✓ weasley and the wolf boy ☞ fred weasley

2: gred and forge

SCENE TWO
GRED AND FORGE

      The Weasleys themselves were not a hard family to spot- together the siblings all shared fiery red hair. This made it rather easy for Arlo to find the twins as they were the eldest Weasleys left in the school, the others being a fourth year boy named Ron (who was friends with Harry Potter) and a third year girl named Ginny, who was nice to Arlo's little sister Luna. Apparently, Jem informed him, the Ravenclaw had the same free period as the Gryffindors on Tuesdays, so the next day Arlo found the Weasley twins along the Quidditch commentator Lee Jordan lounging under a tree by the Black Lake.

Jem said she would accompany him, so the two Ravenclaw made their way over to the group of three.

"It's so bloody hot." Arlo heard Jem mutter. She paused, and so did Arlo as she pulled her dark hair up into a ponytail. Arlo agreed- although the two of them had abandoned their heavy black robes right after breakfast along with the rest of the student body, the sun still beat down on the grounds of the castle. Arlo rolled up his sleeves, revealing the faded white scars on his forearms that he avoided looking at, and tugged on the knot of his silver and blue tie. His glasses were sliding down his nose a little bit from sweat and he huffed in annoyance.

"Let's just get this over and done with." Arlo said. Jem nodded, and their pace quickened as they made their way down the slopes leading to the Black Lake.

"Fred Weasley?"

It was no help that all three of the Gryffindors looked up at Arlo. The silver-haired boy felt himself flush, and he swallowed nervously.

"Please don't joke around with who you are," Arlo pleaded, referencing the way the two identical boys would often switch names in order to confuse people. "I have a message from Professor McGonagall."

He held out the folded parchment. One of the twins let out a groan (Arlo prayed it was Fred) and clambered to his feet, taking the parchment from Arlo's hand. Arlo bit back a small sound when he noticed how close Fred stood to him. He swallowed the frantic nerves in his throat, gripping the strap of his bag tightly.

"What does it say?" The other twin, George said, deciding that Fred was taking fae too long to read the note. He stood, reading over his brother's shoulder and now that Arlo could see the twins up close, and knew which one was which, he noticed the subtle differences between the two. Fred's eyes were greener, his freckles darker and more spread out, which created a contrast to his pale skin. George seemed a little more tanner, and built.

Arlo felt a pinch on his upper arm, and Jem hissed in his ear, "You're staring!"

He tore his eyes away to study the grass beneath his feet just as Fred looked up at him. After a moment that seemed like eternity, Fred spoke.

"I take it that you're my tutor?" Fred asked. Arlo looked up to see Fred looking straight at him, and was suddenly aware of the practically three inch height difference between himself and the Weasley.

"Yeah, Arlo Lovegood." Arlo breathed, proud that he had managed to string together a sentence that made sense under the gaze of Fred's pretty green eyes.

"Right well-"

"We have a free period together next Thursday before lunch," Arlo said quickly. "When I say 'us', I mean Ravenclaws and Gryffindors. Does that work for you?"

Fred nodded. "Sure that works."

"I'll meet you in the library?"

"Okay."

Arlo bit down on the inside of his mouth a tad too hard and winced, tasting coppery blood on his tongue. He nodded at Fred quickly.

"I'll see you then." He confirmed stiffly, before hastily striding away, Jem hurrying along beside him.

Once the two had marched a considerable distance away from the Gryffindors around the Black Lake, Arlo dropped his bag and let himself fall to the ground.

"That was mortifying." He groaned, slapping his hands onto his face.

"It wasn't that bad," Jem replied, sitting herself down next to him and taking out her homework. "Aside from when you completely eye-fucked him, and then got too embarrassed to notice that he eye-fucked you back."

Arlo peeked at Jem through his fingers.

"You're joking."

"Nope."

"But he's straight!" Arlo protested, to which Jem preceded to hit him on the back of the head with her Arithmancy textbook.

"Don't assume!" She scolded. "And I know for a fact that Amy saw him snogging Hufflepuff Todd Stein- Todd, the boy- and it was obviously not George because everyone knows he fancies Angelina Johnson."

"But-"

"Why are you even complaining? You get to spend a whole hour each week with him, and you can both eye-fuck each other as much as you like. Shut up, and do your homework."

Arlo rubbed his head, but did as she said, because as always, Jem was right.