Ginny gently lead Fred to a bench for him to sit down. Anne lent against the wall watching him closely, looking for any little move to give her a sign that he had been lying, that he had actually been conning Mina. But no, she wasn't able to find one. For now.

"We're gonna run through the things we know. Jump in if it sounds different from what you know."

Fred sat patiently, his face looking at both of them expectantly. Anne waited for Ginny to start, but when she didn't, she let out a sigh.

"You liked Mina last year, yes?" His face turned and she held up a hand. "Don't even try to hide it. Everyone except for you and Mina knew it." Now it was his turn to sigh. He put a hand over his face and nodded. "Okay, that's a start. Our information picks up around summer."

"Christmas first, then a jump to summer," Ginny chimed in. "Mina accidentally wrote me a letter, and I hid it in my room. Did you happen to read it?"

It was silent again before he nodded once more. "I... I didn't read it until summer though."

"When?" Anne asked sharply.

"When everyone was over at our house. Mina and I had sat up talking late, and then we woke up and Hermione and Ginny were gone, so we were talking some more. She left the room, and as I was leaving I caught a piece of paper about to fall out a book on Ginny's table."

"So you read it and?"

He fiddled with his hands for a moment. "I... I felt hopeful. I was planning to ask her out when she came downstairs."

"But?" Anne prodded again.

"But," Ginny looked at her brother kinder, "Angelina pulled her away before he could."

"Yeah, she looked almost frantic. I'm not sure why though. I was talking to George about how I was going to finally do it, so maybe she pulled her aside for me to ask her and I just missed the signal?"

Anne and Ginny shared a look.

"We're not sure what they talked about, but we've got an idea. Keep going."

"They were in the yard for five minutes, maybe? I don't really know. What I do know is that when they came back in Mina seemed kind of upset. I tried pulling her aside to ask what was wrong, but she said she had forgotten she told her uncle she would be at his place that morning. Then she was gone. I didn't see her until the World Cup."

"Okay, so this is when you guys started acting weird. Run me through why."

"I... don't know why." He crossed his arms, and Anne let out another annoyed sigh.

"Then we're going to say what we think happened." She gave Ginny a glance before continuing. "By the time of the World Cup, Mina was convinced you and Angelina were dating."

Fred pulled a face, and opened his mouth to speak, but Ginny's voice quietly cut him off.

"And... you thought Mina was dating Nikolai."

His mouth quickly closed.

"Do you want to tell us how you found about about them 'dating'." Anne did air quotes as she spoke.

"Angelina told me the first time we ran into you guys there. She said that Mina and Nikolai had been dating for a while."

The girls shared a look. "Ginny don't say anything. We'll clear this up in a minute. Let's keep going with the timeline first." Anne nodded to Fred, letting him know to keep talking.

"I don't know. Things were weird between us all through the World Cup. Things were even weirder when we found out her boyfriend would be here for the year."

"And? Keep going."

"And... and I made a last effort during the first trial. I asked her to sit near me, and she never showed up. When I was leaving she was with Nikolai. Obviously I was upset she blew me off. I went and drank a bunch at the party that night and blanked out. You guys know that."

"Here's where we jump in and fill in the blanks." Fred looked to Anne expectantly. "Mina and Nikolai aren't dating. Never have been, and never will." Anne watched his face as he mulled over the thoughts. "And... you and Angelina aren't dating?"

"No. Never. She's a good friend, nothing more."

"If she was that good of a friend why would she lie and tell you that they were dating?" Anne bit back, slowly becoming less of a fan of Angelina.

"I... don't know." He put his head in his hands.

"So all of this was because you were jealous over a couple that wasn't actually dating?" Fred sat still, his head still in his hands. Anne waited before she prodded again. "I need to hear you say it, Weasley."

He sat there, his head in his hands for a few more minutes, before he sighed and sat up. "I was jealous because I thought Mina and Nikolai were dating."

"Mhm. And then you got so drunk at a party that you can't even remember confessing to each other that you liked each other. Then the next day you basically blew her off."

Fred groaned and his head went right back to his hands.

"She must hate me."

"Oh yeah, she does." Anne was not one for being subtle and a harsh look from Ginny told her as much. "And who told you they were dating again?"

"Angelina. Angelina did." He was shaking his head in his hands. "I don't know why she would lie to me like that. Maybe she had just heard wrong?" He peaked at Anne hopeful. "Maybe it was just a rumor that she had gotten wrong."

"You are so dumb." The words slipped out of her mouth before she knew, and another harsh look from Ginny told her to be more careful. "I don't want to say what I'm thinking until I know for sure, but I don't think she was just innocently sharing a rumor regarding your love interest."

Fred sat up and ran a hand over his face again.

"I fucked up."

"Yes you did."

"You can just ask Mina to the dance? That'll fix things, because then you guys can talk," Ginny said hopeful. Anne sadly thought that she was the only hopeful one in the room.

"I've already asked Angelina to go," he leaned back, his head against the wall now," Mina and I were barely talking we were so angry, what else was I going to do?"

Anne bit her tongue.

"Oh," Ginny's voice was small as she let out the breath.

"Yeah."

"Then I guess you'll go to the ball with her."

"Is there anything we can do?" Fred asked, his voice twinging hopefully.

"Not that I can think of. She's really angry at you. Like pissed off." His figure sank into himself.

"But," Ginny chimed in," we can figure something out. Give her some time to cool off, then run into her at the ball. We can figure it out together, right Anne?"

Anne sat there for a minute, trying to work through the anger she had previously felt towards Fred. "I will input any ideas I have, but if it's something not good for Mina I get to veto it immediately. You've had so many chances now, I'm not going to let you ruin another one and mess with her head even more than you already have."

"Alright, let's get to work."


Heres the part where, once again, I apologize for the chapter and ask you to bear with me. It's just that point in the semester where things are constantly kicking off so like... it'll be this way for a while. I've gotta read a book and type a four page paper, and then do about three essays and two presentations on top of that so uhhh... this is definitely on the back burner for now. But again, won't miss an update day because that's a slippery slope to abandoned fics.