One And Only

Prologue

P R O L O G U E

Maybe I know somewhere deep in my soul

That love never lasts.

And we've got to find other ways to make it alone.

Or keep a straight face.

If you were an outsider, you’d perceive Fred Weasley II’s life to be perfect. After all, why wouldn’t it be? When you have the teachers pretty much as your best friend, people dropping at your feet to be your friends, girls nearly throwing themselves at you and to top all that, good grades to boot, perfect is pretty much what you are seen as. However, for Fred, this wasn’t the case.

When you were best friends with the eldest son of the greatest hero of all time, you tended to feel a little unnoticed. No matter how smart, funny, popular you may be, James Potter II tended to beat you in pretty much everything. Of course, he was the son of the Chosen One. Everyone revered him, and he pretty much lapped up the attention. Meanwhile, Fred put on his confident exterior, never letting anyone suspect that he was hurting inside.

It was bad enough at school. At home, however, it was even worse. Part of the problem of being named after your dad’s twin, his other half that had died in the war, was that every time he called your name he felt the pain again. Fred was used to it by now - you’d better be, after eighteen years of it. He would never replace Fred Weasley I, no matter how much everyone wanted him to, or how much he wanted to replace him himself. No matter how much he acted like him, pretended to be like him, wished to be him, he’d never do it, and Fred Weasley I would still be in his grave.

So Fred kept his walls up, creating a cheerful, sunny persona that he acted out day and night. No one, not even his best friends, not even his family, not even the girls that claimed to know him so well, knew it was all an act. Except from one.

There was always one person, one girl who never fell for his charms and was never impressed by his antics. The girl who sneered at him, who replied sarcastically to his comments and who always seemed to bite his head off when he tried to be charming to her. The girl that even James, the player of the year wouldn’t dare go for. And, being Fred, he fell for her so very hard.

He tried to impress her numerous times, but she managed to brush of his coy remarks and answer them with her snide ones. Not even the fact that her twin brother was his best friend - at least one of them, anyway - and that he would be more than happy for them to be together would change her mind. But he stuck at it anyway, fearing that if he stopped, he would lose her, and never be able to get her in the future.

He didn’t want to lose her, the beautiful girl with the full lips, high cheekbones, wide hazel eyes and a gorgeous bronze copper coloured hair that she hadn’t inherited from either her mother nor her father. Who would, really? Not him, that was for sure. And so he kept on persevering, kept ignoring how much she apparently hated him, until one day, it got too much. So he left. He left to make a new start after Hogwarts, to make a life for himself.

A life that didn’t involve Grace Longbottom.

Well you are the only exception.

You are the only exception.

You are the only exception.

You are the only exception.