Cerulean - Fred Weasley

Chapter 9 - Scheming

"Who's there?" Simone whipped around, suddenly conscious of her swollen cheeks and reddened face. 

"Don't worry, don't worry." Fred Weasley was smiling at her, arms crossed, leaning against the stone wall.

"This is the girl's toilets." Simone blurted out rather stupidly. She blushed crimson again.

Fred cocked a ginger eyebrow at her. "Have you ever known me to be a rule follower Shacklebolt?" He paused, walking towards her. "That's not why I'm here. I wanted to apologize for earlier. That was incredibly rude and hurtful, I have no right to ask you about something that personal. I'm so sorry for being an ass." 

"No, it's alright. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. Truth is, my mother died. There was a floo accident. She was burned to bits.  I was only ten." She looked down at her hands, feeling slightly embarrassed at this outburst.

Fred regarded her not with pity like she'd expected, but with respect. "Thats a hell of a lot to go through at ten. I think I would break down if anyone in my family died." He trailed off.  A comfortable silence settled between them. 

"You have something on your nose," Fred observed, handing Simone a white handkerchief. Right as Simone was about to bring it to her face, it exploded in a haze of purple smoke, leaving her holding a large rubber rat. Surprised, Simone dropped the rodent, and it scurried across the room and into the corridor. 

"The rat!" Simone let out a peal of laughter, clutching her stomach, she sunk to the floor, overcome. "That was an incredible bit of magic, Weasley!"

He grinned at her, obviously pleased. "I'm not as stupid as you thought, am I? Georgie and I started with trick wands, although we've expanded our repertoire."

"I've always been shit at transfiguration. Guess I should get you to do my homework."

Fred scoffed. "As if I would write an essay." He glanced down at his watch. "Merlin's pants! We have potions in five minutes! Let's not give Snape a reason to deduct points from either of our houses."

The pair speed-walked down the corridor. Simone cast a furtive glance at Fred. "You still haven't told me what happened Saturday night."

Fred grinned broadly "It'll be no fun if I tell you. Best if the truth only exists in your imagination."

"You're a prat." 

"It's my best quality.

Snape glared at them as they entered the dungeon and made their way to their usual table. 

"Today we will be continuing the Amortentia from last week," Snape announced, the glare still lingering in his eyes. "Off to work, your cauldrons are in the back.".

They work the next hour in comfortable silence, measuring, chopping and stirring until the potion turned from a soft pink to brilliant white. It had developed the characteristic mother of pearl sheen and the steam was rising is tight coils.

"Ours is the best in the class!" Fred hissed, looking ecstatic. Look at all these losers." The class was in general shambles, potions varying from deep red to bright green, some even stinking of rotting cabbage.

"Let's see if it works." Simone leaned forward, inhaling the cauldron's sweet aroma. Her nostrils were overwhelmed. She detected hints bergamot, the metallic smell of thunderstorms, a warm and crackling fire, and oddest of all, gunpowder.

Fred appeared to be absorbed in the potion. Simone flicked him on the back of the neck. "What was that for?" he glared at her. 

"Smells pretty great, eh?" 

"Definitely. Mine smelled like chocolate, firecrackers, and flowers."

"What kind of flowers?"

"I don't know, the ones that smell nice."

Simone rolled her eyes playfully. "All flowers smell nice Weasley." She hesitated. "You could probably make good money selling this stuff."

It was as if a light bulb had materialized atop Fred's head. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking Shacklebolt?"

"Definitely not."

"We could go into business together." he lowered his voice to a whisper as Snape prowled behind, he nodded his head in approval at their potion. "We could make potions and sell them to creepy students."

"Sounds like a one-way ticket to detention."

"I'll give you a percentage of the profits."

Simone cocked her brow. "How much?"

"30%" 

"You've got to be kidding me" she began to pack her bag up at Snape's dismissal.

"Fine. 40%"

"It will have to be 50% at least." She strode out of the dungeon, Fred hot on her heels.

"Fine. you can have 55%."

"And you have to tell me what happened Saturday night."

Fred pouted. "You're no fun." he sighed. "Fine, we went skinny dipping with the giant squid. There's no need to look so horrified" he said, glancing at Simone's expression. "It was dark, no one saw anything. Lee Jordan lost his pants though."

"That explains why my clothes were soaked." She grinned broadly. "Nice doing business with you, Weasley."

He slung his arm playfully around her. "Come on, we've got to tell George about this."

Simone felt quite out of place huddled at the end of the Gryffindor table with the Weasley twins. Normally she and her friends would mock the usually loud and boisterous lions, keeping tally of how many howlers they got. Now she was one of them, scheming no less. 

"I think getting the ingredients will be the toughest part. We will have to take them directly from Snape's private storage."

"How could we possibly get in there without being seen? There's no way snape hasn't booby-trapped his office." Simone butted in.

"We've been playing this game a long time, Shacklebolt. We have our methods of moving around the castle undetected," Fred smirked at her. "We also need to consider where we are going to brew the actual potions."

"We could use the toilets."

"What about Moaning Myrtle's bathroom, no one ever goes in there!"

"Maybe we could give Myrtle a love potion. It would certainly make her more pleasant to be around."

Simone snorted. "It's decided then, we'll brew Amortentia, Polyjuice potion, and Felix felicis in Moaning Myrtle's toilet and sell them to underage students."

"Now you're getting it!" George patted her on the back. "You're one of us now, a delinquent, a marauder, a fellow schemer."

she smiled despite herself. "To scheming!" She raised her glass of pumpkin juice.

"To scheming!" echoed the twins.