"There is never jealousy where there is not strong regard." -Washington Irving

"Sara?" Fred called once he had gotten home with George and Katie. There was no answer.

"Maybe she's not home yet," Katie suggested.

"She left before we did, so she has to be home," Fred said, dropping his bag and turning towards Katie and George.

"Maybe she didn't go straight home," George said slowly, looking at Fred nervously. George probably already knew that Fred liked Sara and he was just waiting for him to admit it, which he would once he figured out what was going on.

Fred looked back at George. "Where would they go?" he asked.

George shrugged. "I don't know. Do you think she's in her room? Maybe she's doing homework and didn't hear us come in."

The three of them went upstairs to Sara's room. The door was closed. Fred knocked. There wasn't an answer, so he slowly pushed it open. Sara was lying on her bed, fast asleep and surrounded by papers and books. Fred smiled.

"See, she's here," George said, satisfied. "Nothing to worry about, Freddie." He patted Fred on the back.

After George and Katie had gone downstairs, Fred tiptoed into Sara's room. He still wanted to ask her about Kevin, but he wasn't going to wake her up for that. He neatly piled up all of her homework and put it on her desk. Then, he grabbed a blanket from the closet and covered her with it. She deserved to take a nap; she had looked completely exhausted in school that day.

When it was time for dinner, Fred went back upstairs to wake Sara up. To his surprise, she was already awake and doing homework again.

"Sorry," he said, "I would've knocked but I thought you were still sleeping. I was going to wake you up because dinner's ready."

"Okay," she said, not looking up.

Fred leaned against the door frame. "Why did you leave school without telling us today?"

"Kevin offered me a ride," she said. She wasn't writing anymore, but she hadn't met Fred's eye either.

"And you couldn't have waited for us and at least told us? You just left us to take the bus."

"What's wrong with the bus? And we all wouldn't have fit in the car anyway."

"That's not the point," Fred sighed.

"What is the point, Fred?" She finally met his eye.

"You should've let us know," he said quietly.

"Fine," she said icily. "I'll let you know the next time I take a ride home with a friend, mother." She jumped off the bed and brushed past him, down the stairs.

"Come on, there's no need to be so sarcastic with me. I'm just telling you what you should have done."

She turned around on the stairs and pointed a finger at him. "I don't need to be told what I can and can't do, Fred Weasley. I am not five years old. If you want me to be honest, I think I act a lot older than you do."

Fred gaped at her. She glared for a few seconds longer before turning and storming down the rest of the stairs.

"Why are you being like this?" he asked as they entered the kitchen. Katie and George turned to look at them.

"Why do you care?" Sara asked, angrily sitting in her seat and picking up her fork.

"Because you're being rude and I'd like to know what I did."

"Think about it, Fred," she snapped.

Fred looked at George and Katie, who were looking between him and Sara with their eyes wide and confused.

"Give me a hint," he said.

"Oh, of course, because why would you be able to figure it out on your own," she said.

Now Fred was getting really angry. "I honestly don't know! How do you expect me to figure out what I did to make you so mad?"

Sara didn't answer him. Fred ran a hand through his hair. This girl was incredibly annoying. He angrily sat down in his chair. "Girls," he mumbled.

"Can't live with them, can't live without them," George said with a laugh.

Despite his anger, Fred let out a small laugh. That was very true.

"Girls could say the same thing about boys," Katie sniffed.

"I'll say," Sara mumbled.

Fred had to hold his tongue to avoid saying something in return. He really didn't have the faintest idea of what he had done to upset her.

He didn't think he would ever understand girls.

Two weeks passed and it was now the beginning of October. Fred and George had been trying with no luck to prank Mr. Gold. He really did know every Muggle trick there was and none of their pranks had been successful yet. They weren't going to give up though.

"We haven't tried gluing his pen to his desk," George said one morning. "We should try that, and not necessarily his pen. We could do a different object."

"What about multiple objects?" Fred asked, a grin spreading across his face. He and George were on their way to English class, having met up after homeroom.

An identical grin spread across George's face. "I like the way you think."

"And I like the way you think," Fred answered. "When should we execute this genius plan?"

"What about today?" George twisted his arm around and reached into his bag, pulling out a small bottle of clear drying glue. "I brought this just in case."

Another grin spread over Fred's face. "Brilliant."

Luck was on their side when they reached their English classroom. Mr. Gold wasn't there yet and only a few students were in the classroom.

"Shh," George hissed at them. Fred smirked and he and George proceeded to glue down Mr. Gold's pen, coffee mug, and the metal holder that held the rest of his pens. They didn't dare touch the papers in case they ripped in the process of trying to pick them up.

"What are you doing?"

Fred looked up. Sara was standing on the other side of the desk, glaring at them. Katie was at her side, obviously trying to hold in her laughter.

"Pulling a prank. We've been trying to prank Mr. Gold since school started," Fred said. "You knew that."

"You do realize that you are gluing his personal things to his desk. What if they get ruined and how will he ever remove them?"

"The glue isn't strong," George shrugged. "Warm water should do the trick of removing it, and none of his things will be ruined. We didn't glue down the papers specifically for that reason."

"See, like I said before, we are considerate of those things," Fred said. He and Sara had barely talked for a few days after their argument, and now they were back to an awkward type of friendship.

It was like one of those Muggle board games that Hermione had brought to the Burrow one summer. Something about ladders and chutes. Fred and George had joined her and Ron in a game and somehow, Fred had the worst luck at that game. Every time he moved forward a lot of spaces, he would land on whatever one, the chutes maybe, that made him go back a bunch of spaces. He eventually got annoyed and cheated by counting one extra space the next time so that he wouldn't land on a chute. Nobody ever knew. He hated those chutes.

Mr. Gold's voice suddenly drifted through the door. He was walking down the hallway, talking to someone.

"Go, sit," George said quickly. He ran to his seat, closely followed by Fred and Sara.

"This is going to be great," Fred whispered to Sara. "He won't be able to see the glue, so when he tries to pick up his things-,"

"I get it," she said.

Fred shrugged and turned his attention to the front of the room.

Mr. Gold entered the room, smiling at the class. "Good morning!"

"Good morning," mumbled the class.

"Ah, we're all tired today! I think what we need is some Shakespeare to wake us up!"

"No," the class groaned.

Mr. Gold paused at his desk for a second to pick up his attendance sheet. Then, he walked over to the window and leaned against the windowsill. "Oh dear, I forgot to pick up my pen. Fred, would you mind going to get it for me?" He smiled.

Fred's mouth fell open, as did George's. This guy was good. Fred could see Sara shaking with silent laughter from the corner of his eye. On the bright side, she was laughing, even if it was at him.

"What?" Fred stammered.

"You heard me," Mr. Gold said cheerily. "I asked if you would go get me my pen."

Fred slowly stood up and walked to the desk. He pulled one of the pens from the glued down holder and turned back towards the teacher.

"No, I wanted that one," Mr. Gold was grinning and gesturing towards the glued pen.

"Picky, picky," Fred said.

"I'll take the pen in your hand under one condition," Mr. Gold smirked.

"What's that?" Fred asked.

"You and your twin take the sponge on top of the bookshelf over there, go get a bucket of water, warm water mind you, and maybe give my desk a good cleaning. It really needs one." He gave Fred a knowing look as giggles went through the members of the class who knew what Fred and George had done.

Fred looked at George, who was looking completely shocked.

"Right now?" Fred asked.

"Yes, unless you'd like to come back after school."

George stood up and followed Fred from the room, grabbing the sponge on the way out.

They had to clean off whole top of the desk and remove the glued objects while Mr. Gold rambled on about Shakespeare. Fred listened to the lecture while he cleaned. He hoped Sara would at least let him borrow her notes. Knowing her, she would let him suffer without them, but maybe she would think cleaning the desk was punishment enough.

He glanced at her every so often during the class. She was resting her elbow on her desk and resting her head on her hand as she took notes with the other hand. Once, she looked up and met his eye, but Fred looked away quickly. When he looked up again, she was still looking at him so he looked away again.

"Looking at Sara?" George hissed.

"No, I'm looking at the back wall and all of the interesting posters," Fred answered. He still hadn't told George about liking Sara and he felt terrible.

"Oh, yes, I know how interested you are in paragraph structure," George said with a small laugh.

"Fine, you caught me," Fred hissed, finally confessing the truth. "I like her. I lost the bet. Happy?"

"Thrilled," George answered.

"Thrilled that I lost or that I like Sara?"

"Both," George shrugged. "You can cough up the money when we get back to Hogwarts."

"Too bad Sara hates me," Fred sighed.

"She doesn't. She just hates you on certain days."

"So you're saying that she's selective about the days she likes me? That's great."

"I don't think she hates you at all, actually. She might've that one day, but you did something to set her off."

"I don't know what that is, though!" Fred whispered.

"Neither do I, but she'll get over it soon enough."

As Fred and George were leaving the room after class, Mr. Gold stopped them. "Nice attempt today, boys."

"Thanks, we think," Fred answered.

Mr. Gold smirked. "I have a proposition for you two."

"What's that?" Fred shared a look with George.

"If you can prank me by, let's say this Friday, October 10th, I'll exempt you from homework for all of next week. However, if I manage to prank you, you won't get exempt from any homework."

"Are you sure teachers are allowed to do things like this?" George asked.

"It's harmless," the teacher shrugged. "And you're not going to tell, are you?"

Fred and George grinned. "No," they shook their heads.

"Oh, and Fred, there's a special twist, just for you."

"What would that be?" Fred wasn't sure he wanted to know.

"If I manage to prank you, in addition to having to do your homework, you have to ask Sara to the Halloween dance.

"The what?"

"The Halloween dance. You must've seen the signs. They were put up this morning. It's a dance the school is having on Halloween."

"Isn't that a little stupid? Worrying about who's going to the dance and having to ask someone?" Fred asked nervously.

"No, it's definitely not stupid," George said, grinning.

"So, what do you say?" Mr. Gold asked.

Fred paused, but then shared a glance with George, silently communicating their answer. "You're on," they said together before quickly leaving the room. They had some brainstorming to do.

Early that morning, right after homeroom, Kevin had cornered Sara in the hallway. "Hi, what's going on?"

"Not much," she answered. "Just going to English class."

"Boring," Kevin wrinkled his nose. "But do you want to know what wouldn't be boring?"

"What?" she asked, a half smile appearing on her face.

"If you and I went out this Friday. We could go to a movie and out to eat."

Sara let out a small laugh. "Are you asking me on a date?"

"Yeah," Kevin nodded.

Sara stopped and looked at him. She thought of Fred and their almost kiss. She thought of him talking to Mallory. She thought of what Mallory had said in the bathroom. Kevin was looking back at her hopefully. "Okay," she said slowly. "But let's start out with one date and see how it goes. Don't expect us to be boyfriend and girlfriend just yet."

"Okay, but if I can, I'm going to change your mind about that. We'll have fun, don't you worry," Kevin said, grinning and racing down the hallway. Sara shook her head and gave a small laugh before continuing to English class.

On Friday, Fred sat in his homeroom, skimming through the reading due for English class that day. He and George had stayed up late the night before putting their finishing touches on their final prank for Mr. Gold. Throughout the entire week they had tried and failed at pulling a prank on him. On the bright side, he hadn't succeeded with his pranks either, so today was the big day. Whoever pulled the successful prank first would win.

Kevin marched into the room, looking oddly more cheerful than usual.

"What are you so happy about?" Fred asked as Kevin sat down.

"I have a date tonight with a very pretty girl," Kevin answered.

"That's great," Fred answered. "That would make any guy happy. Who is it? Do I know her?"

"Yeah, you do. It's Sara. I asked her on Monday. She said she'd go on one date and that it didn't mean we were dating, but I can change her mind about that." Kevin gave Fred a smug smile. "Wait, she didn't tell you about the date?"

"No," Fred said slowly. He was beginning to dislike Kevin more and more and it was for a dumb reason too. Sara and Fred weren't dating. Kevin had every right to ask her on a date, but Fred didn't like the fact that he had done it. He was jealous. He hated to admit it, but he was. How was he going to ask Sara to the dance now?

Wait, he hadn't even lost the prank war with Mr. Gold yet. He didn't know if he would have to ask her to the dance. Maybe it was because he really wanted to ask her to the dance no matter what. Kevin may have gotten her to go on a date with him, but he hadn't asked her to the dance. She was still available for that. Fred just had to get there first.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he hissed as he slid into his seat next to her in English class.

"Tell you what?" she asked, pulling out her notebook form her bag.

"About your date."

"What date?"

"Sara, look at me," Fred reached out and stopped her hand from reaching into her bag again.

"What?" she asked. She finally lifted her eyes to meet his.

"You know what I'm talking about," he whispered.

"I don't need to tell you every detail of my life or ask for permission. You aren't my mother."

"No, but I thought I was your friend and don't friends tell each other these kinds of things?"

Sara looked a little guilty. "I'm sorry. I didn't think you wanted to know."

"Does Katie know?"

Sara nodded. "She's my best friend. She's interested in this kind of thing."

Fred took a deep breath. "Okay, never mind. I was just wondering. So, did you hear about that Halloween dance? Sounds fun, doesn't it? We can dress up in costumes and everything."

"Yeah, I suppose it does sound fun," she shrugged, resuming her task of taking out her books.

"Well, I was wondering if you would-," he began, but he was interrupted by George running into the room.

"We have to hurry if we're going to execute this prank," he said quickly. "Before he gets here."

Fred gave him a look that said he was in the middle of something. George's eyes widened and then he smirked. Fred could tell what he was thinking. He was thinking we haven't even lost the prank war yet, but Fred had decided to ask Sara anyway before Kevin could get the chance.

"What prank?" Sara asked. Fred sighed. He had lost the opportunity.

"We're in a prank war with Mr. Gold," George said hurriedly.

"Do you have the supplies?" Fred asked.

"I do," George answered, reaching into his bag and pulling out a box of plastic wrap.

"Did you take that from the house?" Sara asked.

"Of course, where else would I get it?" George asked.

Fred hopped out of his seat, George right behind him, and together, they quickly shut the door and covered the doorway with plastic wrap.

From the outside, the door opened towards the person opening it, so Mr. Gold would open the door and bump into the plastic wrap when he tried to enter to room.

Fred head giggles as he and George were working and he assumed it was because of the prank. He couldn't help but smile. He loved getting a positive reaction from other people. However, a familiar voice behind him made him freeze. George froze as well and they shared a glance.

"Having fun?"

They slowly turned around. Mr. Gold was standing behind them, smirking.

"How did you—but—that's—how?" George stuttered, pointing at Mr. Gold, then the door.

Mr. Gold pointed to another door next to the chalkboard. "Did you know that all of the classrooms were connected by a door? I was in the next classroom visiting with my very friendly neighbor, and I just figured I'd take a shortcut." He looked incredibly pleased with himself.

Fred felt dejected. There went that prank. The day was still young, though. He and George could try to come up with something else. Not being able to use magic certainly did make things a lot tougher.

He and George removed the plastic wrap, tossed it in the trash, and headed to their seats. Fred picked up his pen and clicked the button at the top, but nothing happened. The tip with the ink wasn't coming out of the end of the pen.

George was shaking his pen and looking upset and annoyed. "This bloody thing isn't working," he mumbled.

Fred proceeded to shake his own pen before he realized what was wrong. He unscrewed the tip and turned the pen upside down. The ink cartridge had been removed.

At the same time, he and George looked up at their teacher.

"Gotcha," he said calmly, grinning at them.

Fred couldn't help but notice the joy and triumph on Mr. Gold's face when he assigned the homework for that weekend.

I don't own Harry Potter, and don't forget to review. Hearing from people really means a lot.