Gred and Forge

We walked back through the grass and towards our picnic spot at the top of the gentle slope. It didn’t seem as steep as it did when we were running down it oddly enough. Suddenly I knew something wasn’t right. I had that feeling that I consumed earlier rise from my stomach again. Someone, somewhere, was watching me again.

Suspicious, my eye’s darted to the various trees in front of me, the bushes bright red and losing their leaves, the large boulder ahead. Then a quick movement caught my attention, a small shrub to my left moved a bit. With a little more staring I noticed the tip of a shoe jutting out from the side.

“Shrubs don’t have shoes” Fred whispered in my ear. An acute tingling swell in my face, knowing that he was that close to me, knowing that that was his warm breath falling on my face.

“I know, but humans do.”

Hastily I walked over to the bush with Fred close behind, coming to find two girl’s behind there, blushing madly at us.

“Hi,” Rue said quietly, putting on a sheepish smile. She sat next to Abby who wore more of an expression of terror on her face.

“Have you been watching me?!” I asked shocked. Both of them just sat there unsure of how to answer the question. “Well? Have you?”

“We’re sorry! We just had to stalk you guys! You’re so cute together!” Abby gushed smiling widely. I felt my face blush.

“Don’t tell her that!” Rue yelled, angry with Abby for letting their missions’ motive escape.

“Let me guess, you also didn’t trust me too, right?” Fred asked from behind me, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

“No, no! That’s not at all why we… why we,” Rue flustered trying to get her wording right.

“Okay fine! We didn’t trust you completely!” Abby confessed, standing to her feet. “We just wanted to be there in case you thought it was a good idea to put brusselsprout flavored jellybeans in her sandwich.”

“Why on Earth would he-“I started, angry with them that they don’t trust either Fred or I alone together for one measly afternoon.

“Actually that’s not a bad idea. I’m gonna have to try that one out on Lee or George later,” Fred pondered, his hand to his chin.

“You know you’re not helping much.”

“Well the gig’s up. Let’s get going Abby,” after getting up, Rue dusted off her hands and skirt.

“Bye, have fun!” They cheekily chided and flounced away.

“Why don’t they trust me?” Fred asked, sounding upset. I turned to him, looking into his warm brown eyes.

“I don’t know, because you’re a guy I guess? Then again, it’s not like I go on having picnic’s with many of them anyway,” I mumbled. It’s true though; no guy has really shown interest in me at all until now. Well besides Seamus, but we all know he would never do anything about his little crush.

“Oh really now? And why do you say that love? Surely you’ve been out with a guy before,” His voice was teasing as we started back towards our picnic spot.

“Well, uh, I have yes, but it’s never happened at Hogwarts and it’s always been by force,” I replied nervously. Oh that makes me sound like a smut alright.

Fred shoved his hands in his trousers pockets, “By force? What, did someone shove you and a boy together in a room and made you hang out together?”

“Pretty much!” I chuckled slightly before explaining, “My Aunt Bea was always single, and still is, so she would date around. Well whenever she dated a man with a son, she always set up dates together, regardless if I wanted to or not. She said it was good practice for later and will help her relationship.”

“Blimey, that’s a bunch of rubbish! Setting you up on blind dates to help herself off in the long run. Were some of the revolting?” He asked curious.

I thought for a second, mentally flipping through the many guys I’ve hung out with. “There was this one bloke, Michael Freesmellow who already had a girlfriend that he wouldn’t shut up about. Then there was another guy named Franklin DeWaltaire. He wasn’t all that bad looking, but turned out to be a terrible kisser- and I mean horrible.”

“You kissed him? What you only knew the guy for a couple hours at the most!” Fred replied, flabbergasted.

I couldn’t help but smile at how protective he was being of me, “What, you wouldn’t kiss someone you’ve only known for a few hours?”

“No, not that I wouldn’t want to, I just never have,” He flustered, slightly pink in the face.
“But you wanted to; it’s practically the same thing!”

“It is not! Okay, let’s say I wanted to kiss you when I first talked to you in the hall-“Fred argued.
“-Did you?” I interrupted, extremely curious.

“Well no, not exactly. Anyway, let’s say I did want to, but I didn’t you see because I knew it would be wrong snogging you after just knowing your name,” He explained.

There were many questions that I could have asked him, question him about what he meant by “not exactly”, but I decided not to.

Soon enough we found ourselves walking towards the empty Quidditch pitch, lost in conversation. As we neared the field Emily came flying out of the stadium on her broomstick after what looked like the golden snitch.

Soon George came flying out of the field too, chasing after Emily. “No! Wait! That’s not what you think it is!!” He shouted frantically.

Fred and I just glanced at each other and he just shrugged, “Don’t ask, I have no clue.”

Walking up into one of the Gryffindor stands we saw Harry and Ron flying around on their broom sticks, laughing and yelling, as Hermione sat in one of the seats with a book in her hand, watching them.

“Oy! Ron, Harry!” Fred yelled, waving them over. Harry and Ron raced over on their broom sticks as I sat in the seat next to Hermione.

“What are you reading?’ I asked curiously looking at the page on the thick book.

“I don’t even know,” She chuckled, sighing and closing book, “I haven’t been able to keep my focus for the past 20 minutes with those two shouting about.”

I looked over and there were Harry and Ron floating next to the railing on their broomsticks. “Hey Fred!” They greeted cheerily. I ignored them as they talked and laughed with each other, that is until I heard them say one specific thing that poked my interest.

“So, the Yule Ball’s this year, you got yourself a girl to take with you Ronnie?” Fred teased.

Not being sure if I heard them properly I asked, “The Yule Ball is this year?”

I felt every one’s eyes on me and I felt my face blush in the middle of this awkward moment, “Where have you been, under a rock? Of course it’s this year, oh and if you didn’t know, the Triwizard Tournament is too” Ron asked, astonished.

“Ronniekins, you will never get yourself a girl treating one like that. A classy lady such as Emily should be treated with respect.” Fred shook his head disapprovingly. Ron’s ears went pink as he tried to mutter out a response, probably an insult, but failed to do so. “No girl would want to attend the Yule Ball with you if you treat her like one of your mates.”

“Actually Fred,” Hermione piped up, “A study shows that over half of married couples were very good friends before marriage.”

“I’m not getting married anytime soon!” Ron said angrily, his face going pink now.

“Well at least we hope not,” Harry said from his broomstick. We all chuckled a bit and then heard a sudden crashing noise.

As we all looked towards our left, were the sounds appeared to be coming from, Hermione was the first to speak, “What in the world was that?”

As if on cue, Emily and George appeared, both looking disheveled; their hair messed up and sticking out, both of their light faces were red, and to top it all off Emily was munching on what sounded like something metal.

“Are you okay?” Harry asked, as we all curiously stared.

“More importantly, what the hell are you chewing on!” standing up I thundered over to Emily, only to be stopped by Fred.

George tried catching his breath before explaining, “She… wouldn’t g-give it back!”

“What? Your belt buckle?” All the boys laughed, except George who glared at his twin brother.

“Fred, really?” Hermione questioned, getting up as well, “Was that necessary?”

Ron clutched his broomstick tighter, in fear that he would fall off because he was laughing so hard, “Well I thought it was.”

I shook my head and crossed my arms, “What were you guys doing then? And what was that crash we heard?”

“Wegerrr shiiing gowwgen orn” Emily managed to mutter, her mouth still occupied by whatever was inside.

“What?” All of us asked in unison, obviously not being able to understand a word.

“I was trying to teach her Quidditch and she thought the snitch was the golden acorn… you could probably guess where that leads her…” George explained sheepishly.

“But what about the crash we heard?” Harry wondered, pushing his black glasses up his nose.
“She had some trouble landing, but nothing broke thankfully!”

I looked over at Emily, whose deep brown eyes were wide with delight, and the wing of the snitch was poking out from between her lips, twitching limply.