Harry Potter One-Shots

Monopoly (Fred Weasley)

WORD COUNT: 1048

"So wait... how do I know where my piece is supposed to move?"

I couldn't help but laugh when George asked his all-too-earnest question. These boys had the most extensive knowledge of trick spells and pranks probably in all of Europe, but sometimes they could be so dumb.

"You literally just go around in a circle, clockwise," I explained, gesturing with my hand around the edge of the board. Fred and George scowled at me, obviously insulted that I had thought their question was laughable.

"You do realize that our clocks don't work like yours do, right Y/N?" Fred asked irritably. I thought back to the Weasley family clock on the mantle with all their little pictures on different hands. I rolled my eyes, grabbing the dice in my hands and shaking furiously.

"Ok, so now that we've mastered the simple rules of gameplay, I'll go first." I let the dice fall onto the board, showing a little three and a little five. "So, I rolled an eight, so that means I'm going to move my piece 8 spaces."

I picked up the little thimble that was representing me and tapped it on the board eight times, landing on a property called Pikes Place Market.

"Basically, since I landed on this property, and nobody has bought it yet, I have the option to buy it and then if one of you lands on it, you have to pay me money," I explained. George looked shocked.

"But what if we don't want to pay you money?!" Fred exclaimed indignantly. I laughed again.

"That's not how the game works, Freddie. You have to play by the rules. Now come on, at least try and understand the game, I learned Exploding Snap for you two and that's way harder than Monopoly."

Fred sighed, but picked up the dice and, with my guidance, rolled a twelve and moved past me and to his first property. On his first turn, George rolled a twelve as well and had to pay $200 to Fred.

"I hate this game," George grumbled, handing over two fake paper bills to his smug brother.

"You heard the girl George, that's the way the game works!"

As the night progressed, I began to develop a suspicion that the twins were connected in even deeper and weirder ways than we could have guessed; every time Fred rolled, George rolled the exact same number and ended up landing on all of Fred's properties, causing George to run out of money very quickly and, in a fit of rage, announce that he quit and was "never going to play any more of your stupid muggle games again, Y/N!" as he stormed off to his room.

Fred, on the other hand, was now rolling in money and properties and was quite eager to continue playing. We played for several more hours, until the common room had emptied out and it was just the two of us left. I had come quite dangerously close to losing several times already, but always managed to come back from the brink every time. This resulted in several premature gloating taunts from Fred, but we were both so competitive that neither of us were willing to let the game end until one of us was the clear winner.

"I can't believe I'm going to beat you at your own game, AND it's only the first time I've tried it," Fred smirked, rolling a quick and effective five. He moved forward... directly onto my most expensive property.

"I'm sorry, can you say that again? I seem to have missed what you said, I was too busy counting all the money you owe me," I shot back, snatching the $750 that Fred reluctantly handed over. This happened several more times, and the next thing we knew another hour had passed and the roles had been reversed.

"You have... let's see now... five dollars left?" I asked, peering at his side of the table. Fred scowled and threw his arm over his pitifully small pile of assets; he had been forced to sell back several of his properties to stay in the game, and was now left with only two.

"Stop being so cocky, this is my first time playing," he groaned, passing me the dice. I cast them onto the board and moved forward seven spaces. I landed on a space that used to belong to him, and I could see the excitement in his eyes as he started looking to try and calculate how much I owed him.

"Actually, Fred, you sold that back to the bank, so you can't collect on it anymore," I pointed out. A look of outrage crossed his face.

"What do you mean?! It's mine!"

"Not anymore it isn't. You sold it back to the bank after you landed on my hotel and you couldn't pay," I reminded him. He frowned and wrinkled up his freckled nose. I felt a weird feeling in my stomach. Was that... butterflies? No, it couldn't be. I didn't get butterflies around Fred Weasley. We had been friends since the Sorting, there was no way.

"Um... Y/N?" Fred gave me a pointed look. I blushed and quickly glanced down at the board. I guess I got a little distracted... maybe I did have feelings for Fred?

"Sorry, I was too busy trying to figure out how quickly you'll be out after my next turn," I tried to cover for myself. I tried to force down the redness I felt creeping into my cheeks.

When Fred rolled a two and landed on one of my properties, the awkwardness of that moment was quickly forgotten as I tried to explain to him that he had, in fact, lost. Fred, however, wouldn't take his defeat lying down.

"Can't I sell you this property and stay in the game? You let me do that last time!" He cried indignantly.

"Technically, you sold the property to the bank and gave me the money last time. And anyway, if you sold that property and gave me the money from it PLUS all the money you have left, it still wouldn't be enough to cover what you owe me, so you lose. I win."

"I hate Muggle games," Fred grumbled, accepting his defeat.