RECONVENE! (fred weasley)

viii. return to normalcy

if there was one thing that you needed to know about maeve potter, it was that she loved to bake.  she wasn't amazing at it and there had been many times that she burnt the cakes or added too much of a certain ingredient but this didn't stop her love for the hobby.

maeve's intense baking obsession only became worse when she was stressed. baking calmed her, despite how chaotic she made it.

so, after being set hours and hours worth of homework, enough to fill all of the parchment she had bought with her to hogwarts, maeve found herself running to the kitchens.

not many students knew how to get into the kitchens but maeve had known how to since her first year at hogwarts, when her, fred and george had found the marauders map and tried many different ways to get through the portrait until they succeeded. (george had tickled the pear as a joke and all of a sudden, the portrait swung open).

maeve sighed at the memory and tickled the pear. when she walked into the kitchen, she could hear a sniffing sound but she passed it off as one of the house elves and carried on walking to the side, where she had left a recipe book.

as she turned a corner, she saw a head of red hair and a person curled into a ball.

"oh god, uhh hey, are you ok?" maeve asked, trying to be a good person but ultimately wishing she hadn't decided to socialise.

the person lifted their head with a panicked look on their face to reveal fred weasley. his eyes were red and it was obvious that he had been crying.

"maeve, shit sorry. uh- i'll go," he stuttered out.

"no, fred stay. uh- are you ok?" maeve asked, "nevermind, that's a stupid question i mean you're crying, you obviously are not ok."

"i mean no, but it's no big deal i'll be fine. i'll just go back to my common room-" fred said, both of them drowning in the awkwardness.

"fred." maeve said sternly, "we're both gonna stay here, ok? we can make cookies or something because i was going to anyway and i really think you could do with some."

fred nodded his head as they began to gather the ingredients they needed. they worked in silence for a few minutes, both knowing that it was weird for them to be baking cookies together after all of the fights they had had recently.

"you can talk to me, y'know. i won't judge you for crying in the kitchens," maeve told him, finally looking at his face. "oh my god 'crying in the kitchens' sounds like a great song."

fred laughed at her ridiculous statement, "i was just thinking about percy. i've been acting as if i'm not upset about him leaving us but i really am."

"fred, you don't need to bottle in all of your emotions. if you're sad then tell people you're sad. i mean, it's completely understandable. you realise that, right?" maeve tried her best to reassure her ex boyfriend.

despite the fact that her and fred acted like they hated each other, or something along those lines, maeve would always have a soft spot for him. whenever she saw him hurting, she hurt too. she was protective of fred, wanting to makes sure he was ok. their relationship was weird and it had been messed up for months but maybe they could get it back on track.

"we always made fun of percy. part of me thinks his frustration with that is the reason he left and that it's all my fault." fred vented his feelings to maeve, looking the most vulnerable she had ever seen him.

as maeve poured chocolate chips into the cookie batter, she said "percy didn't leave because you and george joke about him, dipshit. he left because he's ambitious. he wants to move up in his career and now he thinks that screwing over his family is the way to do that. it's not your fault and it will never be your fault."

"he's our big brother, evie. he's supposed stay and he's supposed to be moaning at us now, about how we need to take newts seriously." fred ranted, "he's just different. he's avoiding all of mums letters but he sent one to ron telling him to break off his friendship with harry!"

"he what?" maeve exclaimed whilst she shoved the cookies into the oven, "merlin, he's ridiculous. maybe you're actually better off without him, freddie."

maeve was worried she had crossed a line and that her joke wouldn't be amusing but fred laughed at her attempt to be funny.

"i know, obviously he isn't as smart as he thinks if he reckons that harrys wrong." fred chuckled, rolling his eyes, "honestly he knows harry and surely he should trust our judgement but nooooo."

maeve giggled, "on a different note, fred, i'm sorry for everything that's happened with us. i mean right now we're like how we always used to be and i really miss being friends with you and george!"

"well, then," fred smiled, "only one thing we can do."

maeve looked at him, waiting for him to end his dramatics and say what he was thinking.

"we should start over completely. you being my girlfriend was great while it lasted but we should forget it ever happened and just be friends. no hard feelings about the breakup." fred said, completely serious.

"i agree, freddie. but still, i'm sorry and i look forward to us being besties again," she laughed.

"i'm sorry too," fred told her, "won't the cookies be done by now, though?"

maeve jumped up, "oh shit! i always burn them!"

they rushed to get the cookies out of the oven and sighed in relief when they were perfectly cooked. the two conversed and caught up on the moments they had missed in each other's lives while they wait for the cookies to cool down.

"these actually aren't that bad, considering we made them," fred turned to maeve to say, his dimples showing.

"i'm a great cook, thank you very much fredrick," she replied, faking her offence. "now, i should probably get back to the common room. i'll take some cookies for eddie but you can give the rest to ron and harry."

ron and maeve had an agreement that he would get to taste test anything she baked.

fred and maeve said goodbye to each other and returned to their common rooms.

"what's got you so cheery?" eddie asked, as he took a cookie for maeve.

"nothing much," she replied, as she thought about how glad she was that her life was returning to how it used to be.

keira's note!
that was fun? no it was rlly bad ik that dw lol
i thought this chapter would be easy to write but it wasn't at all i'm kinda feeling a bit betrayed.
i also feel like i dragged it out or brushed it all aside but that's just cuz i was trying my best to get to 1000 words lmao
see you next chapter!