inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

sixteen.

 Ron had seemed embarrassed and hesitant to explain anything further to me when I explained that no, I had not known. The rest of detention went on in awkward silence, with Harry occasionally trying to start conversation with me, which I haughtily denied him, being angry with the two for not telling me anything. Goddamnit, nobody was telling me anything.

McGonagall had merely sighed when she saw that Fred was no longer there, and handed us our phones back, giving Fred's to Ron and asking him if he could kindly let his brother know that she'd be expecting him back here tomorrow at lunch time. In the common room, Peaches tried to give me the notes for tomorrow's class, but my head was too heavy to think about anything academic at the moment. I slept poorly, tossing and turning, feeling stupid and childish for letting some dumb boy get to me this deeply. I kept replaying Fred's angry glare, his cold tone, his defiant exit, and the images gnawed at my stomach. Everyone knew that he had a crush on me? What did that even mean?

The questions tumbled around in my head the whole next day, and by the time I was in Peaches's dorm room, getting ready for the party, I couldn't keep it inside any longer without going insane.

"Ron told me Fred has a crush on me." I said suddenly, without thinking, causing my three friends to look at me in surprise.

"He did what!" Peaches exclaimed, bouncing to sit on the bed next to me. She was wearing form-fitting brown wool pants and a tight turtleneck that accentuated her natural waist. Her hair was swept into a top knot, with a few tasteful curls framing her face.

"That Fred has a crush on me, and everyone knows." I accentuated 'everyone', looking between the three of them. Peaches was merely blinking at me innocently, but Wilda was avoiding my gaze and Juliet looked painfully guilty.

"Ok, fine, it was Peaches's idea." Juliet finally cried after an awkward moment of silence. She was wearing a small knit sweater and high waisted jeans. The pale beige sweater brought out the pink nervous blush that was blooming on her face.

"So you guys did know." I exclaimed, pointing at the three of them accusingly. Peaches moved to pull me into a desperate hug, and yelled apologies as I tried to wiggle out of her grasp.

"Technically it was Fred's idea! We were trying to set you two up!" She was saying.
"Which we're miserable at, apparently." Wilda said defeatedly, folding her arms against her oversized black hoodie.

"I thought it would be fun, but you're so daft sometimes Diana, honestly." Juliet was sighing, moving to hug me from my other side so I was unable to escape either. I huffed and hawed until they finally let me go, standing and turning to look between the three, crossing my arms angrily.

"You should have just told me."

"We know." Peaches's voice was soft, and my demeanor softened a little.

"I mean, it doesn't matter now. I made him really mad yesterday."
"Wait, you what." Wilda deadpanned, moving to sit next to Peaches, so now the three looked up at me like an audience. I felt my face fill with blood, and I shoved my hands into my pockets, leaning back on my heels a little, looking off to the side nervously.

"Diana," Juliet said in a calm and stern way, "What did you do?"
"It's not that bad." I murmured, and Peaches let out a little cry.

"We've been working so hard Diana!" She exclaimed.
"Obviously not that hard! I had no idea what was going on!" I yelled back. Wilda suddenly burst out into laughter, stunning the rest of us. She gasped and giggled, throwing her head back and shaking her short dark hair.
"We were really so bad at it. I don't know why Fred thought we'd be able to help at all."
Peaches started to giggle as well, and then Juliet, and then we were all laughing, and it was a heavy, gasping, clapping type of laughter. The tension that had started to form was quickly gone from the room, and I collapsed onto the floor.