his ear. "Not saying anything, I mean. I know you want to."

                "Believe me, I'll be interrogating him later."

                "I don't doubt it."

                Harry, Ron and Hermione have varying reactions when we break out the firewhisky. Hermione scrunches her nose up in disgust, Harry doesn't really react because he's not even paying attention, and Ron is eyeing the bottle. "Can I have some?" Ron asks, reaching for the bottle from Allie.

                Julian snatches the bottle away. "You're literally thirteen years old, Ron. Fuck no."

                "Language!" Hermione says sharply.

                Fred rolls his eyes. "Hermione, loosen up a little. We're going to swear, and we're going to drink, and if you want to leave you can. We're also not forcing you to drink or swear if you don't want to."

                Hermione huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, but she doesn't make any move to leave. "Well, what are we going to do now?"

                George shrugs. "Whatever we want, Granger," he says. "We're free!" he shouts, tilting his head back to the ceiling.

                "Bloody hell, George, are you trying to get us caught?!" Ron exclaims, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

                "I was going to wait until tomorrow to show you, Venus, but I may as well show you now," Hermione says, and then she reaches into her bag and pulls out a large, dusty volume and slams it down in the middle of the circle.

                I pull it towards me, tilting my head to read the label. "Kitsune Volume I," I read aloud.

                "I know that recently all we've been doing is talking about Sirius Black or your powers, Vee, but I do think it's important that you know what you can do. If people at Hogwarts find out, you could be in big trouble, and who knows what the Slytherins would do. They hate anyone who's not pure blood, and finding out someone has superior powers to them could be catastrophic on your end. I understand if you don't want to worry about this stuff right now, though."

                "No, it's okay," I say, smiling gently at Hermione. "I want to know what I can do... and if I could hurt any of you. I don't know what I'd do if I did."

                "I understand," she says. "The really interesting bit is on page 493."

                "Where did you get this?" Angie asks as everyone crowds around me. I begin to flip through the book to the right page, and dust plumes up from the spine, making everyone cough a little.

                "The restricted section of the library," she says nonchalantly.

                "Wait, why was this book in the restricted section?" Julian asks, furrowing his brow.