Fourth Book

November 1st, 1994
Sixth Year

"-I just want to know how he did it," Fred muttered as he followed Ara through the Hogwarts Library.

"Maybe he didn't?" Ara offered, glancing back at the redhead as they turned into a particularly boring-looking aisle of the library.

"I doubt that," Fred shook his head, "-Who'd willingly put his name in for him?"

"I don't mean like that," Ara shook her head, "-Accio,"

Fred absentmindedly steadied Ara after she'd almost been knocked down by the chair she'd summoned.

"Then what do you mean?" Fred asked, leaning against a book shelf as Ara stood up on the accio-d chair.

"I don't know, it didn't really seem like he wanted to be up there, picked and all, maybe he didn't know his name was in the Goblet?"Ara shrugged, Fred mulled it over in his head before nodding.

They were talking about Harry Potter and how his name had been pulled for the Triwizard Tournament while he was underage and after all the other contestants had been chosen.

A peculiar occurrence, to say the least.

"Perhaps, but— Ara!" Fred yelped, he'd looked up at the blonde beside him only to see a thick, hardback book flying down at him; he barely caught it.

"Sorry," The girl cringed before stepping down from the chair she'd been on, she gave Fred a guilty smile.

"A warning next time, please," The Gryffindor adjusted his grip on the book as he continued to follow Ara around the library, like a lost puppy, "-What's this?" He gestured towards the book in his hands.

"Records of the first fifty Triwizard Tournaments," Ara explained, Fred's eyes widened.

The pair walked up to a table and Fred let the book fall in front of them with a thud. Upon letting go of the hardback, Fred sat down in a chair whilst Ara stayed standing.

"First fifty? How many were there?" He asked, Ara smiled at him while pushing the cover off of the book and beginning to read.

"Well, there were about five more books-"

"Five?!"

"Relax! That's only about two-hundred and-"

"You're insane,"

Ara rolled her eyes at Fred before bringing her attention back to the hardback in front of her. The boy leaned back in his chair and watched her, clearly amused.

"So, what exactly are you planning on doing with this monstrosity of a book," Fred teased, flipping the book cover closed, to which Ara gave him an annoyed glance and reopened it.

He wasn't exactly sure what they were doing here.

Fred had been too preoccupied complaining, better yet, whining, about how Harry had managed to get his name into the Goblet to question were he was following Ara to.

"It's not a monstrosity," Fred chuckled at Ara's lie, "-And, I'm planning on using it to help Cedric stay alive during this stupid tournament,"

Fred nodded while standing up next to the girl and looking down at the historical text. It looked so awful boring that he couldn't bring himself to actually read any of it.

"And how are you going to do that?" He asked softly, crossing his arms.

Ara looked up at him and nearly smiled.

He looks cute.

"Well, a revision of all the games will give us-"

Fred raised an eyebrow.

"Us?"

Ara's eyebrows scrunched together nearly innocently, Fred almost felt bad about the way he was going to tease her.

"How am I supposed to do it alone?" The blonde asked softly.

Fred wanted to make fun of her, to say she'd have to figure it out, but Ara looked up at him with those pretty blue eyes of hers, and he couldn't find it in himself to do so.

"What's in it for me?" Fred asked gently, Ara smiled upon realizing that he wasn't saying no.

"Other than possibly saving our friends life?"

"I'm not particularly fond of the fucker-" The boy joked, Ara gently slapping his chest.

"It could help Harry too!"

"Oh yeah? I'm not particularly fond of that fucker either-"

"Shut up, you know you are," Ara shook her head and smiled widely, Fred laughed at her.

"Not a nice way to talk to someone who you need,"

"I don't need you," Ara crossed her arms, Fred raised an eyebrow and then nodded.

"Really? I'm off then," Fred turned to leave.

Ara quickly wrapped her hand around his bicep, forcing him to stop.

"Wait, no! Freddie, I do need you," The blonde admitted, "-Stay?"

"Fine," Fred groaned sarcastically, he turned to face her again, "-Now that you've admitted the obvious, let's get back to what's in it for me?"

Fred fell back into his chair again; Ara stood positioned between his long legs. Fred tried not to think about how many times he'd imagined her like this before, because he knew this was not going to end the way his daydreams did.

"What do you want?" Ara asked simply, crossing her arms.

Fred pretended to be in deep thought, but in reality spent the next few moments simply admiring Ara. She looked quite pretty trapped between his legs and leaning against the library table behind her.

"Hm..." He trailed off teasingly.

Ara groaned and then, to Fred's surprise, hoisted herself up onto the table behind her. She crossed her legs, which were now the only part of her still between his legs, and stared at the boy expectantly.

"Well?"

"Impatient, are you?"

"Always," Ara scrunched her nose teasingly; the blonde held the edge of the table she was sitting on and leaned closer towards Fred. Her eyes swept over the boys facial features analytically as she waited for him to think of a request.

Fred, noticing her inquisitive gaze, rolled his eyes. She was trying to predict his next move, and she was thinking of ways to sway his decision if she didn't like it. She'd be less predictable is she wasn't a textbook Slytherin. Fred proceeded to contemplate what to ask of the blonde, he wanted something that would throw her for a loop.

"I want you to teach me Legilimency,"

Ara's mouth nearly fell open.

"What?"

Fred smirked.

I win.

"I'd like to become a Legilimens," Fred nodded, wondering whether or not Ara would actually agree to this, if she'd try to sway him.

The girl narrowed her eyes at him.

"Why?"

"I think it's cool," Fred said simply.

Ara had kept the fact that she was a Legilimens hidden, or rather, unmentioned, for a long time. It'd only slipped during Cedric's birthday, when the Firewhiskey she'd been drinking made her blurt the information out.

"Fine," Ara shrugged after a few moments of thought.

What's the worst that could happen?

"Ara," Fred whined.

He rested his head against one of the many pieces of paper and books that Ara had spread out on the exact library table where this whole agreement had been made.

"Freddie," The blonde imitated his tone, to which the boy glared at her.

"This is seriously melting my brain," The Gryffindor let out an exaggerated sigh and flailed back into his chair.

"Didn't realize you had a brain to melt," Ara teased, still skimming through the page of whatever book she was reading.

"Wow Ar', you're so very funny," Fred said sarcastically, Ara finally looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Wow Freddie, you're so very charming," The Slytherin copied his tone, the boy groaned.

"Let's do something else, please," Fredbegged, Ara laughed rather loudly and nodded.

"Fine, would you like to practise some Legilimency?" She asked kindly, folding one of her legs and sitting on it while turning to face Fred.

"I'd rather let my brain rest, but anything is better than reading about the 1674 tournament, again,"

Ara rolled her eyes at the boys dramatics.

They'd been 'researching' for less than a week, and in that time Ara had managed to teach Fred the basics of Legilimency, although he wasn't quite good at using the knowledge practically.

"Give me hint before we start?" Fred mumbled, not taking his eyes off of Ara.

He smiled upon seeing her roll her eyes.

"That defeats the whole point of Legilimency, Freddie," She tsked before closing her eyes and calming herself.

Ara wasn't quite sure how she'd go about teaching Fred Legilimency. She couldn't do it the way Uncle Sev had taught her, considering she'd been a mere child then and it'd be too juvenile.

Although, Fred was quite childish. Perhaps the mind-reading games she'd played as a little girl would've suited him perfectly.

If he doesn't get the hang of it soon, I'll have to try Uncle Sev's techniques.

The pair had previously come to the decision that Ara would clear her mind and think about something Fred would never be able to guess. The Gryffindor would then attempt to perform Legilimency on the girl to see the thought, or more frequently, memory.

"Ready?" Fred asked.

Ara nodded, thinking of a vivid memory.

"Legilimens," Fred whispered, the pair seemed to stare into each other's eyes for ages.

In all honesty, Ara didn't think Fred was actually going to be able to perform the skill today. That's why, when thinking of a memory, she didn't take into account what his reaction would be.

"No fucking way!" The boy gasped, Ara's stopped focusing and knitted her eyebrows together, "-How long?"

Oh, no.

"Freddie..." Ara trailed off, a smile forming on her lips, Fred shook his head and began laughing.

"How long have you been slipping money into my wallet?"

He didn't feel angry, perhaps a bit guilty, but not angry.

"Listen-"

"Answer the question!" Fred cut her off, Ara sighed deeply and then looked away.

"End of First Year? Beginning of Second?" The girl shrugged, Fred gasped.

"Over fouryears!"

"I'm sorry,"

"No, you're not!"

Fred looked away from the girl while shaking his head. Unbeknownst to him, his light-hearted shock had worn off. His smile dropped and he looked nearly sad. Ara immediately noticed.

"Freddie," She nearly whispered, her eyebrows scrunched together.

The boy seemed to be in his own world, he didn't answer her.

"Fred," Ara instinctively grabbed the boy's hand, which seemed to bring him back to reality, he turned to face her, "-I really am sorry, I didn't mean for it to upset you,"

Fred smiled sadly and shook his head.

"No, I'm sorry," Fred said, Ara raised an eyebrow, "-One day, I promise, you'll never have to worry about me in that way again, and I'll pay you back every galleon,"

And spend so much more on you.

Ara smiled softly at the boy and gave him an unreadable look.

"Fred, I don't care about the galleons," Sheassured, the redhead rolled his eyes, "-But I don't doubt that you'll be able to make that happen,"

"Really?" Fred whispered, Ara gave him a funny look.

"Of course, you're amazing and destined for great things," Ara nodded, she avoided the Gryffindors gaze as she spoke.

"You think I'm... amazing?" Fred asked, nearly smugly.

Ara smiled and shook her head.

"Don't let your head get too big,"

"Too late," Fred smirked and leaned back into his chair happily.

She thinks I'm amazing.

"Right, back to the research," Ara changed the subject and turned towards the book she'd been reading earlier.

"I'd much rather talk about how amazing I am," Fred teased, Ara look up at him and raised an eyebrow.

"You're amazingly annoying,"

"Is that so?"

"It is,"

"Do you think we'll have a Yule Ball?" Fred asked nonchalantly while twirling a quill between his fingers.

The pair had come across the tradition of the Yule Ball while researching the Triwizard Tournament.

"Of course, it's tradition," Ara mused while writing something down on a piece of paper.

It hadn't been officially announced yet, so the pair had refrained from telling anyone about it.

"Will you go?"

Ara chuckled softly.

"I can't find a reason not to," She didn't look up from the notes she was writing.

Fred nodded silently.

Ara stopped what she was doing and looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" Fred asked, noticing her gaze. Ara narrowed her eyes before looking him up and down.

"Why are you being... calm?" She asked suspiciously.

Fred gave her a shocked look.

"Excuse me?" He tried to refrain from laughing at the overly serious look on her face.

"You're never calm, and always-"

"I'm calm!" The boy cut her off.

"You're not," Ara shook her head and smiled softly.

"I'm just... thinking," Fred shrugged, Ara laughed loudly.

"That's a first!"

Fred's jaw dropped as the girl beside him continued to laugh.

"You are such a bully," Fred pouted, Ara gave him a smile.

"I'm sorry Freddie," She apologized, "-What are you thinking about?"

Fred gave her an unreadable look before sighing.

"George," The redhead muttered, Ara's smile faltered, "-Do you think he'd been acting strange?'

"What?"

She suddenly felt bad about laughing at the boy.

"I don't know, he's just been very..." Fred trailed off and shook his head.

"I'm sure it's nothing Fred, if something was wrong George would tell you," Ara said softly, awkwardly, Fred gave her a tight-lipped smile.

"He's hiding something," The boy mumbled, he paused before giving Ara a mischievous look, the blonde raised an eyebrow, "-And, we're going to find out what,"

Ara couldn't help but laugh.

"We?"

"How am I supposed to do it alone?"

hope you enjoyed this chapter! thank you so much for reading, i love you all for it! remember to leave a review if you'd like, it makes my day