"Once upon a time there was a boy who loved a girl and her laughter was a question he wanted to spend his whole life answering." –Nicole Krauss
"I don't know about this," Katie said, examining the three snowmen in front of her. She stood in front of McKenna's before moving to Fred's and finally George's.
George had ended up noticing the competition starting without him and had rushed to catch up and get his snowman done. Not that McKenna and Fred were far ahead, but he clearly thought he needed the time.
"George," McKenna laughed as she took in his snowman. It really was terrible. It was lumpy and tilted. The eyes were uneven and so was the mouth.
"I'm not sure what bothers me the most about that snowman," Fred said. "The fact that his mouth is on a diagonal slant, or the fact that the branches you used for arms are more like twigs. It looks like your snowman hasn't quite grown into his limbs yet."
"Don't be mean," Katie scolded with a smile. "I happen to love the snowman."
"Thank you," George said defiantly, kissing her forehead.
"You promised not to be biased!" Fred cried.
"I didn't say he won," Katie said. "I was just saying it's not that bad of a snowman."
"And Trelawney's not that bad of a teacher," Fred said, rolling his eyes.
"Okay, let's stop talking and get to the part where I win," McKenna said.
Fred grabbed her from behind and spun her around, clapping a hand over her mouth. "Shut it," he said. "I'm going to win."
"It's a tough one," Katie said. "I don't know whose snowman to pick."
"Mine," Fred said. "You pick mine."
"Can I call it a tie?" Katie asked.
Fred dropped his arms from around McKenna and they both stared at Katie.
"I guess if you want to," McKenna said slowly.
"Okay, then that's what I'll do. It's a tie."
"But, Katie," Fred whined. "You solemnly swore!"
"Yeah, to not be biased and pick George's because I was dating him," Katie laughed. "You never said anything about declaring a tie."
"Fine," Fred said. He turned to McKenna. "One day I will beat you fair and square. This isn't over, Collins."
"No, you're right, it's not…Weasley." McKenna poked Fred's chest and smirked before walking away. Fred watched her go before turning back to George and Katie, a smile on his face.
"She's almost as competitive as you two," Katie said.
"I know," Fred said, smiling wider. "It's beautiful, isn't it?"
"I think Freddie's in love," Katie teased.
George wiggled his eyebrows at Fred and smiled as he and Katie headed for the castle. Fred stood where he was, thinking about what Katie had said. There was that word again: love. Was he in love with McKenna?
McKenna was sitting on the floor, leaning against the couch next to Fred, whose elbows were resting against the couch cushions, his head thrown back as he laughed. McKenna leaned into his side, shaking with her own silent laughter. Fred had just told her the comment George had made about wanting to ship Malfoy off to Timbuktu in a crate and it had sent them both into a fit of hysterics.
"It should have stopped being funny about four minutes ago," McKenna said, gasping for air. It felt like they had been laughing for at least five minutes.
"But it didn't," Fred said as his laughter slowed and he brought a hand to his eyes to wipe away the tears of laughter.
As they had planned, the two of them had stayed up late and gotten completely sugar high and now anything and everything was funny.
"This is worse than last time," McKenna said, sitting up again and leaning her head back on the couch.
Fred reached behind him and pulled one of the couch cushions completely off the couch, throwing it at McKenna. "Tag, you're it." Then he fell into a fit of laughter. Fred was impossible on a sugar high. McKenna found that she couldn't talk to him like a normal person, but it was usually hilarious anyway and she suspected that she wasn't much better. Her suspicions were confirmed when she found herself picking up the cushion and hitting him over the head with it.
"Now you're it!" She burst into laughter as she jumped on top of him and began to tickle his neck, his most ticklish spot. Their laughter was so loud that McKenna was surprised no one had come down to yell at them to go to bed yet. It didn't matter anyway. If anyone did come down, it would only send her and Fred into more laughing fits.
Somehow, Fred managed to flip her over and start tickling her sides. She screeched with laughter and kicked her feet, but Fred sat on her legs.
"I can't breathe!" McKenna finally managed to gasp out through her laughter. Fred stopped tickling her and rolled onto his side, trying to catch his breath as well. He turned his head to face the fire and McKenna fell into a coughing fit as she tried to regain her own breath.
"Merlin, you sound like my great Aunt Muriel with all of that wheezing," Fred said, still sounding breathless. He turned his head back to face her and the two of them looked at each other. They were silent for a few seconds before dissolving into more laughter. Finally, it slowed once more and McKenna smiled as she looked down at Fred. His cheeks were a light pink and his hair was sticking up in a million places. It may have been the cutest he had ever looked.
"If you make a comment like that again," she teased, giggling, "I'll have to hit you. Your Aunt Muriel is the last person I want to be compared to. No offense, of course."
Fred let out a small laugh and smiled at her. "You're nothing like her, trust me. If you were, do you think I'd be dating you?"
McKenna brought her hand back as if she was about to playfully hit him, but when Fred flinched, she smirked and lowered her arm. She shifted herself so that she was lying down next to him. He moved his arm around her shoulders and she pressed her cheek to his chest. "You look really cute when you laugh," she blurted out. What she said actually caused Fred to let out a small laugh. McKenna felt his chest rising and falling with the movement and she raised her head and propped up on her elbow to look at him. "What was so funny about that?" she giggled.
"Nothing, I'm just flattered that you think so," he laughed. He reached over and brushed his thumb across her cheek, tangling his fingers in her hair. "You look cute when you laugh too. Beautiful, actually. I've always thought so."
McKenna felt herself blush. "Fred?"
"Hm?" he replied, staring at her intently.
"Why did you have so much trouble telling me you liked me?"
Fred sighed and pulled his hand away from her face. "Well, I had a hard time even admitting it to myself first and then you were getting involved with Oliver and every time I tried to say something, we were interrupted. I wanted to tell you, but the time was never right until the ball."
McKenna rested her head against Fred's chest again. "I would never have done stuff like this with Oliver."
"Stuff like what?"
"This," McKenna answered, sticking her hand in the air and gesturing around them. "The Sugar Quills and laughing until we cough like ancient old aunts." She smirked up at him and he let out another laugh. "I mean, he is fun to be around, but it's never like this."
"What's going on with him and Angelina?" Fred asked.
"I told her to consider going out with him. It's what they both really want and they don't have to worry about hurting us because, well, we're together now. Would you ever have done something like this with Angelina?" She gently traced a pattern into his shirt with her index finger.
"Well, yeah," Fred said, nodding. "I think she would have been up for it."
"Oh," McKenna said. She stopped tracing patterns into his shirt and sat up.
"Hey," Fred said, sitting up and gently turning her to face him, a small smirk on his face. "You asked, I answered."
"I know," she replied, looking down.
"I would have done this with Angelina, but it wouldn't have been anywhere near as much fun," Fred said. "Honestly. I mean it. She would've laughed with me, but she would have gotten tired of it and gone to bed about," he looked at his watch, "three hours ago."
"You used to like her, Fred," McKenna said. "Back then, what you just said didn't matter. It didn't matter that doing this is more fun with me and that Angelina would have gotten tired of staying up with you because you liked her and you wanted to be with her."
"Why are you so insecure about Angelina?" Fred asked gently. "You're best friends."
"I know we are, but I feel so…confused. I mean, I really liked Oliver over the summer. I thought he really liked me too, but he really liked Angelina the entire time. I thought he liked me again this year, but he was still trying to get to Angelina. Then, I find out that you liked her too and you were devastated when she didn't return the feelings. I just don't want to get hurt again because someone wants to get Angelina."
"I may have liked Angelina before," Fred said, "but that's just it. I don't like her like that anymore. I promise. Since January, our friendship has been slowly getting back to what it used to be. We're close friends and now I want to be with you. Only you. I don't want to get to Angelina and even if I did, I wouldn't dream of using you to get to her. I'm not like that."
"I'm sorry," McKenna said, covering her face with her hand. "I'm acting all crazy, but I'm okay now."
"Better?" Fred asked with a smile, gently rubbing circles into her back.
"Yeah," she said quietly.
"Good, because if you were still upset then I wouldn't have the heart to do this," he smirked. He grabbed the couch cushion lying on the floor and flung it at McKenna's head before tackling her and tickling her sides.
"Fred!" she gasped through her laughter as he pinned her arms to the ground. "I'm going to hex you as soon as you let me go."
"Maybe I'm not planning on it," he winked.
"Are you trying to be metaphorical or something?" she asked, wrinkling her nose.
"Maybe," he said guiltily.
"You're insane." She tried to wrench one of her arms free so that she could give him a shove, but she was unsuccessful.
"Just remember that I also have your arms pinned to the ground. You're helpless, Kenna," he said teasingly.
McKenna looked back up at him as she thought. Suddenly, she had an idea. She stretched her neck up until she was able to press an unexpected kiss to his lips. Just as she had expected, Fred's hold on her arms loosened and she was able to squirm free of his grip. "Not so helpless anymore," she teased with a wink. With that, she turned and crawled behind the couch.
"Get over here," Fred laughed, crawling after her. As soon as McKenna reached the back of the couch, she turned around so that she could jump out at Fred, but she didn't know that he was right around the corner, so when she jumped out, their heads banged together.
"Ow!" they both yelped, falling onto their sides, clutching their heads. They shared a look and immediately fell into another laughing fit that left them clutching their stomachs and gasping for air. It was then that Fred realized the answer to the question that had been bouncing around in his head all day. He was in love with McKenna.
A/N: Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!