♫ off the grid
- alina baraz ft. khalid
"you say you loving the way I
show you the stars in the daylight
you do the same for me every day..."
Content Warning at the end of the chapter.
✧
A few nights later, Priscilla couldn't hold it in anymore. She had to find Fred.
She threw on the black hoodie she had on the night of the party with her muddy black vans, not bothering to change out of her pajama shorts. She crept out of the Slytherin common room expertly after curfew and made her way towards the Great Hall. By now she knew Filch's routine as well as the twins, so she didn't have many worries about making it there undetected.
The doors to the hall opened with a loud creaking sound as she poked her head inside.
For getting caught at the party on the night of the first task, the students were stuck on polishing duty. By the time Cilla snuck to the Great Hall, the students were all exhausted after a few hours of work. A couple of Ravenclaw girls were on brooms, lazily scrubbing away at one chandelier as Neville was nodding off to sleep, sitting cross-legged on another one.
The twins were sitting at one of the long tables, going over something on a large piece of parchment, completely ignoring their polishing duties. Alerted by the noise, they jumped to put away whatever they were mulling over, but upon seeing it was only Priscilla, they relaxed considerably.
"Fred?" she called; she felt so small. He smiled, any trace of his fatigue vanishing at the sight of her, and stood up from the table, making his way over to her with his hands in his pockets.
"Always Fred," his brother muttered. "Never George."
"Hey, Cilla. You alright?" he greeted.
She tried her best to push down the anxiety building in her chest. "I need to talk to you about something."
"Yeah, okay," he said. He laced his fingers in hers and guided her out of the hall.
Cilla was never the holding hands' type. She didn't even notice she let Fred grab her hand until they were already halfway down the hall. As if her heart was beating fast enough already, it seemed to impossibly double in speed.
She was no strings with this guy. No strings typically meant no holding hands, at least for her. Was this a British thing?
Did she... like this?
They walked back towards the statue of their good old friend Gregory the Smarmy in the candlelight, Cilla praying her hands weren't clammy from the stress. They walked through the passageway and out onto the grounds, making their way over to Priscilla's special tree that she smoked with Cedric at. The night sky was crystal clear, stars dotted the sky like little freckles.
She didn't have to say the word to lead him there, it felt completely natural, but she couldn't help but ask. "How'd you know I come out here?"
He shrugged. "I had no idea, honestly. I come out here too sometimes." He sat down under the tree with a satisfied exhale and reached his arms out for her. She smiled at him through the tension building in her chest and rested on her knees in front of him, not letting her fall on top of him until he heard what she had to say.
Not pleased with that idea, Fred pulled her in for a lingering kiss before settling himself on the grass, propped up on his elbows. "What did you want to talk about, love?"
Love. He said it again.
"It's about... Draco," she began carefully.
He sat up quickly, his expression changing as soon as she said his name. "What did that git do? I swear -"
"He asked me to the Yule Ball," she interrupted, eyes wide. To be fair, she left her previous sentence way too open-ended. She could've said "I like Draco and I'm going to be with him now, don't let the door hit you on the way out," she could've said anything, but his immediate response was defending her.
He was too good for her.
Fred blinked at her in surprise. "Oh," was all he could say.
"I said yes," she admitted quickly.
"Oh..." he said, deflating a bit.
"But I'll need your help," she continued.
He looked at her skeptically for a moment to check she was serious. Then he waved her away and moved to get up. "Priscilla, I don't want any part in that. You do what you want. I don't care."
She pulled him down onto the grass, biting her lip. She leaned on top of him and kissed him deeply. It was a risk, but she had to try. He kissed her back after a moment, but it was filled with hesitation. "I'm not going with him like that, dummy. You and I are the ones with a real date," she explained.
"Um, I don't follow."
She pecked him again. "You and I are going to prank the shit out of him. He has no idea he's going to the Yule Ball with a mudblood."
"Oooooh..." Fred said out loud, looking at the ground. "Ooooh..." he looked at her with a smirk once he understood her meaning. "Right then, I follow. But are you sure? That's a lot more devious than acid pops and smoke bombs, Cilla."
She shrugged. "I'm a Slytherin, I think I'm contractually obligated to be devious. Besides," she leaned down and kissed him again, overcome with relief that he understood. "I'm not letting him get away with fucking with you, Freddie."
He chuckled against her lips, running a hand through her blonde locks. "Damn woman, you make it sound so sexy to go to the ball with someone who isn't me."
They laughed and continued to make out under the tree.
✧
Cilla laid down in the grass, wiping her chin and biting her lip to keep from smiling. She wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly feeling very cold in the November breeze. Her neck was riddled with hickies again.
Fred zipped up his trousers and joined her on the grass beside her, giving her a peck on the temple before sighing and closing his eyes with his arms behind his head. Unlike Cilla, he couldn't contain his cheeky grin. They both basked in the silence of what they had just done.
"If you're not comfortable with the Yule Ball plan, I won't do it," she stated quickly. She had to get that off of her chest before but they got... distracted.
Fred was still dazed from them messing around earlier that he didn't listen. "Hmm?"
She tickled his side, which made him jump to attention. "Hey!" he yelped, making her laugh.
He leaned over and began to tickle her in return, making her wiggle and cry out for mercy. "Fred! I'm being serious! Stoooop!" but she couldn't stop laughing.
He nuzzled his face into the crook of her swollen neck and began to blow raspberries there, making her squirm even more.
Feeling mischievous, she grabbed his shoulder and in one swift movement, flipped them over. He was pinned on all sides under her. "How the? You are full of surprises," he said, out of breath.
"Perks of having auror parents, I know how to defend myself against tickle monsters!" Fred gasped dramatically at that comment and moved to start tickling her again, but she pushed him down even harder. "Fred, I said earlier if you're not comfortable with my Yule Ball plan, I won't do it."
He sighed in defeat and gave her a peck on the nose. "I trust you, love," but something changed behind his eyes.
"What is it?" she whispered, loosening her grip on him.
"We had said no strings," he replied, not breaking eye contact with her. "So... that means you could've gone to the ball with Draco and not told me, because of the... erm... lack of strings."
"Yeah," she breathed, mind empty, her only focus was on him.
"But you... told me anyway..."
"Yeah."
"So...um..."
"Fred, do you want strings?" A small smile ghosted on her lips.
"YES!" he yelled to the sky, making her laugh and collapse on top of him. He wrapped his arms around her as they laughed. "Of course I do woman! Are you kidding? I'm mad for you."
"Mad for me?" she said in between laughs, but Fred just started his tickling antics again.
"Don't mock me! I mean it!"
Cilla and Fred didn't spend much longer outside in the chilly air. They eventually realized how late it had gotten; the time had flown by so quickly because of how happy they were together.
As they crossed the field back towards the castle hand in hand, Fred was going on and on about his favorite default topic: pranks and prank products. As he talked animatedly about him and George's recent ideas (without giving away too much, with the prank war and all) Cilla let her mind wander.
Priscilla Roberts and Fred Weasley had strings. Officially.
Despite all of her plans that she formed late at night the safety of her four-poster bed, she had done the exact opposite and let herself get close to Fred.
Fred, who showed her secret passageways and dragon fire.
Despite all of her anxieties and fear of abandonment after her history at Ilvermorny, she let herself open up to being exclusive with someone.
Someone who was kissing her goodnight at the door to her common room.
And, most alarmingly, despite all of her efforts not to, she had fallen for the charms of Fred Weasley.
A fucking ginger.
✧
A/N: So, as I'm sure you noticed, Fred and Priscilla have started the spice. In case you missed it in the index, I'm restating it here: I am not writing underage spicy scenes. There will be detailed spicy scenes, with warning of course for my underage readers, don't you worry! But I'm simply not comfortable writing them when they're still kids. Any scenes of that sort will be depicted like the one in this chapter. Thanks for understanding.
Content Warning: Implied Oral Sex (Male)