Finding Yourself : Fred Weasley

3

      About a half-hour later the door slides open, causing me to look up. I expect to see Cedric walking in. I am instead greeted by my second best friend Philip Reynolds. He is in the same year and the same house as Cedric and I, but he is also 17.   
    He has dark brown eyes, beautifully golden brown skin, dirty blond hair that he keeps at shoulder length. He is tall and scrawny with not very much muscle. Today he has his hair pulled up into a bun, which for him is unusual. He usually keeps it down. 
     He sits down and smiles. I quickly return it. "Hey Reno, how was your summer?" I ask, Calling him by his prefered name. He hates being called Philip. How he came up with Reno I have no idea. I guess from Reynolds. 
    "Oh pretty good. I travelled with my mum to America to visit some of her family. It was pretty cool. We tried to visit as many states as we could. I think we only got 33 of them though," He tells with a smile. His mother is an American witch and she moved here when she married his father since he was a muggle. Reno had to explain to me that in America the magical world had to stay separate from muggles, or no-maj's, due to the law. 
     "How was your summer, Charlie?" He asks me. I tell him the same thing I told Cedric. "Kind of dull. My dad wouldn't let me go anywhere or do anything because I had to study to catch up to where Von is in his schoolwork." 
     "Ah, Von. I hope to meet him so I can have him meet Larry. They would be the very best of pals," Reno says with an amused laugh at the thought. We are supposed to have pets, normally a cat or owl or something for a few of the classes. Well, Reno has a harpactira pulchripes tarantula that he named Larry. 
      I lightly laugh. "He would piss himself. How are you not in Slytherin?" I ask amused. He laughs and shrugs. "Von deserves it after some of the stuff he has said and done to you."  "Not really. He is doing what he thinks is appropriate. He feels as though I am stealing his family and he is scared of me," I assume. I think that is why Von acts the way he does. I suppose I will never know unless he admits it to me. 
     "Well, that still doesn't give him a right to be how he is," He shoots back. I lightly shake my head and try to change the subject. "I can't wait for the food. It has been so long since I've had a good meal." 
    "Is your mom still on that vegan thing?" he asks, keeping the conversation going. "Yea. Though I think she will break by Christmas. There are only so many things to substitute for cheese." My mom is actually a really good cook. It just depends on what she cooks. For the last few months, she has been trying to go vegan, meaning the entire family is vegan too. 
     "On the bright side, at least there isn't any unnecessary unpleasantness from consuming dairy," He jokes. I give him a look. "I'm kidding." When it comes to Reno he isn't the best at making jokes. He either seems serious and no one can tell that he is joking, or it is just completely stupid and not funny. 
      In this case, he is making a joke to me being lactose intolerant. Which I hate because I love cheese so much, it is one of my favourite foods. It doesn't stop me from eating it though. I can easily suffer with the consequences of cramps. 
      "I'm also really excited for Quidditch," I say with a smile. I started to play the sport in my second year. Though Cedric taught me how to play in our first. I don't really like sports, but I love this one. The feeling of flying through the air always excites me. 
     Reno shakes his head. "Not me. I am dreading it. Where is Cedric?"  "Oh, he went to talk to Cho Chang."   "Of course he did. He is always running off to talk to her," Reno rolls his eyes. "Aw come on Reno. You get it don't you?"  "Get what?"  "How it feels to fancy someone." 
    He turns a light shade of pink. "No, I really don't."  "Oh come off it. You know I know you fancy someone. I read your poetry," I say referring to last year. Reno has said since our first year that he doesn't fancy anyone. And for a while, we believed him. Until last year when he gave me the wrong notebook and I read romantic poetry, he had written. 
      "Just because I like to write poems doesn't mean I fancy someone. Maybe I just get easily inspired," he defends. "Okay, okay. Fine. I'll drop it," I say with a sigh. "Did you finish the homework that Snape assigned us for the summer?" He asks me, a half-smile on his face. 
     "Yeah, I think I did. I am dreading his class this year. He is going to give us so much work," I say with a sigh. Even the thought of it stresses me out. Professor Severus Snape is our potions teacher, and every year he never fails to make all of us want to drop out of school completely with all the work and with how hard on us he is. 
       "Who do you think they got for the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" I ask curiously. He shrugs. "Probably another wack job. That seems to be all they can find to fill the role."   "Hey, Lupin was nice," I say defensively. "You just like him because you were the teacher's pet in his class. Which is quite ironic," he says while trying to contain his laughter. 
      I lightly shake my head. "I was not."  "Were too. Didn't he give you his address so you can write to him?"   "For if I need help, Philip," I use his real name to make him stop. He cringes and quickly drops the topic. "Okay fine." He gets out his book. "I'm going to read some before we get there." I nod and hold up my book. "Me too." Silence falls over us as we both sink into our books.