Summer Nights | Fred Weasley (o.h)

Chapter Eighteen

As the days passed, Giselle slowly found a new love for Grimmauld Place. Despite the slightly abrupt start to her Christmas holidays, happiness leaked out of every crevice within the house and even though Mr Weasley was still at St Mungo's, a sense of normality eventually settled upon all of them once again. 

Giselle was sitting on the couch, watching as George and Ron went against each other in an intense game of Wizard Chess, when another body crashed down beside her, the wide grin immediately getting Giselle's attention. 

"Geez, can you sit down any faster?" Giselle joked, a smile crossing her face at Fred's happier appearance, a stark difference from the anger he had shown a few days previous. 

"Well, I can. Here, watch." Fred sprung back up again, ready to flop back down on the couch but Giselle soon caught his wrist pulling him back down. 

"If you do that again I'll go flying over the back of the couch."

Fred chuckled, scooting closer to the brunette. "I heard that you finally got the chance to meet her."

"Who's her?" Giselle asked.

"Estrella. She's the mysterious thief of Hogwarts!" Fred replied. You haven't heard of her?" He asked upon seeing her expression. 

"Not exactly. Only been at Hogwarts for a semester, remember?"

"Well other than the Marauder's, she's pretty notorious. Apparently she stole from everyone, even Dumbledore."

Giselle had heard all about the Marauder's from Sirius and Estrella a few days ago over a good few hours in the kitchen over a few bottles of butterbeer. And although Sirius had briefly mentioned that Estrella had overtime become an honorary member, nothing close to the friendship that the boys had once shared, nothing had been mentioned about this 'mysterious thief of Hogwarts'.

"Really?" Giselle asked, her eyes lighting up. 

"Really," Fred replied, meeting her gaze, feeling his own face start to heat up when the brown eyes didn't break eye contact straight away. 

Even Giselle who had usually chosen to avoid her feelings and any chance of getting into some weird moment of staring into each other's eyes for forever, like in the muggle romance movies she had often snuck out to go watch, found herself unable to focus on anything other than the freckled boy in front of her, the chatter in the background, Ron's triumphant shout as one of his pieces knocked down George's queen, all faded away until it just felt like her and Fred were the only ones left in the world.

"Hey, you two!" The voice shouted throughout the haze surrounding the two of them before Giselle slowly snapped herself out of it, avoiding Fred's gaze as her cheeks slowly turned pink. 

George only watched with an amused grin and the two of them snapped out of it. 

"I know that those brown eyes are utterly gorgeous, Freddikins but Corentin has been calling Giselle's name from upstairs for the last five minutes." George continued as Fred also turned bright pink. 

"Thanks, George," Giselle replied, quickly pushing up off the couch and hurried up the stairs without looking behind her. 

"You know staring at her all the time, isn't going to fix anything," George said to his twin brother whose eyes were still stuck on the stairs even though Giselle had long since disappeared from sight. 

Fred ignored his brother, looking back down towards the carpeted floor. The picture of her warm brown eyes following his every thought, his heart flickering with every thought. It was a feeling that had never left since he first met her in June, it was something he would never be able to let go of, just like he would never be able to let go of her. 

But even then George was right, staring at Giselle wasn't going to achieve anything. 

"Dad?" Giselle shouted, whipping her head around in the search for her father. "George said you were asking for me?"

"Giselle." Her father's voice suddenly called from behind her, as Giselle jumped, spinning around.

"Geez, you didn't have to scare me!"

"Sorry, Gi. It's just that we got a Christmas card from Claudette and Mason and I thought that you would want to read what it says."

"Oh, that's nice of them," Giselle replied, sitting down on her own bed as Corentin joined her with the letter. 

But as her Dad opened the letter and began reading out the short message written within, Giselle couldn't help but go through her memories of previous Christmases with the entire Durand family and it wasn't until that exact moment when the realisation struck her. The once tightly knit family had completely been broken into two and were now spending the Christmas holidays in two completely different countries. 

"You alright, Gi?" Corentin asked, upon finishing the message in the letter, noticing his daughter's forlorn expression.

"Yeah, all good. Everything's just so different."

"Yeah I know but don't worry about anything, Gi, everything is going to turn out to be just fine." Corentin continued, pressing a kiss to the top of Giselle's head before turning to leave the room. "Come and get me if anything happens, alright?"

"Alright," Giselle replied as Corentin left the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts. 

A loud crack echoed through the room, Fred's usual grin evaporating as he noticed Giselle's expression. 

"What's wrong? What did your Dad want?" Fred questioned, carefully watching every inch of her face. 

"Oh, nothing's wrong. We got a Christmas card from my siblings, so we read it together."

"Oh okay," Fred replied, sitting down beside her on the bed. "You sure you are all good?"

"Yes, all good!" Giselle replied, with a smile. 

Fred couldn't stop his own smile widening upon seeing her own. George's words were on a constant cycle in his mind and having her this close to him brought more butterflies than normal. He wasn't supposed to be feeling this way, but for once nothing was stopping him from her. 

"Hey, Fred?" Giselle began, her breath immediately hitching the second she felt his lips collide with hers. 

All of a sudden it was just like being back downstairs again, it was just the two of them against the world. Eventually getting over her initial shock, Giselle started to kiss back before the realisation hit her all of sudden, and she rushed to hit the brakes before either she or Fred did something they would regret later. 

Fred's eyes widened as he noticed the feeling of her lips against his had departed, looking down at Giselle with an unreadable expression on his face.

"Fred. . .we can't. . ." Giselle stammered, refusing to meet his eyes. "It's not fair on Angelina. . .You know that."

Fred only took one more look at the brunette who was blurting out apologies, before he turned on his heel leaving the room without looking back. 

"Oh my god," Giselle muttered, bringing up a finger to her lips if just like that she could forget the feeling of Fred Weasley's lips on hers.