You sat in the library and tapped the end of your quill against your chin while staring down at the roll of blank parchment in front of you. McGonagall had assigned your third-year class with a particularly challenging homework assignment so you were attempting to make a start on that, much to the protest of the twins. You scanned the recommended reading list that McGonagall had assigned at the beginning of the term and marked the ones you were going to use.
As you moved to get up and start looking for the books, Fred got your attention, "psst Y/N, look - I drew you," he said pointing to the corner of his parchment. You squinted at it and then reached over and turned the page slightly to see if that would help you understand what on earth you were seeing on his parchment.
"That looks like a Grindylow, Freddie," you said to him. "I know, and I actually think it captures you perfectly, love," he responded with a wink. That earned him a halfhearted shove in the shoulder from you as you stood up and went looking for your books.
Once you found what you needed you started making your way back to your table, but then you spotted Harry, Ron and Hermione huddled over a number of ancient looking books at a table nearby. You walked over to them, whispering a greeting before sitting down on the bench beside Hermione. Hermione explained with exasperation that they were searching for information on a legendary magical stone but were coming up empty. Ron groaned "is it time for dinner yet?" and Madam Pince shushed him from where she was patrolling the rows of tables.
"How are you always hungry, Ronald?" Hermione hissed at him which made you giggle, "it's definitely a Weasley thing, Hermione."
Harry smirked at your comment but Hermione had already zoned out of the conversation and was focused once again on the book in front of her. You wracked your brain for any books that could help their search for a stone, and you listed a number of books off the top of your head that related to magical artefacts and the history of the school, but Hermione insisted that they'd already looked at those.
You considered that for a moment before asking, "what about Idella Barrow's paper on Magical Minerals and Miscellaneous Gems? It's in the potions section."
Hermione's eyes widened and then she smiled at you, gave you a quick hug and then dashed to the potions section. Ron looked at you, puzzled, "how do you know about magical rocks Y/N? Do you want to help her instead of us?"
You chuckled and shook your head, "I looked at it for a Potions essay, something about the properties of certain minerals and their effect on the reactions of specific ingredients." You were met with blank stares from the two boys, "I think you lost us at 'Potions' to be honest," Harry admitted. You shook your head fondly at the pair and then stood up and made your way back to your own table.
Once you got back you saw Fred lying with his forehead against the desk, and George was sleeping with his chin resting on his hand. You rolled your eyes at them and once you sat back down beside Fred, he turned slightly so his face was angled towards you, while still lying flat on the desk.
"She wants us dead Y/N," he grumbled, you raised your eyes skeptically at this statement, "who does?"
He groaned, "McGonagall, she wants us to die of boredom. What other reason could she possibly have for giving us such a rubbish essay to do?"
You sighed and ruffled his red hair which had grown out slightly since second year, "it has to be done, Freddie," he exhaled loudly and closed his eyes, "what would it take for me to convince you to write this for me?"
"One hundred Galleons and you've got yourself a deal, Weasley"
Fred shot up into a sitting position, looking aghast, "you can't be serious!?"
"Quiet, Mr Weasley!" Madam Pince scolded from behind you, making you jump.
Fred shook his head, his face showing exaggerated disappointment, "you're a madwoman, Y/L/N."
You smiled to yourself as you flipped open one of your new books, "but for some reason you like me anyway, Fred."
He grew slightly quiet at that but before you could say anything else, he agreed with you, "yeah, for some reason I do, even if you can be a git."
You bumped your shoulder against his, "I know you'd rather swim in a swamp than write this, but we only have two days to get it done, so you'd better make a start on it."
He nodded in agreement before his face lit up, then he spontaneously swung his arm around your neck and planted a loud kiss onto the side of your head, "Y/N you're absolutely brilliant! Now THAT'S an idea! Georgie, wake up-" he leaned across the table and yanked George's wrist from where it was supporting his sleeping head, causing his head to fall and jerk him awake.
"AH-" George yelped in fright, earning an angry shush yet again from the librarian, Fred quickly reached into his bag and pulled out a sheet of fresh parchment before he stood up and moved around the table to sit beside George, and within seconds they were whispering animatedly while sketching something onto the parchment.
Meanwhile, you were sitting still with wide eyes and fighting a blush. You absentmindedly reached up and brushed your fingers against your hair where Fred had excitedly kissed your head, but then you caught yourself and mentally shook yourself out of whatever train of thought you were having and turned back to your books. You didn't know what you were feeling but you didn't like it because this was Fred, your best friend, Fred. There was nothing going on between you, and nothing would, because you were friends and that's all. So then why were you blushing at the friendly kiss on the head that obviously didn't mean anything?
While you were having your crisis about Fred, you didn't notice how the boy in question was dealing with his own internal upheaval. Fred looked up at you from where he was sitting across the table beside George who was labelling a diagram on their shared parchment. He hadn't even registered what he'd done until he'd sat down with George, he put it down to being comfortable around you and excited about the new idea, because that's all it was, wasn't it? He was thirteen-years-old, he shouldn't be thinking about that rubbish until he was at least thirty, right? At least that's what he told himself while he sat there with his ears tinged in pink and with heat rising up his neck. So he mentally boxed away any confusing feelings to never be looked at again and cleared his throat, turning his attention back to their new invention plan.
---
Fred frequently sent you notes during class on any spare scrap of parchment he could find, if he could get away with it without being caught. He passed you a note during Potions class halfway through your third year, which was a mistake he sorely regretted when Snape snatched it from his hand.
"Mr Weasley, your lack of observation and attention appalls me," Snape said in his monotone voice, before he unfolded the parchment and read aloud to the class: "Do you like my hair? I grew it out a bit over the summer."
He lowered the parchment and looked directly at Fred who looked mortified. Your secondhand embarrassment was making you flush and you covered your eyes with your hands and willed the moment to be over, which of course it wasn't.
Snape spoke again, "I assume this was an attempt at seeking validation from Miss Y/L/N," you jumped in surprise at the mention of your name and dropped your hands from your face. You looked up at Snape whose narrowed eyes were now focused on you, "but may I remind you, Mr Weasley, that my class is not the time nor place for you to act on your schoolboy crush. Now open your books."
With that, he walked away. The piece of parchment remained behind, floating above your desk and you watched as it burst into flame and crumbled into ash on the desk in front of you.
Once the class had stopped whispering and laughing at you, and everyone had turned back to the top of the class where Snape now stood, you dared to look at your friends. George was doubled over, his face red from suppressed laughter and tears were streaming down his face. Lee had pulled the collar of his robes over his face, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. You looked at Fred then, who was already looking at you. Once you made eye-contact, you both burst into laughter as well, trying your hardest to stay quiet. While gathering your stuff after class, you turned to Fred, "yes I do like your hair, Fred." And before he could say anything to tha, you ran from the dungeon classroom to your next class, not noticing how your comment made Fred reach up subconsciously and touch his hair, a small smile on his face ghosting his mouth. He decided not to pass you more notes during Potions class though.
Note-passing during Charms was made more difficult when Professor Flitwick changed the seating plan and separated Fred and Lee from you and George because of your group's proclivity to chat during class. You and George were seated towards the front while the other two were now seated all the way down the bench towards the back of the long classroom. And while the note-passing was made more difficult, it didn't deter Fred from sending one to you every now and then, which meant that the Ravenclaw girl sitting beside you always ended up passing them to you, but thankfully she didn't seem to mind.
By the fourth time it happened, you smiled at her apologetically and she shrugged, "he's not very subtle, that Weasley boy," she said to you nonchalantly, shuffling her parchment around on the desk as she wrote down her notes from Flitwick's chalkboard. You looked up at her in surprise since this was the first time she'd spoken to you outside of her polite "hello" or "goodbye" at the beginning and end of class, respectively.
"What do you mean?" You asked her, puzzled.
"Oh I just thought that...nevermind," before you could ask further questions, she held out her hand to you, "I'm Beatrice Clarke. But you can call me Bea, if- if you want," she smiled at you shyly.
You smiled at her and shook her hand, "Y/N Y/L/N. It's nice to meet you, Bea."
She smiled back, her dark brown eyes sparkling happily. Then as she turned back to the front of the class as Flitwick's class began, she self consciously tucked her sleek black hair behind her ear. You now understood why she'd hardly spoken to you before that day, she was obviously extremely shy, but she seemed nice so you decided then that you'd make a conscious effort from that day forward to get to know her a bit better. As you turned to pay attention to the class, you took a moment to nudge George on your other side who was on the verge of falling asleep on his desk.
After that day, you and Bea did get to know each other a bit better. You learned that her father was an Irish wizard who went to work for the Ministry of Magic straight after he left Hogwarts. He had met her mother at a Wizarding conference in India a couple of years later, and they fell in love and settled in Wales which is where Bea was from. She was very interested in Magizoology and her favourite class was Care of Magical Creatures. She told you that she hoped to work with magical creatures after school and maybe travel the world while she did so, and she was intrigued when you told her about Charlie Weasley who was planning on working with dragons in Romania when he finished seventh year. While Bea was usually very quiet, you soon learned that she was actually quite a funny person, her surprisingly witty comments that always seemed to come out of the blue regularly left you in stitches of laughter. She even got on well with the twins, though sometimes they left her completely bewildered.
A week after your interesting library visit with the Weasley twins, you were sitting in Charms when Bea passed you yet another note from Fred, she smirked but said nothing as she slid it across the desk. You opened it quietly and suppressed a smile so you wouldn't be caught by Professor Flitwick, who was teaching and gesturing spiritedly at his chalkboard. You looked down at the hastily folded slip of parchment and read Fred's familiar handwriting.
Dearest Y/N,
Are you coming to Hogsmeade with us this week? I owe you a butterbeer.
Sincerely yours, Fred
You looked down the bench to where Fred was sitting with Lee. He raised his eyebrows at you in question and you gave him a thumbs up in response to his note, and he smiled back at you. You then turned to George who was on your other side, "why does Fred think he owes me a butterbeer?"
He smirked at you, "didn't you know that you're the inspiration behind our latest invention Y/N?"
You raised an eyebrow at that, wondering how on earth you could've inspired one of their wild ideas, "which invention?"
"We're working on a portable swamp," he stated matter-of-factly, making you narrow your eyes at him, "George, is this your way of telling me that I smell or something?"
He suppressed a laugh, "no, you just helped Fred come up with the idea, but maybe..." he leaned in towards you and sniffed loudly, "a shower wouldn't hurt," he winked at you cheekily which made you smack him with your parchment.
"Do you have a question, Miss Y/L/N?" Flitwick asked, drawing your attention back to the front of the class. You then realised that all eyes were on you and you flushed with embarrassment, "um, no, sorry Professor, I figured it out myself." The professor grunted and turned back to the blackboard, you elbowed George in the ribs as soon as the coast was clear.
You turned to Bea, "do you want to join us in Hogsmeade this week?" her face lit up but then fell when she looked down at her notebook, "I wish I could but I've a mountain of work due before next weekend, so can we take a rain check on it?" You hastily agreed which made her smile, and then you both turned your attention back to your class.
---
The following Tuesday, the school was practically empty, almost every student from third year and above was making their way down to Hogsmeade. You were beyond excited, having never been before, but you were feeling less excited as you walked through the ice cold wind and had to bunch up the collar of your winter coat to protect yourself against it. The twins were walking ahead with Lee, discussing the upcoming Quidditch match between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff. The twins had gone to Quidditch tryouts in second year and successfully became the Beaters for the Gryffindor team, you were slightly jealous since you didn't make the team that year, and even Alicia had only been a reserve player, but thankfully she was playing this year when the previous Chaser had finished her seventh year. You couldn't psych yourself up enough to try out again this year, but the twins were encouraging you to give it another try and you promised them that you would.
But now, as you walked to Hogsmeade, you hung back with Angelina and Alicia, who you'd become really close with since you started sharing a dorm in first year.
"Girls, you'll never guess what I heard," Angelina said shyly, twisting a dark curl around her finger, you noticed her starting to trail behind slightly, and sharing a look with Alicia, you realised that this was going to be one of your private girl talks. You both linked an arm through either of Angelina's, flanking her.
"Spill!" Alicia giggled enthusiastically. The three of you leaned in close as Angelina dove into her story.
"So I was walking out of Herbology with Amira Khan from Hufflepuff-"
"The girl with the fit brother in sixth year!?" Alicia exclaimed, making you giggle.
"Yes! But anyway, she told me that her friend Felix from Ravenclaw was told by his boyfriend Emmet, who is a fourth year Ravenclaw by the way- actually did you hear that his cousin recently-"
"Ange, your story," you reminded her playfully, not doubting you'd be hearing the rest of the Ravenclaw gossip in the dorm later on.
"Oh yeah! Sorry, so anyway, Emmet, the fourth year Ravenclaw, overheard during their Quidditch practice that Fred," she gestured to the boys who were walking up ahead before continuing, "as in Fred Weasley, FANCIES me!" Alicia and Angelina both squealed excitedly and for some reason you couldn't join in with their excitement, but you couldn't figure out why. Of course Fred would have a crush on Angelina Johnson, she was beautiful, clever and was a fantastic Quidditch player and one of your closest friends, so why wouldn't he fancy her?
"Y/N?" Angelina asked, pulling you from your thoughts, "are you alright?" You realised then that you'd stopped walking, and they were looking at you from a few feet ahead with confusion written on their faces.
"Oh, Godric, sorry! For a minute I thought I'd left my purse in the dorm and got distracted, what did you say?" you caught up with them and linked your arm through Angelina's again. She beamed at you, "Fred fancies me, apparently!" this time you gave her the appropriate reaction you should've given her the first time.
"You must be really happy Ange, but of course he fancies you! He'd be an idiot not to," you say to her, and you do mean it. You're happy for your friend so you push away the sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach as you continue on your journey into Hogsmeade.
An hour later, the six of you were sitting in a corner booth in the Three Broomsticks. You found yourself chugging yours faster than everyone else, and when you got strange looks you assured them you were just trying to warm yourself up, while deep down you knew you were drowning your sorrows in a silly way for reasons you didn't quite understand.
You were sitting on the far edge of the booth with Angelina on your right, you looked across the table at Fred who was on the opposite edge of the booth, he looked up at you and met your gaze and grinned that silly grin of his.
You laughed and pointed out the foamy mustache he was now sporting from his butterbeer, "I think it rather suits me, don't you think, Y/L/N?" You shook your head fondly and laughed before getting up. You announced to everyone that you were heading to get a refill from the bar before you made your way to where Madam Rosmerta was happily chatting with other patrons while wiping down the bartop.
"Hello dear, what can I get you?" she asked you cheerily, you tapped your empty mug, "another butterbeer please, Madam Rosmerta."
"Coming right up!" when she turned away to get your order, you pulled out your purse and counted out your coins before you slid them across the bartop for her. You turned around as she was making your drink and spotted Fred sliding into your empty seat beside Angelina, saying something to make the girl laugh. You felt that strange twinge in your stomach again and turned back around just as Madam Rosmerta placed your drink on the countertop
She smiled at you as she took your payment, and then she moved down to the other side of the bar where another patron had caught her attention and you turned away from the bar making a move to walk back to your friends. Immediately your mug was snatched from your hand and brought up to the mouth of the person who took it from you, "oh hello, Y/L/N, so nice of you to get this for me!" Veronica Spratt smirked at you as she and her friends walked away with your drink. You stood rooted on the spot, your brain was trying to catch up with what had just happened.
---
Veronica Spratt was a Slytherin student in your year who took pride in her pureblood ancestry and had hated you since first year, when you'd defended Lee against her.
You later learned that she was the girl whose cloak Lee had accidentally set on fire on the train, and she'd heard Lee joking about it with someone outside of the Transfiguration classroom and snapped.
So as you were walking down the corridor one day, you saw her, Adrian Pucey who you recognised from the Slytherin Quidditch team, and two others whose names you didn't bother learning, making a beeline straight for Lee who had his back turned to them. Veronica grabbed him by the back of his cloak and sent the small boy hurtling to the floor, immediately you ran over and helped your friend up from the stone tiles. You vaguely remembered telling the towering blonde girl to "piss off" and to "get a life", and the next thing you knew she was shoving you backwards and she called you a word you'd never heard before. Judging by how some onlookers gasped and how she said it with such venom, you knew that it was something bad. So as she went to shove you again, you jinxed her shoelaces to tie together which sent her stumbling to the floor at your feet, and then you grabbed Lee and made a run for it.
Lee hugged you and thanked you profusely later in the common room, but you brushed it off, knowing that he would've done the same for you. When the twins joined you after their detention, you filled them in on what had happened and told them what Veronica had called you, and you saw their faces immediately drop.
"She called you a what?" Fred demanded, a furious flush rising in his cheeks, George had the same expression but said nothing, and Lee just looked guilty and shook his head in disgust.
"She called me a 'dirty Mudblood', what does that mean?"
When the boys explained, you got really upset and the three of them pulled you into a tight group hug. Lee felt terrible, but you later told him that it wasn't his fault that Veronica was such a bigot, and that she probably just didn't like being stood up to and embarrassed.
Veronica's vendetta against you continued, but it usually didn't escalate to any more than a glare from across a corridor or classroom. You came to the realisation that your blood status wasn't the reason she hated you, she just used that as a way to insult you because she had no other leverage. You figured out from her prideful reputation that she hated you because you took her down a few pegs, and in a crowded corridor, no less. Once you realised that, you didn't pay her any attention and instead you pitied her.
---
While Veronica and her friends held no real power over you, you were still surprised whenever they randomly showed up to where you were, which was now in the Three Broomsticks having just stolen your drink right out of your hands, leaving you stunned.
"That girl has serious issues," a gentle voice said jokingly from behind you. You turned around and were met with the kind face of none other than Cedric Diggory.
When you first met Cedric you were both in first-year Herbology and he was a tiny little boy who rarely spoke but always seemed to be popular with everyone. But as you were realising now, having not interacted with him much aside from a brief 'hello' in the corridor, that somewhere along the way he'd grown up, gotten much taller, and was actually rather handsome.
"Oh hi, Cedric! Sorry you had to witness me clamming up, that's more embarrassing than her actually stealing my drink," you laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of your neck.
He smiled kindly at you, "don't worry about that, you've nothing to be embarrassed about unlike her," he turned around and gestured for Madam Rosmerta, and then he was putting a fresh mug of butterbeer into your hands, "there you go."
Your eyes widened and you looked up at him, "Cedric I can't accept this! I'll buy you one and you could join us at our table," you pointed over to where your friends were sitting and suddenly became aware that those five friends were watching the entire exchange.
He smiled softly at you, his light-coloured eyes crinkling at the corners, "I actually have to get back to the castle now, I was just leaving. I appreciate the offer though, so another time?"
You smiled and nodded, "definitely! And thank you, by the way, for the replacement butterbeer," you said, gesturing to your mug. He nodded in acknowledgement before taking his leave, "I'll see you around then, Y/N," he smiled again and waved before wrapping his Hufflepuff scarf around his neck and heading out of the pub.
You smiled, despite yourself, feeling your cheeks warming. You made your way back to your friends who were grinning at you, except for Fred who at this stage had moved back to his own seat across the booth and was staring intently at his half empty mug in front of him, turning it around in circles on the table.
Alicia could barely contain her glee as you sat down, "no way, Y/N! You and Cedric Diggory!?"
You laughed and felt heat crawling up your neck at the attention as everyone at the table, apart from Fred, stared at you. "Oh no- he um, he just bought me a butterbeer after Veronica Spratt stole mine."
Angelina narrowed her eyes, "she did what? I swear she always waits until you're by yourself because she knows we'd all turn her inside-out if she even looked at you funny while you were with us."
You smiled gratefully at Angelina's protectiveness and lay your head fondly on her shoulder, "thanks Ange, I can handle her though, she just caught me off guard this time."
"No problem, Y/N, us girls need to look out for each other, even if it's against other girls," then she pulled you and Alicia closer, speaking quietly while the boys picked up their own conversation. "Speaking of looking out for each other, I want to set you up with someone, Y/N. So if not Cedric, what about Oliver Wood? He's very fit."
The three of you burst into hysterical laughter, "yeah Ange, Wood is definitely fit. Why do you think I bombed the Quidditch tryouts last year?" You said it a bit louder than you'd intended but the girls giggled uncontrollably. They knew you were joking, at least about the reason you'd messed up at the Quidditch tryouts, which was because of nerves and not because you thought Oliver Wood was fit.
When the girls turned to ask Lee about something, you turned to take a sip of your fresh butterbeer, and while you did, you spared a glance at Fred who was staring in the direction of the door.
"You okay Freddie?" you asked him, jerking him from his thoughts.
"What? Oh- yeah sorry, just zoned out," he cleared his throat and shook his head, as if pulling himself from a trance. "Do you want to see what we bought in Zonko's? There's this whole range of new stuff designed especially for pulling pranks with delayed reactions, so you have a chance to run away," he grinned at you as he pulled out some of the items they bought and eagerly explained the purpose of each one.
You listened willingly as George joined in and they presented to you their plans for each item, and you watched happily as your favourite twins rambled on and on. Then it was time to head back to the castle, and you all walked back in a light-hearted mood, but for some reason your head was now filled with strange and new thoughts about boys.
Or maybe just one boy in particular.