Hi guys! Thanks so much for the reviews I got on this past chapter...you guys are awesome! :-) I had so much fun writing this chapter so I would really appriciate any feedback you have for me. Here is goes...
The second Angelina felt her feet hit the ground she used the few unsteady seconds she had to fight her way out of her attackers grip. Once she freed herself she turned in one swift movement and kicked him strait in the groin as hard as she could before bolting away, running faster than she ever had before. As she ran, she heard her attacker yell, "Shit, Angelina!" Recognizing the voice, she turned back to see a familiar head of red hair curled in a ball on the ground.
She walked back over to the Weasley with her arms planted firmly on her waist. That kick to the groin was exactly what he deserved for scaring the life out of her back at her house. "Well what did you expect? You come into my room and kidnap me? You know I have the tendency to fight back," she told him, feeling absolutely no remorse for what she had just done. "So, which one are you?" she asked, although she already figured it was George.
"Fred," he barely succeeded to squeak out as he continued rolling back and forth on the ground.
"Well, Fred," she said, surprised it was him but still more pissed at the situation than anything else, "why exactly did you decide to apparate into my room, which is incredibly rude by the way, and steal me from my own bed?" She settled down next to him on the grass, not knowing how long it would be before he recovered. For the first time she let herself look around where she was. They were sitting in a large, open field. At one end was a forest while the other side ended in a cliff. She could barely make out a building far off on the other side of the clearing right on the cliff's edge. The smell of the ocean hit her as her senses continued to appraise the scenery. It had been so long since she had been near the water, but it was as soothing as ever. She continued to study the beautiful surroundings as Fred sat up a bit.
"We decided we should have a last minute get together before we went back to school. George went to get Alicia and Lee got Katie. They are probably back down by the water right now if you think you can make it all the way down there without assaulting me again."
Angelina just laughed and helped her friend up. "Yeah, sorry about that. But you should have known what was coming."
Fred and Angelina made their way down to the beach where they saw a fire burning and four people spread out around it. "What took you so long?" George yelled to them as they got closer to the group.
"Angelina attacked me and it took me a little while to recover," Fred said, throwing a small glare at her.
"Would you have expected anything less?" she asked, exasperated that he was still so angry. "I'm surprised Katie and Alicia didn't do the same thing to you lot."
"Why exactly would we have attacked them?" Alicia asked.
"You have to be joking! Lee and George didn't kidnap you?"
George and Lee busted out laughing. "Seriously, Fred?" George said to his brother. "Of all the girls you could pull that with you picked Angelina? I'm surprised you are even still breathing."
"Lee just sent an owl up to my window saying he was downstairs and to come with him, no questions," Katie told Angelina, obviously amused by Fred's antics.
"Same with me," Alicia said.
"What exactly did he do to you?" Lee asked in between laughs.
"He apparated into my bloody room, put his hand over my mouth and held me from getting to my wand before grabbing it himself and apparating us here. Where even is here? And where is my wand?" Angelina asked.
"First of all, here is you bloody wand?" Fred said, chucking it at her before sitting down between Lee and Katie. Angelina went and sat between Alicia and George across the fire from him. "Secondly, see the building up on the cliff?" When Angelina nodded he continued, "That's Shell Cottage. Our brother Bill is looking into buying it. I don't really know why. He says he would like to live here someday with his family, but he isn't even dating someone yet that we know of. Anyways, when he told us about it we thought it would be a great place for a little get together."
"Nice choice. This place is beautiful," Katie said, laying flat on her back and looking up at the stars. "I can't believe that another year of Hogwarts is about to start."
"Yeah, our last year," Fred said.
"Please don't say that," Katie said, sitting up and glancing over at Fred. She quickly adopted a smile, but the fear of losing her friends after the next year was easily visible to anyone who knew her well.
"Don't worry," Fred said, moving over a bit to nudge her. "We will always be around to give you a hard time."
Katie's smile became a little more genuine at that. "On the other hand, maybe you graduating isn't such a bad thing."
"I guess I should take advantage of the time I have then," Fred said with a mischievous look. Katie automatically adjusted herself away from him a little, moving onto her knees.
"Fred," she said warily. The next second he pounced at her, giving her barely enough time to get away from him, even with the reflexes she had honed so well over the years of Quidditch practice. The other four friends watched as Fred chased her off down the coast, eventually catching her and pulling her into the ocean waves. Angelina laughed as she watched her best friends attempting to dunk each other.
"So, where is Ellie?" Angelina asked, turning back to the fire and looking across at Lee.
"We decided to just keep it the regular group," Lee said with a smile.
"Is everything okay with you guys?" Angelina asked, worried that something might have changed during the few weeks he stayed with her.
"Oh, yeah. Everything is perfect. We just thought it would be nice to have it be just the group that has been together for so long. You know, the last few days of summer and all. After tomorrow we will never have a summer like this again," he said with a sad smile.
The next moment they all heard a sloshing noise and turned to see Katie making her way towards them. "Get your arses up and in the water," Katie said as she ran up to the group, sopping wet from her battle with Fred. The group quickly jumped up and started to make their way over to the water. It was right about at the edge of the water that Angelina noticed everyone but her had on a bathing suit.
"Damn, I don't have a bathing suit," Angelina said as everyone started running into the water.
"Why didn't you bring one?" George asked, seeming to have forgotten the events that led to her arrival at Shell Cottage.
"I don't know," Angelina said sarcastically before raising her voice so Fred, who was farther out in the water could hear. "Maybe because someone didn't give me a chance to do anything before forcing me here."
Fred just laughed and yelled back, "Hey, you could also just go in your birthday suit."
"You wish Weasley," she yelled back with a laugh.
"It sounds good to me," George said quietly to her with a wink, making her blush.
"Hah, I'm sure it does. You guys just go in. I'll hang out here."
"You aren't getting off that easily," George said before snatching her up and throwing her over his shoulder. Angelina tried to hold back her laughter, unsuccessfully, as she fought to get away from George and the water. Angelina felt her toes touch the water before George resituated her so that he was holding her bridal style, dangling her right above the water. "Are you ready?" he asked, laughing and bouncing her up and down.
"Do what you want," she said with a devious smile. "But whatever you do, I'm taking you down with me."
"Fair enough," he said, raising one eyebrow before plunging them into the waves together. The two broke the surface at about the same time, laughing and detangling themselves from the other. "That wasn't so bad, was it?" George asked Angelina.
"Huh, I guess not," Angelina said. "Why don't you try it again and let me know?" she asked with a wicked smile before placing her hands on his shoulders and pushing him back under the water. She thought she had the upper hand for about a millisecond before she felt George wrap his arms around her legs and flip her forward over his shoulder. This continued for about five minutes before both were exhausted and made their way back over to where Alicia, Katie, Fred, and Lee with playing in the waves.
"I hadn't noticed how cute your pajamas were, Angelina," Fred said with laugh as Angelina walked over in her soaked clothes while everyone else was in their bathing suits.
"Well, when I thought what swimming attire I wanted to wear tonight this was the first thing that sprang into my mind," she said with a smile back. "But as lovely as this is, I think I am going to go back over by the fire." She was trying desperately to keep her heavy pajama bottoms from slipping down. "As close as we all have been over the years I still have no desire to lose my bottoms in front of you lot."
"I'll join you in a second," Katie told her friend as she edged her way over to Fred. "I just have a bit of business to take care of." The five friends went back to battling as Angelina worked her way to the fire. She quickly grabbed her wand to dry her clothes before making herself comfortable on the sand. She sat there, taking in the serenity of the spot and the laughter of her friends when she was hit with a sudden fear concerning the next year. Thinking about the past six years made her realize just how quickly they had gone. Before she knew it she would be out in the real world. That idea terrified her just as much as any talk about You-Know-Who.
As she was contemplating her future, George walked up from the waves and settled down next to her. "You seem pensive. What are you thinking about?"
"Just how crazy it is that within the next year we will be graduated and working at real jobs. I just can't believe how quickly it has gone."
The rest of the group walked up just in time to hear the last of what Angelina was saying. She could tell from the looks on their faces that they were just as scared as she was.
"We can't think about that right now," Fred said in an attempt to keep up the cheery mood. "Do you know what we should do though? Plan a trip for the end of next year."
"Something huge," George said, getting just as excited as his brother.
"To celebrate the fact that we actually finished school," Fred continued with a grin.
"That is if you two don't get kicked out by then," Lee said with a laugh.
"And Katie is to come as well," Angelina said, sending a comforting smile across the fire to her best friend.
"Well, of course," Fred said, tossing his arm across her shoulders. "This trip will be for the whole group. Even if one is a little baby."
"Sod off," Katie said, but she was obviously pleased that she was included in the trip.
"So where should be go?" Alicia asked.
"How about Australia?" Lee asked. "My cousin went there when he graduated a few years back and said it was a great time."
Katie shrugged at the idea, "It sounds like it, but why don't we stay a little bit closer. I still will be in school so I doubt my parents will let me go that far away with you lot, especially knowing what you all get up to."
"So I guess that means India is out of the question?" Angelina asked. "I have wanted to go there for as long as I can remember. Everything about the country is so fascinating."
"Yeah, sorry," Katie said. "Same deal."
The whole group sat in contemplative silence, thinking about where they would most like to go. Suddenly, Fred bolted upright with a look of pure delight on his face. "We could go to Italy."
"Yeah," George said, quickly becoming equally as excited. "Bill made some friends from there when he was working as a curse breaker."
"Italy would actually be really nice," Alicia said in obvious approval of this proposal.
They all talked for hours, discussing everything they wanted out of the trip and assigning responsibilities to each person. Finally, when the sun was beginning to rise, Lee and George put out the now tiny fire they were huddled around.
"We can't leave yet," Angelina said as they all stood up to head back home. "We have been here all night. An extra half hour can't hurt to stay and watch the sun rise." The rest of the group agreed and settled back down against the edge of the cliff to watch the sun slowly inched its way up in the sky. Angelina sat and watched as the sky turned brilliant pink and purple before it became its regular blue hue. No moment in her life had ever been as perfect.
~*********~
Angelina was awoken the next morning to the sound of tapping. She reluctantly opened her eyes to see a familiar owl pecking at the glass. She jumped out of bed and ran across the room to open her window. The owl landed on her arm and lifted his leg with the letter connected to it.
Hey Angelina, the letter read.
Last night was so much fun, but it made me think about how we haven't had a day just us all summer. That being said, I will be flooing over at noon and we are going to lunch. If there is anything else you want to do we can do that as well. If you had any other plans for today, cancel them. After this year you will be leaving me, so you will be playing with me today. Okay? Great. See you in a bit.
Katie
Angelina felt an intense wave of love for her best friend. Katie was right, they hadn't spent much time just the two of them in a while. Alicia was so infused as part of the group now that she was always with them. While both of them loved Alicia, it was strange to have a third person after years of being just the two of them. Angelina looked at the clock to see that she had a little less than two hours to get everything she needed to in order before Katie arrived. She ran to tell her mum her plans for the day and started getting ready for her official last day of summer.
An hour and fifty-five minutes later, Katie appeared in Angelina's fireplace to be greeted by the whole family.
"Nice note," Angelina said as she hugged her.
Katie laughed, "Well it got the point across, right?"
They decided to get a quick lunch at the Leaky Cauldron before grabbing an ice cream from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, a place that had been a major part of their summer's together when they were younger.
"Well at least some things won't ever change," Angelina said with a laugh as she watched her friend struggling with a new stain from her chocolate ice cream cone. Angelina couldn't remember a time throughout their entire friendship when Katie ate an ice cream without getting some of it on herself.
"Yes, but now I have a wonderful best friend who is of age and can fix this for me," Katie said with a grin. Angelina quickly performed a cleaning spell to get rid of the spot. "Thanks," Katie said. "What am I supposed to do without you next year?"
"You'll be alright."
"I have no other friends besides you five. My seventh year will be horrible." It was the first time that Katie showed just how nervous she was about her friends graduating. Angelina leaned forward, trying to get Katie to look at her.
"You have never had any trouble meeting people, unlike me who is completely social incompetent," she said, which received a laugh, though no protest, from Katie. "And it isn't like you are going to lose us once we leave. We can come and meet up with you on some of the Hogsmeade days. And Merlin knows I will have to write you daily to tell you the newest stupid thing I have done. And in one short year you will be out with us."
Katie seemed a bit reassured by Angelina. "Now that I think about it, I should be more worried about you being around people without me than anything else." Angelina just laughed and agreed. "At least everything seems to be back to normal with you and Fred."
"Yeah," Angelina said, thinking about how the night before had gone. "He was great last night."
"I am starting to get how you can tell them apart though," Katie said.
"Really?" Angelina asked.
"Sure, they are so similar, but they do have little things that are dead giveaways to who they each are." Angelina was surprised by this. Katie had known them for nearly as long as Angelina and was just noticing these things now. "So if Fred is actually over you does that mean you are finally going to tell George that your fight was a big misunderstanding?"
Angelina had forgotten that she hadn't told Katie and Alicia about her talk with George. She decided that it would be much better to fill her in than to lie to her. "Well, actually, we kind of already talked."
"What?!" Katie yelled, both in shock and anger. Angelina proceeded to give her all the details, and asked that she didn't say anything to anyone, including Alicia. She was afraid that if anyone else knew that it might get back to Fred before they could figure everything out.
"Wow. I can't believe you held this in that long. I mean, that is big news."
"Yeah, I know," Angelina said while thinking back on how hard it had been that second semester of school not telling her best friends.
After a while of shopping, Angelina and Katie decided to head back to her house to have some tea and talk for a bit longer before Katie had to get home. They were sitting around her kitchen table talking when there was a knock on her front door. Angelina opened it to see a Weasley twin smiling back at her.
"Hello, love," Fred said with a wink and a smile. "Not interrupting anything, am I?"
"No, come one in. I'm just having a chat with Katie."
"Oh, well, I was actually hoping to talk to you, if that's alright," he said, now looking a bit nervous.
Katie came around the corner just as she heard him say this. "That's alright, Angelina," she said "I need to head home to finish packing anyways. Thanks for hanging out with me today. I'll see you tomorrow, Fred."
"Wait, we didn't say my name. Can you tell us apart as well?"
"I'm getting better," She said with a smile as she walked backwards towards the fireplace before stepping in and calling out her home.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" Angelina asked as she gestured for him to sit on the couch.
Sitting down across from her, Fred said, "Well, I kind of just wanted to clear the air about last year. You were right."
"What?" Angelina asked, confused by what he was saying.
"After I kissed you. You said that if we dated it would only be because we were so comfortable with each other. I thought then that I actually fancied you, but over this summer I have come to realize that it was just that you are my best mate besides George. Most other girls at Hogwarts are so empty headed that they are much more appealing as punch lines than as girlfriends, so I clung to you. I'm sorry."
"You have no reason to apologize," Angelina said, surprised by all he was saying but happy that it was all over. "Is it okay if I ask what brought this all about?"
"I think a big part of it is that I wasn't around you for most of the summer and it gave me time to really think about it. It was more that my pride was hurt when you turned me down than anything else. But then, last night when we were all together I realized that I don't have any feelings for you. I mean, don't get me wrong, you are definitely attractive," he said in a rush, "you just aren't the one for me. I'm starting to realize that you aren't the only pretty girl in the world who I get on well with." He seemed to be lost in thought for a brief moment before continuing. "So are we alright?"
"Of course!" she said before hopping up and throwing her arms around his neck. The second she did that, however, she jumped back up and took a step away. "I'm sorry," she said.
Fred just laughed. "It's okay. I can handle hugging you. It doesn't make me feel anything." He gathered her back in a hug. Angelina snuggled into the familiar embrace, happy to have her best friend back. After a minute he pulled back and looked at her. "So," he asked with a devilish grin, "How long have you been in love with my brother?"
Angelina's entire body froze. She couldn't have this conversation with him. This was something Fred and George needed to talk about first. "I don't know what you are talking about," she managed to sputter out, though it was thoroughly unconvincing.
"Oh, come on, Angelina," he said, giving her a look that showed just how easily he saw through her. "You are a terrible liar to begin with, but you know you have never be able to lie to me."
Under his inquisitive stare she couldn't help but tell the truth. "Um, maybe two months into first year," she said with a grimace.
"Seriously?" he said. He was obviously surprised that it had been that long. "I can't believe I never noticed it before."
"What made you notice it now?"
"Last night. I could easily tell by the way you looked at each other."
"Wait, this isn't why you are talking to me about last year, is it?" Angelina didn't want him to give them his permission just because he felt bad. She wanted him to actually be okay with it.
"Yeah, it is why I came to talk to you, but everything I said was true. I wanted you to know that there aren't any feelings there, I'm not sure if there ever even was, so you have no reason to feel guilty about your feelings for George."
Angelina felt so relieved. Everything was working out for her. Angelina gave Fred another tight squeeze before he got up to head back to the Burrow. She had barely made her way back to the couch when she heard another knock on the door. She hurried over, opening it to see Fred standing there. "Did you forget something?"
She barely got her sentence out before she was pulled into a hug, lifted off the floor and spun around. As they twirled in circles she heard him say, "He is okay with it." She felt her heart swell as she realized it wasn't Fred this time. George placed her back on the ground and pulled back, looking deep into her eyes before pulling her back to him and into the most passionate kiss she could have ever imagined.