prospicere futurum | fred weasley | cedric diggory

35

Corinne lifted the matching pink drink alongside Taylor's, crashing the cups together in the air to the sound of cheering, the sound that hadn't let up since the Gryffindor victory. Taylor giggled, yanking Ella's cup up alongside theirs and Corinne waited a moment before tossing her head back, draining the remaining liquid in one gulp.

The gold chain around her neck jingled as she moved and her fingers brushed along the metal, tucking it neatly back into place beneath her sweater, looking back to her friends.

"Listen..." She paused, then turned mostly to Ella. "Listen."

"Hey!" Taylor whined, already looking offended though she didn't know why.

"I plan to get... very drunk tonight."

"That's my girl!" Taylor cheered again, the noise getting lost at once in the crowded common room party.

"Don't leave me down here." Corinne ordered, already feeling the effects of her second drink swirling around her stomach.

Ella coughed out a laugh. "You have my word."

"Oh, come on." Taylor grumbled now, "I said I was sorry! I assumed you'd been upstairs for hours! I didn't know you'd be closing down the party."

"It's fine." Corinne assured her with a grin as the girls started back to refill their drinks again. "I'm just not looking forward to another week of the entire school treating me like I'm the world's biggest tramp."

"Certainly not the world's." Ella argued, sloshing liquor into their three cups of ice as the room erupted into cheers once again, Corinne spinning towards the door to the bright, matching smiles plastered on the Weasley twin's faces. It was as if the party had been a quiet study session before, the way the noise had tripled since their arrival. The music was louder, the laughter and shouting, it was as if the entire room had been waiting for them.

Fred caught her eye then, though she assured herself it was because of her proximity to the alcohol. It took him no time at all to make his way through the crowd of red and gold, stopping just before the girls, hardly sparing a glance at the liquor table.

"And what have I done to earn such a gorgeous smile?" He asked, his voice nearly a whisper amidst the party's roar and Corinne felt the smile she hadn't realized was there flicker.

"Weasley! Nice game!" Taylor called, spotting him at last. "Need a drink?" She was already holding out her cup and amusement flashed over Fred's face for a second.

"Not a pink one." He teased, stepping beside her and dumping some ice into a new cup, flooding the rest with firewhiskey, glancing back to Corinne as he worked, watching her fingers work absentmindedly over the two separate gold chains lining her neck.

He fought the way his smile threatened to drop at the view. Cedric's necklace. The diamond that she hadn't taken off since Christmas.

Idiot.

He had given her a coin. A bloody old coin that he'd threaded a chain through the night before. And he'd asked her to wear it, forced her really, over a diamond.

She's still wearing it.

"What's wrong with you?" George was at his side, shoving the firewhiskey back to the table just as the dark liquor sloshed over his fingers against the cup.

"Damn..." Fred forced out, hoping to sound laid back. Nonchalant. He swapped the cup into his other hand, sucking some of the fiery liquor from his fingertips as George rolled his eyes, starting on his own drink.

"Very subtle." George teased, his eyes flickering between Fred and Corinne who was thankfully too immersed in a new conversation with Taylor and Katie Bell. "Can I offer a suggestion?"