New Perspective ⌁ Fred Weasley

Chapter Five

One of the most notable things about Maxine's personality was the fact that she was an ambivert. While she loved spending time with Tamsin, Heidi, her brother, and everyone else on the Quidditch team and being very loud and wild when she did so, there were times where she would rather curl up in a corner and be alone than socialize.

After a long day of Friday classes, Maxine was very content to be in the library book browsing without Tamsin taking about the latest scam at the Ministry or Heidi making repetitive Quidditch puns. Of course, almost every book she saw reminded her of something about her friends. 2000 Things to Know About Quidditch and A Trolls Guide to Working for the Ministry.

Maxine did her best to focus on something other than the sudden desire to be laughing with her friends over a massive pile of chocolate frogs or some kind of other treat and instead began to wonder about how her O.W.L. year will work out. She knew that the besides the large amount of standardized testing she would have to endure, she would also have to think about what she wanted to do after Hogwarts. Heidi wanted to be a professional Quidditch player, Tamsin wanted to write for the Daily Profit, and Gavin went on and on about working at the Ministry of Magic one day.

The girl was anxious about the testing even though most of it was at the end of the year. Her parents had always put a lot of pressure on her when it came to school which made her quite frustrated, angry even. Having and older brother didn't help either; she was expected to do just as well as him, if not better.

Maxine turned the counter of a large bookshelf only to be met by a large body. With a loud oomph she stumbled backward and sent daggers at the person in front of her after catching her balance.

"Watch where you're going," they said at the same time.

Fred Weasley stood before her with a large book in his hand and a irritated look on his face. Maxine frowned, confused and curious about what a Weasley would be doing in the library without a prank being involved. Or without his brother. Although it was wrong to make an assumption, Maxine had seen enough of the Weasley's pranks to know that there was nothing ever normal involved in their actions.

"What are you doing here?" She questioned, though she herself didn't even know which twin the boy was.

Fred held the book to his chest with his arms crossed over it tightly. He raised his eyebrow and smirked. "Can't a lad get a book from the library without getting interrogated?" This note of sarcasm in his voice got on Maxine's nerves and she rolled her eyes.

"I mean," the girl turned away from the boy and continued to look for an eye catching book as she spoke to Fred. "You don't strike me as the type of person to be in the library looking for a good read."

"So?"

"So, Weasley, my question is: what are you planning?" Maxine looked upwards at Fred, who was leaning against a bookshelf shaking his head.

"Haven't you ever learned not to make assumptions?"

Maxine crossed her arms. "Haven't you ever learned not to answer a question with another question?" She turned back away from him and stood on her tiptoes in attempt to reach for a book about philosophy. Hearing Fred give out a hearty laugh, she turned her head and glared. "What?"

"Do you need help?" Fred gestured towards the book she was reaching for. Before she could decline his offer of assistance, he waltz over and plucked the book off the shelf with everything ease.

The simple action annoyed Maxine; she pulled the book out of his hands and pursed her lips. "Thank you. Now if I turn around and you pull some shit prank on me we are going to have problems."

Fred laughed and shook his head. "I'm hurt that you think I would just randomly do sonething like that without cause."

"To be fair, Weasley, you did turn my friends skin the color of a tomato. I'm not going to put it against you."

He shrugged, a small smilr on his face. "All I wanted was to make sure she had some kind of identifying feature to prove that she is not a Weasley."

Maxine cocked her head to the side. "Clever. But I have good revenge tactics and a wicked swing." She gave him a dark smile before turning and walking the rest of the way down the aisle. Right as she was about to turn the corner, she heard Fred's voice.

"See you again soon, Beater Girl."

"My name's Maxine."

She was irritated that the encounter seemed to have taken so long. It was almost eight o'clock and that meant she had to get back to her dormitory, much to her dislike.