Some of the snow on the grounds had begun to melt as spring slowly began to approach. Classes were starting to become a bit more heavy as their professors continued to pile more and more essays and homework to prepare them for their exams at the end of the year. Next year would be their last year at Hogwarts and they would be taking their N.E.W.T. exams then so it seemed as though every professor wanted to really prepare them.
Milena was spending a lot of her time in the library where she often ran into Hermione who would be hurrying along with a different stack of books everyday. A few times they would sit together and chat while they did their homework seeing as how Harry and Ron rarely ever wanted to be in the library and Fred resented the idea of studying, though she did manage to convince him to do some of his homework.
"How's everything with Fred going?" Hermione asked in a whisper as she continued to scribble some notes on a parchment. "I heard from Ginny that you guys finally made things official a few weeks ago."
"Yeah, we did," Milena replied with a little smile. "I honestly started to think nothing was ever gonna happen, but he really surprised me."
"Oh please, Milly," Hermione said, looking up at Milena. "I would give up reading before I thought that he didn't like you."
Milena quietly giggled as the pair continued to write out their own homework.
"What about you and Krum?" Milena asked.
"Oh, um... he's nice," she replied, writing a little bit faster now.
"Just nice?" Milena questioned.
"He's sweet and all, but I don't know, I'm not too sure we're right for each other." Hermione confessed.
"Why? Got someone else on your mind?" Milena teased, nudging her a little.
Hermione's cheeks grew red as she continued to write to the very end of her parchment, not breaking eye contact with the paper. Milena could see she was biting the inside of her cheek and trying to hide her face. Just as Milena was about to speak again, Hermione stopped writing and picked up the parchment paper, glancing over it.
"Alright, I think I'm done for tonight," she exclaimed, starting to pack up her stuff. "Think I'll head to dinner now. Coming?"
"You go ahead, I'm just gonna finish up these last couple of lines and I'll catch up." Milena replied as she looked back to her work which clearly needed more than a few lines to be written.
"Okay, I'll see you later then," Hermione said as she picked up the last of her things and left Milena alone at the table.
She continued to go back and forth between books and her parchment, writing as many more lines as she could and when she finally felt she had written enough, she looked to the window across the room and realized that it was pitch black outside and most of the library was empty now. Realizing now how late it had become, she packed up her things and put away the books she had been using and made her way towards the door to leave. As she left the library, she heard her name called and saw Fred who had been leaning against the wall waiting for her by the door.
"What, you couldn't come into the library to see me?" Milena teased. "Are you allergic or something?"
"Yes as a matter of fact," he replied, "if I even so much as touch a book, I'll break out into nasty hives and snot will start pouring from my nose. It really is quite the sight."
"Thanks for that image, Freddie," Milena said sarcastically. "How long have you been waiting there?"
"Not long," he replied, "Hermione said she left you here when I saw her at dinner and it was getting late, so I thought I'd escort you to my favourite restaurant for a late night meal."
"Restaurant?" Milena asked.
"Why of course, only the best in town, Chez le Hogwarts Kitchen," he joked, "I am a VIP after all."
"Are you now?" Milena laughed as they began to walk. "Sure, I could use a bite."
Fred happily escorted her to a hallway near the Hufflepuff's entrance where a painting of a bowl of fruit was hanging on the wall. He reached over and scratched the pear in the bowl and it laughed before turning into a door that led right into the kitchen. In the kitchen, many house elves were cleaning dishes from dinner and running around working on varying tasks around. One house elf hurried over to Fred and Milena and happily greeted the two.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley, sir," he said, "anything I can do for you, sir?"
"We were hoping you might have some food left from dinner," Fred explained. "Mills here lost track of time doing her school work and missed dinner."
"Of course, Mr. Weasley," he said, bowing, then running over to grab plates and filling them with food from dinner. He hurried back over with two plates piled high with chicken legs, roast potatoes and some steamed carrots and handed them to Fred and Milena.
"Thanks," Milena said, "this looks great!"
The two of them sat down at a kitchen table in the corner with their plates and as they began to eat, another house elf came over and filled two cups with pumpkin juice for them.
"Oh, thank you," Milena said, taking a drink from her cup.
This wasn't the first time Milena had been in the kitchen with Fred, but usually George or Lee was with them too and they were usually asking for sweets instead of a meal. She also had never actually sat down in the kitchen to eat, this was the first time she had really had a chance to see what the elves were doing. Most of them were cleaning dishes or tidying the kitchen, some were getting ready to leave to clean the castle while students were heading to bed, and a few seemed to already be preparing some of the food for breakfast. An elf here and there would stop by the table to see if they wanted more food or drinks or if they wanted some dessert, but by the time Milena had finished her plate, she was absolutely stuffed.
"I think we oughta head back to the common room soon," Milena suggested, finishing the last of her pumpkin juice. "Don't want Snape stopping us in the hall and interrogating us for walking a little too suspiciously."
"Fair point," Fred agreed.
They both stood and Milena piled their dishes together, bringing them over to a house elf who was cleaning some dishes at a large sink and humming to herself. Milena placed the dishes down with her and she and Fred left the kitchen, starting to make their way back to the Gryffindor common room.
Most of the corridors were empty now as many people had gone to bed. A few people were still wandering about, but most of them seemed to just be trying to find their way back to their common rooms. The two continued to joke around and chat as they walked back, but as they continued on, Milena noticed Ivan who was chatting by the window with a couple other students from Durmstrang. She tried to look away, but she wasn't fast enough and they made eye contact for a second. Fred almost immediately noticed him there and threw his arm around her, glaring at Ivan who just glared back at him. The bruise Fred had left on the right side of his jaw was mostly healed, but you could still see a little bit of yellow around the area that was trying to heal. Fred had left quite the mark on his face.
"Just ignore him," Milena whispered to Fred who broke his glare away from him.
"I know," he said, "but every time I see him I just wanna-"
"Trust me, I know," Milena assured, "I would love to let him have a piece of my mind, but as long as he just leaves us alone, we don't need to start anything, unless you'd like to spend your weekends cleaning with Filch."
"I would risk it," Fred said, walking her around a corner and out of Ivan's sight.
When they reached the painting of the Fat Lady, Fred spoke the password to her and took his arm off of Milena to let her enter through to the common room first. She slipped inside and he followed entering into a quiet common room. George and Lee were sitting by the fire which was crackling and slowly dying down next to them. George seemed to be showing another one of their products to Lee who looked quite thrilled by it.
"So this is what you gave to Harry's cousin?" She heard Lee ask as he held up a little blue sweet in his hand.
"Yeah, Fred and I had to make a new batch when mum made us toss it," George explained.
"Hello boys," Milena greeted, plopping herself down on the couch next to George, Fred next to Lee.
"Hi," Lee greeted, still turning the sweet around as he looked at it.
"What's got you two coming in so late?" George asked, leaning back on the couch.
"A steamy trip to the Hogwarts kitchen," Milena said jokingly.
"It was really quite something," Fred joined in. "It got pretty intense."
"Alright, alright, I don't need to know about your makeout sessions," George said, waving a hand at them.
"Oh, but it was more than that George," Fred said, standing back to his feet. "It was spectacular, Mills and I went-"
"No really that's enough! Sorry I asked," George said.
Fred laughed as he fell back onto the couch, watching his brother whose face was now a little red.
"We just went down to the kitchen so I could have dinner," Milena explained, still laughing a little at Fred. "I was finishing an essay and missed dinner."
"Oh, I'm sure that's all it was," Lee teased, handing the sweet back to George.
After chatting with the boys for a while and Lee begging Milena to see her essay because he still wasn't finished, she decided it was pretty late and she should head off to bed. Fred wouldn't let her leave until he was able to get a quick kiss from her which George jokingly stuck his tongue out at.
"Aw don't worry George, you can have a little kiss too!" Lee exclaimed. In a split second, Lee stood and leaned over the table between them, grabbing George's head and planting a large kiss on the top of his head.
"Get off me you idiot," George exclaimed, laughing at his friend, his face red again.
Milena left her friends, laughing and trying to quiet down as she came up to the door of her dorm. She entered where all of her roommates but Alicia were asleep. Alicia however was just getting ready to go to sleep now.
"I was wondering when you'd get back," she said as she started to climb into bed.
"Had a lot of homework," Milena explained, holding up her pile of books for a moment, then quietly putting them down by her nightstand. She changed into her pajama shorts and an old t-shirt she had stolen from Fred and climbed into bed, pulling out the curtains around her bed.
While Milena was definitely tired and was more than ready to sleep, she just couldn't quite settle herself right and was having a hard time actually falling asleep. She tossed and turned, back and forth, trying very hard to get comfortable, but something was keeping her awake. She sat back up in her bed and leaned back, looking up at the ceiling of her bed. She sighed as she kicked her blankets off of her lower half and got up from her bed. She didn't wanna bother her roommates with her tossing and turning so she quietly crept out of the room and went down to the empty common room, throwing herself on one of the couches by the fire.
The common room was quiet. Everyone had gone to bed, it was late, very late, Milena was sure she'd see the sunrise soon enough, but she just couldn't get herself to sleep. She stared out the window at the calm and starry night, seemingly falling into her own little world again, when she heard a little creek behind her. She sat up and twisted herself to see who was behind her. Quietly, Ginny froze behind her and then let out a sigh of relief at the sight of Milena.
"Oh, it's just you," Ginny said. "I was worried McGonagall had decided tonight was the night to sit in the common room."
"Nope, just me," Milena sat, leaning back on the couch again. "Couldn't sleep either?"
"Not really," Ginny said, sitting down on the other end of the couch. "I was gonna see if I could get a house elf to make me a cup of tea or something. I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping recently."
"How come?" Milena asked.
"Oh this tournament," Ginny sighed. "It's not like I'm in it, but watching Harry do everything he's done and seeing my brother get rescued from the lake. It's been a lot."
"Yeah I get it," Milena said. "I think if Fred or George had been able to get their names in the goblet and actually got picked, I would've lost it. I was already shocked when I heard Harry's name."
"I've been trying to figure out who put his name in so I can hex them myself," Ginny said, fiddling with her wand.
"Well I can promise you, it was no one here," Milena joked.
"Yeah I know," Ginny laughed. "This is so stupid, I don't know why I care so much. He's Ron's friend and I think we all know he's quite capable of handling himself."
"Well yeah, he is Ron's friend, but he did save you that one year and I mean he's at the burrow every summer." Milena reasoned. "I mean clearly you both have to care about each other to at least some capacity, right?"
Ginny shrugged, pulling her legs up onto the couch to curl up a little bit.
"Yeah I guess that's fair," Ginny agreed.
They sat in silence for a second, Ginny clearly thinking to herself for a moment.
"So, you and Fred are officially together, right?" Ginny suddenly asked.
"Yeah?" Milena replied, wondering where this was going now.
"Can I make a request?" Ginny asked.
"Depends what it is, but go on," Milena said.
"If you two were to break up... AND I'M NOT SAYING YOU WILL BECAUSE YOU'RE BASICALLY PERFECT TOGETHER," she started to say quickly, then calming herself down a bit. "But if you were, can you still be my friend? Because I really like you and you've been like an older sister to me since you became friends with the twins and also I think mum would have a cow if she couldn't see you again, that woman adores you."
Milena laughed at Ginny's words, especially the last part because she knew Ginny was right, Mrs. Weasley had doted on her since the day she saw how well Milena was able to handle the twins. She had always been so sweet to her. And Ginny really had become like a little sister to Milena. She didn't have any siblings of her own and coming from a muggle family that she loved very much, it was nice having a family of wizards that loved her so much and really understood her.
"Ginny," Milena started, "I couldn't ever imagine not being your friend. No matter what, you're just like a sister to me too. And I think you're right, your mum would not only be upset, but would probably kill Fred if I stopped coming around."
The two laughed together as they continued to chat. Milena really did love Ginny as if she were her own sister. They had always gotten along well and even Fred had expressed how much he liked that she got along with his baby sister.
"One more question," Ginny started, "is that Fred's shirt? I swear I've seen him wearing that."
"Oh," Milena laughed, looking down at the old and faded quidditch team t-shirt she couldn't quite make out. "Yeah, it is. I threw it on one day after classes when I was hanging out with him because my school sweater was itchy and when I tried to give it back to him later, he said he liked it better on me."
"For such a cocky guy, he can be such a sap," Ginny laughed.
As they continued to talk and laugh together, Milena noticed the sun which was starting to peak out over the horizon.
"I think we may have stayed up just a little late," Milena said, pointing to the window.
Ginny looked over where she was pointing and saw the sun which was now starting to move further up into the sky.
"Good thing it's the weekend," Ginny said, watching the sky.
"Maybe we oughta had back to bed and try to get a few hours of sleep in?" Milena suggested.
Ginny agreed and the two went up to the girls' dorms together, parting ways when Milena got to her door. Milena quietly crept back into her room where all of her roommates were still sleeping. She slipped back into bed and closed her eyes, this time actually managing to fall asleep for at least a few hours.