Entry for the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition – Round 5. Wigtown Wanderers vs. Wimbourne Wasps

Prompt: (setting) Zonko's Joke Shop [Hogsmeade Box]

Minimum Word Count: 900

A big thank you to my teammates Firefly and Lynn, who betaed this :)

Just Another Saturday At Zonko's

Fay Dunbar had no idea what devil had rode her to spend her Hogsmeade day at Zonko's Joke Shop. She most definitely wasn't the kind of person who was interested in the product palette of Zonko's. To be exact, Fay never had felt the urge to play a prank on anyone in her whole life. Therefore, she hadn't been surprised when her best friend and dorm-mate, Leandra, had stared at her with a mixture of shock and disbelief written all over her face when Fay had announced that she would pay a visit to the local joke shop. Originally, the two of them had planned stick to their ordinary Hogsmeade routine – a short visit at Honeydukes to restock their chocolate and sweet stash, Tomes and Scrolls for the newest literature, and a butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks.

However, when they had entered the small wizarding village situated in the shadow of the castle on this Saturday, Fay had felt the urge to go to Zonko's. She knew that her best friend would give her a lecture later, because she knew exactly Fay was heading for the joke shop. It was the same reason why Fay always tried to be in the Gryffindor common room in the evening, and why she always tended to forget about the book in her lap to stare at one particular corner of the room.

Since her second year at Hogwarts, Fay Emilia Dunbar had a serious crush on Fred Weasley, the famous school prankster.

But of course, Fay had never had the courage to ever speak to him, and if she was honest with herself, she was convinced that he didn't even know she existed. Because, how should he know when she always stood in the background, too shy and introverted to step forwards and let people see the girl behind the facade of demureness.

Somewhere deep inside of her, she had hope that he would miraculously see her one day if she just kept appearing near him. Certainly, she knew that this was delusional and overly romantic, but she couldn't help it. Somehow, she always ended up doing these tiny, hopeless things no matter how many times she had told herself that it was time to stop and try to get over her crush.

And for a short time, it had even seemed like she would succeed. She had started to take part in the Gobstone Club and had tried not to sit near him at the house table. However, when she had decided that she wanted to do something physical, she had failed to recognize that it was a bad idea to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team. Later she had asked herself why she had been unable to think of who was playing in that very team?! That goddamn try-out session had marked the downfall of her plan to forget about Fred Weasley, as her feelings had rushed back to her the second she had seen his gorgeous smile.

So she had fallen back into her old behavioural patterns.

The next morning, she started to search for places in his line of sight again, wanting so desperately for him to notice her that she even tried to coincidentally walk down the corridor he had to take to get to his next class.

And ultimately, all of that explained why she stood between the shelves filled with Dungbombs and Frog Spawn Soaps, staring at the tall boy on the other side of the shop while feeling more than a little pathetic. All she had done during the last half hour was stare at Fred while simultaneously trying to appear to be interested in the goods that were for sale. She was more than aware of the odd glances the shopkeeper was throwing her from time to time, and so she tried to change her location as often as possible. The last thing she wanted was to be thrown out in front of Fred because she looked a little bit too much like she was waiting for the best opportunity to steal something. Seriously, her life was already embarrassing enough. Leandra never failed to point out how useless and in vain all these things she did were. And if there was one thing that Fay hated, it was to be in an embarrassing situation while having salt scattered onto the wound.

Therefore, she tried her best to appear as relaxed as she could, keeping her hands away from her pockets when she acted as if she was interested in a particular product. All the while, she never succeeded in tearing her gaze away from Fred, who was standing in her line of sight on the other side of the shop, inspecting a package of Hiccough Sweets closely. She could feel how her knees happened to be momentarily weaker when she witnessed how he ran one hand through his fiery hair. An absent-minded smile was curling his lips as he read the backside of the package, and Fay was so absorbed by the sight that she forgot about her surroundings.

Of course, this wasn't good at all.

Since Fay paid no attention to where she was stepping as she attempted to change her position again, the catastrophe that followed was inevitable.

It all happened too fast to allow Fay to react in any possible way. Before she could even understand why it had occurred at all, she was sitting on the floor. Scattered all around her were the contents of the shelf she had been standing next to. Pain was searing through the left half of her body, but it seemed like nothing in comparison when she saw how George Weasley jumped from the floor to her left. He was howling in pain, and her eyes widened in shock when she saw how he stumbled backwards, several Nose-Biting Teacups assaulting him.

Obviously, she had managed to bump into George, whom she hadn't noticed to be standing next to her. And then, the two of them had knocked over a display next to them, which had held the packages with the Nose-Biting Teacups. Upon crashing on the floor with the two Gryffindors, some of these packages had opened, and their assaulting content had been freed.

Fay felt the stares of the shopkeeper and several other customers on her, and she could sense that she had started to blush, redder than a tomato. So much for staying unobtrusive. Shame and anger mixed within her, and she wished it was somehow possible to sink into the ground to escape this embarrassment.

Suddenly, she heard a calm and friendly voice above her, and she looked up, immediately knowing that it couldn't be the shopkeeper.

"Are you okay?"

Fred Weasley was grinning down at her while offering her his hand. It surprised her how amused he seemed to be about the situation. If she was honest, she wouldn't have been so relaxed if someone had bumped into her sister like this, causing such a havoc.

"Uh... I... I think I am," Fay stuttered lowly, and she was extremely sure that her blush was only becoming more and more obvious, especially now as she took Fred's hand. When he pulled her to her feet, she was convinced he could feel how much his presence and touch made her shake.

"I would give you a 7.5 because the landing wasn't as polished as it could have been," the red-head winked. This caused Fay to expect to meet the floor again, as his words, his grin and the fact that he was wiping some dust off her shoulders caused her to experience weak knees again. How she wished she was able to shoot a cocky comeback at him, something to show him that she wasn't as shaken up by this as she must appear to be. However, her only real answer was an attempted smile, which turned out to be rather crooked.

Meanwhile, her flight instinct started to kick in, causing her to slowly back off from the scene of chaos and minor destruction. Her cheeks felt as if they were on fire as she met the annoyed and slightly angry gaze of the shopkeeper, something that only fuelled her urge to start running. Fast and far.

"I... I am so sorry..." she mumbled, adding some incoherent words before dashing out of the shop, hearing George exclaim behind her: "Fred, stop staring! Help me instead; these things are chewing on my ass!"

And in that moment, Fay swore herself that she would stop trying to get noticed by Fred Weasley. To her, the humiliation wasn't worth it, and today had proved that.

Yes, she would stop.

Hopefully.