Chapter 3
Fred stood back as the portrait door swung open, walking into the Gryffindor common room she was met with the warmth of the open fireplace wrapping around her.
Taking in the warmth of the scarlet and gold room before her Prue was filled with a sense of familiarity and affection toward the space. It pulled her in like a warm hug, her makeshift living room was filled with 7 years worth of memories. Memories of laughter and pranks, stressful tears provoked by exams and harsh professors, broken hearts and burgeoning friendships.
She thought to herself that the common room wasn't crowded with the buzz of students that usually filled the space. Especially in the days after the summer break, the space hummed with the energy of the upcoming year. This year though the common laid mostly empty.
The vacant space made her pause for a second, considering to herself whether she had spent more time in the hallway with Fred, then she had even realised. It had felt to her as if it had sped past in quick minutes but had it been enough time to allow most of the students to amble up to their dormitories?
As Fred entered the room behind her, he slid past her, his body bumping against hers gently. His hand lingered on her arm slightly longer than necessary as he swept past in the direction of a small table close to the hearth. As she followed, she surveyed her friends sat around the space.
Alicia and Lee sat on a worn maroon couch, Lee smoothly shuffling the deck of exploding snaps cards in his hands. The playful argument they'd been having since the train had clearly continued if the look on Alicia's face was anything to go by she thought to herself. To their left sprawled across a plush scarlet and gold pinstripe chair sat George. His legs flung up and over the arm of the chair allowed his thighs to become a makeshift desk for the pile of parchments he had laid across them. Prudence didn't even need to move close enough to see the papers to know that each piece would be graced with the three interlaced W's the twins had begun using on the top right corner of their order forms. Her eyes followed his free arm down, showing her the gentle cream skin of his fingers contrasting against the skin of the young witch sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him, his thumb mindlessly shifting back and forth across her collarbone. Angelina attempted in vain to appear undistracted by the action, staring gallantly at the open quidditch magazine that lay on the floor in front of her.
Fred's long strides carried him across the room quickly, allowing Prue to watch him jump smoothly onto the seat his twin stretch across. Sitting upon the headrest comfortably, he leaned down, looking over the orders in Georges lap. She followed the steps Fred had just taken. Her smaller steps carried her to the plush pillow Angelina had placed expectantly on the floor next to her, jolting her best friend into noticing her appearance as she sat down next to her.
"Deal me into this card game" Prue requested, turning her head to face Alicia as she spoke.
"Me too please." Angelina joined "I think I've been staring at the same article for an hour."
"Actually it was only 32 minutes" interjected George, looking down at Angelina from the paperwork quickly, throwing a wink in her direction before he lowered his head back to the orders. Angelina rolled her eyes with an exaggeration in my direction, but a pleased smile pulled across her lips noticeably.
Alicia jumped at the opportunity to ditch Lee for her two friends. Prudence had watched Alicia and Lee's friendship since 2nd year, their company was full of drawled flirtation from him and barbed retorts from Alicia. She knew that neither Alicia nor Lee truly saw each other as anything more than friends. Although she was convinced that if Alicia allowed him to, Lee would pursue her further not out of romantic interest but his unstoppable hormone-driven interests.
"Alright Lee, you're out" Alicia quickly plonked herself on the floor in front of Angelina and Prudence to form a circle "Angelina and Prudence you're in"
Lee began to splutter out an objection to Alicia's desertion but was cut off by Fred's interjection.
"There's no point trying to get in between those 3 mates you may as well just accept defeat now" the three girls nodded their heads elaborately in agreement with the twin before turning back to each other with a laugh. Prudence watched as Alicia swiftly tapped the cards with her wand, causing them to shoot in the air to shuffle themselves and then land neatly in a pile in front of her.
"Show off" Grumbled Lee to himself, causing Alicia to flick her wand in his direction, a bolt of blue light hitting his foot in retaliation.
The game started slowly, Alicia dealing the cards out with a slow precious counting out our hands.
"So what were you up to with Fred?" she queried slyly, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.
Prudence shot a sharp glance in her direction as she felt her cheeks grow warm as they flushed pink at the memory of Fred's body pressed up against her in the alcove so recently.
"Oh nothing, we were just talking" she replied curtly.
"It didn't look like nothing, it looked a lot like something." Alicia pushed back again. Although she could hear Lee and Fred chatting to each other behind her, Prue was acutely aware of the fact that Fred would still be keenly listening in to the conversation.
"It was not something!" she countered cautiously, carefully considering the direction she wanted to take the conversation "Fred just wanted to talk to me without you lot all hearing."
Prudence scrutinised Alicia's face carefully and watched her produce an accepting nod of her head. She relaxed, it seemed to her that Alicia was going to drop the topic.
"What would Fred want to talk to you about that we couldn't all hear" Angelina suddenly piped into the conversation.
Prue hurled an angry look towards her best friend, her lips mouthing "shut up" in her direction. Angelina responded with a sympathetic smile as she placed a card down onto the pile but made it silently clear she was unapologetic and had no intention of dropping the conversation.
Prue tapped her wand against the growing pile of cards mindlessly causing them to shoot in the air with a bang at her wrong move. She used the distraction as an opportunity to formulate a response. Spending more time than needed, healing the small burn on her finger to buy herself time.
"You're so nosey!" She babbled "He was just a bit embarrassed because he needed some advice about romantic troubles."
She noticed that Angelina had watched her hand fumble nervously through her hair, tugging lightly on the ends as the lie slipped from her lips. Angelina pulled a face that only she could see, making it clear that she wasn't buying her lie.
"Oi" Fred scowled jokingly, she turned quickly meeting his deep brown eyes hoping she could beg him to go along with the lie with her stare. She watched the consideration reflect in his eyes before they softened, and he continued "I said I didn't want everyone to know."
Georges laugh peeled across them "Aw ickle-Freddie having some lady problem is he?"
With a wink in her direction, Fred turned and punched George in the arm.
"At least women are interested in me mate." He retorted, throwing a knowing glance in Angelina's direction.
She realised he was attempting to turn the direction of the conversation towards George and Angelina, shifting the focus away from them. Joining his plan swiftly, she turned and locked eyes with Angelina, wiggling her eyebrows with an exaggeration, she opened her mouth, ready to serve her friend with some deserved payback.
Angelina spotted the incoming attack though and jumped up swiftly announcing to the group "We really need to and unpack our stuff."
She grabbed Alicia by the hand and pulled her up from the ground and began to lead her towards the dormitory stairs.
"Are you coming too Prudence?" she threw over her shoulder, making it clear that the use of her full name made the question redundant.
She looked in the direction of Fred and felt him survey her face. She could still feel his eyes burning into her as she stood and dragged herself towards the dormitories. The boys chorused byes and goodnights from behind her.
"Alright alright, you don't need to pull my arm out of the socket" Alicia complained as the three young women walked into their dormitory.
"I needed to get you both out of there before Prue said something she shouldn't have" Angelina justified with a small smile on her lips, clearly feigning to be more annoyed than she was.
"What could I possibly say that I shouldn't have!?" Prue shot back, crossing her legs underneath her as she sat on the end of her bed. She looked around their room quickly, looking at their carefully unpacked clothes and belongings. She followed up quickly "Do you really think they bought that? You've been bribing a house-elf to unpack our belongings since 5th year."
Alicia laughed with a snort "Those boys will buy anything if you say it to them with the right smile."
Alicia continued, bringing the conversation back to Angelina "Don't think we didn't notice how many times George has touched you since we found them on the train though Angelina."
"I can't control how many times he touches me" she scoffed tersely in response.
"Angelina, you're one of the best witches in our year AND a star quidditch player. I think you probably could control how many times he touches you" Prue fired back.
Stuck on that point, Angelina simply sighed and started to pull her pyjamas out.
"She doesn't seem to mind how many times Weasley touched her though" Alicia goaded, looking to her for back up.
"No, she doesn't" Prudence joined in with Alicia, echoing her taunt in the direction of Angelina's back as she walked into the adjoining bathroom.
"No she doesn't" they heard Angelina call back from the bathroom, the happy twinkle in her voice evident.