Summer Nights | Fred Weasley (o.h)

Chapter Ten

Of course despite Giselle's wishes nothing ever really came easily to her. She knew she was caught the second a hand wrapped around her wrist spinning her around to face those brown eyes that she had ran away from only a few moments earlier. There was no escaping now. 

"Giselle?" Fred said desperately, his eyes looking over every inch of her face. "Giselle? Can we please talk?"

Giselle was painfully aware of the eyes that were falling on the two of them as they passed, looks of confusion and whispers of gossip already making their way around the students. She knew that Fred deserved an explanation and she was finally prepared to give him one but not around the rest of these students. She didn't need her family situation to be added to the new girl gossip that had already followed her throughout her first few days at Hogwarts. 

So instead of running away from him like half of her wanted to do, Giselle nodded slightly, pulling Fred with her to a more secluded section of the castle. At that point she didn't even care anymore that she could potentially be late to her class, the 'getting lost' excuse always seemed to work anyway.

"Hi," Giselle said softly, fiddling with the ends of her hair. 

Fred let out a small sigh of relief probably due to the fact that she was no longer ignoring him as she had for the entirety of the week. 

Neither of them quite knew how to start the long over-due conversation between them, the dynamic they had so quickly established over the summer had disappeared leaving a trail of awkwardness and desire in its wake. 

"I thought you were gone. I was sure that I'd never see you again, it's not like I have the money to go visit France, besides I don't know how I would even find you once I got there."

Giselle let out a breathless laugh in response. "Yeah, it just all happened so quickly, it was hard to wrap my head around it all."

"What happened, Giselle?" Fred asked softly, practically begging for an explanation. "You can take your time but I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong."

"Well, the whole trip to London was messy from the beginning, we were running from inevitable and it took my grandfather's death for my mother to finally realise that. She just broke, all this yelling, all these tears. No one really knew what was happening but before we knew it, we were given little notice to pack up our belongings and get ready to head back home. Which is where I think you got caught up to."

"But why are you here then, instead of at Beauxbatons?"

Giselle let out a shaky breath consoling herself for the next part of the story and the worse part in her opinion.

"That next morning, my parents told us that they were separating and that Dad was staying here in London. My relationship with my mother isn't that best, most of the time, we have very different views on things but I think the final straw was when I told her that I was staying with Dad. We haven't heard anything from them since, so my entire family is officially broken. But Dad went to Hogwarts for his education so all it took was a favour and here I am." Giselle finished, holding back tears but proud of herself that she had made it the whole way. 

"Oh, Giselle, I'm so sorry." Fred Weasley replied pulling her into a tight hug. 

"Oh, this is nice," Giselle muttered, only to hear Fred let out a laugh above her. "I went back to the diner, you know? I did want to explain properly I just didn't know how."

"Yeah, so did I, until I got caught that was."

"You got caught?" Giselle asked incredulously. "Weren't you always boasted about how you never get caught when you are sneaking out?"

"Yeah I did, not my finest moment." 

"We probably should get back to class. It's my first actual class after all."

"Oh screw class. You can always just say that you got lost and as for me I'll make up some random excuse."

"It's our final year!" Giselle exclaimed. "We've got to study and all that."

"Yeah? So we've got to make it the best one yet." Fred replied with a grin. "Besides I did never quite care for study and homework and all that."

Giselle could only shake her head in defeat as she let Fred Weasley drag her through the castle, further and further from where they were actually supposed to be. But she still couldn't quite complain, the weight that had stuck with her for weeks was gone, and she was once more hanging out with Fred, the only tolerable part of her summer holidays. Maybe this fresh start wouldn't be so horrible after all.