To Hell ~ Fred Weasley

Chapter 55.

"Fred."

"Hey, Nina."

Helena smiled at the familiar face before her, unaware of the light shade of red she had on her cheeks now. Her fingers had a firmer grip on the small, feathered handbag she had brought with her. Fred returned the smile, his stare swiftly traveled from her face to the heels she was wearing. She noticed how the tall redhead's eyes lingered on her waist for a few seconds before the boy looked back up to meet her gaze.

Fred was sporting dress robes, nothing fancy, but Helena had never seen him in formal wear, and seeing him in a situation non-school related inside the school, was making her see him differently. His bright long red hair stood out even more than usual against the Winter Wonderland decorations around them. His scattered freckles gave his pale skin a much warmer tone to it, even when his nose was slightly red from the cold weather. But what caught the girl's attention was how he exuded confidence, more than usual. While most male students from Hogwarts were feeling awkward or uncomfortable in their dress robes, Fred Weasley was one of the handful of people who radiated with poise, as if this event were his natural habitat: a big social event, surrounded by friends and fellow acquaintances, giving him the opportunity to charm his way throughout the night and without a single care in the world.

"You look good."

She had reduced her thoughts into a simple sentence that did not express how much she was secretly admiring him.

"And you look beautiful," Fred said with a warm grin.

"You already said that, Fred," Helena giggled involuntarily.

Why am I giggling?

"Right, haha." The boy looked around dismissively. "So... nervous about opening the dance floor for the rest of us mere mortals?"

"Oh, please!" Helena laughed at the comment, pushing his shoulder lightly with her hand. "I'm the mere mortal since I feel like my legs will give away any minute just by some dance. What if I step on someone or freeze right in the middle of the Great Hall? Everyone will stare at me."

With that being said, Fred placed his hands on her shoulders with a firm grip and looking down at her said, "If they stare... it's for completely different reasons. It's just a dance, Hell. Like dancing in your dorm when you think no one is around – "

"Wait, who told you I danced in my room?" she asked with embarrassment, wide-eyed.

If she hadn't been so surprised about someone knowing that about her, she would have rephrased the question to make her look less obvious. But indeed, that was what Helena did whenever she had the dorm to herself on weekends. She would cast a charm to both her ears and that way she could listen to music without having to use the headphones, like she did whenever she was back home in London. Helena would just point her wand at the records Alicia Spinnet had laying around the dorm they shared and then point the wand to her ears, saying "Levieta musika" and that would make the music resonate in her ears with magic.

"Angelina told me when I asked her to the Yule Ball," he chuckled remembering the fact, "she told me how you seemed to be imagining music and dance to it in your dorm when no one was there, but Angelina would leave you to it. I think it's cute."

I guess that's why he asked Angelina to the ball, then.

He talks with her so easily.

"Nina! There you are."

Cedric Diggory came into scene, walking up to the girl in the green dress as he made his way through a small group of attendees. "You look amazing!" said the Hufflepuff, kissing her cheek to greet her and then proceeding to take her hand. "Professor McGonagall told me we'd be starting any minute now and I didn't know if I had missed you here at the stairs where we had agreed to meet," Cedric turned around to acknowledge the person next to his girlfriend. "Weasley," he said with a nod.