𝙰𝙽𝙶𝙴𝙻 𝙾𝙵 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙷 | 𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚆𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚕𝚎𝚢

𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔭𝔱𝔢𝔯 𝔵𝔳𝔦

Maria huffed as she dropped her luggage in the middle of the corridor and resisted the urge to kick it with all her might, knowing it would only hurt her and not the luggage. Instead, she found herself with her arms crossed and her eyes glaring daggers at the luggage as if that would get it to cooperate with her.

"Aw, is 'ittle little Black having trouble with her luggage?" Gideon teased the young Gryffindor in a sour mood.

"Oh, bugger off, Gideon," Maria snapped at the ghost, who simply laughed at her bitterness as she wondered where his other half was. 

She didn't have to wait long as she suddenly felt the cold, bitterness that always occurred when a ghost passed through her. 

"Fabian," she huffed out in annoyance as the ghost suddenly appeared before her. 

"Oops?" Fabian and Gideon laughed as Maria simply rolled her eyes at the two ghosts.

"You know, one day-" Maria started only to be interrupted. 

"Maria, hey," Fred's voice startled her as she whipped her wand at the voice. "Whoa!"

Maria released a tired sigh as she pulled her wand back from Fred's startled face and tucked it back into her robes. 

"Sorry, Fred," Maria apologized with a tired voice before turning back to the Prewett twins.

"Why don't you two go find someone else to annoy," Maria dismissed the two, who didn't leave before throwing around a few jokes at her.

Fred raised his eyebrow as he stared at the space Maria had been talking to. It had been weird to see Maria talking into empty space as if it was normal. He supposed it was normal, for her at least. He was happy she was comfortable enough around him now to talk openly to the ghosts, but he still found it a little unusual. Fred concluded he was just going to have to get used to it.

"Doing alright there?" Fred questioned as he eyed the luggage sprawled across the stone floors. 

"No," Maria's bluntness still surprised Fred, although now he understood it much more. "I can't carry the bloody bags long enough to get down to the train."

"Let me help," Fred wasted no time in grabbing some of her bags, ignoring her protests as he started heading towards the Hogwarts Express.

Maria gave up on trying to stop him as she hurried to scoop up the rest of her bags and scurried after the tall redhead. She was completely out of breath by the time she reached the platform, where Fred was already standing and waiting for her with a smug look on his face.

"See, that wasn't too bad," Fred teased as Maria dropped the bags in her hands, allowing them to crash by her feet.

Maria didn't reply to the redhead as she stared at the Hogwarts Express and a sense of dread overcame her. Hogwarts would always be her true home and she never enjoyed being sent back to the orphanage. The other kids would only avoid them and gossip, leaving her and Perseus all alone once again. At Hogwarts, Maria always felt like she belonged even if she didn't have many friends. 

The summer would only be filled with loneliness and nightmares, none of which Maria could prevent. Perseus would try to cheer her up like he always did, but both twins knew it was futile. They would never be happy unless they were at Hogwarts. 

Maria didn't realize that she was frowning until Fred said something.

"Don't be too sad," Fred joked as Maria lifted an eyebrow at the redhead. "We'll write to each other over the summer, won't we?"

"Oh," Maria was taken aback by the question and Fred seemed to get the wrong message from her reaction.

"Unless you don't want to, of course," Fred's face fell as he began to ramble on. "I shouldn't have assumed. We don't have-"

"Fred," Maria cut the redhead off. "Of course we'll write to each other over the summer."

Fred grinned from ear to ear as he engulfed the short girl into a hug, emitting another soft, "oh" from her lips. Maria hesitated for a few seconds before she awkwardly returned the gesture, having received more hugs in the past week than she had in several years. When Fred finally pulled away, he paused for a few seconds as he simply stared at her, his face impossible for Maria to decipher. 

"What?" Maria questioned with a frown as her gloved hands reached up to touch her face. "Is there something on my face?" 

"What? No!" Fred shook his head as he slowly reached up to grab her hands and pull them away from her face. Maria couldn't help being captivated by Fred's hazel eyes as they simply found themselves lost in time the longer they stared at each other.

The train whistle blew, signaling that the Hogwarts Express was about to leave the platform. 

"We should probably get on the train," Maria spoke first as Fred cleared his throat, stepping away from her so they could hop onto the train. Fred hopped up onto the train first before holding his hand out for Maria to take. He beamed when she didn't hesitate to grab hold of his hand and he pulled her onto the train.

"Bye, Fred," Maria gave a small wave to Fred, who quickly returned the gesture before they parted ways to find their friends, or in Maria's case, her brother. 

As they went to their separate compartments, Maria couldn't help the butterflies that fluttered in her stomach as she remained unaware of Fred turning around to watch her leave with a boyish grin on his face.