Saturday 5th February 1993

"You're staring at him."

Liv blinked. She had been staring over the shoulder of Holly who sat opposite her. "No, I'm not," she said defensively. "I'm looking at the Quidditch team as a whole. This is a big match today. I'm sizing them up."

Holly smirked and looked back to her breakfast. "But you knew who I was referring to."

Liv sighed angrily and dropped her fork. "Why do you have to be so jealous the minute I make one extra friend? We're not all as desperate for love as you are, Hols. Some of us just want friends that won't smother us."

As soon as she had said the words she regretted them. Hollys smirk disappeared and was replaced with a grimace. Standing up, she stormed from the Great Hall, leaving Liv feeling embarrassed for what she had said – and even more embarrassed by the fact that her first thought was, I'll deal with this later. Quidditch first.

A large, freckled hand grabbed Liv's in a firm handshake as her feet hit the ground.

"Well played," a breathless Fred said, sweat shining on his forehead, "better luck next time, though."

"Yeah, thanks," Liv forced a smile in response. Then a thought struck her. Before Fred could pull his hand away, she grabbed it again and pulled him back to her. "Hey - you better win against Slytherin now. We can't have them winning the cup again. If it can't be us, I'd rather it was you."

She had pulled a little too strongly and with their hands still clasped their arms were forced to bend at the elbow, their shoulders inches from one another. Fred had to look down and Liv up on account of the height difference and proximity. He paused a moment, staring at Liv with a wide smile, still clearly high on the adrenaline from the match.

"Meet me here tomorrow after breakfast." His voice was low, and Liv could barely hear him over the cheering sounds of the stadium.

Without thinking, she nodded. "Okay."

Sunday 6th February 1993

After the events of the previous night – gossip about which had spread through the castle like wildfire – Liv wasn't sure if Fred would still remember or even want to meet her like he had asked. She decided to turn up anyway and take a book, which she could read if he didn't turn up. She had another motive too: she hadn't seen or spoken to Holly since breakfast the previous day. She wanted to apologise, but was also being rather cowardly and procrastinating the difficult conversation they were bound to have.

She chose a seat in the stadium near the bottom so Fred would be able to spot her, opened her book and began to read. It was one of the marine biology ones Holly had gotten her for her birthday. Lost in the book, she didn't hear the footsteps approaching her from behind, and when Fred planted his hands forcefully on her shoulders, she jumped.

"Christ almighty," she gasped, regaining her composure. "You scared me to death." Fred was laughing, but it was only a light, polite laugh, no semblance of the joy it usually contained. He sat down beside her and let out a big exhale of breath, reminding Liv of an old man. Liv couldn't help but notice their thighs were touching, and she could feel the body heat emanating from him.

"How are you? How's your brother?" Liv asked tentatively.

Fred shrugged. "It's amazing how quick news gets around here," he said with a half joking tone.

"Well, I don't know how much of what I've heard is true. It's probably gossip."

Fred shook his head. He looked more solemn than Liv had ever seen him.

"Do you know what happened to my sister last year?"

Liv nodded. Everyone knew about Ginny Weasley and the Chamber of Secrets.

"It feels like my family is having a string of bad luck. I never want to go through what happened last year again. I mean, we thought she had-" He stopped himself from saying the word. "Anyway," he cleared his throat. "Ron's fine, but how scary must that have been? Waking up to find Sirius Black brandishing a knife at you? I mean, just the thought that he was in the common room at all is..." He shuddered. "And now all the security's been turned up to the max. We've got trolls outside the common room entrance for fuck's sake. They're gross," he added this last bit with a small laugh.

Liv didn't know what to say. It certainly was a scary time in the wizarding world, but then to be this close to the thick of it like Fred was – she did not envy him.

A moment passed without either of them saying anything. They both watched a pair of crows dancing around one another in the sky, their black forms a stark contrast to the pale blue of the winter sky.

"Congratulations on the match yesterday," Liv eventually said. "I'm sorry I had a sour face after. You know how it is."

Fred glanced at her and grinned. "It's okay. I've already told you; you look cute when you frown. Ha! See!" These last two exclamations were in response to the frown that appeared on Liv's face at his comment.

"When did you say that?" asked Liv, half laughing, feeling herself become hot.

Fred simply grinned. "Anyway, I wanted to tell you something." Liv's stomach flipped. "I wrote to my mum – I was thinking, our house is so close to that Martha thing-"

"M.A.R.F.A.A?"

"Yeah, I was thinking, to save you money on an expensive hotel you might as well stay with us. Listen-" Liv was about to interrupt, but Fred turned his whole body towards her and continued. "You don't know my family. We've always got stragglers staying at ours. Mum's practically adopted Ron's friends at this point. Lee stays with us all the time over summer. And besides, Bill and Charlie – my eldest brothers – they work abroad so their bedroom is free. And what I was thinking was-" here he paused a moment, and began to look a little bashful, "I hope you don't mind, but, I told my mum you would pay her some board money, to cover food and stuff, but that'll be way cheaper than a B&B, and Mum probably won't even accept it but I figured your mum would want to pay something 'cos she sounds kind of like my Mum and-"

Liv suddenly threw her arms around Fred's shoulders and began crying, cutting him off. She could feel Fred stiffen awkwardly under her and his hands begin to pat her back clumsily, but she would rather this than have him see her ugly crying face.

"Are... are you okay? Was that wrong of me to ask?" Fred asked tentatively, his voice muffled under Liv's mass of hair. She eventually pulled back and began wiping the tears from her cheeks with her sleeves, laughing.

"No! No, gosh, it's just-" she took a breath to steady her voice. "God, I'm so sorry at the outburst," she laughed. "I'm just so moved that you and your family would do that – and, well, I was so excited when this place accepted me, and then – then I threw away the whole idea because I thought I wouldn't be able to do it – and now it's come back to me, and it's so nice of you to do that, and -" Liv stopped herself talking as she could feel herself beginning to cry again.

Fred was laughing too now. "I would've brought Madam Pomfrey along with me to break the news if I knew you'd react like that."

Liv took a moment to collect herself and wipe her face before speaking again. "Are you sure your family would be okay with it? I mean, I'll probably be out of the house most of the time anyway, and of course we'll pay some board, and it's only for two weeks-"

"Livvie," Fred said, forcefully but smiling, "it's fine. I'm actually pretty excited about it."

Liv stared into Fred's eyes, searching as, for a split second, a thought occurred to her that this was one elaborate prank, that his friends were nearby watching her breakdown. But as Fred looked back, all Liv could see was kind earnestness.

"Thank you," she said quietly.

Crows cawed up above and the noise of children chattering began to get louder as more people finished breakfast and headed out into the fresh air.

"Did your outbreak also have anything to do with the fact that Holly ate breakfast alone this morning?" Fred asked gently.

Liv scrunched her nose and sighed. "Yeah, I think so." She paused, and Fred waited for her to continue. "I said something dumb and hurtful to her. I didn't mean it. I was lashing out."

Fred nodded slowly. "Well, I'm glad it's you that's done something wrong, and not her."

"Why?"

"Because if she had done something mean to you, as your friend I would have had to defend your honour – and quite frankly I don't fancy my chances in a fight with Holly."

Fred and Liv spent the rest of the day together – Fred said he was grateful to be outside of the Gryffindor sphere after what had happened the night before, though Liv suspected he was just being kind to her, knowing that she didn't have her usual best friend for company that day. She enjoyed her time with him, but continued to feel guilty about Holly. Eventually, Liv returned to her room, hoping to find her there so they could talk.

Holly was on her bed reading a Muggle teen fashion magazine. She didn't look up when Liv arrived.

"Hols, I'm so sorry," Liv began, feeling immediately frustrated with herself as she had already begun to tear up. "I was just lashing out because we had already lost to Slytherin so my confidence was knocked and I was really nervous about that game and then all the stuff with the work placement I dunno I think I just wanted a win like some kind of sense of control so I took a low blow against you to get that and I shouldn't have and Im so sorry-"

"Liv," Holly said with disgust, looking up from the magazine and down at her friend, who was now kneeling on the floor by her bed as if about to pray, "are you crying?"

This caused another burst of emotion from Liv. "I just missed you today and I'm sorry I was so mean and-"

Holly laughed, causing Liv to abruptly stop her speech. "Christ, you look a mess," she said, and standing up she pulled her friend up from the floor, walked her over to the bathroom, and began wiping her face with a damp flannel. Liv allowed her to work in silence, as she moved around, brushing her friends hair, tying it back, fetching her a glass of water. Eventually, Holly cupped Liv's cheeks in both hands and, with her face just inches away from Liv's, said seriously, "Are you about to start your period?"

Liv smiled, nodded slowly, and they both laughed.

Heading back into their bedroom they both lay on Holly's bed, spooning tightly as they now struggled to both fit on.

"Remember when we used to fit on here so easy?" Liv murmured.

"Mmm," Holly replied. Then, after a pause, "you don't really think I'm desperate do you?"

Liv turned her body to face her. "God no, Hols. You're a romantic. I love it about you. You see love everywhere."

Holly gave a small smile. "You wouldn't keep it from me would you? If there was something going on between you and Fred?"

Liv sighed, kissed her friends forehead, and turned back around to be little spoon. "I've something to tell you about that, actually."

Liv told Holly all about her day and Fred's offer of accommodation for the summer. She also, in the growing darkness of the bedroom, finally admitted to her friend that yes, she had a little crush on the boy, but that no, feelings were not reciprocated, but that she enjoyed his friendship nonetheless and she just had to wait for the feelings to pass, as they were want to do at that age.

"How do you know he doesn't feel the same about you?" Hollys voice was quiet as other Ravenclaws had begun to come back to their beds.

"He literally told me today. He called me his friend outright. And we both know he's not shy about asking people out. We've been friends months now and he's never asked me to hang out."

"He did today."

"Yeah, to discuss logistics. We exchanged details for our mothers to get in touch."

"Hmm. Well, I'm not going to pretend I know how to interpret boys actions and words. I do a bad enough job as it is with girls. As long as you're fine."

Liv smiled and squeezed her friends hand. "I'm grand," she whispered. "Holly – I can't believe I'm going to be able to do this work experience after all!"