The rest of Christmas passed by in a flurry. I celebrated Christmas with the Patil twins, Ernie, Bella and Zach. The meeting with my mother had gone down well, even if it was for a very short while. The expression on my mother's face when she met Bella was etched in my mind. What did she see in her? Did she know her? I couldn't even write to her to ask, I didn't know where she was.
Tomorrow was the first day of school which meant that Fred, George, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron would be returning to Hogwarts any minute.
I was eating my breakfast when an owl landed in front of me. I untied the letter from its leg and began to read.
Dear Alice,
I'm so glad you finally decided to write to me. When you said all of that in your letter, it motivated me to talk to my parents. So I did. Last night.
Now they're not talking to me. But honestly, it is such a relief to get this off of my chest. I told Ella and she supports my decision. I can't tell you how much I love her. And how much I love you!
Now, for the last part of your letter. You said you missed my dirty jokes so here are a few to keep you going:
1) What did the banana say to the vibrator?
Why are you shaking? She's gonna eat me!
2) What's the difference between your wife and your job?
After five years, your job will still suck.
3) Know what a 69 is?
Another good thing screwed up by a period.
Love you Alice ;)
Amelie
By the time I was done reading her letter, I was in tears of laughter. I definitely had to use these jokes with Fred and George one day.
"What's got you laughing so hard?"
I looked up to see Fred towering above me.
"Fred!" I practically fell down, trying to get up from my seat. When I finally managed to get up and stand straight on my feet I wrapped my arms around Fred, enveloping him in a hug.
"Missed me a little too much?" Fred chuckled, hugging me back.
"You left without telling me! No note, no letter, nothing! What happened? And where's George and everyone else?"
"I left George with my luggage so he's probably trying to bring my bags in"
"But why did all of you leave early?"
Fred looked upset, he grabbed my arm and pulled me down to sit with him.
"Al..my uh..dad was attacked"
"Attacked?"
"By Voldemort"
"WHAT?"
"Shh not many people know"
"But is he alright? How bad is it?"
"He's okay now, if it wasn't for Harry we might have not been able to save him" said Fred.
"What do you mean?"
"Harry's been seeing things. Visions. It's almost as if he can enter Voldemort's thoughts"
How did that even work? Harry and Voldemort had a lot of history but it didn't occur to me how intense it really was.
Fred looked tired, weary. I placed my hand on his cheek and stroked his face with my thumb. Fred leaned into my palm.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm fine now that you're here. I really missed you you know?" Fred said, closing his eyes.
"I missed you too Fred"
Suddenly he jerked his head up, his eyes wide with excitement.
"Look what I found!"
He produced a silver box from his pocket. It looked very familiar.
"What is that?" I asked.
"It's from a muggle store, I got it from London. It's called a radish, radar or something"
"A radio! I remember Amelie showing me one of these. They can play music out loud!"
"Muggles aren't dumb as some of us think they are" Fred said, meddling with the buttons on the mini portable radio.
He moved a dial and all of a sudden, it started playing very loud music,
'And I swear that I don't have a gun
That I don't have a gun'
The lyrics blasted which earned us stares from everyone else in the hall.
"Turn it off Fred!"
"I'm trying!"
After struggling with it for a few more seconds, he finally managed to turn the music off.
"Sorry about that everyone!" Fred announced, placing the radio carefully back into his pocket.
"What even is a gun?" Fred asked.
I shrugged.
Soon enough, Hermione, Harry, Ron, Ginny and George walked into the Great Hall.
"Hey everyone, so nice to have you back" I hugged each of them.
George pulled Fred and I to a corner, he looked excited.
"I have a plan" he said.
"Are you and Marianne finally going to do it tonight?" I laughed.
"NO!"
"What is it then?" Fred asked.
"Remember the paintball bombs that we created Fred?"
Fred's face twisted into a calculating smile.
"Perfect"
"Wait what is it?" I asked, confused.
"Tonight, Umbridge's office, we're going to leave the bombs there. The ghastly pink room will turn into a million different colours when they explode"
"That's going to land us in so much trouble!"
"Only if she finds out" Fred and George said together.
.
I couldn't believe I had agreed to do this with them. If we got into trouble I would kill the both of them. I waited outside the Gryffindor Common Room for the two of them.
"Hey" George said, walking out of the portrait hole, Marianne following him.
"Hey Marianne, George convinced you to join too?"
"Yea, besides, I wasn't doing much anyway" Marianne shrugged and smiled kindly at me.
"Hey Al" Fred walked out, carrying a small brown sack with him.
"Everyone ready to go?" said Fred.
"Yep"
We walked silently towards Umbridge's office, fortunately Filch was nowhere to be seen.
When we finally reached, George pulled out a key from his pocket.
"How did you even get that?" Marianne asked.
"I have my ways" He whispered back, pushing the key into the hole and unlocking the door.
When we entered, the cat portraits were fast asleep and the office was empty.
Fred pulled out the paintball bombs from the sack. They were small, round and grey and looked pretty harmless.
"The moment we drop these on the ground, we have to run out and shut the door because they explode within ten seconds" Fred whispered.
Each of us took a couple of the bombs in our hands.
"On the count of three" said Fred.
"One"
"Two"
"Three"
I let go off the bombs and let them roll on to the floor. We immediately dashed for the door.
The minute George locked the door, there was a loud explosion.
"Now if that worked out alright, Umbridge will wake up to a lovely, multi-coloured office" George grinned.
Marianne and I shared a look that said, 'How do they even come up with such ideas'.
"Who's there?" A croaky voice called.
"Fuck, it's Filch!" I whisper-yelled.
Fred and George looked at each other and then at Marianne and I.
"Run!" They whispered simultaneously.
The four of us ran but we could still hear Filch's fast footsteps.
"It's..better..if..we split ways" Fred panted.
Fred and I turned left and ran down the staircase that lead to the Grand Entrance. We ran out of Hogwarts and on to the open grounds.
I stopped running, doubling over to catch some breath. Filch was no longer following us.
"That..was.." Fred started.
"Incredible.." I finished.
We looked at each other and burst into laughter.
"I wonder where George and Marianne went?" I said.
Fred walked closer to me and wrapped his arms around my waist, pulling me towards him. He rested his forehead on mine and looked into my eyes with his.
I loved his eyes, they were the most beautiful shade of brown I had ever come across. They always shone, like sunlight on clear water. I loved the way his eyes crinkled every time he smiled, which was always.
Fred removed one arm from my waist and put a hand in his pocket. He pulled out the mini radio.
"I finally figured out how it works. Now I've never heard any of these songs. It only plays muggle ones" Fred said, pressing a couple of buttons. The radio began to play a familiar tune. Fred placed the radio on to the ground.
'Starry, starry night,
Paint your palette blue and grey'
He bowed forwards and held his hand out in a cheesy fashion.
"Dance with me?"
"We're both terrible dancers Fred"
"Dance with me anyway"
'Look out on a summer's day
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul'
I placed my hand in his waiting palm and he pulled me towards him. He placed his right hand on my waist and held up my other hand with his left one.
"We're going to ballroom dance?" I chuckled.
He nodded before leading the dance. We kept stepping on each others toes.
'Shadows on the hills
Sketch the trees and the daffodils'
"Fuck this" Fred said, placing both his hands on my waist and doing the simpler dance instead.
I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and the both of us swayed to Don McLean's (a muggle musician) melodic voice under the stars of the night sky. I remembered years ago when Amelie had played this song on her radio at home.
'Catch the breeze and the winter chills
In colours on the snowy linen land'
A breeze blew past us and we shivered but that didn't stop us. We just danced, not saying a word to each other. We didn't have to. The silence was what made it all the more exciting.
"This is a beautiful song" Fred whispered.
I nodded in response, burying my face in his chest. Fred placed his chin on the top of my head and wrapped his arms tightly around my waist, pulling me even closer.
As cliché as this may sound, in Fred's arms, everything fell into place. I felt warm, protected. I felt home.
All too soon, the song on the radio changed to a faster one.
I know this song!
"Fred?"
"Hmm?"
"How about a dance battle?"
Fred pulled away from me and grinned.
"You're on"
We walked a few steps away from each other. I had danced to this song a million times before.
'I want to break free,
I want to break free'
I lifted my arms above my head and tried to move around but I probably looked like a headless chicken. Fred gawked at me,
"You call that dancing?" Fred snickered.
"Oh yea? You go then"
'I'm falling in love,
I'm falling in love for the first time,
This time I know it's for real'
Fred started jumping up and down, flailing his arms in the air like a madman.
The both of us danced like crazy people, jumping around, not having a care in the world.
The song ended and so did our absurd, unrhythmic dancing. Fred and I laughed, realising that we had managed to dance our way to the willow tree near the Black Lake. I no longer felt cold, my body had heated up from all the exercise.
I leaned against the tree, closing my eyes and trying to catch my breath.
When I opened my eyes, Fred was standing in front of me. He had a soft smile on his face. I grabbed his hand and pulled him closer to me. Then, I placed both my hands on his face and pressed my lips on to his. I let my hands travel to his hair, tugging gently at the roots.
Fred parted his lips slightly and moaned softly into the kiss, giving me access to gently push my tongue inside his mouth. We had never kissed so passionately before, the butterflies in my stomach fluttered furiously. Fred's hands travelled from my face, to my neck and then slowly, down my back, pulling my hips closer, a moan escaped from my mouth.
Fred broke away from the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine.
"We should get back" He panted, his warm breath fanning my face.
"Since when did you care about getting back anywhere on time?"
"People change" He shrugged, grasping my hand in his and pulled me towards the castle.
"Well, Fred Weasley, maybe I don't want you to change" I smirked, lifting his hand and kissing his knuckles.
We walked back to Hogwarts, hand in hand, and for once, everything was alright.