Yellow || Fred Weasley

18 || the chamber of secrets

It was the 31st of October, the night of Halloween and majority of the Hogwarts students were out and about in Hogsmeade village, enjoying the weekend. Gaia, Malia, Ryker, and Aisha were among those students who chose to spend their Saturday in the wizarding village. The group of friends was walking back to Hogwarts after a day of chilling around in the village.

"No but really, how did you get Cedric Diggory to hang out with you?" Malia asked Ryker who just rolled his eyes.

"Not like it's a date. But I already told you, we were only studying. He was helping me," Ryker answered, a faint blush painting his cheeks.

"In Hogsmeade?" Aisha raised an eyebrow, "You are aware of the library at school, right?"

"Besides, you could've asked me for help studying," Gaia teased with a grin.

"First of all, we were in the Three Broomsticks. And by the way, you don't have Care of Magical Creatures!" he exclaimed.

"Neither does Cedric," Aisha quipped making Gaia and Malia laugh loudly at the redness of Ryker's face.

"And who chooses to go to Three Broomsticks to study," Malia snorted.

"Whatever," Ryker mumbled, looking down at the pavement to avoid meeting his friends' eyes.

"Lighten up, Lion. We're just teasing," Gaia said, bumping her shoulder with his and making him stumble a bit.

"We should head back," Malia suggested.

"Why? It's barely 5:00," Aisha asked.

The three of them – Gaia, Malia, and Ryker – exchanged looks among themselves. It was unusual that Aisha wanted to stay at Hogsmeade past 3:00, more the less 5:00.

"Which is already late for us, Badger. You usually want to leave earlier," Gaia answered, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Well-" Aisha stammered, looking around, "I've had a change of heart. Why not stay longer?" She started rambling about all the reasons why they should stay longer.

"You alright, Badg?" Malia asked, putting a hand on the Hufflepuff's shoulder and making her jump slightly. She looked at them wide-eyed while they stared at her in concern.

"Yeah! Uh, yeah. Let's just go," Aisha mumbled in reply, walking in front of the three to go back to the castle. Malia immediately followed after her leaving Ryker and Gaia standing in the middle of the streets in confusion.

"What's up with her?" Ryker said slowly, looking at Gaia in confusion.

Gaia continued to stare at Aisha, who had her head down, and Malia, who was guiding her.

"I have no idea," she answered.

✧✧✧

"You alright, Gaia?"

Gaia's head snapped to her right, where Fred sat.

"Hm?" she hummed absent-mindedly. She looked around and noticed that the dinner feast was almost ending, some students already done with their plate, "Yeah, 'm fine. Why?"

"Well for one, you haven't even questioned where Harry or your sister is the whole time - they're at Nearly Headless Nick's death day party," George answered, quickly informing Gaia of her sister and her cousin's whereabouts when he noticed the panicked expression that covered her eyes.

"And you've been staring at your plate the whole time," Fred continued.

Gaia looked down at her plate and saw that it was still full with the food she had put on it earlier. She grabbed her spoon and lifted it up, a dazed sort of look still on her face as she thought back on recent events.