my best friends brother - fred weasley

xlviii. another secret

Following Fred and George up the stairs of the shop, I had a chance to look over the entire store and the lively buzz of it all, it was so different to what Diagon Alley like just outside. Ron appears just by my side, holding a trinket in his hands.

"Oi! How much for me?" He yells over the noise to his brothers.

"Five Galleons." They reply bluntly, looking down at him.

"How much for me?" Ron insists, the twins shoot each other a confused look.

"Five Galleons."

"But I'm your brother."

"Fine, ten galleons." Ron huffs in response, turning back around.

"Come on Clover, let's go." He tugs on my sleeve, heading towards Hermione and Harry who were waiting near the door.

"Um, I might stay a little longer. You guys can leave without me." I bite my lip and wave them off, running back up the stairs to walk with Fred. Fred glances over his shoulder to them all staring, Ron rolls his eyes and mutters something under his breath.

"Come on, come meet someone." Shooting him a death stare, Fred tucks me under his arm and walks up the stairs with me. We have to stop a couple time so he can pick things out of kids hands to show me.

"How did you manage to do it?" I ask, cradling a Pink Pygmy Puff in my hands.

"They're just miniature Puffskeins, they're our best seller." He says, looking down at my hands.

"Not these," I roll my eyes, "How did you get the store to be so..."

"Big? Harry actually gave us our start up so we were able to save some there..." He starts.

"Really? Wait no that's not what I was asking." I palm the Pygmy Puff off to a young girl, watching her face light up. "It's so dark and eerie out there, the entire alley is shut down. And in here it's like, the opposite."

"Oh, well people need a laugh now, and this is where the come to get it." He places his hands on the rail, over looking the store. The stress is clear on his face, the stress of the war and having to take care of his family, and now having to run the store. I place my hand on top of his and give it a gentle squeeze. I stand on my tip toes and crane my neck to kiss him on the cheek.

"Awh, you're so sweet." I say lightly in his ear. "But who I am meant to be meeting?" I drop back down.

"Oh no one, I just wanted to get you away." He smirks and wraps his arm around my waist.

"Oh so you lied to me?" I cross my arms and pretend to be upset, ignoring all of the faces staring at us.

"I guess I did, I'm not sorry about it though." He laughs, squeezing me into a hug.

"Can you show me the last surprise. The one behind the door?" I squirm in his tight grip, my hands resting on his shoulders. He hums in my ear for a second, then slowly lets me go.

"Let me ask George, I'll be right back." He wanders of to find his brother, leaving a kiss on my hand. Blushing, I turn back to look down the store, my eyes scan the group of students, landing on on a pair of eyes that are staring right back at me. They belong to a short, frizzy haired girl that looks like she might want me dead. I slowly turn to the side, trying to see if it's actually me she's staring at, but she keeps her glare on me and her grip tightens on the love potion she's holding. Within a second the bottle pops, sending the bright pink liquid spraying all over her and everyone around her, even landing on the purple hairband on her head.

"Bad news." Fred says behind me, kissing the too of my head. "George said to wait until Christmas."

"What? That's dumb." I groan, more interested in the girl staring me down than whatever he's telling me.

"Who's that?"

"I don't know." I mumble back before breaking the eye contact and turning to smile at Fred. "I realised that I missed some of my books, is it alright if I go grab them?"

"Yeah, you can apparate with us back home too, since the rest left you here." He nods, sticking his hand in his pocket. "Take this for your books, as another birthday present." He slips a handful of gold coins into my hand.

"Fred, my birthday was ages ago. I can't. And I have heaps from mum anyway." I growl back at him, trying to shove it into his pocket again. He pushes my hand back.

"No, I'm your sugar daddy and I say go get your books." He walls away before I can give them back, disappearing into the crowd. I'm left blushing in the middle, with even more eyes staring at me.

⊱✿⊰

It took a while for me to finish getting my supplies, at every corner I stopped and looked around before moving, just in case a Death Eater wanted to attack. I convinced myself that I was being perfectly rational but I knew Fred would disagree when I told him why I was gone for so long. I had purchased my new set of quills and was hyping myself up to bolt from one side of Diagon Alley to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes, my arms full of the textbooks I forgot to buy with my friends. I took my first step to run and boom- I ran into someone. Or someone ran into me.

"I'm so sorry!" I apologise and pick myself up off the ground, offering my hand to help them up. Their pale hand grips onto me and I flinch at how cold it is, I flinch again when I see who it's connected to. "Oh, sorry Draco."

"It's fine." Keeping his eyes down, he brushes off his pants, grabbing some of the books I dropped. I bend down at the same time as him and we bump heads.

"Oh my god. I'm sorry again!" I cringe at myself.

"It's fine." He mumbles again, putting the books into my hands and storming off, not looking back. A few deep breaths later, I'm back on my mad dash to the shop.

"Where have you been!" Fred shrieks when the bell dings, George's head snaps up too. The shop is now empty and it's just them too.

"You sound like mum." George laughs, head going back down to the paper he's reading.

"Sorry. I got held up." I shrug, grinning to try and distract him. I slowly make my way over, placing my books on the floor next to him to give him a bear hug. "You can't be mad at me. You're the one keeping secrets still." I say into his ear, he brushes off his grudge and hugs me back.

"Come on. Let's go home." He says, making sure George can hear as well.

"You two go, I'll stay back for a bit." George shrugs, waving his hand at us. I bend down to grab my things while Fred talks to George about the store.

"Let's go." Fred walks us to the front of the store, holding his arm out for me to grab. With a loud snap, we spin away and land out the front of The Burrow. Stumbling slightly, Fred places his hand on the small of my back to stabilise me.

"Thanks baby." I peck him on the cheek and he raises his eyebrows at the new pet name. "Okay, no baby." I laugh with him.

"Okay I do have to warn you." He puts his hand on the doorknob so I can't open the door. "Mum is usually a terror before everyone goes back to school, but she'll probably be worse this year."

"I'm sure I can handle it. It's you I'm worried about."

"I know, I'm going to be terrible." He moans and drops all of his weight onto me. My stomach hurts as I laugh, trying to push him off of me. He lazily drapes his arms around my shoulders and starts planting kisses all over my face.