Confident | Fred Weasley

Chapter 17 | Good One

On December 10th, an announcement appeared on the noticeboard in the Gryffindor Common room. Fred, George and Lee eyed the parchment on the wall, mixed feelings going through the three.

"This is great! I have a whole list of girls that I could ask," Lee exclaimed cheerfully.

Fred eyed the announcement, which read:

This year, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry will be holding the Yule Ball, a dance to celebrate international relations and make friends. All Gryffindors fourth year and above must meet after tomorrow's lunch in the auditorium to discuss preparations for the dance.

Professor McGonagall

"A whole list?" George smirked, as the three boys walked away from the notice board.

"Yeah, you see, most of them would say no," Lee replied, laughing.

"Well, I know who I'm asking," Fred muttered, with a grin.

"Sarah?" Lee asked.

"No, Filch - " Fred waved him off, " - Of course I'm on about Sarah!"

"Apologies. Although, I'd love to see the look on Filch's face if you did ask him," Lee laughed.

"You should add him to your list. How about you, Georgie?" Fred asked his twin, who had been quiet for a moment.

"Um - I'm not sure," George replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm sure you could ask one of the girls. Maybe Patricia? I'm sure she wouldn't have a date," Fred suggested.

"Aw, nah. She was on my list!" Lee complained.

"Exactly. Here's the plan. Lee asks her. She says no. George asks her. She says yes because she doesn't want to go with Lee," Fred ranted.

"I'm not interested in going to the ball with Patricia. I'm more interested in spiking the punch or something," George replied.

"Brilliant. Would love to see Dumbledore drunk," Fred chortled. Then he noticed the familiar girl walking ahead of him in the corridor.

The Gryffindors sat in the Common room in the evening. The room was in a buzz, with its recent announcement.

Sarah was sat with Angelina, Alicia and Patricia. Instead of discussing the Yule Ball, Sarah was concentrating on her work. The whole sitting-in-the-owlery-instead-of-going-to-lessons had it's downsides. Sarah scribbled about the Weird Sisters concert in 1991 and why the sonograms had been so successful. It was actually quite a fun essay to write as Sarah had to support her argument with diagrams. She wasn't an artist like River, so she drew stickmen singing at stick microphones and a crowd of stickmen with their arms in the shape of Y (They were cheering).

Beside her, Patricia and Angelina had a discussion on who they were going to ask to the Yule ball. Alicia had already decided she was going to ask River, much to Sarah's joy. Sarah wanted to go with Fred, but she heard George was spiking the punch, so he might have to help with that.

Sarah glanced up as a paper ball hit her square in the eye. She looked up with the eye that wasn't stinging, her gaze falling upon Fred. He was stood across the Common room, chatting with George, Hermione, Harry and Ron.

"Hey, Sarah!?" Fred called to her, a playful smirk upon his face, his hands shoved in his Jean pockets. This sentence caught the other girl's attention.

"What?" Sarah called in reply, still rubbing her eye.

"Will you go to the Ball with me?" Fred asked, looking slightly apologetic.