"JACY BROUGHT BACK LETTERS!"
Said James, looking up at the barn owl, who indeed held a few envelopes in her beak.
"For me!" Lucy interrupted, swiftly catching all of them into her own hand, "Hm... let's see..."
"Stewart! Stewart! Oi, Stewart!" James said, resorting to putting an arm around her to lean closer, while the other seized for the letters, their laughter filling the air, naturally causing a disturbance. Not the biggest of them, but a disturbance, nonetheless.
So, Fred just couldn't concentrate on turning his orange juice into apple. He was certain if the two bothered to pay the slightest bit of attention, they'd notice he'd been analysing for at least two minutes straight, but of course, they would not know, unless maybe he stood up on the table and put on a show.
He looked to his side, Thomas was still eagerly chatting away with Hannah, a conversation which Fred himself had been a participant in, originally. Beside Hannah, Harriet Finch-Fletchley gave Fred a bright wave, which he failed to notice, being too far away in his own thoughts.
Yes, this was a thing. It most definitely was a thing. How could it not be? It was James. It was James and Lucy. It probably had been a thing for longer, much longer than he cared to acknowledge. It worried him the slightest, the slightest of bits. Naturally, the solution to stop that itch was, to simply stop thinking of it.
Easier said than done!
Apparently, and to Fred's dismay, his thoughts were louder than he expected. By Dumbledore, at this rate, he might as well pass for a Ravenclaw! Had Ravenclaw been the Sorting Hat's second choice for him, perhaps? Anyone that knew him would claim there was no other option for him other than Gryffindor, and how could he complain? There was no better house. He could hardly breathe until the hat yelled his house out, who would he have been if it was anything other than Gryffindor?
Not Fred Weasley, that was for sure.
However, speaking of Ravenclaw, he looked ahead to their table to do an innocent round of longing gazes to further prove his love and- oh shit! Oh shit! She was already looking!
On instinct, Fred almost ducked under the table, he could not have said why, only that this was his first thought. Luckily, he reconsidered, and met Aurora's eyes instead. She smiled, and though he knew little to nothing of princesses, it was obvious, they smiled like she did. She could well be one, at the very least be related to one. His little crush brought him the ethereal feeling of wanting to be with her- if she'd let him touch her, well, who would ever complain? But, if not, just being around her would be quite splendid, all too splendind. He was starting to think it was possible that his Howler at the beginning of term didn't exactly convey that sentiment.
"Padfoot, would you stop eye-fucking Aurora Blanc, please?"
James wore a shit eating grin on his face, and he hadn't bothered to look at him. His attention remained on the two letters he now held in his hands, his body still turned to Lucy, instead of sitting normally.
"James, would you stay still, just one bugging moment?" Lucy said, tugging on his undone tie, which she had decided to fix, at some unknown point in time.
"Just one buggin' moment." He agreed, proudly, puffing his chest out.
Hypocrite.
But Fred had no interest in pondering about James's bullshit, he was too busy envisioning more important things, such as the upcoming Blanc-Weasley wedding, and possible names for the children? Did he even want children? Did Aurora want children? They could figure that out on the go. There was a more prominent matter, and her name was Melody Healey. Fred supposed in their house, they'd need to have a guest room, and a room specifically for Melody, that was the most he could offer, and he was being immensely generous, if he did say so himself. He was also considering they might need two houses: one in France, for Aurora's family, and one in England— for obvious reasons. Technicalities like the money to keep two houses could also be thought out along the way, of course.
He still had many details to imagine by the time it was time for Astronomy. Out of the four, Fred was the only one who decided to continue with it. He wasn't sure if he'd get any practical use out of it when he stepped out of Hogwarts. Signs pointed to no, he just took it for a simple reason: he found certain wonder in it. There was no magic involved, something that he immediately thought would be a downside when he first arrived at Hogwarts, but Merlin, planets were moving on their own, the stars were glistening brightly in their very sky, he could put wands aside for a while.
The part that troubled him the most was the tracing and drawing... because how could he ever translate what he was seeing into an inanimate piece of paper? Limited by his own genius and skill, it was the only part of Astronomy that moderately annoyed him. Conveniently, however, now that Lucy didn't have to hand in her own sketches, she was willing to give Fred's a more polished look when he deemed it necessary.
Twenty minutes before midnight, Fred Weasley hummed under his breath, content with himself as he made his way to the respective tower. It was a little strange knowing he couldn't get caught, that he was perfectly justified if Filch were to stop him on his way. Honestly, Fred looked perfectly suspicious, he was well aware of it, but he was guilty of nothing.
He hummed until he reached the seventh floor, particularly the wall, that seemed all too empty to be a coincidence. He found himself staring at it, because somewhere in there, Fred, his Uncle Fred was waiting. Seeing him there was different than seeing him in the small portraits back home, for a reason he couldn't quite explain. It just was. It was, and it unnerved him– why didn't it move? If he was there, why didn't he move? Reconsidering, maybe telling his Dad wouldn't be a bad idea, Fred got a lot of his wisdom from him, he'd have a better chance of knowing.
"You've been summoned!" Dominique had suddenly yelled mercilessly in his ear.
"Fucking hell, you're insane!" Fred felt like he could've jumped straight onto the ceiling, heart hammering in his chest as he gave her a well deserved shove, which she laughed away, "What'd I ever do to you?!"
"You just looked there, so helpless. Had to do something about that." Dominique grinned politely, gesturing to follow her, which, Fred did, not without one last glance at the wall.
What was he thinking, why would he need to tell his Dad? What good would come of that? The room was faulty, that was that, and if he couldn't get over a bloody picture, well— Fred didn't know what to tell himself.
They arrived five minutes before class started, once again, a good part of the students were already there, hanging about. Aurora was chatting with Professor Sinistra (who happened to have the same first name, but it definitely did not suit her as great).
It was creepy to stare at such proximity, so Fred wouldn't, he would try his best. As he tried his best, he went back to Lucy's advice, which he could only sum up with the following: don't be a moron. He thought it was a wonderful way to say it. The teeny, tiniest problem was that sometimes being a moron seemed to be the way he was wired, but his Mum said that with some luck, he'd get over it past the teenage years. Apparently, his Dad had also suffered from the same problem.
"Cute girl your way! She's coming over!" Dominique coughed loudly— well, she supposedly covered it up with a noisy cough, but the way she did it, made Fred think she hadn't tried at all.
But lo and behold, Aurora had, voluntarily, walked up to him, and as it was usual, his mind went haywire, and completely blank, at the same time.
"Good evening, Fred."
"Why, hello, my lady!" Unintentionally, he dragged the 'hello' more than needed. That was even louder than Dominique pathetic imitation of a cough, "You're glowing tonight."
"Oh, of course I am. Thank you, nevertheless," Aurora said, delicate fingers brushing a strand of her hair back, "Considering my last conversation with you was pleasant, and I dare say, our recent encounters have been, as well, I was wondering, would you like to fill today's star chart with me?"
Fred used to think Melody complicated her speech all too much. After Aurora, he kept those thoughts to himself, "You mean you want to be partners?"
"Certainly. Unless you were planning to work on it with... your cousin? She's your cousin, correct?"
"Yes! Yes, she is, but Dominique? Dominique is-" He made a gagging sound. In return, Dom held her middle finger out, luckily for her, Professor Sinistra was turning away.
And work, they did. Last class, Professor Sinistra had introduced them to the Cetus constellation, its location, and its distinguishable stars. To put it into a star chart now was to follow the course.
This dynamic was something that greatly entertained Fred. While he found Professor Sinistra's explanations to be rightfully fitting for an introduction, a guide for the start, he doubted he would've continued with Astronomy if she'd guided them through every tiny step. To each their own, he supposed. Thomas could never tell where in Godric's good name was he meant to point his telescope, if everything looked the bloody same. James was a lot more interested in naming the stars under his own terms (except Sirius, he rather liked Sirius) and popping out the telescope lenses to use as glasses, and finally, Lucy, who deemed the class her nap time... usually. Fred almost had an identity crisis the first class. It had been five years, after all, of taking it with them, a way of acting he'd grown used to, it was weird to have it change.
"It is awfully close to Pisces." It took them a while to set the telescope the right way, but, considering Aurora's statement, it looked like they made it.
"They're dormmates, basically," Fred said, smiling at the silly thought, "Perfect, how do you want to do this? One could draw the constellation, the other could fill the information in—"
"Oh, why not? I could draw." Aurora offered, and Fred handed her the star chart format, and the Constellations In Our Sky book he'd borrowed from the library the other her, to support the paper on. "Would you like to take a look?" She pointed to their telescope.
"Yeah, but when you're done," He said. Truth be told, he was glad she'd picked to draw. Fred cinsidered he barely scraped a decent level. It wasn't something that kept him up at night, but, in front of Aurora, he'd rather have the part he was better at.
"You know," Said Aurora, eyes focused on observing the sky, then the sketch, "You did not strike me as the type to include Astronomy in your schedule."
"Do I not?" He raised his eyebrows, "And what's that supposed to mean, huh?"
"Oh, I did not intend for it to come across that way—"
"It's all shits n' giggles." Fred snickered, "It's still nice to know, though." Aurora rolled her eyes, with a small smile nevertheless. "So, why's that, Blanc?"
"I reckon it's the lack of magic. Fact is, this is a muggle subject, as well. Just... I would not have guessed. Thomas, I believe there was one time where he said he could not make sense of it," Aurora explained.
"I'm too smart for Thomas. Too smart for all of them," Fred said in an ominous voice, trying to achieve a malicious smile, "Okay, now for real. Guess it's just somethin' so big. Like, planets moving around, stars making shapes, us wanting to find meaning in it. And that's like– uh, I don't know– well– very far from us! And we still see it here. It's wicked." He leaned against the tower's railing, the kind of action that would make his mother immediately tell him to quit. "Plus, I kept Divination with James and Lucy. Makes up for all the lost magic."
"May I have your homework maps?" Professor Sinistra approached them, already holding a handful of them. So, Fred took his out from the safe confines of the Astronomy book he'd borrowed, Aurora drew hers out of her bag. A map that looked hardly like a sketch, but almost like a polished painting. Fred felt like he could choke— on nothing.
"Yours is a fairly splendid sketch," Aurora said nevertheless.
"Mine?" He thought she had to be joking for sure, if he was her, he probably wouldn't have hold back a laugh— then he remembered, it wasn't his sketch, it was Lucy's. At least in great part, it was. It would've been so easy to say it was all him, though. Nobody to stop him, and most likely, Lucy wouldn't even mind...
...but no.
"It's not really— mine, I mean. Lucy did the most part. I'm shit at the drawing. Thanks, though, on her behalf." He shrugged, once Professor Sinistra was the essential distance away, "But, yours, how long did it take? Looked like an actual portrait in those museums."
"Flattery gets you nowhere, Fred." Aurora softly laughed.
"None intended!" Fred exclaimed, in mock offence, "Bold that you'd think I'd say anything just to butter you up!"
"Silly me." She put a hand to her chest, mimicking his antics, "I have been immersed in arts all my life. It is a hobby back at home, as well as my electives at Hogwarts. I used to relate them all to art, sketching and painting, particularly," She explained, "My homework took me about half an hour, give or take."
"You used to?"
"Ah, well. Quite sincerely, being apart from Eddie... Edward has encouraged me to expand my limits, beyond the artistic realm. We would go to the art club together. Signing up this year didn't seem to make sense anymore."
She kept drawing, as if it was no big deal, the moonlight that hit her dark skin gave her an angelic-like glow, but, for once, the word that came to Fred's mind wasn't ethereal, or perfect. It was real. A strange word, and what a strange situation, but Aurora felt more real to him than she had before. He became certain, aware that she was not a figment of his imagination, or a fairytale come to life, she was real. She was real before she met him, real when he wasn't around, and she would always continue to be real.
"It is why I decided to keep Astronomy, in fact. Science within a school of magic, an odd combination, isn't it?" Aurora smiled to herself, lifting up their star chart for him to see, "What do you think? Resembles Cetus?"
"It's fantastic." That, it was. No wonder the other squabs in the class would stand no chance against them if they continued to pair up. "Alright, dearest partner, if you ever needed the extra help with the theory of this class, look no further." He pointed to himself, before taking the parchment from her to fill out the information.
"Noted," Aurora said, "I could help you with the maps, if you wanted to. Make it one of those study dates, they call."
The inherent romanticisism of a study date was undeniable, and he was not making that up! Everyone at Hogwarts knew! It even had the word date on it! Nobody just casually asked their group of friends in a study date, it was culture to know the implications of it. It was hallucinating that Aurora had come up with that before he did— hallucinating. If she'd only given him about two more minutes, he would've probably brought it up!
"That's a deal." He urgently cleared his throat when he heard the sound of his own voice, "A fair deal. Fair deal, I can get behind that." He looked back at her (dignity purposes), a discreet smile on her face. Her eyes redefined the glorious beauty the colour brown held.
"Oh, um, by the way..." Now it was Aurora clearing her throat, quickly tucking a strand of her behind her ear, "My house is hosting a party next week. Hallowe'en is the excuse, and–"
"You wished for me to accompany you?" Fred raised his eyebrows, with the troublesome smile that never failed to concern Minerva McGonagall.
"I was inviting you, and the other three. Do not get too ahead of yourself," Aurora corrected, raising a playful eyebrow of her own, "But, I do not doubt word has already reached them, anyway."
"Ah, I see, Ravenclaw could not host a party without us there, obviously." Fred nodded understandingly, "Are drinks involved?"
"Naturally."
"We'll love to be there, then!"
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AUTHOR'S WORDS ˊˎ-
Starting the year right and posting a chapter. Impressive of me. In this chapter, I said Fred Weasley II and Fred X Aurora rights, as you can tell.
Worry not, if it feels like I am starving you of content (I have no idea if anyone actually feels like that but okay), I know what you originally signed up for, the next chapter may or may not be James X Lucy orientated, so just give me a moment.
As always, thank you so much for reading, for taking that time out of your day. If you happened to enjoy, voting/commenting always makes my day.
And, of course, Happy New Year!