Enemies - Fred Weasley X OC

Brothers and Secrets

~Zephyra~

"Happy birthday."

I looked up from my book. I was in a little nook behind the staircases in the common room. It was pressed up against the glass, which meant on a sunny day beams of greenish light filtered through the Black Lake and were the perfect intensity for hours of reading. You also sometimes spotted merpeople, even the Giant Squid if you were lucky. 

"Draco," I said, seeing my brothers tight pressed lips and anxious shoulders. He was holding out a small parcel to me wrapped in brown paper - completely different from the ostentatious wrapping of the present I'd received from my mother that morning, containing a beautiful gold bracelet with a green pendant. 

It had been over a month since the holidays and this was the first time we'd spoken. I barely spoke to anyone in Slytherin nowadays; keeping to myself, putting up wards around my bed, studying. I helped Harry, Hermione and Ron in the library - especially as the second task was coming up in the next week and so Harry needed all the help he could get. I hung out with Fred and George a lot too, but otherwise I was rather solitary. I'd thought my brother was going to keep ignoring me indefinitely.

I opened the present carefully, finding a collection of relatively mundane things. 

A new quill. Ink in olive green. A book.

We'd never given each other extravagant gifts. Our parents had always given us whatever we wanted for our birthdays, so our tradition had developed into a collection of small but personal items. My quill had broken the week before, so I was down to my last one. Olive green was my favourite colour for writing revision notes, and the book was about a coven of witches in the court of King Henry VIII - which seemed right up my alley. All of this, Draco knew.

"Thank you," I said quietly, feeling touched by the sentiment. 

Draco nodded before turning to leave. 

"Dray? Will you stay for a moment?"

Draco stilled, his shoulders tightening, and I could see his head raise, like he was looking around him for signs that anyone was watching - but the nook was quiet and out of sight from the rest of the common room. 

He turned and in a few strides was with me again, sitting against the opposite end of the nook like he was unsure whether he should be there. 

"What do you want to talk about?"

I shrugged. "Are you okay? How was the holidays?"

"It was awful," he snapped, "yours?"

I struggled to accustom myself to Draco's bluntness. 

"It was fine," I murmured. 

"Fine? Staying in a hovel with the Weasels." The sneer spread across his face like a sickness.

"Don't say that -"

"Well, I'm glad you had a nice holiday," he spat, "without the irritants that are your actual family. Has father contacted you?"

The change in direction had me floudering. 

"No."

"He told me he wouldn't, wants to talk to you in person about all of this..." Draco waved his hand vaguely.

I stilled. I'd not thought about my father much. After he requested for my tormentors to be unpunished, I had naively assumed that might be the extent of my punishment.

"I - well, I'll deal with father when I see him then. That doesn't explain why you're acting like a prick."

"Father won't hurt you. He would never hurt his family - unlike some."