Ethereal ✭Fred Weasley✭

24.

"Can you paint our faces for us?" Fred asked with a wide grin.

"Ginny refuses to," George added.

Sophia rolled her eyes but none the less, took the paint from their hands and got George to sit down on the sofa first. Fred ignored the slight irritation he felt when Sophia stood in front of his brother and began to use a paintbrush to paint the Irish flag on his cheek like he asked. Fred crossed his arms over his chest and waited patiently for her to finish, trying not to show his jealousy for the first time towards George. They had never been jealous of each other before, as they were always given equal amounts of everything as kids. One of them was never favoured over the other, as they both insisted they were a package deal. A two for the price of one, otherwise they'd walk away with no deal.

"Done!"

Fred was pulled from his thoughts and saw George stand from the sofa, thanking Sophia for her service. A small Irish flag was now on his right cheek, and he happily went to his part of the tent to grab a scarf as well as an obnoxiously large Irish hat from his backpack. Fred tried not to make it obvious, but he sped over to the sofa to take the place of where his brother once sat. He beamed a closed-mouth smile up at Sophia, who giggled at his expression.

"Eager are we?" she said, dipping the paintbrush back into the pot that held the green paint. "What and where am I painting?"

"My entire face with the flag please."

"The whole thing?!"

"Yep," Fred didn't want to admit that he only wanted his whole face covered so that he'd somehow over power George's tiny pathetic flag that lay on his cheek. Fred childishly thought that this would make him seem like the bigger man, as covering his whole face with the paint showed that he had spent the most time with Sophia at this particular moment. Who was trying to prove this to, he didn't know. He just knew that he wanted his whole face covered in paint from one girl and one girl only.

Sophia shrugged before starting to trace out the Irish flag down Fred's forehead, nose and chin. The soft bristles of the brush made Fred's face tickle slightly and his nose scrunched up at the first touch, making Sophia laugh quietly. She was soon unaware of how much Fred was staring at her as she painted, completely immersed in concentration at filling in the green cross that spread over his face. Fred let his eyes wonder over her freckled nose and cheeks, staring shamelessly into her grey eyes that were surrounded by her dark eyelashes. He wondered at how such a beautiful person could even exist, and how lucky he was to even be in front of her right now. Her sweet floral scent traveled around him and wrapped him into a state of pure bliss.

"All done Freddie!" Sophia claimed and stepped back with a joyous look on her face, proud of her work. Fred's face now was covered with the Irish flag, it's green and white colour combination making his red hair stand out brightly. Sophia started to put the lids back on the paints and Fred stood up from the sofa, his attention now completely focused on Sophia.

She noticed his unusual silence and looked up from the paints in her hands, to immediately be immersed into Fred's staring brown eyes. He held the same look in his eyes that he wore after Gryffindor had won against Ravenclaw last term, and Sophia felt her heart stop when Fred was suddenly much closer than he was before. She felt his hand find it's way to her cheek and his thumb ran it's way across her bottom lip, making her grip the paint that was in her hands tighter. It was now or never, Fred thought to himself. He had to do it before Ron interrupted them again. Just do it. Kiss her you twat. She was waiting for him to do it! Those grey eyes looking into his made his tongue swipe over his own lips, wanting to so badly to seal the deal. The urge to kiss the beautiful girl was almost making Fred collapse in on himself, making him lower his head in the slightest to meet Sophia halfway as she stood on her toes.

And with that, Fred swooped down first and pressed his lips to Sophia's. Something burst inside both of their chests as they finally kissed each other for the first time. Sophia could taste the green and white paint that once covered his lips, but that didn't make her pull away at all. She gripped the pots of paint to her chest as Fred's hand caressed her smooth cheek, indulging in the satisfied feeling of finally being able to kiss the boy she had become so attracted to. The two didn't go any further with the kiss, only having their lips pressed against each other was enough for the moment. Sophia didn't think she could handle anymore than that anyway, as she thought her legs would give way any moment now.

Fred pulled away first and stood to his full height while letting out a shaky breath. He blinked continuously for a while before opening his eyes wide to look down at Sophia who hadn't opened her own yet, and admired her expression of daze and bliss. Sophia opened her own eyes slowly to look up at the boy she had just kissed. Fred's stomach had the familiar feeling of fireworks going off inside, and the smile that began to grow on his face showed how ecstatic he was at what had just happened. The goofy grin that he dawned made Sophia smile in return and giddily giggled.

"Well then..." Fred stated first, his voice threaded with joy and relief. He had been waiting to do that for so long now, and it was just as he hoped it'd be. Hearing her giggle as well just made his heart swell enough to match his firework-filled stomach. His whole being was glowing as if he had swallowed a glow-stick, and on-lookers would think he had drank some sort of illuminating potion.

"That was..." Sophia thought of the words to try and express how she was feeling. "fun."

"Yeah... very fun," Fred repeated while nodding, before sniggering at the sight of the girl's lips dawning white and green paint that was once on his own. "Nice lipstick."

Sophia made sure to wipe off the paint that was on her lips, before turning to notice Ginny and Ron being the only ones remaining in the tent besides herself and Fred. The siblings were standing next each other wearing identical smirks, making Sophia flush a deep red and try to avoid their penetrating gazes. Once Fred noticed his siblings watching them intently, he cleared his throat and scratched the side of his lips in a sort of habit. Boy was he never gonna hear the end of this.

"What? Don't act like you haven't been waiting for that all Summer you weirdos," Fred accused. Ginny and Ron didn't lose their smug looks as they exited the tent, leaving Fred and Sophia alone standing less than a foot away from each other. Sophia sneaked a glance back up at the Weasley while holding back another bright smile, before breaking out into laughter again with Fred following afterwards. If it wasn't for the call from Mr Weasley outside the tent, the two would of happily gone in for another session.

The walk through the campsite towards the huge stadium was eventful to say the least. Ron and Ginny had already spread the word to the remainder of the group (besides Arthur), leading to multiple nudges from both George and Hermione to the talked about couple. Sophia spent a moment going over all the feelings and recent happenings in her head, thinking that they hadn't actually just happened. But seeing as Hermione pointed to the small smudge of green paint that was still on the corner of her lips, it had happened. And oh how happy she was that it did. She felt as if she had been sneaked a love potion, as she couldn't help but replay the kiss over and over in her head with a brand new admiration and attraction for Fred. She didn't quite know what this meant for the two, but she was over-joyed that this had made her sure that she liked Fred. Like, really liked Fred.