The Black Queen | F. Weasley

30. Making amends

The first month at Hogwarts had flown by at a surprising speed. Moody's lessons were still strange and highly inappropriate, but alas, that wasn't something Salem could do anything about. Her feelings for Fred, however, were something she could do something about and she had decided that she would come clean to him at the bonfire they had secretly organised for all the fifth, sixth and seventh years of the school.

Nervous butterflies were already wreaking havoc in her stomach at the mere thought of telling him how she felt. She had told Macy about her plan and the girl fully supported her friend like any good friend would do. They had agreed to getting ready together before the bonfire would start in order for Salem to blow the boy away, not that that would take much effort on her behalf really. Fred was easily blown away by Salem's look, because to him she always looked beautiful.

Today was the 30th of October and Beauxbatons and Durmstrang would be joining them. Salem was looking forward to getting to know people from other Wizarding schools, she had read about them a lot, but had never actually met anyone of one of the other European school.

Today was going to be a good day, Salem decided as she walked into the Great Hall with a grin. Her friends were seated in the middle of the Gryffindor table and were rapidly whispering to each other. George glanced up at the entrance of the Great Hall and righted himself abruptly as he saw her nearing them.

Their whispering had seized abruptly and they were now grinning up at her innocently. She quirked up an eyebrow at the three boys as she sat down next to Lee. "What are you three hiding?"

"Nothing," Lee said, too quickly. She gave him an unimpressed look and was about to retort, but George swooped in to save Lee from accidentally running his mouth.

"We were discussing the bonfire. But we weren't clear on who to invite."

Salem knew that he was lying and if she didn't know any better she would've thought that they were discussing her. She pursed her lips in annoyance, but eventually relented. "Considering that I don't want Harry to see me piss drunk yet, I suggest that we keep it to the fifth, sixth and seventh years."

The corners of her friends' mouths curved up in a smirk as they all recalled a different memory where Salem had done something absurd in her drunken stupor.

"I'll talk to Cedric, so that he can spread the word to the other Hufflepuffs. You guys can take care of the Ravenclaws, Roger has been looking forward to the bonfire ever since the beginning of this year. He's been nagging my ear off every opportunity he got during Charms."

The boys snickered at the exasperated expression on her face, and nodded in agreement. Lee frowned then as he remembered something. "What about Beauxbatons and Durmstrang? Are we going to invite them as well?"

Salem ran her fingertips over her lips in thought. It would be the perfect opportunity to make the students feel welcomed and also to make new friends. "We can always ask them if they want to com–"

"I'll ask Beauxbatons to join us." Lee breathed out before Salem could even finish her sentence. She raised an eyebrow at him while Fred and George grinned in amusement. "What? The girls are very pretty..."

Fred gasped, offended and looked at George in astonishment. "Georgie, did my ears just deceive me? Is Lee going to cheat on us?"

George faked a look of horror and clutched his chest dramatically, as if his heart was being ripped out. "No, that can't be! Lee would never go behind our backs like that."

"Or maybe he would get behind our backs, just to see our wonderfully sculpted arses," Fred said while grinning slyly. Lee started throwing food at the twins in exasperation while glaring at them, and if it wasn't for his dark skin everyone would notice how much he was blushing.