Chéri || Fred Weasley

xiii

After going back to my dorm, I sat on my bed and pulled out my book. Angelina and Meredith walked over to where I was and stood in front of me. "Can I help you?" I asked the two girls with annoyed. I knew what they said about me when I was not around, even though it was a big school rumors flew by fast.

"So are you and Diggory a thing?" Angelina asked. "We're just friends and I don't really see how that is any of your business" I said to the girl. She huffed and went back to her bed to whisper with Meredith. "Don't let them get to you, they're just mean girls", Lizzie whispered to me and Alicia nodded. "Did you hear about the party the twins and Lee are throwing tonight?" Alicia asked me. "Yeah I think it might be fun" I answered. I kept talking with Elizabeth and Alicia for a while before heading to dinner with them. At dinner, the twins and Lee were nowhere to be found so I was stuck in a conversation about House elves rights with Hermione and Clotilde.

"Did you know that Hogwarts has the largest number of house elves in Britain?! It's completely outrageous! They don't have salaries, they don't have pensions, they don't have holidays or sick leaves! It's totally barbaric!", ranted the fourth year girl to me, Liz and Ali. We all looked at each other but before we could say anything Clotilde continued. "They are the ones who prepare the feasts, and move everyone's trunks, light the fires and clean the entire school–". "So we were wondering," said Hermione pulling three blue badges with S.P.E.W engraved, "if you three would support the cause, the initials mean Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, it's two sickles per badge and we will use the money to fund our leaflet campaign".

Alicia, Lizzie and I exchanged glances to the new activists and nodded. "Sure 'Mione I'll join" said Lizzie excitedly handing two silver coins. "I'll join too! I'll talk to the quidditch team so that they can join too" Ali said. "That would be brilliant Alicia, thank you!" Hermione grinned. "What about you sis? Tim already joined", Clotilde told me narrowing her eyes. "I um...sure why not," I said reluctantly, "I'll give you the sickles back in the common room", I smiled at the younger girls. We finished dinner and headed back to our dorms to get ready for the party.

*****

The twins and Lee had organized a back to school party in the common room and invited fourth years and above from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. The reason why they didn't invite Slytherins was because of pure house rivalry and because the vast majority of them were pure blood supremacists or plain rude. At around 7:00 pm, Alicia, Lizzie and I went back to the dorm to get ready. The other four girls got ready fairly quickly and went straight to the common room so that they wouldn't be late. Me on the other hand, punctuality was never a strong suit of mine and besides I preferred being fashionably late than early.

I decided to wear a black leather skirt with a Queen graphic shirt tucked in and my favorite black leather boots. I put on some liner and mascara before brushing my hair. I grabbed from my trunk a gold cigarette case that Timothée had given me for Christmas as well as a lighter and went down the stairs. When I reached the common room, I was welcomed with the smell of cheap whiskey and beer and sweaty teenagers. The music was loud and there were couples dancing and snogging all over the place. I felt someone tap my shoulder and looked over to my brother who was standing next to me.

"You okay Mads?". He said taking a sip of the drink that he was holding. "Yeah I'm alright, want one?" I said to him pulling out a cigarette from the case and putting it between my lips before lightning it up. "Are those the menthol ones?" he asked and I nodded. He took one and lit it up before looking over to a Hufflepuff girl that was ogling him. "So are you gonna go an make a move or what?" I said to my brother I nudged him. He rolled his eyes before walking towards the girl. I chuckled at the sight of Timothée flirting and began to look for my new friends.