it is 1:00 when lizzy enters the clearing her and fred agreed to meet. when she walks in she can see the redhead wearing jeans and a brown sweater, with a black jacket to stay warm. he finally notices the girl.
"lizzy! hey!" he waves to her as she makes her way towards him.
"hello fredrick," she says nervously. her nerves are on fire and she doesn't know why.
"woah" he says.
"what?"
"that's the first time you haven't told me off for calling lizzy."
the brunette girl shrugged. "i've given up. you're a stubborn man."
fred starts walking away and gestures for lizzy to follow.
"where are we going?" she asks, catching up.
"you'll see, but you're going to like it."
"we'll see about that."
fred rolled his eyes. "you look very pretty today, by the way." he comments nonchalantly.
lizzy's breath catches in her throat as her cheeks heat up.
"come on liz," fred says, hurrying up his pace. "at this rate it will be closed by the time we get there!"
lizzy shakes whatever just happened off and follows him.
"tada!" fred says in a sing-song voice, opening the door for her.
lizzy silently gasps as she walks inside.
"how have i not known about this?" she asks in amazement.
"i found it the last time i was in hogsmeade, i immediately knew you would like it."
ignoring how he just said that he immediately thought of her, lizzy went back to admiring the store.
fred had brought her to a tiny vintage bookstore, crammed between two other stores that lizzy had probably looked over a hundred times over. the aisles were tiny and overflowing with books. the worker was an old lady at the register who greeted them as they walked in.
"it's so amazing here." she breathed out walking into the closest bookshelf. "this is what i want my future house to look like."
"a mess?" fred joked.
lizzy laughed. "this doesn't look like a mess to me. it looks... cozy."
"whatever makes you happy." fred said, beaming at the back of her head as she rushed to look at all the books. a warm feeling erupted inside of him at the sight of her smile. the rush of joy at the fact that he was the one to bring her this happiness.
not wanting to disturb lizzy while she was in her element, he started looking at the isle next to her. a few minutes pass by of him thumbing through the different books when he feels a tap on his shoulder.
"do you think you can hold these for me?" lizzy asks. the girl was already holding three thick books.
fred held his arms out and gestured for her to give him the books. she smiled brightly at him and gave him the books to hold, rushing to the next isle.
fred shakes his head and follows her, not knowing that anyone could find such a dusty store so entertaining.
lizzy ran out again, and gave him two more books to add to the pile.
the redhead looked in disbelief as lizzy disappeared once more.
"i'm going to sit down by the window!" he called. there were two old armchairs sitting close to the front of the store. as fred leaned back to take a seat a big cloud of dust exploded from the cushions. coughing, he fanned the dust away from his face when a sight caught his eye.
sitting at the bottom of a stack of books on the shelf next to him was six of crows. checking to make sure lizzy was busy, he successfully wiggled the book out and brought it to the checkout. if lizzy thought it was good, it was certainly worth a read.
quickly paying and thanking the lady, he put the book into a bag he brought with him and went back to the seating area where he saw lizzy reading two books, one in each hand.
not saying anything, he took out his phone and took a picture of the sight.
at the click of a camera, lizzy looked up just time time to see fred bring his phone down.
"what was that for?"
he shrugged. "not everyday you see someone reading two books at once."
"i swear this isn't a normal thing." lizzy defended herself. "i'm limiting myself to six books, and i can't decide between these two so i'm reading them and seeing which one i like more."
"how's that going?" fred sits back down next to her.
"it's," she hesitates, "i'm not making any progress. i still want both of them."
"so get both of them." he reasoned. "you only live once."
"i'm going to pretend that that advice was good." she said blankly. lizzy goes to pick up the giant pile of books, but fred stops her and picks up the books himself.
they go to the register and while lizzy is fishing out her card fred taps her shoulder to get her attention.
"hey, do you see that over there?" he asks, pointing to something behind her.
"what?" she spins around confused, trying to find what he was pointing at. after deciding she couldn't find whatever it was, she turns back around to find the woman handing fred's card back to him.
the old woman winked at lizzy, "you got a good one." she blushed and they quickly left the store.
as soon as they walked outside the door lizzy reached up onto her tiptoes and flicked fred on his forehead.
"ow!" he yelps. "this wasn't the reaction i expected."
"don't be such a baby." the girl rolled her eyes. "you shouldn't have tricked me into paying for my books."
"i actually think it was a very gentlemanly thing to do." fred reasoned.
lizzy reached out her hand, indication for fred to give her the heavy bag.
"making you hold the bag is not a very gentlemanly move." fred complained.
"weasley i will punch you." lizzy stated, smiling once the bag was immediately handed over to her.
she looked in the bag, making sure everything she wanted was inside. "can we go get coffee?"
fred obliged and they began walking to the coffee shop. it was a very peaceful walk. they were going through one of the less crowded walkways of hogsmeade, a bit away from zonko's, honeyduke's and the three broomsticks. it was a very underrated part of hogsmeade, and had one of lizzy's favorite stores, which she planned to drag fred to after coffee.
they finally arrived at the store.
"lizzy! good to see you again." the large man behind the counter greeted her. marcus had been the owner of his coffee shop, 'the coffee shop' for twenty years now. lizzy found this place with michelle by accident on their first trip in third year, as she has been a regular customer ever since.
"marcus!" lizzy waved to him.
"where's michelle?" he asked, coming out from behind the counter and dusting his flour covered hands on his apron. "and who's this?" he finally noticed fred.
"michelle is with her new girlfriend, and this is fred." she introduced the boy.
"pleasure to meet you." the redhead said, shaking marcus' hand.
lizzy shot him a weird look for being so formal, before moving on.
"just my regular please, marcus. fred, what do you want?"
"hmm, i'll just get whatever you're getting." he stuffed his hands into his pockets.
marcus quickly whipped up their coffee and brought it to the register. lizzy immediately took out her card before fred even got a chance.
"nope. the new fellow pays." marcus says, ignoring lizzy's card.
fred shrugged and went to fish for his method of payment when lizzy stopped him.
"actually, marcus, he already paid for all this." she held up the great bag of books for the coffee maker to see.
after inspecting the bag, marcus nodded his approval. "good man. alright then lizzy, you know what to do."
beaming, lizzy paid for both their drinks and they left the shop.
as soon as fred took a sip he recoiled. "what is this?"
"black coffee with one cream." lizzy said, sighing in content as she took a sip of her own. "just like my soul, i know."
"i take mine with at least three creams and three sugars." fred mused as he took another sip, wincing at its bitterness.
"oh my god you're one of those people." lizzy laughed.
"and you're a coffee snob!" fred accused.
"am not! feel free to drink your disgusting coffee, i won't judge."
"you're judging right now."
"and you're still drinking the coffee." lizzy pointed out.
"i'm not going to let coffee go to waste, even if it is not sweet enough."
the girl rolled her eyes. "come on, there's one more stop i want to hit."
a few minutes later, lizzy stopped and walked into an old record store. posters of various artists and bands covered the wall, some in pristine condition and some were so faded you had to squint to make out who was on it. the lighting was awful, but lizzy had a wide smile on her face as she walked in.
the floorboards creaked as fred entered the store, ducking so he wouldn't knock his head on the doorframe.
lizzy dashed over to a corner of the store, rifling through the different records.
"what are you looking for?" fred asks.
"i'm imagining what records i will buy once i have a record player." she answered.
"elaborate."
"well earlier this year i asked my parents for a record player, and im ninety-nine percent sure that that will be my christmas gift this year, so i always come in here picturing what records i will play on it."
she pulls out two vinyls and walks over to a different part of the store to collect more.
"these will be the first ones i buy," lizzy said, laying ten different albums out on an empty table for fred to see.
her collection included: rumors by fleetwood mac, guts by olivia rodrigo, the punisher by phoebe bridgers, evermore by taylor swift, reputation by taylor swift, long lost by lord huron, five seconds flat by lizzy mcalpine, voulez-vouz by abba, bewitched by laufey, born to die by lana del ray.
"i would tell you that you have good taste, but i've probably only listened to three of these albums.
"i'll have you know i have amazing taste." lizzy scoffed, "you should take notes from me."
she gathered all the albums and returned them to their proper spots with such efficiency it was only obvious how many times she has done this.
"you really like music, huh." fred comments.
"wrong. i love music." lizzy says. "there's a song for every occasion, and i want to listen to it all."
they exited the shop without a set destination in mind. neither of them wanted to return to the castle quite yet, so they ambled through the streets of hogsmeade, talking about everything and nothing at the same time.
by the time the pair got back, the sun had almost fully set. fred offered to walk her to the hufflepuff common room, which lizzy accepted.
"this is your common room?" fred asked, looking at the door in bewilderment. "i must have walked past this a hundred times."
"i admit it isn't the most obvious entrance." lizzy said, agreeing with him.
quickly, so quickly that both of them were left wondering whether it actually happened, lizzy reached up onto her tiptoes and kissed fred on the cheek.
"thank you for today." she said quietly.
fred didn't say anything, just appeared a little dazed. he was quickly shaken out of it when the girl hit his arm.
"ow!"
"that's for paying for my books." lizzy said, shaking a finger at him. "don't do it again."
she began to walk into her common room, when she turned around. "goodnight, fred."
"goodnight, lizzy." he whispered back.
lizzy practically skipped up to her dorm room and pulled out one of her new books to read, settling into her bed with a warm feeling in her chest.
A/N:
the urge to write every chapter like this hits HARD but i will keep this a social media au 💪
hope you liked it!! and thank you so much for 300 reads!!
don't forget to vote + comment, i'm not lying when i say it means the world :)
(who could spot the httyd reference 👀)