An Affair to Remember (Fred Weasley)

51) Stubborn

Adrienne woke up to a strange, smokey smell in the air. Her eyes fluttered open as the sun shone through the windows, but contrary to the ordinary scent of dewy leaves and damp wooden barks that normally greeted her every morning in the lodge, everything now smelled of smoke. She could also hear the clattering of metal from outside but she wasn't sure what it was.

Adrienne put on her dressing gown, taking her time to brush her teeth and comb her hair before heading outside to see what the ruckus was all about. The moment she opened her door, she was in a cloud of smoke, ears ringing with the distant noise of coughing and the cacophony of pots and pans falling to the ground. "What the hell is happening?" Adrienne yelled, waving her hand in front of her in an attempt to block the smoke that was filling her nostrils and making her eyes water.

There was no reply, so she took a few more steps down the hall before realising that the source of the smoke was the kitchen. Inside the kitchen was no better, but she could make out the blurry silhouette of Fred trying to do something with the pans.

"Fred what the fuck are you doing?" Adrienne shouted, a hand over her eyes to stop the smoke from getting into them.

"I'm making breakfast, what the hell does it look like?" he said matter-of-factly.

"Breakfast? It looks like you're trying to burn the goddamn lodge down!" Adrienne shouted, stepping into the kitchen to clear out the mess. She grabbed the soiled pan from his hand and ran it under water in the sink. Next, she pulled out her wand to clear out the the terrible smoke engulfing both of them.

Once things were under control, she noticed that Fred stood in the kitchen, arms crossed as if he hadn't just almost burned the whole place down. "There's something wrong with the stove" he said after a few seconds of silence.

"No, there's something wrong with you" Adrienne said angrily, "You've completely ruined the pots and pans!"

"It wasn't my fault!" Fred protested.

"You brought this upon yourself" Adrienne shook her head as she took to cleaning the remaining mess in the kitchen. Deep inside, Fred felt bad for waking her up from her sleep to such a terrible morning, so he silently helped her clean. But he made sure that she didn't notice he was helping her out by little, hidden flicks of his wand. Then, he walked towards the door and grabbed his coat.

"Where are you going?" Adrienne asked, wiping sweat from her brow as she watched Fred shrug his coat on.

"None of your business" Fred said before leaving the lodge, slamming the door shut behind him.

Adrienne let out a deep sigh, leaning against the kitchen counter and crossing her arms as she stared at the door through which Fred had left just a few seconds ago. Staying with him for a week when he was mad at her was proving to be more difficult than she could have imagined.

 She silently made herself some cereal and a cup of coffee, sitting at the counter and eating her breakfast as she pondered over how to get Fred to talk to her. She understood why he was angry, but she felt as if he might be a little too angry.  

Hours passed by and Fred didn't return, she wanted to make sure he was okay she didn't know how to do it without breaking any one of their rules. Those darned rules. 

Adrienne decided to stop thinking about him for some time and went to take a shower in the shared bathroom of the lodge. She preferred this bathroom more as it was much larger than the one she had in her room.

After stripping herself off her clothes, she stepped into the cubicle and turned the faucet, letting the warm water wash away all her worries, letting it trickle down her back and undo the tiny knots that were starting to form from the stress of the past few days. She closed her eyes, lightly throwing her head back as the water slipped down her front, helping her relax.