I was waiting in the common room as all the students started arriving. I was looking for a couple faces in particular. First Alicia came in and I quickly pulled her into a hug.
"I'm so glad you guys are back!" I said and pulled Angelina in too, who had just come in. We gathered on the couch and talked about our holidays. That was until my attention was pulled to a bunch of redheads coming in.
Angelina was first to greet them and I quickly followed her example. I had decided that there would be no awkwardness between Fred and I.
"Hey Homeschooled", he said and hugged me back.
"Hi Weasel", I mumbled and he chuckled.
"I have something to show you later", he said with a wink and went to greet the others.
We spent the rest of the day catching up and eating leftover Christmas cookies.
When we got back from supper, Fred stopped me. "I still need to show you something", he said. "Stay here."
He went up to his dorm room and came back with a scrubby looking box. "Come on", he said and motioned me to follow him. I did and he led me to the Courtyard.
"What's up?" I asked as I hoisted myself up the windowsill.
"We did it! We worked on it all Christmas break and it is finally ready", he said excitedly and held out the box.
"What is it?" I asked and took it. I slowly opened the box and was surprised by a bunch of small flasks. Love perfume it read on the label.
"Is it the diluted Amortentia?" I asked and Fred nodded, a grin plastered on his face.
FRED'S POV
Her eyes were twinkling and she was smiling brightly. By far the best sight of the day. She took a flask out of the box and twirled it around in her hand.
"Come on, try it", I said and she raised an eyebrow.
"It's still a love potion, Fred", she said and I grinned.
"We tested it. It doesn't do much, it just smells like the thing you love", I reassured her, yet she didn't seem convinced.
"I'm just protecting you from falling madly in love with me", she said dramatically. I'm pretty sure that had already happened though.
She shrugged and opened the flask. She smelled it and started blushing furiously. I wondered what she smelled. She put the tiniest amount on her wrist and closed the flask again.
"So, what do you smell?" she asked and extended her arm. I dramatically took her wrist and sniffed it. I didn't smell anything special. I just smelled more of what was already there, her.
"Definitely a whiff of McGonagall", I joked and she started giggling. I wish I could record her laugh. It was adorable.
"What do you smell?" I asked and couldn't help but step a bit closer to her. I could swear that she was blushing.
"Honey, lime and fresh mowed grass", she said and I couldn't tell if she was being honest or not.
"Stop lying, love", I whispered in her ear.
I loved how things were normal again. Yet, I felt like I hadn't completely left what had happened behind me. There were still so many unanswered questions. But things were good now. I didn't want that to be ruined.
"What are you thinking about?" Y/N asked and I looked up. I could see in her eyes that she already knew. There was only one question I really needed an answer to. I knew why she went with George, I knew why she said no to Neville and even Michael. I just had to know one thing come from her mouth.
YOUR POV
"Why did you say no to Cedric?" he asked suddenly. I tried my best to come up with a good excuse, but I stayed empty-handed. Should I ... just tell him the truth? Or at least partially?
"Because I thought you were going to ask me right before he interrupted. That was rude of him", I said and crossed my arms. He looked conflicted, as if he was happy, yet also disappointed.
"Were you?" I asked. It stayed quiet for a while.
"Yeah", he said and I relaxed a bit. Was he going to ask me because he liked me? But did that make up for the fact that he acted like a stupid sod afterwards? I sighed and looked down. I didn't like this one bit. We just had to leave this all behind us and go back to laughing, acting silly and being happy. Right now, I didn't even want to know if he liked me or not, I just wanted to have my normal Fred back.
"Would you have said yes if I hadn't been an ignorant jerk?" he asked and I smiled slightly. At least he realized it.
"Yeah, of course I would have", I said and he seemed to be relieved.
"I'm sorry, I really am", he said and pulled me into a hug. In the end, we had both just made this far too dramatic. I didn't know how to handle these feelings, causing me to freak out about him not asking me to a stupid ball, and he jumped to conclusions when he shouldn't have. The moment we had in the hallway seemed years ago.
"We're friends again right? I hated these past weeks", Fred said. Friends. I guess that made things clear. I took a deep breath. I just had to deal with it.
"Yeah, of course", I said and let go of him. I quickly walked away, so I could swallow the lump in my throat. Friends, he wanted us to be friends. He had flirted with me before, was he over that? I felt sad. I still liked him a whole lot, but he had decided we would just be friends, nothing more. I had to come to terms with this one-sidedness as soon as possible.
FRED'S POV
Oh Merlin, why did I say that? I was normally so calm and collected around girls, but with Y/N, I did not know what to do. I constantly doubted my words and actions and I would constantly act irresponsible. She would have said yes. I could've gone to the ball with Y/N if I hadn't been so bloody stupid. And what did I do to make things right again? I asked her to be friends. I was so stupid.
If I just knew how she felt about me. I was quite sure she had at least some kind of feelings towards me, but after how I acted, I wasn't so sure anymore.
It was pretty clear that I had two options. I could either tell her how I feel, which could end up really good or really bad, or I could ignore those feelings for now and kind of feel miserable, but try and get things to how they were before. Both choices weren't really great and I didn't even have the guts to go for option one.
YOUR POV
We were sitting at breakfast when Fred and George brought up their new prank idea. They wanted to get Filch's cat to turn bright purple. They had created these pastilles that would turn you a certain colour and they wanted to test them on Mrs Norris. At first I didn't want to have anything to do with it, since that was literal animal abuse, but they swore that they had tested them already and that they were safe.
"Yes, on my cat", Hermione sneered and the twins chuckled.
"Imagine a green Crookshanks!" George said and Hermione rolled her eyes, clearly not amused.
"So, who's in?" Fred asked. Lee immediately agreed, but the others stayed quiet.
"I'm down", I said and high-fived both twins.
"Epic! Meet us in the common room right before supper", George said.
Classes were rather boring, although rumours about the second Triwizard task were intriguing. I hadn't seen Cedric since the Yule Ball and I felt like catching up with him. Unfortunately, he wasn't in any of my classes since he was a seventh-year, but I'd kidnap him somewhere during the day.
I saw him right after I finished Transfiguration. He was just saying goodbye to Cho. I smirked at the sight. He took her to the Yule Ball as well. She smiled at me when we crossed paths. I didn't know her, but she seemed like a nice girl.
"Oh Ced, do I see heart eyes?" I asked and he turned around. He rolled his eyes, but smiled brightly.
"Kind of a good thing that you completely turned me down", he said and I chuckled.
"I was way out of your league, pal", I joked and dramatically flipped my hair.
"How is it going with you and Weasley? I barely saw you guys at the ball. Did it escalate that quickly?" he asked with a smirk and I shoved my elbow in his ribs.
"I didn't even go with Fred, I went with George", I said and he raised an eyebrow.
"Long story, not a good one", I said and sat down on a bench in the courtyard. He sat down on the ground in front of me.
"So no snogging Fredster yet?" he asked and I tried to kick him, but he blocked it laughing.
"No, shut up."
"So, are the rumours about the second task true?"
"What rumours?" he asked.
"That is has something to do with the Great Lake and Grindylows?"
"Probably", he said and rubbed his neck. He was clearly a bit nervous.
"Have you figured out how you're going to breath underwater?" I asked and he shrugged.
"Not yet."
"I'll do some research. Maybe ask you super smart Ravenclaw girlfriend", I said and he rolled his eyes.
"Very funny."
I looked up and a sudden thought made me panic.
"What time is it?" I asked quickly.
"Almost time for supper I think", Cedric said and I grabbed my stuff.
"I need to go!" I said and ran away. "See you around!"
