Everything Changes // Fred Weasley

chapter 7: enchanted shoes on an enchanted staircase

September 5th-16th, 1994

As the weeks passed by, I continued to spend the majority of my time cooped up in my dorm. I didn't mind it entirely, it was nice to finally have some free time that wasn't taken up with studying or the constant nagging of my parents to help them around the house. Naomi would show up randomly throughout the day to check in on me and tell me about any gossip that was spreading around the school at the time. I listened intently, trying to piece together each new scenario that she presented to me, but it wasn't the same as actually participating in it myself. I didn't recognize a majority of the names she mentioned, and I couldn't seem to put faces with the names that I did recognize, so her stories were always a bit of a blur.

Just as Naomi had said, in order for her plan to work, I ended up spending a lot of time with Fred Weasley. It seemed as if every time I left my dorm, Fred was there to walk me through the castle, explaining every tiny detail that we passed by as if he was a walking encyclopedia who only had knowledge of the inner workings of Hogwarts.

Being a sixth year, Fred had a free period every other day that was meant for studying, but instead of spending that designated time in the library pouring over tome after tome, he opted to spend it with me. He would often say that he only hung out with me because he felt bad that I was alone all of the time, but I could tell that deep down he actually enjoyed hanging out with me. I didn't mind though. I enjoyed hanging out with him too.

The first time Fred showed up at my door I was shocked. I was under the impression that boys weren't allowed to climb the stairs to the girls dormitories, yet there he was, standing at my door with a cheeky grin on his face as if he had just solved the worlds toughest riddle.

"How did you even get up here?" I said, looking behind him at the stairs that clearly were not a slide like Naomi told me would happen.

"I enchanted my shoes," he said, pulling off his shoe and waving it in my face.

I backed away, definitely not wanting to be anywhere near those.

"You really think I didn't figure out a way to get to the girls dorms already? Honestly, woman, do you even know me" he laughed, but I furrowed my brows.

I didn't really know him, we had only just met a week prior, and despite our few walks through the castle, we didn't really talk about our personal lives. Fred was always so excited to share everything that he knew about the castle that I didn't want to interrupt him with the boring details of my muggle life.

"What?" he said, noticing the look on my face.

"I honestly don't know you that well at all, Fred Weasley." I said, shutting the door behind him.

"Well we can change that, Gemma Walters." He said with a smirk and sat down on my bed, patting the spot next to him "What do you want to know first?"

We began to talk for hours on end about his life outside of Hogwarts. I learned that he had six other siblings besides George, two of which were Gryffindors attending Hogwarts this year as well. "I'm sure you've seen them," he said, referring to Ron and Ginny, "my family is hard to miss."

"Are they ginger too?" I asked, laughing at the thought of seven ginger children running around. His poor mother.

"It's a Weasley trait, everyone is a ginger." He said, running his fingers through his long, red hair.

"What about the rest of your siblings? Are they older than you are?"

The idea of having multiple siblings fascinated me. Sure I had Naomi, but we were neither older nor younger than the other, although technically I was older than her by three minutes. As often as I liked to tease her about it, I knew deep down that it really didn't matter. My parents decided that two was enough after they had Naomi and me, so I never knew what it was like to have younger siblings around. I didn't even have any cousins that could act as if they were my siblings. My mum only had a sister who never married and my dad was an only child. I couldn't imagine what it must have been like growing up with so many people that were similar ages to you. So many people to play with, I assumed it was never boring at the Burrow.