CHRYSALIS - FRED WEASLEY

CHAPTER 6

"Well," George says, after a moment, "Go on then." He hands it back to Fred. He smiles, lets George drop it into his hand, and tosses it into his mouth. He chews and swallows. After a moment, he clears his throat tentatively, as though he were testing something.

"Mr. Weasley, you've been a very, very naughty boy," Fred blurts out in the high, ringing Scottish accent of Professor McGonnagal. His voice echoes through the nearly empty Great Hall, causing a group of Ravenclaws to snicker quietly and a couple Slytherins to roll their eyes. George's eyes widen in shock and he stares at Fred with his mouth hanging open, his porridge discarded.

"Holy shit!" he exclaims, "How long does it last?"

"Only a couple of seconds," Fred replies, in his normal voice.

"How'd you manage it?"

"It's a variation on polyjuice. I just switched the boomslang skin for siren hair and tweaked some of the ratios. Was up all night brewing."

"And it can be any voice we want?" George asks.

"Yep. Don't even need the person's hair or anything, I guess voices are a bit easier to imitate magically than looks. You've just gotta enchant the thing before you eat it, pretty simple glamour charm."

"Right," George says, obviously impressed, but reluctant to show it. He turns back to his porridge, now cold, and stirs it halfheartedly. The Great Hall is filling up now, and students shuffle into the hall in droves, ready to eat. "Well, who are we going to prank with it first, then?" As George asks this, Fred looks around. He sees Lillie talking animatedly to a girl he thinks is named Ella. Suddenly Charlie Bell dips his head between the two girls and pecks Lillie on the cheek before rushing back to the Slytherin table, his posse of Purebloods cackling. Ella is yelling various obscenities after him, and Lillie calmly gives him the middle finger as he retreats.

"I think I've got an idea."

***

Lillie and Fred have Advanced Transfiguration together. They always noticed each other, of course. Fred always made a scene with his near-constant disruptions to the class, yet his boyish charm seemed to get him out of any real trouble. It was hard not to notice Fred. Lillie's presence, on the other hand, is a little more subtle. Everyone in the class knows who she is; she's bright, and is a dependable force in the class. She's the student who only answers when her classmates cannot, who would rather whisper the correct answer to her neighbor than say it herself.

Of course, Fred noticed her beauty right away. He'd never had a class with her before, which made sense, as this was one of the only advanced classes he'd taken in his time at Hogwarts. Fred is smart--giften, even-- but, as McGonagall would say, a bit "misguided". She sat two rows behind him, so he didn't actually see her face until the second day of the class. He'd been late coming back from lunch, and rushed into class with his books levitating behind him, charmed to follow his every move (he was at the point in the term where he still cared about being on-time, so he was rather stressed about his tardiness). He bustled into the classroom, still chewing the final bite of the cheese toastie that he took to-go. Lillie remembers the moment very clearly; though it was apparent he was rushing to take his seat, he still had that cool, unapologetic swagger about him. She recalls it coming off as arrogant, haughty even. She didn't like him at first. She thought he was self-important, with a lack of respect for authority. She wondered why he was even in Advanced Transfiguration.

Lillie didn't know that as he made his way into the classroom, Fred set eyes on her for the first time. It wasn't a movie moment by any means; his world didn't stop, time didn't slow, none of that "sappy mugggle shit", as he would've called it.