Ophidian | Fred Weasley ✔

19

Chapter Nineteen:

( N O    M A T T E R    W H A T )

Fred's POV:

I looked at the woman asleep in my arms, her obsidian hair spread out onto the pillow like a halo. I pushed a lock of stray hair out from her face, smiling as she mumbled some gibberish about Chocolate Frogs. I pulled her close, pressing a kiss to her forehead muttering a soft i love you as I saw her smile in her sleep.

People might think that we were moving too fast as it had just been a little under a year since we started dating but I just knew I'd love no other like I loved Artemis Marilynd Rosier. No one could entrance me with just a simple smile, no one could make my heart race by just the sound of her laugh, Merlin, her laugh — it was the most melodious sound I'd ever heard. She didn't laugh a lot, but whenever she did, she took my breath away by the way her face would twitch a bit before she burst out into a fit of laughter, eyes crinkled and nose scrunched. She didn't even need to touch me to make my heart race, all she had to do was smile and I was a goner, but whenever we did touch, the sparks that shot up could rival the finest of products of the Weasley Wizard Wheezes.

I, Frederick Gideon Weasley, was enchanted by the woman in my arms sleeping soundly and felt like the luckiest man in the goddamn world to be able to call her mine. After the third task, as much as she was relieved that Cedric had survived, she felt guilty for Viktor's death. I'd seen her getting paler and sporting dark circles under her eyes everyday but she would just smile at me and tell me that everything was okay.

"Love, please tell me what's wrong? I can't see you like this — just-just let me help...talk to me dammit, don't shut me out!" I had said cornering her so she couldn't escape.

"Tell you what, Freddie? Everything's fi—" She began again giving me her fake smile but I could see through her.

"You've got eyebags as dark as Voldemort's soul, skin paler than a ghost, your lips are dried and white like you're sick, your eyes are bloodshot, you've hardly been eating any food and Lilanna told me you wake up almost every night screaming so forgive me if I don't believe that everything's fine!" I shouted at her finally losing my cool. "I'm your boyfriend, A, you've got to tell me things, you've got to trust me...I can't read your mind love and I can't bare to see you like this losing the life in your eyes every passing day and not knowing why or how to stop it." I finished staring at her as she avoided my eyes.

"You asked Lilanna about me?" She said her face neutral.

"I had no other option! You weren't talking to anyone and whenever you did talk to me, you behaved as if I were some stranger! She's worried about you Artemis, I'm worried about you!"

"But you have no right to go around asking about me! I'm not your property!" She shouted back.

"You think you're my property?! You crazy woman I'm in love with you! Ofcourse I had to ask about why my girlfriend seems to have lost all the light in her eyes! You talk to me like a like I'm a stranger, A, what else was I supposed to do? I can't bear to see you like this."

"I don't need to tell you a single thing! I don't need to tell anyone a single thing! I can deal with things myself and if you're only here to critisize my appearance then go find someone else to snog if I don't meet up to your expectations anymore!" She said finally glaring at me but I saw through her facade, her quivering bottom lip giving her away. I knew her better than the back of my hand but that didn't mean that her words didn't hurt me.

"Is that all I am to you? A snog-partner? Is that all I mean to you?" I whispered as she looked away and didn't answer. I knew she didn't mean it, but her silence made a heavy feeling appear in my chest making it painful to even breathe. Her silence cut deep.

"Fine then. I won't bother you anymore if that's what you want. But I won't sit around and see you destroy yourself, so you're on your own now but it shouldn't bother you much anyway since all I am to you is a snog partner." I said as I turned around and walked away. I waited with baited breath each step I took for her to call me, tell me that she didn't mean it, tell me that she still loves me and I mean to her even a fraction of what she means to me, but she didn't. I walked away from the woman I loved to my dorm.

It had taken everything in me to ignore her throughout the day. She sat at our usual seat but I got up and sat beside Lee turning everyone's heads and causing everyone to ask if something had happened between us to which I gave no answer. I exchanged seats with George during potions so he sat with her while I sat with Alicia Spinnet who very obviously tried to flirt with me throughout the lesson but she was the last of the things on my mind. The hair at my nape standing alert as I felt her gaze boring into the back of my head. It took everything in me to not turn around to glimpse at her beautiful face. Even with everything that was going on, she still was the most beautiful woman in my eyes, she always would be no matter how she looked. She sat at the Slytherin table during dinner and I could feel her stares throughout dinner but I, with a lot of willpower, managed to only look at her thrice throughout dinner, all times making sure she wasn't aware I was looking—what? Were you expecting me to say I didn't look at her at all? That was impossible— my eyes were attracted to her like a magnet...it was impossible to not look at her even once while in the same room.

Dinner finished and we all headed back to our dorms. The very night, she sneaked into the Gryffindor common room and knocked on our door giving Lee quite the fright, dressed in all white and her hair in a disarray.

We'd talked in the common room all by ourselves where she apologized and explained how she'd get nightmares about Viktor dying and how it was her fault, about her being a Quietus  Clairvoyant, all the while she cried into my shoulder as I rubbed circles in her back. If there was one thing that hurt more than ignoring her, it was seeing her cry. After that incident, she started sleeping in my room more frequently and her nightmares decreased slowly. And the best part? She told me she loved me too. I was over the moon.

I looked at her again, sleeping peacefully in my arms as she nuzzled her head into my neck. I smiled and pulled her against me tighter, both of us fitting like the pieces of a puzzle. George and I finally had separate rooms at 12 Grimmauld Place since this place was basically a mansion, and I was thankful for it so I could spend more time with Artemis. She had her own room too, but she always sneaked into mine at night. Said she slept better next to me, I had teased her when she said that, only she didn't know how much I loved her sleeping next to me. I couldn't imagine a life without her.

We would face everything. Together. No matter what.

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A/N: I added a Fred Weasley aesthetic in the beginning ~

Let me know if you like it ♡