Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(47) When timing works

"Fred," George mumbled, eyes still fixated in the two girls who had also spotted them. Fred was still in a crouching position, closing the tap as their water jugs were filled to the brim with water.

"Freddie look the hell up," George snapped, which made Fred look up with an annoyed look that almost immediately transitioned to a surprised one.

Florence had her eyes fixated on him, frozen in place as if she lost the ability to move. Both Nicolai and George were staring as well, just as surprised as the two were during that certain moment.

"Florence..." said Fred, a hopeful look on his face as he took several steps forward towards her. Florence stood surprisingly still, not flinching away or whatsoever.

But the expression on her face did not at all mean that she wasn't mad, no, she was enraged to say the least.

"What do you want?" she snapped, agitated. Fred's mouth was ajar, however he found it hard to fathom words to say.

"Do me a favor, yeah?" said Florence, eyes still as over-bright, "Don't ever make me see your sodding face around here."

And as expected, she turned around and marched back towards their tent. Nicolai flashed George an apologetic look before hurriedly catching up to Florence who was walking at a fast pace.

"Flo," Nicolai caught up, gesturing to their empty water jugs. "We haven't filled any of them up."

"I don't care. We'll look for another faucet." she said tersely, set on putting as much distance as she could.

She couldn't believe it. Was it really just an unfortunate coincidence? Was she invited to watched the games because somehow Nicolai was still in contact with George and was told that they were there?

"Did you know they were coming?" the question slipped right out of her mouth, startling Nicolai.

"No," she answered in a heartbeat, "Florence I swear I did not know that they were going to be here as well! I mean this is a pretty big event and a very costly one at that, I didn't even think of the possibility that we'd run into them here."

The other faucet in the whole camp site took a longer hike to get to, Nicolai practically panting as they arrived, Florence taking out her rage on the faucet that was ever so innocent.

The shorter brunette decided not to say something, giving Florence the time she needed to sort through her thoughts, which made the whole trek back to their tent dead silent.

Adrianna looked as if she was going to throw the whole world a party as soon as the two walked in with the water.

"Merlin!" she exclaimed, immediately taking the water jugs before filling up a shiny kettle with water, "Did you two cross a mountain range to get this? You were out there for ages—" Adrianna paused, seeing the worn out expressions on their faces, "—not that I'm being ungrateful..."

"We might as well have." muttered Nicolai, who gave Alexander a sideway glance, "Meeting now." she said curtly, before proceeding to the back of the tent, Florence and Alexander following right after.

Adrianna raised a brow, highly suspicious, before shrugging it off before helping his dad brew some tea.

"Dad?" she said, turning the stove on, "Gwenog and a couple others from the team's going to meet up with a few important people from Romania. Will you be okay here, with Xander and his friends?"

Mr. Haddlowe gave her a look, "I'm not that old yet, dear, ofcourse I'd be okay looking after a bunch of teenagers."

Adrianna chuckled, "Oh but they're a handful, if you must know."