The Truth About Love- Chapter 1
This is my first Harry Potter fic, so please please please give me a chance.
The Great Hall was buzzing with conversation as students filed out the doors. Prefects called for first years and somewhere the Head Boy and Girl were shouting directions. The feast had ended and everyone was sleepy and full.
"I am so tired!" Alicia said as she stumbled out the doors of the Great Hall.
"Clearly." George caught her shoulder as she tripped over someone's foot.
"I am too excited to be tired!" Angelina was beaming. "I turned seventeen last Tuesday! I can't wait for the tournament to start!"
Fred stopped to give the Fat Lady the password before they all stepped into the common room. "Well if we don't get in I hope you do. It's bad enough Cedric Diggory beat us last year, he is not going to be the Hogwarts champion. Not if I have anything to say about that."
"And what are you going to say?" Alicia asked skeptically.
Fred and George gave her identical scheming smiles. "Oh, something along the lines of Aging Potion, Disillusionment Charms, Polyjuice Potion or Confundus Charm."
"Well good luck on that, Polyjuice Potion is a highly difficult potion, and if you poison yourself I'm sure Snape would be all too happy to let you die." Angelina said as they climbed the stairs up to their dormitories.
Ignoring her, they turned to Lee. "Well mate, are you in?"
"I'm so tired, and I can't fall asleep in class tomorrow or I'll be in trouble before we even get our first homework assignments." Alicia yawned. "So goodnight."
"'Night" The boys replied.
They split off into their dormitories. Lee, Fred, and George were on the right side still discussing ways to fool the judge of the Triwizard Tournament. Alicia sleepily shuffled into her dorm behind Angelina.
The other four girls in their dorm, Caroline, Jillian, Kim and Tina were already fast asleep. Alicia collapsed on her bed without changing into her pajamas and hugged her pillow. Next to her Angelina was changing into her checkered pajama shorts and an oversized t-shirt. She sat down on the bed afterwards, looking deep in thought.
"Hey Alicia?" Angelina whispered as she lay down on the bed, facing Alicia's.
"Hmm?" Alicia turned to face her and yawned again.
Angelina absently stroked her teddy bear. On the first day of school she had individually cornered each of her roommates to make sure no one else found out. Usually a very competitive, tom-boyish, and sometimes cold person, she figured that no one would take her seriously ever again if they knew she still slept with a teddy bear.
"Do you think… do you think I should just forget about all this? And just pretend I don't feel anything special? I mean… I'd rather have him be my unwavering best friend and hide my feelings than have it out there reminding us things will never be the same." She pulled the sheets and blankets up to her shoulders.
Alicia opened one eye and looked at her for a moment before answering. "Seeing as this is Fred we're talking about I'd go with the first choice. He makes a better best friend than a boyfriend. Of course I can't exactly speak from experience, but it really depends on the person."
Apparently this was all the advice Angelina was going to get for the night because Alicia dozed off to sleep, leaving her to wonder for herself.
For a year now Angelina had been having second thoughts about this. She had always been good friends with Fred, but the summer prior to the one that had just ended everything had suddenly changed. Fred had come to visit her and they spent a whole two weeks without Angelina's friends or Fred's twin, who had opted to visit Charlie in Romania. The time spent with him had changed how she felt about him.
In the thirteen sticky-hot days spent racing through empty country, rolling down the hills blanketed with soft grass, lying in endless fields of flowers as they took turns asking each other questions about things that a shocking six years of friendship had still yet to uncover, Angelina found something special. There was a new feeling that seized her heart, causing it to accelerate every time she saw him.
Somehow, she couldn't forget the magical romance that came with humid summers and open country land she had shared with him. Maybe he didn't know it, with a sudden jolt of nostalgic pain she realized he might never realize what had happened those few days, but Angelina had held onto every moment of it.
As the summer days became shorter and the first of September finally rolled around she was coming to an ultimatum: Should she heed to the feelings and listen to her heart, in turn risking rejection and heartbreak she knew she couldn't handle… or understand that her summer romance could be seasonal, like so many others, and keep the close friendship she knew she couldn't survive without?
Angelina looked at the pictures set on her nightstand. One of them showed her with Fred and George, all of them laughing and smiling. She was in the middle, both of them had an arm around her shoulders. It was funny how she had chosen Fred over George. She used to think that between the two of them, Fred was the more outspoken, competitive, and open twin. Both of them possessed the same qualities that made everyone like them, but George was less open, unlike Fred there were things that couldn't be inferred from his words or expressions.
Sometimes it was this difference between the two of them that Angelina had liked about George. But after the summer, she had come to realize that Fred was if anything more secretive than George. He wasn't the open book she had once come to think he was. It was this sort of contrast between what people thought he was, and who he really turned out to be that Angelina had found in herself and found so attractive about him.
The higher level of understanding they were able to communicate on had created the biggest difference between her relationship with Fred and George. While sometimes she felt that they were really the same person, she felt herself being drawn closer to Fred, while leaving the rest of the world behind, George on it.
Ugh, this is too complicated, Angelina thought. I'm the last person anyone would expect to be thinking about this kind of thing.
She turned over and tried to ignore the thoughts so she could get some sleep.
. . . .
"Morning!" Alicia said brightly as she pulled the covers off Angelina's bed.
It was seven thirty in the morning and she had already gone and woken up the other girls in the dorm, a routine that had been established from their very first year. Alicia was already dressed in her uniform of a black skirt, red blouse, with her red and gold tie under black robes, which she had the Gryffindor symbol embroidered on. She parted the curtains all around the dorm and opened the windows to let in some fresh air.
"Rise and shine Angie!" Alicia chirped, making the bed. She was usually happiest in the morning, before all the classes had started.
Jillian giggled. "Alicia where would we be without you? Our personal alarm clock."
All the girls laughed. Angelina threw on a random red shirt, black jeans and her cloak before running a brush through her tangled hair. Hogwarts wasn't particularly strict about the uniform, black bottoms, and a shirt that was white, black, or the color of your house. While the rest of the girls were careful about their appearance, Angelina could care less.
"Do I look okay?" Caroline asked the girls, sliding a bobby pin into her hair. Kim pulled a blue thread off the back of her red sweater and the girls nodded their approval.
Alicia slid on several gold bangles and put on red earrings with lions on them, to emphasize their support of Gryffindor. Angelina noted that she looked especially pretty, she always dressed nicely, but she hardly ever accessorized. "Is there a special occasion?" She asked.
"It's always good to look nice on the first day." Tina said, massaging moisturizer onto her face, which all the girls had noted was enviously smooth and blemish free.
Jillian agreed, "Definitely, people usually notice others more on first and last days." She smoothed down her golden blond hair.
Unable to remember a time that she thought it necessary to prep for as long as her roommates did, Angelina made her bed and finished unpacking. The first night she had only taken out pictures, Teddy, and her pajamas. By the time the other girls were ready, a good thirty minutes later, she already had most of her trunk emptied out into her dresser, which was charmed so that it could hold more things than three tiny drawers would be expected to.
"Woah, blimey!" Lee Jordan stopped dead in the doorway of his dorm, staring at the girls, wide-eyed and mouth gaping.
George elbowed him out of the way and raised his eyebrows. "You girls look nice."
Angelina rolled her eyes, "Are you going to stare at them all day or can we go eat?"
By the time the group made it to dinner Angelina was starting to wish she had put more effort into her appearance, since eyes were following the other girls as they made their way through the Great Hall to their seats. "Why so glum?" Fred asked, as she speared a piece of sausage.
She shrugged. "No reason."
"It's not like you to care about what other people think about your appearance." He commented lightly. Angelina concentrated on pouring her pumpkin juice. "You look great the way you are anyways, but I guess that's just my opinion."
An unwilling blush crept into her cheeks. "Thanks, that… means a lot."
An elated feeling made her heart flutter and she animatedly joined the conversation.
. . . .
The first class of that day was Defense Against the Dark Arts, which everyone was excited about. Mad-Eye Moody was known to be a good Auror and likely more competent than Lockart or Quirrel had been. Rumors were flying about what he had brought for their first class. By the time they made it to the class, having snagged the front row seats, whispers of dementors being in the class were traveling around the classroom.
The rumors were only half right. Moody had told them of the curriculum they would be quickly covering, which included knowledge of the Unforgivable Curses, resisting the Imperius Curse and Confundus Charm, learning the basics of Occlumency to be gone in depth their seventh year, sharpening senses to be able to pick up traces of Dark magic, and possibly learning more advanced defense charms such as the Patronus.
The first lesson had already started them on the vigorous track of learning. After a demonstration of the Unforgivable Curses he split the class into pairs to learn how to protect the mind. One partner was to put the other under a Truth Spell, which enabled them to prod the other person's mind for the answer to a question they asked a loud, while the other tried to block their partner from seeing their thoughts.
"This is impossible!" Alicia cried after she admitted that she thought Roger Davies, captain of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team was unbelievably gorgeous, and confirmed it three times to a very angry Angelina. "And stop asking me that! Everyone thinks he's hot!"
"Yeah but he's the Ravenclaw team captain, you can't go around fancying him!"
After that Alicia partnered with George, leaving Angelina with Fred.
"Ladies first." Fred said with mock politeness.
"Fine." Angelina said.
"What's your favorite place in the whole world?" He raised his wand and cast a nonverbal Truth Spell.
Angelina tried to focus on keeping her mind blank, but the sheet of white was interrupted by flashes of color. Focus, focus, focus, focus! Her determination gave way as a short memory was forced to her mind.
"This is where I come when I just want to think."
The two of them were lying in a field of white daisies. They were in the middle of a large field, that stretched as far as they could see from where they were. Angelina looked up at the clouds, noting the beautiful weather, which they had previously taken advantage of by racing through the empty country on broomsticks until they reached the spot.
"What do you think about?" Fred turned to face her, his hazel eyes focused on her.
"Anything, anything I want. My mind's free to wander, sometimes I think about Hogwarts, sometimes Quidditch, and sometimes I think about you guys, and what you would do without me." She laughed.
"And do you think about me?"
A butterfly landed on her cheek and she put her finger out and it crawled on. She turned to him and transferred it onto his nose. They both laughed.
"Of course I think about you."
Then the image of them faded away until it was taken place by the classroom. Fred still had his wand pointed at her, with a slightly confused expression on his face that he quickly changed into the usual teasing smile.
"And why wouldn't you?"
Angelina laughed nervously, glad that he was willing to laugh it off. Fred extended his hand to help her off the floor; the force of his spell had caused her to fall and crash into a desk. He put the desk back in place.
After class they headed back to the Gryffindor common room.
"Don't you have a class to go to?" Lee asked.
"Nope." Alicia answered. "We failed our Divination O.W.L.s. Oh and we dropped Muggle Studies and History of Magic, we were drowning in unfinished homework. So without Quidditch and a considerably lighter load of homework, everything should be much easier."
"Great! Who's up for Exploding Snap?" Lee said enthusiastically.
Angelina looked out the window at the clear blue sky. "No, you go ahead. It's such a great day to fly and I've been in Paris all summer, you don't get many chances to fly in Muggle-crowded cities. Does anyone want to come with me?"
She caught Fred's eye and for a moment she wondered if he would remember all the times they had flown together that summer. Her heart raced, thinking about soaring through the stretched expanse of blue sky with their laughter echoing in the empty hills. "Sure, it'll be good to get some fresh air before we descend to the dungeons for double Potions later."
. . . .
Five minutes later Angelina and Fred had kicked off the field of the Quidditch pitch and were rising up in the air. Having been in a crowded city all summer it was a great relief to be back outdoors and breathe in the fresh air. She spiraled up into the sky, her eyes bright with excitement.
"Are you up for a race?" She asked, flying in circles around him at a dizzying pace.
"You're on." Fred shot off like a bullet from a gun.
"Just like old times." Angelina was speeding along next to him with ease. She laughed, and the sound echoed on the grounds. Her dark hair was streaming behind her and the light danced in her eyes, instantly transforming her.
Fred gave her a wry smile. "Exactly." He leaned forward and flew on ahead of her, swooping over the Whomping Willow and weaving through its branches.
"If I remember correctly," Angelina pulled up next to him. "then that means I'm going to win this race by a landslide."
"Clearly you remembered wrong." Fred replied, with his trademark smirk.
Both of them soared over the greenhouses, causing many first years to drop their Mandrake's in surprise as they watched them dive down towards the glass roof, only to pull up at last second and glide on ahead. Angelina managed to get ahead of him when they reached the Hufflepuff tower. She did two successive flips and stuck her tongue at him as she accelerated.
With Fred now close behind him she weaved through the statues of the four founders of the school perched atop the Astronomy tower. By the time they reached the lake he had zoomed ahead of her. He looked down and leaned forward, preparing himself for a steep dive. Just before impact he straightened the angle of his broom.
He looked behind at a slightly angry looking Angelina and gave her a well-you-asked-for-it look as he skimmed over the surface, his fingers trailing in the water. The giant squid raised its tentacles out of the lake, reaching for them. They skillfully dodged and ducked its suckers and with the wind whipping their faces, continued on flying.
They flew another lap around the school grounds before the sparkling lake came back to view. "Catch me if you can!" Angelina, now ahead of him once again, yelled.
"I'll have to take you up on that invitation." Fred leaned forward, urging his broom to go yet even faster.
He rocketed forward and drew level to her, smiling and showing off his even white teeth. Unable to go any faster, Angelina rolled her eyes and leaned to the left, forcing him to one side. If he felt any awkwardness about the fact that her body was pressed against his as they angled off course towards the edge of the lake, Fred didn't let on. He cut across her path and flew ahead of her.
"Playing dirty are we?" He gave her a smug look. "I didn't know you'd have to stoop that low Ange."
Angelina narrowed his eyes at him, now slits of anger. "I—told—you—to—NEVER CALL ME ANGE!" Her broom shot forward.
Not even bothering to notice the fact that they were flying over a lake inhabited by a giant (and giant meaning big for a giant) squid, she tackled him. After falling in what felt like slow motion, they were submerged into the cool waters. A large pink tentacle wrapped itself around them, forcing their heads to collide painfully, and threw them out of the water.
Slightly dazed, Angelina sat up. A second later their broomsticks flew out of the water. Fred caught his and ducked as hers whacked her in the head. "Are you okay?" He asked, stifling a laugh.
"Fine, but you aren't going to be!" She punched his shoulder. "How many times— do I have to tell you—" She continued to pummel him. "I hate, hate, it when you call me that!" She continued hitting him. Fred continued laughing and she shoved his chest, so that he was lying on the grass, with her leaning over. "Oh, shut up!"
"Give it up, Ange." She glowered at him. "Sorry, Angelina, but you know I still beat you, trying to get the squid to finish me off didn't change that."
Both of them laughed and Angelina lay down next to him in the shade of the large tree they were under.
"Hey Fred! Angelina!" Both of them looked up to see Caroline leaning out of the small window in their dorm. She giggled. "You have fifteen minutes until Double Potions, you should probably hurry on back."
"Thanks Caroline!" Angelina yelled back. "We better go."
"See you in class." Fred mounted his broom and flew up to the large open window of the common room and disappeared.
Angelina flew to the window that the other girls were probably spying through. Indeed, when she threw the curtains open Alicia and Caroline jumped back guiltily and looked sheepish. "I so saw that." She said, pulling off her wet robes.
"Well we'll see you in Potions." Alicia and Caroline walked out. "But you are so giving me details later!" Alicia whispered as she passed.
Angelina changed into dry clothes and stuffed her books into her bag. Smiling to herself, she hurried out of their dorm down to the dungeons for Potions, where disaster was awaiting her.
Please let me know what you think, even if you hate it. My English is American though, so I wasn't sure which words were supposed to be spelled differently or changed, please don't hold it against me! Please review!