"Just one, Weasley," the girl demanded.
"Look, Brown, the offer was six for a sickle. I can't just sell you just one, you see, otherwise, I'd be a liar." Fred Weasley's cocky smile lit up the full common room. Lavender glared at the boy and tossed the boy a sickle. "Thanks for your business." He winked and the girl strode off with her six Puking Pasties.
Without a thought, the boy tossed the sickle into a box where him and George kept their money. Lavender's complaints filled her corner of the common room. Among the things she said, she included, "That blasted cheat of a boy, Weasley."
For some reason, Fred was oddly bothered by this comment, but his curiosity was killed by a cat, literally. Crookshanks was nipping at a Canary Cream. The cat turned into a deformed cross between a bluebird and a parrot and began to fly around the common room, squawking. And, ironically, it dive bombed into Lavender Brown, who screamed, but found herself unable to dodge the missile.
She ended up in the Hospital Wing ten minutes later, with a rather large dent in her forehead, which would not stop gushing blood at any cost.
It was not until the next day, a grim October thirteenth, the skies more ominous than a memory from Snape's Pensieve, that Fred found some guilt to go see the girl. He strode into the Hospital Wing, with the intention of apologizing to Lavender. And for a gift, he brought her a box of Canary Creams, which he and his brother had just perfected after the incident with Crookshanks.
He rehearsed what he was going to say in his head, and he had it perfected, he did. He really did. But as he neared the bed that Madam Pomfrey had directed him toward, he heard increasingly more obnoxious voices. He paused before he came into view.
"...so stupid."
"I know, Lavender. Him and his brother are so obnoxious. Thinking that they can just sell their disgusting treats and not pay attention to what happens when they land on the floor."
There was a pause. "And it doesn't help how unattractive they are, with that nasty ginger hair. As if any of the Weasleys will ever get a girlfriend."
"Well, at least Madam Pomfrey fixed your face- well, most of it I mean." Parvati Patil treaded dangerous waters as she spoke these words.
"That's hardly the problem. I'm going to tell Dumbledore what happened-"
"Hey, Brown. I hope you get better." Fred took a step so he was in view. He chucked the box of Canary Creams at her and turned around to walk away. But not before he heard a squeal and looked back to Lavender clutching her face.
Where the Canary Creams had hit Lavender Brown straight in the forehead.
Again.
"Oh, great.." Fred growled at himself and he sprinted out of there before Madam Pomfrey could hit him with a broomstick.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid," Fred was muttering to himself all the way to class. "I had it rehearsed! How could I mess-"
"Fred, I've just gotten a wonderful idea that will enhance our business opportunities." George came out of nowhere, possibly a secret passage that was on the third floor. Fred looked at his brother.
"Not now, George," Fred drawled without the usual life of his voice.
"What's wrong, bro?" George said, shocked.
"It's nothing. Just that Lavender girl."
George shrugged and he was gone.
It was George that knew Fred better than anyone. And he knew that at that moment that it was not the time to question his brother.
Fred returned to his prior thoughts. It was not even the whole incident that had brought Fred into a down turn. He continued to ponder the exact exchange between Parvati and Lavender. The boy paused at a mirror that took the place of a picture.
Am I ugly? The boy thought for a moment.
Then suddenly, he shrugged and set off a firework, running to Potions with lightning speed.
Forgetting Lavender Brown before he even remembered her, Fred was back to himself and making galloons upon galleons within Hogwarts.
Research consumed any time that was meant for homework; Fred and George's grades fell with rapid speed.
He was walking through the halls, completely happy and with a jingling pocket of coins, on his way to the Great Hall to eat a delicious dinner when...
"I can't believe it!" a girl sobbed in a corner.
Fred stopped suddenly. All he heard was her sobs and no other voices. Thinking he could cheer the girl up, the boy turned the corner and found none other than Lavender Brown crying to Nearly Headless Nick, who looked as though he were about to puke, and also for any excuse to get away, and at the first site of Fred-
"Well, I gotta see the Bloody Baron about...umm...something bloody."
Nick disappeared though a wall, and Lavender now turned her attention to Fred. It looked as though she were about to hug something solid when she saw who it was."
"You," she growled.
"You," Fred mocked her and pouted in what he thought was the same way she was.
"Leave me alone," she demanded.
"Oh, so it's a crime to walk through the halls now?" He didn't realize he was shouting until he saw the look on her face... And then heard the echoes.
Lavender began jogging off when Fred began to feel bad. "Hey, er, Lavender!" he shouted. She turned around. They were alone in the halls. Everyone else had gone off to dinner. She walked slowly back to him as he beckoned her.
"What?" she said. Her voice was lighter now, as though she wanted comfort from anyone, even if it meant from him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, preparing for some rant on about him.
"It's Binky..." She began.
"Binky...?" Fred prompted, taking a seat on a bench off the beaten trail of the hall. Lavender sat next to him.
"My rabbit," she began to sob uncontrollably. "He's been eaten by a fox!"
"Oh no!" Fred said. He thought he sounded legitimately caring, however...
"Are you mocking me?" the girl snapped.
"Of course not!" the boy defended himself.
"Oh."
"Well...?" he prompted again.
"Professor Trelawny predicted this-"
"Oh, as if that old hag-" He saw the sudden change in her expression as he began and he changed his words, "She's pretty smart," he said.
"She said that on the sixteenth of October, something horrible would happen! And do you know what today is?" She didn't wait for a reply. "The sixteenth of October. I just got the letter not an hour ago. I just can't believe Binky is dead!" she sobbed.
The girl grasped Fred.
Shocked, he patted her back with perhaps a little too much force. He wrapped his arms around her and tried rubbing awkwardly instead.
Lavender didn't seem to mind; the only thing that mattered was human contact.
She continued to tell him the story for another half an hour. It dragged on, and when she was just getting into the second year of "Binky's" life, Fred interrupted.
"Hey, Lav, I got a joke for you."
"What?" the girl pouted, not liking being interrupted.
"Knock, knock."
"Who's there?" the girl cooperated after a second.
"You know."
"You-Know-Who?"
"That's right! Crucio!" Fred cocked a smile.
Lavender frowned, but she seemed to be holding back a small smile.
The Great Hall doors opened twenty feet away and Fred and Lavender stood up.
"Well..." The girl began.
"Bye, Lav," Fred nodded to the girl and sprinted toward George, who was cooing him over.
"Wait! Fred."
The boy stopped and looked at the girl. "Hmm?"
"I don't like you."
Fred Weasley hesitated, "If you don't...don't." The boy smiled and thought, I like you too, Lavender Brown.
This is the only one-shot I have ever written, and this is the only one shot I'll ever write.
I hate one shots, but this was for a contest and I love how it came out.
Review?