"Bri, you need to stop doing this." Bri removed her head from the book she fell asleep on last night, and looked up at Kylee. "What? Doing what, I'm not doing anything." Kylee lowered her head down to Bri's and looked her dead in the eye menacingly. "Really?" Bri groaned and sat up, shaking her head. Over the last few months, she had been going through a sort of withdrawal. She went to the library more, often falling asleep while reading. Reading was like her comfort thing, it made all the feeling go away, replaced by a dully-throbbing numbness. She missed Fred, more than she cared to admit.

She didn't know that Kylee was going through the same type of withdrawal, just not as painful, and she hid it well. No one really knew, except for Brittany, who had found her crying in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. Yet Kylee still comforted Bri and shook her out of missing-Fred-ness. She was awesome like that. "Bri? It's time for class now." Bri bolted up from her chair and started fussing with her hair and clothes, straitening them and chastising Kylee for not waking her sooner.

Everyone had already finished their NEWT's, but the 5th years still had to take OWL's and the other years had to take THEIR finals, so the 7th years weren't even doing anything in class except anxiously waiting for their NEWT grades to be released and filling out job applications to varying places, but Bri only wanted one job: She wanted to work with Fred and George at their shop.

She didn't know when she decided this exactly, but she knew she wanted to help them out with their shop SOMEHOW. She wanted it and she wanted it BADLY. Kylee filled out a healer application and a Weasley's Wizard Wheezes application, as well. She thought working at the shop would be cool. They had another month left of school, and then the girls were all going to buy an apartment together somewhere near Diagon Alley. Kylee and Bri had gone apartment hunting just a few weeks ago on a break, and had reported their findings back to Brittany and Leslie. They had it narrowed down to two places.

The days went by agonizingly slow, with the only thing of relative excitement being that last Quidditch match of the season (Gryffindor lost to Ravenclaw by 40 points) and then it was the last day. It went by pretty smoothly, only pausing for Bri when all the 7th years got their NEWT's back. Here's Bri's next to Kylee's:

Bri Kylee

Potions: O O

Transfiguration: O O

Herbology: O O

Care of Magical Creatures: O O

Divination: E A

Charms: O O

Defense against the Dark Arts: O O

History of Magic: E O

Arithmacy: O E

Bri was reasonably pleased with her NEWT scores, so she left Hogwarts with a peace of mind. The train ride wasn't depressing like people said it was going to be, because all of her best friends were either going to LIVE WITH HER, or were going to live close to her. It's not like they were leaving FOREVER.

Bri really couldn't wait to go to Fred and George's shop and interview and all that jazz, but Kylee and Leslie and Brittany insisted on getting the apartment done and handled before ANYTHING ELSE. So they did! They found the cutest apartment, GET THIS, two blocks away the shop! It was a match made in heaven!

It had a little kitchen, two bathrooms, 4 bedrooms, a living room, and a dining room half merged into the living room. Plus, with a four way split down the rent, it was going to be pretty cheap rates for all four of them. They moved in right away, but they cleaned out the place first. It hadn't been used in YEARS, and there were doxies and bogarts and pixies all over the place in cabinets and curtains and closets and cupboards.

The essential cleaning out took longer than the moving in did. Since they had all lived with their parents with one room for their entire lives, they didn't have that much stuff to move with. Then, they had to go shopping. Then they had to coordinate colors. THEN they had to do this, and that, and this, and that! Brianna just wanted to move in and then go see Fred!

They were all coming home from yet ANOTHER shopping endeavor when an owl tapped on their apartment window. Kylee got it, and came into Bri's room smiling. "Yea, Kylee?" "It's for you!"

Bri patiently awaited Fred at the corner by Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Shop, ready to see him for the first time in months. She had so much to tell him, and although she was super excited, she had to hide it. She was mad at him for not telling her about their plans. Yes, she was head girl supreme, but could they really not trust her?

Fred finally turned the corner to where Bri was waiting, but he wasn't alone. He had a beautiful girl with him, long legs, silvery hair, and rosy cheeks. She looked like a discount veela, but that didn't make her any less beautiful. Brianna didn't know what to expect when he wrote saying he wanted to meet her there, but she sure as heck didn't expect that. Bri, already somewhat emotional unstable, left the corner before Fred could see her.

Being the stalker that she was, Bri waited just out of his eyesight and watched him get a table. She watched him interact with the girl; it didn't seem like they were dating, but Fred wasn't an average person, so she couldn't be sure. So, she left and was very upset the next couple of days. She saw advertisements for the shop EVERYWHERE, and her friends were all talking about it. They could tell she was upset about SOMETHING, which they weren't expecting after her meeting with Fred. She should've been all bubbly.

Fred attempted to correspond with her again, but she didn't respond. Being a fellow Gryffindor graduate (or so he said, his reasoning was ENTIRELY different) he went over to the girl's apartment to check on her. Kylee answered the door and her face went through some odd varying emotions.

"BRI! IT'S…" Her voice trailed off and Fred eyed her suspiciously. After several seconds….. "WHO IS IT?" Kylee thought hard for a moment. Fred considered supplying his name, but….

"IT'S GINNY WEASLEY!" "WHY WOULD GINNY WANT ME?" "I DON'T KNOW, COME GET THE DOOR!" Bri ran to the entry way and looked over at the door. Her eyes narrowed. "You lied." Kylee acted hurt. "No, no I didn't! Ginny left… A few seconds ago! Fred JUST got here, I didn't even know he was coming!" Then Kylee ran to her room and locked the door before Bri could kill her.

Fred entered the apartment and Bri backed away, eying her bedroom door like she was about to bolt.

"Bri, are you mad at me? What did I do?" Fred looked significantly hurt. He seriously didn't know what he did wrong. Bri looked over at his sad face and sighed. "Look, Fred, what is this? Between us, I mean." Fred started and closed his mouth and repeated this process about 10 times before just giving up on the whole endeavor.

"Fred, if you don't know, then should we really be doing this?!" Bri paused and looked him straight in the eye. "Should we really go back and forth like this!?" Bri could feel tears pooling in her eyes. "It's killing both of us and you know it!" She paused. "So tell me! What is this?!" Fred looked up at her with a lot of pain in his eyes, wishing that they could just be together. So he said one simple thing:

"Bri, all I know is that I love you. That's all it ever was and that's all it ever will be." Bri felt the tears begin to spill over and ran to Fred, hugging him fiercely, as if she'd never let him go. Fred hugged her back and buried his head in her hair, before pulling back slightly and kissing her gently. When they broke the kiss off seconds later, they smiled at each other before leaving to go get some long awaited ice cream.

"Oh, I CANNOT believe you thought Verity was my date! No, no, you've got it all wrong!" Bri raised an eyebrow at this but continued watching Fred talk with exaggerated hand motions, as he always did. "No, Verity came with me to tell you how fun working in the shop is! See, I sort of had this idea of you working at the shop…" Bri stopped licking her ice-cream at this and put up a hand.

"Wait, wait, did you not get my application?" Fred shook his head. "Wait, you sent in an appli-"Bri put up another hand until Fred stopped talking. "Yea, I did, but how did you not get it? Fred shrugged and went back to eating his ice-cream without a care in the world, and then he paused and said, "You're hired, if you were wondering, me and George-" "George and I." Fred waved it off.

"Yeah, yeah, George and I talked it over last night. Verity is only here for a few more weeks and then she's going back to Bulgaria-"Odd, Bri thought, considering she looked like a veela. "So we'll have two spots. You're getting hired NOW, but George is hiring someone else we both know that also sent in an application, except, in this instance, we actually RECEIVED it." Bri smiled at this, but then thought about who the other applicant might be. I think we ALL know who it was.

Bri started work the next week after getting COMPLETELY settled (housemates request) and when she did, it was brilliant. Fred immediately brought her to the backroom and got her started on making things, because apparently Verity was all smiles and waving and no brains (no surprises there) and talked her through most of the products. She started small with the Skiving Snackboxes and some Wonder Witch stuff, like minor love potions. They were truly outstanding, each product was unique and complex and worked almost perfectly (ALMOST) and Bri picked it up almost instantly.

Fred came back with her and worked with her for a few hours, then he and George switched, and then they were both back on the floor. Summer is a really popular time for them; they were constantly coming back and walking her through making stuff they were out of, of grabbing more boxes of stuff off of the MANY shelves in the backroom. Verity came back in one instance and seemed EXTREMELY put off, like she didn't like Bri for some unknown reason.

She came in during Fred and George's lunch hour (Verity and Bri's came after theirs, but working during the twin's lunch hour was surprisingly taxing) and grabbed a few boxes but stopped on her way back to the floor, looked over her shoulder, and pff'd. Bri looked up from what she was currently working on (Puking Pastille's) and saw her SASHAYING away from the door before it swung shut by itself.

Bri just shook it off the first time and went back to her work, but then Verity came in again for NO REASON at ALL and just watched her work for a few minutes before scoffing and going back to the floor. Bri looked around for a second before thinking, she's not just allowed to LEAVE like that, is she? By the time the twins came back and Verity left to go eat lunch who knows where, Fred stopped Bri and told her that he had bought her something while he was out with George so they could talk over some of the products she would be making later.

They did NOT just talk. (A/N: IT WAS JUST KISSING, THAT'S ALL, I SWEAR!)

By the time the day ended, Bri was pretty tired out. She had ran around looking for ingredients and had to go out onto the floor with NO INSTRUCTION OR TRAINING WHATSOEVER because Fred accidentally spilled something toxic on himself and had to get it off. The whole ordeal actually only took 20 minutes, which is pretty short when you remember that he had boils all over him, but 20 minutes could be pretty challenging at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.

Verity came into the backroom at the end of the day and said goodbye to Fred and George with a kiss on the cheek to each of them ("It's a custom in Bulgaria" Fred had argued later. Yeah, Bri had MET a Bulgarian during her 6th year. Yeah, NOT a custom, Fred!), scoffed (AGAIN) at Bri, and then left.
"Wow, what did you do to HER?" George whistled. "I've never seen her so put off." Fred nodded in agreement. Bri laughed and then frowned, realization dawning on her. They leaned forward. "What is it?" They asked in the same mischievous voices, which they hadn't done in so long it broke Bri out of her reverie and made her laugh loudly and obnoxiously, making them join in as well.

They didn't know Verity was outside the store looking in the back window at their gleeful faces, anger bubbling within her."

The next morning Bri bolted out of bed, hurriedly got ready, and almost skipped out on breakfast if Kylee hadn't threatened to erase the hard drive on Bri's desktop computer if skipping meals became a regular thing, as she had done the same thing the previous morning. Bri had gulped and sat down quickly and panicky and almost spilled the pancake syrup all over her magenta uniform. The girls at the table all laughed, and after a few moments of trying (and failing) to pretend to be put off, Bri joined them and it seemed like just another breakfast after a great sleepover.

Bri could get used to this.