alluringly entwined | f.w, d.m

09

The reflection of the roaring flames of the common room fire danced in Oshun's dark eyes.

It was past curfew and she was sitting in her common room with a book. A thriller book. Thrillers were her thing. Not romances.

Thrillers gave her... well, a thrill. They excited her and had her reading with such seriousness and intrigue. They had her gasping and guessing and disgusted and hooked.

She sat in her usual spot, which was the middle seat of the long couch directly in front of the fire. She had on pajama shorts and a big Gryffindor Quidditch T-shirt that she stole from Joaquin.

She wanted to try out for Quidditch on multiple occasions, but she just didn't actually end up doing so. She was good at the game though. She learned from her friends.

It was the part where the entire school would be watching during a game that made her get cold feet. She didn't like being the attention or having all eyes on her.

It made her feel small and judged, even though sometimes there was absolutely no judgment actually happening.

During presentations for classes, she stuttered nonstop and blushed profusely and stammered. But she didn't care about what grade she would get for those because she loathed any type of presentation.

Oshun's soul nearly left her body at the sound of footsteps approaching from behind her.

Her neck whipped to the sound and she saw the redhead with golden eyes approaching the couches.

He wore a T-shirt that was tight in all the right places, hugging his big biceps mesmerizingly. He had red pajama pants on and his hair was all mussed, per usual.

Oshun acted on instinct and closed her book. She rose from her seat, pulling down her shorts with her fingers since they rode up her thigh.

"You don't need to leave," Fred said in an oddly warm voice, a low chuckle following. "I just came to do some thinking by the fire."

She turned to meet his gaze once more, hesitant. His gaze wasn't hooded. It was actually warm and gentle, but so obviously dimmed with his own thoughts.

At last, she nodded at his words and slipped back down in her spot on the couch. She tucked her feet beneath her bum, her knees pointing away from him. She flipped open her book and rested it on her lap.

In her peripheral view, she saw the tall redhead make his spot in the armchair closest to the fire, to her right. His knees split apart and his head tipped back against the backrest of the armchair.

His hands tangled on his lap, tugging at the matching bracelet he had with George. It was a brown beaded bracelet with a clear bead in the center.

Oshun forced her attention away from him and steered it to the words in her book. But the words on the page were just blurring.

She was unable to focus on the printed words or the sentences or the dialogue of her book. Her attention was immediately dragged from her book the second the finger walked in.

This would be the first time ever she was alone with Fred in a room. Also the first time ever he didn't mask himself and give her the blank stare he always did.

She didn't know what that was supposed to mean.

Or perhaps it didn't mean anything at all and she was just thinking too hard about it.

She couldn't help but wonder where Hermione was.

She shared a dorm with Ginny, so was she with her roommate?

Or was she asleep in Fred's bed back in the dorm he shared with his twin brother.

Oshun shocked herself with how much she was thinking and wondering right now.