~ Fred ~
The movement of the train underneath his padded train seat feels very nice. Maybe it's because he's just spent a couple weeks being cooked for and taken care of, maybe it's because of the giant farewell breakfast his mother cooked him right before he and his siblings left for the train station, maybe it's because he's still riding the high that came after his day with Evelyn, or maybe it's because he and George lit up a cursitory "End Of Winter Break Joint" not that long ago. Okay, it's probably the last one.
It could very possibly be about Evelyn, though. Everything has felt better after he spent a day with the entirety of her attention on him. He hasn't been able to stop thinking about her since.
He'll be brushing his teeth or tying his shoelaces and then all of a sudden, his mind will be flooded with a recent memory of Evelyn that makes him pause and take a moment to catch his breath. It makes everything better that he gets to have happy memories with her that don't solely exist in the alternate reality that was the last summer. It makes everything feel a bit more real. Achievable.
It's worse now, when he's still a bit high. Things feel too vivid and too real if he closes his eyes.
"Fuck, that looks so good right now," Evelyn said while reaching her hands out for the mug of hot chocolate that Fred brought her.
He chuckled and handed it to her, careful to give it to her handle-first, and then sat down in the seat across from her at the small table with his own mug.
Her eyelids fluttered shut when she took the first sip, slowly taking a drink from the cup while cupping her hands around it to keep her fingers warm. She let out a little "Mmmm" sound—or a moan, would be more accurate—which was much too erotic for the middle of a cafe. Much too erotic for any time, really, especially when Fred wasn't allowed to make her make that exact sound in an entirely different context if he so pleased.
"Is it good?" he choked out.
She pulled the cup away from her face to set on the table, nodding.
Fuck. Now she had a hot chocolate mustache. It really shouldn't have been sexy, but it was. He wanted to lick it off of her.
Before he even realized what he was doing, he was reaching forward, carefully wiping the hot chocolate off of her lip with his thumb, and then bringing his thumb to his mouth to lick it off. All while making eye contact with her.
Their eyes both widen at the same time while they process what he just did. Her fingers raise to brush against her upper lip like she's chasing the ghost of his touch.
"Thought you said you were going to keep your hands to yourself?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and a hint of a smirk.
He laughed a laugh that was probably a bit too loud for the mostly silent cafe that they were sitting in. He was shocked by her reaction, to say the least. He would expect her to scold him, maybe kick him under the table or tell him she won't spend time with him if he does things like that, but no. It was almost like she liked it. It was almost like they were flirting.
"Well, my first instinct was to lick it off, so."
Her face after he said that was nothing short of gold.
He smiles at the memory, quietly humming in contentedness and sinking further into his seat that is much comfier than he remembers it ever being.
He can still see her face after he'd said he wanted to lick the hot chocolate off of her in his mind. Her jaw had dropped a bit, her bottom lip only barely separating from her upper one, and her eyes had darkened, looking at him with a look that mad him need to subtly adjust himself in his pants underneath the table.
She had quickly gotten mock-upset with him, had reached across the table and lightly hit him, but he didn't miss the way that her cheeks stayed pink for the duration of their stay.
He had made it his personal goal to get her as flustered as he could for the rest of the day, no matter how platonic he was supposed to be making things.
He smiles even wider when he remembers how he'd gotten help with it at one point.
"Ready to go?" Fred asked once he finished paying while he got up from his seat, quickly offering a hand out to Evelyn to help her up from her own seat.
She rolled her eyes but took his hand anyway. "Yep."
They both started to put their layers back on, sliding on their jackets, hats, and gloves to gear up for the biting cold.
Just as they were leaving the cafe, they were stopped by an older woman who was walking back to her seat from the bathroom.
"I just have to say, you two make an absolutely lovely couple," she said with a kind, warm smile that only grandmas can ever master.
Evelyn started to talk. "We-" but Fred was faster than her.
"Thank you," he said with a wide smile, reaching out and looping an arm around Evelyn's waist to pull her into his side. "That's what I'm always saying." He could feel how tense Evelyn was under his arm, but he knew that she was keeping a polite smile on so as to not embarrass them in public.
"Oh, yes," the lady continued on, endlessly pleasing Fred even more than she already had. "I can tell how in love you two are." He feels Evelyn tense even more beside him. "Enjoy it. Young love is something magical."
Fred had to fight to keep his grin from stretching far too wide across his entire face. "I assure you that we will."
Evelyn smiled something that came off as more of a grimace. "Thank you."
Her grip on Fred's arm when she pulled him out of the cafe was not gentle. "What the fuck was that?" she hissed at him.
He was already laughing, too hard to even think about answering. She waited for him to finish with her hands on her hips.
"Oh, c'mon," he said once he calmed down a bit, still smiling. "It would have been so much more awkward to say 'Oh, sorry, lady. We're actually not together.' What's so bad about having fun with it?"
Evelyn sighed and rubbed her hands over her face in annoyance, saying a muffled "Fine, whatever," into her hands. When she pulled her hands away, she refused to look at him, and Fred noticed that her cheeks were stained a dark, dark red.
He took it as a victory.
He wishes that he could be sitting in the same carriage as her so that he could get some more time with her attention focused on him, but the girls had all agreed to sit together and discuss their winter breaks. Fred had walked by their carriage while making a trip to the bathroom, and there's a lot more gossiping about whether or not Theodore Nott is single than talking about their holidays.
His thoughts are replaced with an all-consuming hunger when he sees the food cart making its way down the aisle. The munchies are killer.
~~~~~~~~~
The weeks leading up to the quidditch world cup pass by quickly. The entire school is practically buzzing with excitement the few days before they leave -- except for the third years and under, of course. Who cares about them, anyway?
Before he knows it, his bags are packed and he's standing in front of a portkey—a raggedy old purse—with all of his friends. Padma and her sister had to stay back for something, but the rest of them: George, Ron, Harry, Hermione, Luna, Ginny, Evelyn, and himself, are all going. Emphasis on the Evelyn part.
They both still study in the library together—Evelyn has even come and chosen to sit with him a few times—but that's pretty much all that he's seen from her apart from their shared class. He's asked her to hangout a couple of other times, but she's always been busy.
She's standing next to him now, her own duffle bag tossed over her shoulder. He only now notices how tense she is, how much anxiety is radiating off of her body. Her gaze is fixed on the portkey in front of them, her hands twisting together nervously in front of her.
Ginny had to go grab something that she'd forgotten, because of course she forgot something, so they're all just waiting for her to return before they leave.
He bends down so that his mouth is closer to her ear, whispering so that no one else can hear. "Have you never used a portkey before?"
She doesn't look away from the purse in front of them when she shakes her head no.
"It's really not that bad," he says in hopes to console her.
She looks up at him this time. "What if I throw up?"
He rolls his eyes with a smile. "You're not going to throw up. Have you ever been on one of those dangerous muggle contraptions? The roller coaster?" She nods her head. "Then, yeah. You won't throw up from this."
She nods her head and turns back to look at the portkey, but she still looks much too nervous for his liking.
He can see Ginny running back to them out of the corner of his eye, a Holyhead Harpies flag in her hand. He's going to kill her. That's what she made them all wait for?
"Really, Gin?" George asks, voicing his own thoughts for him. "That's what you had to go get?"
Ginny huffs. "Well, this might be the only time I see them in person. I need to show my team spirit."
George rolls his eyes and starts to say, "You could've-" but Fred cuts him off.
"Alright, whatever, let's just go," he says and takes a step closer to the portkey. He sees Evelyn take a wary step closer too. "Everyone ready?"
Everyone nods or murmurs an agreement and positions themselves around the purse so that they can all grab it at the same time. He turns to Evelyn and holds out a hand to her, his eyebrow raised in question.
She looks down to his hand, then back up to his face, then back down to his hand again. He moves it closer to her, urging her to take it. She does.
Her hand is warm and small in his hand, and he wishes that he had more time to appreciate the familiar weight of it, but they're all already reaching forward to take hold of the purse. Everything spins around him; it's disorienting and feels like he's lost any tether that he had been connected to the earth with, but he still never lets go of Evelyn's hand.
She doesn't drop it either, not even when they safely land at the campsite.
~~~~~~~~~~
The tents that the school provided for them this year are unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable. He'd thought that their family tent was pretty great, he'd always been amazed by the expansion charm, but theirs is nothing compared to the ones that Hogwarts has provided for them.
They look small and simple from the outside, made of a tan, flimsy material, but the inside is, predictably, nothing like the outside. The temperature difference between the biting cold of outside and the dry warmth of the inside makes his cheeks pinken when he steps inside, his beenie all of a sudden feeling much to warm for his head. There's two queen sized beds in each, positioned on opposite sides of the tent so that the feet of each face each other. There's also a small kitchen (yes, a kitchen), a wooden table, and a bathroom. Upon further inspection, the bathroom has a shower, equipped with tile walls and all. He'd first wondered how the hell they got running water into the tents, but then he'd remembered. Magic.
They all eat dinner at an outdoor table that seems to stretch on for a mile to accommodate all the students, their meal consisting of things that are easier to eat with their hands then what they're typically given. The benches are filled with students similarly bundled in thick jackets and warm scarves, most of the heads that can be seen from Fred's point of view clad in thickly knitted hats.
After everyone finishes eating, he goes back to his and George's tent to unpack his things after feasting on more turkey sandwiches than he can count, but he isn't there long before his twin finds him.
"Apparently there's about to be a party," he says as he walks through the door. Well, it's more of a flap, really. "We have to go."
Fred frowns. "What about the teachers?"
"They already all headed back to their tents, which are a bit of a walk over there." He gestures in the direction of said tents. "And we're going to cast a silencing charm."
He nods and follows his brother outside the tent.
He's actually pretty impressed by how committed some of the students have been to having a party. Some had already come prepared with bottles of firewhiskey and whatever other alcohol they could find, some brought weed, and some helped to get all of the supplies ready. People transfigured countless rocks into mismatching glasses, cups, and mugs for people to drink out of, someone transfigured a record player for the records that they brought, and someone used an amplifying charm to make it louder. There are even a few transfigured tables and seats positioned around the field. It's amazing how much students use what they've learned at Hogwarts to create a party for themselves.
Once the silencing charm is in place, the party immediately kicks into full swing. Music blasts loudly throughout the field, people quickly get to drinking, and a few people have even already started to dance.
An hour later, once the firewhiskey has finally made its way into all of the students, things are even more fun. There's not much dancing going on, but everyone is drunkenly mingling with each other over the music, which is even more fun. He's mostly been talking to George all night, but the Ravenclaw that he'd been eyeing had started to eye him right back, so he'd left to go talk to her. It seems to be going well, if their body language is anything to go by. They're practically pressed up against each other, they're standing so close. She's looking up at him behind her eyelashes and has a hand on his arm, and he's looking down at her with that look and has a hand on her waist. Yeah, George is getting laid tonight. He just hopes that it itsn't in their tent.
When he makes eye contact with his brother when he looks up from the girl, he raises his empty glass towards him before making his way to the refill station.
Of course, just to his luck, Angelina is refilling her glass right as he walks up to the table.
"Hey, Fred!" she says cheerily when she sees him.
He smiles politely and nods while he reaches for a bottle, not really having the energy to have a conversation with her at the moment.
"So," she says and takes a step closer to him. "I've been hearing conflicting things about you."
He raises his eyebrows in acknowledgement but doesn't look up from his cup. "Really?" His tone unfortunately doesn't hide his lack of interest in the topic.
She nods. "Mmhm." She takes another step closer to him. "First, I heard that you have a girlfriend, but then I heard that you said it wasn't true?"
He turns to look at her, amusement playing on his face. "Wow. That's crazy."
She rolls her eyes at him. "Well, which one is it? Are you single?"
It takes him a moment to respond. Does he tell her that he's not? It would keep her at a distance. But, he really shouldn't keep up the lie that Evelyn made for him. He just knows that it would blow up in his face. He just wants to let Angelina down easily.
"Um, yeah, but I'm not really looking for a relationship right now."
She doesn't seem deterred. Actually, it seems to spurr her on even more. She reaches up and places a hand on his chest. "Well, maybe I'm not looking for one, either. There's other things we could do," she practically purrs.
He looks up, away from Angelina, and, of course. Of course that's the moment that Evelyn chooses to look at them. She doesn't look angry or jealous as she had before. No, when she looks into his eyes, she just smiles a guilty, apologetic smile and turns back to Hermione.
He absolutely hates it.
He'd been over the moon before when she'd been jealous; he hadn't been able to stop thinking of the angry look on her face when she'd watched him and Angelina for days. He'd absolutely loved it. It'd fueled his wanks for a week, even, just the though of her jealous and possessive over him.
Now, though. Now she just looks sad. She still feels bad for potentially messing up whatever she must think is going on between Angelina and him.
He wants to run over to her and shake her, tell her that no one is distracting him from his one true goal: her. He doesn't care if Angelina wants to sleep in his tent tonight.
He lightly pushes Angelina's hand off of him. "I'm sorry, Angelina, I'm just not interested."
She looks like someone has just slapped her across the face. She looks like she'd like to slap him in the face, too. She doesn't, luckily, but the look that she gives him before she storms away is almost as bad. He can't bring himself to feel bad about it, though.
When he looks up, Evelyn tries to hide her grin by taking a sip of her drink, but he still sees it. In return, he can't wipe his own smile off of his face for the rest of the night.