my best friends brother - fred weasley

xxxiii. beginnings

I couldn't bare to look at Fred for the next few days, I moved my study spot from the common room to the library, then to a corner in the Owlery, to the Astronomy tower and even into an abandoned classroom. I was trying to avoid him as much as possible, which was hard when no one else knew I was avoiding him. He was working equally as hard to try and get me alone with him, he followed me to classes and waited for them to be over, he sat next to me at every chance he got, he was the first person in the common room in the morning and the last person at night, he basically slept on the couch. I was walking from Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, my new study spot, to the common room late at night. When I walked through the door I wasn't expecting anyone to still be awake, since it was so late. 

"Finally." I heard Fred sigh from the couch, he sounded tired. I tried to walk as fast as I could to my dorm, but he stopped me as I got to the stairs by reaching and arm across my waist. 

"Oh, Hi. I didn't um... see you there." I lie, looking at the ground. I knew that as soon as I looked up at him, my eyes would start watering. 

"Please don't lie to me. Can we talk?" He uses the tips of his fingers to tilt my chin up. I keep my eyes to the side, avoiding eye contact as much as I could. I move my head away and look back down at his shoes, starting to feel sick again as I tighten my grip on my books. 

"Talk about what?" My eyes start to sting as my voice wavers. 

"About us." He takes a step back and through my eyelashes I can see his hands go up to his hair. I try to look up bravely, but tears start to spill as soon as I see him. 

"What about us?" I sniff, pretending as though I'm not crying. 

"You've been avoiding me, it's not that hard to see." He reaches out and puts his hands on either side of my neck, cupping my jaw and playing with the hair behind my ears. 

"Maybe we just haven't been crossing paths." I shrug, trying to avoid as much conflict as I can. 

"Clover." He says, ducking his head to make eye contact with me. 

"What?" I start to cry harder, getting angry with him. 

"Can you please tell me what I did so I can fix it?" 

"You know what you did." I push his hands off of me. 

"What? No I-I don't" He looks at me, worried. 

"Yes you do! That night of the party! You know exactly what you did!" I start to yell.

"The party? I- oh no." He looks horrified, remembering what he did.

"Yeah 'oh no'." I yell, "Pretending like you don't remember! You're a lying, cheating, condescending-" He grabs me and walks me to our couch while struggle to get out of his grip. He sits back on the couch, pulling me down next to him and holding me there. I struggle my hardest to get out of his reach, weakly punching his shoulders. I eventually give up, resorting to sobbing out my emotions. He hugs me as my whole body shakes, without saying a word. 

"It wasn't even a day." I struggle to breathe between cries. "It wasn't even a day and you cheated. I'm sorry I didn't realise sooner that I don't mean anything to you."

"I'm sorry. I can explain, please?" He says looking me straight in the eye. I try to look way and  he uses a hand to gently push my head back towards him. "Angelina used a love potion on me."

"You think I'm dumb enough to believe that?" I say, sitting up and wiping the tears off my cheeks, moving further away from him.  

"It's the truth. George gave it to her and she used it on me at the party. She was getting me drinks and food all night and I wasn't making a move on her. I saw her talking to George and then she came back with something I hadn't tasted before and suddenly I was all over-" He stops when he sees my face turn sour. "It wasn't me, it was the potion."