Yours, truly : A Fred and George fanfic

24. Danger for dinner

A few hours later, Eleanor and Fred made their way back up towards Eleanor's shop, preparing the apartment for when everyone else was going to arrive.
Fred lit the fire using his wand whilst Eleanor placed some left over bottles of alcohol she had onto the table.

"Do you have the vertiserum?" Eleanor said softly, looking to Fred who sat cosily on the sofa.

"It's right here in my pocket" he replied, tapping his hand lightly on where it sat "for my brothers sake, I hope this works. None of us like her and she like her least of all."

Eleanor felt a wave of guilt overcome her as she slouched down next to Fred, pulling his arm around her. "And what if she says nothing?" Eleanor started, gaining Fred's attention immediately "what if she and George are simply just in love?"

Fred took a huge sigh as glared into the fire longly "then we deal with it, I guess."

But the question was, could they deal with it? they had gained so much hatred for Alicia that it made it almost impossible to like her and the way she acted didn't help to support those emotions. 
But for the sake of George and his happiness, they would at least have to try, even if they had to fake it.

Eleanor and Fred sat cuddled up on the sofa a while longer when the burst of green flames appeared from the fireplace.
Harry and Ginny arrived first who were then closely followed by Hermione and Ron.
- they all seemed rather anxious as they scattered themselves around Eleanor's sitting room, making themselves comfortable on the surrounding furniture.

"When are they getting here?" Ginny gulped and her timing was almost impeccable as a knock from the door sounded door.

Eleanor shot Ginny a knowing look, raising her eyebrows at her.
- it didn't seem like the group even had a moment to prepare their plan as the George and Alicia arrived precisely on time.

Reluctantly, after taking a deep breath, Eleanor opened up the door, revealing a well dressed Alicia and a anxious looking George.

"I hope you didn't start the party without us" Alicia cooed, pushing her way past Eleanor to find her seat.

And already she was acting up.
- Eleanor smiled at George who for once actually smiled back at her, giving her a hug on the way in.

"Nice to have you here Georgie" Eleanor said faintly, giving a tap on the shoulder as he made his way in.

Soon enough the whole group were sat in the living room and it was only then did the pressure start to set in. It was hard to pretend to be nice knowing what they knew.

"I actually brought a concoction of my own making" Alicia smirked as she pulled out a rather fancy glass bottle from her bag.

The liquid inside of it was almost a shining gold colour, glittering as it shone against the fire light.

"That's very kind of you Alicia." Eleanor perked up "you can set it down on the table and I'm sure we will indulge it in soon enough."

"Indulge?" Fred whispered, chuckling under his breath "where are you from poshy?"

Eleanor did her best not to laugh back at him, biting her tongue as she did so.
- she was just trying to put on her best niceties.

"No, I insist!" Alicia chorused "as you're the host, I think you should be the first to try it out. Honestly it's magnificent."

Eleanor watched Alicia as she stood up from her seat and insistingly poured her a drink, placing it in front of her.

"Trust me, you won't regret." She giggled with a mischievous look on her face.