Wisps of Beth Black ϟ Fred Weasley [2] (ON HOLD)

4

The Triwizard Tournament. What a waste of time. Beth hardly paid any attention to Dumbledore explaining the depths and rules of the tournament and instead played out scenarios in her head. Scenarios that had already happened and scenarios she wished would happen, and it took a great amount of strength to keep her eyes from wandering over toward the Gryffindor table. 

For some reason, Beth couldn't bring herself to fall asleep. Not when she knew the Weasley boy she stupidly grew attached to was under the roof of the same castle as her. Her mind kept racing and her heart kept skipping beats, and she hated herself for missing stupid Fred Weasley. The feelings in her stomach convinced her she might be needy and she secretly craved his attention, but at the same time she didn't want any of it. She wanted to forget him. If only it were that simple...he had left his mark. 

The next morning as Beth sat on her own at breakfast, her eyes were downcast as she examined her timetable, and though they were downcast, she could still see three sets of heads glancing her way more than once from across the room. She wanted nothing more than to look up and give the three Gryffindors (Lee Jordan and Fred and George Weasley) her usual icy stare, but instead she grabbed her bag and timetable and walked around to the other side of the table that way her back was to them. 

Beth's head snapped over to the giant doors as she heard a loud yawn. Adrian was walking in halfway through a yawn, rubbing his eyes. Beth caught his eye and quickly looked away, pursing her lips. She felt nothing but guilt and awkwardness around him now. 

"Can you believe Black's on the run and she's still allowed here?" Beth heard whispers coming from the Ravenclaw table, to which she finally turned around and glared at a couple students below her year. They were looking at her, huddled together, but quickly looked down and pretended to be examining their timetables. 

Just when she thought it was all over too. 

"Oy!" A voice shouted, and Beth's eyes caught on to the arm of a redhead launching upwards before a croissant hit the top of the head of the boy who began whispering more about Beth. 

And by whispering, he had turned around to blather to students at the table next to his. A large number of students began to laugh at this, including the boy the croissant hit before he playfully flipped the bird at Fred.

Beth's grey eyes met with Fred's brown ones and the corner of his mouth had lifted a little, but the girl simply shook her head and turned back around, suddenly losing her appetite and feeling a sharp sting in her stomach. 

She wondered what things would be like right now if she hadn't heard Fred expose his stupid game plan. 

Owls began to fly into the Great Hall carrying the mail and letters from home, and Beth wondered if, perhaps, Sirius Black had written her a letter, remembering him telling her to keep an eye out for letters signed by Padfoot. She stared up, waiting, but feeling slightly disappointed when owls would fly away from her or land in front of someone else. 

Beth had always hated the first day of classes as there was no excuse for hiding in the library just so she could get away from everyone. She knew she would look weird sitting in the library with a pile of books beside her, but she did it anyway during her lunch break, just like she did every year. People learnt to stop giving her double takes and raised eyebrows and just carried on with whatever they were doing. 

Licking her lips, Beth tried not to allow her mind to take her back to this day a year ago. 

It was an exciting first day for Fred Weasley. For the entirety of the last summer, all he could think about was a pretty, black-haired Slytherin whom he had, to his misfortune, grown rather fond of. But now that the Triwizard Tournament was announced, he had other things occupying his mind and there was suddenly no room for Beth Black. 

"Are you really not going to join us, Lee? You could win," George offered for the third time in ten minutes as the trio made their way through the castle walls in the direction of the library, where they needed to look through a few books in order to create an Ageing Potion. 

"And risk ruining this?" Lee pointed to his face. "Fat pass, my friend. When you two win I'm sure you'll split your fair share with me. For now, though, I'm off... got to beat Diggory at chess and get a free Galleon. See ya."

George waved him off and the twins continued their journey to the library, discussing whether or not making the potion was safe enough in their dormitory. They had had their fair share of snitching in their last few years of prank-making. 

The two redheads passed by Madam Pince who gave them a puzzled look, before turning it into something that was supposed to look rather stern. Both boys knew it was rather an unusual sight to see them entering the doors of the library when it was just the first day of classes, they were already hardly seen in there on any other day. 

They began their walk down the aisle of bookshelves. 

"Ageing Potion, Ageing Potion..." George muttered to himself as he scanned a bookshelf that looked appealing to him. 

Fred grew excited but decided to let George do all the reading for the book title. He glanced to the left, a great big smile on his face, before he did a double take. There she was, sitting at a table all alone, as she liked it. He swallowed a lump in his throat. He wanted to go over and talk to her, but how would this unpredictable girl react to that? She hated his guts for what he did...

Beth casually looked up from her light reading, like she felt his eyes on her, and her blank face changed completely. Her eyes darted away from him quickly and she shifted uncomfortably, trying to make the way she put her hand up in front of her face look casual. Fred felt his mouth twist to the side and he suddenly didn't care to find the book on the Ageing Potion...George could do that...

"I'll be right back," Fred announced. 

George quickly looked at his twin and his eyes soon found what Fred did. As Fred took a step towards Beth, George put a hand on his shoulder. 

"Is that really the smartest thing to do, Fred?"

"Probably not," Fred muttered, then he shrugged. "But I don't care. Annoyingly enough she's all I can think of. Maybe if I just talk to her a little it'll stop."

"Or make it worse."

Fred look at his twin with a grim look on his face before smiling sarcastically. "Oh do I love your positive outlook on things, Georgie."

Before George could get another word out, Fred made his way over to Beth who seemed to sense he was approaching her. She began to squirm in her seat, wriggling further away from the direction he was coming and closer to the wall. 

He saw her lick her lips before pursing them, but she didn't look up at him... only continued to stare down at her book. 

"Can I sit?" Fred asked, and he was surprised to hear that he sounded somewhat tired. 

Fred's heart skipped a beat when Beth's grey eyes, though reluctantly, flicked up to meet with his, even if it was only briefly. He took in a deep breath and, as the seconds went by and he got no response, he took it upon himself to sit across from her anyway.