Lemon Grass and Sleep

A BIT OF FLUFF TO WARM THE HEART

"What do you think it'll be?" I asked, arms folded across my chest as I looked up at the ceiling. Now there had been a new tapestry tacked onto the ceiling above the bed, it was enchanted and the threads moved and danced into new pictures every time I blinked.

"Hmm, what is a common test of courage?"

"Giving a presentation?" I offered.

"Giving a presentation is not deadly, Soot."

"It can be."

"Perhaps for you," he laughed, rolling over on top of me. I let out a huff of breath as he crushed my lungs.

"Get off," I giggled alongside his laughter as he peppered kisses over my face.

As he calmed down we resided to just looking at each other, which sounds so cheesy but it felt very heartwarming. This was just what I needed after the intensity of a first fight, anyways.

"Hey," he said gently, "What's wrong now?"

I hadn't the slightest idea what he was talking about until he reached up and wiped a bit of wetness from my face. My expression must've been shocked as I realized that my vision was a bit blurry and I could feel tears rolling lazily down my cheeks.

"Oh," I quietly gasped, reaching up and wiping them away furiously. "I don't know."

"You can tell me," he comforted, resting his chin on my chest. "I won't laugh, you know."

"I just," I felt my voice break a little, and hated myself for how pitiful I sounded. "I don't normally cry so much."

"It's okay," he laughed a little bit, "Sometimes it's best to cry."

Fred rolled off of me and pulled me closer to his chest. His arms wrapped around me protectively, and in that moment I felt more protected and hidden from the world than I ever had in my entire life.

"You know," he began talking, his chest rumbling in a soothing way against me, "When Ron was little, he would cry over the stupidest things. Like, he got mud on his shoes. Or, get this, that it was cold outside."

A few wet laughs escaped me, and I threw my arm over Fred's waist as I nestled further into his embrace.

"And Ginny, Merlin's beard, you don't want to know how much she cried--cries! She still does, like all the time. I don't know how she has the energy for so much crying."

"If she feels anything like me, she has no energy," I mumbled.

"Well, you might not have any energy for a different reason," he murmured.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, the smell of the Burrow was just barely on the edges of my senses.

"I wonder why this room doesn't smell like you," I didn't bother to open my eyes as I spoke, "It's hardly fair that it just smells like me."

"I think it's just fine," he snickered.

"Hmm," I hummed tiredly against his chest. The feeling of sleep pulled at my consciousness and lulled me into a floaty sense of being half-asleep. "Can we please never fight again?" I asked quietly.

"Sure," he agreed, "We can certainly try."

"Thomas," Dumbledore called my name as I opened my eyes to find myself in his office.

Cold sweat dripped down my back as I stared up at him, I must've been only eight or nine at the time.

"It has come to our attention that your...situation is quite dire. We will house you at Hogwarts for the time being, hopefully a more suitable solution can be found soon."

"Yes, Headmaster," my voice trembled as I broke the quietness of the room. I sounded so young, my voice was barely a squeak compared to Dumbledore's deep, ancient way of speaking.

"For now, just blend in and lay low. We'll take care of you here."

"Come along, dear," Professor Sprout grabbed my shoulder tenderly and pulled me away from Dumbledore's office.

Those first couple years were pretty miserable, looking back on it.

"Thomas," Fred rubbed my side soothingly, "It's just a nightmare, everything's fine. I'm right here, alright?"

I took a few deep breaths as I was brought back down from my memory, and I could tell I was shaking in Fred's arms. In my sleep I had rolled over and my back was now pressed firmly against Fred's chest. His voice rumbled through his chest into mine, and fought off the anxiety stewing in my lungs valiantly.

"Why do you have such bad nightmares?" He mumbled against my neck, his hand coming to a still and resting on my hip.

"Just some bad memories," I brushed off. I could tell he wasn't satisfied with the vagueness of my answer.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I stated simply, grabbing his wrist and bringing his arm to wrap around me. "Just hold me."

"I can do that," he offered happily.

We probably had somewhere to be. Class, or eating, something was always happening. There was hardly any moment of peace in sixth year, something I was very quickly realizing. The temptation of having more free time was enough to blind me to the workload that bogged us down, and when the homework started piling up I hadn't even had Fred to turn to.

"I missed you a lot, you know."

"We were still in the same classes," Fred replied, "You still saw me all the time."

"But it was back to looking at you from aways off."

"You looked at me from a ways off before?" He prodded, a taunting grin overtaking his features.

"Well, I don't know about-"

"So you were smitten with me before we met?" He continued, "Had a little crush on a Weasley, did you?"

"No," I bit out unconvincingly, very happy I was facing away from him.

"Merlin," he whispered giddily, quickly rolling over on top of me. "You did, didn't you?"

"Of course not, how could someone-"

Fred cut me off with a kiss, pulling away quickly with that stupid smile of his still plastered on his face.

"I'm a little sad we didn't meet until last year," he admitted quietly.

"Really?" I breathed out.

"Especially now that I am privy to this little secret you've been hiding."

I bit my tongue as the words 'It wasn't very well kept' approached my lips. For some reason I felt like if Fred knew that Glinda and George had known long before he had--and took part in setting us up on purpose--he'd be angry with me.

So I didn't say anything, and I let him kiss me again.