prospicere futurum | fred weasley | cedric diggory

42

Fred picked over his roast beef, doing his best to keep his eyes from their permanent fixation on the blonde sat across from him. Hogwarts food was good, great even, though he had to admit he did sometimes miss his mother's cooking, his mind flashing back to the lot of them back at Grimmauld place.

His jealously only lasted a moment, though, once he remembered that Molly would have surely set them all chores around the dingy, creepy house Sirius called home now. He let his gaze flicker upwards, eyes tracing Corinne's features for only a moment, thankful that she was too focused on her next bite of broccoli to call him out.

The golden bracelet slid down her wrist without her notice, though Fred's heart stuttered in his chest at the sight. He wondered if she had put it on again that morning, or if she had slept with it on, the green stone tucked beneath her pillow or pressed against her skin while she-

"Hello?" It wasn't her voice that had pulled him from his thoughts, as much as the way she had ducked her head to catch his eye.

"Sorry?" He blinked, dropping his fork to the table with a loud clatter and earning himself the start of a smile, the easy laugh he had grown to love so much.

"Never mind, God. You're impossible." Corinne smiled, taking another bite of her dinner before he had even processed her words.

"No! I'm sorry, say it again." Fred could feel the heat rising to his cheeks, though he hardly cared. She was sitting with him, eating with him. They had been practically inseparable since he had come back to school. A year ago, he would have killed for this. A year ago, she was hardly looking at him, let alone spending each day at his side.

"I said," She started slowly through a grin, "There's supposed to be a supernova tonight."

"A super..." Fred trailed off, shaking his head, purposely obtuse, biting back a smile as she huffed out a sigh.

"I know you took a few years of Astronomy."

"Only for the romance of it all." He teased, taking another sip from his drink as he watched her smile slip.

"The romance-"

"Yeah, the stars and shit. Girls love all that nonsense." He teased, pleased at the eye roll it had earned him.

"The stars and shit." She echoed, "Well, Professor Sinistra told me this morning. There's going to be a supernova. A massive star explosion." She explained, watching his eyes light up.

"Explosion?"

"Yes, I thought it sounded right up your alley." She shoved her plate towards the center of the table, watching as it vanished from sight.

"Oh, how well you know me, Baker." Fred grinned.

"Do you want to... We could go up to the Astronomy tower? If it's not too cloudy, we should be able to see-"

"Yeah." Fred was nodding before he had even heard the question. Normally, for anyone else, any other time, he would have teased. Forced her to finish, to really ask him. Watched the flush rise to her cheeks or the way she would have plucked nervously at some perfectly manicured fingernail.

But not this time. Not with her. He wasn't doing anything, anything that could make her take it back. To piss her off or to send her running.

"Yeah, that'll be fun." He said, both of them climbing over their benches and starting towards the stairways in the silence of the hallway. Fred had never seen the castle this empty, and while he was more than grateful for the opportunity, or rather the lack of options Corinne had to spend time with anyone but him or a few quiet first years, he had been wondering all week about why it was that this Christmas was so quiet.