Chapter 4
The next few days went excruciatingly slow for Lily. She knew how she really felt now, but she couldn't say or do anything about it.
She was stuck. She couldn't tell him how she felt, in fear of losing him altogether; but she felt that if she kept it to herself she would explode.
Despite her feelings, she kept going as usual. As if she didn't have these feelings for Fred. As if she didn't want to kiss him every single time he smiled. As if she could be totally content with being just friends. It didn't really help that she had Herbology with him that day either.
"Lily...hello...LILY!" Fred snapped his fingers just inches away from her face.
"Huh? What?" she said after Fred pulled her out of her thoughts and back into reality.
"Are you even paying attention?" he laughed, fully knowing she wasn't.
"Yes...of course I am," Fred raised an eyebrow at her, "okay, okay, no I wasn't listening in the sense of actually hearing what Professor Sprout was saying,"
Fred let out a chuckle.
"Honestly Lily, you're bloody hopeless!" he grinned. "your Snargalpuff is trying to get its pod back."
Lily looked at her Snargalpuff as a vine swiped at her before sliding back into the soil.
"Why do I even need to learn this?" she said throwing her hands in the air.
"Come on Lil, don't just give up," Fred said. He tried to take Lily's hand, but she jumped and pulled it back.
"What's up? It's not like I've never touched your hand before,"
"I know, sorry, I'm just a little jumpy," she said holding out her hands for him to take them. He held them in his and placed them under the enormous pod. He traced her hand softly over the shell. He was so close she could see the flecks of green in his dark blue eyes. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek.
Lily was getting lost in his eyes, so she looked down at their hands. To her, her hands in his, was right. How it should be.
She looked back up at him, and he gazed back at her. For a moment, she swore she saw a sparkle in his eye as he looked at her.
"Weasley! Scoring with Scott! Nice!" Hector Bardeau, a Ravenclaw, shouted across the classroom before wolf-whistling.
"Oh shut it Bardeau!" Fred shouted back at him and pulling away from Lily.
She felt so stupid. What did she think she was doing? She should've been more careful.
When class ended, Lily rushed out of the room before Fred had finished putting his books away. That was their last class of the day, so Lily went straight to the quad. She sat down on one of the stone seats and thought about, surprise, surprise, Fred.
What was she doing? Fred was her best friend.Why was she risking it all? If something were to happen between them that would cause even the slightest rift in their friendship, she could lose George too.
She had to snap out of it. She had to get over him.
"I don't get it! It was like she didn't even wanna talk to me today," Fred explained to George as they walked toward the Gryffindor common room.
"Maybe it's just her time of month?" George said, trying - and failing – to figure out why Lily could possibly be ignoring Fred. Fred just gave George a 'really George?' look "just trying to help,"
"There's gotta be a proper reason. Have I done anything offensive to her lately?"
"Don't think so mate. Why is this bugging you so much? She's having an off day, it'll be fine,"
"Yeah I spose,"
"Maybe...nah, that would NEVER happen," George thought, making Fred stop in his tracks.
"Maybe what?" Fred demand.
"Maybe she likes you!" George teased. Fred turned nearly as red as his hair.
"What? No that's ridiculous," Fred said defensively.
"I know who would be interested in you?" George elbowed Fred in the gut lightly, "everyone knows I got the looks,"
They both laughed and George started telling George a story about his potions class, even though Fred wasn't listening. He had other things on his mind. Things that were always on his mind, even if he didn't know it. Things that made him smile without realising it.
No, not things. A girl.
A girl named Lily Scott.
The more he thought about it, the more he realised just how much he liked her. He didn't even know that he liked the little things about her. But he started noticing it now.
He noticed that he liked the way her loose black curls draped over her shoulders when she walked. He liked her laugh, even though it was more of a giggle. He liked the way her nose crinkled up when she was mad. He liked the way she takes tiny bites of her food. He liked the way she came to him when she was sad, so he could comfort her and tell her it was going to be okay.
He couldn't help but feel that 'like' wasn't a strong enough word. He didn't /like/ any of those things. He loved all of them.
And he could deny it all he liked. He could pretend he didn't know. He could act completely oblivious to it. He could even try to ignore it, but he knew.
He was fully aware that he was falling for his best friend.