Ethereal ✭Fred Weasley✭

7.

The next few days went by less eventful than Sophia's first, but still contained an amount of chaos that she didn't intend to have. Her classes were fantastic, and she had obviously found a love in Astronomy and Charms. Hermione had made sure that the two kept up with their homework, which Sophia appreciated and disliked at the same time. She still sat mostly with Harry, Ron and Hermione in classes and at meals in the Great Hall, but had found herself frequently sitting with Fred, George and their friend Lee Jordan.

It was apparent that Fred brushed off all the still circulating rumours about him and Sophia. In fact, it seemed like he almost was proud to be part of such gossip. He would frequently sit beside her at breakfast and dinner, and even sometimes sit next to her in the common room in their free time. He was always friendly and charming, which Sophia would feel her insides flutter at. His wide smile and attempts to make her laugh would make times outside of class entertaining and enjoyable for her, and even found herself anticipating their next encounter. She had almost completely forgotten about the people who would stare at her in the hallways, but did have a moment of relapse when a first-year Ravenclaw had come up to her in the hallway and asked,

"Is it true you're Fred Weasley's girlfriend?"

This of course had made her blush deep red and shake her head vigorously. But the first-year merely shrugged before walking back towards her group of friends and walking off in another blanket of gossip. When Sophia had mentioned this to Fred when seeing him next, the boy laughed and said,

"Gee didn't know we had taken that new step! Mum's gonna be thrilled!"

Fred was very good at making Sophia view the whole situation as just some pointless teenage entertainment, to which she was relieved about. She continued to watch some of the Gryffindor Quidditch practice sessions with Hermione, and hadn't been hit by any bludgers, quaffels or snitches. She chose to do this as she did find herself enjoying watching Fred in particular, with his amazing ability to whack Bludgers away from his teammates without breaking much of a sweat. Little did she know, that Fred indulged in the fact that Sophia had continued to come watch him play. The constant teasing from his brother George and Lee boosted his confidence even more and found himself checking every time he hit Bludger to see if Sophia was watching him. And every time, they both found she was.

Two weeks soon came to an end and it came to the much anticipated Hogsmeade weekend. Sophia had learnt that third-year and above students could visit the all-magical inhabited town near by which had various shops and places to socialise for witches and wizards. She had her father sign her permission slip before handing it to Argus Filch, the ever-scowling care taker of the school that she had learnt to avoid. Unfortunately, Harry hadn't got his permission slip signed so he wasn't allowed to go, making it just Ron, Hermione and Sophia going to Hogsmeade. But Fred and George said that they'd like to show her Zonko's Joke Shop personally, so she would be meeting up with them later.

Before heading down for breakfast, Sophia was looking through her trunk at the end of her bed for one of the few personal belongings she brought with her to Hogwarts. Hermione, Parvati and Lavender had all gone down to Breakfast already, making it safe for Sophia to bring out the tightly wrapped parchment that was pulled over two wooden handles. She sat down on her bed and pulled at the handles on the sides, stretching out the parchment to view a map.

The map held what looked to be constellations of the night sky above Hogwarts, showing where the stars and even the moon would be placed this coming night. Sophia looked over the collection of dots, noticing that they were slowly starting to show what she dreaded every month. It showed that her father was two weeks away from under-going his transformation, worrying her deeply as he was now at Hogwarts and at more of a risk of being around other people.