Ophidian | Fred Weasley ✔

13

Chapter Thirteen:

(K I S S E S A N D M I S S E S)

The dark haired witch huffed out leaving a trail of white smoke as she rubbed her hands together. She tightened the slytherin scarf around her neck and pulled her beanie down a little more. It was bloody cold. She thought to herself.

Artemis turned to her left to see Alex bringing two cups of Butterbeer with him. She smiled half-heartedly at him. He was a nice guy, a great guy even, but he did not evoke the feelings Fred did in her. Not even close. From the twinkle in Fred's eyes as he laughed, the mischief clear as a summer's day in his smirk, the way his laughter could light up her darkest of days, the way he vot excited when thinking about pranks, the way he made her heart race everytime he put his arms around her shoulder, the way her body reacted to him being close. I doubt I'd feel that way about anyone else. She thought with a sigh.

"Sorry for being late, eet iz very crowded." Alex said as he sat down in the booth in front of the green eyed witch at the Three Broomsticks.

"It's okay." Artemis said taking a sip from her butterbeer. The conversation flew for a while, well Alex did most of the talking, the dark haired witch just kept zoning out, her mind stuck on Fred and how it had been a week since they'd last conversed. She felt particularly bad for George though, he was one of her best friends and she hadn't been talking to him as much as before even when he'd done nothing wrong. Artemis sighed again.

"Artemiz?" She heard Alex call her name but she wasn't paying attention as her eyes focused on two redheads walking in to the store laughing.

"I'm sorry did you say something?" She asked finally breaking out of her daze. He smiled.

"I aszed if you wanted to go to ze ball wit me?" If the shock showed on her face, Alex didn't comment on it. Fred finding this exact moment to notice the couple, his laugh dying out as he saw Alex and Artemis together, probably hearing what Alex asked as well. Artemis knew how bad this looked, her on a date with Alex and him asking her to be his date to the ball, Fred probably thinks there is something going on between us-why did it matter what he thought? Fred and I were just friends and he didn't care about me that way. She tried convincing herself.

Fred's eyes looked between the dark haired witch and Alex, gaze finally settling on Artemis. She kept her face neutral not letting it show how much his gaze affected her. But the green eyed witch was shocked when she saw his eyes fill with hurt as he turned around and walked out the store leaving George looking flustered at what happened. She smiled and waved at George as he smiled, still confused and left after signalling that we'd talk. The green eyed witch's gaze focused back on Alex who had watched the entire scene unfold with curiosity. She felt really bad about letting him down but she couldn't go through with this, it would only hurt him because she couldn't reciprocate his feelings.

"I'm sorry Alex you're a great guy, goodlooking even but its just..." She said trailing off not knowing the right words to let someone down.

"I'm not a ginger prankzter zat you 'ave your 'eart zet on." He said with a small smile. Artemis looked up sheepishly and muttered a "that obvious?" To which he laughed and nodded.

"I'm really sorry about today, Alex. I haven't been much of a company and my mind's been elsewhere, you've been so tolerant of me even though I've been borderline rude today. I'm genuinely sorry."