Songbird ; Fred Weasley

Twenty-three

Mature content

When everyone had gone to bed that night, I was downstairs, waiting.

When the soft knocks sounded on the front door, I ran on my toes to the entrance hall and quietly opened the door.

Fred looked really casual, wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a black hoodie with the hood pulled over his hair.

"Hey cutie." He grinned, scrunching up his nose, and I bit back a laugh, shaking my head at him.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him inside before closing and locking the door.

"Hi." I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck. I tiptoed and pressed my lips to his while pushing the hood of his head so I could run my hand through his hair.

"Missed me?" He asked, lifting me up. He wrapped my legs around his hips and then started carrying me upstairs.

"I did." I nodded. "A lot."

He pecked my lips, smiling sweetly at me. "Has August been a nightmare?"

"Yep." I sighed, hiding my face in the warmth of his neck. "But now you're here so it's all better."

He pushed the door to my room opened, and stepped in. I reached behind him to shut it, and then I leaned down to turn the lock.

Fred dropped me onto the bed before joining me. He laid by my side and pulled me against him.

"Spill." He told me. "What did he do?"

"It's not what did he do. It's what didn't he do?"

Fred raised his eyebrows at me, waiting for an explanation. I sighed and moved closer to him, throwing a leg over his hip.

"After you left this morning, the knife slipped and I cut myself pretty badly. He didn't care. He just sat there even when Harvey yelled at him to go get his wand."

"You cut yourself?" He asked, grabbing my hand, turning it over.

He saw the scar and ran a few fingers over it.

"Harvey fixed me up." I said. "It hurt pretty badly. Not the fixing me up part, but the part where I cut myself."

Fred tucked an elbow under his house, letting his free hand run up and down my bare arm.

"You have to be careful."

"I know." I smiled and leaned in, pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "How's your day been? Was work busy?"

"Not really, no. George and I had a meeting. Well, you can't exactly call it a meeting. It was just a conversation between him and I."

I laughed, waiting for him to tell me what they talked about.

"We want to expand. We've been thinking about buying the old Zonko's for the past three years. No one is buying the damn building and it's odd because it really has potential."

I smiled at the look in his eyes as he talked about it. He continued to go on and on about how he'd like to furnish and decorate the building in Hogsmeade.

I listened, watching him the entire time. I watched as he laughed out of pure happiness, I watched as he scrunched up his nose at an idea he found silly, I watched as he watched me.

When he finished talking, I rolled onto my back and looked at the ceiling.

"I think you should do it." I said. "You sound really excited about it."

Fred propped himself up on one elbow, looking down at me.

"Yeah?" He asked, rubbing his hand back and forth over my stomach in a soothing motion.