inertia || a Fred Weasley love story

twenty one.

Irving looked between George and me, and then glanced at Peaches. She patted his arm absently as Juliet rubbed my back in comforting circles and Wilda continued to try and calm me down.

"I'm totally fine, you guys!" I exclaimed, voice cracking and pushing my tears away angrily, "I don't know why I'm crying. I think it's just the hangover."

"You did seem pretty out of it last night." George was saying matter of factly, obviously trying to lighten the mood. He winced a little as Juliet sent him a stern look, but smiled when I laughed.

"I was so drunk." I spit out, sniffling and rubbing at my face with my sleeves. I could feel the feelings subside a little, and embarrassment washed over me. "Fuck, I am sorry guys."

"It's okay babes." Peaches was saying, moving so that she could put her hands on my knee, "You have stuff going on. Nobody's blaming you for going a little crazy sometimes."

"You have stuff going on?" Irving repeated lamely, and everyone burst into awkward giggles, letting the tension in the room dissipate. I let out a great deep breath as everyone calmed down, and shook hair into my eyes.

"God, I'm not looking forward to seeing my mom." I muttered, and Juliet let out a little scoff, pushing the hair away from my neck to resume what she was doing.

"Bloody hell, who ate you?" George exclaimed, causing Peaches to burst right back into peals of laughter.

"You mean you don't know?" Wilda said with a deadpan tone, leaning back and settling into her new seat.

"No? Should I know? It wasn't Fred, was it?"

"Nope, but he sure did stumble upon it." Juliet muttered as she started to dab harder.

"Ow- Jesus, Juliet." I pulled away from her a little, and she sighed, frowning at me.

"I give up. I think that's as good as it's going to get." She said, moving to put away her makeup bag. I grabbed my phone and assessed the job in the camera.

"My mom is going to kill me." I whispered to my face. Wilda laughed lightly as George looked between the four of us.

"Seriously, who did that? My mum's going to want to know."

"Your mum?" Peaches questioned as I let out a little whine, slumping backwards.

"She likes to know all the gossip." George informed us with a small smile. I glowered at him, using a hand to rake more hair in front of my face again.

"It was Cedric." Juliet finally let him know, and the boy's mouth dropped open.

"Diggory?"

"Seriously, guys, is there another Cedric in this fucking school." I exclaimed, and everyone looked surprised at my outburst.

"You know, Peaches, I think I'm going to go find the sweets trolley." Irving mumbled into the brief silence that followed.

"I'll go with you!" She cried, grasping at his arm as he stood to leave. He offered her a shy smile, and simply nodded, pink coloring his cheeks.

"Who was that guy?" George whispered jokingly as the door slid shut, and Wilda moved to take the place that had opened beside the boy.

"Greg Irving." Juliet supplied again, flipping some hair behind her shoulder as she went to check her phone, "He's in your year, I think. Chaser for the Hufflepuff team?"

"Oh!" George said, recognition coloring his tone. "I didn't know his name. But he did look familiar- I guess that's a little embarrassing."

"What, that you guys have a tendency to keep to yourselves? We been known that, Weasley." Wilda chided, looking down at her phone as well, slumping low and holding the device close to her face. They left George and I sitting alone in the silence, awkwardly not looking at one another.