Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 20 ⚡️

The whispering, staring and pointing toward Vega and Harry were higher than ever as they fought their way through the Great Hall and into the Entrance Hall, and finally to the marble staircase. Vega tugged Harry along and brought them through several concealed shortcuts – enough to leave most of the crowd behind and recreate the silence in the air.

It wasn't something that Vega hadn't expected. How could people not stare at the two of them? They had emerged from the Triwizard maze two months ago clutching the dead body of a fellow student and claiming to have seen Lord Voldemort return to power.

But Vega wasn't sure what exactly they would find by staring so owlishly at her and Harry. She wasn't going around with her opinions plastered onto her forehead so it made no sense to her.

Soon enough, they had reached the end of the corridor to the Gryffindor common room and had come to a halt in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady and Vega realised that they didn't know the first password of the night – it had escaped her thoughts.

"Er..." Harry trailed off as they stared at the Fat Lady, who smoothed the folds of her pink satin dress and looked sternly back at the two of them.

"No password, no entrance," Fat Lady told them loftily.

"We understand," Vega mumbled rather glumly as she let out a long, deep sigh. "We'll wait for someone to come by, surely they will know the password..."

"Vega, Harry, I know it!"

Vega and Harry turned to look at the person who had spoken, and they found Neville jogging toward them, panting, "Guess what it is? I'm actually going to be able to remember it for once –" He waved the stunted little cactus he had shown them on the train. "Mimbulus mimbletonia!"

"Correct," said the Fat Lady, and her portrait swung open toward them like a door, revealing a circular hole in the wall behind, through which Vega, Harry and Neville now climbed.

"I like the new password," Vega commented lightly, mostly glad that Neville had gotten something easy for once. "It would be nice to have Herbology passwords in the future as well,"

"I agree!" Neville replied eagerly.

The Gryffindor common room looked as welcoming as ever, a cosy circular tower room full of dilapidated squashy armchairs and rickety old tables. A fire was crackling merrily in the grate and a few people were warming their hands before going up to their dormitories; on the other side of the room Fred and George Weasley were pinning something up on the notice board.

"Good night," Harry muttered to Vega, heading toward the direction of the door that lead to the boys' dormitories. She waved hm goodbye quickly before he vanished.

"Good night!" Vega called after him. She turned to look at Neville. "Good night to you as well, Neville," Neville turned pink and nodded as he turned to follow Harry.

Vega had been left alone barely for a second when she felt arms wrap around her shoulders, and she quickly looked over her shoulder to see it was only Fred. She smiled lightly at him and moved her head up to give him a quick peck on his lips.

"Are you going to go to bed?" Fred asked in a low voice as he set his head to hers. "If not – maybe we can sneak out," Vega blushed as he kissed her cheek.

The thought of spending time with Fred was very attempting but Vega felt like she wouldn't be able to stay up for long after such a long day – it seemed insane that she had been struck down the stairs by floating trunks, taking the train ride to Hogwarts and finally had the dinner feast in one day.

"Let's meet in the morning," Vega muttered, glancing around at the people who were starting to stare at her. "It'll be hard to sneak out with this lot holding onto my every move,"