Insomnia | Fred Weasley |

25. You only let him go first because you fancy him

It seemed that Alex and Harry were, once again, in disagreement.  While Harry believed Crookshanks had eaten Scabbers and all the evidence pointed to that, Alex sided with Hermione, stating that there was no true evidence to prove that Crookshanks had done it.  When Harry tried to explain it, Hermione got angry with him and stormed off and Alex followed so she wasn't alone.

The friend group was looking as though things would never be the same ever again.

Alex and Hermione, on top of their usual (or in Hermione's case, unusual) workload, kept working on Buckbeak's case.  Since Alex had been having trouble falling asleep because of her recurring nightmares, she found herself in the common room late at night so the girls in her dorm could sleep while she did research.  She had also heard back from the hippogriff expert in Romania and wrote down the notes he had sent regarding hippogriff behavior, how someone was supposed to act, and what to say to a hippogriff.

One night, after Alex had made Hermione go to bed because the older girl was exhausted, she found herself in the common room by herself very late, pouring over books about hippogriffs.  The clock in the common room dinged, signaling midnight and Alex groaned since she wasn't even feeling a little tired. The next day of classes was sure to be a struggle for her.

The sound of someone entering the common room broke her out of her thoughts and she looked up to see Fred.  Her heart immediately began to pound harder when he spotted her and he walked over to sit right by her on the floor in front of the fireplace.

"What are you up to?" He asked.

"Just trying to help Hagrid build a case so Buckbeak isn't sentenced to death," she told him without looking up from the books.

Fred only shook his head.  "If anyone should be killed, it's Malfoy for being a git," he told her, causing her to laugh and nod her head in agreement.  "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Alex sighed before putting the book down, sitting back, and stretching her arms above her head to loosen the tense muscles.  "No, I've read that book a dozen times, it feels like I'll be able to recite it from memory."  He smiled before moving to sit behind her when he saw how tense her shoulders were, causing her to jump.  "What are you doing?"

"Just let me help," he told her, softly grabbing her shoulders and beginning to massage them like he did when they had detention at the beginning of the year.

Not wanting to fight it, Alex relaxed and let Fred rub his thumbs into the knots that had formed in her shoulders.  They remained silent, except for the occasional sigh of relief as Fred managed to loosen knots in her shoulders.

"Is that better?" He asked, pulling his hands back.

"Yes," she told him, fighting the blush that was trying to form on her face.  "Thank you."

They sat back against the front of the couch, the crackling of the fireplace being the only sound heard.  Alex twiddled with her fingers as she thought of all that was going on with her dad and thinking about her mum's safety.  A shaky breath left her, causing Fred to look down.