just for me ⚘ a Fred Weasley Fanfiction

84. visiting hours

At ten past eight, Juniper felt it. It was a little tingle in the stomach, more intense than butterflies, but not quite a bellyache. It extended from her core into her heart, and made her head feel light and dizzy. It was like a sixth sense.
Too disturbed by the morning's events of Ron being lovestruck, then poisoned and getting his foamy, mouth discharge all over her, she had been waiting around all day, unable to get the image of Ron's veiny blue face and his white eyes out of her head. She felt too seperate to hover around the hospital wing and like Harry, Hermione and Ginny were, so she sat in the Great Hall, listening to Matilda rant on and on all day, happy for the distraction.
But at ten past eight, the tingle in her stomach led her straight to the hospital wing.
As she approached the double doors, she could hear isolating chatting coming from inside, thinking nothing of it. But when she entered, the tingle turned into full-body jitters, counting four head of bright red hair instead of just two.

"Oi! Weasley!" She shouted from the doorway, her eyes closing in on the tallest one, as his head snapped up, a wide, lopsided grin spreading across his face as he stood, his arms stretching out wide.
With no words necessary, Juniper started to walk, which quickened into a speed-walk, which turned into a run, before she leaped into Fred's embrace, their arms wrapping tightly around each other.

"I was wondering when you'd walk in." He said, his voice muffled by her hair as his hand rested on the back of her head, keeping her close to him. "How you been, Junebug?"

"All that matters is that I'm okay right this second." She squeezed her eyes shut, hoping she could stay in this position forever. Unfortunately, Fred had other plans. As he pulled away to look at her, his smile still wide, his hands moved to cup her face. He pulled her in for a deep kiss that satisfied every single craving Juniper had in her body, making her forget that there were four other people beside them, plus Ron's unconscious body. It's the sound of George clearing his throat that brings them back down to Earth, slowly separating from each other.

"What are you doing here?" Juniper asked, her mind a bit cloudy from the kiss.

"Well!" George begun answering before Fred could form a word. George revealed a big gift wrapped in ribbons and bows, dropping it onto Ron's hospital bed. "We were in Hogsmeade, waiting to surprise him with this. But then we heard about him being in hospital..."

"So all I needed to do to see you was put Ron in the hospital wing?" Juniper asked, being the only one to laugh. She gave them all an offended look, trying to make it a bit less awkward. "I feel like you all know me well enough now to know that I was joking."

"What were you doing in Hogsmeade?" Ginny asked, trying to steer the conversation away from Fred and Juniper as they pulled each other back into a kiss.

"We were thinking of buying out Zonko's." George cleared his throat once more to bring Fred back, kicking a chair over to him.

"But if you lot aren't allowed out on weekends anymore, it's not really worth it, is it?" Fred took a seat, pulling Juniper onto his lap. "Now's not the time for business talk. What exactly happened here? Why is my baby brother borderline dead?"

Harry went on to retell the story, reciting it for what would've felt like the hundredth time that day. Juniper joined in with a couple of extra details, some 'yeah's and 'mhmm's. Harry skipped over the part where he asked her to get information from Draco, which she was beyond thankful for. Once Harry had finished, Fred took a second to speak again.

"So... not one of Ron's best birthdays."

"Still probably better than his fifth birthday, though." George muttered, getting a murmur of agreement from Fred and Ginny.

"Have Mum and Dad been in?" Fred asked, his body shivering as Juniper's fingers lightly grazed the skin on his neck. She watched his eyebrows pull together, just as they did every time he was deep in thought.