prospicere futurum | fred weasley | cedric diggory

38

Corinne's eyes felt heavier than ever as she stole another bite from the plate she had shoved off to the side, her transfiguration book sprawled out before her as she scribbled messily at the long roll of parchment to her right. Ella and Taylor had already finished most of their homework for the night, even if Taylor had deemed hers 'good enough' and given up before the three headed down to the Great Hall for dinner. Corinne felt that she might be up all night at this rate. NEWTs were obviously important, but she didn't see how any of the professors hoped for their students to pass any exams if they never slept again.

There was a loud murmur as a large group of Gryffindor's hurried through the doorway, faces pink from the cold, racing to find seats at the far edge of the room and get their hands on some dinner.

"Bloody freezing out there." Ron mumbled before digging into his pork chop.

"It's barely December, Ron." Hermione pointed out.

"Yeah, Ronnie." George chuckled, dropping into place beside his brother as Fred took the open seat beside Corinne, though she hardly looked up from her essay. "Just wait until February. Sometimes I'm sure my fingers are going to snap clean off-"

"Knock it off." Harry ordered, obviously biting back a grin at the twins antics as Ron's eyes went wide.

"Baker, really?" Fred sighed, dramatically, "Can't even spare a few minutes for dinner?"

"Multi-tasking." She mumbled back, only half listening.

"Don't bother. We've already tried." Taylor explained as Fred began to pile food to his plate.

Corinne continued her work, her own dinner growing colder every minute as she added each sentence to the rolled up page. She was nearly done, then she could finish her food and hurry back up to the common room. She still had a Defense paper to start, though knowing Umbridge and their very basic lessons recently, she wasn't all that worried.

"-you'd have us in that room every night if it meant Cho'd keep looking at you like that." Ron was grinning, a flush rising to Harry's face though he only offered his friend an eye roll.

"How is that going, Harry?" Hermione was asking now, though Fred's eyes flickered to the blonde at his side, watching as she propped her head onto her fist, turning further away from the younger Gryffindors and leaning a bit closer to her textbook.

He didn't blame her. He was sure that the last thing she would want to hear about is someone else's love life. Not when her own had ended so abruptly. And when she had been so sure that Cedric was her...

Soulmate.

A heaviness settled itself in Fred's chest as his eyes ran over Corinne at his side. He hadn't really thought before, about how it would feel if he had lost her. He thought he had, so many times last year, even at the start of term. Lost her, but not... lost her.

"What's wrong with you?" George's voice pulled him from his thoughts and he forced a smile to his face with a shrug, starting back on his dinner.

"Have you heard from your parents about Christmas?" Taylor asked as Corinne let her parchment roll up at last, dropping her quill between the pages of her textbook and pulling her dinner closer.

"Mine said it was fine." Ella shrugged. "As long as I'm home for Christmas, they don't care if I'm at yours for a few days after."

"Yeah, maybe the 27th? Until New Years? Then you guys could get home to pack."

Ella was nodding, though it hadn't slipped Fred's notice that Corinne hadn't answered.

"Corinne?" Taylor leaned forward, trying to catch her friend's eye and Corinne sank her teeth into her bottom lip.