The Queen of Vipers || Fred Weasley

I.X

Electra sulked through the rest of the month.

Before she knew it, the end of December was upon her, coming far faster than Electra would have liked. Already they were reaching Christmas break and the impending doom of the O.W.L.s was setting in. The stress of her classes and her father's betrayal, fresh in her mind, were starting to wear on her. And it didn't help that she'd gotten some kind of flu in the beginning of December either and spent all weekend in her dorm shivering violently with cold sweats and a fever. It was miserable.

Even Cedric was getting burnt out, and it didn't help his neurotic behavior that Ravenclaw had absolutely flattened Hufflepuff in their last match. He was insufferably depressing since their loss, the two of them becoming a pair of recluses from the rest of the school.

But if one thing —entertaining she supposed she could call it— came out of it, Electra did notice Cedric sending the Ravenclaw's Seeker a few curious glances during meals or in the halls whenever they crossed paths. She said nothing to him about it, but surely took note of it.

As most students were counting down the days to Christmas break with excitement, and the closer they got, the more buzz spread around the castle, Electra was dreading every one of them.

Returning to New York was not something that Electra was so keen on. Especially when Vivienne's New Year's WWE Smackdown was waiting for her. Merlin, if magic weren't restricted, she'd have already drawn a pentagram in ketchup on the floor of the Mess Hall, used the levitation charm to make one of the girls float in midair, scare the holy ghost out them all, and bada bing bada boom, sweet revenge. She'd thought a lot about this topic. But no, the Ministry had to have their little rules to keep their society secret. Buzzkills.

But what Electra dreaded most of all, was saying goodbye to Cedric. He and his family were going on holiday to Greece to spend Christmas and the New Year with Mrs. Diggory's muggle parents. Mrs. Diggory put up quite the fight for Electra to join them, but alas, she was still strictly speaking, under Our Fair Lady's care and they refused to let her leave Britain or the US without a school or church representative (and they all knew hell had a better chance of freezing over than the latter happening).

So before she knew it, Cedric was waving goodbye to her as she stood by the giant oak doors and watched as most of the castle headed for the Hogwarts Express. Electra wasn't to be Portkeyed to Manhattan until the 22nd —she had taken too long to decide whether she was going to stay in the castle or not and the Department of International Magical Transportation had to scramble for a Portkey, which Snape made sure to remind her (over and over and over).

Electra waved back to Cedric, who sent her an apologetic smile. Anthony Rickette threw an arm around Cedric's shoulders as they disappeared in the crowd. With a sigh, she turned and headed back for her dorm where her book on advanced charms waited for her, when a trio of redheads caught her eye. Fred and George were talking animatedly to their elder brother Percy, who didn't seem to want to be any part of their conversation. Fred bumped his grumpy brother's shoulder as George laughed at something his twin said. He looked over his brother's shoulder and Electra's heart just about stopped when her eyes met Fred's. He sent her a shameless wink.

She scrunched her face, eyebrows furrowing and mouth pursing. Ginny, who was bringing up the rear of the Weasley clan, gave her brother a fleeting look as she traced his stare to Electra. She felt heat rise to her cheeks as the smallest of wicked smiles played on Ginny's lips, and quickly snapped her head away, hurrying for the dungeons. Hopefully there was a spell in that book on her bed about avoiding boys that were the absolute bane of her existence.

✧

So far she found no such charm to help her rid of Fred Weasley. To be fair, she only made it halfway through the advanced charm book before she got a headache, tossed it aside and took a nap.