prospicere futurum | fred weasley | cedric diggory

44

Corinne snuck a final glance at the worn red hoodie popping out from the top drawer of her dresser before pulling the door shut behind her. Whatever house elf that kept washing and returning it to her dorm instead of Fred's surely had a sick sense of humor, and she absolutely would not take any blame, even now, as she decided against taking it downstairs with her where the redhead would surely be waiting on their favorite couch by the fire.

It was New Years Eve, and everyone would be back in two more days. Classes would start up again, NEWTs drawing closer with every passing week, and Corinne despite how ready she was to see Ella and Taylor again, there was a small, nagging feeling at the back of her mind, wishing break could last just a little longer...

But it couldn't. She needed to get back to work. Back to classes and homework and studying for exams. Back to... real life.

She took the final step into the common room, eyes finding Fred at once. The fire crackled across from him in the fireplace as he sat hunched over a chessboard that had so clearly been abandoned by some younger Gryffindor in their rush of packing to go home. He had noticed her, she knew, though he hadn't looked her way, his gaze locked to the multicolored players, brows furrowed so deep that Corinne had to fight back a laugh. She wasn't sure she had ever seen that look of concentration from him.

"Are you certain you're not bored yet?" She laughed, watching as he finally looked up to her with his familiar smirk.

"Well, I am when you abandon me all alone." He answered, easily, and Corinne  bit back the smile she could already feel tugging at her lips.

"So you've resorted to beating yourself in chess?"

"Got to keep my mind sharp, Baker." He shrugged, though leaning back against the worn armrest and watching as she took her seat across from him. "Do you play?"

"Sometimes." She answered, already scanning over his pieces. "Have you made no progress?"

"I had a very challenging partner." He explained, leaning forward at once to begin resetting the board, the rest of the pieces taking his lead and marching themselves back to the edges.

Once the pieces had settled into their assigned spaces, Fred straightened up, offering Corinne half a nod. "Ladies first."

"White goes first." She said, and Fred didn't bother to hold in the eye roll, spinning the board around until the white players were in front of the blonde across from him, earning himself a fair amount of dirty looks from the small knights.

"Happy?"

"S'pose..." Corinne pressed her lips together, tightly, plucking up one of her pawns from the edge of the board and moving it forward.

"You can just tell them... okay." Fred muttered, partially under his breath, leaning forward to move one of his pieces, sure that one of the knights behind his pawn had tried to bludgeon his finger with his club and missed.

"I think even your own team is against you, Weasley." Corinne whispered, as if the pieces would be able to hear, though as she glanced down, she figured they probably could.

"Isn't that just my luck." Fred grumbled, making his next move, and Corinne resisted the urge to stop him from his horrible decision.

Thirty minutes and two reset boards later, Fred had dropped his head to the back of the couch with a groan.

"Sometimes," He mimicked, voice pitched high as Corinne watched him, wide eyed. "You play sometimes, you bloody hustled me!"

Corinne didn't bother anymore, containing the laughter that ripped from her throat.