A Friendship Broken
By Kukaburry
Chapter 4
Something soft smacked into Arie's unprotected head. She groaned and lifted her head from the bed, a pillow slid down the side of her face. "Whazzit?" She grumbled, looking around groggily.
"You're going out with Fred!" Angelina stood over her expectantly, brandishing another pillow threateningly. "Why didn't you tell me last night that you liked him?"
"Wait what?" Angelina wasn't making any sense to her. "Who's dating Fred?"
Smacking her head in defeat, Angelina sighed and said, "You are!"
A light bulb clicked in Arie's head and she rolled her eyes at her silliness. "Oh yeah, sorry it just happened last night." She stretched and rolled out of her warm covers. "Wait, how do you know that?"
"Everyone is talking about it. Becky went down to breakfast this morning and started telling everyone that you stole Fred from her," Angelina told her as though it weren't a big deal, "and she told us how you've been in love with him for over two years."
"She did what?" Arie roared, running to her trunk to change and ultimately tear Becky's limbs off. "She is so dead."
Angelina grabbed her arm mid-motion. "It's okay, everyone saw what happened yesterday. Becky got herself dumped. End of story."
"Oh," she straightened up and pushed back her hair. "Well then I'll just break a couple of bones then," she tossed a mischievous grin, "just for good measure."
"Okay, but before you do, tell me why you didn't let me know you liked Fred?" She frowned at Arie the way an older sister would. "We're quidditch buddies, I thought you would at least tell me when you were crushing on someone."
Sighing theatrically, Arie shrugged and said, "I dunno. I thought it might ruin my chances. I'm kind of superstitious about telling anyone who I like." Yes, it was a bold face lie, but she had to cover her ass somehow.
Angelina nodded. "I see." A huge grin spread over her face. "And now you're dating the guy you've been in love with for two years! That's so romantic."
A hollow pang shot through her chest. "Yeah, it's great," she said while gritting her teeth then tried to change the subject. "Is it lunch time yet?"
"Yeah, it's 12 now. You must have had a great night," she winked suggestively and turned around while Arie put on the newest dress her step mom had owled overnight. "It's so funny that you had a crush on Fred all this time and we were all thinking you were just asexual." She chuckled at the thought then added, "It was George who came up with that one and Fred had tried to defend you."
Suddenly Arie went from slightly annoyed to downright 'didn't want to hear any more about what George may or may not have said about her sexuality'. "Great, I'm ready. Let's go." It felt odd being this friendly with another girl. Basically, she and Angelina had been just teammates who had a laugh every once in a while. Most girls had written Arie off as a friend years ago, but Angelina stuck around.
"I love that dress!" Angelina clapped her hands eagerly. "What will your brothers think about you and Fred dating?" She asked suddenly.
Arie realized Angelina had a point. "Martin will probably try to kill him since they were on the team together for four years, and I think Richard will be pissed off that he isn't a Ravenclaw."
"Oh right, Martin is only two years older than you. That makes sense," she said airily. "I forgot."
"How did you forget? You knew him too," she pointed out. Angelina smiled sheepishly and shrugged.
"I have a bad memory for people. I didn't know Richard too did I?"
Arie shook her head, laughing. "No, Richard is four years older than Martin so he was out of school when we came in."
"I'll bet Richard is angry that all of his younger siblings are in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw," she chimed.
"You're right. I'm the opposite of him in talents, looks and intelligence," she frowned slightly while thinking of her brothers. They had both graduated with good grades and had gotten ministry jobs right out of school. Richard was now engaged to be married and Martin was waiting until he met the right girl before he settled down. 'They're so lucky.'
"Earth to Arie!" Angelina snapped fingers in front of her face. "Zone much?" Arie shook her head and smiled. "Thinking about snogging Fred?"
'Not exactly,' she thought while cringing inside. "Yeah. I haven't seen him in over ten hours." Her sarcasm was lost on Ang.
"You're right! Hey look, he's already waiting for you," she squeaked, practically dragging Arie over to the Gryffindor table where George sat snuggled up with Becky.
As she passed behind Becky, it took every fiber of Arie's being not to grab that blonde hair and pull it from its roots. She sat down slowly at Fred's right elbow and Ang sat down across from her. It took one dark, and bilious look for Fred to understand exactly how she felt. "It looks like everyone in the school knows about us," he whispered into her ear. "I think we should give Becky a lovely thank you present."
A surprised giggled bubbled out of her and she nodded in agreement. "I can't wait," she said in a normal voice, pretending that she and Fred had had a lover's conversation. Ang quirked her eyebrows from across the table. She took several strips of ham and sausage and stuffed them into her mouth as an excuse for ignoring everyone.
"Want to help me perfect our vanishing wands?" Fred asked with an amused expression on his face.
Arie inhaled, choked, and began coughing up every piece of food she had shoved into her mouth. Fred smacked her back and a large piece of half-chewed pork came flying out. Sexy... Arie looked out of the corner of her eye at George whose eyes were round as saucers before he began laughing.
"Wait, Arie deal with charms? Didn't she manage to charm Flitwick's toupee to the statue of Merlin by accident?" George asked incredulously, then hastily changed his tone when Fred began glaring at him. "We already have the charm mostly worked out, you shouldn't waste her time."
"That's why I want her to help. She's gifted at coming up with things out of the blue, maybe she can help us figure out why it doesn't stay vanished all the time," Fred replied sincerely.
Finally void of choking hazards, Arie piped up, "I think George is right. I might end up destroying your whole lot of wands."
Waving his hand, Fred replied, "No you won't. I'll only let you play with one wand at a time."
"That sounds dirty," Ang said while grinning.
"You are a natural-born pervert," Arie replied while blushing crimson.
She shrugged and continued to grin. "Whatever, I'm just saying out loud what you're thinking."
"You don't have to, I just thought it might be fun," Fred began hesitantly. Arie thought about it and decided that this was a great way to get George's attention. If she successfully helped Fred with the vanishing wands, then George might ask her to help him in the future. It was fool-proof.
She tugged on his sleeve and smiled. "No, I think it's a great idea. I'm looking forward to it."
Fred gave her a knowing look and smiled. "Cool, let's go after lunch." He turned his head and gave George a weird stare before returning to his meal.
As everyone left the great hall, Fred pulled Arie away from the crowd down a back passage. "Shh, this is our secret workshop," Fred whispered, sneaking from hidden passage to hidden passage. They finally arrived at a picture of Sir Francis the Courageous. Fred poked Sir Francis in his incredibly long nose then tugged on the long nosehairs and the portrait opened revealing a spacious workshop.
"This is your secret workshop that you always said didn't exist?" Arie cried in amazement. It was a truly a work of art. "How did you find it?"
A gleam of humor glimmered in Fred's eye. "It's nice, right? George and I found it in our fourth year while running away from Filch. It showed up on the Marauders map as a janitor's closet," he sat down on a dusty bench next to a pile of strange-looking wands.
"Why didn't either of you guys tell me about this place? It's so neat," she said in awe while looking at boxes of nosebleed naughts, canary creams, and extendable ears.
"Like George said, you're kind of a walking disaster," he laughed.
"I am not!" Arie growled in outrage, flinging out her arms and knocking over a box of fever fudge. "Whoops. Okay, fine, maybe I am. But that doesn't mean I can't try to control my body."
"Right, I'm sure that would happen. I brought you in here now, so why are you complaining?"
Arie sighed. "Well because you're only doing this to make George jealous."
A sneaky look crept onto Fred's face. "Well I have other reasons for bringing you in here," he said softly. Shivers ran up Arie's spine when Fred's look became heated. "I'm going to make you a master at charms."
Arie let out an exasperated breath. "Wait, what? That's your big reason for bringing me here?"
"Well, I doubt my mum would want me or George to date a girl who's flunking charms and Transfiguration, which are her favorite subjects," he said seriously.
She stamped her foot in protest. "I'm passing Herbology and Arithmancy. I'm the best student in History of Magic and um I think I passed my last Magical Creatures exam." She thought hard about any other class she might be doing well in, but drew a blank.
"Right, well if you want to get any job in the ministry then you'll have to know Transfiguration and Charms," he grinned, "I don't think they'll care that you knew how to memorize troll history."
"Hey, the other day at dinner Snape said that Ugg Trita Ma Na Ugg the VII, the first troll alchemist, was king of his village in 1623 and I corrected him and told him it was 1621."
"And where did that get you?" He asked sarcastically.
She blushed and replied, "Detention, but it was worth it."
Picking up a wand, Fred shook his head. "'Course it was. Now come over here and try to vanish this wand." He placed the wand on the center of the table. "I know we look like goof-offs, but we're good at this stuff. Our mum really would kill us if our girlfriends were rubbish at charms, especially simple ones."
She glared at him hard and stamped her foot again. "Fine. But I bloody hope I vanish your entire wand collection now."
"That's the spirit," Fred taunted.
Arie stomped over to the table next to Fred and whipped out her wand then stared at the stick on the table. She continued to stare for another minute until Fred coughed. "Shut up, I'm concentrating," she lied. How could she have forgotten the spell already?
Grinning from ear to ear, Fred guessed what her issue was. "You can't remember what it is, can you?"
"I said shut it," she snapped, turning red from anger and embarrassment. "I'm thinking."
"Gee Arie, I thought you were better than that," he pushed her buttons further.
"Fine! I don't know the stupid spell." She chewed on her lip, annoyed that he had made her admit it.
He shook his head. "If you don't know, you can just tell me. I'm not going to put you in detention." He put on his best Professor Snape face, "Arianna Williams, how dare you not know what a boar's tusk is used for. Detention for the rest of your life!" He threw his hand in the air theatrically and Arie smiled then began shaking with laughter.
"Thank Merlin I'm not in his class. How did you and George even make it in that class?"
"I told you, we're closet geniuses, don't tell anyone. It'll ruin our reputation," he looked around as though someone might be listening.
"You guys don't have a reputation," she countered. He pretended to look hurt and she shoved him with her hip. "Alright quit being a baby and tell me the spell."
"Alright, it's evanesco." He said very slowly, enunciating the 'sco' sound. She repeated it back to him and he nodded. "Go ahead and try it."
She lifted her arm and pointed it at the stick, "Evanesco!" The wand faded slightly, almost turning the color of the desk it laid on. "Hey! That was my best vanishing spell ever." She cheered. Turning to Fred with a surprised grin she said, "I can't believe I didn't come to you earlier for help. Maybe I would have done better on my charms O.W.L."
He shrugged, "Well you at least passed with an A."
"Right, that was after I begged the grader to let me try my sinking charm when I…"
"When you shrank the grader's clothes by accident!" Fred howled in laughter, remembering the incident very clearly.
"I sneezed in the middle of my charm!" She tried to defend herself.
Trying to catch his breath, Fred inhaled and calmed himself down. "I can't believe I forgot about that one. I'm going to have to make you less dangerous." He looked down at her with a peculiar look.
The hairs on Arie's arms raised in awareness of Fred being so close to her. She couldn't look at him without seeing George too. 'Maybe it's a good thing I picked Fred for this. He and George are made of the same stuff, and if Fred could make her feel like this, then George definitely could. She smiled and bumped his arm playfully. "Is there something else you'd like to teach me professor?"
Sorry for the delay in this chapter. I have had a plague-like cold for the past four days and all I did was lay in bed and read. I hope I made up for it by making it a bit longer than normal.
~Kukaburry