#n then i think i wanna do reyna next ... she was asked after a lot at sydnova so im gonna get her done before smash <3

[ryonello]

im obsessed with them

[fandomlit]

sunshine (percy jackson x reader)

requested by anon “Hey, just found you today! I was wondering if you might do a Percy x reader? Something fluffy and the reader is an artsy, music loving, child of Apollo? Percy sees her and suddenly has a new found interest in pottery or drawing or something. His friends (the seven + Nico, Will, and Reyna) notice he’s spending a lot of time at the arts center and call him out/convince him to ask her out. That kind of seems like a lot so no pressure but thank you anyway!”

summary the seven and friends are sick and tired of seeing you and percy tiptoe around your feelings, and decide to push you two together the best they can.

a/n this is super long and im not sorry in the least,, keep those requests coming y’all !!!

gif cred belongs to @pydiasterek​

“has anyone seen percy?” hazel asked, walking up to her friends with frank trailing behind her. “he said we’d be able to spar after lunch, but he didn’t even come to lunch.”

“probably at the arts center,” annabeth said, smirking to herself as she flipped the page of her book.

“arts center?” hazel repeated, furrowing her brow. “since when has percy been interested in the arts?”

“since he caught sight of y/n l/n,” jason snickered, his friends joining his chuckles.

“who’s that?” frank asked.

“apollo girl,” leo said, wiggling his eyebrows as the two romans joined their friends under the tree were lounging under. “she’s super talented. percy walked by the arts center and legitimately did a double-take when he saw her. i didn’t know people actually did that.”

“are they dating?” hazel asked innocently.

“of course not,” reyna said, not looking up from where she was shining her sword. 

“well, why not?” hazel asked, looking around at her friends.

they all looked around, no one seeming to have an answer.

“maybe we should help them,” piper suggested. they all looked to the aphrodite child, who began to smirk. “you know, push ‘em together a bit. couldn’t hurt.”

and that’s how it started.

“hey, percy!” jason called out. the sea demigod had just entered the arena. jason waved his friend over to him. “you up for some sparring?”

“sure thing!” percy called back, heading toward him. as he approached, he caught sight of you spinning a spear near where jason was waiting. he watched you swing toward leo, who immediately whimpered and cowered. you giggled.

“ready?” jason asked. percy’s gaze snapped back to him.

“yeah,” he said, nodding. they both got into their stances before charging at each other. as they sparred, percy glanced back every now and again to watch you and leo fight, you easily overpowering the hephaestus child. one of those times percy glanced over his shoulder, jason took the opportunity to catch him off guard, making percy stumble as he countered and fall back. but before he could hit the ground, something hard dug into his back.

he opened his eyes to see you standing over him with a smirk. “well, hello, water boy,” you said, shaking your head. percy offered you a sheepish smile. he realized it was the butt of your spear digging into his back, holding him up.

“uh... hi,” he breathed. you giggled, pushing your spear forward to held stand him up straight. he turned to you with an embarrassed smile as you leaned against your weapon. “good catch.”

“thanks,” you hummed. “maybe you should stick to swimming, water boy.”

“maybe you should stick to singing, sunshine,” percy retorted, crossing his arms. you let out a scoff, followed by a laugh.

“sunshine?” you repeated. “now that’s just lazy.”

“and water boy isn’t?” he retorted. jason and leo shared looks as you two continued to tease each other, slowly moving away to leave you two alone. they weren’t surprised when they found out nothing ended up happening.

the next day, annabeth invited you to join them around the campfire after dinner, hoping to at least get you and percy to realize the other’s feelings. when you arrived, they all greeted you warmly.

“who invited you, sunshine?” percy joked as you took the seat next to him on one of the seating logs surrounding the fire.

“someone who doesn’t think of such lazy nicknames, merman,” you tutted, shaking your head. he scoffed as you winked at annabeth. 

you all talked for the longest while, telling stories and jokes and enjoying each other’s company. while you two may have not noticed, the rest of the group noticed that you and percy had gravitated closer together during the time you two sat around the fire, your thighs almost pressed completely together after just an hour.

“im gonna call it a night,” will yawned, standing and stretching. nico had slung his jacket over the boy’s shoulders a while ago. 

“that’s my cue, too,” nico sighed, standing after his boyfriend. will grabbed his hand with a smile before turning and pointing at you.

“don’t get back too late, missy,” he teased, winking at you.

“i know the rules, william,” you scoffed teasingly. he chuckled and the couple waved goodnight to the rest of the group. reyna, hazel, frank, and piper followed soon after. that left annabeth, jason, percy, and you around the fire.

“you’re not tired yet, water boy?” you hummed, looking over at percy.

“no,” he shrugged, looking down at you. “are you?”

you shrugged in return, stifling a yawn. “i won’t go to bed until you do.”

“that’s not a good rule to live by,” percy laughed.

“why not?” you grinned, quirking an eyebrow.

“well, you know how im great at a lot of things?”

“you are?”

“i am,” he confirmed in a soft tone that made you giggle. he grinned down at you. “but uh, the one thing im not very good at is sleeping.”

you hummed. “that’s tragic. maybe you should just sleep.”

“you know, i didn’t think of that.”

“i figured as much,” you tsked. neither of you noticed that annabeth and jason had snuck off, leaving you two to flirt and tease alone. the only evident product of success from that night was seeing you return percy’s sweatshirt the next morning. they took that as a small victory.

the kicker was when you were all playing a game of paranoia in jason’s cabin. you were all sat around in a circle on the cleared out floor when piper had sneakily proposed the game. you were all for it. to make sure they could manipulate the game to go their way, the group had separated you and percy. you rested your head in leo’s lap and draped your legs across jason. annabeth caught percy’s stare when you had first looked into leo’s eyes and grinned as you settled in.

“i’ll start,” piper proposed. she leaned over to whisper in nico’s ear. the boy considered, looking around the circle as piper leaned back with a smile.

“annabeth,” he answered. “for sure.” said girl flipped the coin she held. they all watched it land on heads.

“reveal!”

“the question was ‘who do you think would get away with murder’,” piper snickered.

“yeah, that’s about right.”

“i believe it.”

“honestly, she probably has already.” you all turned to the athena child in question. she shrugged easily.

“that’s a woman’s secret,” was all she said, making you all laugh. the game continued on and more laughs were shared. then, it was time for annabeth to whisper to percy.

“lay it on me,” percy sighed as annabeth leaned over, making you all chuckle. percy bit his lip as annabeth leaned away with a not-so-secretive smirk. he kept his gaze trained on the floor in front of him as he considered. he turned to annabeth and asked, “why is this so hard?” you all chuckled as she shrugged.

“gotta answer, though.”

he sighed, still not looking up as he answered, “y/n.”

you blinked in surprise as your friends erupted in whistles. you watched annabeth flip the coin and your heart dropped as it landed on tails.

“damn,” you muttered. they all laughed and you joined. “i really wanted to know!”

the game continued on until it was leo’s turn to whisper to you. you sat up so he could whisper quietly in your ear.

you shivered as he leaned away. “sorry, i got chills.” you laid back down as you considered and they laughed. you smiled to yourself before answering, “will.”

leo nodded. “flip.” the coin landed on heads.

“i asked who the hottest guy in the room was,” leo grinned.

“sun child vibes!” you exclaimed, throwing up peace signs as will cheered. “no? no one? okay.” you leaned forward to whisper to will as they laughed. percy couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed. 

the circle went around again, and when it was back to percy, he braced himself for a similar question to the one he received last time. he sighed as he leaned away from annabeth.

“i gotta go with y/n again,” he said, shaking his head.

“i didn’t know we were playing favorites,” jason scoffed, making you all laugh.

“what can i say, sparky?” you sighed dramatically. “you’ve been replaced.” jason placed an offended hand on his heart as you turned to annabeth. “flip, please.”

percy wanted to walk into the ocean when the coin landed on heads, making the circle ‘oo’ and laugh. “uh, i was asked who the prettiest girl in the room was.” he scratched the back of his neck and blushed. you opted to blush as well instead of saying anything as the group burst into ‘aww’s and leo started cheering.

after another few rounds, you all decided to call it a night before dionysus or some other unfathomable thing came to break up your makeshift party.

“can i walk you to your cabin?” you turned to see percy standing with his hands in his pockets.

you gave him a smile. “sure thing, barnacle boy.” he rolled his eyes at the nickname as you two walked out of the zeus cabin.

after a minute of silence, you broke, “so, you think im pretty?” he blushed.

“i was hoping you wouldn’t remember that.”

“who do you think i am?”

you both laughed as he scratched the back of his neck. “well, yeah, i guess. beautiful is a better word for it, though.” you smiled as you both stopped before the steps of the apollo cabin. you knew will was probably watching from the window, but you didn’t care. you only cared about the demigod in front of you at that moment.

“wanna know the question i answered you for?” you hummed. he nodded. you smiled, looking into his sea green eyes as you recited, “‘who would you kiss out of everyone here?’”

his eyebrows shot up, as did his heart rate. “really?” you nodded with your usual easy smile. he looked away from your prying eyes for a second to nod and absorb the exciting information. he looked back down at you and started, “can i-”

“please,” you answered with a laugh, eyes closed as you cut him off. he smiled and leaned down slowly to press his lips to yours gently. he pulled away after a moment. your eyes met his and nothing was said before he leaned down again, this time his hands settling on your waist as you wrapped your arms around his neck. 

the kiss was more intense this time, both of you spilling all of the thoughts and feelings and tension you had held in since you first met onto the other’s lips. and it was nothing short of euphoric. 

but not euphoric enough to drown out the cheers of your friends from all around you two.

[jamilelucato]

together [F. W.] || pt. 3

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Slytherin!reader

Part 1 || Part 2 || together MASTERLIST

Summary: Professor McGonagall has had enough of yours and Weasley’s pranks. She has an idea of how to stop it, but will it be enough?

A/N: This is the last part, yeah, we’re finally here. Thank you for everyone that like it! And I chose this gif because if you pay close attention, both twins are there dancing but most importantly, Malfoy’s there having the time of his life! So cute!

Words: 7.885

Tag List: @witchything​​ @randomlonelytorment​​ @themusingsofmany​​ @stuckindilemma​​ @samnblack​​

Sunday was a disaster. Firstly, because you were only able to wake up half past noon and you couldn't shake the feeling that you had lost a great deal of the day. Secondly, because of the constant headache, that wouldn't go away, no matter how much water you drank.

You woke up before than Fred, so it was up to you to wake him up. He seemed peaceful, sleeping like an angel. A bit of his hair was falling over his eyes, and you reached for that part, to take it away. He instantly woke up, although a bit slowly.

"It's me," you said, trying to calm him down. It had helped because he stopped and opened his eyes that sparkled in your direction. "Good morning."

"Good morning, y/N," he got up from the mattress — wearing the same clothes he wore last night. Just like you, he wasn't well to change himself before falling asleep. You sleep in your jeans that, although comfy, weren't your best choice to nap with them.

"Where's everyone?" Fred asked, reaching for his clothes, to get new ones. You did the same, making a self-note to clean your clothes scattered around the bag and the bed.

You looked down at your watch. "Well, probably having lunch at the Hall," he got surprised, so you continued, "Yeah, we kinda lost track of time."

"Kinda?" he giggled.

Both of you almost used all the time available to be apart to shower, because neither of you seemed awake enough to be fast. You met again at the stairs to get to the common room.

"Do I look better?" he asked, running his fingers to his wet hair.

"Definitely," you smiled before blushing, "what about me?"

"Huh..." he tried to say something, but he felt so hungry, he decided to drop it. "Never better," he decided to say, because, after all, it wasn't a lie.

A step inside the common room and all the looks followed you, but nobody said a thing. Fred found your hand and guided you to the Great Hall — like you didn't know how to get there yourself.

The house tables were practically empty already due to the time, but there were some Gryffindors, and some Hufflepuff left — all looking pretty much hangover. You were happy to see you weren't the only one.

Fred saw Lee Jordan sitting at the end of the Gryffindor's table with his twin brother, George, and headed that way.

"Good morning, dear brother. Lost track of time, I presume?" George said, giggling, but he suddenly stopped to look at you. He almost convulsed, and so did Lee, before both started to laugh aloud.

"What?" you asked, impatient, sitting down next to Fred who was already serving you.

"Night was good, huh?" Lee said before laughing again. "Pretty good."

"You mean the party? Well, yeah, I might have had one two many..." you tried to remember the night before. "Do I look that terrible?" you asked Lee and George.

They stared at you and then at Fred, like expecting him to say something, but Fred pretended he wasn't seeing them.

"y/N, huh... Have you noticed what you're wearing?" George suggested, with a tone of uncertainty. He seemed scared of your reaction.

You were whispering 'what' when you looked down at yourself. The jeans were alright, but it wasn't because of them the boys had laughed.

The jumper you had caught in the middle of the mess of clothes scattered wasn't yours, and it was pretty clear since the big letter 'F' embroidered in the middle of it remarked that the owner was, in fact, Fred Weasley.

You felted your cheeks turn red as you turned your head up, back at the boys, who were laughing. Fred ha ducked himself, scared of your punches.

"You saw this and said nothing?" you raised your voice to Fred.

"I was super hungry," he said, bending even more.

"It's your jumper!"

"Well, everybody noticed that," Lee pointed out, still laughing.

You were about to punch Fred's arm but gave up midway. It wasn't worth it, and you probably wouldn't be able to hit him the hard way you wished.

"After I eat, we're going back up for me to change," you warned, not asking for his permission. He swallowed hard and shook his head 'yes'. "Good."

The boys' giggles eventually disappeared, and, as promised, after eating, the first thing Fred did was take you back to his room so you could change for a jumper of yourself. You all spend the rest of the day in the common room, too tired to walk around.

After recovering from Saturday night, the days started passing fast. You and Fred got back to your schedule, trying to behave as well as possible to get Minerva's approvement.

Weeks got by — even a trip to Hogsmeade, in which you, Fred and George, bought a lot of things from Zonzo's since your stock seemed to be reaching its end.

Ron got closer to you and the twins — something about "not being friends with Harry anymore" to which you and the boys thought was non-sense.

Reyna assured you she didn't let you embarrass yourself at Harry's party, so you were pretty tranquil about it. She did, however, start to pull you over Fred, commenting how cute you two were and giggling every time she caught you two holding hands.

At first, even you wanted to giggle when he reached for your hand, but he didn't seem as excited as you, and the whole thing kind of lost its charm. Yeah, it was good — he had warm hands, you were glad to have around as winter got closer —, but it didn't grow. It was just it.

It was stupid to deny you were catching feelings for him. Of course, you were. He was gentle, smart, fun and rather handsome — anyone could fall for that, and apparently, you weren't the only one to do so, as Angelina seemed to talk to you and the twins more and more.

Thus, the smartest for you to do was to hide all those feelings away. Fred only saw you as the prankster girl from Slytherin anyway, more like a new member to his boys' gang, and, to be honest, that was how you were feeling lately. Lee Jordan grew closer to you — although, mostly to ask what Reyna liked — and George asked for your help when he had trouble with some lessons or had a new joke he wanted to check if it was good enough.

The jumper incident never happened again, as you forced Fred to help you clean the scattered clothes that, as you presumed, weren't only yours.

The Triwizard Tournament first task finally arrived, causing the whole school to get excited. It seemed to be the only thing the students could talk. The twins weren't any different, particularly when close to the time the first task would start, they found Charlie — one of their older brothers — amongst the people organizing everything.

"Charlie, what are you doing here?" they asked, hugging their brother.

"I came with the dragons, of course," said the red-haired boy, that much resemble the twins. However, he was a bit shorter than his brothers, and more muscular too. "Is that...?" he asked, looking at you, but Fred interrupted him.

"y/N, yeah."

Charlie offered you his hand, proving to have a firm grip. "Nice meeting you, y/N. Heard a lot about you," he said, taking a glimpse at Fred, "Mom seems to think you are the twins' salvation."

You smiled, blushing. "Well, I'm glad Mrs Weasley sees me that way."

"So, brother, wanna bet on one of the champions?" George asked, sowing a piece of paper where he and Fred were writing people's bet.

"Not, really, George."

"Oh, come on!" George followed his brother around, much to Charlie's dislike, leaving you and Fred behind.

He pointed a space in the crowd, and you both walked to the place, waiting to watch the spectacle that would come.

"Are you sure you're keeping your bet on Harry?" he asked, as you watched Cedric enter the place where a beautiful dragon awaited. "After knowing it's a dragon that awaits him?"

"Well, I have to cheer for someone. And I won't cheer for the foreigners," you said, watching Cedric use transfiguration. "I'm not with Cedric either; he seems short of luck."

Fred giggled, noticing you were right about Cedric.

The champions one by one fought their dragons, and Harry was surprisingly good considering his score tied with Krum's. You had no idea what the judges where looking for, as to give or take points, and you would probably have given a ten to everyone, due to how scary the dragons looked.

Fred noticed your discomfort when the dragons got too close to their champions, and he found that fascinating about you, but that wasn't what he said. He used your fear to provoke you; although you didn't laugh, you weren't angry.

"Come on, let's go!" said George, appearing next to the two of you. "We have to get things for the party."

You looked at Fred like you wanted to say "another party?" but he just shrugged and helped you get up.

Fred, George, Lee and you, all snuck up to the kitchen, to get as more food and beverages as possible. Fred looked at you as he held a pack of bottles with his right hand.

"Stay away from these," he advised.

"Will do, sir," you replied, smiling, holding four big bags of crisps.

You all left the kitchen just in time before the house-elves noticed, and ran to the common room, where Angelina and the other two girls that also played Quidditch were trying to decorate.

Lee left the things he brought over a table and started helping the girls — he had more sense than them at that matter.

George had managed to steal a cake, and he positioned it around the pumpkin juices, trying to make it look cool, but it did not work; the cake just looked misplaced.

When Harry arrived, followed by Hermione and Ron, the room screamed in animation. Lee even let off some Filibuster's Fireworks — that he had stolen from your stock.

The boy seemed to have made amends with Ron, and you were happy for the two of them. You, Fred and Lee walked closer to him, to ask how he was feeling.

"Blimey, that's heavy," said Lee, picking up the golden egg, which Harry had left on the table, and weighing it in his hands.

The whole room started asking for Harry Potter to open the egg in front of them, much to Hermione dismay. You felt reluctant; generally, when Hermione objected to something, she had a reason to do so.

The egg was hollow, but the most horrible noise filled the room. Fred bellowed for him to close it again and Harry slammed it shut.

"Sounded like a banshee..." opined a boy next to Ron.

Another one disagreed. "It was someone being torture! You're going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!"

"Don't be a prat, Neville, that's illegal," said George, frowning. "They don't use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded more like Percy singing. Maybe you've got to attack him while he's in the shower, Harry!"

You began to think who was that Percy when you remembered the twins mentioning him as their older annoying brother.

"Want a jam tart, Hermione?" offered Fred. Hermione looked doubtfully at the plate, and then she looked at you as if asking for help. You didn't know what to say. Fred grinned. "It's alright," he said. "I haven't done anything to them."

Hermione took a jam tart. "Did you get all this from the kitchen, Fred?"

"Yep," said Fred, grinning at her.

"How do you get in there?" she asked, innocently. You knew she was faking it.

"Easy," said Fred, "concealed door behind a painting of a bowl of fruit. Just tickle the pear, and it giggles and —" you elbowed him, concerned with the amount of information he offered and suspicious of Hermione. "Why?" he asked, noticing your worries.

"Nothing," said Hermione quickly.

"Going to try and lead the house-elves out in a strike now, are you?" asked George, but Hermione stood in silence.

"Don't you go upsetting them and telling them they've got to take clothes and salaries!" Fred said warningly "You'll put them off their cooking!"

She said nothing more, but she looked not pleased with the twins. Fred and George started talking with one of the younger boys — Neville, you remembered his name — and you took the opportunity to chat with her.

"What are you planning, Hermione?"

"Nothing," she said, "seriously."

You noticed she used the word 'seriously' instead of her usual 'I swear' and thought she was, indeed, planning something. But if she didn't want to tell you, you weren't going to push her — it was Ron and Harry's job to take care of her, but you couldn't shake the motherly feeling you had around those kids.

That party was better than the other one, probably because it was less crowded — Reyna, for instance, didn't appear — and you hadn't drunk from the bottle Fred informed you not to.

Some students tried to sing a song for Harry's efforts, but they were terrible at it, and you and Fred couldn't stop laughing at their faces. The party ended early if compared to the other, but you didn't bother. The fun you had was enough — besides, those months around Fred had been the happiest of your life. You used to prank people because their reaction made you want to laugh, and with the joy those new friends brought to your life, you were slowly losing the desire to prank at every moment.

You started to worry, but that didn't consume your thoughts as much since soon you had fallen asleep.

December came quickly, and with it, a lot of homework. You're studying more and more, scared to miss something important. Fred thought you were crazy to start worrying so early, but you said you were not worried — just being prepared.

Snape seemed to be used to you and Fred around, and you bet he even liked the twins around you — they were much, much quieter that way. Flitwick was still over the moon, surprised with his creation, the Binding Charm, lasting for so long as you and Fred were his living examples.

You and twins use to disappear in the middle of the night to cause some trouble around; although you didn't need it anymore, it was nice having that kind of fun, anyway. The boys knew some secret passages you had never heard about, but you were glad they trusted you enough to show you.

Professor McGonagall seemed to know that you and Fred were up to no good, but she couldn't blame you for anything, because you were extra careful to leave no traces behind.

One day, she finished the class quicker because she wanted to inform you of an event that would be happening in Hogwarts — the Yule Ball. She said it would be a night to socialize and have fun, but she specified, looking straight at you and the twins that it did not mean relaxing the standards of behaviour expected.

Because of the ball, everyone seemed to be putting their names on the list to stay in Hogwarts for Christmas, and even though you had no partner yet, you felt compelled to write your name as well. You sent you mom a letter, apologizing for not coming back home to the holiday, but she showed no worries in her reply, saying she was anxious for a picture of you and your Yule Ball date. The idea of someone asking you out made you giggle.

At first, you weren't worried. You thought that asking people out wasn't going to be a thing — only a few would have a date —, but then, it seemed everyone had one but y/N.

You and Fred were sitting on one of the marble benches in the Courtyard. You told Fred you wanted to read the chapter of the transfiguration book Professor McGonagall had assigned in the daylight, but the fact was you wanted to put yourself available out there, in hopes a boy would approach you.

Your fellow Slytherins didn't even look at you; the Ravenclaws didn't even know you existed. Some Hufflepuffs looked at you, seeming to want to come and speak to you, but then they would diverge and talk to another group of girls. The Gryffindors didn't even dare come near.

Fred noticed you weren't reading the book — you were just raising and lowering your eyes every time a boy passed — and he wondered what was happening.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"What?" he had caught you by surprise. "Nothing, I'm alright."

"No, something's off — in fact, you have being weird the whole week."

You sighed. There was no point in lying to Fred; you were sharing every space now, so why not share some secrets?

"I.. don't have a date for Yule Ball," you started, diverging from his eyes, scared of his judgement. "I just thought someone would have asked me by now."

When you finally exchanged looks, he seemed offended. "What?" you asked, bothered.

"I thought you were going with me," he said, in a low voice. "That's what I've been telling everyone."

You were shocked. "We are? Going together, I mean," you replied, "I had no idea! You didn't mention it — you didn't ask me out!"

"I thought it was obvious — I mean, we are connected, how would you dance with another boy?" he raised his brows.

You wanted to giggle. "Well, makes sense," you said, smiling embarrassedly.

"Unless... you wanna go with someone else?" he half asked, half suggested.

You shook your hands, denying it. The truth was you were extra happy he was going to take you — you wanted Fred to take you. He was the best date you could dream of, you just couldn't let him know, and that was the hardest part.

He didn't even ask you, because he had no choice in the matter of taking someone else; it was pretty obvious you wouldn't have been his first choice.

"Of course I didn't wish anyone else," you said, and noticing he could interpret it wrong, you continued, "It's just you said nothing, I presumed you were taking someone else."

He laughed dryly. "And who I want to take?"

You shrugged. You had an idea: Angelina. Beautiful, Quidditch player and from the same house as him, Angelina.

You said nothing, though, scared he would disinvite you and rush to invite her.

"Well, with that established, let's go back inside? This sunlight, although bright, is far from hot," said Fred, and he was right; the Courtyard was very cold.

He offered his hand to you, and you took it, gladly. It was the first, after a very long time, that he seemed to do it not because of pure habit. His eyes followed your hands, and he squeezed it a couple of times along the way.

Inside the Gryffindor's common room, Fred messed with his brother about the fact that he was without a date yet.

"And who are you taking?" Ron asked, snapping.

"Well, isn't it obvious dear brother?" he replied, raising your hands that were tied and showing it to his brother. "Who else would I take?"

You looked at Fred, confused. The way he spoke to his brother seemed as if he did want to take you... and if that was true, could that mean that you were going as something more than friends to the Yule Ball?

You started blushing, just because of something you thought, but Hermione noticed and thought you were like that because of Fred's show off.

"Oh, look! She's blushed!"

"I'd be as well if my partner were Fred," smirked Ron.

You tried rolling your eyes but you couldn't, still embarrassed, so you ducked your head. Fred leaned in, and, taking advantage of the fact you couldn't see him, he kissed the top of your hair.

You couldn't believe it; he couldn't have kissed you, could he? Hermione giggled, the same way Reyna did when she caught you and him talking, and that was all you needed of confirmation. Yes, he had kissed the top of your head.

You felt your face going redder and redder, so you pressed it against his chest. "Take me out of here," you requested, and he took you down the stairs, to the Great Hall, where dinner was about to be served.

George was there, and so was Lee, who didn't look so happy.

"Your dear friend Reyna," he said, with a weird tone of voice, "said no to me. She said no to me!"

You smiled, that wasn't news to you, and neither was it to Fred — she had told you guys that a Hufflepuff, one year older than you all, was taking her.

"Sorry to hear, Lee," you said, serving yourself. "What about you, George?"

"Who am I taking, you mean? That's a surprise."

Fred raised his brows.

"You'll have to wait to see," George added.

"What about you?" Lee asked.

"Well, Fred's taking me, of course," you said, proudly, way proudly than you were expecting to sound. You hoped the boys didn't notice.

"Of course," George repeated, in a mocking tone.

The evening was quite alright, as had been all the others. In the next morning, you had a letter from your mom, accompanied by a big red box.

"Thanks, Aurora," you said to your owl, offering her your breakfast, but she didn't even bother and just disappeared.

"Dear y/N, I hope you already have a date! Because I have a surprise! This letter comes with your Christmas present, but do not open it if your date is around! (I presume he is because something tells me that the Weasley boy is the one taking you). I wish to hear everything about it later, do not forget one single detail! Send me pictures. With love, Mom."

Fred was distracted by his food, so you slightly opened the box, just to have a glimpse of what could be inside, and you were shocked by what you found. You closed it fast, with Ginny laughing next to you.

"It's for the Ball?" she asked.

"Yep," you answered, unable to hold in your smile, thinking about how beautiful was you mom's present — and how much it could have cost her.

On Christmas Day, the Weasleys called you and Harry to participate in their snowball fight, and you were having a lot of fun until a ball hit you so hard, you fell.

"Are you ok?" Fred asked, kneeling next to you — his eyes staring at you, desperate for you to say something.

You pressed your hand to your forehead. "Ron just caught me by surprise," you informed, getting up with his help.

He turned to his younger brother. "You are dead, Ronald, ruining the face of my date!"

He started throwing so many balls at Ron's direction that you had to intervene. You took some time to do so, though, because you were distracted with the way he called you: his date, with no hesitation or mocking tone.

At six, you pulled Fred aside. "Look, we got to go— or maybe, use of that thirty minutes free," you said.

"Why?" he asked, glancing at his brothers' fight.

"Why! I need to get properly ready to the Yule Ball, that's why," you said, thinking it should have been obvious.

"Oh, you look just fine as you are!" he said sighing.

"Well, thank you, but that's no excuse," you had blushed a little.

"But we already used fifteen minutes," he pointed out.

"So, you'll have to come with me," you said, and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine, let's go," he said, walking away, forcing you to jog to follow him. "See you later, boys."

You two got to the Gryffindor Tower, and you started casting every beauty spell you had once read about — first on your hair, a nice hairstyle, your hair was not completely loose, but it looked cute enough; secondly, your make-up that insisted in a lot of black and red lips. You took a glimpse at Fred, but he was distracted reading a book about Quidditch over his bed, where you had been sleeping almost the whole school year that had already passed.

You were sitting on the floor, with your right hand up so it could be next to his.

"Fred," you called him. "I need you to change in somewhere else."

"What? Why?"

"Because I need to change," you said, "and I want it to be a surprise."

He took a long look at you, making you blush with the way his eyes explored every single part of your face and hairstyle. "Can't get more surprise than this," he said, making you feel a shiver go through you.

"Come on, please. We have fifteen minutes," you said, after a while in silence, too embarrassed of the way he was making you feel.

He sighed and got out. You ran to your mom's box, finally opening it in peace, to have a look at the dress fully open.

You took the beautiful dress out. With a boat neck that covered just a little bit extra of the shoulders, the green fabric went over until your feet. It had a thigh-split that, as you moved your leg, revealed a red inner cloth. It also had a skinny belt around the waist, in the same colour of the inner fabric. Over the green fabric, if one paid close attention, it would be noticed that it had some red dots around it, that seemed to shine over the light.

You always knew your mom was smart, but you never thought she'd play with the colours of both yours and Fred's house. You smiled at yourself because you wanted her there to thank her.

You took the last glance at yourself, working the last details and wearing perfume.

Fred knocked on the door before opening it, giving you a chance to turn slowly around at his direction. You smiled at him while he just stood, too surprised to say a thing.

"So," you said, playing with the dress, "do you like it?"

"I love it!" he said, rushing over to you. "y/N, you are beautiful, always have been, but tonight, you are just... I'm speechless."

You felt not just your cheeks, but your whole body blush. Fred couldn't say something like that and not mean it, could him? It had to be because, perhaps deep down, he felt something for you as well. Right?

He offered you his arm instead of his hand, and you took it, happily. If the evening proceeded that way, it was about to be the best of your life.

"Shall we?"

You nodded in the affirmative, too nervous to say something. Fred headed with you to the common room, where Harry, Room and a girl were standing.

He winked at Harry as you left through the portrait hole.

"Was the dress your pick?" Fred asked as you waited for the Hall to open.

"No — actually, it was a gift from my mom," you said.

"Very smart of her," he said and added: "The colours and all."

You smiled. "My mom is still a teenager if that's possible. She has a way of thinking like a romantic highschooler. I would never have an idea of combining our colours."

The doors were finally open, and you were shocked when you noticed the girl with Krum — Hermione, in a beautiful blue dress.

The place, splendidly decored, barely looked the same. And fun was the only word you could use to describe the night. Fred made sure you were smiling the whole evening, and he made sure that every song you wanted to dance, he would dance with you.

Having him so close, breathing at your neck, was like Heaven. It couldn't get better than that.

George appeared next to you two in the middle of a dance. "Can I dance with my brother?"

You pretended to get offended, and said, "What about me?"

"Well, you dance with me, of course!" said Lee, taking your hand.

"We need to be close, still," advised Fred, and so your partners obeyed, yours and Fred's hands always touching each other by their backs.

The dance with the boys, especially watching Fred and George turn each other in the middle of the dance floor made you laugh like there was no tomorrow.

You all eventually sat down, to eat something and relax a little. George and Lee seemed ready for the next adventure and left you and Fred behind in a table.

"Well, this is definitely topping the house parties!" you exclaimed, scared of the silence that almost took over.

He giggled. "Should I be insulted since I and my brother are who organized those parties?

"You should," you said, in a mocking tone, laughing right after.

"Wanna get out of here?" he asked, and you supposed your face was all twisted because he added, "Just to breath new air."

"Sure," you agreed, taking his hand to get up. "Ouch! These heels are killing me!"

He looked down at your feet. "Take them off," he suggested.

"I would, but I'd get them dirty going outside," you said, with a sad smile.

"Take them off," he said again, this time bossier as if he was ordering.

You slowly took them off, one by one. "Well, now I don't wanna step outside."

"Who said your feet need to touch the ground?" he asked, with a smirk filled with mischief.

He then, grabbed you by your waist, holding you in his arms.

"Fred!" you bellowed, "Put me down!"

Some stares followed you as he raced outside of the Hall, but Fred didn't seem to care, not with the stares, not with your weight.

"There you go, lady," he said, sitting you at one of the benches at the Courtyard.

"Well, thank you, Fred, but there was no need," you started saying, but stopped, noticing he wasn't interested in that.

You two stared at the night sky,  you weren't alone in the yard. Some couples were snuggling around the place, hiding in the shadows. It made you nervous being in a place like that Fred — it made you wonder.

"Fred," only too late you noticed you had said his name out loud.

"Yes?" he looked back at you, his eyes sparkling over the moonlight.

You breathed hard; if you began saying, there was no going back. So, you decided to take the easy way.

"Thank you for the evening. I've never been happier," you said, staring at his eyes with difficulty. "You've proved yourself a good date — although I wouldn't know what a bad one would be like."

He tilted his head, "You've never been in a date before, y/N?"

Your muscles tensed around your closed mouth, as you got embarrassed about the secret you had just told him. You looked at the boy; Fred probably had been to thousand of dates, he was the type to have girls around. But, if that was the case, he was a perfect gentleman to never talk about it, at least, not at your presence and he had been in your presence for a while now.

"Yeah, this has been the first time a guy asked me out, although, you didn't ask me, you just had to take me."

"I had to just take you?" he repeated, "y/N, what do you mean?"

You dodged his eyes. "Well, we have this damn Binding Charm all over us. I wouldn't have been surprised if you had asked McGonagall to separate us, at least for enough time for the Ball," you said, looking back at the moon. However, you weren't so sure of your words, because you thought Minerva wouldn't with you two wanting to be apart.

He giggled, dryly, as if he didn't believe what you were saying — and he didn't. How could you think so little of yourself? How could you doubt he had been wanting to take you to the Ball, to take you on a date, since the first time he had laid eyes on you?

"y/N, I would have asked you to be my date to the Yule Ball with Charm or no Charm," he said, finally, after taking a minute in silence. "The Charm made it easier if you wanna know because I always thought you would never say yes to the poor Gryffindor dumb boy."

You were forced to look back at him, and you couldn't hold in your smile. All this time, he wanted you??

"You are far a Gryffindor dumb boy, and I don't care if you're poor either — I'm far from rich myself," you said. You noticed how close your faces were now.

"Having you as my date," you continued, not moving an inch away, "was the best thing that ever happened to me."

He squeezed his eyes around the corners, holding in a smile.

"Damn, I'll forever be thankful to Minerva for binding us together," you exclaimed, laughing and he joined in.

Fred was the first to stop laughing, as he stared at you, contemplating his view. Soon your laugh died as well, and you both stared at each other as if your lives depended on it.

"Well, then you only leave me one more thing," he said.

"What?" you asked but before he moved, you already knew what was about to come.

His right hand, the free one, reached to your cheek, and brought it even closer, binding no longer just your wrists, but your lips in a breathtaking kiss.

It was calm, you two had all the time in the world, but as it intensified, more urged the kiss started to feel — and you both wanted to be closer and closer.

Your free hand rushed to his soft red hair, where not only he lost his mind to your touch, but you lost your consciousness with the sensation of his hair.

You were so intertwined, at least the maxim you could with his gala clothes and your beautiful dress. It was a good thing it had a tight-split.

You both had to stop for air and that was when Fred's eyes widened. "Run," he whispered.

You thought you couldn't have heard right. "What?"

"Run," he repeated, now louder, already getting up and catching you hand, dragging you around the Courtyard back to inside the castle, entering the Hall.

"What happened?" you asked, gasping for air, as you tried to fix your hair and dress to place.

"McGonagall. In the Courtyard. Looking for us," he said in pauses as he was breathing.

You were shocked. "Oh God, how much did she see?"

"I have no idea," he said.

You two started entering the middle of the place, trying to hide in the middle of the crowd.

"If she thinks this has been happening for a while... she'll think we sleeping together..." you started but couldn't finish, "Oh Merlin, Fred, we're screwed."

He took you to dance floor, in case Minerva showed up, you could pretend it wasn't you in the yard. Perhaps, she would believe it.

"Where were you —" George began asking but stopped after having a better look at his brother. Then, he smirked.

Lee Jordan appeared, smiling widely. "So you two... finally!"

You looked at the boys then back at Fred and saw what they had noticed — Fred's mouth was painted red, the colour of your lipstick, and his hair was a mess since you had pulled it to every direction.

Fred was confused.

Standing on tiptoe, you whispered in his ear, "My lipstick is all over your face and..." you held in a giggle, "your hair isn't helping either."

He got scared, and ran his fingers first to his hair, trying to make it better, but he failed, and then he ran his suit over his mouth, trying to clean the lipstick's mess.

He turned back down at you, "Your lipstick is all over your face as well."

You opened your eyes wide and ran your hand over your mouth, rubbing it over and over. The movement in the sensitive region reminded you of minutes ago, but you shook it off. You were still afraid of Minerva.

Lee Jordan and George's laugh brought you back to the real world.

"Look, we can leave the room to you if you'd like..."

"Oh, shut up, George," you said, but deep down you wanted to giggle. "Have you seen Reyna?"

"She disappeared with her partner practically at the same time as you two," said Lee, "I imagine what could she be doing."

You punched Lee's arm. He let a moan out and smiled, proud.

Fred was looking around the Hall and stopped when he found his target. "Minerva's coming."

That was enough to put you back at your alert state.

"Guys, we were here from the beginning, ok?" said Fred, looking at his brother.

"We never left," you added.

And then, Minerva McGonagall was standing right next to you, analysing you up and down.

"Where were you?" she didn't seem very patient.

"Right here, Professor," you answered.

"Why you have your shoes off?" she asked, looking at your feet.

"Was hard dancin' with them," you replied, hoping she would buy it.

"I feel like you are both lying to me," she said, "Are they lying to me, George?"

The other twin swallowed hard and stared at the Professor.

"I don't think so, Professor, they were dancing with me all night," he answered, for yours and Fred's relieved.

She stared at the four of you non stop before sighing. "I'll believe it, for now," and she left, leaving you and Fred to finally relax and take a deep breath.

The party went on for another two hours. Fred tried to kiss you three times in the middle of the dance floor, but you were too scared to get caught by McGonagall and receive a worse fate than detention.

When you finally went to bed, you and Fred went alone. George and Lee had found girls for themselves to finish the night with and, when arriving in the room, you noticed Kenneth wasn't there either — a shock for both of you.

"Do you think he found someone?" you asked.

Fred shrugged. "Who knows."

You two snogged a lot in the dark of the room, in privacy, with no chance of having McGonagall walking in. Somehow, the kisses only got better and better, and if you weren't so tired of dancing, you wouldn't have ended it.

Fred helped you with the dress but promised not to look when you switch it to you pyjamas. He changed to and you both kissed goodbye.

"Fred?" you called, not a minute after lying in his bed.

He muttered a 'huh' from the mattress on the floor.

"You know, it's a very cold night," you said, "and I don't have enough blankets."

"You want mine?" he asked but didn't seem to happy to have to offer it.

You sighed. Was it that hard to understand?

"No, I was thinking about something with heat within."

"Oh," he said, in a tone filled with mischief. You smiled in the dark.

You rolled to the side of the bed, expecting him to get in the covers.

"Incendio!" you heard he shout and you almost jumped out of bed, scared as Hell.

"WHAT THE FU—" but you noticed you weren't catching fire and his laughs filled the silence of the room.

He finally got in bed with you, still giggling.

"You think it was funny?" you asked angry, rolling back to his side, positioning your head over his chest.

"Very funny," he replied and you pretended to punch him.

"Yeah, yeah, try setting your girlfriend on fire again and you will sleep with snakes, Fred Weasley."

He stopped laughing.

"Girlfriend?" he sounded surprised.

You said nothing, scared of what he was thinking. Perhaps it was too soon for names, perhaps he just wanted a date, not a girlfriend.

"I like it," he said, then, for your amazement.

In the dark, you both smiled at each other.

He helped yourself to find a better position in bed and you were almost sleeping when you heard him whisper:

"y/N, my girlfriend. I love it."

***

The photographs your mom was desperate to get where all taken by George, who seemed to have liked the job. The only thing was you couldn't send you mom all of them, for respect.

With a letter describing the night — you told her you and Fred went as friends, scared she would ask McGonagall to undo the spell if she knew the truth — you sent her two of George's pictures.

The first one was you and Fred at the beginning of the Ball, standing together, smiling for the camera. Well, you smiled — Fred seemed much more focused on you then to look for the camera.

The second one was you and Fred, sitting next to a table, minutes before you took off your shoes and he took you outside. Neither of you knew he was taking pictures, so it looked rather spontaneous, as you both laughed at each other.

The third picture George had taken — the only one you didn't tell your mom about — was you and Fred, cuddling on the bed in the early morning of the day after the Yule Ball.

Minutes after the third picture was taken, you and Fred woke up to see three young faces — George, Lee and Kenneth — hovering over you. You screamed of course, but in the end, everybody was laughing.

In breakfast, nobody seemed too surprised the fact that Fred was your boyfriend.

"He's been talking about it," said Ron, looking disinterested, "for over a month."

You looked back at Fred and he started blushing.

Hermione seemed pleased. "Well, I knew something was going on when neither of you tried to undo McGonagall's spell."

Her comment caught you by surprise. "What do you mean?"

"Did you two tried Finite Incantatem?"

You and Fred exchanged looks. She smiled.

"Did it even cross your mind?"

You giggled, nervously. No, you and Fred didn't even think about undoing the spell on your own and you started to think that the reason was there all along.

"Anyway, we need you guys to keep it a secret, as we will do," Fred continued, "Because we don't want the spell to be undone now."

Lee Jordan smiled. "Sure thing, friend."

"But you know you two will give it away just by the way you look at each other," commented Ron, making you flush.

"Fred has been looking at her like that for a while now, and Professor McGonagall didn't seem to notice," countered Ginny.

Oh, Merlin, has he been so obvious that you were the last one to notice?

*** Pretending was hard. You had waited for so long to have Fred's touch all over your body that acting like you two weren't thing turned out to be more arduous than you imagined.

One thing was for sure: it was way more fun. The nights out, the hiding... — those things turned your relationship into an adventure and that was all you two liked the most.

But Professor McGonagall found out, and oh, Merlin, she was far from happy about it.

She called you two to her office and she said so many things you and Fred were already lost.

"This is not how I planned to end this," she said, "I expected to find better students, who would above it all respect the school."

You and Fred exchanged looks.

"Seems I was wrong."

"Minerva, we did become better students — ask around! Even Professor Snape has nothing to say about Fred any more, and that's saying something," you comment seemed to have got her attention.

"And we respect school! The pranks have stopped, haven't they?" Fred asked.

"Yes, because you two have been snogging around, under my nose!"

She was angry, super angry, but the more she talked, the less irritated she got.

"I'll undo the spell, of course! Can't have you two sleeping together one more day," she shouted, coming next to your wrists and starting the incantation.

You thought about telling her that, with the boys around, you and Fred couldn't do anything in the room — although, you tried. But you thought that would make her only angrier.

"Now that you are apart, I expect your grades to be perfect — I won't take less than that," she said, stepping away, "And you'll get three weeks detention each, and apart from each other, I'll make sure of it myself."

"Ok, Professor," you and Fred sighed. You started getting up to leave but she stopped you.

"Fred, could you let me talk to y/N alone, please?" she asked, and her tone seemed way more sympathetic.

Fred shook his head yes and left. You gulped, what could she possibly wanna tell you that Fred couldn't hear? Oh, Merlin, was she thinking you were pregnant?

With Fred gone, McGonagall's face changed — she was even smiling.

"And so it worked," she said.

You were confused.

"Did you think I didn't know that you two would end up dating?" she asked and laughed alone, "Look at you two, a lot of chemistry if I ever saw something like that!"

"You are not..." you couldn't believe it, "angry?"

"Professor McGonagall is deeply disappointed, is true," she started, "but Minerva and your mom are over the moon!"

You snorted, putting your hand on your forehead. What was despair turned to revolt and a bit of shame.

"My mom did all this?"

"We had a bet, you see," she told you, "When would you two be a thing. And I kinda cheated."

You opened your mouth at Minerva's direction, not believing.

"Your mom is such a sweetheart, she didn't even care", she continued telling.

"I can't believe it," you said, looking down at yourself.

McGonagall's smile was wider.

"But I still don't want you in the Gryffindor's boys dorm, you hear me?" You shook your head yes. "Now, you can go, if you please."

Fred was waiting for outside, but he was confused with your expression.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing, but I just think McGonagall won a bet over us," you said, planning to explain everything to him later.

He was curious but gave in as soon as your lips reached him.

"And now, we're about to win a bet over McGonagall," you concluded, smiling at yourself, leaving with his hand in yours.

The best prankster's bet was still around and there was nothing Minerva could do to stop you and Fred of doing every single thing you could think about. And that was going to be the funniest, happiest and the best year of your lives.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 25

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary: Halloween aftermath

A/N: Sorry for the wait again! This chapter wanted to become long (for my chapter) so I just couldn't finish it in time. About the future schedule, there won't be another chapter this week but given it's only Tuesday now, I think I may be able to update again Friday next week. Fingers crossed!

Thanks for all the comments again, you guys make me so motivated to continue! ♥ But I won't rant more, now I'll let you know what happens after the cliffhanger of ch 24.

Words: 3,8k+

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

...

Calypso woke up with her head banging in pain and a sour taste in her mouth. She also felt like throwing up. What was even worse than that, though, was that she had no idea where she was. She was still wearing a flowy, white dress instead of her pajamas and she didn’t recognize the bed she had slept in. Perhaps the strangest part was that she could hear light snoring from the floor behind the foot of the bed. She sat up on the bed so she could see who caused the sound, panic starting to surge in her veins when she recognized the dark mop of hair under a blanket.

It was Leo, sleeping on a mattress that had been taken from the other side of the double bed she had been sleeping in. What on earth had possessed him to sleep there, Calypso wondered worriedly.

Pulling a cover over her (which, she knew, was silly because obviously Leo had already seen her in her dress earlier) she continued scanning her surroundings and slowly started making some conclusions. This had to be Jason and Piper’s house, where they had stayed the night after the Halloween party. A party. Right. Her last clear thoughts were from the moment when she had seen the two Hunter girls arrive at the party. After that, she remembered vaguely fleeing the room and finding something to drink, and that’s when her memory got really blurry. And that was the truly scary part. She hadn’t been truly drunk even once within the past five years but she did know way too well what had happened the previous time she had done that. The biggest mistake of her life.

Before she allowed her mind to draw any more conclusions, she decided to rise from her bed and check up on Leo. He was still sound asleep and since the blanket had partially fallen off of him, she could see that he was wearing a tank top and boxers, which she took as a good sign. Since they both were at least somewhat clothed, she thought it was quite unlikely that they had crossed the line that she was not ready to cross. But that didn’t mean that nothing had happened.

“Ahem,” she cleared her throat while wrapping the bed cover around her a bit better, trying to make Leo wake up. She needed to do that at least twice more before he finally stirred.

“Wha… Woah!” He yelped with surprise when he realized where he was and with whom, quickly pulling his blanket over his mostly bare legs. “Morning, Sunshine. How are you feeling today?”

The panic had momentarily made Calypso forget about her headache and dizziness but now that Leo reminded her of it, she realized they hadn’t disappeared anywhere. Sitting back on her bed, she sighed.

“I’ve been better, that’s for sure.” She rubbed her forehead for a moment. “The worst part is that I have no idea what happened last night.”

“You… don’t remember any of it?” Leo asked while sitting up, and Calypso thought she could hear a hint of disappointment in his voice.

“I do remember what happened before my first drink,” Calypso clarified. “But not much after that.”

“In that case, I think I can help you fill some gaps,” Leo replied. “If you want to.”

“That would be good.” Calypso tried to undo some knots in her hair with her fingers, sighing with frustration. “Maybe you can start with explaining why we are both here. I mean, in this room. I think Piper and Jason have several extra rooms in their house.”

Leo’s face turned bright red at the implications of Calypso’s question. He had to clear his throat before he managed to answer. “Um… You were really not feeling well last night… And to be honest, some moments you seemed pretty desperate to… I don’t know, it seemed like you were trying to escape from Thalia and Reyna every time they tried to talk to you. So, um, we, as in, me, Piper, Jason, Annabeth and Percy thought that someone should probably keep an eye on you. Just in case. So. I volunteered.”

Calypso wanted to keep Leo distracted so he wouldn’t ask more about Thalia and Reyna so she asked: “But why you, and not for example Piper? She lives here so it would have been easier for her. You could have just driven home and come to pick me up today or something.”

“That’s… that’s true but I felt it was my duty… as your flatmate, of course… to make sure you’re OK,” Leo stuttered. Calypso had a feeling it wasn’t the whole truth but she didn’t push it. “Alright,” Calypso said. “But why were you sleeping in this room? Like I said earlier, there are other places…”

“Ahem,” Leo made a coughing sound again. “That’s because you asked me to stay here. And I’m not lying about that. You can think anything you want about me but I would not do anything without your consent… um, not that any of that has even crossed my mind, gods.”

Even though Calypso was relieved to hear that because it proved that nothing had happened between them, she had to admit to herself that perhaps a tiny part of her was a bit disappointed. Leo’s reply made it sound like he did not have any romantic feelings towards her. Or then he was a liar. Either way, Calypso wasn’t sure what she should think.

“I… asked you to stay with me?” she repeated instead.

“Um, yeah,” Leo replied, his fingers tapping on his blanket absentmindedly. “You said something about nightmares… and I dunno, you just didn’t wanna be alone. Piper asked if you’d like her to stay but… you picked me? I don’t know why.”

There was a long pause before Calypso answered. Maybe it was her dizzy head making her make decisions she usually wouldn’t, but she thought there was no reason to deny it anymore. Feeling the warmth on her cheeks, she finally replied: “That’s because – I hate myself for this, but - you… you mean more to me than her.”

“I… what?” Leo frowned, looking like he was wondering if he had heard right.

Calypso sighed deeply and hid her face into her hands. She hated how fast her heart was racing in that moment. “I’ve been trying to deny that for several weeks now, but… I guess the drunk me was more honest than what I usually am.”

Leo crossed his arms, inching closer to Calypso on his mattress so he could look at her directly. “But… but… what does it mean? I mean, I do have an idea because I’m not an idiot even if I seem like one – but I need to hear it from you.”

“Leo Valdez, it means I like you! In a very non flatmate like way! There, are you happy now?” Calypso’s voice started cracking and she felt like she was on the verge of tears.

“Of course I am!” He exclaimed, almost jumping up from his mattress. “I think I’ve had a crush on you ever since you got mad at me for smashing your table!”

Calypso’s mouth opened in surprise. “You… have? But… how?”

“When you got mad at me that time, I saw some fire in your eyes. Like, OK, I’m gonna admit that you looked hot from moment one but I didn’t care about that. I didn’t,” he repeated when Calypso looked at him skeptically. “I know a lot of girls who kinda remind me of you with their shiny long hair, perfect eyelashes, et cetera, but many of them are the type of people who used to laugh at me at high school. And I mean, not in a good way. But when I saw that fire, somehow I was convinced that you were different. You have just the kind of spunk that I like and you’re not afraid to call me out when I deserve it – but you’re still fair and don’t judge the book by its cover. Fine, of course I was worried I was wrong and you wouldn’t forgive me for that mistake. But, somehow, this one time, I was right. And I only got more convinced as I learned to know you better.”

“Leo…” Calypso was starting to lose the fight against the tears.

Leo looked extremely worried when he realized she was crying. “What? I thought you’d be happy to hear that? I like you – you apparently like me for whatever crazy reason – what’s the problem?”

Calypso tried to brush off the tears from her face before answering, her eyes sparkling with frustration. “The problem is that you just made this – what I should do – a hundred times harder! If… if you hadn’t answered to my feelings, I could have just tried to accept that and eventually moved on. But… how are we going to live with this knowledge, live under the same roof… when nothing can happen?!”

Leo started to freak out. “What do you mean ‘nothing can happen’? Calypso, could you please finally be clear with me? Why did you just confess your feelings and then say… that?”

Calypso didn’t miss that Leo used her full first name, a thing he did quite rarely. Her voice was still a bit hoarse when she answered:

“Alright. I have plenty of reasons but here’s the first one: In the past… I’ve had nothing but unsuccessful relationships. I may have been really young back then, but it made me doubt myself, Leo. Several guys I really liked - and I imagined they liked me back - told me some big words… only to run to their ‘real’ girlfriends at the first possible opportunity. You’d probably say ‘but that was many years ago, screw those guys’!”

“Damn right, I would!” Leo exclaimed, slamming his fist on the floor next to him to emphasize his point.

“… And I wish it was that simple but it isn’t.” Calypso shook her head. “There’s more to that story than I care to explain right now. And then I met Percy a couple of years later and thought that maybe I’d be ready to try again. Well, you know what happened. It did not work out and I decided that when I’d finally have my freedom… I mean, when I’d move out and start my studies, I would make sure that I really am ready for a relationship before starting one. And I’m sorry, but… I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I want to learn to love myself before… you know.”

Leo finally stood up from his mattress and sat down next to her on the bed, not even caring about the fact that he was still wearing only a thin tank top and boxers anymore.

“I guess I can understand that,” he said, spontaneously taking her hand into his as a comforting gesture. “I’m no stranger to self doubt.”

“Then I guess we have that in common…” Calypso sighed, allowing Leo’s hands to remain on hers. “However… that’s not the only reason why I think it would not be a good idea.”

“What else is there?” Leo asked.

Calypso looked down at their intertwined hands sadly. “Well… I think I’ve told you my father is not the nicest of guys… But the truth is, I left home without his consent or knowledge. So, he’s probably looking for me right now. And if he does find me, I don’t know what will happen. I may have to go back. And I definitely don’t want him to find out about you. He has money and a lot of power and he’s capable of ruining anyone’s life if he wants to. He’d probably blame you for hiding me and have you arrested or something… It would break me if something happened to any of you, because of me.”

“Why… Why haven’t you told this to me before?” Leo’s grip on her hand tightened slightly and even though Calypso didn’t dare to look into his eyes, she imagined that they were burning in anger like she had seen a couple of times before.

Calypso rubbed her forehead tiredly with her free hand. “Because… what would you do in that situation?! I’d arrive at your home and introduce myself: ‘hey, I’m Calypso, your new flatmate, and by the way, I’m running away from my father who may or may not have kept me as a hostage for several years, but yeah, nice to meet you!’”

“A hostage?” Leo was practically growling now.

“Well… “ Calypso was suddenly hesitant, realizing she had revealed more than intended. “I was allowed to go to places… sometimes… but never alone… And I was homeschooled so… I did spend a lot of time at home… but we had a huge mansion… So it wasn’t like I was trapped in a basement or something…”

“But that doesn’t make it any more right!” Leo was almost yelling now. “I want to do something, I want to let people know what kind of person he is so he can’t keep doing that to you or anyone else anymore!”

“Leo, you can’t!” Calypso squeezed his hand, finally looking up at him. “Do you know how dangerous that would be?! And I swear, with his money he would only make the police go quiet about the whole situation… The main thing is that I’m here, right now, and relatively safe. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe he doesn’t care where I am. I don’t know what he’s thinking, to be honest.”

Leo was quiet for a while, breathing heavily and fiddling with the bed covers. “Well… Fine, I’ll let that be, for now. But I swear to gods, or the River Styx, or whatever the hell those ancient Greeks used to swear on, that if he does something to you, I will not let it be anymore. I… and I think I can speak for all of our friends, that we all… will make sure that he will go down with a bang.”

Leo’s comment about the ancient Greeks managed to cheer Calypso up a bit. “You sound like you would physically fight him. And how exactly would you do that?” she asked. “With your tools?”

“That’s not a bad idea!” Leo exclaimed, getting into his fantasies. “I would definitely bring my trusty hammer. Or, I could build a…”

“Hey, now, I was not being serious! But you sound like you are,” Calypso stopped him by putting a finger on his lips. “I absolutely don’t want you to do anything where you could get hurt.”

“Me? Getting hurt? That’s unheard of,” Leo attempted to joke once Calypso removed her finger from his lips.

“Alright, now you’re not being serious. Didn’t you once tell me that you joke especially when you’re nervous?” Calypso remembered one of their earlier conversations.

Leo’s smirk disappeared. “Want me to be honest? I’m not great at the feelings stuff. But I just heard you tell me that you like me. For a moment I was like: ‘hey, for once the chick you like likes you back, maybe this could work out’. And then you told me that apparently your father is some kind of psycho who is still controlling you, his adult daughter. I am glad that you told me about all this but you can’t expect me to stay calm when someone I care about is in danger. You wouldn’t stay calm either, would you?”

Calypso shook her head. “No. You’re right. I would also want to help you. And I really am sorry, I wish things were different and we could… Maybe one day. That’s all I can say.”

Leo sighed and ran his free hand through his hair. “OK. I get it.”,

A silence fell into the room as they both tried to take in what had just happened. Some automatic reaction made Calypso lean her head against Leo’s shoulder as if she was trying to tell him with the touch that she really was sorry. She was thankful he did not shift away. Eventually, she asked:

“So… tell me more about last night. Did I embarrass myself badly?”

“Naah…” Leo lied at first, a smile returning to his face as he remembered some of the things that had happened.

“You just flinched,” Calypso noted. “I felt it. You’re totally lying.”

“Fine. It was pretty funny when you had a karaoke duet with Piper and were too drunk to be able to read the lyrics from the screen so you came up with the words yourself. And at one point you just suddenly switched to Greek and none of us could understand what you were saying. But it wasn’t that bad. And even drunk your voice was kinda impressive. And your dance moves were definitely better than mine.”

“Wait, what? I danced too? Gods, please tell me no one filmed that,” Calypso asked, horrified.

“I can promise no such thing!” Leo grinned, and Calypso stopped leaning her head against him, instead elbowing him on the ribs. “Ow! I’m just joking! I don’t know if Piper got any photo material of that but I was busy dancing with you so I didn’t have time to film anything. Promise.”

“Alright. Sorry.” She lowered her head on his shoulder again.

“Guess we’ll have to hunt down Piper after this,” Leo said with amusement before recalling something. “Anyway, something kinda weird happened too. Like I said, it really seemed like you were trying to avoid Reyna and Thalia and I have no idea why. Every time they got close, you were like ‘gotta get a drink’ or ‘let’s go dance’ or ‘bathroom break’. I’m not even sure if you greeted them. Can you explain that?”

“I… uh,” Calypso tried to come up with something that she wouldn’t have to tell the whole story. “My half sister Zoë… She used to be a Hunter. But she died some years ago. An accident. I think those two probably knew her and… the wound is still too deep so I didn’t want to have to talk about her. It would have ruined everyone’s night.”

“I’m sorry,” Leo said, causing chills in Calypso’s back by running his thumb on the palm of her hand. “I had no idea... Feels like I’m learning a lot more about you now than I have the past few months…” “I probably should have told you about that earlier… So I’m sorry too.”

Leo bit his lip as if he was struggling to decide something. “If it makes you feel any better… I know how it feels to lose someone important. My mum. She died in a fire. Yeah, the fire that started my fear,” Leo confirmed Calypso’s suspicions. “She was the only family I had and after that I went from home to home and no one wanted to keep me… Sometimes I ran away too… That kept going until Emmie and Jo finally found me. It… doesn’t really get easier, but somehow… you still learn to live with it. Because you have to.”

“Yeah. I know the feeling. But if you have to find something positive out of this situation… at least we’re safe now. And we’re not alone, right? That’s what they’d want for us, right?” Calypso sounded a bit unsure, though.

“Yeah. You’re right.” They stayed quiet for a while, but this time the silence was comforting. Finally, Leo decided to break it, in his typical way.

“No offense, Cal, but you could use a shower. For all of our sake.”

Calypso quickly sat farther from him. “Oh my gods, Leo, that is so not appropriate, especially in a situation like this! What’s wrong with you?”

Leo put his hands up defensively. “Was just trying to be honest! The alcohol and the throwing up did not do good to you.” “Geez, I hate you,” Calypso mumbled.

“That’s fine because I hate you too,” Leo claimed.

“Not what you said a moment ago,” Calypso retorted.

“I could say the same back at you.”

Suddenly both Leo and Calypso burst out laughing, needing to release the tension the whole conversation had created. Calypso didn’t remember when she had last laughed that long or hard but she didn’t care, it simply felt right in that moment. When she and Leo finally calmed down, she said quietly:

“Maybe we are idiots, both of us.”

“Maybe. But normalcy is not for me. I learned that a while ago.”

“Same, to be honest.”

Calypso and Leo’s eyes met. Some barriers had been broken that day and even though there was still a lot of work to do, Calypso realized that it had felt good to talk to Leo. He hadn’t judged or questioned, at least not in the way she had expected. He had seemed to accept that she’d come out of her shell with her own terms. Something about it all just felt so right, and when she remembered that he had also admitted he liked her back… she decided it was time to get a bit crazy. Screw the consequences, if they couldn’t enjoy this moment, then what could they enjoy? That’s why she let her hand brush his cheek before resting it in his hair, gently lifting his chin with her other hand so he’d know her intentions…

“Do you think… we could forget about the stupid rules just for a moment?” She asked, resting her forehead on his.

“I think I’m down with that,” Leo smiled at her softly (Calypso didn’t like admitting it but that soft smile never failed to get to her).

They closed their eyes and started leaning even closer, but just when their lips were about to meet, the door opened. The couple quickly separated when Piper peeked in.

“I heard some laughter from here so I thought I’d come to check…” Then she noticed their expressions. “I’m so sorry! I didn’t mean to interrupt!”

“Didn’t interrupt anything,” Leo mumbled, although it was quite clear from his voice he was disappointed.

“Yeah, no worries,” Calypso tried to reassure her as well, although her eyes seemed to be interested in a wrinkle on her dress.

“OK…” Piper wasn’t at all convinced but she didn’t comment on it more. “Well, I just wanted to tell you that we have breakfast downstairs. Whenever you’re up to it.”

“Yeah, we’ll be there in a minute! Just let me… clean up a bit.” Calypso exclaimed, getting up and starting to head to the closest bathroom. Leo also got up from the bed and started pulling on the clothes he had had under his costume the previous day.

“See you soon then,” Piper said, leaving the very flustered couple to get prepared for the day. Calypso could imagine that she and Jason would probably get good laughs from this once she and Leo would leave.

[lukecastellandeservedbetter]

20. Ghosted

a/n: keep a watch on my page because I’m going to be doing a near-essay about why Hermes kids are somehow the most and least powerful demigods at the same time thanks. Also here’s a reminder that I didn’t forget about this fic, and a double reminder that Luke and Percy are most definitely brothers and this is a little bonding time for them while the rest of the crew are off on their own adventures.  

read the others!: Masterlist

When Percy recounted the story, and told them to head to Charleston, Luke couldn’t help but groan. 

“What’s wrong with Charleston?” Piper asked him with a raised eyebrow. 

“It’s a real nasty place, with a lot of ghosts.” He sighed. “I ran into some trouble when I was there last time.” 

“For the Titan Army?” It wasn’t a mean question, just an honest one from Percy. “Do we have to worry about army rejects? Or supporters?” 

“No,” Luke shook his head. “I was like, 11 last time. But it doesn’t make it any less annoying to go back.” 

“I have so many questions.” Leo said, staring at Luke. 

“We don’t have time to answer them.” Annabeth interrupted. “Jason, you also seem uncomfortable with Charleston.” 

“Yeah did you also get chased by ghosts?” Percy teased. 

“I wasn’t chased by ghosts-!” Luke started to protest, but Annabeth held her hand up, effectively cutting him off, looking pointedly at Jason, who awkwardly recounted his quest with Reyna, casting apologetic glances to his girlfriend, who seemed just as uncomfortable. 

“Alright, girls trip to this ghost that Reyna spoke to then,” Annabeth looked at Hazel and Piper, who nodded. “And Jason, you’ll lead a group back to the museum.” 

“I wanna check out the cool weapons!” Leo grinned. 

“Frank, you should also come, since you’re a son of Mars.” Jason added. 

Frank seemed uneasy about heading so soon on another quest, but he agreed nonetheless. 

“That leaves Percy, Luke and Hedge on board,” Annabeth observed, then frowned. “How do you keep lucking out on missions?” 

Luke shrugged. “My talents haven’t really been needed, so I haven’t really gone.”

“What exactly are your talents?” Piper inquired, raising her eyebrow. “Besides Swordsmanship.” 

Luke shrugged again. “Hermes' kids talents aren’t big, or flashy because they shouldn’t be. They’re meant to be sly and sneaky and in the shadows. I spent years on the run before I got to camp. I can pick any lock in an instant. I’m also quick, and good with directions. We have our own form of Charmspeak I guess.” He paused. “And recently I found out I can play the lyre surprisingly well, so if we ever need that, we’re set.” 

“You’re kidding, right?” Leo laughed. 

“I would never lie about something as serious as the lyre, Leo.” Luke said deadpanned. 

Leo’s face dropped in surprise and he was left sputtering for a moment before the crew dissolved into a well deserved laughter. The tension that always seemed to lurk around the corner lifted a little, letting the demigods relax just for a moment. 

“And the Achilles Curse.” Percy added. “You still have that.”

“Yeah but that isn’t Hermes related.” He pointed out. “It’s just… me related.” 

“Can we get back to the plans please?” Annabeth drew everyone’s attention back as they laid out the groundwork for the plans. 

The next day everyone left early in the morning, and Coach Hedge was still sleeping. 

This left Percy and Luke bored in the mess hall. 

“Why don’t we go explore?” Percy offered. “Just take a walk around?” 

Luke looked up at him from his book and raised an eyebrow. “Are you crazy?” 

“It’s just us, that shouldn’t be enough smell to attract any monsters.” He pointed out. “Come on, please?” He begged. 

“Percy I don’t want to go walk around Charleston-”

“That’s right, I forgot you’re afraid of Charleston.” Percy huffed and flopped onto one of the big comfy chairs. 

“I am not afraid of Charleston.” Luke protested, glaring at Percy. 

“Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever you say.” Percy waved his hand absentmindedly, looking at the walls that displayed Camp Half-Blood. 

“I am not!” Luke closed his book and tossed it aside, standing up. “Get up.” 

“Why?” He raised his eyebrow. 

“We’re going to explore Charleston.” Luke grumbled and headed out to grab his dagger from his room.

They snuck off the ship just fine and headed into town, down to the Charleston City Market. 

They had very limited money, so they tried not to spend too long at any one stand, smiling and greeting merchants and other shoppers. It was a warm and calm day, and despite the welcoming atmosphere, Luke seemed a little on edge. 

“What is with you?” Percy whispered to him. “Seriously dude, calm down. I don’t see any ghosts.” 

“Not yet.” He mumbled, his eyes scanning the crowd. 

Percy watched his friend with worry. He was starting to feel guilty about basically forcing Luke to go out on an adventure through the city with him, especially when it had such unpleasant memories for the older demigod. He cleared his throat as they continued through the crowds. “So, anything happen with that girl?” 

Luke looked at Percy, surprised. “What?” 

“The girl. From the candy shop?” He prompted, looking at a dyed blue leather bracelet curiously on one of the stands. “What was her name? Sophie?” 

Luke couldn’t help the blush creeping up his neck. “I uh,” He fiddled with another leather cuff, this one brown and aged. “Sort of?” 

“Sort of?” Percy repeated. 

“Yeah, sort of. We had a date planned.” Luke shrugged. “At least I think it was a date.” 

Percy looked at him, his eyebrows raising so high they nearly disappeared beneath his shaggy black hair. “And how did it go?” 

“I don’t know, I didn’t go.” The older demigod fished in his pocket for some cash, handing it to the merchant who gave him the bracelet in his hand, as well at the blue one Percy had been eyeing. 

Percy looked exasperated. “What do you mean you didn’t go?” He demanded.

Luke handed Percy his and put his own on carefully as they walked. “Something came up.” Luke shrugged, strangely reluctant to tell Percy that his disappearance caused Luke to miss the date. 

Luke knew Percy felt guilty about disappearing, even if it wasn’t his fault. Between Annabeth, who Percy was currently with, and Sally who Percy couldn’t contact in case it tipped off the Romans, Luke knew the son of Poseidon was having a rough time adjusting to the merging of his old Greek life and his new, shorter Roman one. Percy would often wear hoodies around the ship to cover the tattoo that burned like a reminder of the time that he was gone from Camp, from their lives. He didn’t want to add this burden on him, on top of everything else.

But Percy wasn’t having it. 

“What do you mean something came up?” He scoffed, struggling to tie the bracelet on. 

“Well…” Luke trailed off, turning to Percy when they got out of the flow of traffic to help him tie the bracelet on. 

Percy was smarter than anyone gave him credit for. 

“Let me guess, your best friend disappeared off the face of the earth and you had to go save his sorry ass?” Percy asked, admiring the new bracelet. 

“Who said you were my best friend?” Luke scoffed, but deep down, he knew it was true. 

Percy rolled his eyes as they headed over to one of the candy stands. Luke picked out some sour cherries, and Percy grabbed some blue raspberry sours. They were quiet for a moment, Percy opting to pay this time. 

The boys took their treats and headed out, making their way back to the ship. 

“Thank you.” Percy said after a long silence. 

“For what?” Luke looked at him confused. 

“For coming to find me.” He said softly. “And the bracelet. And exploring Charleston, even though you’re afraid of ghosts.” 

“I’m not afraid-” Luke sighed, before cutting himself off and shaking his head. “Of course I’m coming after you idiot, you said it yourself, you’re my best friend. Besides, I wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for you. You saved my ass, so it was my turn.” He shrugged, popping a sour cherry into his mouth. 

“And I’m sorry you missed your date.” Percy added. 

“Well, if I’m lucky I’ll get another chance when we get back.” He shrugged again. 

Percy nodded and thought for a moment. “Why are you so antsy about Charleston?” 

Luke groaned. “I was like, 11, and this kid comes up and starts messing with me so finally I tell him to fuck off and he gets spooked because he didn’t realize I could see him and then he gets a couple of his ghost friends and they run me out of town.” 

Percy raised his eyebrow. “So you were chased by-”

“Yes Percy I was chased by ghosts!” Luke cut him off irritably. “Next time you go missing, I’m going to leave your ass to Rome.” He huffed. 

“No you won’t.” Percy reminded him. “Mom would kill you.” 

“You’re right. She is one scary lady when she wants to be.” He sighed and glanced at Percy. 

His resolve broke and he chuckled, shaking his head and ruffling Percy’s hair. “Seriously, it’s good to have you back man.” 

“It’s good to be back.” Percy grinned back, swatting Luke’s hand away. “And just for the record I would save your ass from the Romans any day.” He told him, fixing his hair.

“Good.” Luke nudged him. “I’m gonna change and do some practice, alright? I’ll catch you at dinner.” 

Percy nodded and headed off to his own room. 

Luke waited until Percy had disappeared before glancing over the edge of the ship. Standing on the greenery below was the same young, translucent boy from when Luke had been there over a decade ago, staring up at Luke with an unreadable expression. Luke raised a hand, waving to the kid. The kid, in turn, waved back after a moment, before disappearing entirely. 

[jamilelucato]

together [F. W.] || pt.1

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Slytherin!reader

together MASTERLIST || PART 2

Summary: Professor McGonagall has had enough of yours and Weasley’s pranks. She has an idea of how to stop it, but will it be enough?

A/N: So... I thought a lot about this, should I do, should I not... I decided to go with it. It’ll probably be big because Goblet of Fire is big and this fanfic is supposed to happen at that book. Yeah... hope you all like it! Leave your comments about it please!

It’ll have a second part, and probably a third, so if you wanna be tagged, just ask!

Words: 7.866

"There's a bet goin' round..." the girl sitting next to y/N started.

"So I've heard..." you replied, faking indifference.

The Hogwarts Express was packed with students, all waiting to arrive at Hogwarts soon. y/N and Reyna, best friends since year 1, were sitting together at a compartment. There had been two other girls with them, but they had left for buying snacks. y/N doubted that was true since Reyna had just left herself to fetch snacks and was already back with chocolate frogs. Reyna was having the time of her life with the sweeties, but y/N wasn't interested. She was planning something bigger, something that was supposed to happen once she arrived at school, and because of all the required preparation, she wasn't very focused on the chocolate.

That didn't mean she didn't know about the gossip that was spreading inside the train.

"Well, it's a bet on who is going to be the biggest prankster of the year" started saying Reyna, pausing just to get another bite.

"Is it so?" you had now stopped writing on your notebook and glanced at your friend.

"You are one of the options and I've put my money on you, so I just hope you're not planning on being an angel this year," she said, finally. Her bright blue eyes showed she was scared of your reaction. And she was. Aside from school, you two didn't talk much. She would eventually spill some gossip, and you would make some jokes, but that was as far as your friendship had reached.

"Which are the other available options?" you asked, still playing dumb.

"Hm... someone put Draco on the list, but he's just a mean boy, not a prankster," she said, focused on the food in front of her. She ate so much, you always wondered how she managed her weight since yourself lately was having a problem with it. "Of course, Fred and George are on the list as well—"

You needed to hear no more. You were not intending on playing the saint this year, you spend your whole summer making plans to prank everyone at Hogwarts, but you thought that, maybe, without the Weasley Twins as rivals, you wouldn't need to be doing much. Knowing now that they were on the list for the title of prankster of the year, you knew you wouldn't have it easy.

"Glad you put your money on me, Reyna. I will be going after that title, do not worry" you assured her. She smiled and breathed hard, relieved.

"Three galleons, y/N. Please don't make me lose." You laughed at her insinuation. Losing for the Weasleys was not on your plans. God, could you imagine the look on their faces if they were nominated the biggest prankster of Hogwarts? HA! Not a chance, not this year.

"I'm starting next week, if my calculations are correct, it would be the best time. If you want some advice, stay away from the bathroom closer to the Library" you thought that maybe it would be a step forward in the friendship if you gave her a chance to scape your prank.

"I shall stay away from there, then" she giggled, eating another chocolate frog.

The other two girls that were sitting in the same compartment with you did not reappear and that caused curiosity; Reyna said they were probably snogging someone — "I hear Lee Jordan has an eye out for the blondie" — but you theorized they might just be scared of you since they were one year younger than you and Hufflepuffs.

"Malfoy does us no right. Filth boy, we Slytherins used to have a better reputation" you complained.

"I don't think it's Malfoy's only fault. You heard what happened at the Quidditch World Cup, right? This year will be worse than ever for us..." said Reyna, with a concerned look.

Without her house uniform, one would never point her as a Slytherin, at least not by her looks. Her sparkly blue eyes combined with her light brown hair and her plump prink cheeks would be a direct ticket to Hufflepuff at least, but no. Aside from the looks, Reyna was very ambitious and clever. A true leader if you knew what that could look like.

"I just hate that we have such disrespectful fame around muggle-borns or muggles themselves. It's not all of us, you know" she continued, biting her lip. "Speaking of which, I've decided to be friends with the first years, especially the muggle-borns, to you know, change their views. Would you like to be a part of it?"

You considered. "If I have the time, yeah, I guess. Tell me when and what is needed, I'll try to provide a hand. Smart idea, by the way."

"Thanks, y/N."

Although Reyna was smiling at you for the compliment, it was not her that thanked you. You turned around to face who was the owner of the voice.

Fred and George Weasley stood supported on the parapet of the compartment door. One of them had a bright smile on, which you considered it had to be Fred, 'cause George was generally a little bit shyer.

"What you want?" you asked, sharp, not in the mood for their sassiness.

"To see you, gorgeous flower, isn't it obvious?" Fred widened his smile while George held in a laugh.

Reyna was laughing already, unable to remain serious.

"Well, you've got your stare. Mind going back to where you came now?" you replied, pressing your lips against each other, hoping to look impatient.

It wasn't their presence that disturbed you — even though, it did, a bit —, it was the fact that you had open in your hands the notebook with all of your plans for the year, every single prank you spend nights preparing, that only needed some small adjustments due to changes the school might have gone through, like schedules or something.

"Georgie, doesn't she look worried?" Fred asked his twin, completely ignoring your request.

George smiled. "She does, Freddie."

You rolled your eyes at their act, while your friend laughs only became louder and louder.

"She's sad because she won't be the biggest prankster this year" Fred pointed out, with a casual tone, like he was telling something everybody should know.

You felt your body boil with anger.

"We'll see, Weasleys" you replied, looking down at your notebook and closing it. Fred seemed to have noticed your movement. "This is my year," you said, smiling with your arms crossed.

"I don't quite think so, y/N," George said, crossing his arms as well.

"This is my— our year," said Fred, correcting himself along the way, including his brother to the prize.

Reyna had stopped laughing, maybe worried about losing the money she had bet.

"See you around, y/N" Fred finally said, leaving the entrance of the compartment followed by his brother. One second late, the Hufflepuffs that were once sitting with you, came back, with giggles and swollen lips.

They sat in front of you and Reyna, exchanging looks, but didn't seem frightened of you anymore. Reyna looked at you too, like she wanted you to notice their lips. You rolled your eyes. Naive girls. Kissing, really? There's so much more to do than dating, like pranks for example. That's hella more important.

***

"A bit wet, aren't you, y/N?"

The question came from Draco Malfoy, who sat in front of you. You resisted rolling your eyes. Malfoy wasn't worth it. And, yes, you were soaking wet. Soon as you arrived at Hogwarts, Peeves, the school's poltergeist was throwing water bombs at the students. Unluckily, you were one of the ones that got hit. Straight at your hair, it was leaving a wet path every place you walked.

Crabbe and Goyle didn't take much longer to find Draco and sit next to him, one at each side. They seemed desperate for the dinner, looking at each end of the table nervously, trying to see if there was anything already available to eat.

Reyna, sitting right next to you didn't seem so different from the boys. She wasn't looking pleased with Malfoy next to us, because she was planning on having the new kids sitting with us. There was, however, still room available for newcomers at her right, so she cooled off when the new students started sitting.

"Hi! My name's Reyna. Any trouble you guys find yourselves in, you can talk to me" she said, smiling in a scary way that made the kids lean away.

"Or me!" you added, trying to look relaxed instead of the fake smile. "I'm y/N, by the way. Sixth year." You pointed out in case the kids couldn't find you just by name.

"Don't recall you girls being Prefects..." said a loud voice, coming from behind you. "Find me when in trouble, kids."

Slytherin's prefect completely ignored Reyna's and your angry looks and walked on to sit at the end of the table, next to the last girl that was welcomed in just some minutes ago.

When the dinner finally was served, Reyna seemed to have forgotten about the new students, because she had eyes only for the food. Not that you were any different — Hogwarts' house-elves always did a marvellous job at the kitchen.

After eating so much you and Reyna could have exploded, Dumbledore started to talk about this new year ahead of you all, and how something was going to be different. He got interrupted, tho, by a man that had just walked in. You recognized the mate at that instant: it was no other than Moody, old friends with your family. He was kind of an older friend to you. It seemed weird tho when he didn't shake a hand at your direction once he faced the crowd of students, but you thought he just hadn't spotted you.

Dumbledore continued. "We are to have the honour of hosting a very exciting event over the coming months, and the event that has not been held for over a century. It is my very great pleasure to inform that the Triwizard Tournament will be taking place at Hogwarts this year."

If you were drinking something, you could have spit all over Malfoy.

"You're JOKING!" you screamed, realizing seconds later that Fred Weasley, from across the Great Hall had screamed the same.

Draco laughed at your reaction, whereas Dumbledore continued his speech. "I am not joking, Miss y/L/N and Mr Weasley," he said, "though now that you mention it, I did hear an excellent joke...." he kept on going about it. However, you weren't listening anymore— you knew all you needed about the Triwizard Tournament, you had read all about it while growing up, and had reread at your first time at Hogwarts, in hopes you could participate. And now, the chance stood there, right in front of you.

"Well, that explains why no Quidditch this year", said Draco, with a bit of disappointment. Was he thinking about participating? Could he make his father force Dumbledore to select him? Merlin, you hoped not.

Being a part of the Tournament was way more important than playing pranks against the school. Besides, that was one in a lifetime opportunity.

Everything was perfect, so you couldn't be more than excited for October to come as soon as it could until Dumbledore explained one more rule: the Tournament would only accept students seventeen or older.

You let out an undecipherable scream, and it wasn't just you.

How could Dumbledore stop you from putting your name? Just because of what? A couple of months? Oh, you were definitely gonna plot to get in the competition.

When you and the rest of the students were allowed to go to your dormitories, you kept on looking around, trying to find the other two people that you were sure were gonna try to get in as well.

Fred and George were smirking at each other, the pure expression of troublemaking. The same you had on your face.

***

The morning after Dumbledore announced Hogwarts would be participating at the Triwizard Tournament was loud. very loud. Everywhere y/N went, every class you attended, some students were talking about it like they had just heard about it.

They all seemed very excited, especially the students from the 7th year. y/N just wished she had someone to talk about it in the way she wanted. You could have talked about it with Reyna, but she wasn't as excited as you. She thought the Tournament was dangerous.

"I've been reading some stuff about it — Cho Chang allowed me to read from her book — and it said that the Tournament has truly killed a lot of students" she complained, sitting next to you at potions.

The Weasleys Twins were at that class too, and they seemed very much like you: pretending to pay attention to Snape, but writing ideas for getting in the Tournament instead.

There was just one difference though. "Mr Weasley, could you please tell me when did I say a thing about" Snape read from the piece of paper he confiscated from the boys' table " 'casting a spell at our tournament registration'?"

You knew how to cover-up.

"Griffindor just lost 20 points thanks to you," Snape said, with his monotone. You tried not to laugh.

"20 points?!" Fred shouted, not believing it.

"Ten for each of you" the Professor explained. "And I can take more if you two don't start paying attention."

It had been a week after that comedic Potion class, but the school was still the same — everybody anxious about the newcomers and the competition.

When you arrived at the Great Hall, probably the whole house was already there, mouths crowded with food. You sat far from the others, at your house table, but Reyna wasn't at there yet, so you ended up alone.

You were a bit worried about your friend, Reyna was generally never late for meals, she felt hungrier than a lion most of the time, but there was nothing you could do about her missing. You knew she was friends with the kitchen house-elves, so if she lost track of time and if she was yet hungry, she'd steal something straight from the source.

The plan you had for attacking the girls' restroom near the Library was perfect, every calculation of time redone so it would be right. The potion was ready, hidden inside your black robe.

You looked at your wristwatch, confirming the time. Breathing hard, you were feeling your heartbeats increase. It was now or never. You got up from the Slytherin table, not giving anybody a last look. You had the next period free since you had dropped Divination this year.

Behind you, however, two red-heads were following, tiptoes, with a similar — if not the same — potion you hid in your robes in their hands. They saw your approach to the same direction they were planning on going, so they decided to slow down, making their presence unknown for you.

It was when you were close to the restrooms' doors that you heard an excited voice exclaim behind you: "So you decided to copy us."

Slowly taking your hand out of your robe without getting the potion out, you turned back, facing the twins. You had a surprise face on, although a bit relieved that they were not a teacher.

"I reckon I'm some steps ahead of you" you replied, smartly.

"Just because we let you" George smiled, crossing his arms in front of his chest, while his brother held up the flask with the magical potion. You looked at it, recognizing it at first sight.

"Besides, we can easily catch up to you — we have bigger legs" Fred added, raising an eyebrow, slowly positioning himself to run.

You copied the older twin.

"Let's see who drops it first" you challenged, taking your potion out of your robe and running towards the girls' toilets, opening it with one single hand, not looking back once to see what the twins were doing.

It wasn't crowd, only three girls stood by the sinks — by the looks of it, three Gryffindors. You ran to one of the toilets, bursting the door open, quickly depositing the potion inside of it. You pulled your hood up, covering at least the back of your head and your forehead, and ran out of that place.

It didn't take more than two seconds, the BLAMs and BOOMs came right after you started running, followed by two red-heads. You were all laughing, listening to the screams contaminating the school, as the place got crowded and crowded and you were heading to the Library, to pretend having been quietly reading, when you heard a spell cast.

"Simul iuncta!"

You stopped running involuntarily before falling on the ground. Next to you, very next to you actually, were Fred, also laying as someone had pulled him back.

You tried to get up, but failed, so you just turned your head back, to see what had happened and who had cast it.

Students had crowded around the toilets' doors, looking confused, some even scared. There was a bit left of white smoke, but it was better scattered.

Professor McGonagall stood like a statue, her lip was shaping a sulky beak as she looked over you and Fred. Her wand was on her hand in a position as if she had just cast a spell. Now you knew who had stopped you from running away.

Fred was also looking around, not scared of McGonagall — of course, as she were his head of the house. He was looking for George, the other twin you had noticed to be gone.

"What you did to me?" you asked, trying again to get up, but failing. Fred Weasley noticed your difficulty and offered you his hands. Not wanting to stay one more minute on the ground, you accepted it, as he helped you get up — so did you help him.

"A charm Flitwick has been trying to work with me. I guess it finally worked," she explained, sounding too happy with her accomplished. "Lucky I was nearby, huh?"

She started frowning again, to your discomfort. She, then, shook her hands at the rest of the students, making them disappear from there.

"What it did to us? It wasn't a freezing spell" Fred noticed, as he started walking towards the Professor but being pulled again with a thud. He fell right at your foot, and you instantly helped him up. "When will it pass?"

"It won't", she said, shrugging.

"You cast a spell on us that won't pass? Is it forever?" you asked, raising your voice, as you tried to get closer to her, Fred following your steps. This time, you two didn't fall.

"No, it's until I say it is." She smiled slowly, showing no teeth. "It's some binding spell."

You looked at Fred, confused, but he had no idea of what she was talking about.

"It makes the two near wizards connected" she continued, looking down at her wand, "that's why you both stopped running, that's why you were falling. Look at your wrists", she suggested.

You and Fred turned your faces slowly down, were your hands — your right and his left — stood considerably close, but not yet touching.

"I thought it would get the other Mr Weasley, but he saw me coming and ran away before my spellcasting."

"But I'm innocent!" you claimed, trying to pull your hand to yourself and failing, to McGonagall's satisfaction.

"This Weasley came from the boys' restroom, saw that myself, and I know for sure George Weasley wouldn't have the courage to enter a girls' toilet." The Professor stood still.

"Well, isn't he a Gryffindor?" you pointed out, making McGonagall tilt her head slightly to the left, showing improvement. But you did have a point, at least you thought so, I mean, aren't Gryffindors supposed to be brave?

"I can trackback that potion threw at the girls' toilet back to you, if you'd like" McGonagal suggested, making you snort, defeated.

"But Minerva, can't I just get detention? Do I really have to spend some hours with this dimwitted?" you complained, appealing for using her first name.

"Ouch," Fred grumbled. You rolled your eyes at him.

"Some hours? I guess you could see it like that if it makes it easier. However, my verdict is for you two to spend more than a month tightened together. In fact, due to last years, hm,— events —, you've both caused the school, it'd be better if you stayed like this the whole year."

"WHAT" you and Fred shouted, like two spoiled little girls.

"You heard me correct. You two, — actually, George does too, so it's you three — cause too much trouble for me to let you free around when we are about to receive visitants from other schools. Can you imagine the look they'll give us to see we are such messy school?"

Professor Minerva sounded confident with her decision, but you just couldn't accept it. It made no sense, she could not arrest you to this pathetic red-haired boy — besides, you had a year of pranks planned, how would you become the best prankster of Hogwarts with him around, knowing all your moves?

"We are a boy and girl, Minerva, how do you expect us to go to the toilet?" you asked, remembering an important issue, without having to say you were actually worried about your jokes.

She seemed to think for a while, before walking close to you. "I believe it can be stretched, a bit, for fifteen minutes, enough time for a shower and other things." She then pointed her wand at yours and Fred's wrist that were close but not touching. She said something you didn't hear. "I made it 30 minutes, 15 for each of you. If well planned, I believe it can be enough."

She started walking away again, but Fred's question stopped her. "We are from different houses, how are we supposed to sleep? Or go to classes?" he said, lifting his left hand and you followed the movement with your right hand.

He seemed as worried as you, which made you see he was indeed ready to be a good opponent at the whole thing of winning the bet of the best prankster.

"Exceptions, my dear Mr Weasley. Professor Flitwick will be more than happy to hear that his spell worked, so he probably won't say a thing about the new form of detention I just started," she said, smiling slightly, delicately crossing her arms. "So, you can discuss with each other to whose room you'll be using to sleep, and I’ll be pleasured to provide an extra mattress."

"Professor Snape will hear about this and he won't like it, Minerva" you commented, still using her first name, but it seemed to make her only angrier.

"Professor Snape will understand the situation. I bet he'll be happy to have a Slytherin controlling one of his worse Gryffindors."

The red-haired boy appeared ready to argue, but the Professor continued: "And don't call me Minerva, Miss y/L/N. That's disrespectful."

"Disrespectful is this!" you exclaimed, pointing to your hand.

"Let's say this — you have until the end of the next month. If until the arrival of the students from other schools, you two manage to behave, respect yourselves and respect the school, I'll set you free" she said, making things easier, but not much. She seemed to think she made things too easy though, cause she added: "And I'll talk to each professor to see if your behaviours at classes are better."

The Weasley looked at you like he knew that was the end of the line. There was nothing else they could do. Minerva McGonagall didn't seem ready to give in. Two months sounded better than the whole year, as she originally planned. It wasn't better, but you guessed you deserved it because you were pretty sure the damaged in the toilet was gonna last forever.

"No chance we can get detention?" you asked, one last time, lowering your voice.

"Expelled or this. Your pick."

"Fine" you mumbled, shrugging.

Minerva smiled, happy with an argument won. She possibly was thinking she had them at her hands. "That's it, off you go. I'll get someone to clean your mess. Feel like I've punished you enough."

"Yeah, you have" grunted Weasley, pointing with his head for you to walk.

As soon as you were out of Professor's sight, George reappeared. Fred hit him in his forearm. "Where were you, bloody dimwitted?"

"Running from McGonagall. She didn't look happy when she saw us leaving the restroom," the twin said.

"You tell me about it!" you exclaimed, wrinkling your forehead.

"Could have warned me, huh?" Fred hit his brother once more.

George, however, looked at both of you, standing very close to each other. It wasn't common.

"What she did with you two? Detention?"

"Worse than that," you said, avoiding eye contact.

"Expelled?"

"She cursed us together or whatever. It's Flitwick's spell, actually." Fred started explaining to his twin everything McGonagall had just said while you stood bored, next to the corridor wall.

George started laughing at the end of the explanation. You and Fred rolled eyes at him, who didn't seem to care and kept on laughing. "That's gonna be fun to watch. So whose table are you two gonna eat at?"

You fastly answered. "Slytherin's."

"No way!" Fred protested.

You shrugged. "Fine, then we eat at Gryffindor's and you sleep in a room full of Slytherin's girls. Your pick." You smiled, confident.

He shook himself, a mixture of disgust and fear, which would make you angry if you weren't used to the Gryffindor's reaction to the Slytherins. Bunch of prejudiced!

"Fine" he gave in, a bit uncomfortably. You were about to start smiling when you remembered that now you would have to sleep in a room full of boys. Not that you were against Gryffindor — you were not in favour either — but the fact that it was a room with teenage boys gave you a little shiver, it didn't matter which house they were in.

Since you both had the same class next — Herbology —, you and Fred didn't need to argue whose schedule to follow. George was walking right next to his brother, talking excitedly but low about something you hadn't quite understand what. At first, you thought it was their next prank, so you paid attention, but then it had nothing to do with trolling students, so you gave up.

A lot of students stared at you three, mainly when you arrived at the greenhouse Professor Sprout awaited for the rest of the class. All the eyes were at the trio: some were confused, some disgusted, but the weirdest of all was two girls from Slytherin that didn't stop whispering to each other.

Slytherins and Gryffindors tended to stay apart at every class they took together, so people started dazzling over you three again when you didn't step away from the boys. They didn't seem to notice you couldn't get away from Fred, no matter how hard you tried.

"I guess you three were the only students missing... Let's start," said Sprout, putting on brown gloves. She started the class refreshing our memories form the plants we had worked within the last year, so most of the students weren't paying attention.

The two Slytherins girls hadn't stopped gossiping either, so you decided to go slowly towards them. Fred notice what you were trying to do, and although Lee Jordan was entertaining enough, telling him something, he walked close to the girls as well, making it easier for you.

"You know it's not polite to listen to people's conversation," he said, close to you left ear as he stood behind you. You rolled your eyes, but he couldn't see it. You started messing with the plant in front of you, so you could have a cover, even though you had no idea what kind of plant that was.

"Threesome, definitely," one of the girls said, the one that most resembled you.

"Isn't that some type of treason tho?" the tall one said.

"What? No! I mean, I wouldn't do it, you know," you reckon that girl was related to the Black family, although she was not Black herself. "Principally not with... a Weasley."

"It's probably just one of them," said a blonde girl, joining in the conversation with a little sharp tone, like she didn't like what she was hearing. They weren't able to see you because they had their backs turned at your direction.

"Get me out of here" you whispered to Fred, starting to get disgusted by what you were hearing. You didn't think he would much more than walking away but went a bit extreme.

"Professor Sprout, y/N almost heard a Mandrake scream without earplugs" he started.

"— Oh! Are you okay, honey?"

"She needs a bit of air, that's all. I'll take her outside." Fred continued.

Professor started walking in your direction and held her hands together.

"Please do so, Mr Weasley. Take her to Madam Pomfrey if needed. Those Mandrake are dangerous things!" she said, getting close to the plant you were once laying with to use as a disguise in case the girls noticed you were listening to their whispers.

Fred reached for your elbow. "Look sick." You didn't need to listen twice. You tilted your head, walking with no grace like you were about to pass out.

He took you out and suggested for you to sit on the grass not too far from the greenhouse you were. He followed you immediately, probably scared of being pulled down by the Bonding Charm.

"Are you okay?" he asked. "What happened there? I just heard voices, but not words, if that makes sense."

"Thank you, by the way," you said, pressing your lips together. "Those girls were gossiping about... us, I think."

"It's ridiculous, just because we walked in together?" he wondered, looking repulse.

"I don't feel like you noticed, but I'm always alone. I'm always the last to leave a class and always the first to arrive. Always." you revealed. "And then, the second week back, and I walk in with both Weasley Twins so close... one would think something is off."

"Aren't they the messed-up ones?" he asked.

"The what?"

"Messed-up. It's Lee's nickname for them because they always have weird ideas. Think of any gossip you've heard that didn't make any sense. They were probably the ones that came up with it," he explained, and suddenly, it made sense. You never bothered learning their names, although you sure knew their parents'.

Putting use to your memory, they had once started gossip about Goyle being an Animagus, and that's like the hardest potion ever, besides being illegal if the Ministry is unaware.

"You don't need to tell me what they were saying..." started Fred, "but I'd really like to know"

You smiled. "Not a chance."

The class had probably finished because you saw the rest of the students leaving the greenhouse. Lee Jordan, a tall and muscular boy, with dreadlocks approached you, followed by George Weasley.

"It wasn't about you," he said, surprising you when he stared straight to you eyes. "It's about Hermione."

"Hermione??" you repeated, getting up before being pulled down harsh since Fred's wrist didn't follow yours. "Isn't she like, fourteen?"

"I know, right? Those girls are disgusting," he commented, putting his tongue out. You laughed a bit, finally getting up since Fred started doing the same.

Fred and George exchanged looks at you two, not understanding what you were talking about.

"Don't tell them!" you said to Lee, realising how easy was to talk to him.

As you told Fred, you were always alone. Sometimes you ate with Reyna, but that was it. She had other friends herself. Sometimes, also, you were annoyed by Malfoy, but most of the time, you succeed escaping from him.

The Weasley Twins always talked to you but in a provocative or mocking tone. It was those kinds of conversations that didn't get anyone anywhere.

Lee Jordan seemed nice tho, every time he narrated the Quidditch games, he showed excitement about it — although he never made justice to the Slytherins.

The boy laughed it off. "It'll be nice to keep a secret from them."

"I don't like it, Freddie."

"I don't like it either, Georgie"

The twins' comments made both you and Lee started laughing again, while you walked together to the inside of the castle.

"What are you having now?" you asked Fred. "I'm not in the mood for Care of Magical Creatures."

All three boys looked at you.

"Nothing against Hagrid!" you exclaimed, in your defence. They appeared offended by your comment. "I just... he has us working with weird creatures in the middle of the forest... As you saw in Herbology, I'm not what you'd call a nature friend."

Fred sighed. "Did you even know you were playing with Mandrake until I had said it?" You twisted your face letting out a 'no' in a low voice. He smiled. "Let's go then. I'm having Transfiguration now."

"Geez... Ready to be a pain in Minerva's ass?" you asked, lifting an eyebrow.

George looked back at you. "Minerva?"

"It's her name."

"It's her first name," he replied.

"That annoys her ass even more" you pointed out, making him wrinkle his nose.

Lee Jordan stopped at sight. "Can we please stop mention Professor McGonagall's ass?"

You all laughed out loud, heading to class.

***

The day had gone by slowlier than you wanted it. McGonagall looked pleased as you and Fred walking for class without misbehaving, although you did raise your hand for stupid questions a lot, to annoy her since she always felt obliged to answer.

Fred's last class was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which you were not much excited. You greeted him as you and Fred walked in, bumping into each other to pass the door, and, even though, he retributed, he didn't seem thrilled about it like he had forgotten who you are.

The class was good, anyway, since he was more experienced than every other teacher you had had. Fred and George seemed extra passionate about what they had just experienced.

"He just showed us how much behind we were in the coolest way possible! No other professor would've had the courage!" George exclaimed, trying to copy Moody's way of holding his wand.

Fred laughed, but you ignored it. As you were getting close to the entrance, you smiled. "Ready, redhead?"

Fred was confused. "To what?"

For the older twin, being around you all day wasn't annoying at all. He thought at first that it would be weird as you both never exchanged more than three phrases without they being a threat, but you surprised him by being an enjoyable company.

You were smart, probably more than him, which as a handful of help in his classes. You were sharing his books, since Fred didn't dare to get yours at the Slytherin's room, and you had no problem with it. You did take the liberty to write over his books, what didn't matter to him, because you had cute lettering and you knew more about what you were writing than he ever did.

Besides, every time he or his brother made a joke, you'd start laughing until your belly hurts, in a charming way that he liked.

"Ready to sit at the Slytherin's table, of course!" you said, harshly touching his shoulder.

"Do I have to?" his head slightly downturned while he maintained eye contact.

"Unless you want to sleep in my room" your eyes gleamed, causing George to laugh.

Fred wrinkled his nose, discontent. "Fine. Bye, brother. It was nice knowing you, see you never again!"

"Don't be so dramatic!" you exclaimed.

"A Gryffindor at their table?" he replied. "I'll reckon I'll be dead before I eat."

You rolled your eyes as you dragged him by his arm, just above the elbow. George walked towards Gryffindor's table, waving his brother goodbye.

You looked at the horrified faces that followed, and not just from the Slytherin's table. Some students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff looked at you with quite a surprised look. All the attention made you embarrassed, so you held your chin close to your body.

"Don't be ashamed now" Fred whispered. You didn't understand what he meant by it.

"What you mean?" you asked, finally sitting down next to Reyna, who you were glad to spot the face amongst the Slytherin's.

Two first years — at least you thought they were first years because they looked young and you didn't recognize their faces — were sitting at each side of her, so you sat in front of her, with Fred at you right.

She was distracted by her conversation with the kids, but she immediately faced up as you sat down.

"Hi, y/N! And Fred" she added his name when she noticed the red-hair with freckles.

Fred shook his head to say hi. The first years looked confused as what should they be doing with the presence of a Gryffindor. "Oh, no panic! Everybody is allowed to sit on the table they want. We tend to sit together, that's all" Reyna explained with a smile.

Her display wasn't satisfactory though, as the kids scattered like mice. Reyna wasn't frustrated. She only wanted privacy to ask you what was going on.

"Some Ravenclaws were saying that you two conjured it during Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Oh, no. We've been tied up way before that," you nodded. "Remember my advice on the first day?"

"How wrong did you manage to be?" she asked, her nose in the air.

"No, that went — as planned," you were about to say 'well' but that was far from the truth. "McGonagall caught us and cursed us."

"You were planning it together? You are not a duo at the bet!" she complained, putting chips in her mouth.

You and the twin exchanged looks. "Of course not! We bumped into each other, and McGonagall thought us being together for months was a great idea. Now I plan to make Minerva's life a living hell."

"Wouldn't be wise, she could take house points off of you."

You stared at Reyna. "She wouldn't dare," and, with the best impression of Draco you could do, you continued, "because my father will hear about this!"

You sent them both into convulsions.

"I don't get your whole intimacy with the Professor" Fred wondered out loud.

You shrugged. "Minerva's very close to my parents — my mom. I reckon they are somewhat of third cousins..." you explained with a disinterested tone only to notice they were both shocked. "What? It's no big deal!"

"You are related to Professor McGonagall??" Fred asked with a loud voice. "That's freaking awesome!"

Reyna shook her head, agreeing with Fred.

"It's way distant," you objected, looking down at the plate in front of you.

"Doesn't matter! It's something anyone would brag about!" Reyna said after swallow her food.

"Explains why you insist on calling her by her first name" Fred sighed.

You ignored the excitement of the two. It was funny watching Fred in the Slytherin's table. He was scared at first, but now he was feeling welcomed. You were astonished that nobody at the table caused a scene, like Malfoy, but not surprised with how friendly Reyna was towards the red-haired.

Still, dinner was rather quiet.

You three got up together, heading to Slytherin's common room. Much to Fred's disappointment, you needed to get your things out of your room before moving to Gryffindor's Tower.

"Has the gossip spread very quickly?" you asked Reyna at the entrance of the chambers.

"Well, yes," she answered. "They all don't know the truth, only the ones that had classes with Flitwick, 'cause he seemed proud his spell worked."

You looked at Fred that looked frightened after Reyna said the password.

"Hm, Rey?" you called out your friend. "Could you get my things for me? I don't think someone is ready to walk in that place. Besides, it wouldn't be smart, considering how many times he has pranked the house."

Reyna agreed and disappeared inside the portrait.

"Thanks for that" he whispered after you both leaned over a wall.

"No problem," you replied, with a sad smile. "So... was eating with my kind that hard?"

"People don't bother you much, do they?" he retributed with a lopsided grin. "Is Reyna... your only friend?" he asked with apprehension.

Frowning, you tugged a lock of your hair. "Yes, I guess. It's not easy making friends in Slytherin when you're not a pure-blood, and you haven't vowed to kill everyone that represents a danger to your power," you explained, using hyperbole.

Fred avoided looking at your eyes. You thought he was feeling sorry for you, but, honestly, he just didn't know what to say. At his house, he was never alone, he grew up surrounded by friends, and once he arrived Hogwarts, it was no different, in part because most of his brothers were in school with him.

"Oh! Here you go," Reyna reappeared, giving your luggage back to you.

"Thanks, Rey"

Your friend looked back at Fred and you and kept doing that for some seconds. "What?" you whispered, letting your right hand closer to Fred's left and tilting your head towards her.

"Are you ok with this? Because you know... one owl to your parents and this would be over" she suggested, worried about you.

"It's just until October ends. I don't wanna bother mom with this, or cause a disagreement with Minerva."

Reyna relaxed her expression. Fred was pretending not to hear, staring at the ceiling. He agreed with you. It was just for a short period; after that, Fred would be free to join the Triwizard Tournament — how he was going to do it was yet to be determined — and to win the best prankster of Hogwarts bet. There was no need to worry Mr Weasley with something that he created himself.

The stares followed you two until you finally arrived at Gryfindor's common room, Fred was walking a bit slower due to your luggage on his hands. You looked at it, astonished. Full of squashy armchairs and tables, the common room was decorated in several shades of red, making quite welcoming and a polar opposite to Slytherin's one.

Some students were already inside, talking and playing games. Across where you stood, Harry and Ron did their homework.

Ron saw you as you walked in, but Harry seemed not to notice. Fred signalized for his brother to stay shut, so Ron didn't move, as he was planning to confront you.

"I guess you rather... go to my room?" Fred deduced. You shook your head in affirmation, relieved to leave a place with tons of Gryffindors staring at you, confused.

He was guiding you up the stairs, but he suddenly stopped when the whispered grew louder. He turned back but did not face you. He looked to his fellow housemates.

"McGonagall punished us, but it's no big deal. Get used to it. She'll be here for more than a month" then, he grabbed your hand and hushed you upstairs.

Once arriving at his room, you both burst into laughter, falling over his bed. "What was that?" you asked, between giggles.

"I would have to explain sooner or later, so I decided to do it quickly."

He smiled widely, closing his eyes for a second. You admired his humour — he was not like you, you'd never have the guts to do that. Guess that's why you weren't a Gryffindor.

"So... With who do you share a room?" you asked, finally looking around. The room had the same structure as yours — beds at every corner. Yet, it was coloured with shades of red and brown, while yours was with greens and greys.

"My brother, 'course. Lee, as well," he said, looking down to the left side of his bed, just like you were doing, "and Kenneth Towler."

The fact that both of you were staring the floor was because there was a mattress as if someone knew you would end up sleeping in his room.

Fred Weasley narrowed his eyes.

"I'll never understand Professor McGonagall's methods," he said, laying back at his pillow. You laughed at his relaxation.

The door sprung with George and Lee's entrance.

"So you two have been causing scenes all around the school?" George asked, sitting at the end of his bed, and Lee supported his back at the same bed.

You rolled your eyes, "not true."

"We just had some fun over their faces," Fred said, making his brother laugh.

"Well, thanks to us, everybody now knows the truth since you two were not worried to clarify," Lee Jordan said, taking his coat off and dropping at his bed. "I've told most of the students why you are stuck together."

"Most of them did not believe; they think you two are dating!" George commented, outraged.

You pulled your brows together in a frown. "That would make no sense! Who would allow us to walk to each other's classes and common rooms?"

"And that's why who invented that rumour was the Messed-Ups," Lee said, and you giggled with them, knowing now who the nickname referenced.

You four spend the night playing games, most of them mimic, what according to George was way wickeder with you — "Towler makes it much easier for Fred and me to win". Even though you broke the twins' duo, they didn't seem to matter. The first two rounds George and Lee managed to win, but you and Fred won the last three, making you the winners of the night.

When it was too late for you all to be awake — and after a complained from Kenneth who was trying to sleep — you decided it was time to go to bed.

"No, no, no" Fred protested when he noticed you were getting to the mattress on the floor. "Mom taught me well enough to never let a girl sleep on the floor. Especially when it's kind of my fault we're stuck together."

"It's my fault too," you replied, not very happy to take his bed.

"y/N, just take my bed," he said, in a harsh tone, "and tomorrow you won't be angry at me."

"Because of the bed? I would never be mad!"

"I didn't mean the bed, but yeah, come on, take it," he sighed, and you finally accepted it.

Fred's bed was way more comfortable than you were expecting, so it wasn't a problem sleeping on it. It did bother having to let your right arm fall on the floor so your wrist could remain close to Fred's, but you thought it was more painful for him.

The night ended up alright, with dreamless sleep, but you couldn't stop waking up in the middle of the night wondering why it was more of a party than a punishment.

PART 2

[jamilelucato]

together [F. W.] || pt.2

Pairing: Fred Weasley x Slytherin!reader

Part 1 available here || together MASTERLIST || Part 3 here!

Summary: Professor McGonagall has had enough of yours and Weasley’s pranks. She has an idea of how to stop it, but will it be enough?

A/N: I forgot to tell you that Reyna is a character that I invented myself — so is some other random Slytherin’s students, since we don’t get to know many of them in the books. With that said, let’s dive into this part! Hope you guys like it!

There will be a third part, of course! If you wanna be tagged, just ask!

Words: 8.129

Tag List: @witchything​ @randomlonelytorment​ @themusingsofmany​ @stuckindilemma​ 

Fred was the one who woke you up in the morning. "Good morning, y/N," he said, after shaking your right hand.

You looked down at him a bit embarrassed by what you might look like in the morning. You two used ten of the thirty minutes McGonagall had given you to change clothes and get ready.

It was the start of your second day with a binding charm that connected you and Fred, not being able to be more than five centimetres away from his wrist. It wasn't such a nightmare, though. The older Weasley twin was very gentle, although he practically paid attention to no class, he was fun to have around.

You two remet at the end of Gryffindor's stairs, right on time.

"Ok... so, I'm taking you to breakfast at my table."

"What?" you questioned, leaning your head away.

"It's for you to have social experiences... You don't talk to anyone during the times you're eating, and that's bloody depressing," Fred explained, lowering his tone while you guys left the Gryffindor's room. "Besides, I sat at yours yesterday."

"Because I slept in your room! We had a deal!" you contested, a bit rebelled.

"Come on, y/N, just one meal," he asked, with puppy eyes. You grunted and ended up accepting.

He guided you along the corridors of Hogwarts until you finally arrived at the Great Hall. Although everybody was still looking at you two, they didn't seem so shocked anymore. They quickly calmed down and got back to eating.

Reyna found your eyes from across the room — you tried to use your hands to signalize you were sitting with the Gryffindors. Your friend wasn't angry, though, because she had other friends to sit and talk.

"y/N, I present you to my friends," Fred said, pointing with his hand to the part of the table he wanted you to sit. He sat next to George, which you already knew, and you sat next to him right after. "Friends, this is y/N y/L/N."

"You are terrible at introductions" Hermione commented, her mocking smile widening.

Your eyes crinkled at the corners. "Right?" and then, turning to the rest of the table and not just Hermione, "Good morning, everyone."

Harry and Lee Jordan shook their head at your direction, opening their mouths in smiles, but Ron and Ginny didn't do anything. They kept on eating their breakfast, ignoring your presence. Fred noticed that you saw their reactions. "That was awkward, thanks, family."

You smiled, embarrassed. "It's ok."

Fred pulled his brows together but said no more. He started serving himself and you as well, which you were thankful.

Professor McGonagall passed just behind you and commented: "Everyone needed was informed about your situation, Miss y/L/N and Mr Weasley."

"Oi! Thank you, Minerva" Fred said, tilting his head in her direction. She almost reprehended him for using her first name but said nothing and just kept on walking until her table.

"Only I can call her that" you pointed out once she had left your earshot.

"Correction: not even you can call her that," he said, smiling at your expression.

When you looked away from Fred, your eyes met Ginny's. She tried to smile but stopped along the way.

"Are you friends with Malfoy?" she asked.

"Oh my God, Ginny, you can't just ask people if they're friends with Malfoy," shouted George, pretending to be worried. "But are you?"

"Not at all," you answered, making Ginny sigh, relieved. "He's just a pain in my ass most of the time."

"Can you not go back to 'asses'? We spend the whole afternoon yesterday about it," Lee Jordan interrupted. His comment made you laugh, and, soon enough, everyone was laughing.

Ginny seemed braver to ask you stuff, but you weren't offended, it was nice answering her doubts, and you hoped it would make her have a better view of the Slytherins. "Yes, we welcome muggle-borns to our house", "No, we don't talk to snakes" and things like that were some of your answers.

Ron didn't take long to start talking to you once he noticed how nice you were to his sister. Though his questions were more related to Draco Malfoy — and you didn't know much about him to give complete answers —, Ron was pleased with the information you were able to give out.

Hermione and Harry seemed happy with you; Harry, surprised to find such likeable Slytherin that didn't come from a family of Death Eaters — he had a rough past with those. Hermione was surprised when you told them your mom was a muggle-born.

"Yeah, mom was Hufflepuff," you informed, "Who would have thought she'd have a Slytherin daughter?"

Everyone laughed at your attempt to joke.

"What house was your father?" asked Harry, looking curious.

"He didn't come to Hogwarts, but Ilvermorny," you answered, forcing your mind to remember the things he used to tell you about the school. "Yeah, he's American."

Fred and George were excited about that news.

"He was... I believe it was a Thunderbolt. He didn't use to talk much about the school."

Fred tilted his head at your direction. "Use to?"

You weren't sure if you wanted to explain to everyone what had happened to your father, you didn't even want to tell Fred, but seeing that the rest of the table began to focus on the owls that were arriving with letters and other kinds of stuff, you decided to say something.

"He died when I was a kid" you whispered to Fred, making your answer short and giving no extra detail.

"I'm sorry," he said, with a sad smile and his wide eyes stared at yours, but you looked away, feeling you were about to be sad and that was not what you wanted after such enjoyable breakfast.

An owl found Fred, and he looked scared about it. "What is it?" you asked when he took the red envelope out of the owl's beak.

"It's a howler" he answered, down turning his lips.

You knew what a howler was, but you never received one — your mom was too much of an angel to send you one of those. She did, however, use to send you a three pages letter about how disappointed she was with you — she did that two years ago when you got three detentions in just one day.

Fred swallowed hard before opening his howler. What you thought it was his mom's voice came bursting and loudly — maybe even the Slytherins could be hearing that.

"FRED WEASLEY, HOW MUCH TROUBLE CAN YOU STILL CAUSE??" it started screaming. A lot of the kids around you laughed. "DO YOU WANT TO DESTROY THE SCHOOL?"

The screams kept on going while Fred listened to it rather patient. You were paying attention to every word until you owl — who were lost after she did not find you at the Slytherin's table — found you at the Griffindor's.

"Thanks, Aurora," you said to her, taking the letter and giving her a treat.

"Aurora?" Hermione was confused by your owl's name.

"Yeah, inspired in the Disney princess. My owl likes to sleep a lot," you said, and eating no more, you owl left, probably to do the exact thing you said she liked the most.

Hermione smiled, happy to hear you were a fan of muggles' movies.

Fred's howler hadn't stopped yet: "Tell that girl I'm sorry for her for putting up with you, but Professor McGonagall told me she is a good student that might put you in line. Oh! And tell Georgie to learn something with her as well!"

George and Fred stared at you, with confused looks.

"What can I say? I am a good student!"

"You're practically always in detention" pointed out George, who had seen you walking the corridors with Mr Filch a lot.

"But I have perfect grades," you remarked. Ginny giggled at your phrase.

"Is that another howler?" Fred asked, looking for the letter in your hand.

"Oh, probably not. Mom's not much of a screamer," you said, looking away. "No offence to your mom — she's seems wicked!"

"One would think that" Ron replied, making everybody laugh one last time before getting up and heading to class.

You carried your mom's letter to every class, not ready to read it yet. You and Fred had decided to attend only the best lessons of each other's schedule. For example, if you had Potions and he had Charms, you'd go to Charms. However, things didn't go as planned.

Dumbledore found you two after your first class and gave you a piece of paper with your new schedule — still a mix of both, his and yours, but in a more academic way than the fun one you and Fred had planned.

Disappointed, but not surprise, you and Fred headed to double class of Potions. You had no problem with Snape, but you had to admit he was not one of the most exciting teachers. Fred seemed to have a problem with him, but that was because Fred was a Gryffindor and Snape didn't really like that.

Lunchtime finally arrived, and you and Fred ran down the corridors to the Great Hall, because you were both starving after Snape made you both taste the Hunger Potion you had prepared at class — the requested one was a Felix Felicis. In your defence, that was an advanced potion that nobody in class managed to do.

Fred was heading towards the Slytherin's table when you poked him timidly "Fred?"

He stopped and looked down at you. "I wouldn't mind sitting with your friends" you continued, averting your eyes while your face turned as red as his hair.

Once he understood your words, he slowly opened a smile with no teeth and reached for your arm, which he squeezed during all the time it took for you to get to the Gryffindor's table.

"I told you you'd like them!" he said, still smiling. You gradually stopped being ashamed and started feeling happy.

Everybody from breakfast was happy to see you and started asking what were classes like with Fred around.

"Does he do anything at all?" Ron asked.

You giggled, "it's practically all me," you let out, receiving a fake punch to your arm from Fred.

Ginny arrived and sat at your left, eager to tell you everything she heard about you around the school. It was a lot of gossips, and eventually, you stopped listening. Students seemed to have invented the worse theories for your situation possible, you couldn't understand why.

She stopped to talk when the food got served, and you took that time to read your mom's letter.

"Dear y/N, How are you, sweetie? Minerva told me all about it. I don't understand why you insist on play pranks on the school, isn't being caught horrible? Back at my days, the most fun I had was throwing hidden parties maybe you should do that. She told me about the boy as well. If he comes to be too bad, please contact me, and I'll put an end to this. But, right now, it appears to be super wicked! I told Minerva you wouldn't feel it as much as a punishment — I was young once, and I know all I would give to be around a cute boy all day. Oh, how I know he's cute? His father has shown me a picture of every single one of his kids while on work; although I don't know which one of them you got tied up with, they all looked extra handsome in the pictures!"

The letter didn't stop there, but you had to stop reading once you noticed chuckles and fast breaths close to your neck. You turned your head immediately and caught Fred reading your letter over your shoulder.

"Fred!" you shouted, slapping his arms, but not hard enough so he wouldn't be angry.

"Sorry, you seemed concentrated, I wanted to know why..." he said, fighting laughs, "Please thank your mom for the compliment, I am truly handsome."

"Yeah, right!" you slapped him once more. George giggled from behind Fred.

"I'll stop! I'll stop!" he promised while you hit him.

"Good" you sighed, going back to reading, this time positioning the letter closer to Ginny.

Your mom went on about the new things she bought for the house and the new muggle movie she had watched. You were not interested to know those things, but you would never tell her so — she became such a lonely woman after the loss of your father, that you liked that she saw you as a best friend. Fred didn't try to read what she had written anymore, or at least, he was able to cover up.

The first week was the worst to get by — you sometimes forgot that Fred Weasley had to follow you everywhere around, like times when you wanted to go to the restroom, and you didn't warn him, making it impossible for the thirty minutes free to be used.

Classes were exciting at first, but then they turned back to the usual boredom. If you and Fred wanted to be free of the spell to enrol yourselves at the Triwizard Tournament and prank people again, you needed to behave. Professor McGonagall seemed to be approving your actions since she started to smile down at you from her time at dinners.

Scared of abandoning Reyna to your new Gryffindor's friends, and having to go back to her when it all ended, you discussed with Fred the possibility of having at least a meal in the Slytherin's table, so you could talk to your friend and find out how things were going. Reyna was happy to have you back — according to her, she did have other friends, but none of them was as good of a listener than you — and she ended up starting a friendship with Fred, glad for his spontaneous playfulness.

George decided to sit one day with you two at the Slytherin's table, and he and Reyna hit it off well, at least, better than you were expecting since George was shyer than his brother.

It didn't take long for each one of them from Gryffindor to sit at the Slytherin's table too. One day, Ginny ran to you to talk about a lesson she was having difficulties — and she wanted your help because Fred told George who told her that you were excellent at Charms.

Lee Jordan sat down one day, followed by George, to talk about how much he missed Quidditch, finding a fan amongst the table: Reyna. She had gone to every single Cup her father managed to buy tickets, and she could spend hours talking about the sport — apparently, so could the twins and Lee, because you had to call out their attention to go to classes.

One week before the binding charm deadline, you put an end to all that run the Gryffindors did to sit with you and Fred. You found Reyna walking in the Great Hall and reached her before she sat down with a proposition. "Reyna, it's ok if you say no, but why don't you come to sit with us at Griffindor's?"

She stared at serious before opening the biggest smile ever. "Really? Can I?" you shook your head yes, with Fred smiling right next to you.

"We'd gladly have you," he said.

"Then let's go!" she said, reaching for your hand and pulling it hard towards were Lee Jordan and George Weasley were sitting.

The harsh pull got you by surprise, and before falling, you reached for Fred's hand, dragging him with you. You three ran to the Gryffindor's table, all giggling. Fred couldn't stop looking at your hand in his, and thinking why hadn't he done that before. It felt perfectly fit and warm.

Reyna was more welcome at the table than you. As you once noticed, she could be a perfect Hufflepuff if not because of her powerful ambition. Reyna dreamed becoming the Minister of Magic, and you were sure she wouldn't rest until she got the job.

Hermione liked her a lot because of that ambitious side.

Ron and Harry were worried at first, probably because they were the ones there with the most resentfulness towards your house. However, Reyna managed to charm their worries away, playing with her hair now and then, you were sure the boys were falling in love. Lee Jordan, no doubt, awaited the same fate, as he was only able to flutter his eyelashes.

As faster as October had come, it was already about to go. They announced that the Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang would be arriving on day 30, so it would mean the end of the Binding Charm.

You didn't know how to feel. At first, you were relieved — Triwizard Tournament was about to start, and you had pondered an idea that you thought it could work to get in. Still, at the end of Transfiguration class, you were reconsidering your emotions. You would go back to your room — filled with conceited girls that you had no friendship what so ever. You'd miss Lee Jordan's remarks and nicknames for the students, and even Towler snore.

Ginny, Hermione, Ron and Harry were kids you'd be missing a lot. Especially Harry, who you noticed to have a rough life and you felt like hugging him for his innocence sometimes.

But, fundamentally, the ones you'd miss the most were the Weasley's Twins. They followed you to practically every class, and because you three shared a prankster spirit, most of the time you guys had the same ideas and the same jokes — even though Reyna was remarkable, she'd never think about cool pranks like the ones you and the Weasleys invented.

Not that you had put those ideas in practice either. You just couldn't risk McGonagall extending the duration of the curse.

Fred Weasley had grown in your concept — he was more than a boy seeking the best in life by the fun and no hard work. He had a big heart and was very sensible. Although he was always messing with Ron, he was a perfect older brother, paying attention to everything any of his younger siblings said.

He was no longer your rival, but a dear friend.

Would he still be your friend without a spell around?

Professor McGonagall pulled you two aside at the end of the class. "I just wanted to say," she started, with a whisper before the last student walked away and she raised her voice, "that I'll undo the Binding Charm tomorrow, after the Halloween's Feast."

You and Fred kept looking at her, neither of you with the courage to say something about it.

"I just won't be able to do it earlier, having to assist every guest for the Tournament."

"We understand," you said since Fred didn't seem ready to say a thing.

"Well, with that said... you may go. I believe our visitors are about to arrive," she gesticulated for the door. You and Fred slowly turned back at her and left, both very quiet about what you had just heard.

"What's wrong with you two?" George asked, approaching you in the middle of the corridor. All the students were gathering to see the arrival of the Beauxbatons and the Durmstrang, and they seemed very loud about it.

You and Fred exchanged looks, not so sure about how you were feeling. Could he be feeling the same confusion?

"Tomorrow night I'm back to my room," you said, trying to explain it easily. George looked from you to his brother, staying focused on Fred.

Reyna hushed at your direction, visibly excited. "y/N! Oh, Merlin, you have to have a look at the Durmstrang's boys!"

She pulled your hand, again forgetting that everywhere you were, Fred had to accompany. You turned to face Fred, letting your puppy eyes out and reached for his hand, that he was more than pleased to offer.

Reyna guided you to the crowd of students, walking in the Great Hall. "They'll sit at the Slytherins'! Should we go there?"

Lee Jordan found you four along the way. "Please, take us to your house table. Krum is among those students!"

George opined. "Don't do so, we won't' be able to get Ron, and you know how he is going to be," and even though Reyna and Lee wanted to go to the Slytherin's, they respected George's request, turning back to the Gryffindor table.

The group formed a line: Lee Jordan followed by Reyna who pulled you, who pulled Fred who talked to his brother. The place was way too crowded to walk with no trouble, so along the way, Reyna was telling about the boys she had liked the most. "There's one at Beauxbatons, tho..."

You didn't notice George and Fred talking about you from your behind, distracted by the volume of the conversations that surrounded you. But, whatever they were discussing, they ended it before sitting down at the table.

Ron was, as George predicted, frustrated with Krum to have sat next to Malfoy, but it didn't last long, due to soon enough he was charmed by a Beauxbatons girl that came closer to our table to get some food.

Dumbledore finally started talking, introducing Mr Crouch and Mr Bagman as two of the judges, as well as himself, Madame Maxime — from the Beauxbatons — and Professor Karkaroff — from the Durmstrang.

Mr Filch approached Dumbledore with a wooden chest encrusted with jewels. The Headmaster continued: "As you know, three champions compete in the tournament, one from each participating schools." He explained that they would give grades to the participants and the one with the highest total after the tree tasks would win. "The champions will be chosen by an impartial selector: the Goblet of Fire."

Dumbledore placed the goblet on top of the casket, where everyone could see it. "Anybody wishing to submit themselves as champions must write their name and school clearly upon a slip of parchment and drop it into the goblet," said him. "Aspiring champions have twenty-four hours in which to put their names forward."

The Headmaster then said — and he didn't even need to ask for silence, as everyone stood as quiet as they could — that the goblet would return the names of the most worthy tomorrow night.

"To ensure that no underage student yields to temptation," said Dumbledore, "I will be drawing an Age Line around the Goblet of Fire once placed in the entrance hall."

Fred, George and yourself growled at that part, angry that the Headmaster was still going for that prohibition.

"There can be no change of heart once you have become a champion," warned Dumbledore, at last, finalizing his speech. "Now, I think it is time for bed. Good night to you all."

"An Age Line!" Fred said, his eyes glinting as you followed him and the rest of the Gryffindors back to their Tower, leaving Reyna behind.

George suggested fooling the goblet with an Ageing Potion, but Hermione corrected him, pointing out that a student younger than seventeen wouldn't stand a chance. Fred and George ignored her comment and started pining over Harry Potter to see if he'd like to participate. The boy didn't answer.

Arriving at Fred's room, George seemed eager to talk to his brother but also scared to do so with you around. You rolled your eyes at them. "How much minutes we have left for today?" you asked Fred, wondering if there were minutes left from the thirty-minute break Professor McGonagall had given you.

"Perhaps a full five-minute break," he said, unsure.

"Perfect!" you said, jumping out of bed and heading out. "You have five minutes to talk to your twin, George."

You closed the door behind, only able to hear movements, but no words. There was no need, though. They were probably discussing how they'd put their names in the Goblet of Fire. What they didn't know was that, with five minutes free of Fred's fast eyes that read everything you held, you were also thinking of a way in for yourself.

You found Hermione still sitting at the common room, with books all around her. Noticing her friends weren't around her, you took the opportunity to ask her something.

"Hermione? Do you have a minute?" you asked, sitting on one of the chairs next to hers.

She looked up at you while you looked down to see what was she writing. It seemed to be about house-elves, but you didn't understand what she wanted to know about them that wasn't pretty obvious.

"Sure, y/N. What do you need?"

"I was thinking... Ageing Potion. Do you think it would be possible for one to pass Dumbledore's Age Line with one of those?" you asked, deep down already knowing the answer.

"No, I don't believe it could, Dumbledore is clever about those things," she said, looking up to think, "Perhaps Polyjuice Potion would be a better solution — disguised as someone else, you might be able to pass the Age Line."

You tried to follow her process of thought, looking down at your clock to see how much more minutes you still had.

"But then again, would the goblet take your name if it came from someone else?" she wondered out loud. "Oh! Perhaps Wingardium Leviosa could do the trick!" she exclaimed, happy with herself for thinking a solution.

"The Levitation Spell?"

"Yes! You can write down your name and levitate to the goblet! It's so simple though it might not work..." she said, getting said by the end of her phrase.

"But it might just do the trick! I don't think Dumbledore would expect a student to fly their name around..." you said, thinking more about it. You got up at the look of the time. "Gotta go, Hermione. But thank you, thank you so much!"

"You're welcome!" she shouted while you ran up the stairs, desperate to avoid being pulled by the spell.

You pushed the boys' dorm room in a quick move, looking at your wristwatch, thinking you would be able to make it in time and the spell would drag you in that horrible way it did the first time.

A crash sound echoed through the room and down the hall.

Fred Weasley, although very happy to have some privacy with his brother to talk about their Ageing Potion, was paying close attention to the time. He feared y/N would lose track of it and he'd be pulled to next to her with a harsh movement. He didn't like it the first time it had happened because it hurt a lot.

Therefore, when they had only thirty seconds left to be attached again, Fred decided to get out of the room and look for her. He pulled the door open with the last glance at the clock — five seconds.

And then, y/N was just at the other side of the door, but not close enough — the spell felt the need to push them against each other, and that was how the loud crash sound echoed. y/N's chest bumped to Fred's, causing the rest of the boys to laugh — the only one that didn't think it was funny was the one sleeping, Kenneth.

He quickly surrounded you with his arms, in fear of your fall. You held yourself up by supporting your weight around him. You could feel your face turning red, and you didn't want him to notice that the embrace made you embarrassed.

"Are you guys ok?" Lee Jordan asked from behind Fred, making you shrank, even more, blushing. Some laughs followed the comment, probably from George.

You swallowed before slowly letting go. Keeping your wrist close to Fred's, you stared at him, forcing him to lower his head. His eyes, wide and sparkly, stared at you with his lips pursed.

His embrace finally loosened, and you both walked towards his bed and the mattress. "Good night, guys," he said, in a mocking tone, filled with anger. One by one, George's and Lee's lights went off, and the room seemed quiet as ever.

But, over Fred's bed, all you could do was think, think, and rethink. You were only able to fall asleep way over three a.m., and by the look of Fred's face the other day — he had dark circles around his eyes, leaving him with an uneven tone, which probably could be seen in yours as well —, he hadn't had a good night of sleep either.

"Good morning to you two," George said while you and Fred got out of the common room and walked towards the Entrance Hall. It was Saturday, and you could have stayed in bed longer, but you were too thrilled about the Goblet of Fire to keep yourself inside.

When Fred noticed his brother and Lee's presence, he got a better look at his face, smirking a bit.

"Look away, y/N," he said, asking not so much politely. You rolled your eyes. As if you didn't know what they were about to drink! After drinking the potion, they hurried down the staircase, forcing you to run to follow them.

Harry, Ron and Hermione were already there, watching the goblet and talking with the people around it.

"Done it," Fred whispered to Harry, and you frowned from behind him. "Just taken it."

"What?" Ron asked.

You pressed in hand over your robe to feel if your paper was still there. You had hidden it there during the free time you got to take a shower.

"The Ageing Potion, dung brains," said Fred.

"One drop each," said George, rubbing his hands together with glee. "We only need to be a few months older."

"We're going to split the Galleons between the three of us if one of us wins," said Lee, grinning broadly.

"I'm not sure this is going to work, you know," Hermione warned, but in a more hostile tone than the one she used with you last night, "I'm sure Dumbledore will have thought of this."

Fred, George and Lee ignored her.

"Ready?" Fred said to the other two, holding a slip of parchment in one hand and grabbing your right hand with the other. It was nice having his warm touch, and you wondered if he did it just out of habit or because he missed it too. "C'mon, then — I'll go first —"

They tried walking in — Fred stretched himself out all the way, leaving you out of the circle and trying to put the paper inside. However, it didn't work — they landed painfully, dragging you around the ten feet fall.

Fred and George now had big white beards, and everyone was laughing at them. If the fall hadn't hurt you so much, you would have laughed as well. They noticed their new looks and joined in. You took the opportunity of their distraction to take your parchment out of hiding and cast "Wingardium Leviosa" with the lowest voice ever.

The paper flew around — being so small, not everyone noticed — but, although you moved your wand towards it, the parchment wasn't able to pass the Age Line.

"I did warn you," said a deep, amused voice, and everyone turned to see Professor Dumbledore coming out of the Great Hall, followed by Professor McGonagall, who looked furious.

He got closer to you all who were still sitting on the floor. " I suggest you both go to Madam Pomfrey."

"Oh, no, you wait a minute!" shouted McGonagall, stopping you in your way fo getting up.

Fred looked at you, scared.

"What was this? Do you three thought you could prank Dumbledore's Age Line?" she asked, but neither of you answered.

"Minerva, no need..." the Headmaster started, but McGonagall didn't let him finish.

"I'm sorry, Dumbledore, but those two —" she pointed to you and Fred "— are under my supervision. And I said no pranks!"

"What did I do?" you questioned, facing down to yourself, who had no beard or old look on your face.

"You — do you think I didn't saw that parchment flying alone?"

"Wingardium Leviosa? That was clever, could have worked," commented Dumbledore, in a fascinated tone.

"It was Hermione's idea" you informed the Headmaster.

Fred looked back at you for a second, as if his eyes were saying "you did that! Wicked!"

"So, forget getting free of each other anytime soon. I'm revoking it — how long is yet to be determined," Minerva said, pausing only to breathe. "Start being those behaved students you spent the month being and you might see yourselves free of this by the end of the school year!"

You and Fred exchanged looks, embarrassed for taking the lecture in front of everyone.

"Off you go, now!" she shouted, not just for you two but for the rest of the crowd that was forming as well.

You had to follow Fred to the hospital wing, most to Madam Pomfrey's dismay.

"What are you doing here? Allergies?" she asked.

"No, I'm with Fred Weasley, ma'am."

"You can leave now, dear, I'll cure him."

"No, Madam Pomfrey, see, I can't leave because..." you started saying, but she interrupted you.

"Are you the two dimwitted that caused Professor McGonagall one of her wost phases?" she asked, looking down at Fred, who sat at the available bed. "I've never seen that woman so angry — binding two students forever, what was going on in her mind?"

"I ask myself the same" you sighed, thinking that now, not only you weren't able to participate in the Triwizard Tournament, you also couldn't to go back to your old routine. Wasn't that what you wanted, though? Only one day ago? Now, you seemed to disagree.

***

Madam Pomfrey took her time to dis-age the boys.

Fred was lying still over the hospital bed, waiting for the medicine to work. So did George, on another bed, at your left. You were sitting on a stool Madam Pomfrey offered you after seeing this would take a while. She asked for someone to bring us sandwiches — since you hadn't eaten breakfast —, but now that it was over, you stayed there, pretty bored.

George couldn't stop looking at himself with the small mirror offered, looking for his face during the dis-ageing process. "Look, now I might be fifty!" he was very thrilled with the transformation.

Fred ate his sandwich at a slow pace, and once it was over, he stayed quiet, staring at the ceiling. Both of you had a lot to say, but no one had the courage.

"So... you guys are stuck together, huh?" George said, trying to break the silence, turning himself towards you and Fred. "Shouldn't matter that much — if we are not goin' to be able to be champions at the Triwizard Tournament, after all."

You stared at George. He had such a simple way of seeing things.

"We're not gonna be able to win best pranksters either," you pointed out, pressing your lips together while crossing your arms.

"We're not gonna be able to win apart," corrected George, "Maybe we can all win together."

"Not very likely. Besides, we can't prank anyone if we wanna be separated one day," you said, raising your cheeks.

"McGonagall doesn't seem to be in the mood to separate you two anytime soon," George replied, "so have fun or whatever. When school's over, she'll have to undo the spell."

Fred seemed rather quiet, staring at his brother's eyes like he wanted to say something but never coming forward with it. It annoyed you.

The boys were now looking like they could be forty, and you thought they look quite handsome.  Not that older guys were your type, but, yeah, Fred and George could be those sexy old actors that your mom insisted on being a fan.

"Well, I guess if I'm already in the kitchen, I can stand the heat," you said, sighing.

Fred looked at you, "Am I that horrible?"

"What? No! That's not what I meant!" you answered, desperate to undo the misunderstanding. "It's just..." you started but noticed you couldn't finish, not with him looking at you like that, not with the fact that just in two months you had more friends than in your whole life. "It's nothing; this hasn't been a punishment at all. You're right, George, we can have some fun together."

You tried to dodge his eyes to look at George, but you couldn't stop staring at Fred. He was getting younger by the minute, looking back like himself, and you couldn't be more glad. He had been your best friend in those couple of weeks, and you couldn't just trash it all because you rather be pranking the school alone.

"That's the spirit!" George said, looking back to the mirror in his hand. "Look! We're probably twenty-five now!"

Madam Pomfrey reappeared, hours later.

"You boys are free to go. You've been sixteen for quite a while now, but I wanted to make sure you wouldn't start getting younger," she said, and looking at your horrible face she added: "It happened before."

Fred and George got up, passing their hands over their faces, to feel the young texture they missed.

"Go, dinner will soon be served!"

"Well, that goes a day without doing a thing!" Fred complained, reaching for your hand to walk out of the hospital wing.

You were surprised but let him have your hand anyone — his touch was nice and firm, something you'd always welcome.

You were one of the firsts to arrive at Gryffindor's table. A girl, you saw her playing Quidditch before, was sitting and waving at you three.

"Fred! George!" she called out. The boys headed to her direction, sitting in front of her. "I've put my name in!"

"Really?" Fred asked, smiling. "That's wicked, Angelina!"

She seemed extra happy with boys approval.

"Oh! I guess I didn't introduce you two, did I?" Fred said, looking back at you. "Angelina, this is y/N; y/N, this is Angelina. She's from our Quidditch team."

"Nice meeting you, Angelina," you said, feeling your cheeks turning pink due to the attention.

"Nice to meet you too, y/N," she said, "I heard all about what you two did. I was in the girls' toilet that day — what a scare you gave me!"

Instead of sounding angry at you, she started laughing, and you and the boys joined in.

"Now I understand why you and Fred have been hitting off so well — you're practically the same!"

"No, we're not!" you quickly replied, used to being in defensive.

Anyway, you didn't think you were like Fred. He was taller, probably braver and more reckless. Besides, it was rare times when you got caught — except two years ago, that was a year of bad luck — and the boys were always running away from some angry professor.

Angelina didn't matter with your reprehension. She kept on laughing, focused on something George was telling her — by the looks of it, he was telling her about how hot he'll be at forty-five.

Harry, Hermione and Ron arrived finally and took a seat next to you and the twins.

"Hope it's Angelina," Fred told them.

"So do I!" said Hermione. "We'll soon know!

Everybody seemed impatient, eating fast to get to the part where Dumbledore would announce the champions. The students from the other school were all very fancy, but you could see they were anxious just like the rest of Hogwarts.

You didn't know who you were rooting for — you hadn't seen Reyna all day, so you had no idea, apart from Angelina, who had put their names in the goblet.

As Dumbledore got to his feet, the students all shut, paying attention to the headmaster's every move. He warned that, as he would be calling the names, the champions should get up and march to an indicated chamber where they would receive instructions.

The Goblet of Fire shone with his sweeping of wand, and everyone was watching — you could notice that Fred and George weren't even breathing in excitement.

Dumbledore caught the piece of parchment that fluttered out of the goblet and read: "The champion for Durmstrang will be Viktor Krum."

"No surprises there!" yelled Ron as a storm of applause swept the Hall. Fred looked back at you as you were the only two laughing at Ron's cheering.

Viktor Krum got up and walked towards where Dumbledore had instructed. Dumbledore continued: "The champion for Beauxbatons is Fleur Delacour!"

A silvery blonde girl got up, to Harry's and Ron's enthusiasm. Aperantally, she was the same girl that had caught their eyes the night before.

The Beauxbatons didn't seem happy with the champion selected, as Hermione pointed out, but you couldn't understand why couldn't they cheer for their friend.

Dumbledore pulled the third piece of parchment — the room fell in silence. "The Hogwarts champion is Cedric Diggory!"

"No!" you thought you heard Ron say, but you couldn't be sure; every Hufflepuff was standing, clapping fervently and screaming as Cedric got up and made his way past them.

"Excellent!" Dumbledore called happily as at last the tumult died down. He kept on talking about how we should support our champions and cheer for them, but he suddenly stopped speaking as the fire of the goblet seemed to turn red again, rising upon it a new piece of parchment.

Every student looked confused, but no more than Dumbledore who held the parchment for a long minute before reading it out loud. "Harry Potter."

There was no applause. The whole Gryffindor table, including you, turned to stare at Harry, everybody shocked as the poor boy.

"I didn't put my name in," you heard him tell Ron and Hermione.

"Harry Potter!" Professor Dumbledore called again. "Up here if you please!"

The boy got up almost stumbling in his robes. You, Fred and George, followed him with your eyes — he was marching slowly, possibly not believing that his name got picked. At least, you and the Twins couldn't. You had tried the Levitation spell and the Ageing Potion — what could Harry have tried that worked?

Most of the Professors disappeared into the room Harry had entered and the ones left suggested for you all to return to your dorms. You looked around to everyone — they were whispering. However, so many of them were doing so that the volume started to increase.

Fred looked at you. "Did you know Harry put his name in?"

"No, I had no idea" you answered, only then noticing he wasn't asking you, but George, who was right behind you.

"No, nobody told me a thing" his brother responded.

Hermione and Ron where whispering non-stop, probably discussing how and why had Harry done that. Nonetheless,  there was a question you noticed nobody was asking, and you were very curious about it.

You gently squeezed Fred's arm, who glanced at you as he stood up.

"Fred, why are there four champions if there are three schools?" he seemed bewildered with your question, showing he hadn't think about that.

"Don't know," he said with pinched lips, "It seems weird, doesn't it? Like something is off?"

"Yeah..." you replied, looking away from him to take a glimpse at the Hall. The visitors had already left, and the Hufflepuffs were also gone — probably to organize a party.

Slytherins and Ravenclaws were the majority left — even Gryffindor was going back to their house common room — and they didn't look happy.

Fred reached for your hand again, and you noticed he was starting to do it without thinking — holding your hand had become a habit for him. You liked it.

George followed you two, with Hermione and Ron right behind. Aside from the remaining questions, they were thrilled with Harry Potter's participation. You and Hermione were the only two that showed some kind of worry for the boy.

Gryffindor's common room was unrecognizable, filled with all the students from the house, something very unusual for so late at night.

You found Reyna amongst the invited students from other houses. She had a cup in her hands and was talking to Lee Jordan in a corner; they looked focused on one another, so you decided not to disturb.

Harry finally entered the room with an astonished expression. Fred ran to his direction, dragging you with him — he hadn't let go of your hand yet.

"You should've told us you'd entered!" bellowed him, half annoyed, half impressed.

"How did you do it without getting a beard? Brilliant!" roared George, appearing from nowhere.

"I didn't," Harry said. "I don't know how —"

But Angelina had now swooped down upon him; "Oh, if it couldn't be me, at least it's a Gryffindor!"

Other girls started approaching Harry, who barely could breathe. You felt sympathy, but that wasn't much you could do to help — the most you managed to do was to keep the twins from continuing to harass the boy.

George began to serve you with some beverages and weird foods they had collected at some point, and even though you tried to dodge the things, you couldn't say 'no' to everything. You ended up drinking more than you should, feeling dizzy almost instantly. Fred had already released your hand, to get more freedom to hold things his brother and friends offered.

Reyna came closer to you in the middle of the night, and you hadn't even noticed her until she started speaking. "So exciting to have met Harry before he got selected! Well, I owe that to you. You have been, truly, a good friend lately."

You shook you head yes, regretting immediately to have done the movement.

"Are you ok?" she asked, worried.

"Drank too much. I'm not used to..." you paused, uncertain of what you had taken "whatever they served me," your friend started laughing.

"You should go to bed."

"I can't tho," you replied, "I'm attached to Fred, remember? And I don't wanna make him leave..." you stared at the boy mentioned, who seemed like he was having the time of his life surrounded by his Quidditch mates.

"y/N, I think he'll understand —"

"No, I'll just drink water," you interrupted her, "He is so happy, I won't ruin this for him."

Reyna didn't look very convinced, but she left to fetch you a glass of water anyway. She returned just some seconds later.

"It's juice — I couldn't find water."

She watched you drink it, making you uncomfortable. Could you be looking that horrible? You didn't think so. Yes, you were a bit dizzy and a bit slow, but you weren't unconscious. A part of your brain was still thinking about how Harry's name entered the Goblet of Fire even.

Reyna didn't leave you side, not even when Lee called her. She kept giving you juice and things to eat, but they didn't taste good.

Angelina and the other chasers finally disappeared in the crowd, leaving George and Fred behind. Fred eyes immediately met yours, and he began to worry.

"You didn't drink the whole cup my brother gave to you, did you?" he asked, touching your face with his right hand, trying to find a good light to analyze it. "I shouldn't have let him..."

"Don't look at me like that — you drank it too, and you don't look as perfect as before." Your words paralyzed him in place before he opened a smile.

"I did drink more than one cup, y/N."

"Oh," you sighed, frustrated with yourself. You noticed that Reyna ad finally left your side, and wondered if she went meet Lee. Do they have a thing?

"Come on, let's go upstairs," said Fred, "This party is dying anyway."

"No, I want you to enjoy yourself" you protested while he reached your waist.

"I've enjoyed myself enough. Believe me, tomorrow morning we'll both be looking terrible."

You blinked for what felt like an eternity. "I never look terrible, Freddie."

He froze at the second rung of the stairs to the dorm. Then he giggled and kept on going up, helping you. "Not a lie," he simply said, making you smile, but you thought he didn't notice because of how dark was at the stairs.

When you got to his dorm room, you could see, even in the dark, that someone was sleeping at Keneth's bed, and you assumed it was probably him since he never slept too late in the night.

Fred helped you to get under the covers of his bed, and that was the last thing you remembered of the night.