The night seemed to drag on terribly as the group sat around the living room, drinking and having fun, still listening to the same record that boomed loudly across the apartment.
For once everyone seemed quite content. Eleanor was sat happily snuggled under Fred's arm on the sofa as well as all the couples who sat dotted across the sitting room.
Ginny and Harry were deep into conversation with George and Julia, whilst Hermione was quite fascinated by whatever story Amber was feeding her about a magical creature she had once come across.
"Sorry to interrupt but do you mind telling me where the bathroom is ?" Julia stuttered, her hands shaking slightly and her demeanour completely changing.
"Yes of course" Eleanor said quickly " are you alright?"
But before she could even finish, Julia had immediately darted off to the toilet, slamming the door behind her.
Everyone's conversations suddenly cut off as they turned to look at each-other strangely.
"Probably the alcohol I reckon" Ron said, hiccuping in between "can't keep up with us heavy drinkers ay?"
Fred and George laughed simultaneously at their brother, both high-fiving him from across the coffee table whilst the others did a chorus of small laughs nodding their heads along but genuinely more concerned to if Julia was alright.
"I'll go and check on her." Eleanor said softly, tapping Fred's leg as she stood up.
Everyone seemed to return to their normal conversation whilst Eleanor made her way over to the toilet.
Quietly she stood outside before lightly tapping on the door and calling out Julia's name.
"Julia? Are you alright" Eleanor said softly "can I come in?"
Without a response, Eleanor gently began to open the door and as she entered Julia was sat on the lid of the toilet seat, looking up at her expectantly.
"Sorry about that" Julia said softly as she wiped her mouth with a tissue "seems I can't handle my drink as well as I used to."
Eleanor smiled at her softly as she reached up into the bathroom cabinet to bring out a potion Mrs Weasley had given her for sickness relief. It had always helped her when she had the flu or even when she was preparing for her exams.
"This should help." Eleanor beamed, passing the small vile to Julia "it's just for sickness relief."
Julia beamed up at Eleanor gladly taking a small swig of the contents inside.
"Wow, thankyou" Julia said with a pleased expression "that stuff really works."
She carefully passed the small potion back to Eleanor and for a split second a glint of a familiar look flushed across Julia's eyes and Eleanor couldn't help but immediately catch onto it.
A sense of mischief and complete darkness almost overwhelmed Eleanor causing her to take a step back and fall weak against the wall.
"I think you might of had too much to drink too" Julia giggled, standing up from her seat "here let me help you."
Surprisingly, Julia wrapped her arm around Eleanor's waist and placed her other arm around her neck for support.
She helped Eleanor out into the living room where Fred immediately looked round from the sofa and rushed to her aid.
"What happened?!" He said worriedly "is she alright?"
Gently, Julia passed Eleanor over to him, brushing his hand gently as she let go.
"Oh she's fine! Just the drink I believe"
Eleanor who felt slightly dizzy and unable to speak for herself was still completely fresh in the mind.
Why had she come over like this all of a sudden?
"Alright well thankyou Julia" Fred said kindly, smiling at her.
And Eleanor could only watch as she brushed her hand over his shoulder and smiled at him coyly.
"Anytime freddie."
Generally, after the events that just occurred, everyone slowly began to leave and of course, Amber being Eleanor's sister insisted on staying one more night to make sure everything was going to be okay.
And as Fred brought Eleanor into the bedroom and set her down on the bed.
The sensation of the dizziness and sickness subsided. Causing her to go completely back to normal.
"Okay but why do you look completely fine again?" Fred said strangely as he pressed the back of his hand on Eleanor's forehead "your were burning hot and now there's no temperature at all."
Eleanor didn't know herself either as she took a deep breath to calm herself down. whatever had just happened wasn't normal and she wasn't entirely sure why.
"I have no idea" Eleanor sighed as she confusedly pulled her clothes off, getting into her pajamas "me and Julia we're just in the toilet and I gave her some sickness relief."
"You and your alcohol habits" Fred teased as he got into the bed next to her "what are we going to do with you?"
Completely taking Eleanor's mind off of the topic,she giggled at Fred reluctantly as she turned turned to look at him.
He led their with his arms outstretched and a mischievous but loving smirk on his face.
"Come on Jonesy, you know you want to cuddle me?"
Smiling to herself, Eleanor turned and switched the lamp off next to her, practically throwing herself down into Fred's arms as he wrapped her up like a warm blanket.
They both giggled in time with each other as their faces touched, their lips only centimetres away and the tip of their noses caressing.
"This is probably my favourite time of the day" Fred said softly as he smoothly moved his face a tiny bit closer to Eleanor's "just lying here in the darkness with you, there's nowhere I'd rather be ."
Although Fred couldn't see, Eleanor was beaming to herself.
She adored it when Fred said stuff like that but she couldn't seem to shake the feeling of Julia being flirtatious with him.
Eleanor didn't want to bring it up for yet a second time so she decided to just shake it off. She had absolutely no reason to doubt Fred as she knew he was deeply in love with her but she couldn't help but think that Julia would try and take that away from her.
"I love you so much Weasley." Eleanor said softly as she placed a small kiss onto his lips "maybe a little too much"
Fred chuckled at her as he placed another kiss onto her cheek followed by her forehead.
"And I love you too, Jonesy."
~~~~~~~~
It was safe to say that last nights sleep wasn't much of anything as the both of them woke up and still felt completely exhausted from the party that they had previously last night.
Both Fred and Eleanor had work today and although they felt like they couldn't manage, they successfully got out of bed, got ready for the day, had breakfast and made their way down to their shop as they usually would.
Amber by this point had also left with Avery, she decided to take her onto her next adventure and promised that she would be back within a few weeks.
Right on the dot of 9am, Olivia walked in as she usually would, hanging up her hat and coat before making her way around to the reception area to sort through the daily files.
"Good morning miss." She said brightly, her beautiful beaming attitude flawlessly falling off of her "would you like a cup of tea or anything?"
Eleanor who was pretty much in a daze, staring down at some chart that she could barely read eventually snapped out of it, looking over to her colleague who looked cheerful and fresh faced.
"How do you always wake up with such a positive attitude?" Eleanor giggled, handing Olivia the chart "can I please borrow some of your energy."
"If I could give it to you, I would." Olivia smiled, productively and quickly sorting out everything she needed for the day "I'm guessing that's a yes to the tea?"
Eleanor gave her a knowing smile as if to say 'is that even a question'
And Olivia immediately swished her wand at the teapot that sat in the little cubby area situated by the stairs to Eleanor's apartment.
"Heavy night?" Olivia giggled, looking to Eleanor with raised brows "it's alright if you don't want to talk about it."
But Eleanor nodded, practically already yawning at the question.
She could definitely use some of that sobering potion right now.
Soon enough the tea was made and Olivia waved her wand at it again, allowing the small cup to float over carefully to Eleanor, landing perfectly in the palm of her hands.
"Thankyou Olivia" Eleanor said gratefully as she looked around the room.
It wasn't until her eyes fell on the clock on the far side of the shop that she realised that Julia had not yet shown up for her shift.
"Sorry to ask, but do you have any idea where your sister is?"
You could see the immediate sense of panic take over Olivia as she began to think that her job was now in jeopardy.
"She didn't come home last night." Olivia stuttered "I've been trying to get hold of her but I just gave up in the end, I have no idea where she is."
But in the back of Eleanor's mind, she had a pretty good idea.
"Don't worry Olivia, it's not up to you to make sure your sister comes to work." Eleanor explained, feeling slightly cross that Julia hadn't shown up "I think she might be with George."
This didn't seem like a surprise to Olivia as she nodded her head expectantly.
"I can run on down to their shop if you like? Ask them if she is there?"
And Eleanor nodded. Probably best Olivia took ahold of the situation as in reality Eleanor felt like she might burst with anger.
She hadn't forgotten about her flirtatiousness let alone her not showing up for work. It was all beginning to seem slightly out of character now.
Gradually, Olivia made her way out of the shop and Eleanor watched as she disappeared past the windows out of view.
Hopefully she would find her as Eleanor didn't know how to feel if she was around Fred as well as George all day.
~~~
After a little while had passed, Olivia was still not back and Eleanor had a massive delivery of wands to deal with as her new line had finally completed and the launch of it was tomorrow.
Reluctantly she took the matters into her own hands as she usually would and began bringing in the large set of brown boxes, stacked highly with a numerous variation of wands.
She couldn't believe how many there were as she cut open each box, taking a sneak peak into every single one to reveal her designs.
All of them had been so perfectly created and Eleanor had always admired how something she had drawn on a scrap of paper could eventually become something that she could hold in her hands. The feeling of knowing that these wands would individually find its way to wizard or witch was truly mesmerising.
Gently she began unloading them onto a special section of the shop that Olivia had cleared specifically for the new line of Dragon themed wands.
Every single one of them completely unique.
Strangely, it was quite nice for Eleanor to be back in her element, working away with no distractions around her so she could just get on.
By this point she was so completely indulged into her work that she didn't even hear a customer come ringing through the door.
Obviously assuming that it was just Olivia who had come back from finding her sister, Eleanor didn't even turn around.
She just continued to place the wands busily onto the shelves, every now and then taking a step back to see the way she had aligned them from a far.
"Olivia? Any luck finding Julia?" Eleanor spoke clearly, hoping to hear the sound of her voice replying.
But when she was met by a rather manly and low toned voice, she immediately jumped
"Sorry to disappoint you but I'm not Olivia and I also have no idea who Julia is."
Eleanor felt so embarrassed as she reluctantly turned around to face her customer.
"Oh no, wait- I'm so sorry" Eleanor began "Olivia is my- holy shit."
For a moment, Eleanor's entire body froze as she came face to face with someone she hadn't seen in such a long time. All the memories of the past flooding back to her. Some good and some bad.
"Hello darling" The manly voice said smoothly "miss me?"
But Eleanor couldn't seem to find her words. she just stood there, completely mesmerised by what almost felt like a very distant friendship.
Her mind was racing with a million thoughts as she tried to think of reasons as to why he would be here.
But to her dismay, nothing came to her mind.
Unfortunately, her heart just continued to flutter as she stood there looking him up and down.
His thick brown hair, green eyes and toned body practically inviting her in as they always did.
It felt so wrong to be so immediately seduced by someone's presence but that's the way he always made Eleanor feel.
There she stood, right in front of the one person she thought she would never see again.
Her ex boyfriend. Theodore Nott.