The Chaser : A Fred Weasley Fan Fic

Eight: Lies

Fred woke up the next morning clearly feeling regretful and apologised to Oliver and the rest of the team for how he'd acted at practice. I'd hoped that things would return to normal but a few days had passed and I couldn't help but feel like Fred had been avoiding me.

The twins would actively not sit with me and Katie at meals and when I was sat beside Fred in class he was a strange docile version of himself, there was no smirk or cocky attitude, he just put his head down and work on whatever Professor Lupin set us.

It wasn't until Wednesday lunchtime, when he seemed to have come out the other side of whatever mood he had been in, that him and George finally sat with us again. They threw themselves down, George sat closely next to me and Fred opposite beside Katie and immediately joined in our conversation. It took me back but I quickly eased in to it, just happy that that they wanted to spend time with us again.

"Defence Against the Dark Arts next, Wilde" Fred grinned, raising his eyebrows at me.

"I wonder what Lupin's got for us today" George said, his eyes sparkly with excitement. It really was the best subject this year with such a great teacher and I looked forward to every lesson more than I had done years previously.

"I know, last lesson was Grindylows and I-" Fred started but trailed off and squinted at something past my shoulder.

"What is it?" I asked, craning my neck to see what he'd spotted. Just beside my head, there was a hovering paper aeroplane, the parchment was folded perfectly and it stayed suspended in mid-air until I reached out and grabbed it.

I unfolded the paper to read it's contents and in neat handwriting it read,

Meet me outside the greenhouses, tonight 10pm?

- Cedric

Carefully, I folded it back up and stuffed the paper into the pocket of my robes and whirled round to see Cedric grinning at me from the Hufflepuff table. My face got hot immediately and nodded at him eagerly in response. His friend at his side nudged him encouragingly, he'd clearly helped with the note and was pleased for Cedric that I'd said yes.

"See you later" Cedric mouthed, finishing with a wink.

Snapping back round to rejoin the group, Ginny and Ron had now slid down the benches to sit with us. They were all chatting amongst themselves and I didn't think anybody had noticed mine and Cedric's exchange. But Fred's face said otherwise. He was scowling down at my pocket where the I'd slipped the note in and wasn't talking to anybody around us.

I smiled at him sweetly to try and get him to snap out of it and he straightened himself out, giving me a strained smile back and trying to concentrate on what everyone was saying. It was becoming frustrating, I knew everybody felt that Cedric had pulled an unfair move in the match but Fred was taking it too far now. Of course, there would be resentment lingering but it was only Quidditch at the end of the day.

When the bells chimed, signalling for everybody to get to their next lessons, me, Fred and George strode off to Defence Against the Dark Arts. It was always hard to keep up the twins as they often forgot how long their legs were and set off in great strides down the corridor.

Me and Fred sat ourselves down at our desk near the back of the classroom. As quickly as he'd perked up, he was back to being quiet with me and I assumed it was to do with the note. I would have done anything to have him crack a joke or smile at me at least once.

"Hey" I whispered, nudging him slightly in the arm, "What's the matter?"

"Nothing" Fred whispered back, keeping his gaze trained on the front of the classroom.