Chapter 4

September 1st, 2003

Eliza's POV

I giggled at the feeling of Fred's lips on my neck, the sound quickly turning into a gasp as he nipped sharply at me in retaliation. He pulled back to glare mockingly down at me. "I'm sorry, did I do something amusing?" He asked in a fake haughty voice. I shook my head, a wicked grin crossing my lips as I shifted impossibly closer to him.

"Of course not love." I purred, wrapping my arms tighter around his neck. "Just thinking of something funny that my other boyfriend said yesterday." His eyes flashed, and my arms were suddenly being held in his grip above my head. He pressed a kiss to the corner of my mouth.

"I'm going to assume that's a poor attempt at a joke love." He murmured, pressing more kisses across my face and down my neck, eventually pausing at a spot just under my ear. "Bloody Americans, not a smidge of good humor to be found." He went on, ignoring the breathy noises I made as he continued his path across every inch of visible skin.

I couldn't really put a finger on when all of this had really began. Maybe it was with the lingering looks that we traded with one another when we thought the other wasn't paying close attention. Maybe it was with that Hogsmeade weekend in last year that froze the breath out of our lungs, and forced us to huddle together for any semblance of warmth. Maybe it was the way he said my name when he came to me, terrified over his sister's disappearance and needing a hug, or the way I smiled at him when Uncle Remus dropped me off for a two week long stay at the Burrow this summer, or the proud shine in his eyes when I suggested we 'borrow' his dad's car in order to rescue Harry the summer before that.

Either way, three nights ago, amid a flurry of frantic packing, he had reached over a bag to brush a loose hair off of my cheek, and I had responded by planting a quick kiss to his lips, which had turned into two, and then three, and then too many to keep track of. Since then, we had been stealing kisses whenever we could. It had turned into a sort of game, trying to see how obvious we could be without anyone discovering us. So far, the only person to notice anything out of the ordinary was George, and even then it was just a lingering glance at the lack of distance between the two of us as we waited for Ron and Ginny to come downstairs earlier that morning. At the time, I had caught his gaze, smiled innocently, and gone back to trying to discretely sneak a chocolate frog into the hood of Harry's sweatshirt as he stood in front of me.

Of course, this new development hadn't distracted me from the issues that had come up in my life as of late. For one, Sammy hadn't answered any of my calls, nor any of my letters, since he had disappeared off to college the summer before my second year. The fight that he and Uncle John had had the night he left still hurt to think about, and when I was finally taken home to Uncle Bobby's, I had burst into tears when the old man asked how the trip had been. Uncle John was swiftly banned from coming within a half a mile of the house upon the threat of ending up on the wrong end of Uncle Bobby's shotgun.

Then there was the strange connection that I felt to the youngest Potter, Harry. We had met a few days into his first year, and almost immediately, I felt like I had to protect him. From what? Voldemort, apparently, since the boy had a tendency to attract trouble. I was glad that he had Hermione and Ron to keep him safe, at least in some little way. I had practically forced him to spend three weeks with me and Bobby in Sioux Falls to get him away from his nasty family that first summer, and I did the same the summer after that, and this past summer, at least until Professor Dumbledore had shown up to take him home early, citing that his family missed him. The bars on his window last summer, and the fact that he ran away to meet us at the Leaky Cauldron this summer spoke differently.

Finally, there were the strange glances that had followed me all summer, from Uncle Bobby's, to on the road with Uncle John and Dean, even to Uncle Sev's and the Burrow. All the adults around me seemed to know something that I didn't, and, more than that, they knew that something that was going to affect me in a big way. I could just feel it.

A group of students rushed by, one of them knocking into the locked and silenced door I currently found myself trapped against, and Fred let out a frustrated sigh, detaching himself from me. I ran my fingers through his soft hair, smiling up at him as he flushed red. His hand ran down my side to hold my waist and a smile crossed his freckled cheeks.

"We should go find our idiot friends." He murmured. "Wouldn't want them to find us first, or get suspicious." He moved away, and I stilled, a horrid thought crossing my mind. Fred glanced down at me, an eyebrow quirking up in question. "You alright 'Liza?" He asked, taking in the sudden tension in my form.

I nodded, forcing my shoulders to relax and my fists to unclench. "Yeah," I sighed, trying desperately to sound casual. "I just… its nothing." I could feel Fred's sharp eyes on me as I turned, placing a hand on the door handle before hesitating.

"Would it be so bad?" I asked, not looking back at him.

"What?" he questioned. I shrugged slightly, glaring at the soft beige curtain that hid us from the view of passing students.

"Would it be so bad if they knew that this, whatever this is, is happening?" I said, turning towards him but not looking up into his gentle blue eyes. I tried to smile. "What," I joked weakly, "Are you ashamed of me?" His hand, calloused from years of playing quidditch, came up to grasp my chin, pulling my gaze up to meet his.

"Never." Fred whispered, uncharacteristically somber. After a moment, his mouth quirked up in a small smile. "Just trying to keep Georgie from being too smug about predicting all of this at the start of the summer. Can't let him know he's won, the lovable bastard." A snort escaped me at his words, and I pushed him back, breaking the moment and his grip on me. I turned to the door, the knot that had formed in my stomach loosening considerably.

"Meet you back in the cabin in 15 then?" I threw over my shoulder, peering out the door to see if the coast was clear, and then back at him. Fred's fingers brushed over my cheek, ducking down to press a soft kiss to my forehead. He smiled at the blush that spread across my face.

"Go find your ikle third years, it's been a whole hour since you've last seen them, and knowing Harry, he's probably already half-dead." Fred chuckled, dodging out of the way of my well-aimed hit, and disappearing down the train hall. I sighed, half exasperated, half amused, before heading down the hall in the opposite direction, letting my thoughts wander as I peeked into cabin after cabin.

A few doors down from where Fred and I had been I found them, and I grinned widely as I spotted the cluster of third years that I had begun to consider mine to protect. Their conversation looked to be far too serious for it being only the beginning of the year and a frown flickered across my face before I forced it off, and swung the door open with a bang. My gaze fell on a familiar sweater clad form, his face mostly covered by the dark tan coat that was acting as his blanket. I smothered another grin, and threw myself into the seat next to Harry, laughing to myself at the startled looks that the trio were sporting.

I grinned back at them. "Evening lads, what are you lot up to?"