Gred and Forge

Walking back out into the sun the first thing I noticed was that the group of Gryffindors had notably gotten smaller. To my very own surprise, the twins we’re still there, talking to various people. By now I figured that they would be back at the Gryffindor common room celebrating.

I walked over to them, hoping to pick up on the conversation me and Fred were having earlier. Now that I thought about it I really wanted to know what he was going to ask me. Then a thought entered my head; what if he was going to ask me out? Rue did say he likes me, but what if he really did? Would I say yes if he asked me out?

“Emily!” I looked up and saw Fred walking over, his broomstick in his hand. Smiling I knew my answer; I would say yes to that boy in a heartbeat. “Where did you go? You just disappeared on me!”

“I had to take care of something that’s all,” I told him, feeling slightly awkward.
He just shrugged, “No big deal. Do you want to walk with me to the broom shed; I want to pick up on our conversation.”

“Sure.” I turned around and we both started walking. As soon as we came to a comfortable distance away from the crowd I turned and looked up at his face, “So what were you going to ask me?”

Fred gave me a slightly confused look then remembered, “Oh I was just going to ask if you wanted to go to the party back in the Gryffindor common room with me, but the more I thought about it the more mental I sounded since you support the other team.”

I felt my heart sink in my chest a little. So he didn’t want to ask me out. Well maybe this was a good thing; if he did ask me out we would be running the risk of ruining our friendship and things becoming awkward with one another. Plus I don’t think I really wanted a boyfriend anyway, they’re too needy and time consuming. Kind of like a little kid you have to watch over every day, except you don’t get paid.

Laughing a little I replied to Fred, “Yeah, just a little bit. Plus I have some homework to get finished anyway.” Okay, so maybe I didn’t have any homework, but it made the situation a little less awkward than it already was.

“Oh that’s fine. What are you doing Wednesday though?” He asked causally as we came to the broom shed.

“Umm…” Honestly I haven’t even put much thought into the week so far, but I guess that means nothing, “Nothing that I know of, what are you doing?”

“Well you see, me and George are kind of inventors and we just need someone to test out our inventions.”

“What kind of inventions?” I asked cautiously, as he opened the door to the small shed.

“Like, magical candies that transform you into a bird,” he stepped inside as I followed. We both walked down about half way before he set his broom down, “Stuff like that.”

“And you’re asking me to be you’re guinea pig?”

Fred turned around and leaned against the wall, “I guess, yeah. You don’t have to if you don’t want to, we could always just find a willing first year to do it.”

Just the thought of them using a first year as a lab rat was more disturbing than the thought of them using me. “Okay, fine, I’ll do it.”

That Wednesday I was about ready to regret my decision as I sat in an empty class room with the twins and Emily, who somehow got swindled into this business as well; either that or she wanted to do it. So far I’ve tried 3 different kinds of taffy, two of which that actually worked, and two different potions which one of them turned my hair green. Thankfully Fred and George had created an antidote for that one.

“Okay, next is a love potion, who wants to try this one?” George asked, looking at both me and Emily. Neither of us moved.

“Emily should, she hasn’t done one in a while,” Fred stated, looking down at the piece of parchment in front of them that they were using to keep track of their observations.

“Fred, who are you talking about?” Emily asked, confused. It’s been about the 10th time that one of the twins referred to us as Emily and not specifying who they were talking to.

“Oh Merlin, I’m sorry I meant Emily Martens,” He replied, running a hand through his long ginger hair. It was pretty late and we were all growing tired and frustrated.

“You know what; we should just give you two nicknames. It would make this whole thing a great lot easier,” George suggested.

“Okay, you’re Ella,” Fred said pointing to me.

“And you’re Acorn,” George pointed to Emily.

“Ooh, I like those!” Emily, or should I say Acorn, chirped.

“So, Ella, you are going to take this love potion from Fred and drink about half, then we’ll see what happens,” George explained, picking up a small vile.

I shrugged, hardly doubting it would work. Love potions are extremely complex, and even if they managed to brew up a correct concoction, I hardly doubt it would be strong enough. Though I’m sure me actually liking Fred won’t help this at all.

“Wait!” I looked at the vile before me, growing slightly suspicious, “Why did you guys create a love potion?”

“Well we needed something to make our products seem better-rounded, you know, something to appeal to the ladies,” George explained.

I chuckled as Fred handed me the potion. A strong flowery perfume flooded my nostrils as I looked skeptically at the acid pink mixture in front of me, “Well, here goes nothing!”

It passed down my throat pleasantly, and tasted a bit like a sweet candy. I looked up at the twins, not feeling any change at all. After setting down the vile on the table in between us, my mind suddenly went blank.