Riptides (Fred Weasley Fan Fiction)

Chapter 6

Wallows - Are You Bored Yet?

The thought of the talking diary stuck with Lyssie, so she decided to ask her dad about it as soon as she woke up. Unfortunately, having left her room, she noticed that Anthony was still sleeping. After all, he came home very late last night.

Lyssie woke up with a wonderful mood, so she decided to make some breakfast for both of them. She skipped into the kitchen, opened the fridge, and laid all the products on the counter. There were a couple of eggs, some bacon and three halves of tomatoes. She put the pan on a stove, poured some vegetable oil on it and waited for it to get hot.

"Good morning," she heard while she was cracking the eggs. "Making some eggs? That's very nice of you, Lyss."

She smiled and added some bacon to the eggs. Then, she cut the tomatoes in halves, put them on the pan as well and let it cook for a while. Anthony took two big plates from a cupboard above the sink and placed them right next to the cooker.

"I met someone yesterday," she said as she was plating the food. It looked really nice, which she definitely didn't expect. She wasn't much of a cook, just like her father.

Anthony gave her a puzzled look.

"Did you go out? I asked you to stay home," he scolded her.

"No, no," she shook her head. "Remember the diary you gave me some day? I wrote in it yesterday and it responded. I mean, he responded."

"Oh, so it's a he?" Anthony asked.

Lyssie nodded and smiled.

"His name is Fred," she said and bit into her food. It was a bit too salty but surely edible.

"Fred," he repeated. "That's interesting."

"Why?"

Lyssie put a huge bite of eggs and bacon into her mouth and chew it. Then, she poured some water into her glass and took a big sip to help her swallow it all.

"Well," he said in between bites. "A diary like that is a rather rare magical item. It chooses the person who answers you and it's not a coincidence. I'm not sure how it works exactly, because it was just a prototype when I bought it for you." He took a little break to have another bite. "I just found it interesting. A shame that we forgot about it for so long."

Lyssie poured some water into her dad's cup. He gave her a grateful smile and chugged it. It seemed that the food was too salty on his plate as well. He didn't say anything, though, not wanting to hurt his daughter's feelings. It was one of the first meals she cooked in her life after all.

"So do I. It was under my bed, you know?" she said. "So that means that Fred is somewhere out there? In real life?"

Anthony nodded.

"I have to speak to him then!" she screamed, stood up and run out of the kitchen.

"Your breakfast!" Anthony shouted, as she left an almost full plate of food on the table.

***

Lyssie opened the diary and started writing quickly:

Fred! I talked with my dad about you. He said you were real. You have to tell me something more about you!

She waited for an answer. She waited and waited. And waited some more. But nothing appeared on the slightly yellow page. Did she say something wrong? She took her pen and started again:

Are you there? Can we speak for a minute?

She waited again and nothing happened.

"Dad?" she said loudly. "He isn't answering!"

"Because he's not asleep!" Anthony answered. "I would have told you if you hadn't run into your room like crazy!"

***

"So that means that he can speak with me only when he's sleeping?" she asked.

"You're still thinking about it, aren't you?"

Indeed, a couple of hours have passed until their last conversation about the diary. Lyssie finished her breakfast, which, she had to admit, was way better when eaten warm and they started their lessons. That day, they had Charms, during which Lyssie practiced her Accio and later, they moved on to Potions. They were talking about Amortentia, the love potion. Lyssie learnt recently that it had two uses: it could make someone fall in love with you, and if you smelled it, you could feel the scent of what attracted you the most. Today, they were about to brew it for the first time.

"I am," she admitted. "No offence, dad, but he told me more about Hogwarts than you have ever had."

Anthony sighted.

"What do you remember about Amortentia?" he asked changing the subject. "Effects, go on."

"It will make someone romantically obsessed with you. True love, however, cannot be produced through artificial means," she recited. "The effects wear off over time. It also can be healed with a Hate Potion, and vice versa." She stopped for a second. "Fred is a Gryffindor, he told me. He plays Quidditch as well."

Anthony ignored her and handed her the Potions book opened on the proper page.

"Go get the ingredients. Read the names out loud, please," he instructed her.

Lyssie got up and walked towards the shelves on the opposite side of the office. She took a small ladder in order to be able to reach the ingredients located on the highest shelves. With the book in her left hand, she started collecting the ingredients consulting the volume from time to time.

"Out loud," Anthony reminded her.

"Ashwinder peppers," she read and grabbed a small jar full of tiny orange peppers. She put it on a tray laying on a table next to her and continued: "Rose horns, peppermint... Fred said that he hates potions, can you imagine? Moonstone... He despises the teacher. He's supposed to be very strict and he picks his favorites, preferably Slytherins. Pearl Dust...I believe his name was Snape, or something like that. I don't quite remember."

"Severus Snape?" Anthony asked surprised. Could it be Severus "Snivellus" Snape? It couldn't be him, could it?

"I think so," she said as she walked back with a tray full of potion ingredients. "I'm not sure. Fred spoke a ton yesterday."

Anthony laughed.

"What's funny?" Lyssie asked confused. Her dad was usually very serious when he was teaching her. The same applied to the times when he was her primary school teacher. He would always put on this serious mask and take it off when in private.

"Snape went to Hogwarts with me," he explained. "A real spaz, if I've ever seen one!"

Lyssie gave him a surprised look. She has never thought she would hear her dad call someone a spaz!

"Just don't repeat it to anyone," he said as if he has only realized what he just said. Lyssie laughed and promised she wouldn't.

Anthony quickly came back to his serious façade and they proceeded with the lesson. He lit a fire under the cauldron and added some water to it. Then, Lyssie started chopping, squeezing, crushing, and adding ingredients referring to the book sometimes. The brew was changing its color with each stir and finally became brightly pink.

"Good job, Lyss!" her dad praised her. "Now, let's smell it. Remember why?"

"We smell what attracts us most," she answered and sniffed the potion.

"I don't smell anything!" she said disappointed. "You smell it. I think it doesn't work! We must have made a mistake."

Anthony leaned across the cauldron and inhaled the fumes. He smelled old books, freshly cleaned bed sheets, and something that resembled flowers, maybe some perfume.

"Well, I'm sure it works," he acknowledged. "I guess you're still too young. Don't worry, honey, we'll try again some time," he added seeing the disappointed face of his daughter.

"And what do you smell, dad?" she asked.

"Your mum, surely," Anthony answered without hesitation. "Now, let's clean up. Class dismissed."