"Miss _, since your partner is not in class today, you will be working with Mr. Weasley."

I looked across the room and a red-headed boy smirked at me. Just my luck I thought to myself.

"Professor, would it be possible for me to work alone on this assignment?" I asked desperately.

"I'm sorry, but you don't have a choice."

Fred Weasley, my potions partner for the day, came over and sat next to me. "You seem awfully excited." he said sarcastically.

"Can we just get this over with?" I asked.

He seemed insulted. "Sorry to be such an inconvenience to you." he said bitterly.

I opened up my potions book and started working on the assignment. Fred sulked and complained most of the time but did what I asked him to, which was mainly passing me things and stirring.

"Where's your usual partner?" he asked.

"Sick. She has some weird virus that's going around. She's in the hospital wing."

"Oh," he said casually. I could tell he wanted me to ask him about his partner in crime who was currently M.I.A. but I did no such thing.

"Well, in case you're wondering, George was testing out our latest product, Fever Fudge, and lucky enough it works. So he has a fever."

"Great." I muttered, uninterested.

"What is it with you? Do you have a personality?"

I stopped working. "Of course I do. I'm just focused on school instead of messing around and getting into trouble."

"Do you ever have fun? Oh, besides studying I mean."

I gave him a harsh look and said, "Fun doesn't get you a good job at the ministry."

"Yeah, but it gets you friends, which to me, is more important. But I guess you wouldn't have any experience with that."

I had nothing to say because that last statement really got to me. I had friends, or acquaintances maybe. We mostly would talk about school. Now that I thought about it, I didn't really have any great friends. No one I could share my innermost feelings with.

"Someone's quiet." I looked at him with tears in my eyes as I realized that in this world I was totally alone.

"_, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you. I spoke without thinking."

I didn't say anything and went back to working on the potion. I wasn't planning on saying anything else. I grabbed a vile without thinking and poured it into the cauldron. "No, don't do that!" I gave Fred a confused look as he panicked, but it was too late. Fireworks began shooting out of our potion and there was nothing I could do to stop it. Everyone in class began laughing at us as we were both silently freaking out.

"Miss _ and Mr. Weasley you will be joining me in detention for this stunt you just pulled where you will completely remake this potion." Snape said.

"But Professor-"

"No exceptions." I sighed as class was dismissed and ran out of the room to Transfiguration. The feeling inside of me was weird. I felt sad but almost appreciative that Fred said something because I never would have noticed before. And of course angry that he completely screwed up our potion. And I now had a detention because of that. I rushed off to class and tried to refocus on my studies.

I arrived in the potions room for my detention five minutes early. I had to maintain my practicality. Snape wasn't even here yet, let alone Fred. I sat down and did some work to pass the time. Soon Snape walked in the room and asked me where Fred was. Like I knew. As if on cue, Fred walked in at that moment, flipping his red locks.

"Nice of you to join us, Mr. Weasley," said Snape.

Fred just gave him a smug look and sat down next to me. Snape instructed us on what to do and we got started right away. I didn't say a word to him.

"So you're mad at me, I get it. But I can't take the silence. At least say something." he said to me.

"Well I'm more than mad at you. I'm furious. Why the hell would you screw up our potion like that?"

"Okay, so that turned out worse than I planned. It was supposed to be funny, but I didn't anticipate us arguing and me being a jerk." Oh, so he admits that he was a jerk.

"Yeah, but why did you do it?"

"Honestly _, because you frustrate me. You are the only person who doesn't think the pranks George and I play are funny. You don't even seem to notice us at all. It's just...different I guess." I looked at him then continued working on the potion.

"The reason I seem distant toward you two specifically is because I try to ignore you. Your pranks and jokes are a distraction to my work."

"Why do you care so much about school?! I mean it's possible to do well in school AND have a life. Why are you always so serious. You need to loosen up."

"Loosen up? Maybe you don't know me very well. I'm not really into humor or fun."

"That's because you don't know what fun is. What's the most fun you've ever had?"

I stopped working and thought for a moment. "When I went skiing with my parents in the Alps."

He gave me a look that said 'are you kidding me?' "That's the most fun you've ever had? Okay, you've just become my new project."

"Excuse me?"

"Yep, I'm taking you under my wing and showing you how to have fun."

"Wait a second, what if I don't want to be your project?"

"Sorry, you have no choice. Even if you resist, I'll find a way." I decided not to argue because he had a point.

"Fine." I agreed.

"Okay, well tonight there may or may not be a party in the Room of Requirement."

I gave him a puzzled look, "Room of Requirement?"

He looked at me in astonishment. "You've never heard of the Room of Requirement?"

"Evidently not."

"So this means I'm gonna have to escort you there eh? Alright, meet me by the One-Eyed Witch statue and we'll go from there." I sighed yet still agreed.

We finished our potion and left promptly. I went to the Ravenclaw common room and changed into something a little more casual, jeans and a v-neck sweater. Once changed I headed to the statue where I was supposed to meet Fred. To my surprise, he was already there waiting for me.

"I'm not late am I?" I asked.

He shook his head and replied, "I'm just early."

I nodded in approval and waited for him to lead the way, but he didn't budge.

"Which way to this top secret room?"

"Oh we aren't going straight to the party. I have an errand to run and you are going to help me." I was sure I looked skeptical.

"Well, where are we going?"

"To Hogsmeade."

"But...how? Are we sneaking out!? I can't do that."

"Sure you can. We won't get caught. I've done this loads of times." He muttered some words and the hump of the witch statue opened.

"Ladies first," he said while hoisting me up, into the passageway. I slid down and yet out a little yelp, to which I'm sure he laughed at. I reached the bottom and landed unsteadily. Moments later he came down and landed with two feet firmly on the ground, acting like it was no big deal. Always the show-off. He led the way down a dark corridor and I found myself shivering.

"Wish you would've told me we were coming here. Then I could have brought a coat."

"Let's be realistic now, if I told you we were sneaking out of the castle, you would not have agreed to come." This statement was true, and I knew it.

"I just don't see what so great about sneaking out."

"It's the whole breaking the rules thing. Be a little rebellious."

We walked in silence for a little bit until Fred announced we had reached our destination. There was some sort of trap door directly above us. He opened the door and then lifted me so I was able to climb out. Once out, I offered him my hand to help him out. He seemed pleasantly surprised at this gesture. We snuck up the stairs and I recognized the store to be Honeydukes. We entered the main shop and weren't spotted by anyone. Granted there was probably only one or two people working since it was edging 10 on a Thursday night. I was baffled when George opened the door and walked outside.

I followed him confused and finally asked, "Wait where exactly are we going?"

"The three broomsticks. We need to get Butterbeer. Maybe we'll get some sweets at Honeydukes on the way back."

He was walking like he was on a mission and I was shooting questions at him left and right. I then realized how freezing cold it was outside. I crossed my arms and started shivering. Fred only noticed once my teeth started chattering.

"Oh, you're freezing aren't you? Here take...this!" he said, handing me over his trapper hat.

"Thanks, but do you really think this will help?"

"It's better than nothing." I shrugged and put it on. I'm sure it looked silly on me, but Fred didn't make a snarky comment. We reached the Three Broomsticks and snuck in through the backdoor. We couldn't let any ordinary wizard see us there when we were supposed to be at Hogwarts. Madame Rosmerta gave Fred a disapproving look, but still supplied him with the Butterbeer, free of charge. He clued me in that this had become somewhat of a routine for him. It shouldn't have surprised me that he did this often, but it did.

"So where's you mischievous twin brother on this lovely night?"

"Funny story, he's actually trying to woo this girl he fancies. It's cute how much he likes her. Too bad she's way too good for him."

"Aww, who is she? Do I know her?"

"Possibly, but I doubt it. She's a Gryffindor and although she's brilliant, she's also very social. Something tells me you two run in different circles."

"Ouch. Way to sugar coat it."

"Just being honest."

"I actually like that about you, the fact you're honest."

"Anything else you like about me?" he said flirtatiously. I didn't even know how to respond. I didn't typically flirt with guys so this was out of my comfort zone.

"Nope, not really." I know that may have sounded rude, but I froze! I couldn't think of anything to say and I ended up just blurting this out. I was expecting Fred to say something, but he kept quiet. The walk back to Honeydukes was kind of awkward. I'm not one to just strike up a conversation. I was counting on Fred to do that but he seemed a little upset.

"Look, I'm sorry if what I said upset you. I just...didn't know what to say."

"Maybe you should try some honesty, like me. Remember?"

"Okay then. I think you are smart because you manage to pull off pranks and sneaking out like this. And I think you are funny, but I don't feel the need to give you attention. And I think you are actually a nice guy. Even if you might not always show it, I know deep down you're sweet. All this from knowing you personally for a day." This clearly gave him a confidence boost as he had a smug look on his face now.

"Well why didn't you just say that before?"

"I'm not exactly one to shower someone in compliments."

"Then what did you just do?" I rolled my eyes in disbelief and continued walking.

"I think you are brilliant when it comes to school but completely dim when it comes to being social. And I think you're extremely stubborn. But I think you're beautiful." I was unsure of how to respond. Of course I wanted to smile and get all giddy, but I couldn't give him the satisfaction No one had ever come close to calling me pretty, let alone beautiful.

"You're allowed to smile you know. You don't have to be emotionless." he said to me. I let out a small smile and we finally reached Honeydukes. He opened the door for me and said, "Do you want anything?" I politely declined out of reflex. He didn't listen to me though. He grabbed a handful of chocolate hearts and placed them in my hand.

"Are you gonna pay for those?"

"I'm friends with the owner. He's given me the permission to take anything."

"You just have all these connections don't you."

"Well..." he said while shrugging his shoulders. We headed down to the cellar and he opened the trap door. He volunteered to go first. Fred lowered himself beneath the floorboards expertly and I handed him the Butterbeer. He offered to help me down but I was feeling riskier and told him I could do it myself. I figured that if he could do it easily, I could too. Except I forgot to account for the height difference. A small drop to him was easily a big drop to me. The majority of my body was in the secret passage way with my hands being the only thing holding me up. I slowly lowered myself more and eventually I had to drop. This would have been fine if I weren't a total klutz. I landed on one foot but couldn't keep my balance and found myself falling. Lucky for me, Fred was there to catch me. "Thanks," I said while a scarlet blush spread over my cheeks.

"It's nothing," he smiled. We walked back to Hogwarts and I really started to feel like a rebel, for the first time ever. We were almost back when I voiced this to Fred.

"You know, I kind of like being a rule breaker. Taking risks like this provides a lot of thrill I've never experienced before."

"So, fun would you say?"

"Yeah, it was fun."

"Mission complete. You haven't even been to the party yet."

I laughed, "You're right. I owe you for this. We should do this more often."

"You mean you'd actually want to spend more time with me!?" he asked in a tone of mockery. I stopped walking and so did he.

"Fred, you are such an interesting person. I find myself wanting to spend more and more time with you." It was quiet for a moment so I added, "I'm just trying that whole honesty thing out."

He leaned in closer to me and the next thing I know his lips were on mine. And I was kissing back! This was the last thing I ever would have expected to happen.

After a little while he pulled back and said, "I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

"And what do you mean by that?" I questioned.

"I think we're gonna be seeing a lot more of each other."

I smiled and said. "Who would've thought two people as opposite as us would ever end up as friends."

"I think we're gonna be more than friends." he said as he grabbed my hand. I loved being with Fred because I could actually come out of my shell. I didn't have to put on a show to be the smartest girl. I could just be me. From that day forward, Fred and I spent almost every day together. And every day I was with him I found myself more and more.