QUIET ,, fred w.

xv.

this was the first night y/n went without a nightmare.

this was also the first night in a long time where y/n got only a few hours of sleep. she presumed it was around three in the morning when she woke up (she fell asleep at twelve). it was now about six-ish, and she could hear molly heating up tea downstairs. before she had awoken, y/n spent a lot of time just thinking.

✦

fred was asleep in the bed across from her. on the opposite side of the room was george, and he snored as if his life depended on it. fred, on the other hand, was almost completely silent. almost. his breathing was quiet, his chest rising and falling in pattern. that pattern had not broke for about an hour now, and during that long hour, y/n had been watching his back. not on purpose, but she was thinking.

could her parents' deaths be the result of you-know-who? what are the chances that her father comes across a dementor as a muggle? pretty damn low. and her mother, dead at childbirth. from what cause? unknown. something else she would have to ask sirius about. her father was a muggle but he knew as much about the wizarding world as she presently did. they knew sirius. they knew remus. could they possibly have died because of..?

she shook her head, squinting in the dark of the room. she wasn't fond of the dark. the unknown; leaving her to ponder at what could be creeping around now. y/n swallowed thickly. yuck. her eyes flickered back to fred, and those fears seemed to clear within seconds.

how was she going to go about telling fred the truth? she had already done an abundant amount of damage. it was easy for him to say he would never ignore her, but could the same be said for his emotions?

her stomach tumbled over itself at the thought of his smile. y/n shut her eyes tight, bringing a hand up to roughly rub at them—maybe if she rubbed hard enough, that silly feeling would go away. the funny feeling that reappeared whenever she saw him. it reminded her of the days as a kid when she would come across a big, fluffy dog that would flop around, it's ears bouncing about as it chased some butterfly.

then there was yesterday. when she saw fred again, and again apologized, and when he brushed it off with a great big smile. his goofy, crooked smile. her eyebrows creased together, eyes fluttering open to once again be met with fred's back- no, wait, his face. y/n's eyebrows softened. he had turned over, and now she could fully see all of his features. she almost turned away, embarrassed by the thought of him possibly catching her staring. oh, merlin, what would she even say? but she did not, gazing admirably at her best friend.

y/n felt stupid, smacking herself in the face with her arm. she grimaced, dragging her knuckles against her cheeks. dumb ginger hair. silly little freckles. goofy grin and profound cheeks. every single feature stuck out to her like a cold sore; like a reflection of the heavens themselves. deeper she sank beneath the blankets with every thought. this just meant she needed sleep, she tried justifying. just shut your eyes and go to sleep.

✦

although she did not end up going to bed, she did her best to dream the night away. for a long while y/n thought of sirius. it pained her, though, the image of him rotting away in azkaban. so eventually she pushed that image into the depths of her mind and found something else to ponder about.

returning to the present, y/n relieved herself of the sheets, slipping out of the bed and into a pair of slippers that molly had offered her earlier. she had originally said no, but molly was persistent and y/n didn't know how to say no anymore. so she agreed, fortunately, and the slippers proved to be fairly comfortable.

y/n shuffled her way to the door, sneaking out of the room without a sound.

the smell of seasoned eggs enveloped her senses, leading her downstairs to the weasley's kitchen. molly was there, humming a tune y/n hadn't heard before. she danced about the kitchen, battling against the grease in her frying pan as it sizzled and popped. y/n found herself smiling as she made her way up to the counter beside molly.