𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝𝐧𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧 𝐠𝐨 → 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘸𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘺

→ chapter fifty one

a/n~ we hit 5k !!!! 5k that's such a big number... thank you for reading, please remember to vote and comment because it's you guys that makes this book what it really is, i just write it lol.. as a holiday treat, i'm going to be updating this book everyday until the 25th december! <3

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the next morning, everyone had spent the time putting up christmas decorations which chae absolutely loved. although, this year, it didn't feel right, harry wasn't decorating with them, in fact harry hadn't been seen since yesterday on the train.

he was avoiding them, it hurt chae to know that he felt he needed to avoid them in order to keep them safe. when would that boy realise that he wasn't in this alone?

she wished she could make him understand that none of them were scared of him, but every time someone tried to get close to him he retreated into another room.

"what's up buttercup?" fred asked, taking a seat next to chae as she untangled the fairy lights.

"i don't want harry to think we hate him" she said, her hands coming to a halt, she turned to look up at fred.

"i think it's best we give him his space at the moment, he seems a little agitated" said fred, wrapping an around the girl. chae leaned into his embrace.

"but that's what worries me, ever since the summer he's been really angry, i'm surprised he hasn't snapped at me yet" said chae.

at this point, it was a thing she was waiting on, he had snapped at everyone and chae knew it was only her turn soon.

"everything will be okay rin, i promise" said fred.

"rin? that's new" said chae, observing the new nickname.

"well nobody else calls you it so i wanted to call you it, my thing" fred explained a shy smile on his face, chae giggled at the boy.

"nobody else calls me love, or buttercup.. i'm struggling to keep up with these nicknames"

"oh just shut up and let me give you as many nicknames as i please" fred grumbled, causing chae to fall back in laughter.

"okay sweetpea, whatever you say"

the next morning, chae woke up to a stack of presents at the end of her bed. she waited for ginny and hermione to wake up (hermione had arrived yesterday evening and they made christmas eve as fun as they could).

usually, chae was grumpy in the morning, even on christmas day. however, today was different and she didn't know why. maybe it was the happy atmosphere in the house, maybe it was sirius' terrible singing or it was the fact that she couldn't stop laughing with ginny and hermione. no matter what it was, chae loved it.

after they opened their presents, they walked over to ron and harry's room to find that fred and george had already apparated there. chae hugged each of them, thanking them for her presents however, her arms stayed wrapped around fred, the two of them standing there casually.

at this point, nobody questioned them, they all knew there was something there which is why it was so frustrating to see the duo still hadn't got the balls to confess to one another.

"merry christmas" said george "don't go downstairs for a bit"

"why not?" said ron.

"mum's crying again" said fred heavily "percy sent back his christmas jumper"

"without a note" added george "hasn't asked how dad is or visited him or anything"

"i swear that boy! one day i'm going to really knock it into him that he's an ungrateful swine" chae said angrily, causing the others to laugh.

"we tried to comfort her" said fred, moving around the bed to look at harry's portrait, letting go of chae's waist causing her to frown at the loss of contact "told her percy's nothing more than a humungous pile of rat droppings"

"didn't work" said george, helping himself to a chocolate frog "so lupin took over. best let him cheer her up before we go down for breakfast, i reckon"

"what's that supposed to be, anyway?" asked fred, squinting at dobbys painting "looks like a gibbon with two black eyes"

"it's harry!" said george, pointing at the back of the picture "says so on the back!"

"looks more like a monkey to me, but still it's the effort that counts!" chae said, tilting her head to the side.

"good likeness" said fred, grinning. harry threw his new homework diary at him, causing chae to duck in case it hit her as it wouldn't be the first time she's been hit with something of the boys.

chae sat with fred and george at christmas lunch, hermione opposite her with harry and ron on either side of her, ginny was sat with molly, talking to lupin and sirius.

"none of you told me lupin was here!" chae whisper shouted.

"why would you have dressed better?" george teased, causing chae to whack him on the shoulder.

"why would she dress better?" asked ron.

"don't you know about chae's little thing?" said fred, chae glaring at the twins.

"what thing?" hermione and harry asked.

"chae used to have a big fat crush on lupin" fred revealed, causing chae to choke on her drink.

"are you alright?" remus asked kindly, the adults staring at the young girl in surprise. chae nodded her head rapidly, her face red from embarrassment.

the adults went back to their conversation with ginny and fred and george began to laugh, the trio looking at them as if they were lying.

"we're not lying, you should've seen her during when he was teaching at hogwarts, a new hairstyle every time we had defence lessons" said george.

"you're joking!" said ron, not believing them still.

"not joking at all, little chae here fancied her professor" said fred.

"i'm gonna kill you both, you make it sound as if it's weird" chae defended.

"it is sort of weird" said harry.

"no it's not!" said chae.

"just a little bit" said hermione.

"excuse me! you fancied lockhart!" chae retorted, causing the group to erupt into laughter.