AMOR FATI . . . fred weasley

X. DIGGORY'S LAST DANCE

10:31PM 23/6/1995

I CLUNG TO YOUR HANDS SO THAT SOMETHING HUMAN MIGHT EXIST IN THE CHAOS
— HÉLÈNE CIXOUS

.·。.·゜✭·.·✫·゜·。..·。.·゜✭·.·✫·゜·。.

WHOSE STUPID IDEA WAS IT, right, to have exams at the end of every single flipping school year? Joey isn't academically talented anyways, if she's honest (apart from Potions and Astronomy, but that's only because of her weirdo obsession with the zodiac), and now she's got to juggle helping Ced prepare for the Tournament and avoiding Fred?

    Excuse her language, but flip that!

    It isn't like she wants to avoid Fred, but Cedric's always telling her she's a pushover (especially after what happened at the Yule Ball, as if she needs reminding), and seeing as what he did involved Ced it's only fair she takes his advice just once. Plus, what Fred did was low, like seriously low. If it was limbo he'd have won - that low.

    It wasn't limbo though. It was her soul sister's sexuality and so that shit really hurt.

    So June passes by in a flurry of drowning in parchment, desperately cramming until her brain is basically bleeding from the strain of it, and Joey's this close to sacking it all off and joining the circus. She doesn't even know if wizards have a circus, but they must do, surely. Right now she thinks she'll probably land the role of the clown.

    If it hasn't already gone to Gilderoy Lockhart, that is.

    The night before her last exam, freedom so sweet she can almost taste it upon her lip, Joey barricades herself in the library. This is foolproof for many reasons: first, she can pretend she's clever so maybe she'll actually get some work done instead of daydreaming about being Keeper for the Holyhead Harpies, and second, Fred probably doesn't even know they have a library.

    Which is great because Fred is the last person she wants to see right now. (That's a lie of course, deep down, but you can't fault her for trying!)

    And, as if her stress wasn't already paramount, the Third Task may or may not be tomorrow. But Joey is trying (and failing) desperately hard not to even think about that right now.

    'You'd have thought,' she says, through gritted teeth, 'that Snape could've shown one shred of humanity instead of setting ten billion pieces of parchment on Everlasting Elixirs.'

    'I don't think Snape has a shred of humanity, to be honest,' Cedric says from beside her.

    Joey humphs. 'Everybody does.'

    'Maybe he's a vampire or something.'

    'Vampires have feelings too!' she insists. 'I met a lovely one when I went to Egypt with the Weasleys.'

    Cedric guffaws. 'Didn't he try to eat you?'

    'OK, fine, but we had a brilliant conversation about the medicinal properties of tomatoes beforehand!'

    'You're too nice,' Cedric says, smiling.

    'Says you!'

    'You're flattering me.'

    'No I'm not, Ceddie, you're brilliant.'

    'I love you.'

    They're eight letters that catch Joey completely off guard. Not because she doesn't love love - she's as soppy and romantic as they come. (Fred making her endlessly rewatch Dirty Dancing has really rubbed off on her, honestly.) But it's been so long since anybody actually indulged in them to her, like she's actually worthy of hearing them.