It was early December and you and Ginny had left for Hogsmede together. I'd gone with George and Rose-marie that weekend, our supply of dungbombs needed replacing if we were to have the prank we'd been working on. Plus Rose-marie wanted to update her sweet collection, for such a slim girl she sure as hell had a sweet tooth.
After we (Me and George) had spent all of our money, we began walking back the castle. That was until Rose-marie grabbed my sleeve, dragging me towards a very prettily done window display.
"I need to go in here" she said, dragging me along with her. I revelled in the fact she hadn't asked George but that's what Rose-marie did, chose me over George. I assumed it was because George only spoke about Angelina and it was enough to make your ears bleed sometimes. Never the less, I let my heart give its little somersault of victory and carried on.
"A dress shop?" I questioned her from outside.
"Yes, very observant of you Freddie" she said in a patronising voice, like she was with a child and not a 16 year old boy.
"Why are you dragging me into a dress shop, Rosie?" since she'd insisted on calling me Freddie and George Georgie, we'd seen it only fair to give her a little nickname.
"Because I need a dress, I thought that would be obvious" she smiled back at me, still attempting to drag me through the doors.
"Yeah, I'd gathered as much, but why me." I said about as sarcastically and pleadingly as I could. "Why not your date?" and I was proud of how little of my worry showed through my voice.
"Because I don't have a date yet and I've heard about as much about Angelina today than I can stomach."
"You've not got a date?" I was about as shocked as you could be. Here she was Rose-marie Greengrass, oldest 'child' of the Malfoy's, hair like chocolate, eyes brighter than the sky and legs that went on forever. Who wouldn't want to go with her? "You've got the Dumstrang boy's staying in your house quarters and you've not got a date? How have none of them asked you"
"They have" she replied once we were inside "And I made the wise and mature choice to say no to them all."
"All?" now I was getting jealous "how many have asked?" she smiled at me kindly, but her eyes were filled with mischief when she answered.
"Eight or nine" just as I opened my mouth to reply, I saw a certain brunette wander in to the shop with a familiar redhead by her side. "Isn't that your sister" Rose-marie said turning to look at me, only to find I was gone. "Oh, well that's just charming" she exclaimed, drawing the attention of the two girls.
"Excuse me?" Ginny said lowering the first dress she was examining while Hermione tried her first choice on.
"I said that dress looks charming" Rose-marie replied with her kindest smile, not the one I got to see, me and George, but the one that would make you believe anything. It's probably the smile that someone wears just before the kill someone, but Ginny just blushed and continued looking at the dress. I could never understand how quickly Rose-marie could save herself in these situations; maybe it was a Slytherin thing. "You should get it" she added, and with a nod, Ginny disappeared into the changing room beside yours.
"Who are you talking to Gin" you said when you walked out wearing a long yet, dare I say, boring green dress. The kind of dress that would go very easily overlooked.
"That was me" Rose-marie said, waving a hand before your face "that dress is beautiful" she said with a voice that clearly meant she had more to say.
"But?" you added cautiously, but the sweet smile never left Rose-marie's face.
"But" she said holding a finger out "I think this one would look better" and she held before you the very dress you wore to the Yule Ball. You gave her a nervous smile, clearly not sure if you should wearing something so eye catching, before turning back into the dressing room.
She left then, disappeared out of the shop before either of you had finished trying the dresses on. I'd managed to walk out unnoticed a few seconds later, meeting a rather disappointed looking Rose-marie on the street. She had her arms crossed over her chest, her hair flickering around her face from under her blue hat.
"Now that" she said pointing towards the shop, her fingers white and looking extremely cold "Was just rude"
"The last place I want to be caught by my sister, is in a dress shop" I replied with a cocky smile, one that usual stopped her being mad or sulking, this time it didn't seem to be working.
"Didn't want to be seen in the shop" she said "or with a certain person in the shop"
"Rosie" I replied "You don't honestly think I don't want to be seen with you" but she didn't seem to believe me, she wasn't looking at me anymore, her arms crossed again as she scuffed at the ground. It reminded me of the time I'd asked her to Hogsmede and she'd accused me of pranking her. I understand why that upset her now, but I couldn't understand why this was bothering her. It seemed that Rose-marie Greengrass was a girl you had to figure out as you went along.
"It's plausible"
"No its not" I said and the tone of my voice must have been new because it made her look at me, shock hidden in the light blue of her eyes. "I hid because I wanted to ask something I didn't want to say in front of my little sister"
"Oh? And what was that then?" she spat, looking away once again as she became very interested in the bakery across the street.
"I wanted to ask you to the Yule Ball" I spat back just as harshly. Snapping her head round so quickly it not have hurt, she glowered at me, her eyes filled with half anger, half shock.
"You are joking?" she said somewhat softer, and I couldn't ward off the stab of pain that shot through me.
"When have I ever joked about asking you out" and we both smiled at a memory of two teenagers one year ago having a similar argument.
"I thought you didn't see me that way anymore?" she questioned, even when she had said she didn't see me that way in the first place, she told me I was like a brother to her, something I had to return to avoid getting angry or shouting or worse. "Okay" she said, even when I didn't reply and I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows at her, a soundless question she'd learned to understand from me. "I'll go with you" and that time I couldn't help myself, I threw my arms around her shoulders, revelling in the speed in which she hugged me back.
I don't know how long the embrace lasted, all I knew was I finally had my date, and I only had three weeks to listen to George labour on about a girl to me who wasn't Angelina.
"That's who that was!" Hermione exclaimed "I asked Ginny and she didn't know either" she fell back against the headrest of the sofa, her eyes closed "I swore I saw you with her at the Yule ball, but Ginny said I was 'emotionally exhausted' and so I played it off as nothing. I knew it though!" Fred just smiled at her. He knew how hard it used to be for Hermione Granger not to know something, how it used to plague her mind until she found the answer, this little revelation from her was a little window to the past, a view of Hermione how she used to be, Hermione before the war.
"Do you need a minute?" the redhead asked sarcastically, poking at the brunette's cheek, almost as if to check she was alive.
"No I don't" she answered, batting away his hand like a cat with a fly. "I need to hear more about you and this girl" she said as she sat forward again with a raised eyebrow. At some point Hermione had pulled her hair back into a pony tail, any will to tame it the way she usually did was lost. Her face was clear of makeup and she was still wearing her pyjamas, an image that wanted to make Fred laugh, but instead he smiled fondly at the memory of the Yule Ball he spent with the girl he grieved.
"As you wish my lady" he said cockily, faux bowing towards her which, when sat on a sofa, proved a challenge
Christmas Eve, 1994, the Yule ball. This was the night where we could, as McGonagall said, let our hair down. I was waiting by the fountain in the courtyard where I'd picked Rose-marie up for our first date. The air was cold but I didn't mind it really. Call me a girl, but what worried me right now was what Rose-marie thought of what I was wearing. I knew she didn't want to be Slytherin, but to me, it was apart of who she was, a pariah of sorts. So to compliment that, call me crazy but I decided to go to the Yule Ball in the Slytherin colours.
So there I stood, at 7:53 in the freezing cold wearing black shoes, grey trousers, a white shirt under a green waistcoat and since I didn't have time to charm it a different colour, my black robes. My hair I had neglected, same as George since, well, we didn't know what to do when it came to hair, we just woke up and let it do its own thing.
"You're early" said a voice from behind me, a soft yet snide voice I'd recognise anywhere. "We aren't supposed to be meeting until eight" I turned around and I honestly think I forgot how to breathe. There she was, Rose-marie Greengrass, my date, looking like an angel. It was hard to see in the dim light, but the candles shone through the doorway illuminating her figure perfectly, showing me enough of her dress to make my breath lodge in my throat.
She wore a long red dress that clung to all of her curves before fanning out ever so slightly. The dress didn't have any straps, showing me her pale, bare shoulders. The bodice was adorned with cursive embroidery of golden thread, followed by some golden jewels, her silver chain that usually held her family ring was still rested around her throat, but the ring was gone. Her brown hair looked shimmering gold in the dim light of the candles, but I could see how delicately she had curled it, pinned bits back and wrapped a small section with one red and one gold ribbon.
"Slytherin colours" she said pointing towards me and I saw the ring winking on her index finger, it was only there for a second and then it was gone, but the thought alone of her wearing her family ring to an event like this made my heart swell. "Cute"
"Gryffindor?" I asked and she blushed slightly.
"Shall we?" I said and this time, unlike our first date, she took my arm and allowed me to take her inside, towards the ball. It wasn't until that moment I realised how in sync our minds truly were, how much we were a team.
We were the third couple I think to join the dance floor, and due to me ditching my robe before we'd even began, we were greeted by gasps from most of the room and a knowing, proud look from Dumbledore as he danced with McGonagall.
The ball had begun to thin out by about 10:45 but Rose-marie and I didn't leave, we had, for some strange reason, promised to be the last to leave the Great hall.
"This is my first ball" Rose-marie said "and I don't doubt it to be my last, and I'd like to have one happy memory to look back on, so as to stop the others being hell" her voice was sad when she spoke, but I understood. Being a daughter, even if she adopted, of rich, former deatheaters must be a challenge, so may parties with people you don't and don't want to know.
"Fred?" said the soft voice of Rose-marie from where her head was lying on my chest. The song was slow and there wasn't really any other way to dance to it than with her head on my chest, her arm around my back with her other clasped in mine while my free hand sat tentatively over her waist, neither of us moving our feet, only swaying.
"Yes?" I replied, looking down at where her head was resting. Her eyes were closed, the pale gold shimmer of her eye makeup glittering in the white lit room.
"Why me?" she asked lightly, her eyes still closed as she spoke.
"Because you're my best friend besides George, and I wasn't bringing him" I said with a laugh.
"Why not a girl from your year, a girl you like in that way? not your friend." She replied earnestly, trying to gauge an answer out of me, one I didn't know.
"Because I don't see anyone like that" I said with a shrug, it was a lie but she seemed to believe it. She smiled slightly, I don't think I gave her the answer she was expecting or the one she wanted, but you never knew with Rose-marie, the girl was a mystery.
"Rosie?" I asked and she made a small sound of recognition before I spoke again. "Would you like to spend tomorrow with me and George in the Gryffindor tower?" her eyes opened then and they were staring up at me with disbelief. She had told me how she resented Christmas in the Slytherin common room, nearly everyone had rich parents or family members and so went home for the parties, leaving only her in her year with Draco and Pansy, a couple who were currently dancing a few feet away. Pansy looked so happy with her head on Draco's chest, her eyes staring at him, oblivious to how his eyes were following Rose-marie's every move.
"I'd love to" she half squealed, throwing her arms around my shoulders, something rare to receive from Rose-marie and something I realised she never gave to George. I didn't waste time in wrapping my arms around her waist and swinging her around so her feet left the floor.
She was laughing, as was I, the sound of her voice filling the entire Great hall with such immense joy it was over whelming. It was in that moment, with everyone's eyes on us, and her laugh the only sound in my ears that I realised I was in love with Rose-marie Greengrass, I didn't think I ever wouldn't be.
For once in this story, Hermione was silent. She didn't seem to have questions, and if she did, she didn't ask them straight away. She just looked at the redheaded man where he sat, arms rested on his legs, hands clasped together, staring solemnly at the floor.
He had smiled before at the memory, her laugh and her beauty, everything about her that night. But then the darkness crept in, shrouding his memories light. He didn't see the bright lights and the icicles, her saw the blood and flashes of spells, he didn't hear her laugh, he heard her final words. It was then that Fred realised what Rose-marie had meant by having one good memory to make the others bearable, but that one night in the great hall wasn't enough to shroud that dreadful night three years later.
"Why didn't you tell her?" Hermione said finally after what felt like hours of silence.
"She said I was just a friend" he replied with a shrug.
"Any girl who wears the colours of her rivalled house, doesn't do it for 'just a friend'" she retorted.
"Yeah, well that's what she told me"
"Did you believe her?"
"At the time, yes. It tore me apart to see her every day, but I never had a chance to speak to her about it. Not with Harry in the tournament, Cedric's death and you know who's return" he breathed out an agitated sigh, fisting his hands in his red hair and holding back a scream, a scream aimed at his younger self for not opening his eyes. "It wasn't until the following Christmas I even knew she liked me at all" he said with a smile, and so he began to continue his story.