Weasley Charm | Fred Weasley

Chapter 5-13: Educational Decree Thirty-One

Delaney awoke the next morning to find Fred no longer in his bed. She sat up to look around only to be greeted by Fred walking through the door, drying off his wet hair with a towel.

"Hey, how long have you been up?" he smiled.

"I just woke up. How long have you been out of the room?" she looked at him as the sheets of his bed just carefully covered her small bare body.

"Not long. I thought I would take a shower before you woke up so that when you did you could take one and we could get ready to go to Hogsmeade." Fred began changing the shirt he had on for another one. Delaney watched intently as he pulled his shirt off from the back, his muscles flexing with the simple task.

"I suppose that's fair," Delaney shrugged, getting up to put her robes back on.

"What did you miss me?" he teased.

"In your dreams loverboy," she teased back. "Meet me in the common room when I'm done?"

"I'll see you there," Fred nodded as Delaney walked out of Fred's room. Luckily most of Gryffindor house was either still asleep or starting to walk to the Great Hall for breakfast.

Delaney quickly grabbed a change of clothes from her room and made her way to the showers. To her luck, she was the only one in the showers the entire time she was in them. After showering she quickly made her way back to her room to find the clothes she actually wanted to wear. She put on a large tan cardigan with mom jeans and a white babydoll t-shirt. After drying it, she clipped the top half of her hair back with a white clip. She quickly slipped on her shoes and went downstairs to meet Fred.

"You know you're getting faster at this whole getting ready thing."

"Well I'm used to you moving around so fast that I've picked up the habit," she giggled.

"Now let's go downstairs before the others think we've completely disappeared off the face of the earth," Fred motioned his head in the direction of the door as his hand touched the small of her back. Shivers worked their way down her spine.

The walk to the Great Hall was odd. It seemed that every time Fred and Delaney passed a boy and girl walking together they were a great distance from each other—an awkward distance.

"That's odd," Delaney whispered to Fred before they entered the Great Hall.

"There's everyone else." Fred pointed to the opposite end of the Gryffindor table where George sat with Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny. The two then quickly made their way to the table.

"There they are. Geez, you two left us high and dry last night," Ron said glumly.

"What are you talking about?" Fred asked with a raised brow.

"I'm talking about Delaney going to talk to you and then the two of you falling asleep. George went to look for you two and said you had fallen asleep again." Ron shook his head.

"Sorry we were tired," Delaney laughed. A blush crept up on her cheeks as she recounted the previous night's events. Fred's rough hands, his even rougher words– she needed to stop. She was in public.

"Yeah whatever," he grumbled.

"Hey, why is everyone separated? The boys and girls I mean," Delaney asked, still noticing the strange pattern in the Great Hall.

"You didn't hear? Umbridge made a new educational decree yesterday," Hermione sighed.

"Another one? What are we up to now, thirty?" Fred rolled his eyes.

"Yesterday's made thirty-one," George said matter-of-factly.

"Anyway, the decree says all boys and girls have to remain at least eight inches apart," Hermione clarified the new rule.