A/N: Hey! Sorry about the update gap. Thank you so much for all the reads and reviews and favourites, it's been amazing! I hope you like this chapter, though parts of it may be slightly surprising…let me know what you think!

You can put some joy up on my face,
Oh sunshine in an empty place,
Take me too, turn to and babe I'll make you stay,
Oh I can ease you of your pain,
Feel you give me love again,
Round and round we go,
Each time I hear you say…

Won't you teach me how to love and learn,
There'll be nothing left for me to yearn,
Think of me and burn and let me hold your hand – Of the Night, Bastille.

"How long do you think we have?"

Viria twisted her arm to peer at her watch, "Um…an hour? At most"

"I can work with that"

"Definitely"

Fred and Viria were great fans of taking every opportunity they could find - however small it might be - to be alone together. That evening they'd already agreed to skip dinner and meet up in Fred's room so that they could see each other alone before they were forced to sit under the piercing eye of Umbridge during their detention in the Great Hall. It had gotten to the stage where Viria no longer really knew why she kept being given detentions…maybe she just spoke her mind too much. She couldn't pretend that the hatred Umbridge possessed for her bothered her; in fact, she found it almost amusing.

"You think the others'll notice we're skipping dinner?" Fred queried, pushing her down onto his bed and kissing her neck. Viria laughed.

"Of course they will – when do I ever pass on food?"

Fred laughed with her, reaching down to unbutton her shirt, "I don't know, but I'm glad you did today"

"Mhm. Me too" she guided his hands underneath her bra, straining her body to meet his, "This is way more fun"

It had been a few months now, and Viria could tell every time they made out that Fred was getting more and more desperate to take things further. She was, too, of course, but every time she considered agreeing to the idea, something stopped her. There was a barrier, and somehow she could not find a way around it. The timing never felt completely right. And she wasn't quite sure why that was, but she was determined to wait until she was ready. Although she knew Fred understood that, she also knew that he didn't like it…at all.

She slipped her hands under his shirt, tracing the planes of his chest, and then rolled so she was on top of him, reacting instinctively without really thinking about how much it would turn him on. Fred moaned, loudly, as her teeth tugged gently at his lower lip in the midst of his kiss, her breasts pushed up against his chest. Viria pulled back a little, breathing quickly.

"Is this okay?"

"Vi, this is so much more than okay" his hands slid up her leg, coming to rest on her inner thigh. He hesitated for a moment, knowing that she usually brushed him away, but Viria was so into the kiss that she barely even noticed. It was only when he pushed aside the lace of her underwear with the tips of his fingers that a faraway part of her brain dimly registered that this shouldn't be happening. But how it felt when he finally touched her…she wondered why she'd been putting it off for so long…

And then she remembered.

"No" Viria was panting, and there was slight moan in her voice, "No, Fred, not now"

Fred closed his eyes briefly, resting his head on her shoulder with a loud groan, "I need to do something, Vi, I'm going to implode if I don't do something – "

"I'm sorry, I just – please, I can't, not yet, I'm sorry"

They both stayed very still for a few minutes; silent, frozen. Fred, breathing deeply, looked warily up at Viria.

"I need you to be honest with me when I ask you something, Vi"

"Of course" Viria agreed at once, face puckered with anxiety, "Anything"

"Is it because it's me?"

Her eyes widened a little, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, if it was someone else, would you have sex with them? Do you just not want your first time to be with me?"

Viria gasped, "No! Fred, how could you ever think of that?! You're the only person I want to sleep with ever, not just for my first time. You know that. How could you ever think I'd want to be with anyone else?!"

"I'm running out of other theories, that's all"

She took his face between her hands, eyes fixed on his, "If I ever hear you say that again, I'll kill you. You understand me?"

Fred knew Viria well enough to know that she wasn't joking. He nodded, warily.

"What is it, then? What keeps stopping you? Did I do something – "

"No! Dear God, Fred, it isn't your fault. It just…it hasn't felt like the right time yet. And it needs to be the perfect time. This is important to me"

"That's all it is, timing?"

"Yes"

"You swear?"

"Of course I do"

"Okay" he swallowed audibly, eyes flashing to her chest and back again, "Can you, um…can you do that shirt up, please?"

She coloured a little, "Sure. Can you…?"

"Yeah, course"

They moved apart, and Viria rebuttoned her shirt with haste, looking cautiously over her shoulder at him when she was done.

"You're angry"

"No, I'm not"

"I'm not stupid, Fred. I know you better than anyone. Maybe better than George, even"

"I'm not angry, Vi"

She turned, glaring at him, "Don't lie to me. God, at least have the guts to tell me if you're mad. Then we can talk about it"

"There's no point in talking about it! You're not ready yet, and there's nothing you or I can do about that"

"You're seriously pissed at me for not being ready to have sex? It is kind of a big deal, Fred"

"I told you I wasn't pissed!"

"But you are, I know you are!" she stood up quickly, and there were tears in her eyes, "I didn't think you were going to be one of those guys. I really didn't. I thought you'd be understanding, and patient – "

"I have been patient, Vi, and I still am being, I've never once tried to push you into it – "

"Maybe not purposely, but you have tried. Every time you push it a step further – "

"That's what's supposed to happen!"

"Not if I don't want it to!"

"I never once heard you complaining"

Her cheeks reddened further, "Well…well no, because I wanted to do that stuff, it just makes it harder…it makes it harder not to do everything with you"

"Look, let's just leave it, okay? I don't want to do this right now"

"We can't just pretend you're not angry. That's not healthy"

"Please, Vi" he stood up too, reaching out for her hands, "I don't want us to fight. I can wait. I'm happy to wait if that's what you want"

Her lower lip trembled, "Please stop lying to me"

"I'm not! Vi – " he grasped for the hands that she'd swung free, but she was already storming out of the door, completely ignoring him. He could hear her crying as she went downstairs, and was instantly angry with himself. He hadn't meant to make her feel pressured – it was the one thing he'd been determined not to do – and, clearly, he hadn't done a very good job.

"Wasn't that your girlfriend crying just then?"

Fred turned and glared at Trisa Chang, who leant against the doorframe with her arms folded across her chest and a slightly smug smile on her lips.

"It's none of your business. What are you doing up here?"

"I was just making sure that everything was okay" she said sweetly, still smiling, "Maybe you're starting to regret your choice"

"Never" Fred retorted at once, sharply, "I love Viria"

"Well before she got back from that fancy French place, you were all set to date me, remember?"

"No I wasn't"

"You're not the sort of guy who sleeps with girls he doesn't intend to date. I can tell"

Fred tensed, turning his back on her and busying himself with tidying the bed sheets, "That was a mistake. I missed Viria, I was lonely"

"Good try. I don't think Victoria would see it like that, though"

"It's Viria. And you don't have any need to say a word to her about what went on with us last summer"

"It must be so frustrating for you, going out with her and not getting any"

He glowered again, freckles standing out against reddening cheeks, "That isn't all our relationship is about, you know. She means everything to me"

"I'd still sleep with you, you know. If you just wanted to…you know, let it go"

She was directly in front of him now, head tilted upwards; challenging, tempting. Fred took a step back.

"I don't. Thanks for the offer though. I'll make sure to tell Oliver exactly how you feel about him"

"Then I'll tell Viria. It's simple. We can do one another a favour here, and our partners need never find out"

"I'm not sleeping with you, Trisa. End of"

"I could always tell Violet about us sleeping together while she was away. She'd like that story, I'm sure"

"Viria! Don't you dare, Trisa"

She rolled her eyes, the smile still playing around her lips, "Fine"

And then she kissed him.

And Fred didn't want to respond, of course he didn't, but he was still thinking about Viria and her purple lace bra and her body pressed against his and maybe he wasn't really thinking about Trisa Chang at all….

"Fred! What the fuck are you doing?! Where the Hell is Viria?"

Fred dropped his arms from where they had come to rest around Trisa's waist, jerking quickly away from her. George was standing on the threshold of the dormitory, and Fred had never before seen so much disgust in his twin's eyes. He turned quickly to Trisa.

"Get out of here"

She shrugged, smiling properly now, and blew a kiss as she left. George slammed the door shut behind her.

"Fred. What the Hell?"

Fred sank down onto the bed, head in his hands, realisation of what he'd done bringing him pretty close to tears. George stood over him, arms folded, anger unrelenting.

"How could you do that to Viria? I just saw her on her way to the detention, her eyes were all red, that's why I came up – I didn't expect to see that – "

"It just happened, okay, I – shit, I need to talk to Viria"

"Yeah, you really do" George sighed heavily, "Look, I'm gonna cut you some slack because I know Trisa still fancies you and I'm willing to bet she had a hand in tempting you into kissing her just then. But Viria still doesn't even know about you and Trisa sleeping together, right, she just thinks you guys flirted or whatever, and now you're kissing her? You need to sort yourself out. I love that girl like a sister already, I'm not going to let you hurt her"

Fred groaned, finally gathering the courage to meet George's eyes, "I know. I'm not going to let anything like that happen again, it was just that we'd argued and I was – "

"I don't want to know. Just go and wait for her, okay? Make it up to her. She's too nice for this"

Fred stood up, nodding slowly, "Okay. Yeah, you're right. I'll go to her"

He waited until just past the hour of Viria's detention and found her standing in the secluded Charms corridor with Ginny. Her eyes were pink and Ginny was hugging her, rubbing soothing circles on her back. She glared at Fred as he came near them.

"Vi? Can we talk?"

Viria looked warily at him, but nodded slowly. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"You better be nice to her, Fred" she growled, jabbing him hard in the chest, "Or I'll bloody well hurt you"

Fred saw Viria smile a little at that, and he chuckled softly to himself as Ginny stalked off down the corridor, pausing only to shoot him a venomous look over her shoulder before moving out of sight.

"She can be kinda scary, sometimes, your sister" Viria remarked with a little smile, "Good job she's on my side"

"Lucky you" Fred retorted, grinning, and her smile widened a little. She opened her mouth to speak, but Fred cut her off at once.

"If you were planning on apologising, don't. I love you and I genuinely meant it when I said I was willing to wait for as long as you need to. I want it to be the right time too, I want it to be special. You're not alone in that. And I'm sorry for being so selfish and insensitive about it"

Viria's eyes were beginning to twinkle mischievously, and she was grinning with him, "I wasn't going to apologise, actually. So really it was a good job you said all that"

Fred laughed, loudly, and gently brushed his lips against hers, "Sorry I'm such a dick"

"I'm sorry you are too, but I'm kind of stuck with you now, right?" she taunted, and Fred laughed, putting his arm around her as they walked back towards the common room.

"Yep. Of course you are"

They were silent for a few moments before Viria asked, "Is there something else? You look worried"

Fred debated telling her everything about Trisa – of course he did, he felt guilty enough. But one look at those beautiful emerald eyes…

No. He wasn't about to break her heart. Not today.