AMOR FATI . . . fred weasley

V. KISSES AND QUIBBLERS

22nd february 1996 (too early in the morning!)

.·。.·゜✭·.·✫·゜·。..·。.·゜✭·.·✫·゜·。.

WHAT'S THE WORST THING to get woken up by?

    Joey'll go first. A really scary nightmare? Or your roommate's tone-deaf singing as she pretends she's a Disney princess? Or, maybe, being smacked round the face with a copy of the Quibbler?

    OK, Joey realises that the last example might be just a little niche, but it's what happens to her half-way through February, when she groggily opens her eyes to find Ivy seated on the end of her bed, white teeth and warm eyes glinting in early morning sunlight. Ebony curls scented with a lemon Sleekeazy's hair mask.

    'Joe, look! Look!'

    Groaning, Joey cuddles the soft dragon toy Charlie gave her and hugs it to her chest, her eyes still sticky with sleep. Then she sees the headline on Lee's favourite magazine and loses her mind: HARRY POTTER SPEAKS OUT AT LAST.

THE TRUTH ABOUT HE-WHO-MUST-NOT-BE-NAMED AND THE NIGHT I SAW HIM RETURN.

    'Oh my Venus, this is wonderful!' Joey gasps, and in a moment she's scrambling out of bed, shoving on some fluffy socks and skipping from the dormitory with her pygmy puff Martin Marshmallow firmly on her shoulder. Ivy's delighted laughter echoes all the way down the corridor, mirrored in Fred's as she collapses down beside him at the Gryffindor table, so out of breath it hurts, but not even caring.

    His pinky snakes round hers as a greeting and he returns to enthusiastically opening all the letters that a bemused Harry, bless him, has received. 'This one's in two minds. Says you don't come across as a mad person, but he really doesn't want to believe You-Know-Who's back so he doesn't know what to think now... Blimey, what a waste of parchment...'

    'This is so amazing, Harry my love!' Joey cries, throwing herself over the table to give him the squashiest hug she can. George hastily moves a jug of pumpkin juice out of her way. Martin Marshmallow bounces in excitement. 'It must've been so hard - you've been so brave - like, I'm so flipping proud of you!'

    Because she is. Cedric's story, his glory, finally, published in the best magazine ever so the whole world'll never ever forget him. Just like Joey'll never ever ever ever forget him!

    'Er, thanks,' Harry says.

    'Blimey, Harry, you're getting all the hugs,' Ron scoffs. 'First Roger Davies, now Joey...'

    'Let him go, mate,' George laughs, tugging a handful of Joey's pyjama shirt gently so she falls back at the bench beside the twins. 'Sure Harry doesn't want death-by-hug, it'd be dead lame after he's managed to survive You-Know-Who all these times.'

    'Another one who thinks you're barking,' Ron says as he returns to the letters, throwing a crumpled one over his shoulder, 'but this one says you've got her converted, and she now thinks you're a real hero - she's put in a photograph too - wow - '

    'No need to get a hard-on, bro,' Fred mutters. Joey giggles into her Pixie Puffs.

    'What is going on here?' says everyone's favourite falsely sweet voice, and Joey instinctively yanks her sleeve down over the scars of Cedric's name on her hand. 'Why have you got all these letters, Mr. Potter?'