THE LATE MAY SUN SET A GOLDEN HAZE OVER THE GROUNDS. It was late afternoon, the air still and mild and fresh with the changing of spring to summer, and the sky bright and cloudless over the heads of those outside. Most students were gathered in small groups to study for their various exams that would begin the following Monday with textbooks and parchment spread over the courtyard and the newly cut lawn around the castle walls - though Evelyn's notes remained untouched in her dormitory.
She and Fred sat side by side at the foot of the tree on the shores of the black lake as Max and George explained the finer details of the game they'd planned for that day, whilst Lee, Ashton and Nikki lounged off to the side (having again been roped into the task.) Even Ethan had been dragged into it (something about needing an even number of people for the plan) and was sat to Evelyn's other side with his hand on her thigh.
The logic was, as Max had enthusiastically explained before dragging Evelyn from the library and her studies, that this should provide a release from the stress of exams that had been playing on their minds. Evelyn hoped, for lack of a better term, that Max's promise of an enjoyable afternoon would prove accurate.
"It's like this Muggle game called Laser tag," Max said, pacing the length of shoreline in front of the others with a grin, "we're in teams, and you have to try and hit all the members of the other team with a tickling charm. if you get hit, you're out."
"Whichever team gets everyone on the other team out first wins." George spoke with a mischievous smirk, "The only rules are that you can only use the tickling charm - no sneaky hexes - and that -"
"You can't use broomsticks or anything. Just your wands." Max had interrupted him mid-sentence, coming to a stop from her excited pacing and was now bouncing on the balls of her feet next to George. She made eye contact with Evelyn, winking, as if to assert confidence that they would win this without trouble.
Evelyn looked to the side and saw Fred sending much the same look to George and Lee. She had to admit, they'd have a good edge. All the sneaking around setting up pranks should serve them well with catching Evelyn's team out. She quickly began to formulate a sort of plan in her mind as to how she could use her own skills to her advantage when George spoke up again with another vital morsel of information.
"And I'm mixing up the teams."
"Since when? We never discussed that!" Max's forehead creased in confusion. Evelyn's eyes widened, her eyebrows raised, and she refrained from developing the plan any further. This would change things.
"Evie, you'll be in a team with Ashton, Nikki and I," George nodded at her and Evelyn smiled, glad enough with who she'd be working with although she'd not really had a preference to begin with - she began to trust in Max's vision of an enjoyable afternoon when she realised what that meant for the opposing team. Her eyes flicked between Fred and Ethan as George continued, "And Fred, you're with Lee, Max and -"
"McDreamy." Fred grumbled, almost inaudibly. Evelyn instinctively slapped his leg, and Fred stuck his tongue out at her. He lazily shifted away from her and Ethan in the direction of Lee, whilst Ashton and Nikki came over to where Evelyn sat. Reluctantly, Ethan stood to join Max and the rest of his team. Evelyn looked at him apologetically, and then proceeded to stare daggers at Fred in an attempt to force him to be at least civil for the sake of the rest of them.
She hoped Fred wouldn't start a civil war - although perhaps it would be beneficial to her chances of winning. His being on the same team as Ethan could serve as an advantage to both teams, she realised, as it meant that Fred wouldn't spend the entire time trying to take Ethan out. Perhaps George had thought more about this than she'd first assumed.
Both teams pulled out their wands (Evelyn's hair fell from its bun to her shoulders and down her back in the lack of wind) and, on George's count, began chase.
As Evelyn dived behind a large boulder to avoid being hit with a charm sent to her by Lee, all thoughts of her imminent OWL exams were absent from her mind.
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She hadn't bothered keeping time, but Evelyn guessed that about half an hour had passed since the game's begining. Both teams had proven worthy and strong, everyone dodging any spell sent their way or hiding long enough not to be caught for at least the first ten minutes - and even now not many of them had actually been hit. Of the eight students that were playing (wether voluntarily or not, that was unclear in some cases) only Ashton, George (to Evelyn's immediate surprise) and (much to Fred's not so subtle delight - though Evelyn still didn't fully understand his hatred) Ethan had been caught out.
But now, Evelyn deduced as she ran across the lawn from Where she'd just (followed by an apology) wiped Ethan from the game, she and Nikki were alone against Fred, Max and Lee. They were at a disadvantage - simply running around screaming didn't seem to be the best tactics, evidently. We need a new approach Evelyn thought hastily, lengthening her strides to make it as far away from Lee - who was tailing her - as possible.
"Rictusempra!" Evelyn ducked to the ground and quickly pressed herself against the trunk of a gigantic tree to avoid the silver sparks sent out by Lee. Breathing heavily, her eyes locked with Nikki's from where she was crouched behind the next tree and she jabbed her head back in Lee's direction before mouthing "get him." Nikki's nod told her she could put her part of the plan into action.
"That all you got?" Evelyn called out, and she swiftly stepped out from behind her shield.
"You wish!" Lee's reply came so confidently as he moved forward to have a better aim. Nikki had crept from behind her tree, Evelyn could see in the corner of her eye. Both girls grinned, and Lee raised his wand again to fire at Evelyn who was seemingly a sitting duck.
But before the quidditch commentator could slip the incantation from his tongue, a shower of metallic sparks rocketed from the end of Nikki's wand and into his side - and Lee fell to the ground, doubled over in laughter. Evelyn glanced at Nikki again, and motioned for her to follow her to where Lee lay laughing in the centre of the lawn, converging half way to perform a celebratory high five.
"Ok ok," Lee puffed out between fits of howling giggles as Evelyn and Nikki came to stand over him, "you got me." He rolled on his side, eyes scrunched tight and clutching his middle as bursts of laughter, "Now make. It. Stop!"
Nikki flicked her wand again uttering the reversal incantation and Lee sat forward gasping for air, though grinning. Then, he spoke, offering a quick thank you before his commentary mode re-activated.
"And the playing field is leveled. Both teams have two players remaining! It's still all to play for - will team Evie take the win? Or will the remaining players be taken out by failing to dodge incoming spells because they were too busy listening to my stellar commentary?"
The half a second it took Evelyn to process what Lee had said seemed half a second too long as, both equally wide eyed and quick on their toes, Evelyn and Nikki swiveled on the spot brandishing their wands as their only weapons barely in time to see the blonde mane of ringlets and the blazing fire of orange come galloping towards them.
"Rictusempra!" Four voices filled the grounds with a ferocious roar, and the silver sparks erupted from each of their wands.
Evelyn, in the flurry of movement, hadn't had time to articulate her aim as precisely as she would have liked. She watched, cursing herself, as time seemed to slow and her stream of silver sparks narrowly missed it's target. She watched as Max and Nikki both fell to the ground in fits of laughter, their spells colliding with their opposite in perfect symphony. She watched as that cheeky, boyish smirk appeared on Fred Weasley's face, radiating pride and assurance that he'd be the one to never get hit. She knew what was happening as soon as she saw the sparkle in his eyes. Well damn, she thought, you can't win them all.
Evelyn fell to her knees. She squirmed away and found her body hunched in a ball of breath thieving, hysterical convulsions. She gasped for air, for the sound of her own joyous laughter was entirely alienated from the cramping and twisting of her middle from the invisible hands that tickled her mercilessly into submission. Her cheeks burned as puddles formed at the corner of her eyes and she howled hearty giggles as she pressed herself to the ground, longing for the counter spell. It was futile really, that only now did she recall her burning hatred to being tickled as a child.
A freckled face entered her vision which, though bleary from the water filling her eyes, she could somehow tell was Fred. It had been like an hour passed in the time it took for him to reverse the charm, until she finally turned to lie on her back, all too aware of the heaving of her chest and the mess her hair was bound to be in as it fanned out loosely behind her.
"Here," Fred offered Evelyn a slender hand and held hers firmly as he pulled her gently upright. He let himself fall lightly to sit beside her and carefully pulled a little stick from her hair with his free hand while Evelyn leant forward into her knees, trying to catch her breath. "Not a fan of being tickled then?"
Evelyn shook her head, "No."
"You should have said something. We could have used a different charm, you know."
"Wasn't thinking about that. I just wanted to get on with the game." Evelyn turned her head to the side a little to see that Max and Nikki had also been relieved of the charm. She sighed, "you won."
"So I did. Although I must say, you put up a valiant effort, so maybe I won't use your hatred of being tickled against you in the future."
"Thank you?"
"No promises though." Evelyn leant back from her knees with the sole purpose of shooting a narrowed gaze of warning in the redhead's direction. Although, perhaps unsurprisingly, Fred produced an overly exaggerated impression of her apparently grumpy expression before he cracked up into a fit of low chuckles. Evelyn couldn't stop herself from laughing right along with him, and they sat there on the floor where she'd fallen in quiet giggles until somebody interrupted them and Fred abruptly stopped his laughter.
"Think I could have my girlfriend back Weasley?" Ethan stood over them, one eyebrow raised, his gaze fixated on the point where Fred's hand remained intertwined with Evelyn's, "I'm sure you're only ever respectful when a girl's already spoken for."
"We're just friends, don't fuss." Evelyn told Ethan, and she unwound her fingers from Fred's grip before slipping them into Ethan's cold grasp. Ethan dragged her from sitting to standing and started to lead her back to where the others were gathered at the foot of the tree by the shores of the lake, making quiet conversation.
When, half because of the brightness of the slowly setting sun and half because of the strangeness of the other boy's silence, Evelyn glanced back at Fred, he looked like he'd been kicked somewhere rather uncomfortable.