Considering how the Christmas break had started, Jessica's last day of it was rather enjoyable in comparison. She had a lot more visitors than usual, with about half of Grimmauld Place knocking on her door when the rest of the Order wasn't looking.
First was Molly and Arthur who came in at 10 am with some fresh biscuits and questions about calculators respectively, then Kreacher knocked in at around lunchtime to ask if he could dust all of her new jewellery as a treat, at 2 o'clock Bill apparated in, carrying a small number of gold galleons that he had taken out of her aunt's vault for her, and then finally, Ginny came running in late in the afternoon hoping to discuss a relationship issue she was having with her boyfriend Michael Corner.
Jessica tried to tell her that she probably wasn't the best person to come to for advice, but all Ginny really just wanted was for someone to listen to her that wasn't her brother.
Her last visit of the day was from Tonks, who came into her room whilst the others were having dinner. Jessica had already finished her Shepherd's Pie by then and was feeling a bit restless with the anticipation of going back to Hogwarts, so Tonks suggested that they have some fun. She took Jessica up to the attic and taught her a few jinx's that could come in handy when dealing with Umbridge, which was a bit dangerous considering Jessica had already changed into a blue silk nightdress that left most of her skin exposed, but luckily she didn't get hurt.
After a bit of running around, Jessica asked if she knew any spells that could create pretend scars on people, and surprisingly, Tonks did, so she taught them to her for Jessica to use on Neville and Luna when saving them from detention. After Ginny's admission, Jessica couldn't have her plan being given away by Neville having no markings on him at all.
By the time Jessica got back to her room, she was exhausted. Being in isolation had made her forget how tiring it was being around people all day. It was a good tired of course, but draining, and now she really just wanted to go to bed and sleep the hours away.
She opened the door to her bedroom with little strength and went to stumble in, but she stopped in the doorway after seeing that somebody was already sat on her bed. It was Fred, dressed in the same black jumper he had been wearing all day when playing quidditch with the boys, and from the noise she could hear from downstairs, he had come up much earlier than everyone else.
"What are you doing in here?" she asked, trying to hide her nervousness. After days of being ignored, she was finally going to get answers, but now she was finding herself not really wanting any. When she was tired she was never any good at putting the right words together and one wrong word would tick him off.
Fred was staring at the floor, avoiding meeting her eyes, and from his front pocket he pulled out the Polaroid image they had taken at Trafalgar Square. "I came to give you this," he said dully as he held it out to her, his eyes glazing over in thought, "I did the gemino charm on it so that you had a copy too. Thought you might have appreciated a delivery in person."
He was acting a little weird, almost upset to be there, so Jessica reached out to take it from him tentatively. As she was about to hold it, Fred flicked it onto the bed with little care, causing the mild smile on her face to vanish.
"Are you okay?" Jessica asked him, picking up on the fact that he clearly wasn't.
Fred pouted tactlessly and finally looked up at her with piercing eyes whilst he reached into his back pocket. Jessica was a little uncomfortable meeting his sight as he was obviously angry about something to be this quiet, Fred Weasley was never quiet.
He did not remove eye contact with her as he drew out a large stack of parchments folded over in size. As she looked downwards at his hand, Jessica recognised the parchment immediately and her heart started beating faster out of anxiousness. She side-eyed her pillow, and unfortunately, as it was emptied, her hunch was correct.
Fred had found her letters from Draco.
"You've been busy haven't you?" he asked her tauntingly loud, knowing he had caught her out.
She had never meant for anyone to find them, especially him.
Jessica closed the door behind her quickly so that nobody else could hear. "How did you get those?" she whispered, "they're private!"
"I was waiting for you when I rested on your pillow and heard something crunch," Fred explained casually, not realising or caring what an insane breach of privacy this was to her, "I should be surprised but finding out another one of your secrets comes as often as the sun setting at this point. I'm guessing this is what you've really been using that diary of yours for too."
Jessica walked up to him and tried to snatch the letters out of his hands, furious that he had come into her space and taken something that wasn't his, but he stood up and lifted his arm straight towards the ceiling so that they were out of her reach.
It was so annoying that he could do that.
Jessica stood up on her bed to gain height but Fred copied her straight after to eliminate the difference, causing her to wobble on the unsteady mattress.
"Fred I'm allowed to write to my friends, you had no right to read them!"
"Friends?' Fred frowned, and he looked at the letter above him to begin reading, "To Jess, the only thing getting me through the next few days is seeing your face at Kings Cross. I hope that when we finally get back to that prison of a school we can be each other's freedom and peace of mind now that we understand each other. Shall we go to our old place on the astronomy tower the first night back? I'd rather spend it alone with you than with the idiots that keep our company.'"
Jessica's cheeks flushed red from half embarrassment, half longing, and Fred stared right back down at her, "looks a bit more than friends to me."
"I'm single, it's allowed," Jessica argued back as she jumped up to take another unsuccessful swipe at the letters, "for god sake, why do you care?"
Fred sorted through the letters in his hands high above her, flicking through them until he got to the sketch that Draco had done. His tightened face changed into a comical grin as he let out a laugh. "Ah look, he even took the time to draw you, that's sweet isn't it? Where's that, your special place? On a nice date were we?"
"No it was when we doing our project, it was ages ago," Jessica told him, and she watched his eyes twitch as he remembered that they were still together at the time this was drawn, "anyway I shouldn't have to answer to you, give them back!"
Fred didn't give any of them back. He instead jumped off the bed and strode around her room, reading each page one by one and discarding them to the floor once he was done.
"Wow, he's really getting deep here isn't he," he said after he took a fancy to one page in particular, "he could rival Lockhart on the worlds biggest bullshitter list. Oh, I'd love to see your letters back to this shit I really would. I think the Order would find this very interesting, private communications with the son of a death eater and all that."
"My friend," muttered Jessica as she picked up the paper trail behind him.
"What?"
Jessica stood up straight and flattened her long hair and nightdress down. "He's my friend," she told him confidently, "and I'd prefer you regard him as such."
Fred turned around with a face of disbelief, "Jess do you know what Lucius has done-"
"I don't care, I'm not writing to Lucius, am I?" Jessica interrupted harshly, "I'm writing to Draco, my friend, who quite frankly has given more of a shit about me than you and the majority of people in this house have combined this Christmas."
"Yeah, and why do you think that is?" said Fred as he cornered her against the wardrobe and waved the letters in her face, "he clearly wants something out of this, a guy doesn't write double-sided letters just to 'keep in contact'."
"Oh shut up."
"No I'm serious," said Fred as he pointed a finger at the letters like he was showing her an article in the Daily Prophet, "this guy is going all out. If a guy is laying it on this thick he's either hoping to get some or he's got something to hide."
"Oh, so you don't think it's possible for someone to like me as I am? For my brain?" Jessica asked scornfully as she reached forward and snatched the remaining letters out of his hand, of which he released with ease, "there's got to be a motivation for it like just wanting sleep with me? Is that your experience?"
"No," Fred emphasised as she pushed past him to walk to the other side of the bedroom, "I'm leaning towards the other one actually after having a look through. It's interesting how he's suddenly got an interest in you over Christmas, isn't it? After you left his party abruptly when my dad was in trouble? Almost like he knows you're with us Jess and he's trying to get you onside!"
Jessica could not let on that she partially agreed with him, even she had noticed the coincidence in recent days. However, she had decided that just because Lucius may have been after the necklace, it did not mean Draco had to be too. "You know what, I'm not going to take on the opinion of a guy that needs a pact to be able to be nice to me for a couple of hours," she said spitefully and she placed the letters in her bedside draw and slammed it shut, "goodnight Fred."
Fred was having none of it and stuck to his spot to Jessica's annoyance. His voice was getting angrier, and yet there was a running undertone of mocking like he thought it was one big joke. "Maybe if you weren't so stubborn you would realise that Malfoy doesn't care about people, he uses them. No matter how hard he's trying to convince you, he won't genuinely care about you."
Jessica spun around to face him, her jaw tightening and her emerald eyes widening with the frustration of having him being so rude about things he had no business knowing. "And what would you know about being caring about me huh? You didn't seem to care very much about me when you were hanging off Angelina's lips hours after begging me to get back with you! Oh yeah, Mr Perfect you were! I was worried about you before then, George said you were missing!"
Fred screwed up his face in confusion and immediately refuted, "Excuse me, what?!"
"Yeah, exactly!" Jessica stood up for herself irritably, "after Pansy threw you against the wall you wouldn't even look or say anything to me. You had guilt all over your face, you couldn't even muster an apology, so don't talk to me about how Draco might be feeling. The fact that you thought you had the right to play the victim since then is-"
"Pansy throwing me against the wall?" Fred interrupted, bewilderment splattered across his face, "that never happened what are you talking about?"
"Uh, yes it did!"
"Uh, no it didn't?!"
"Well, who was it down at the Great Hall that night then?" Jessica asked back sarcastically, "because it wasn't fucking George, I can tell the difference!"
She could not believe he was attempting to challenge a memory that was so vivid in her mind.
"I don't know, someone who looked like me?" Fred suggested dryly, "are you sure-"
Jessica lifted her hands to silence him. She didn't want another excuse. "Fred I know what you look like, and quite frankly it's an insult that you're denying it. It's really not that big of a deal but you lying about it is just plain disrespectful."
Fred stepped forward towards her, clearly angry that she did not believe him. His skin had gone blotchy in patches and a vein on his neck had emerged to make an appearance. "No I'm not having you accuse me of that, I'd never have done that to you!"
"I don't have to accuse you," Jessica mocked back, "I saw it with my own eyes! Just admit that you were angry at me for the whole Inquisitorial Squad thing being revealed earlier that day and wanted to get back at me."
Fred exasperated and stretched with his hands behind his head. After a few seconds of silence, he closed his eyes as a relieved smile grew upon his face. "For Merlin's sake, now I know what night you're talking about I know I've got proof that I'm telling the truth!"
He laid his eyes upon Jessica again, his arms opening wide in victory, "I was with Professor McGonagall all night."
Jessica gave him a funny look and Fred's prideful smile faltered.
"No not like that, get your head out the gutter! She saw I wasn't at dinner and came and found me just as I was about to break into Umbridge office to use her fireplace. She'd already blocked some of the secret passageways by then you see and I wanted to get out of Hogwarts. McGonagall stopped me and brought me back down to her office to cool me off, I was furious and it took a while, but she calmed me. She didn't want me to get caught, ironically, by the IQ or Umbridge for being out after curfew, so she made me up a bed on the sofa in her office."
Jessica processed his story, her brain working overtime behind her eyes. The story would be so easy to fact check that he would've been completely stupid to tell it as a lie, and she knew Fred wasn't stupid. Her voice dropped its harshness as she questioned everything she had considered at face value, it hitting her that she had potentially had the wool pulled over her eyes this whole time.
"...so it wasn't you?" she asked.
"No!" Fred quickly answered earnestly, "ask McGonagall when you get back. I didn't even step a foot in the Great Hall until lunchtime because we were Quidditch training before breakfast, that actually explains now why Angelina was being so nice to me again out of nowhere. I'm a lot of things Jess but I'm not that shit as to do that. Maybe it was someone using polyjuice potion or something, but if I find out who it is they'll be regretting it pretty fucking quickly."
Jessica scoffed, "oh come on what student would a) want to turn into you to do that and b) have access to polyjuice poti-"
Oh, no. Jessica realised that second that she knew exactly which student had access to polyjuice potion. She had even used his stash herself.
And he had a vendetta against Fred.
But Draco wouldn't have gone that far, would he? It would've left too much up to chance for Jessica to have come down at that very moment, even if he wanted to turn her against Fred for his own personal emotions.
"Well whatever, it doesn't matter whether you did or you didn't," Jessica told him snootily as she crossed her arms out of comfort for being wrong, "you still kissed her and multiple other girls in front of me after that so you must've gotten over that moral high ground pretty quickly."
"You're really saying that with your adventures?" Fred asked, his eyes ready to bulge out of his skull, "you really went the whole way with Pucey because you knew he'd annoy me the most, it was so obvious! And now it looks like you're ticking off Draco too. Should I just send George in here next? Or Ron maybe?"
"God, why do you think I do things because of you?" Jessica responded hotly, "I slept with Adrian because I wanted to. He was there when you weren't. Just like Draco is now, he cares about me when you don't."
Fred did not argue back as instantly as he had been so far. His chest sunk a little, his eyes narrowed, and Jessica thought if she lightly tapped him he would fall over backwards.
"You think I don't care about you?" he asked indignantly.
Jessica shrugged, "well, you haven't given me many reasons to think so recently."
"Are you serious?" Fred challenged disbelievingly, his stance weighing him down to the floorboards, "do you honestly think I would've run up and down London, betraying my parents and the Orders trust, if I didn't care about you?"
Jessica knew he would use this against her at some point, but that didn't stop her from being annoyed now that he'd done it. "Oh please, you said you did that because you didn't want to owe me anymore for saving your dad, don't act like it was for anything else now that you want to win an argument."
"That was after we were already out!" Fred argued, "Jess if I didn't care about you I wouldn't have even followed you out the damn door!"
"Well thanks, Fred," Jessica praised him as she clapped sarcastically, "after months of you and your friends blocking me out, after almost killing me with a bludger, you finally did something nice."
"Oh my god, I was aiming for Adrian!" Fred shouted into the air, making her jump. His shoulders fell and he sighed, taking a breath before continuing, "I can't have you throw that in my face anymore! It was never meant to hit you, we both wanted to hit Adrian after what he said to us the night before."
"Well thank goodness for your bad aim," Jessica responded bluntly, though she did feel a little better knowing this, "you won us the match."
"Also me blocking you out?" Fred continued, now fully in the swing of getting everything off his chest, "who was it walking into the Great Hall with fancy new hair, clothes, and a totally brainwashed attitude not even bothering to acknowledge us at all! Like I was some shit stain on your tailor-made shoe!"
She knew this was a dig from what he had listened in to at Hogwarts, and this made her lose it and be completely honest.
"Yeah I did do that, but I wasn't brainwashed Fred, I was trying to wash you out!" she shouted, reaching for her bedpost so that she could squeeze it like a stress ball, "out of my hair, my skin, my mind. I had to get you out. I even secretly washed your tie fifty times so your smell would get out of my trunk!"
Fred found her admission as a green light to get closer to her, his voice becoming softer in the anger he had built up. "But why did you have to do that, I didn't do anything wrong!"
"It wasn't just you, it was everything!" she said franticly, running a hand through her curled hair as she tried to look at anything but him. Now she had admitted something vulnerable there was no going back. "You, George, our friends, Draco, other people, other things in my life...I needed to change."
"And that was the change you thought was best?" Fred questioned. He looked like he wanted to shake her like a doll to wake her up. "Turning into Pansy 2.0 instead of actually communicating your problems to me? I was hurt, I was fucking angry, but you still could've come to me! Yeah I said stuff I didn't mean but you, you just acted like nothing had happened between us at all!"
"Oh, you know what," snapped Jessica as she realised going further into this conversation would lead her onto difficult ground, "I've given up even trying to get you to understand. You win, you're the hardest done by."
She stomped past her bed and opened the door, wanting him to leave now before he started raising difficult questions she couldn't answer. Luckily no one was standing there, but she didn't care about that right now. "Get out."
"Yeah that's it Jess," Fred said fiercely, retreating into the corner of her room to prove he wasn't going, "we're finally getting somewhere so you run away from confrontation like you always do."
"Like I always do?!" Jessica gasped offendedly. She slammed the door closed again, deciding now that she was going to let him have it, and she strode right up to him to poke him in the chest, "what about you always thinking that you're right all the time and never letting anything go!"
"I don't think I'm right all the time and I have the O.W.L scores to prove it okay," he argued down to her, his skin glowing in the candlelight now that night had fallen, "but I'll tell you one thing I'm sure I'm right about. I saw a glimpse of the Jess I used to know the other night and it's been troubling me ever since. There's something up with you that you're not telling me, telling anyone, and it's why you're pretending to be someone who you're not."
Jessica was so angry that she couldn't speak, and so she thought she'd let him take the floor and speak his hypothesis. It was bound to make her laugh. "And tell me Mr Right About Everything," she said mockingly, "what makes you think that?"
He started telling her everything, slowly stepping forward so that with each sentence he was forcing her backwards towards her bed. "I've read all of those letters, you don't mention us once even when Draco brings it up. If you really hated us you would jump at the chance to gossip with him, but if anything you dodge the question. Then there's the fact that your muggle knowledge is extremely accurate and prominent in your upbringing even though you're a pureblood. You know books, you know songs, and you know places to go that even my dad wouldn't know about in London! And how about your ability to not feel any pain at all? You fell from a 100ft drop at the Quidditch stadium and you were walking that afternoon, anybody else would've been in the hospital for at least a month. Then finally, and I can't believe I'm saying this, I saw you pull a prank on Crabbe and Goyle. It was brilliant, but quite unbelievable considering they're meant to be in your 'squad'. It was only when Neville, who is bullied by all Slytherins by the way and would never defend one, said that you were alright that my mind started to tick. Either it was some sick Stockholm syndrome thing or you've actually been being nice to him this whole time. I checked the stock, puking pastilles were missing, so what's up Jess? You're keeping so many secrets that don't make sense and I want to know why!"
Holy Shit, Jessica thought as she panicked internally, he had been noticing everything. Every little detail about her.
She just needed to deny it all straight away to throw him off the scent, which would have been easier if he hadn't had become as stubborn as she was.
Jessica forced her mouth into a sly grin and breathed as she tried to act as normal as possible. "Well great deduction Sherlock, I'm impressed, but you're going to be disappointed I'm afraid because nothing is going on, I'm just that good, and even if there was I wouldn't tell you anyway."
Fred moved into her space so that he was almost on top of her, making her step back and hit herself against the bed frame. "Wouldn't or couldn't?" he muttered through gritted teeth.
Jessica leaned up on the balls on her feet and mockingly tilted her head, "...wouldn't."
"Oh no that's right, why would you tell me, I'm just me," Fred said sarcastically, their faces only being a few centimetres apart now as his voice became low and gravely, "maybe I should take some advice from the guy that pretended to be me and take polyjuice potion to turn into Draco, then you'd write me a full ten-page letter explaining everything wouldn't you? Or maybe I could take it a step further and turn into Adrian as well, then I'd easily get to know you inside and out..."
He looked her up and down slowly with his eyes, "...in more ways than fucking one."
Jessica slapped him immediately with her right hand. She even shocked herself that she had done it. It was the first time he'd ever allowed her to hit him, or was too slow to catch her hand. His left cheek was now coloured bright red, the same colour as Jessica's palm. It stung, but it didn't hurt as much as how she felt inside after he had said that.
There was a moment of heavy silence where Jessica wouldn't dare move a muscle, not even to step out of his way. She was paralysed. She didn't regret doing it, he deserved it, but she was worried about what would happen next. He could tell the Order she had put her hands on him, or he could even hit her back if he hated her enough.
She stared at him whilst nervously breathing, trying to keep her cool, and she watched him rub his hand against his cheek to feel her anger on his skin. Slowly his face turned back to look at her, his brown eyes burning with fire.
This confirmed it.
If he didn't already hate her, he would now.
"Fred, I'm sorry-"
Jessica didn't get to finish her apology. Fred launched himself forward and cradled her face in his hands, the force of him pushing her back against the bottom bed frame. He kissed her hard, and Jessica struggled to keep both her breath and her footing, as she had to stop herself from falling back onto the bed.
It took her right back to five months ago, where they had their first kiss, and Jessica remembered how everything had planned out since then after she let him leave.
As he pushed in a leg to slide between her thighs, Fred fell into her, his jumper brushing up and releasing the aroma that drove her crazy. Jessica wrapped her arms around his neck at the smell of bonfire and smoke and kissed back, his hands reactively sliding down from her face to around her lower waist. Attached and aggressively kissing to take out their frustrations on the other, Fred guided her over to the wall where he could push her smaller body against his.
Without pause, Fred bent down and started kissing her neck, his deep kisses of anger biting at her skin. It was going to leave a mark, but Jessica didn't care, that would be tomorrow's problem and she certainly wasn't complaining. His breathing on her skin unleashed a craving inside of her, and she lifted her hands underneath his jumper to start clawing seductively at his back with her nails. He liked the pain and she could feel him smile as he kissed her all the way back up to her jaw, pulling at her bottom lip to kiss her one time before pulling away. He lifted her arms above her head with force and secured them in a cross with his left wrist. His right hand went to work and wasted no time in lifting her nightdress, touching her bare breast as Jessica stood there unable to please him back.
As his skin caressed hers all of Jessica's thoughts of the past few months vanished from her mind. Nothing else mattered at this moment except basic instinct, and interpreting how the other was communicating through touch. She missed him, she could admit that; she missed how he made her feel when they were alone. Under his control she felt comfortable, it felt right, and this said something as she always hated being out of control.
"For someone so argumentative you seem to give in pretty easily when I touch you," Fred murmured flirtatiously in her ear.
Jessica immediately went to respond but he put a finger to her mouth, abruptly making her lose all focus.
"Drop the attitude Jess," he ordered deeply, "or I'll really have to make you this time."
He slid his fingers down her neck and chest, drawing over her nightdress until he reached her hips. His hand snaked underneath the material and, for the first time, explored past the boundary of her underwear. She had never felt him there before and the sensation from his enthusiasm forced her to involuntarily gasp. Why she had deprived herself of this before this night she didn't know.
Fred, pleased with her reaction, smirked confidently. "But from what your body's telling me it seems like that wouldn't be such a punishment."
Satisfied with teasing her, he slipped his hand back out from her twitching hips and brought his attention back to her mouth, brushing his thumb along her bottom lip as the two stared hungrily into each other's eyes. Jessica's lip curled as Fred leaned down to kiss her, every inch of her begging him to never break away.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Alerted by the noise, Fred's head turned around to look at the window, his thumb brushing Jessica's chin as he did so. Jessica dreamily admired how the moonlight hit his jawline, wishing his hand could've carried on its work, but then she followed suit, having to bend slightly to the side as her hands were still rigid above her head.
Her smile faded away as she saw what it was.
Sitting on the windowpane in the pouring rain was Draco's owl, irritated at having to wait and staring judgingly at them as he flicked his feathers dry. On its leg, an envelope with a dark green wax seal was attached neatly with brown string.
The owl's arrival destroyed all tension in the room like a tidal wave, breaking Jessica out of the trance the last minute or so had put on her. It was a reminder of what she had to do, and how she couldn't afford to be so careless. In this bubble of Grimmauld Place, she had started to fall for him again, and perhaps him for her, but there was no denying it couldn't go further than that. They would be going back to Hogwarts tomorrow, and for Jessica, that meant going back to the Inquisitorial Squad and being hated by almost everyone, most obviously all of Gryffindor house.
Just because they had gotten everything out it didn't mean everything would be solved. If anything they had just made things so much worse.
Jessica looked down at the ground out of guilt as Fred turned back and released her arms from his grip. At first, she thought he was just going to say nothing and leave, as she knew he despised Draco more than anything and the letter was a reminder of what he had taken from him. But instead, he sighed and stepped back, walking to the window and consequently taking the letter from the owl's leg. The owl wasn't happy about this, almost as if Draco had trained him to act just like him, and he sassily pecked at Fred as he untied the string. Offended, it flew away with a squawk and went without any payment.
Fred looked at the envelope that was splattered with raindrops and walked back over to Jessica, handing it out for her to take.
"If this is what you want, I'll step aside," he said as she faintly let the letter slip into her palm. His tone wasn't angry or vicious now, if anything it was as ambiguous as it could get. Jessica looked up at his solemn face and realised that he was trying really hard to not let his jealousies take over him. He was letting her make her own choice. "But when you kiss him and it doesn't feel the same, you might want to ask yourself why."
He walked away and out of the room without another word, scratching the back of his head and leaving Jessica more conflicted than ever. She slumped down the wall to the floor exhaustedly, the hand with the letter in lazily flopping down to her side. Something sparkled out of the corner of her eye and as she rolled her head towards it, she saw that the candlelight had illuminated the Polaroid they had taken at Trafalgar Square. It was sat on her bed, patiently waiting.
It was clear she had a choice to make. Her head, or her heart.
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Hi Guys!
So this chapter was slightly delayed than planned but you cannot believe the number of alternative endings I had for this chapter before finalising it.
As usual, vote if you liked the chapter and comment on anything that made you laugh, cry, smile or whatever <3
K x