Just For A Laugh [FredXHarry]

Don't you dare

I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters, they belong to JK Rowling

Harry woke up two days later to find himself alone. Everyone else had left, which was strange enough in itself, but since when did Ron ever wake up before him? Harry climbed out of his soft four-poster bed, showered, dressed, brushed his teeth and left for the common room.

Whispers followed him everywhere. He was used to this by now, being the Boy who Lived and unwilling champion in the Triwizard Tournament, but it was a different whisper. A curious one. Harry caught little snippets of what people were saying, but not much. 'Can't be true'... 'what if he's'... why would he'... Harry was just about to exit through the portrait hole when he heard the full whisper. 'It surely can't be true. Fred Weasley?' Harry whipped around. Lavender Brown and Parvati Patil were looking at him, but quickly averted their eyes when they each caught his eye. Harry walked swiftly over to them. "What did you just say?" He asked politely. Lavender and Parvati exchanged a sceptical look. "Well? I heard Fred's name. What about him?" Lavender took a deep breath and glanced nervously at Parvati before speaking. "Are you going to the Yule Ball with Fred Weasley?" She asked, quite loudly. The Common Room instantly went silent. Every eye was on him. Thankfully, at that moment, Ron, Fred, George and Hermione walked through the portrait hole. Everyone glanced at them before averting their eyes back to Harry, although some lingered on Fred, and some switched between Fred and Harry. "Fred. George. Ron, Hermione where the hell have you been?" Harry asked, striding over to them. "Sorry, Harry. Went for an early breakfast. Ronniekins was up all night trying to fix his... er... beautiful dress robes so we decided to accompany him." George said. "Right. Well, Fred, can I have a word?" He asked, looking directly at the Weasley Twin. "Uh... sure." He said. Harry beckoned for him to bend over so Harry could stand on his toes and whisper in Fred's  ear, being sure make it barely audible even for Fred, knowing the whole Common Room was trying to listen in. "They know. Lavender Brown just asked me if I'm going with you." Fred snickered slightly, a sly, mischievous grin on his face. "I got this." He straightened up and shouted, at the top of his lungs; "I'M GOING TO THE YULE BALL WITH HARRY POTTER!" The Common Room was silent for what felt like hours. Then, all hell broke loose. Cheers, claps, applause, even songs were being chanted. Fred grinned and bent over once again so that Harry could hear him over the racket while people slapped their backs and ruffled their hair. "Now to spoil the fun." He said, beaming as he straightened up and climbed onto a table. "Right, ladies and gents!" The Common Room instantly  silent, all eyes on either Fred or Harry, looks of awe, shock and admiration scattered around on the many different faces. "Hate to be a killjoy, very uncharacteristic of me but ah well." Fred continued. "Anyways, yes. I'm going to the Ball with Harry-" a few cheers sounded. "But! Unfortunately, Harry got rejected by the girl he really wanted to go with." Harry saw something flash across Fred's face. Was it longing? Disappointment? But, a second later, it had gone, replaced by the usual grin. Harry looked around and for a second it appeared to be that only he had noticed, until he saw George, who was giving his twin a look, as though he, like Harry, was trying to figure out what he had just seen. Harry turned his attention back to Fred, making a mental note to talk to George. "So my ickle bro over here..." he gestured to Ron, who turned bright red. "Literally chased me all over Hogwarts for ten minutes, got me and him detention for it, George got a sprained ankle from it, and dragged me by my arm all the way back to Gryffindor Tower. Harry told me the situation. Me and Harry are only going to the Yule Ball together for a laugh. We don't have any sort of feelings for each other..." Harry saw that flash of a weird look cross Fred's face again. "...it's just for a joke, that's all." Harry nodded as there was a collective groan from the crowd of Gryffindors. "Right. Second breakfast of the day!" Fred exclaimed. With that, he jumped off the table and linked arms with Harry and George, and began leading the way to the Great Hall. "Hold on!" Harry said, breaking away from Fred. He grabbed hold of George, and turned to the other three. "You go on. We'll catch up." Fred, Ron and Hermione exchanged a confused look, and George looked at him questioningly, but no one said anything. Once the trio had gone, Harry pulled George to a quiet corner. "You saw it too, didn't you?" He demanded. George looked confused for a second, before his face changed into a look of understanding. "If you mean the look of utter disappointment, longing, hunger and affection that flashed across my twin's face, then, yeah, I did." Harry nodded. "So that's what it was then. I couldn't figure out what I'd seen." George nodded. "I'll talk to him about it later, but, if he asks, you didn't see it. Got that?" Harry nodded, and the two of them exited the portrait hole and caught up to the rest of them, who were walking slow in order to give Harry's and George time.