inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

one.

I hadn't meant to show face at the party.
Sure- I'd heard about it happening. And yeah, I was a little stung when I didn't receive an invitation- I was, afterwall, the one who found out that Crabbe and Goyle were brewing moonshine in the Slytherin bathrooms. I was also the one who helped Judas Horn, the Hufflepuff sixth year I dated for a little while, become the school drug dealer. 'Nothing that doesn't grow out of the ground, though!' he always insisted, 'we trust the Earth in the house of Hufflepuff'. He was a goofy guy.

Anyway, not having received the invitation was yeah, a blow to the ego. I'd always thought the Weasley twins at least found me amusing. Cute, even. I hadn't meant to show up anyway. But Judas and I had been fucking around afterhours, and Filch was coming, and we had needed somewhere to hide quick. Dipping into the Room of Requirement party was the first thing that came into mind.
So here we were.

Everyone had obviously cheered when Judas arrived, getting handshakes and pats on the back from various students, asking if he had anything on him, if he was selling tonight, how much would just a joint be. The boy went to work, happily chatting away about the medicinal benefits of smoking once a day- not in the morning though, don't want to be living your life in a fog- and I was left alone. The room was packed with all sorts of kids I'd come across in the last two years at Hogwarts- whenever there was a party, it seemed to be the same group that was throwing it. Sure, there were a couple of odd faces- Cedric Diggory, for example, the Hufflepuff prefect, who was making his way over to me.

I raised a brow at him, and he grinned sloppily.

"Diana!" He called, placing a heavy hand on my shoulder, "How are you?"

I laughed.
"How am I? Better to know how you are. What're you doing with a rough crowd like this. Thought you were our house's golden boy."

He shrugged, still grinning, looking around at the group.
"Guess I needed a night off from being the golden boy. Besides, it's the holidays! Good enough time as any for a break." He winked, and then slung his arm around my shoulders. "You pick up a drink yet?"

"Not yet, are you offering to get me one?"

He hummed and nodded.
"Diana, always so cunning and perceptive. Should have been a Slytherin."

I giggled at the thought.

"Go get me my beer, Diggory."
Cedric put on a jokingly sober face. "Yes ma'am." He conceded with a nod, and bounded off into the crowd. I folded my arms and leaned against the wall. I spied Cho Chang in a corner, giving me an angry glare, and I attempted a friendly smile and wave, which she turned away from. Cedric and Cho had broken up a couple of months ago, and it seemed to be harder on her than it was on him. She was a sweet girl, and I felt bad but- Cedric was a weird kid, and we'd been friendly ever since I'd transferred from Ilvermorny. It wasn't any surprise he was the first guy to talk to me. It was surprising, though, that he was at a party at all. He'd probably had a fight with his dad again, I figured. Only reasonable explanation.

Judas was talking somewhere near me now, and I tried to catch his eye. If I wasn't drunk in the next ten minutes, I was leaving, I decided to myself. I wanted my friend to know that. But instead I caught the eye of the guy he was talking to. It was hard to miss the mop of ginger hair.

Fred Weasley had grown like a fucking foot since last year, and I, along with probably every other girl at this goddamn school, had fucking noticed. He and his brother were popular, adored, even, and always up to something stupid or funny. Loud in class, I had heard, and great in bed. Some girl last year had pierced their ears in the woods, and so they were easier to tell apart now- Fred with three earrings up his right ear, George with two in his left. Fred was talking to Judas offhandedly, as though he was only half paying attention, and his eyes had been on me. I felt my face grow warm, but I held my gaze steady, crossing my arms and raising a brow. He smirked, and seemed to be about to approach my way when Cedric appeared in front of me, dangling a beer in front of my face.

"I didn't open it. I remember how you said that once. You don't drink anything you didn't watch get made."
I smiled at his flushed face, and took the beer, cracking it open.

"You ever shotgun a beer, Diggory?" I asked as I pressed the cold thing to my lips, taking a long sip, eyes darting over to Fred to see if he was still watching.

He was, eyes peering through long bangs, his twin having joined his side but seeming to be much more engaged in the conversation than his brother. Cedric was telling me no, he'd never heard of such a thing, was it a muggle thing- or worse, an American thing.

I laughed flirtatiously, conscious of Fred's gaze, placing a disinterested hand on Cedric's arm.

"Yes, it's both actually. It's fun though. And gets you shitfaced hella fast. Wanna try one with me?"

"What does it entail?"

"Well," I took another sip from my beer, making sure to meet Fred's eyes, "You take a beer can, and like, a key- or a knife, or something- and you stab a hole into a beer. Then, you put the hole to your mouth," I tapped my lips, still glancing at Fred, "-and open the beer. It all rushes out of the hole- cause of the pressure or whatever, and you gotta chug the whole thing- oh my god, this one time-" I forgot what I was doing, excited actually about this hilarious story I was going to tell Cedric, meeting his eyes instead of Freds and turning my earnest attention to him. "-okay, okay, this one time I was in the city, right-"
"The city?" Cedric interrupted. I huffed.
"Uh, like New York. Whatever, so I was in the city with some friends, and we'd just gotten fakes-"
"So you really do have fakes in America? I always thought that was just a movie thing."
I laughed, shaking my head.

"Yeah, we really have fakes in the US. Hey, stop interrupting me!" I whined, smacking his arm playfully, and Cedric laughed, bumping me a little, and then staying there. The contact felt warm.

"Anyway, as I was saying, one time I was in the city, we'd just gotten fakes, and we were buying some tallboys-" Cedric opened his mouth, but I held up a hand, "-big cans of beer. They're cheap. We got some tallboys right, and we were standing in line, but I was already shitfaced because we'd pregamed pretty hard, cause it was- I think it was like, James's birthday or something. Oh no, it was probably Emilia's- anyway anyway, I was holding this big can of beer in line, and just as I was about to pay, I dropped the thing, and it popped open and started spraying everywhere- ugh and I was wearing this super cute dress like it fit me- nevermind nevermind, essentially I had to shotgun a whole tallboy right there in the bodega, and like the cashier was so impressed he let me have another one for free."
We looked at one another. Cedric seemed amused, but he wasn't laughing or anything.
"I guess you had to be there." I said defeatedly, and then Cedric laughed, which was a nice sound, and he was still pressed next to me, which was warm. I giggled into my beer, tipping my head back to finish the thing, and snapping the tab into the can, clanking it around.
"Need another one?" Someone said from behind me, and I turned to look into a long, freckled face.

"Fred!" Cedric said happily, clapping the boy's shoulder with drunken ease. Fred smiled his way, but kept glancing down at me. I bit my lip and shrugged, still shaking my can without thinking.

"You know, " I mused, looking between the two of them, "I'd really like a shot. Oh, " I tapped my mouth thoughtfully, "-and an explanation as to why, exactly, I had to crash this cute little shindig."

Fred looked surprised.
"What do you mean, you didn't get the text?"
I rolled my eyes.
"No, Weasley, I didn't get any text."
"George was supposed to text you."
"Guess George doesn't have my number." I said, acting coy, batting my eyelashes up at the ceiling. Fred laughed, shaking his head.
"Guess we'll have to fix that."
"Guess you will. It's embarrassing, you know, not getting invited somewhere."
He hummed, and Cedric seemed a little lost as to what to do.
"Shots?" He decided to reiterate, and Fred and I laughed, nodded, Fred leading the way to the alcohol table.