May the Best Man Win |×| Fred Weasley | 1 |×|

×| THIRTY-EIGHT |×

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"How far in are we supposed to go?" Nikki's voice was the first to speak up as they hurried through the woods. Evelyn, having lost her grip on Max and Ashton's arms, followed behind her three friends. Or rather, their barely noticeable silhouettes that blended very well into the dappled darkness.

"I don't know. There's people everywhere." Ashton answered quietly, only just audible over the crunching of leaves and occasional wails from children somewhere nearby.

"How can you tell that? Its dark." That was Max. Evelyn found herself stupidly relieved that the three shapes she was following were actually definitely her friends.

"Can't you hear the yelling and crying, Max? Trees don't generally sound like that, you moron."

"I'd love to hit you right now, Ash, but I can't tell you apart from the others because it's dark."

"Can anyone actually see anything?" Nikki asked, just as a particularly loud group of people babbling in a language Evelyn didn't understand passed them nearby.

"No. I think someone should -" Evelyn started to say when something snagged her foot making her yelp. The ground came rushing up to meet her face. She groaned, having only just put her hands out in time so that her nose didn't smash against the forest floor. Slowly, she wriggled her foot free of whatever had tripped her up and rearranged herself to sit upright. She breathed in and out, squeezing her eyelids shut - "light their wand."

She waited for the brilliant white light of a Lumos charm to light her eyelids on fire. Nothing came. She waited for a concerned comment and a hand on her shoulder. Nothing came. She waited for the crackle of somebody standing on dry twigs or the shuffle of feet on the woodland floor. Nothing came.

Evelyn took her wand out of her hair with a shaky hand and whispered the words to light it. She unscrewed her eyelids, head twisting around.

Searching.

Nothing.

Alone.

Behind her was a tree. She leant up against it, curling into herself, and shivered as a gust of wind blew the leaves from the ground. Maybe it was a layer of dust disturbed by the breeze that made her eyes water a little. Or maybe it was that she was suddenly alone in the strange woods with her family still in the action and her best friends nowhere to be seen. Somewhere, somebody was yelling, reminding her that there were others in the woods. But she still felt entirely alone.

Evelyn tried to reassure herself that it was some big mistake. They wouldn't leave her there on purpose. Obviously that big crowd of noisy wizards that passed them earlier meant Nikki, Max and Ashton didn't hear her yell. Obviously. They wouldn't leave her there on purpose. Never. They hadn't heard her fall. They'd come back. They always would.

But at that moment, they weren't there. Evelyn's lip trembled. Tears escaped from her eyes. They ran down her cheeks - not even the salty droplets would keep her company. Breathing shakily, she put her still lit wand back in her hair. Maybe if she sat there, unmoving against the trunk of the tree, they would come back and find her. There would be a better chance if she stayed put and didn't go searching her own way.

It was a flimsy plan, but a plan nonetheless, and a plan was what Evelyn needed in that moment because whatever mess the night had turned out in was not how she'd planned her best day ever to end.

Its okay. You're okay. Alone... In the dark... In the woods... But okay.

Evelyn sat in her bubble of pearly light and looked down at her hands sitting on her knees. Her palms were pink with scratches and  blood. When she'd used them to break her fall she must have cut them on some rocks. The grazes stung and seared when the salty tears fell on them. With the backs of her hands she hastily wiped at her cheeks.

Stop crying. You're being stupid. They'll come and find you any minute now.

"Evie, Is there a reason you're sitting on the ground all alone?"

Evelyn jolted backwards at the invasion of the new voice. The back of her head collided painfully with the trunk of the tree, making the tears well harder and heavier at the brims of her eyes and taking away from the sting in her palms. Whimpering, Evelyn took her head in her hands, trying to expel the awful throbbing.

There was a shuffling noise from beside her followed by a small grunt. Then there was the warmth of a hand on her back and a familiar waft of cinnamon and honeydukes and bonfires. She squinted through a gap in her fingers that framed a friendly face that was unusually contorted in concern rather than laughter. But Evelyn didn't think she would have cared if he had been laughing at her. It was the soft heat of his hand that calmed her hammering heart.

"Fred?" Evelyn sniffed, quickly trying to stifle the last of the tears. "What are you doing here?"

"Where? On the ground? I'd ask you the same question," He spoke a lot quieter than usual, Evelyn noted, but it kept that cheerful, charming tone it had always had. When Evelyn only sniffed in answering, Fred's hand went to her shoulder and he shifted closer so that they were nearly sat on top of each other. "Well, I was with George and my sister, Ginny, but then I got separated from them in a blazing stampede of rabid teenagers! I was chilled to the bone as I wandered lonely through the trees, and then just as I was about to give up I saw the light of your wand and came straight over, knowing that finally I was saved!" He told it like am epic fairytale. Evelyn finally looked directly at him with a raised eyebrow, forgetting about the inevitable redness of her teary eyes.

"None of that was true, was it?" She asked him. Fred chuckled with a shake of his head.

"No. Ginny saw that there was someone over here behind a tree and I came over to investigate." Fred admitted, scooting even closer (if that was at all possible.) Evelyn let herself lean into his touch, her head falling heavily into his shoulder as her tiredness caught up with her, "Lucky for you that I did, huh? Why are you on the floor anyway? And where's the rest of your gang?"

"I fell over and they didn't notice."

"They didn't notice?"

"Remember the teenager stampede from your story? It was very loud." That got another chuckle from Fred, "And then I tripped and I didn't get back up."

"Well there's no time like the present!" Fred said, and then he carefully took his arm from around Evelyn, clapping his hands as he jumped to his feet, "come on, I'll look after you until we find your friends - who, I will say, should really think about getting their eyes checked. How do you not notice your best friend isn't walking next to you anymore?"

He stuck out both of his hands to help her up. The aching from where she'd banged her head had made Evelyn forget about her wounded palms, and she immediately winced in pain as she placed them in his grasp. Fred's face twisted in concern again and he pulled her up, turning her hands in his and then wrapping her tightly in another hug.

"We'll make sure to clean these up, too," he said gently.

Fred pulled back a little but didn't break the contact. The warmth of his touch was a stark contrast to the chill of the night. Perhaps it was the fatigue, or maybe the throbbing in her head, but in that moment Evelyn was ignorant of the distant cries and shouts. The light from her wand shone like a ethereal halo, lighting the freckles on Fred's cheeks as burning stars. Their faces almost nose to nose, Evelyn saw the swirling, deep warmth of Fred's eyes that brought about an all consuming calm.

"Some night, huh?" Her voice was barely a whisper. Fred smiled his charming, crooked smile.

She blinked.

His lips fell onto hers.

Everything melted.