A/N: Thank you SO MUCH for the reviews and the favourites and the follows and everything, it's been amazing! Just to let you know, I'm going to be posting links to the songs I quote at the beginning of each chapter at the end of the chapter, just in case you haven't heard them and fancy some new music Thanks so much for reading, and please continue to leave reviews!

Summer comes,
winter fades
here we are just the same.
Don't need pressure don't need change,
so let's not give the game away…

Just please don't say you love me,
'cause I might not say it back,
doesn't mean my heart stops skipping when you look at me like that.
There's no need to worry when you see just where we're at.
Just please don't say you love me, 'cause I might not say it back – Please don't say you love me, Gabrielle Aplin.

"Viria?"

"Go to sleep, Gabrielle"

"But Viria – "

"Sleep! Fleur would kill me if she knew you were still up"

"I only wanted to ask you something"

The pitiful whine in Gabrielle's voice told Viria that she wasn't going to get a moment of rest until she told her charge whatever it was she wanted to know. She flung back the covers and sat up, lighting the tip of her wand with a muttered 'Lumos!' and a heavy sigh.

"What is it, Gabrielle?"

"Do you love that boy, Fred?" Gabrielle's blue eyes were wide and completely innocent; Viria coloured.

"Where on earth did you get an idea like that from?" she retorted coolly, "Did someone say something to you?"

"No. I just noticed"

Viria had had no previous experience of how observant children can be, but she had often heard it said that the intuition of a child was often much keener than that of an adult. Only now did she begin to believe it.

"It's complicated. You're too young to understand" Haughtier: the last resort of an unwilling conversationist, "I'm tired, Gabrielle"

"I'm not too young! And it can't be that complicated – you love him, or you don't love him" Gabrielle sounded much older than eight when she said that and, Viria suspected, very much like Fleur.

"Fine then, maybe I do love him. It's not as easy as that, though"

"He loves you" Gabrielle responded with authority, "Doesn't that make it easy?"

"No, my darling, no. We have to go back home in June, remember? That's very soon. Fred and I can't be together when I'm back in Avignon and he's here"

Gabrielle's pretty face grew troubled, "I suppose not. But you could be together for a little while"

"That would only make it harder to leave, sweetie" Viria replied, unsurprised to feel tears prickling at the back of her eyes.

"But you said it's hard already" Gabrielle now looked confused; Viria was beginning to feel slightly pathetic, sitting there discussing the affairs of the heart with an eight-year-old girl. Her head was also starting to ache.

"It is. But if I go much farther, it'll be completely unbearable" she lay back down on the bed, "Goodnight now, Gabrielle"

"Night, Viria. I'm sorry"

"Nox"

The end-of-year exams, commencing at the very beginning of May to avoid them dragging into June (the month everyone aside from Fred and Viria was anticipating with some level of excitement), came upon all of the students far quicker than they would have liked. The only ones exempt from the tests were the four champions, and Viria found herself instinctively glaring at Harry while she revised with Ginny in the library or Gryffindor common room. Hermione also seemed to be permanently irritated by him – as the days of the exams drew closer she looked more and more unkempt, until a comment from Ron forced her to take a brush to her ever-expanding frizz of hair. Fred, George and Lee tried to liven them up with jokes, but even they soon caved under the pressure, giving into the revision with scowls on their lips. Neville bought Viria a bunch of pansies one day as they all lay revising by the lake, to cheer her up and take her mind off of work. Viria found that she was vindictively pleased to see Fred scowl when she took them with a beaming smile.

The Beauxbatons group took their exams in the carriage, having been taught all their subjects by Madame Maxime for the duration of the tournament. Viria couldn't help feeling, however, that she'd learnt more from Ginny's notes and Fred's anagrams in that past month than she ever had in all of Madame's classes.

When she emerged from the carriage on the day of her final exam, Fred was waiting with Gabrielle.

"How'd it go?" he asked with the lopsided grin that Viria had grown to love. She shrugged, reaching out to take Gabrielle's hand, and smiled a little.

"Not bad. I need to check with Ginny what she put about the Goblin Riots in Merryn in 1782, but other than that…okay. I'm just glad it's over"

"Me too" Fred agreed fervently; his exams had finished two days previously, "Here. I bought you a gift"

Gabrielle giggled. Fred held out a bouquet of beautiful, impeccable red roses, eyes twinkling.

"I know they're not pansies, but…"

She giggled too, swatting at him for the cheekiness of the comment before grabbing the flowers, "Fred, they're gorgeous. Thank you"

His eyes smouldered into hers, "Better than pansies?"

"Better than pansies" she agreed softly, smiling. Fred grinned.

"That's the compliment I was hoping for" he hesitated, "It's a month today, isn't it?"

Viria smile fell away, "Yes"

"I'd give anything for you to stay" his eyes still bored into hers, and she heard the first trace of desperation in his voice, "Anything"

"Don't say that" she replied, wishing now that Gabrielle hadn't skipped off to leave them alone; she now had no excuse for suggesting that they turn to safer, more cheerful subjects, "It makes it so much harder for me to comprehend that I have to go"

"The thing is, Vi, I've been avoiding saying a lot of stuff because I don't want to make things harder for either of us. But that's not working for me anymore. So I'm going to say some stuff, okay?" he moved a little closer to her. Viria's mouth was slightly agape and her eyes were shining with tears.

"No" she breathed, but they both knew she didn't mean it.

"The thing is, Vi, in the beginning I just thought you were beautiful, and that maybe I wanted to kiss you. Then you became my friend, and I found out that you were also funny and clever and charming and sweet – and still very beautiful. And when I saw you in that ball gown at the Yule Ball, things changed again, because it made me want you, not in the way you should want your friends. And it took me way too long to work it out properly, but that night at your party, it hit me. I'm in love with you, Vi. Completely, ridiculously in love with you"

Viria felt rooted to the spot; she could barely breathe, let alone speak or move or think. A tear pooled in her eye and slipped down her cheek, slithering and leaving a track along the length of her face. The silence spread outwards, engulfing them, holding them in limbo, and Fred was growing more and more uncertain by the minute.

"Vi?" he said at last, softly, warily.

"No" she breathed.

And she ran.

watch?v=PxNYvk_0Onw - Please don't say you love me, Gabrielle Aplin