Friendless » Fred Weasley

cxiii. the astronomy tower

"What time is it?" Tori asked out loud. She couldn't taker her eyes of the last sentence. Fred was in love with her? Her eyes kept scanning the line over and over and over again.

"About seven minutes to midnight. Why?" Angelina replied. She was now seated up in bed, while Alicia and Katie had already fallen asleep. Tori shrugged, quickly jumping up and shoving the letters back into the large envelope.

"No reason." She began putting her shoes on, but Angelina only got more confused. "Where are you going?"

"I think I forgot my quill downstairs. I'm going to go look for it." Angelina glanced at the bedside table where Tori's quill was but Tori had already left. Angelina rolled her eyes, turning the light off.

No one was down in the common room, to Tori's relief. She carefully slipped out of the front portrait since the Fat Lady had seemed to be sleeping.

The halls were quiet, especially since most of the paintings and ghosts were sleeping. Tori felt nervous. Giddy, almost.

Her mind was blank except for that one sentence replaying over and over again. The courtyard tower rang, symbolizing it was midnight. Tori cursed, slipping through a small corridor and rushing towards the tower's stairs.

There were a lot of them. Tori found herself counting each step, anxiously reaching the top.

She hesitated before she could twist the door open. What was she going to say? She hadn't had time to think about that. She was still so confused about everything.

That's when it hit her. The amortentia. She smelled Fred.

It's an odd feeling when things just sort of clicked. Like the last puzzle piece fitting into place, explaining why everything was shaped a certain way. Fred was her first actual friend. Fred was the first one to make her smile. Fred was the one always there. For every good and bad moment. For every breakdown or championship.

It was always Fred. And she knew that now.

Tori opened the door, shutting it behind her. "Fred?" She called, immediately wishing she had grabbed her jacket. It was freezing in the tower. It was dark, the moon seemed to be the only light source at the moment. She called for Fred again, wondering if she was too late. It must have been ten past twelve.

She would have seen him going back down the stairs unless he took the back stairs...

"Tori?"

Tori's turned to see him standing there. Her heart was pounding louder than the cool wind was blowing. She could see her breath as the two looked at each other for a moment. Fred couldn't read Tori's face. She slowly came towards him, looking as if she was either going to hug him, or slap him. Or both.

But to his surprise, she didn't none of the above. Instead, she did something he really wasn't expecting.

She kissed him.

✧    ✦    ✧

Angelina was asleep by the time Tori came back. She immediately collapsed into bed, the entire last hour replaying like a muggle movie. She and Fred talked a lot.

Tori told him about the Amortentia, which he of course had to make a cocky joke about it. "Well I am irresistible, aren't I?"

Tori had scoffed, staring out at the lake in the night. "Why did you do it? Become friends with me, I mean."

He had chuckled, shifting his weight onto the other side. "I dunno. I guess I didn't like to see you alone. You know? I grew up six siblings, so seeing someone lonely and upset just doesn't sit right to an eleven-year-old."

She nodded as another cold breeze blew. "I guess I never got to say thank you. I don't know where'd I be without you."

Turning over in her bed, Tori glanced at her owl, who was sleeping peacefully on her perch. The wind was still howling outside, getting rougher by now. Tori sighed to herself, digging her face deeper into her pillow.

"Look, Tori. I mean every word. I really am sorry." He had apologized again. His face darkened with regret, besides Tori felt bad enough holding it over his head for so long.

She nodded. "I'm sorry too."

"For what?" Fred turned to her, clearly confused.

"Making you feel like you couldn't be enough."

It was quite a shock to the others when coming breakfast in the Great Hall, Fred and Tori calmly sat across from each other.

Alicia narrowed her eyes, being the first to speak up. "Are you two finally talking to each other?"

Fred just grinned, turning to Tori. "Good morning, Tori."

"Good morning, Fred," Tori replied, immediately smiling at the look of relief that George had. "Finally!" He threw his hands up in the air as if they had just performed a miracle.

"I thought it was never going to end!" He cheered. He didn't seem to care that other people were starting to stare. Angelina was quick to shush him.

"So what happened?" Katie asked. Fred and Tori glanced at each other before he shrugged. "We just talked. Figured some things out."

That wasn't exactly true. Yes, the talked a lot. But Tori was more confused than ever. She didn't know what she and Fred technically were or would be. She really cared about him, and didn't want things to get terrible is it didn't work out.

She also didn't want to know how the others would react. She expected a lot of "I told you so," from Alicia. She also expected a disappointed Lee if he lost a bet with George. Molly probably wouldn't let them sit in the same room if she found out. She also knew Ginny would have a very smug look as well.

The group looked like they didn't believe them, but none of them decided to push on it. Instead, everyone eagerly wondered what the next task would be.

Tori was glad she was able to finally talk to Fred again. Everything felt back to normal. Besides the fact, they kept glancing at each other every few minutes.

ooooooh

pep sad draco