The Tale of Jamie Devereaux

It's Always the Time to Talk About Boys

When Loren Bruce received her daughter's long and detailed letter, not a bit of her was surprised. Fred Weasley had been making appearances in almost every single one since she first started Hogwarts five years ago. In fact, the first sentence of her first letter had been along the lines of, 'Mum there is an awful boy in my house his name is Fred Weasley and I will hate him forever.' Loren was never one to have a short fuse. She was also not the biggest fan of confrontation. The Bruce woman had deduced that these prominent traits in her daughter could have only come from Devereaux.

This most recent letter, however, confirmed every suspicion she had had about her daughter's true feelings. She was attracted to the Weasley boy. This made Loren Bruce extremely nervous because it was obvious that Fred was far too immature for her daughter. Instead of saying these things though, Loren suggested for Jamie to pursue a deeper relationship with her fellow Prefect. Maybe if Fred Weasley saw Jamie Devereaux in a happy and healthy relationship, he would stop his incessant teasing and treat her daughter like the incredible and intelligent girl that she was. And then, and only then, would she tell Jamie that it was clear from her descriptive letter that she was far more attracted to the red-head than the kind Towler boy.

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Anyone who knew the Weasley twins knew that they were incredibly close and had been since birth. They relied heavily on one another and when one was upset or feeling down, the other often felt the same way. It also meant whatever goal one had was shared by the other. Currently, that goal was keeping Jamie Devereaux and Kenneth Towler as far apart as possible. It had been working out rather well. Whenever George saw Kenneth walking toward Jamie, the twin would start talking to her about Transfiguration class, asking for advice. Since she hated George significantly less than Fred, she would follow him to the library and help out a bit with whatever assignment he was talking about.

Fred would find reasons to make Kenneth stop in his tracts and talk to him. Sometimes about Quidditch, sometimes about their dorm room and if he had heard anything strange last night. One night Fred put a dead mouse under Kenneth's bed just to have something to talk to him about the next day and distract him from the beautiful witch.

Jamie Devereaux thought she was going insane. Every time she caught a glimpse of Kenneth, George Weasley of all people was in her way. The strange consequence of this was she was starting to rather like the twin of her sworn enemy. When he teased her it didn't seem to bother her nearly as much, and he was much smarter than he let on in class. In fact, his Charm work was extremely impressive and she found herself asking him to review cheering charms with her while she was going over the study schedule Cedric had made for her for OWLs. George had agreed and they spent a night in the library laughing so hard tears streamed from their eyes at a few cheering charms too many. George also knew not to breach the subject of Fred with the little witch. They primarily spoke of classes together but by the end of the month of October, Jamie was considering George a friend.

This did not go unnoticed at all by Fred Weasley. Instead of being jealous he saw this as an absolute win in his favor. If she liked his family then, by extension, eventually she would have to like him. Besides, he and George were identical twins. If she could enjoy George's presence then she could enjoy his. If she would just give him the chance. He was also trying to stop teasing her so much. His attempts weren't going very well, but he was definitely improving. His teasing was no longer on the verge of terrorizing and inching closer to friendly banter. It would have been banter if Jamie had acknowledged him at all. But the blonde would just glare at him and look like she was counting to ten so she didn't claw him to death. Then again, Fred wasn't exactly opposed to scratching.

He would greet her in the hallways between classes, without saying more than just, "good morning" Or "hello." At first it had startled Jamie, but after a week of him doing it and her not getting pranked, she felt a little more easy at the greeting. In classes she found herself rolling her eyes at his teasing, only being occasionally tempted to lightly harm him. After a Fred-Free month and now a month of nice Fred, Jamie was beginning to be a tad confused. She hadn't gotten a single detention. There was no one to rant about. She was doing well in her classes and Kenneth Towler, a nice boy, was showing interest in her—whenever she did manage to see him, which wasn't often. Her fifth year at Hogwarts, despite the impending OWLs, had become her most stress free year so far.