Hiraeth // Fred & George Weasley

Chapter 4

Time had flown by, as it was now the beginning of December. Students filled the Great Hall stuffing all kinds of delicacies in their mouths. The troublesome four sat around the Gryffindor table, laughter filling throughout their group. It was a cold, snowy day but each of their warm hearts practically thawed the snow. A tap on Azure's shoulder forced the pleasant mood to quickly end. All eyes turned to see an apprehensive Slytherin student, Adrian Pucey stood there, eyes directly on Azure. 

"Are you Azure Binx?" Adrian's deep voice asked her politely. Azure gave her friends a confused look, all three shrugging and turning their attention back to the hesitant boy. She nodded her head, "Yeah that's me." She replied, puzzlement in her words. Adrian pushed a fellow Gryffindor aside and sat next to Azure on the bench. She stared at him, wondering what he could possibly want from her. 

He kept his eyes on hers, not even acknowledging her friends that sat by her. He put on an amiable smile before finally speaking, "So I know that what my Quidditch players did was a few weeks ago, but I wanted to sincerely apologize to you for their behaviour." She looked at him with shock written on her face, after all why did he want to apologize? She raised her eyebrows before finally responding back to him. "Um...thanks? Although it wasn't all that bad, so you shouldn't have to apologize." Her expression of shock never fading. He chuckled as he put a hand on her shoulder, his smirk never leaving his face. Azure felt awkward when he put his hand on her shoulder but her face turned beet red from the sudden action he had made. 

"Of course I should apologize, their behaviour was unreasonable and utterly stupid!" He continued, making her still annoyed with his hand resting on her shoulder. "I was wondering if I could somehow make it up to you?" Pucey's voice roughly wavered as he spoke. Azure's mind filled with all kinds of thoughts, she looked away for a few seconds, resting her eyes on the meal in front of her. Before finally she gazed back at him, as she pulled a weak smile. 

"What did you have in mind?" She asked which broke the uncomfortable silence. Lee and the twins watched the two talk, all of them unsure of Adrian's intentions. Lee's blood boiled, he for sure didn't like this Slytherin talking to one of his best friends. The two red-heads also watched, they were uneasy and held their malevolent eyes on the snake's hand as it basically played with her shoulder. Azure finally noticed her shoulder still being held on to by Adrian, and gently pulled back so he wasn't touching her anymore. 

"Well..." He started, "Hogsmeade weekend is coming up and I thought that I would simply just take you to The Three Broomsticks, in order to make it up to you!" Pucey finished, excitement flowing through him. He took his eyes away from her to finally look at her troublesome friends, then he started again. "You can bring your mates too if you like! I just wanted to make sure you were okay after that Quidditch game disagreement." He stated with concern lingering on his tongue, bringing his eyes back to her. She looked at her friends as she thought about his offer. Her eyes even roamed the rest of the Gryffindor table, not really sure why she was searching for a certain someone. But that's when her eyes met his, he was already staring at the arrangement going on between the two. 

Oliver Wood stared at her for a few seconds before looking back down at the counter. Oliver and Azure had ended their relationship a week ago. It wasn't anything bad between the two, they just naturally grew apart. Oliver was gonna leave Hogwarts at the very end of the year, which would cause them to break up anyway. They didn't have bad blood between each other. In fact they still remained friends, respecting each other's choice to leave the relationship. 

Azure turned back to face Adrian, a smile on her face before she spoke. "That actually sounds really nice. I would love to go, thank you Adrian!" She kept the most compassionate voice she could. He grinned from ear-to-ear before saying his goodbyes, abruptly making his way back to the Slytherin table. Azure turned back to her chicken noodle soup, gazing into the bowl while she stirred the spoon in a dull motion. A flash of regret at giving Adrian the time of day appeared on her face. Fred and Lee gave her a concerning look before returning back to their conversation from across the table.