Untouchable: a Fred Weasley fanfiction

Click, Click, Click

I'm out of the hospital wing two days after the incident. And even though I'm physically better, I haven't fully recovered from the backlash. 

Namely because of the ongoing circulation of gossip, media, and overall chatter about it. 

I'm walking into History of Magic with Fred by my side when I'm yet again reminded of this fact, the two of us sliding into our seats and immediately being bombarded with talk. 

"She's still by his side," I hear a girl whisper behind us as if they're not even trying. "Do you think that means she stands by what he did...?"

"I knew Weasley had a secret wild side," her deskmate mutters back. "It's only natural, with how he plays on the quidditch field..." 

"Perhaps I should ask Hagrid to join his curriculum," Fred says clearly, twisting around in his chair with an amused expression. "Since I'm something of a wild creature now, yeah?" 

I see the girls' cheeks blossom with pink, their lips promptly snapping shut. My hand reaches to pat my boyfriend's knee under the desk as he sighs, turning back around. 

"Why do they even care?" He mumbles, irritably twirling his quill. "Why does anyone even care?" 

"Because people are stupid," I remind him quietly, opening my textbook. "They have no lives." 

I exhale, resting my chin in my palm as I look ahead to the front of the class, thinking. 

"Then again," I add flatly, "I didn't have a life a year ago, and I didn't give a rat's arse about anything this much..."

Fred leans back in his chair, bouncing his knee. For the past couple of days, he's been pretty restless, in a really-pissed-off way. It almost makes my heart warm, in a weird way– he's very protective, it seems. I feel like I knew this already, but... this sort of confirmed it. 

"Don't worry about all of this rubbish," I whisper, nudging his knee with mine under the desk. "You have plenty of better things to be concerned with." 

"Other than you?" 

I crack a smile, adjusting my glasses. "Yes, other than me. May I remind you we're graduating in a month?" 

He sighs. "I'm more concerned with what's happening after graduation." 

To be fair, he had a point. If I was on my way to tryouts for the Chudley Canons, it would be the only thing on my mind. Especially if I was Fred Weasley, the quidditch-obsessed redhead with nothing but ambition. 

"Then worry about that," I encourage, giving him an encouraging look. Professor Binns is drifting to the front of the classroom to begin the period. "Worry about how you're totally, absolutely, definitely getting on the team. Yeah?" 

He chuckles, clearly about to protest, before I slap his knee under the desk. 

"Yeah," he agrees, smiling at his textbook. 

Once class had begun, things were a bit more normal– my nosey peers were more focused on Binns, who tended to be stricter on slacking off and talking during class. And I never thought I would thank the old ghost for his grumpy ways, but damn, I could kiss the bloke right now. 

This gratitude only lasts for a moment, though, before the words that soon fall from his lips after the bell rang for the start of class. 

"I expect you all have been at least starting to study for your upcoming exams..." he said flatly, "considering you're all seventh years, and hoping to get good marks before you part from Hogwarts..." 

Hufflepuff Archie Adams lets out a whoop from the back of the class. It earns a chorus of giggles, along with an exhausted sigh from Binns. 

"That's enough," he says. "Today, we'll be reviewing units one, two, and three to begin you on your start to said studying, if, by my assumptions, you haven't begun already."