Gred and Forge

Rue’s fork slide around the mess of eggs and sausage she made on her plate as she miserably sat there looking over exhausted.

“Are you going to eat that?” Vanessa Summerfield, one of my dorm mates, asked curiously. She was a pretty girl in my year with dark skin and deep chestnut curls cascading from her head.

“No, I’m not hungry,” Rue replied half-heartily, giving her plate one more good swipe with her fork.

“Rue, you should eat, you have a Quidditch match today, remember?” I told her concerned. Rue usually gets nervous before her matches but right now? Well right now she looked depressed. Her usually curly locks were shoved up into a messy bun, and her head wouldn’t leave the palm of her left hand, as if someone glued it there and took away her neck. This was not Rue. She loved her hair the most and always had correct posture. There was something up.

“Oh, how could I forget? The whole house is counting on me,” Vanessa took her plate from before her and slid the remaining food on her own. “Christ, even Oliver is counting on me and he’s from the other team!”

“Oliver… he’s the one you like right?” Luna asked from across the crowed table.

Both Rue and I answered her at the same time, “Yes.”

“Well you’re really nice and a good seeker so I suppose it wouldn’t matter if you lost or not,” Luna assured her in a dreamy tone.

Rue sighed and sat up straight, “Thanks guys but I think I’m gonna head for the locker rooms now.”

She proceeded to stand up but I put my hand on her shoulder, “Nope, not until you get my lucky back massage.”

She lent me a smile and sat back down, turning her back to me. I popped a piece of toast in my mouth and brushed off my hands before stretching my fingers.

I always start by running my hands over the length of their shoulders, pressure applied. Then I ease into a massage, working the muscle with my fingers and the palms of my hands, finding tense and lose points.

When I was a little younger than I am now, I used to give my Aunt Bea one quiet often and she would always say, “Emily, one good way to make a man drop to his knee’s is to give him a good back rub, and darlin’ your man better be begging.”

As soon as I started in on Rue’s tense shoulders, I felt her relax a bit, and by the time I was over she seemed to have calmed down even more so.

“Thank you so much Em! I really needed that!” Rue told me as she got up to go to the locker rooms.

“Hey, when do I ever get my massage?” Vanessa asked, looking offended.

“As soon as you start sucking up to me and doing my homework,” Smirking, I raised one of my eyebrows at her.

“That’s right, bye guys” Rue waved to us as she was about to departure.

“Good luck!” We all shouted after her, Vanessa giving her much unnecessary applause.

We all went back to eating our breakfast in a comfortable silence among us while the rest of the Great Hall was surging with an abundance of laughter and chatter.

I was almost halfway done with my orange when Luna spoke up, “Emily, why are those twin boys staring at you?”

Instantly I knew who they were, Fred and George; who else? As I turned around to face them, something hard but light and very brittle hit my face. I only got a quick glance of the twins matching shocked faces before I looked down and saw a piece of toast on the floor. “What are you guys-“

“That wasn’t supposed to hit your face!” Fred apologized as George continued to explain, “We wanted to get your attention.”

“Well, you certainly seemed to have it now!” I cracked a smile, just because these boys were so obscure.

“Well any way, we wanted to know,” George started.

“-If we could have one of those massages you just gave,” Fred finished. They both looked at me with identical puppy eyes, “Pleaseee, “They both chorused.

I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, so over dramatic they were. “Fine, get over here.” I turned back to the table as the high-fived each other. Catching the look Vanessa was giving me out the corner of my eye I raised an eyebrow at her, “What?”

“So now I have to be hot and suck up to you to get a massage?” I giggled a little and nodded my head as Fred sat in between Vanessa and I and George on the other side of me.

“So, which on of you wants to go first?” I asked, looking at both of them.

“I do!” They said at the same time. Every laughed at their timing and I turned to George, “You can go first.”

“Why does he get to go first?” Fred pouted from behind me.

“Well isn’t it obvious Fred?” George stated, “The better looking one always goes first.” I laughed again and told George to turn to the side and got to work.

“So, you excited for the match today?” I asked casually as I worked his shoulder blades with my thumbs.

“No offense, but Ravenclaw is going down.”

“Oh really now, well in that case...” I took my hands off his back.

“Wait- did I say Ravenclaw was going down? I meant Gryffindor,” George replied quickly, hoping I would over look his comment and continued massaging his back.

“Mhmm, sure you did,” I hummed and replaced my hands on his broad back again. Soon I was done with him and turned to face Fred who was entertaining Vanessa and Luna with various fruits and forks. “You’re turn!”

“Finally! I was almost thinking you forgot about me!” Fred gave me an exasperated look.

“No, Fred. She was just too busy with me,” George joked, but his tone made it sound nonchalant.

“I don’t want to know,” Vanessa piped in, holding her hands up in front of her. We all laughed again and I turned to Fred again, “So, you want a back rub or not?”

“Oh I want one very much so!” He gave me a short wink before turning towards Vanessa. I felt a slight flutter of butterflies in the pit of my stomach before I started, why though? It was only Fred after all. Never the less I continued, working his upper back and shoulder muscles that were very toned, just like his twin.

A few short minutes later I was finished just before Oliver called the twins over so there could all head down to the locker room together. It was his idea of focusing on the game.

“Thanks Emily-“ George hugged me from behind.

“-You’re brilliant love,” Fred gave me a light peck on the cheek as I felt my face redden and they both stood up at the same time.

“Good luck guys!” Vanessa and Luna said; Vanessa wished with a very large smile.

“Oh yeah, good luck!” They both smiled at us once more and winked, expecting more than just an eye roll.