Fire // Fred Weasley

Chapter 35

Melanie did in fact avoid Fred for the rest of the evening. She went down to see Hagrid for some tea and biscuits. She found it easy to talk to him and for a while forgot about the events of last night as she helped him with the paperwork for Buckbeaks trial. Even though his own job was on the line Hagrid focused solely on the Hippogriff.

Before they knew it, it was nearly curfew and Melanie had to go back to the castle. She slowly made her way up with her bag on her shoulder and even more biscuits in her hands.

"Melanie why are you not in the common room it is severely past curfew." Percy commented as she came to the top of the stairs. His eyes landed on the biscuits in her hand, " and sneaking food from the kitchens?! I would expect this sort of thing from Fred and George. 5 points from Gryffindor."

"Oh come on Percy it's only 15 minutes past curfew. And these are from Hagrid, they're actually quite tasty." Melanie replied rolling her eyes.

"Well if it's only 15 minutes I bet you won't mind a detention tomorrow."

"You're not serious?"

"I'm head boy of course I'm serious. Now go on into the common room before I make that detention longer."

Melanie groaned as she turned away from him and made her way through the portrait hole. Upon entering she noticed that the common room was emptier than usual. She scanned the room and saw three heads belonging to Lee Jordan and the Weasley twins peaking out from behind the couch. Melanie knew she couldn't avoid Fred forever, he was her boyfriend after all, and as much as she hated to admit it Cedric was right she shouldn't pull herself away from him. So she hesitantly walked over to them.

"Well look who we have here." Lee said as he was the first to notice her. Fred and George looked up at the same time.

"Hey Mel where have you been hiding all day?" Asked George. His eyes,as well as Lee's, wandered down to the biscuits in her hands. "Are those custard creams?"

Melanie smiled softly as she gave the biscuits to George and Lee, leaving Fred for last. "Yeah Hagrid made them. Take them I'm not hungry."

"You missed dinner." Fred said as he stopped George's hand from snatching away his share of the sweet treats, while putting one in his mouth.

"I'm fine, I had plenty of those earlier." She replied as she sat down on the sofa next to Fred leaving a bit of space between them.

"George don't you think those will taste better over there by the wall?" Lee asked suggestively.

"Right yes. I think they will." He replied as the two of them got up. "We're just gonna go enjoy them over there." He added as he sent a wink to Melanie.

"How's your arm?" Melanie asked. She was looking down at her hands as she fiddled with them. Fred moved over to her and took one of them and intertwined his fingers with hers.

"It's okay, all healed thanks to Madam Pomfreys paste."

"I'm sorry. It shouldn't have happened." She added still not looking up at him.

"Accidents happen Love."

"I think it's stupid of me to endanger you like that. It could have been a lot worse and it makes both of us vulnerable."

Fred shook his head as he figured where Melanie was going with this. He took her face in his free hand and turned her cheek so that now she was looking at him.

"Stop right there. I can handle myself, I'm a wizard you know. This was your first time bending in months it's natural that you're going to be freaked out by this, but soon you'll realise how silly you're being right now. I'm not going to let you break up with me over something so small like this."