Chapter Twenty Two

Who's Getting Frisky?

The next day, Professor Lupin showed up. He was as surprised to see Cailee there as she was to see him. However, he was taking a break from school, since he was on holiday, and Dumbledore was granting him a reprieve from duty, since the last moon had waned, and he needed to recover his strength. However, he had a treat for the teens. It was something totally new to Cailee, and she was excited by it.

"What's this?" she asked, when Lupin had safely led them out of the house, and had cast a concealment charm on the hill area they were standing on.

"A sled?" Ron asked, looking at her curiously.

"Oh…really? What does it do?" she asked.

"You've never been on a sled before?" he asked.

"Well, no."

"Why not?" Ron asked, as though it were a sin for one to never go sledding.

"Just…no hills at home," she said, which was relatively true.

"Sit down," Ron said, and let her get into the front, while he sat in the middle, and Ginny crammed on back. Harry and Hermione had their own sled and looked rather cozy.

"Okay, here we go!" he yelled, rocking the sled back and forth, and Ginny pushed off the hill with her hands. What followed was a rush of excitement for Cailee. They began heading off down the hill, towards a pond in the back that was frozen over. Cailee was extremely terrified that the lake would break underneath their weight, but Ron and Ginny maneuvered it just enough that they barely skimmed the edge of it, before heading off into a thicket of trees.

"Left! Left! Right! Left again!" Ron shouted, and he and Ginny would thrust their bodies whatever way they needed to avoid the many trees everywhere. When they reached the other side of the thicket, Ron had turned around to see where Harry and Hermione had gotten to, and looked back around only when Cailee shrieked with fright. They were headed straight at a bunch of fallen trees that had been dragged away from the thicket.

"Right, Ginny! Right!" he yelled, throwing his body mercilessly, but to no avail. With a great OOMPH! they hit the pile of six or seven trees. Cailee was thrown forward, scratching her face up on the tree bark and landing her stomach right on top of a small branch poking out. Ron was thrown pretty close to her, but he had somehow managed to land on his stomach also, with his head stuck in between a crack in two trees. It was so tiny; Cailee wondered how his big head could fit through it. Ginny had bailed out to the side after they hit the trees, and landed in a big, comfy, soft pile of snow. Cailee was extremely jealous.

"Cailee! Cailee, are you all right?" cried Ron, after struggling to pull out his head.

"Ouch…," she grunted out, rolling over tenderly. Her stomach was bruised, scratched, and bleeding.

"Cailee! You're face is bleeding!" Ron said, wiping her face with the sleeve of his shirt.

"Ow! Don't touch it Ron!" she snapped.

"I'm sorry, Cailee. What do you want me to do, let you keep bleeding?"

"Yes, I'd rather sit here and puddle up in my own blood without you trying to help, all right?" she barked.

"Wow, Cailee. I've never seen you like this." He whispered, as though shocked by her sudden outburst.

"Well, what do you want me to do, Ron? Sit here and laugh with you? My stomach hurts! See this?" she said, pulling up her jacket and T-shirt to reveal a bruise the size of someone's fist to the right of her navel. There were scratches all over her stomach, but this was the worst part, with blood trickling out of it and spreading around, leaving blood streaks.

"I'm sorry, Cailee. It was an accident, don't jump down my throat, all right?" he said.

"Let's just go back to the hill. You guys keep playing, I'll sit up there and watch." She said, and led the way off towards the top of the hill. Ginny and Ron shrugged at each other and fell in step behind her.

Cailee's stomach was extremely sore when she finally sat down up at the top of the hill. Ron and Ginny tried to help her again, but she refused, and they kept on sledding.

Cailee pulled back her shirt again to look at her cut up stomach, which still bleed slowly.

"Ouch, what happened?" said someone quietly from behind her. She spun her head and saw, at the moment, her least favorite twin. She just glared at him, and turned back around, staring intently down the hill. She heard crunching footsteps and knew that Fred was coming to sit next to her. And he did.

"Really, Cailee, what happened?" he asked, pulling her hand away from her stomach gently.

"It doesn't matter. You'd probably call me a traitor for some reason or another if I told you," she sniffed.

"Knock it off Cailee. You're the one who told me yesterday it was my decision whether or not we were going to be enemies or friends. And I chose friends. Can you live with that?" he asked, staring at her.

She thought for a moment, before nodding her head.

"Oh, Fred, I'm so sorry. I have been being really terrible today, first to Ron, then to you. I just don't know…it's Christmas time, and it's the first time I've been away from home for Christmas. It's kind of hard," she said, tears trickling down her cheeks.

"Aww, Cailee don't cry. It'll be all right. You're here with us, we can kind of be like your family, cant we?" he asked, putting his arm around her shoulder and pulling her tighter to him.

She giggled. "Yeah, you can."

"See, no reason to cry. You're fine."

Wow! She is pretty fine! Her body is so light and tender. Her cheeks are so beautiful when they're red like that. Her eyes…they're even more blue after she's cried. He thought, and pulled her even closer.

Mmm…he smells so good. Like Malfoy. Oh NO! Malfoy! He'd probably kill me if he knew I was this close to Fred. It's not right. Fred's nice and all, and sure, he's pretty cute, but this would be too weird between us and Ron, she thought, and pulled away.

"Are you all right?" he asked, startled by her sudden movement.

"Yea…it's just—"

"Malfoy." He finished for her, his brows furrowing.

"Yeah. Malfoy," she said, looking down.

"I'm sorry Cailee. I didn't mean to come on to you or anything," he said.

"No! Fred, no! You didn't. You didn't do anything wrong. Don't ever think that, okay?" she said.

"Yeah, well, I did."

"You didn't Fred, so don't beat yourself up about it."

"All right," he said, but he still seemed withdrawn.

Cailee glanced down the hill and saw Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron coming back up. Harry and Hermione seemed to be racing each other up, but they were still too far away. Ron and Ginny scooped up some snow, and ran right up behind Harry and Hermione and started throwing snowballs at them. Hermione shrieked, and Ron tackled her to the snow, with Harry and Ginny dog piling up on top of her, tickling her like mad. They were all giggling, and Cailee started laughing too, at the comical scene below her.

"Ouch! That hurt," she said, and quit laughing because of the pain in her side.

"What?" Fred asked, looking concerned.

"My side…ow, it hurt. Don't worry, though," she said, smiling.

"Here, let me help," he said. He grabbed some snow from the ground, and rolled it into a snowball. Then he pulled back her shirt to her wound, all though he was tempted for a moment to pull it up a little farther, only for a moment though, and placed the snow on her cut.

She gasped deeply. "It's cold," she said.

"I know, but it will help. It will numb up a little. Here, lean back, okay?" He said, pulling her head down into his lap, and he leaned over her to hold the snow onto her stomach. It was weird being this close to her, he thought.

"Done yet?" she asked.

"Not yet. It's still bleeding a bit. A few minutes."

Cailee waited patiently for a moment or two, but the cold was too much, so she pushed the snow away, grabbing his hand at the same time. Before she even realized it, he had laced his fingers with hers, and he was still leaning over her, looking into her eyes.

She stared at the face of Fred, which seemed to be upside down. Some part of her brain clicked, and she realized they were holding hands—

"Caught you at a bad moment, did we?" asked Harry, finally reaching the top of the hill. Fred jerked himself back.

"Seems we did, Harry. Shall we leave them alone?" Ron asked, grinning.

"We probably should. But you know, we wouldn't want them getting too frisky or anything."

"Frisky? Who's getting frisky?" asked a voice almost identical to Fred's.

"Our dear brother and our guest," said Ginny.

"Oh really now?" asked George, curious.

"Shut up George! We're not doing anything! She was cut and I…er…I helped her."

"I'm sure you'd help her do anything," said Ginny.

"GINNY! What a thing to say!" said Hermione, who was grinning also.

"Shut up you guys! It's Fred, for crying out loud! What would I want with him…when I could have George?" Cailee said, trying to take some of the embarrassment from Fred and throw it at George.

"Yeah, I don't want Cailee anyways. Who I really want is….Hermione!" Fred said, leaping at her.

"Oh no you don't, Fred!" shouted Harry, tugging him off of Hermione. George had taken the time to run over to Cailee and help her to her feet. They grinned at each other (even though he was blushing like mad) and started a barrage of snowballs at their friends.

An hour later, soaking to the bone, and shivering like crazy, they proceeded to the house with Lupin, who had seen everything that had taken place at the top of the hill from a distance. He teased Fred and Cailee about their "moment" and was determined not to let it go.

"Dear jeez!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, when the seven of them plus Lupin walked into the house, dragging snow around them.

"Out of those wet clothes, now! Into the showers, then in front of the fire! Now!" she said. Cailee wandered around aimlessly after that, since no one had bothered to tell her where she might find a shower, until Mr. Weasley found her opening and shutting doors upstairs, and pointed her off into the right direction.

Later on, Cailee found herself in front of the fire in her room, and sipping some hot chocolate, and staring intently into it. The steam billowed up into her face. Around her, Harry was reading a Quidditch book, Ginny was playing with Crookshanks and Schnitzie, Hermione was laying on the floor, forming words with her mouth without actually speaking them, and Cailee was sure she was practicing spells and what not; Ron was laying on Hermione's bed, dozing off.

This surely is heaven on earth, she thought.

Author's Notes: Hey everyone! Sorry about the lack of updates! I've been busy this week. I'm creating a new website that I absolutley love, and when I'm finished with it I'll give you guys the link. I also have ideas forming to start a Harry Potter website too, on MSN, though I don't know how long it will take before I actually do. But either way, I go back to school on Monday and so the updates are going to be fewer, but if I get enough reviews tonight, I'll post up a chapter or two tomorow to try and hold you guys over!