New Perspective ⌁ Fred Weasley

Chapter Twenty One

When Tamsin and Heidi arrived back at school from the holiday, Maxine was eager to tell them about her actions. She hoped the girls would be proud of her, after all, Maxine wasn't one to usually behave this way on her own.

And she got detention, which would surely shock her friends.

However, she did absolutely not expect the reaction that she actually received.

"Are you serious, Max?" Tamsin scowled, a genuine, angry scowl. "We're supposed to be doing this together, and you completely cut us out?"

Maxine's mouth parted as she looked at Tamsin. Heidi didn't seem too impressed, but she wasn't as annoyed as Tamsin was.

"I..." Maxine truly didn't know how to respond. She thought that she would at least get one of her friends to laugh or a pat on the back. But this...this was certainly not that.

"We had a plan," Tamsin continued on. "And not only did you go against said plan, you got us in trouble!"

It was a ludicrous statement. Maxine crossed her arms as she stared at Tamsin. "Correction, I got myself in trouble. You weren't involved in this prank, or the library incident—"

"The library incident ?" Tamsin shook her head, and Maxine realized she didn't say anything about the pumpkin on Fred's head. "What the hell does that mean?"

Maxine stood from where she sat on her bed and walked towards the windowsill.  "I was in the library and I ended up putting a pumpkin on one of the twins' head. That's the reason I got detention, not because of the prank itself."

"Regardless," Heidi frowned, and glanced between Maxine and Tamsin. "McGonagall said that she'll end the prank war. We have to be more careful..." She trailed off, and then a small smirk appeared. "But I would have paid a few Galleons to see you use the pumpkin charm on Weasley."

Maxine grinned and Tamsin gasped. "You're on her side? Really, Heidi?"

"There's no sides!" Maxine's grin fell and she rolled her eyes. "You weren't here, I was alone, and I decided to have fun. Besides, Fred and I actually had an okay time talking to each other."

Maxine knew she made a mistake the second she said Fred's first name, by the way that Heidi's mouth parted and Tamsin gaped. But it wasn't that big of a deal, was it? It was just her talking with someone who wasn't judging her.

"Did you just call him Fred?" Heidi asked slowly. "As in his first name?"

"Yes."

"Are you two friends now?" Tamsin raised her eyebrows.

Maxine felt like she was getting scolded by her parents. "No!" She rolled her eyes and looked at the ceiling. "Yes, no, I don't know. He was nice and we had a good conversation."

"Nice?" Tamsin scoffed. "He made you pee your pants. He turned my face red!"

"Yeah, and we made smoke come out of their ears and used on of their fears as a joke," Maxine tried to reason. "All I'm saying as that prank war or no prank war, I enjoyed talking to him. We talked about things other than pranks, he seemed interested in things other than pranks."

Now it was Tamsin who rolled her eyes. Heidi stayed silent, her cheek pulled between her teeth. "Those boys are bad news. He — Fred —" she said it so spitefully. "Is just using you. You can't trust him. He's trying to find something that he can used against you. Like your family or your situation."

A wave of anger flooded Maxine. The emphasis Tamsin put on situation as if it was taboo.

Tamsin didn't know Fred Weasley, and granted Maxine didn't know to much about him either, but she wasn't there when Fred showed compassion and empathy and expressed interest in her and for once the first thought Maxine was not that he was going to hurt her but that he was going to help her.

Right now, Tamsin was the one hurting her.

"You don't know that, Tamsin," Maxine said harshly. "And I don't know that and I'm not going to sit here and jump to conclusions about someone's motives because that's what I always do. I want to break that habit and maybe for once see the good in someone or myself."

Tamsin looked taken back by the tone of Maxine's voice, and Heidi just stared.

"I'm not going to just mark him off as a possible friend just because you think he's bad news."

With that, Maxine grabbed her wand and her satchel, weighed down by text books, and marched out the door, slamming it behind her. She growled in frustration as she walked down the hallway of the common room, through the stone archway, and out into the main castle.

It was near dinner time, and students were bustling about making their way towards the Great Hall. Maxine thought about going there but the idea of eating made her feeling nauseous.

So she made her way to the library.

One her favorite couch on the corner of the library, Maxine laid staring at the ceiling. She had been there for an hour, silently counting all of the cracks and lines in the stone ceiling as everyone else in the castle reminisced about their holiday.

This is stupid.

Maxine swung her legs down and sat up straight. She nearly screamed when she saw the redhead boy sitting on the couch a few feet away.

"What the hell," Maxine brought her hand to her chest. "You scared me."

"You were very focused on the ceiling," Fred chuckled. "I'm surprised you didn't see me sit down."

"I was thinking," Maxine brushed her hair off her shoulders and looked down towards the floor.

"Bout what?"

Maxine hesitated. Did she really want to give Fred an explanation? Would he really care? But not telling him would just affirm what Tamsin said, that she can't trust him.

Maxine wants to trust Fred. She wants to be his friend.

"I was thinking about what you said," Maxine said. "About changing my perspective, and I think you're right. And I'm willing to let you help me."

A small smile pulled at the corners of Fred's lips.

"Alright, Maxine," Fred said. He stood and came to sit next to her own the couch. "I have one condition."

Maxine raised an eyebrow, perplexed.

"You're not allowed to fall in love with me as I change your life." Fred stuck his palm out, as if they are making a business deal.

Maxine rolled her eyes but took Fred's hand.

"Deal." And they shook on it.

I didn't realize it has been a year and a half since I updated this. Whoopsie