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Fred was feeling much better as they entered the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom that morning and he sat in his usual seat. George joined him several moments later, although he was in a noticeably worse mood than his twin. He gave Fred a side glare when realizing how awake and not miserable his twin was.
"Morning, Geroge!" Fred greeted cheerily as Perseus made his way through the door before seating himself in the desk in front of them. George glanced between Fred and Perseus with the hungover look still on his face as he leaned on his hand to keep himself awake.
"Why are you lot so bloody happy?" George groaned as he slammed his head against the desk. "You had more to drink than I did last night."
"No reason," Fred and Perseus replied in sync, grinning down at their miserable friend as he struggled with his hungover.
"I hate you," George muttered even if he didn't really mean it, but Fred's attention was pulled away from his twin as a familiar dark-haired Gryffindor entered the classroom and made her way towards them.
"Morning, boys," Maria greeted as she sat down beside Perseus, causing Geroge to raise an eyebrow at the action. The last he remembered, Perseus and Maria were still fighting.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me," George muttered as he looked between the three Gryffindor's in disbelief.
All three opened their mouths to question the hungover redhead but were interrupted by the entrance of their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. As Remus introduced himself to the class, Fred watched as Maria ignored the pestering from Perseus, who was trying to get her attention by shooting notes and poking her in the side before she slapped his hands away.
"Is that why you're so awake?" George whispered as he leaned closer to his twin, catching Fred slightly off guard. "Did she bloody kiss you this mornin- ow!"
Geroge winced as he rubbed his ribs where Fred elbowed him harshly.
"Of course not," Fred whispered back harshly after making sure Maria didn't hear anything. "That would never- Maria would never-"
"I would never what?" the two redheaded twins jumped at the sound of Maria's voice as she leaned against their desk in her chair, although Fred was secretly relieved by the interruption as he wouldn't have to think about the fact that Maria Black would never willingly kiss him.
"You would never help us with our homework," George came up with a quick lie, one that Maria easily bought but Perseus paused at to glance suspiciously at the two twins.
"But we haven't even gotten any homework yet," Perseus stated, raising an eyebrow at the two twins.
"Yes, but we will," Fred pointed out to his best friend, whose suspicions never wavered. "And we know we'll need help with it."
"Maybe if you two would pay attention during class, you'd understand it," Perseus whispered back with a slight hint of humor in his voice, although he was curious as to why his friends were acting so weird and why he wasn't included.
"You should take your own advice, Perseus," Maria fired back with the slight twitch of her lips. The boys fought off the surprise looks that threatened to wash across their faces at Maria's comeback as she shifted uncomfortably under their gazes. "What?"
"Nothing, we ju-" Fred started but was quickly stopped himself as Remus approached their cluster of desks.
"I'm not going to have to hand out detention on my first day, am I?" Remus questioned as the four Gryffindors straightened in their seats to face him.
"No, Remus, I mean Professor Lupin," Perseus blushed sheepishly at his mistake as a few kids in the classroom snickered at him.
Remus nodded his head as he gave one last look to each one of them, his eyes puasing on Maria as she avoided his gaze, before he headed back to the front of the room to resume teaching. The whispering didn't stop, at least not completely, as their class continued. Whenever they could they would sneak in a word or two, other times they would simply send notes to each other despite only being so close.
George, who was now very much awake, and Perseus made a quick escape from the classroom the moment the bell run. Fred, however, took his time as he waited for Maria to grab her books and pack her bag. As they left the classroom together, Fred tucked his hands into his pocket to stop him from playing with them too much in his nervousness.
"I'll help you with the homework if you need it," Maria told the redheaded boy, much to his surprise. "I just need your help with something."
"Sure, anything," Fred replied before cringing, hoping he didn't sound too desperate.
"You might not like it," Maria added on as they made their way towards the Charms classroom together.
"How bad could it be?" Fred questioned, although he knew it was stupid. He'd learn over the past year that with Maria, anything could happen.
"Alright," Maria shrugged as she turned the corner to take a short-cut and Fred had to scurry to catch up to her. "But don't say I didn't warn you."
Fred didn't like the words coming from her mouth but, for some reason, he didn't object.
