Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(122) Promise

The train ride back to Hogwarts was quiet at first, Florence already slightly missing her mum, Sloan, Julien, Remus, and for some odd reason, missed Sirius the most out of all. She kept comforting herself with the thought that she would see all of them again during the summer; ofcourse, she had to work through the remainder of the school year first.

Xander and Nicolai both had wonderful holidays, too, as she heard from their over enthusiastic babbling. They had spent their New Year's eve with their respective girlfriends, which was nice, especially as Xander reported that Adrianna seemed to like Olivia. Despite his constant squabbling and disagreement with his older sister, it was nice that he deeply cared about her judgement.

Florence told them about her plan to move in with the Weasley twins after graduation, and that she had already seen the apartment that they were going to live in. Nicolai being Nicolai, started to overthink the reasons behind it.

"You're not...you don't have bun in the oven, do you?"

Florence's brows draw together in a split-second confusion, before her eyes grew wide, "No! I'm not pregnant, Nic. Rowena's sake...."

"I mean, you do kind of look pale. Doesn't she, Xan?"

"Kind of." he agreed, Florence shooting him a glare, "I can't believe you're picking a side."

"I'm not picking a side." he snorted, "I was about to point out that it might be because of the cold weather. I mean, it is the middle of winter, Nic. And this train doesn't really have the best heating system."

Nicolai flopped back against the backrest of the seat as Florence shot her a smug look, "That's not how you not take sides, Xan. With that statement, you still took a side."

"It was a fact." he defended himself, "Now, who wants some snacks? I'll go hunt down the trolley lady."

This seemed to liven the two girls up, "I'll take pumpkin pasties, please and thank you." Florence said happily, while Nicolai requested for sugar quills, minus the please and thank you's.

As soon as Xander disappeared out the compartment door, Nicolai looked around, looking odd. "I was half expecting your boyfriend and his twin and Lee to burst in to the compartment about thirty minutes in to the train ride. It just puts me off that they aren't here and causing havoc. Where are they, anyway?"

"Oh, well, I don't know where Lee is, but the twins told me they were going to go find Lisa...remember that Gryffindor girl I used to tutor with Angelina's brother? She's one of the new beaters for Gryffindor, and she basically asked George for help before break started...so they're talking to her I guess. And maybe messing around with their products."

"It doesn't take three hours to talk to someone, so it's inferable that they're doing the latter."

"Yeah," Florence chuckled, "I mean the end of the year is coming up pretty fast. And, they want their grand opening to happen in the middle of summer."

"They're pretty serious about it, huh? About opening a shop?"

"It's their dream." Florence said simply, "I admire them, you know? They've had their hearts set on it ever since they knew what the word pranking meant. And despite all the obstacles, like being financially unfit to establish a business, they still didn't give up on the dream... and now they're mere months away from achieving it."

"That's the part that I'm kind of confused about but didn't want to ask bluntly because it seems rude, but...where did they get the money? Off of a Gringotts loan or something?"