SPARKS FLY | fred weasley x oc | YEAR 3

chapter 10- the mystery basket

The first few weeks of the new semester were brutal. The professors wasted no time in assigning every piece of homework possible.. I was drowning in books and parchment. The only thing that kept my complaints at bay was seeing the amount of work my older friends had. They all had double the load as they prepared for the O.W.L. exam. Cedric and Jessica had shrugged off the work, knowing that it was to help them. Olivia and the twins, however, had been spending most of their time explaining how the work was useless and unimportant to anyone who would listen.

"You know they might not be that bad if you would just study?" I had suggested during dinner one night, earning glares from all of them.

"Take that back right now." Olivia spat.

"No, it's true." I matched her tone.

"You sound like Hermione."

"Take that back!"

"No, it's true." She mocked. I had laid off them about actually studying, but it was impossible not to say something as Olivia was surrounded by first and second years in the Hufflepuff common room one afternoon, going on and on about how horrible her first test was.

"Don't listen to a word she says, guys." Suddenly, nine pairs of eyes were all staring at me in disbelief. "Don't you all have something better to do?" I shooed them off, some of them whispering about my accent as the retreated to their rooms. "You did fine."

"No, I didn't. It was awful. I think I stared at the page longer than it took me to guess half the questions." She folded her arms in a pout and pushed out her bottom lip.

"Well, it was Potions. You said that was your worst subject. You got the hardest one out of the way." I offer, trying to lighten her mood. We had plans to go to the Black Lake later to watch a meteor shower and I didn't want to deal with all of them being pissy. "Grab your sweater, we need to leave." I pulled her from the chair.

"We aren't meeting everyone for another 30 minutes."

"Yes, but I left my sweater in Gryffindor and I bribed one of the elves in the kitchen to make me cookies and bottle some pumpkin juice."

"How did you do that?" She mumbled through her sweater as she pulled it over her head.

"That's a secret." I whispered as we crossed the common room to the barrel. We waited by the large portrait of fruit for the house elf to come out with the food. Thankfully we only waited for a few minutes before the wide-eyed creature crept out behind the gold frame with a picnic basket.

"Miss Melly, here's is the food." She squeaked out as she held up the basket.

"Thanks Winky, I'll bring the basket back later." I bent down to her level and spoke softly. When I had first approached her she ran away, so I knew I needed to be calm around her.

"Takes your time, Miss." She said with a lowered head and retreated back into the kitchens.

"I forget we even have house elves here." Olivia mumbled as we climbed the stairs.

"I love house elves. We had them everywhere at my old school. I was so happy when I saw them over break." We walked in a comfortable silence until we reached the portrait, thankfully the Fat Lady had returned just after the holidays.

"Ah, Melanie. Back again I see."

"Yeah, just grabbing my sweater."

"Jumper, dear." She smiled curtly.

"Sure, jumper, um...Fortuna Major." I brushed off her correction and the canvas swung open for us to enter. "Watch it, boys." I yelled as Harry, Ron, and George zipped past me and Olivia, almost knocking us over. "Hi guys." I greeted Hermione and Ginny as I sat on the couch, both of them smiling over their books. "Seen my sweater anywhere?" They shook their heads.