I knew from the first time,
I'd stay for a long time cause,
I like me better when I'm with you.
"Charlotte," I heard someone say softly in the distance. I paid them little attention. Allowing myself to feel like I'm floating in the darkness around me. Sometimes I wonder if this is what space feels like; weightless, peaceful, dark, and stars and surrounding colours are the hints of life and dreams.
"Charlotteeee," The voice sang out, sounding closer. I can feel myself stirring while a light force shakes my body.
"CHARLOTTE!"
Thunk.
At first, I thought I had experienced this before: Being asleep and falling just to be woken up right before the impact, except this time, I felt the pain of my body slamming against the solid surface.
"Owww," I groaned and turned over onto my back, feeling the cold, hard wooden floor underneath. I lifted myself into a sitting position, feeling the weight of my body again and what felt like the weight of the rest of the world.
Rubbing my head where it connected with the floor, I tried to make sense of the figure in front of me through squinted eyes and blinding light, "What was that for?"
There was a familiar giggle of another best friend of mine, Angelina. She bent over to my eye level, "Next time, wake up the first time I call you," Angelina grinned before offering her hand to help me up.
As she pulled me to my feet, I dusted myself off, "And you push me off the bed for what?" I hissed, still dazed and stretching out my arms with a yawned.
"Whew, Firstly to send you to the bathroom to brush those teeth," She waved her hand in front of her face, "And because every time I wake you up gently, you just go right back to sleep and forget it ever happened. Then you try to accuse me of not waking you up in the first place. When I remind you that I did, you say it's because I didn't wake you up 'enough'," Angelina used air quotes around the word, causing me to recollect all of the times we've experienced this problem. It was probably too many to count on all four of our hands combined.
"Fair point," I shrugged nonchalantly before trying to get back into bed.
"Oh, no, you don't," She pulled me back up, "We promised Fred and George we'd meet them at Hogsmeade."
"Oh right," I looked around the room, my head feeling much heavier with a sense of grogginess. Whenever I feel like this in the morning, I usually forget where everything is. While still foggy, I drug my feet along the floor and lazily shifted through my trunk for clothes and before going to the bathroom to freshen up.
Maybe all I need is a good shower.
"I'll meet you downstairs!" Angelina informed me.
"Okay!" I said over my shoulder, closing the door behind me without looking back at her.
------
I made my way down the dormitory stairs, still not fully awake and my feet feeling extra heavy.
"Oh, wake up, will you? You're about to go and see Fred," She beamed, nudging my arm with her elbow before we started making our way out of the common room.
"Why should I wake up for him?" I asked sarcastically, knowing fully well that seeing Fred and George was probably the only reason Angelina could get me out of bed in the first place.
"Oh please," she rolled her eyes, "You're so full of it."
The corner of my mouth corked up as my eyes cut towards Angelina, "Not all of us are in love with a Weasley."
A small blush appeared on her cheeks as she looked away, "I have no idea what you're talking about, Lettie." She feigned innocence, using the nickname she adopted for me in our first year.
On Our first night at Hogwarts, we discovered we were roommates and bed neighbours. Neither one of us got any sleep that night because we stayed up talking. Consequently, we wound up being late for our first potions class. So we did not start off on the right foot with Snape, but does Snape even have a right foot? Both his feet are probably left. Maybe that is why he's so cranky all the time.
I giggled at my thoughts, knowing very well what the phrase 'two left feet' meant, but life is no fun if you can't make cheesy jokes to yourself.
Looking at her without dropping my smirk, I teased, "Now, who's full of it, Angie?"
"It's still you. You didn't smell your breath this morning, but I did. You smelt like you were full of Dungbombs."
----
We laughed and continued talking down to Hogsmeade. Snow fell, making the whole town look covered in a white blanket. The sun reflecting off the snow was almost blinding, and I could feel my cheeks and nose already getting chapped from the crisp wind.
"There you two are!" George called, running over to us. He hooked each of his arms around mine and Angelina's shoulders as he walked with us. Though George wasn't a stranger to putting an arm around my shoulders platonically, I knew it was more of an excuse to do it to Angelina this time.
Fred and I knew they had a crush on each other. The only two that seemed to be unaware of it were, in fact, Angelina and George, despite Fred's and my constant encouragement to get them to ask each other out. We always snitched to them about the other's feelings, hoping one would be brave enough to make a move, but it was all in vain. They never believed us.
"Where's Fred?" I asked George, scanning the crowd through the falling snow.
I didn't see Fred anywhere, but what I could see was George's cheeky grin, "Why do you want to know?"
"Because he's my favourite twin. Duh."
He winced, removed his arm from my shoulder, and clutched at his chest, "Wow, that was hurtful, Charlotte. You should probably work on your people skills."
"Just tell me where he is," I nudged him while he was still attached to Angelina. I knew he would somehow find a reason to remove his arm from my shoulders so Angelina could feel like the only girl around in his eyes. Something I love about George is that he knows exactly how to make people feel special. Everyone is different, and George had a knack for determining what makes each individual happy.
"Alright. Alright. Quit getting so hostile," George fake whinged, "He wanted me to tell you to meet him at Honeydukes. Then later, we're all supposed to gather at The Three Broomsticks."
My brows knitted together, "What? No Zonko's today?"
"Oh, we already took care of that before you girls got here," He grinned then looking at Angelina, "Today is for you ladies."
"Ohhh, that sounds lovely," Angelina smiled coyly at George, now holding onto the hand that rested on her shoulders, "What do you have planned?"
"Whatever your pretty heart desires," George said flirtatiously.
Godic...Could they really be this blind to each other's feelings? As adorable as they were to watch, I didn't want to intrude.
"I'll catch up with you guys later!" I told them.
"See you, Lettie!" Angelina waved
I waved goodbye to them as I made my way to Honeydukes. The smell of all the sweets instantly filled my nostrils. Wizards and Witches of all ages were there, even the elderly. I hope I'm still making trips to Honeydukes when I'm in my grey years. Honestly, my love for candy will never die. Most of my days are filled with constant cravings for any fruit-flavoured treats that come to mind.
While searching the aisles for Fred, I got distracted by the Glacial Snow Flakes on the highest shelf. The sweet treat of candy snowflakes that melted when placed on your tongue, and Honeydukes rarely had them in stock. But of course when they finally did, they had to put them on the uppermost shelf out of my reach.
"Damn, they all look so good," I said in soliloquy, scanning the assortment of flavours. I put my hands on my hips and push my lips to the side, trying to figure out how to get them down. If it wasn't for the rule about using magic outside of Hogwarts, I would have just used my wand to retrieve them.
I looked around again, then back up at the treats and shrugged, "Screw it."
Not caring about the people watching, I stepped onto the empty bottom shelf and outstretched my hand to try and reach the strawberry-flavoured snowflakes at the top.
Just as I stuck out my tongue in pure concentration a chuckle came from behind me that I had heard many times before.
"Thinking out loud again?" Fred asked, stepping forward and reaching up to grab the Glacial Snow Flakes for me with his free hand. His other arm carries a big paper bag of stuff.
"My hero," I cooed and playfully batted my eyelashes, taking the box of snowflakes from him.
"Oh wait," He reached back up, grabbing the orange-flavoured snowflakes as well before handing them to me, "I know they're your second favourite."
I reluctantly take the snowflakes from him and give him a sceptical look, "How do you know that?" Most of this was just me pretending to be suspicious, but I was genuinely just a bit curious as well.
Fred smiled at me, "Please, Lettie. In the same way, I know you don't like chocolate unless it's Charmed Choc, and how I know you can't go a whole month without having Crystallized Pineapple at least once," His lips turned up into a cocky grin, tapping my nose with his finger, "It's because you're my best friend."
The heat rose to my cheeks, warming up the previously frozen feeling from the cold outside.
Did Fred Weasley just leave me speechless?
I pushed my hair behind my ear and saw his face contort into concern.
"What happened? Are you okay?" His free hand pushed my hair further back as he softly rested his thumb on my forehead to inspect the bruise on it. His skin was slightly rough from the calluses on his hand from years of Quidditch playing. Fred's hands always felt like this during Quidditch season.
"Oh, that? Yeah, I'm fine. Angelina just pushed me off the bed this morning."
Fred shook his head and let out a breathy chuckle, "You two really should be more careful. I swear if both of you were twins, you'd be the female versions of George and me," He lowered his hand, "Speaking of George, We've been working on this product called Bruise Removal Paste. I can give you some if you'd like? George always keeps some on hand."
I raised an eyebrow, "Remember what happened last time I tested one of your products?"
"Your eyes became uncrossed eventually," He replied before puffing his chest proudly, "Plus, This one actually works. George and I have tested it on ourselves numerous times. It amazing after a rough Quidditch match."
"Fine," I caved before pointing at him, "but I'm trusting you, Weasley."
A crooked smile started to cut into his cheek, "And if you were anyone else, I would tell you that's a terrible idea."
Feeling myself flush, I tried to hide my smile by leaning forward to look get a look inside the brown paper bag in his arms, "What all did you get?"
"Watch it," He quickly pulled it away from me and held a hand out to separate us, "Ever heard of a thing called 'boundaries'?"
"You want me to trust you, don't you?"
Fred pulled his bottom lip into his teeth and looked away for a split second before his eyes returned to mine and narrowed. He always did this when he didn't want to be completely honest with someone, "It's just some treats for a party we're throwing in the common room before the game Friday.
It was apparent that he did not want to answer any more questions about his purchases, and I wasn't about to invade his privacy by pushing for answers.
"Now, C'mon," He inclined his head towards the front of the store and changed the subject, "Let's get you some Pumpkin Fizz and get out of here."
I squinted my eyes at him, "Again, How do you know all my favourite things?"
"Again," He imitated my tone, "You're my best friend."
After paying for our sweets, we started to head for the exit.
"Hold on," Fred caught my attention by lightly touching my shoulder before I could step out the door.
My brows furrowed, "What is it?"
"Hold this for a second, but don't look in there," He handed me the paper bag.
"No promises," I winked at him.
He laughed humorously while removing his scarf from his neck before wrapping it around mine.
"What are you doing?"
"Blocking the wind out of your face," Fred adjusted the knitted wool to cover the lower half of my face.
Thankful the fabric hid the pink tone rising to my cheeks as I lifted an eyebrow and jested, "Let me guess, you know I hate the snow too?"
Snickering, he took his bag back from my arms and grabbed my smaller bag of sweets and placed it inside his own so I wouldn't have to carry it, "Just the snow? More like the Winter, cold, even Fall, and I only know this because you always feel the need to remind us every time we step outside."
He wasn't lying. I really did hate these things and constantly informed my friends of this. Usually, these things made my body ache, and it chapped my face. The snow made it worse since everything was so wet and cold. Also, the Fall and Winter made the nerves in my hands feel like they were on fire.
"Let's get you to The Three Broomsticks quickly," he ribbed as he opened the door with his free hand, "since you like to act like the wind makes your face peel off."
"Oh shut up, Weasley," I playfully elbowed him in the side as I passed through the door.
Following behind me, Fred chucked with a smirk, "Make me, Hodges."