four. WHY ARE YOU STARING

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iv.
WHY ARE YOU STARING

IT HAD BEEN A DREARY Monday morning, exactly two days after Willow Grace had rejected Fred Weasley in Honeyduke's

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IT HAD BEEN A DREARY Monday morning, exactly two days after Willow Grace had rejected Fred Weasley in Honeyduke's. The Gryffindor and Slytherin third years had Potions class together first thing, and Willow sat at a table with a few other Slytherins, none of which she particularly enjoyed the company of. Dawn sat one table to the left of her, and they often flew notes to each other or signed secrets in sign language whenever they needed to talk. Dawn wasn't too fond of the seating either, but somehow got put with Samantha Caudle, whom was good friends with the two girls, even though she could be quite obnoxious at times.

"If you will turn in your books to page 85, you will see.." Professor Snape had droned on, directing the students around in their potions books. Willow just wanted to use the ingredients sat in front of them to make an explosion, even if it was just a small one. But first, they had to read, take some notes, read some more, maybe take some more notes, and then read again. Boring.

"I swear, if I have to read one more word about crushing stupid damn seeds to make a potion dense I might crush this entire-" Willow starts muttering under her breath to the boy next to her, until a piece of parchment hits her head. She looks down at the ball of paper on the dungeon floor, then back up at Snape, who was currently scolding a Gryffindor for dozing off. She swiftly picks up the paper and unravels it to reveal large letters scrawled out in all capital letters.

'DON'T LOOK NOW, BUT A
CERTAIN WEASLEY HAS BEEN
STARING YOU DOWN FOR THE LAST
TEN MINUTES.'

Willow looks to Dawn, and she signs 'He wants your attention.' just below the table. The two girls snap back to face the front as Snape passes by, eyeing them cautiously. Snape always favored Slytherins since he was head of their house, but nevertheless enjoyed getting any student in trouble.

"Miss Turner, will you please tell me what happens if your Confusing Concoction fails to reach a certain thickness?" Snape asks, without even turning to look at the girl.

"It causes the drinker to have side effects of vomiting, numbness of the feet, and rapid hair growth, sir." She replies almost immediately. Every witch and wizard at Hogwarts had gotten used to Snape randomly picking a student to ask sudden questions to when he thought they weren't listening, but it nevertheless it always made them jump when they heard their name being called.

"Very good, now no more passing notes in my class or you and Miss Jeffrey both will suffer the side effects." Snape turns on his heel to face the class, and the two girls nod. No points taken from Slytherins, of course. Willow glances to Dawn, who signs 'whoops," and the two girls smile apologetically to each other. Willow takes a moment to pretend to drop her quill, and then bend down to pick it up, stealing a glance at the back of the room towards the Gryffindors. There of course, was a head of ginger hair, with eyes staring straight at her. She stares back, challenging the boy with no more than a look. With that, he breaks the gaze and his hand shoots up. Willow quickly sits up in her seat, pretending the exchange never happened.

"Professor Snape, I'm afraid I can't focus with these bafoons constantly causing such a fuss." Fred's voice echoes throughout the room, follows by a few scoffs from none other than Lee Jordan and Angelina Johnson, who were sitting on either side of him. Willow let's out a small smile, but it soon falls when she she sees Snape's lips curl, taken aback by the odd statement from the boy.

"I suppose you shall sit up at the front here, next to Turner. Maybe her outstanding grades and work eithic will have a... positive effect on you." Snape sneers, motioning for the Slytherin boy currently seated next to Willow to stand. Willow watches as the boys switch spots, Fred getting a few chuckles from his fellow Gryffindors.

They all knew what he was up to, including Willow. Who else spoke like that to a teacher unless they were trying to get their way?

"How're you on this lovely morning?" Fred says sarcastically as he plops his things down and sits himself in the seat right next to Willow. She rolls her eyes, and sneaks a peak at Dawn, who is obviously trying to contain her laughter.

Willow signs 'Shut up.' over to her, only causing the dark haired girl to laugh even more. Willow huffs, resting her head on the palm of her hand, not amused at all by the situation. Fred notices, and knits his brows at the odd exchange. What had that girl done with her hands for Willow to have understood?

"Not well I presume." He mutters, referring to his question from before. He wasn't even bothering to open his book back up to continue note-taking. He probably hadn't been taking notes at all.

"Why are you here?" Willow asks in an aggravated tone under her breath, putting her quill down forcefully.

"Why I go to school here." Fred smirks, folding his hands on the table in front of him. "I'm offended you didn't know. My name's Fred Weasley and I'm a Gryffindor student here at Hog-"

"Shut up, you twit." Willow hits his shoulder. "I mean why are you here?" She motions to the table they are currently seated at.

"What d'you mean? I couldn't focus." Fred whispers, shrugging his shoulders. Willow inhaled deeply, tugging her hand through her hair in frustration.

"Well now I can't focus you shit! And I know you're not here because you 'couldn't focus!'" Willow hisses, putting quotations over 'couldn't focus.'

"Woah, there miss feisty. No need to get your feathers ruffled." Fred says, throwing his hands up as if to show he did nothing wrong. Willow huffs again, a few strands of hair over her face lifting softly.

"You do that a lot."

"What?"

"Sigh really aggressively."

"Fred Weasley I may actually murder you by the end of this class." Willow says under her breath, just loud enough for him to hear before she ducks her head down as Snape slowly approaches behind them. He was obviously catching on to their banter.

"Please don't, I'm so young! I've got so much to live for!" Fred whisper-shouts, fake pleading. Willow doesn't reply, watching out of her peripheral vision as Snape slinks behind Fred, a small book in hand.

"Oh come on, you can't ignore-" Fred gets cut off by being whacked on the back of the head, of course by Snape himself with the book. Willow snorts, covering her mouth with her hand to contain her laughter.

"Bloody Hell." Fred mutters as Snape strides off, obviously pleased with himself. Willow let's out another laugh, which makes Fred slightly smile as well.

"Ten points from Gryffindor, there will be no flirting as long as I'm here."

Fred wasn't even affected by the chorus of groans from his fellow Gryffindors, he was just glad to make her smile.

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