Everything Changes // Fred Weasley

chapter 9: a hip new hangout for some acromantulas

October 10th, 1994

After spending hours alone in my dorm, I was beginning to long for that same thrill I felt pranking Filch. The days drug on inside my tiny dorm, and it felt as though every single day, the walls shrunk in closer and closer, until one day they would just swallow me whole, and I would be stuck there forever.

Only one thing saved me from this inevitable suffocation.

Frederic Gideon Weasley.

His visits to my dorm every few days gave me enough serotonin to last the next few days that I would have to suffer in my dorm alone.

He always had things to talk about, and I could listen to him for hours without getting bored. He talked about the wizarding world, things Naomi had never mentioned to me before since they existed outside the world of Hogwarts and her occasional trips to Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. He talked about his family, and the inventions that he and George were making. He even talked about his dreams for after he graduated Hogwarts, renting a storefront and opening his very own joke shop with George.

Not only could he talk for hours, but he could also listen as I droned on and on about my own boring life outside of the castle. He listened as I talked about the muggle world, his eyes bright with excitement as I described what I thought to be the most mundane of things. He made me realize that my life might not have been as boring as I had originally thought.

It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. He could come to see me every day if that's what he fancied, and I would never get bored of it.

But he couldn't come every day, he had a life outside of me. I knew that I was just something new and exciting to occupy his free time, but he never made it seem that way.

I heard a knock on my door one Monday afternoon, a day usually reserved for preparing myself for Defense Against the Dark Arts that I would be attending for Naomi the next day. I was deep in the middle of learning the purpose of a flesh eating slug when I heard it, and my entire body tensed up, my heart beating out of my chest. The only people who would be coming to my dorm in the middle of a weekday would be my dormmates, and they certainly wouldn't be knocking.

I cautiously closed my book, trying not to make any sounds as I crept to the door. If someone I didn't know was on the other side of the door, there was no way I could let them know I was in there. The floor creaked below me and I stopped in my tracks, closing my eyes and taking in a deep breath that I held as I listened for any sort of movement outside of my door. The knocking stopped, and I hoped that whoever it was on the other side had given up.

"Gemma, open up, I know you're in there!"

It was Fred. For some reason, he had decided it would be a brilliant idea to terrify me.

I let out the breath I had been holding and walked over to the door, slowly opening it and stepping to the side for him to come in.

"Fancy seeing you here." Fred laughed as he sauntered past me. He jumped up onto the dormer and patted the open space beside him. I tried to stifle my laugh, but I couldn't seem to do it. Something about the way he looked at me made me forget any of the fear I had only a few moments before.

"This is my room." I replied, making my way over to the dormer. I took the spot next to him, my heart pounding more than it had been early when I had first heard the knock. How could this boy be making me feel this way already? I'd only known him for a month.

"I should be the one saying that." I added, "What are you doing here anyways? Aren't you supposed to be in class?"

"I thought you said I didn't go to class." He smirked, leaning up against the wall and propping his leg up in the dormer. "Besides, Naomi asked me to fix the enchantments on your car, apparently the spells wore off quicker than she thought and she asked me to go fix them."