Except For You ~ {Fred Weasley}

Chapter 19

“Argh! There’s so much time I could spend with Miss Salty that I have to spend studying!” I exclaim, kicking my bed frame.
“That’s fifth year for ya mate.” George says.
“It still sucks. No upsides. Not one.”
“You can still prank people with me!” He looks offended.
“I guess. Miss Salty will see this as an upside and frankly it’s quite offensive.”
“Why won’t you just call her by her name?”
“Because it fits! Plus she calls me Mr Trouble.”
“I wonder why.” George told his eyes.
“Oh ha ha. Have you asked a certain someone out yet?” George flushes at the question, or maybe the thought of acting out the question.
“No. No, not yet. Soon though.”
“Let me know, will ya? I’m sick of waiting for something to happen!”
“Now you know how I feel!” We laugh. “I’m bored. Let’s go piss off Ron.”
“Yeah, okay.”

“Hey! Fred!”
“What?” I exclaim, slamming my quill down and looking up.
“Guess what?”
“I already did.” I respond flatly.
“Oh, well… whatever! I finally asked Del out!”
I perk up. “That’s news! What’d she say?”
“She said yes!”
“Alright, tell me everything. My homework is getting far too boring to bother with anymore.”
“Well, we were in class and she slid me a note. It told me to meet me in the Library during lunch so I did. At the same time, by complete accident mind you, we confessed. Then I asked her to go out with me and she said yes. After that she hugged me. When we pulled apart I looked into her eyes and then-”
“I don’t want the sappy parts, just the events.”
“I kissed her.”
“Georgie! Really?”
“Yes idiot! I can score someone, thank you very much.”
"Well good for you mate."
"Miss Salty troubles?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I'll bet you that Del's going to tell her that now we're a thing- I think- so…"
"In what world is that gonna help?"
"I'm saying that if you find Del and Oksana on the map, you can tell when Del leaves." I groan and slump forward. "What?"
"She's never gonna leave!" George scans the map for a moment.
"She just did." He says flatly. I lift my head and scan the map.
"She's literally like sixty yards away. Is that 'her' spot? This entire TIME?"
"Calm down! Probably, yeah! Now go! Actually talk to her. Go!" He shoved me off the chair.
“Hey! Hey! I will- someday. Not today though. She’s probably reading, she won’t want me interrupting her. Me especially.”
“Oh, yeah, you’re probably right.”
“Really?”
“No! Can’t you just be a Gryffindor for like five minutes and man up?”
“You know, that phrase is really sexist. Sometimes a girl is better at being a man than a man. Like, where did that phrase even come-”
“Shut up will you? Look, you’re not a Ravenclaw either. The girl you like may be a Ravenclaw, but you’re a Gryffindor. Just get your brave act on and talk to her damnit!”
“Yeah but…”
“But what, Fred? But what?”
“She’s just so… she’s amazing. And it’s so annoying because you had to mess up everything in first year and now she’ll never like me back and all I can ever do is tease her. And everytime I see her all I want to do is tell her I like her but I know I could never do that because she’ll just not want anything to do with me after that.”
“Um… you kinda seemed obsessed. And how did I mess up your potential relationship?”
“You know that water balloon stunt you pulled? Well she now hates me because of it!”
“That was four years ago!”
“ ‘Tell that to Snape’.” I quote.
“What…? Well, why doesn’t she hate me?”
“Because Del likes you. And I actually tried to do something to apologise to her and I guess she must’ve thought I did it because I was more guilty because I did it not you or something.”
“That’s crazy.”
“I don’t think you’ve noticed yet, but both of them are crazy.”
“Yeah, that’s also true.” We stand in awkward silence for a while.
“Fine!” I exclaim suddenly, grabbing my stuff. “I’ll go and talk to her. I need to give her book back anyway.” I glance at the map and she hasn't moved. “I’ll talk to you,” I check the window and see how dark it is, “tomorrow, I guess.” I head to where she was. When I get there she's asleep. I think about pranking her, but quickly decide against it. She had fallen asleep on her book, her face in her folded arms. She had obviously only tried to rest her head but fell asleep before she could continue reading. I study the area around her. There was her most recent homework and notes from subjects I don’t recognise. There were subjects like, ‘English’ or ‘Science’. I wonder how she kept up with all her work, reading, whatever this was and everything else. I sit down on the couch next to her and take my book out. I had used her bookmark for all the books I had read, so it was crinkled and worn. I pull my jacket off and drape it over her. I start reading.

I had finally finished reading the book when I couldn’t take it anymore. “Damn it!” I exclaim. She had to know how I felt. I slam the book down next to me on the couch and I study her head. I sigh heavily and chuckle lightly. “You know, I’ve never told you why I didn’t leave you alone. And frankly I think it’s because I didn’t quite know myself. But I think I know now. I liked you. I still like you. And it makes me almost kill George for dropping that stupid water balloon on your head to make it the ‘perfect’ prank, even though I didn’t talk to you to set up a prank. I talked to you because I wanted to know you.” I pause for a bit, still studying her. Her hair was so pretty swooping over her eyes, and when the moonlight hit it she looked even more enchanting than ever. Why did she have to be so damn beautiful?
“And I think that’s the reason he didn’t drop it on your head when Del was there. Because he also liked her and didn’t want to ruin his chances with her. But he ruined mine with you and I might kill him. I might bloody well kill him for it. And now I can’t believe I’m basically confessing my feelings to you even though you're asleep. You won’t know that I think you’re the smartest, most beautiful girl I’ve ever met. You won’t know that I wish George never dropped that water balloon so that I could talk about you while saying your name instead of this stupid nickname that doesn’t describe you at all. You won’t know that everytime I see you I just want you to tell me you like me. You won’t know that,” I slow and exhale deeply. “That I love you.” I felt so dumb, sitting there and telling my feelings I had held in for so long now to someone who wasn’t listening. I had to get out of there. I wrote a note and put it on her book. I left my jacket on her though. I didn’t want her getting cold. I had just turned a corner when I heard shuffling. I peeked around and saw her sitting up and reading the note. She rubbed her eyes, put her arms in the jacket sleeves and curled up. She suddenly sat up, took the jacket off, transfigured the colours and put it back on. I laughed breathily. Of course she wouldn’t use something that resembled one of mine.

"Hey Fred?"
"Mm?" I grab my cup from beside my stool.
"y/n is here." I spit out my drink and look where George is pointing. He's right.
"Um… make her audience singer."
"We haven't even started!"
"Are you an idiot? When it comes to choosing an audience singer, you moron!"
"Oh. Right." George turns and whispers to the guy managing the lights.
"Lee! We're starting now." I whisper across the stage. He nods, signals to the lights guy, Hoger Mavies or something, and Lee starts talking with a magically magnified voice.
"Hello everyone! Time to get this party started! Get ready for, 'This Side of Paradise'!" The crowd cheers and we all get ready to stay playing.
As I'm strumming my guitar and singing, I find Miss Salty in the crowd and follow her with my eyes to the drink table.
She's so beautiful, in anything she wears. Of course, she has an oversized jacket even though she's wearing a dress. An extremely pretty dress.
I can feel my face morphing into a smile as I watch her, blush forming on my cheeks.
She talks to Del for a while, and after a bit we make eye contact. Being the stubborn person she is, she keeps it until I look away. Her emotionless and amazingly pretty face hadn't changed at all when looking at me, her dazzling ocean blue eyes knowing.

When we pick the audience singer, she tries to get out of it, but Moger or whatever his name is, moves the spotlight back onto her.
She talks to Del for a moment before turning and storming up to the stage. She ignores the stairs and climbs on easily, which is impressive for her small structure.
Cedric hands her a microphone and they whisper for a moment. Then she directs her attention to the golden lyrics at the back of the room.
And then she sings. And I have no idea why I've never heard her voice before. It's amazing, no, magical.
She has a talent to just pick up on the tune and sing with it with ease.
As I watch her my strumming gets too soft, and it takes me a moment to realise Cedric is glaring at me. I start strumming louder, tearing my eyes away from Miss Salty.

A few songs in and Miss Salty has gained lots of confidence. She shrugs off her jacket, revealing her bare shoulders and arms. She dumps the jacket at the foot of her microphone stand and starts tapping her foot to the beat.
Taking the microphone from the stand, she starts moving around the stage, encouraging Cedric to do the same.
They sing into the same microphone sometimes, and the crowd goes crazy whenever they do, which just makes me feel even worse.
After a 'Wanna Be With You' however, she puts the microphone back in her stand and jumps off the stage, rushing to the door. Alice reaches her and they talk to each other for a moment. I can see Del pushing through the crowd to get to her, but she leaves before she can.
As Miss Salty leaves, she shoots me a knowing look and shuts the door. Great. What have I done this time?
The rest of the party isn't as fun as it would have been, and people are constantly muttering, but Lee tries to get it back on track.
I want to go after Miss Salty, but I decide against it. The band doesn't need anyone else leaving, and she's probably gone back to her dorm anyway, so it'd be useless.
But still. I can't shake the feeling that I somehow made her leave.
And that feeling sucks.