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chapter twelve | volunteered detention
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FRED whipped around at the sound of the door creaking open, but his expression softened at the sight of Kaya in the doorway.
"What're you doing here?" he asked with a grin. Kaya wasn't really sure herself.
"I dunno," she said slowly. "I just... I feel bad. You didn't have to sort him out, it would've stopped you from getting a detention,"
Fred shrugged.
"I get detentions all the time, it's like a daily thing,"
Kaya chuckled.
"That's what Jae said," she nodded. "So... what do you have to do?"
"Sort out this," said Fred, gesturing to a huge bookshelf behind him, books dusty, slanting to the left or right. "Without magic, of course,"
"Ugh, I feel bad," Kaya groaned.
"Don't," said Fred. "The only thing that does annoy me is the fact that Andrew doesn't even have a punishment,"
Kaya propped herself up on a desk as he spoke, before lying down on its vertical side, her long strands of hair hanging off the sides.
"Oh, I can sort that," she said, as Fred removed another pile from the shelf.
"No, I mean like an actual punishment-" He began, with a smile at the girl's self assurance.
"Yeah, like I said. I'll give him detention. I can come up with something reasonable for Professor Sprout."
Fred laughed.
"What-?" He said with a puzzled expression, before his eyes landed on a yellow badge hanging from Kaya's robes. "Oh," he said with surprise.
"Didn't you know I was a prefect?" she asked. He shook his head.
"You don't seem the type," said Fred.
"The type," Kaya repeated with a grin. "What's that then, Weasley?"
Fred paused for a second.
"Uh..."
The girl giggled.
"Don't worry, I've heard you say before - 'Only prats become prefects'."
"I- Well- I didn't mean all prefects..."
Kaya continued to laugh, watching the boy's attempt at redeeming himself.
"It's fine," she said. "To be fair, you're right most of the time. But, I like to think I put the diversity in prefects because the last time I checked, I don't think I'm a prat?"
"I don't think you are," said Fred, before grinning. "But you never know,"
"That's the whole reason I wanted to be one, to stop the stigma on prefects being known as 'prats'."
"Really?"
"Nah," said Kaya. "I just made that up. I wanted the bathroom,"
Fred let out a laugh, as he brushed off the dust from a deep blue textbook. Kaya sat up and jumped off the desk, walking over to the stack of books and picking one up.
"I'll help you, since I got you in this mess,"
"What? No," Fred retorted.
"Yes-"
"No-"
"Yes-"
"Fine,"
The two were quiet for a moment, the sound of their hands thumping against the books to get the dust off echoing off the walls.
"Thank you, by the way," said Fred.
"That's alright," she said. "It's a shit load of books to sort out, if I'm here I might as well-"
"No, not for tha- I- Yeah, they are," he replied.
Kaya didn't question what he was about to say, and instead stacked a pile before re-shelving them.
"You don't have to stay and help if you don't want to," said Fred. "You know, I don't wanna make you feel like you have to."
"Yeah, I know," said Kaya. "But I want to. So shut up."
Fred grinned at Kaya, not entirely sure if she meant to reference when he bought her candy floss. Maybe he was just overthinking - yeah, that'd be it.
"Aren't your friends gonna wonder where you are? Maisie's Hufflepuff, is she in the common room?"
"Honestly, anything's better than sitting in the same room as Andrew, right now," said Kaya. "Cedric'll keep her company, though. He hates the 'Potter Attack', too,"
"The 'Potter Attack'." Fred repeated with a laugh, before the two noticed the noise of clicking footsteps down the hall. Kaya turned towards him with an alarmed expression, the ginger reflecting it back.
"Shit," Kaya muttered, looking for somewhere to hide. She then noticed a small cabinet at the back left of the room. Fred watched her eyeing it.
"Quickly, then," he said. Kaya stepped inside and Fred closed the door from the outside.
Kaya couldn't see much around her in the pitch black, and she was also questioning whether her decision to hide in one of the classroom's only cabinets was smart. But what else did she have?
Kaya leaned back and became filled with dread after realising she'd knocked a book back, sending it crashing down the cabinet. She caught it before it made any more noise, but it had in fact hit the cupboard's walls. She was screwed.
But Fred had realised what had happened before McGonagall, and managed to knock a large textbook onto the floor. The girl sighed with relief.
Kaya listened to the muffled voices of Fred and McGonagall with slow, quiet breathing, standing as still as possible until the same tapping of her Professor's shoes against the stone floors sounded again. There was a pause in which Fred checked to make sure she was far gone before letting the brunette girl out.
The cabinet door opened and Kaya was blinded by the lights around the classroom.
"Mind if I come in?" Fred winked, before being shoved back as the girl stepped out.
"In your dreams, Weasley," she retorted, propping herself back up on the front desk. "Did she hear me?"
"You're an actual idiot," said Fred shaking his head. "All you had to do was stand still for five minutes. You're lucky you had me to slam that book on the floor,"
"I know, I know. Did she suspect anything?"
"I dunno. It's hard to tell with McGonagall, she's got one of those faces where she looks like she knows every little secret about you, but then also looks completely oblivious,"
"Yeah, I get what you mean,"
Fred and Kaya continued to stack the shelves as they chatted, telling each other almost all the essentials about themselves.
This was one of the reasons as to why Kaya enjoyed talking to new people so much - she got to learn new stuff about them and could talk about basic things she wouldn't talk about to her close friends often, as they already knew them like the back of their hand.
Fred was almost a stranger in the sense that he knew barely anything about the girl, and she was the same to him.
Kaya learned that Fred had five brothers (including his twin) and one sister, who was currently in her third year. She already knew he was a Beater on the Gryffindor team. His close friends consisted of his twin, George, and Lee Jordan, but he was also good friends with Angelina Johnson and the rest of Gryffindor Quidditch team. He turned his brother's teddy into a spider when Ron was just three. The plan for after Hogwarts was to become an entrepreneur and open a joke shop with his twin - that was the career path Fred was set on.
His eyes were bright and happy as he spoke so enthusiastically about his ideas, talking about several products they'd been developing already, such as Fainting Fancies, Puking Pastilles and Fever Fudge. Kaya watched in admiration, wishing she was as set on a plan as he was.
When Fred asked what Kaya wanted to do, she wasn't sure what to say. The boy had spent so long talking about his hopes for the future, and then here she was with barely anything.
"I dunno, really," Kaya shrugged. "I mean... there's kind of one thing. Just a little idea. Promise you won't laugh, yeah?"
Fred nodded. "I won't,"
"I've always liked the idea of being a musician, but I feel like that's a kids dream, you know?"
Kaya immediately expected the boy to laugh, but he didn't. He was completely engaged. He wanted to hear what her hopes for the future was.
"Not if you really want to do it," he said. "What do you mean in particular?"
"Like... something to do with music. I can play the piano, and over the summer my mum taught me to play guitar - she's muggleborn, and my grandad was a part of a muggle band, so that's how she knew how to play it all. And she can sing. It kind of runs through that side of the family," she explained. "I'm not that good at guitar, yet, but I'll get better. Just having a job that has something to do with making music, I think I'd enjoy it."
"Can you sing?"
Kaya was thrown off by this question. You could learn to play guitar or any other instrument, but to sing you have to have a gift from the start, before you learn to develop it further. She had muggle singing lessons when she was ten, but that was only for about a year, because she had to stop since her magical abilities were beginning to show - her parents weren't taking any risks.
Sure, she loved to sing - any opportunity to belt out any song from her mother's muggle records and she was all for it. She liked to think she could, at least a little bit. People always told her she had a lovely voice - but she was still uncertain on whether it was true.
"You can!" said Fred with a smile. "You hesitated - that means you can sing."
"Wha- No!" Kaya giggled, picking up some more books. "I never said that,"
"Go on, then, sing,"
"No way," she said.
"Please!"
"Nope!
Fred huffed, pulling a face at the girl and stacking the final pile of books.
"I'll hear it one day," he said. "I promise,"
"Alright Weasley," said Kaya. "Whatever you say,"
The time soon came for Kaya to leave Fred's detention, for McGonagall would be back to dismiss him soon, and she didn't want to get caught.
"I have to say," said Fred. "This one was more enjoyable than my other detentions,"
"Well, I enjoyed having my volunteer detention to go to, rather then going back to the common room," Kaya agreed. "Who knew stacking books could be fairly bearable?"
"Exactly," Fred said. "You better go - as much as you enjoyed it with me I doubt you would like being given another one to do by yourself,"
"Correct you are, Mr Weasley," said Kaya, walking over to the door. Fred sat on a desk. "I'll see you tomorrow,"
"Yeah," Fred smiled. "See you,"
By the time Kaya got back to her common room, pretty much everyone was asleep - including both Maisie and Cedric. Kaya was glad, since she couldn't really come up with a lie as to why she took so long - or as to why she was in such a jolly mood. And she preferred not to be teased, right at that moment.
The girl lay down, wearing a smile. Andrew's comment had been completely shrunk to a tiny misfortune of her day. Meanwhile, Fred Wesley was a large part of the reason as to why it was so good.
It made her feel all warm and content - a feeling she never wanted to be rid of, ever.
And the girl slowly began to drift off to sleep.