After the cake had finished, Alana had decorated it with the most vibrant colours in the form of the Quidditch pitch from the Holyhead Harpies stadium. It was pretty good if she had to say so herself, and after taking a shower, she quickly packed it up to get ready to make the walk to Ginny's apartment.
The weather was quite good considering that February had only just rolled around. It didn't compare to the warm weather at home, of course, but it was better than it had been throughout January. Alana still remembered how great it had been to have snow on her birthday instead of rain.
Snow was something she had been accustomed to compared to a lot of her friends. Her mom always missed the snow and cold weather because it was what she associated with Christmas. So, throughout the years of Alana's childhood, most of her Christmas' had been spent in the French Alps.
Alana jumped up the stairs to the familiar apartment with the cake in her hands. She shuffled a bit, trying to not drop or crush the cake while raising one of her hands to knock on the door.
Movement could be heard from the other side, and for once, Alana didn't have to remember to smile. The bright smile was plastered on her face but instead of Ginny or Harry opening the door she was met with a large man.
He was rather tall, but his stocky muscles were quite apparent underneath his tight shirt. He had the same eyes as Ginny, but where her features were softer, his were incredibly sharp; his jawline, cheekbone, nose, all of it able to cut diamonds.
He crossed his arms over his chest, his biceps popping in the process as he rested against the doorframe. His hair was a beautiful flaming fiery orange with red undertones and sat effortlessly ruffled on top of his head. Light freckles stretched their way all over his skin, gatherings of them appearing where his skin was tanner.
"So, Allie? I knew you wouldn't be able to stay away from me," the man chuckled, crossing his legs as well while she only became all the more confused.
"Sorry, do I know you?" She asked, looking past him down the hallway to see if Ginny or Harry could be spotted. "Is Ginny or Harry home?"
"What? It's Fred, are you playing hard to get?" The man asked again, but her eyebrows simply furrowed even further, and she looked at him as if he was crazy.
"Playing hard to get?" Alana huffed. "Of course not, can you just get Ginny for me?"
"Ugh, right," the man said. "Come in, she's in the shower right now." He stepped to the side and waved her in after him.
Alana walked straight to the kitchen, where she put down the cake, and then back to the hallway where she took off her overcoat and shoes. Fred had sat down in the couches by the large windows where another man identical to him was sitting and talking with Harry and Ron. The other man identical to Fred was staring at her, eyes completely locked to her as she walked into the living room.
Fred... that had to be Fred and George then, the guys that Lee had spoken about last night. Had they come to the bar as well? Hopefully, Alana had not embarrassed herself in front of them. Fred whispered something to who had to be George that made his eyes shoot directly to Fred, and all four of them turned around to look at her.
"Um... hi?" Alana said with a small wave. "I don't know if you're hungry, but I made another cake." She pointed towards the kitchen counter where she had put down the plate.
"Cake!" Ron exclaimed. "You baked the other one as well, right? Holy Helga that could beat even the feasts at Hogwarts!" He instantly got up from the couches along with Harry who gave her a small greeting as they both began searching for things to cut the cake with.
Neither Fred nor George tried to move, both of them were simply staring at her, watching her intensely, and to say that it was making her uncomfortable would be an understatement.
"Look if I said or did something I shouldn't have then I'm sorry," Alana said. "I was completely pissed last night... I just remember Lee talking about you, I think, Fred and George, right?" She sat down on the couch in front of them, fixing her cuffed jeans a bit before swinging one leg over the other.
"You only remember Lee talking about us?" George asked, still intensely watching her.
"No, I remember everything, of course," Alana sarcastically said. "That's why I said I just remember Lee talking about you. It's actually because I remember everything." Fred and George both cracked a grin at her as they leaned back on the couch.
"Fair enough," George chuckled. "It's just a tad bit strange." He tilted his head a little as he rubbed the side of his neck, and as the hood of his shirt slid down, it revealed a couple of purple love bites. Alana knew that her eyes were locked to his neck for a few moments too long, and when she realised, she quickly looked away.
"Sorry... I'd rather just not talk about it," she said while Ron and Harry got back with a plate full of cake.
"I swear, whenever I get married you have to make the food," Ron mumbled with his mouth full of food, and Harry quickly agreed.
Alana's small and confused smile faltered completely from their words though. She had been the one to make most of the food for her and Fayola's wedding. She remembered both of them decorating the cake the night before, Fayola chose all of the colours, of course.
She also needed to deliver the divorce papers to The Ministry today. Maybe she should call Cedric's to hear if she wanted her paintings back. Even if Alana loved them, they weren't hers.
"I'd rather never attend a wedding again," she mumbled before looking towards the bedroom door where Ginny, with still wet hair, walked out.
"Oh, Allie! What are you doing here?" Ginny smiled. "And you brought cake I see." She gestured towards Harry and Ron who were busy eating. "You'll have to find other people to deliver cakes to, Ron and Harry are going to put on too much weight."
"I just wanted to talk, and I have a couple of low carb, low-fat cakes I can make-"
"Are they going to taste as good?" Harry grinned after having swallowed another bite.
"My wi- ugh- I haven't had any complaints at least," Alana tried to smile.
"Want to go for a walk and talk?" Ginny asked.
"No, I don't want to take too much of your time," she replied while glancing about the room. "Can we go to your office for a bit?"
"Of course!" Ginny smiled, already walking down the other hallway towards the rooms which for the time being were functioning as offices, but she had told Alana how she wanted to use them for nurseries later on. Alana shut the door after herself and sat down in one of the chairs in the corner of the room while Ginny took another one.
"I can't remember anything from yesterday," she nervously said, and Ginny's eyes widened.
"Nothing at all?" Ginny asked while Alana began biting her already short nails. There wasn't really a reason to keep them short anymore, but it had become an ingrained habit of hers.
"Not after I ordered a round for everyone," she chuckled. "I remembered smoking a lot, could feel it in my throat as well- but... did I say anything interesting yesterday?" Alana asked very leadingly. Maybe she had drunkenly told Ginny something about the colours.
"You'll have to be more specific than that!" Ginny laughed. "I've never seen you so open before! You were blabbering on all night and had pretty much everyone's attention." She continued to laugh while an appalled blush rose in Alana's cheeks, and her face landed in her hands.
"Putain de merde! Bloody fucking shit," she exclaimed, and a thick accent sprang forward. "Nom de dieu- fuck- merde." She ran her hands furiously through her hair.
"Allie, relax!" Ginny laughed even louder. "No one filmed it or anything, and you just seemed more like your true self than anything else."
"I acted like a complete dumbass!" Alana exclaimed while looking back to Ginny who seemed mightily amused by the situation.
"It's fine Alana, we both know you needed to let loose a bit after what's happened," Ginny said as she walked closer, crouched down, and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Look everyone loved you... they wanted you to come around more actually." Alana couldn't really disagree with Ginny, no matter how much she wanted to. She had been stuck in a hole for two weeks, so a night out had been what she needed.
"Everyone loved me?" Alana asked, a new hope emerging. "Look, Ginny, I can- I- I dunno who it is, but I met my soulmate last night... I can see colour now." A wide grin flew over her face, and Ginny's jaw fell to the floor.
"Really!?" She exclaimed, getting back onto her feet. "Who is it!?... Oh, my Merlin- You don't remember!?" Ginny broke out in laughter again. "That is so incredibly ironic!"
"It's dumb, that's what it is," Alana huffed. "What am I supposed to do?"
"Find out who it is, of course!" Ginny walked over to the desk with her computer. "There were a lot of the familiar people there last night, so we can ask them if they brought new people. Maybe they saw you with someone or someone talked about you."
"You really think that's going to work?" Alana asked disbelievingly, scooting her chair over to Ginny who was now looking through everyone's posts from last night along with the bar's page to see if maybe they had caught something.
"Yeah, of course!" Ginny chuckled, switching over to Lee's profile and beginning to look through his posts. "Alright see, Lee always posts everything... There were loads of people I know; Oliver Wood, Hannah Abbott, Zacharias Smith... we can ask them!"
"Alright, this room dispels magic right?" Alana asked while fiddling for her back pocket and her phone.
"Yeah, you can use it in here," Ginny smiled, and Alana quickly began writing down the names in her phone, noting down as many as she could, but after 50 she decided to stop.
"Do you think I should just message them? Or is calling better?" Alana asked while looking over all of the names and starting to find them on different social media sites. Even social media appeared so much more vibrant with colours.
"Depends on the person, but you could just send the same message to everyone," Ginny smiled while Alana pocketed her phone, and she closed the computer back down. "By the way, you made Fred, George and Lee promise that they were going to help you move Fay's things next Tuesday."
"Why on earth would I do that?" She sighed, rubbing her temples in regret.
"I don't know," Ginny chuckled as they walked towards the door again. "You shouldn't regret anything yesterday, Allie, it was fun." They opened the door back up, and a large amount of scrambling could be heard from inside of the living room.
"You know I don't like opening up like that." Alana shook her head. Fred and George were both sitting on the couches, trying their best to look like they were busy, but even she could see that they definitely had not been doing that seconds ago. Ron and Harry were standing by the cake, sending bright smiles to both her and Ginny.
"I know," Ginny whispered. "Took me months after all."
"So- ugh- Fred, George, I'll see you next Tuesday I suppose?" Alana said, walking towards the cake where she began moving it onto one of Ginny's plates instead of her own so she could bring it home later.
"Ow! What the-" George exclaimed, and surprised Alana turned around to look at him, a blush was rising in his cheeks while Fred looked nothing but satisfied, and George cleared his throat.
"Actually, you and I were supposed to clean up everything Monday so it's ready for Tuesday," George smirked. "If you're still up for it, of course." Alana looked at the red-haired man for a bit. She hated backtracking. She glanced to Harry, but he nodded and shrugged.
"Sure," Alana somewhat apprehensively said, biting her cheek while a wide smile spread on George's face. "I could use the help going through all of the stuff."
Why had she just agreed? That was bloody stupid, she was undoubtedly going to cry, and now she was going to cry in front of a stranger. She wasn't a stranger to him which just made it even weirder for her. How much had she even told him about herself?