inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

thirty two.

Guests started to arrive after I got off the phone with Peaches. She'd coached me on how to do my hair and makeup as we discussed my realization, and I examined our work in the mirror. I had enchanted my hair to be straight and smooth, making it easy to flip around and run my hands through. The makeup look she'd walked me through was fairly simple, with dark brown around the eyes and a red lip to match the dress Ginny had offered me. And the dress- the dress fit like a glove. It hugged curves I hadn't even realized that I'd had, and I'd paired it with white tights and a pair of red heels that were most definitely Alice's at some point. Tying the whole look together with a pair of jingle bell earrings I'd brought as a joke, I felt fairly confident in how I looked. So confident, in fact, that I barely noticed David's glare as I entered the room.

Potter saw me first, and he seemed to light up when we made eye contact.

"Sterling! Merlin, you look.." He trailed off, and I snorted a little, pushing my hair back absently, revelling in the way my hand glided through it.

"Thanks kiddo. You look pretty cute tonight." I winked at him, and I wasn't lying. He wore a pair of dark jeans and an ill fitting dress shirt, but the get up was somehow very fitting on him. Behind him his parents spoke animatedly with the Weasleys, and a man with lots of tattoos seemed a little too close to my mom for my- or David's- liking. I decided to ignore that as I peered around the room, clasping my hands behind my back nervously.

"Have you seen the twins anywhere?" I asked coyly. Potter sighed, and then looked around as well, shrugging.

"I think all the kids have headed over to the tent already. Snagging drinks before the adults can scold us for it, you know."

"Oh." I said lamely. There was a lull in the conversation.

"Do you want to head over there with me?" Potter finally asked with an amused tone. I let out a sigh of relief.

"Yes, please. I feel like it'd be weird if I, like, headed over on my own."

He laughed, gestured towards the door.

Fred, George, Bill and Ron stood in a circle an arms length away from Alice, Ginny, Hermione and Neville. Oh- Neville. I hadn't imagined that I'd see him here. Ron was shooting weird and painful looks towards Alice who was very pointedly ignoring them and my heart went out to my sister- wasn't I just a few days ago in exactly the same position? Or, well. I guess I was a little stupider in the situation. Alice was definitely the smart one- Ravenclaw and all. She'd figure this out.

George was the one to catch sight of Harry and I, and waved us to their group. I shot Alice a small grimace, to which she glared back at, and followed Harry into the group of boys. Hermione offered me a shy little wave as I did, to which I smiled politely and waved back. Hermione was nice, I figured. Maybe, if things got too overwhelming, I could just hang out with her tonight. That was a reassuring thought. Fred was saying something to me, and I only caught the end of it.

"-clean up nice." He was saying, and I looked at him blankly. Bill chuckled a little, hiding his face in his drink and Fred's cheeks tinted pink, glancing around at the group of boys. He gestured to me up and down then. "Right, lads? She looks nicer than usual!"

"I think Diana always looks nice." Harry commented quite matter of factly, which made me blink at him in surprise. The tips of his ears went red, but he maintained a straight face, shrugging. Fred bristled a little, then fumbled with his words, then regained his composure and crossed his arms.

"Yeah, well, me too." He said haughtily, and I raised a brow at him.

"You going to accept all these compliments, Sterling, or are you just going to let the idiots carry on?" George's voice lilted with amusement. I looked up at him, feeling the whiskey from earlier swirling hot and heavy in my stomach.