Forgot to upload on Sunday, shhhhhh. :) Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving week. Some more Fred/Leili fluff/relationship building.
Downtime
June 16th, 1995
6th year
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Leili had a new book today. Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. A demon loses the new-born Anti-Christ and proceeds to muck up the coming Apocalypse. Sort-of.
She had found a shady tree and sat beneath it to read. Several chapters later, she was discovered by Fred who sat down beside her, seemingly content to just hang out while she read.
It was a deeply engrossing and hilarious story.
Eventually, intrigued by her gasps and giggles and declarations of "oh, no!", "What's so funny?" Fred asked.
Eyes sparkling she read, "'[Crowley] had heard about talking to plants in the early 70's, on Radio 4, and thought it was an excellent idea. Although talking is perhaps the wrong word for what Crowley did. What he did was put the fear of God into them.
More precisely, the fear of Crowley.
In addition to which, every couple of months, Crowley would pick out a plant that was growing too slowly, or succumbing to leaf-wilt or browning, or just didn't look quite as good as the others, and he would carry it around to all the other plants. 'Say goodbye to your friend,' he'd say to them. 'He just couldn't cut it…'
Then he would leave the flat with the offending plant, and return an hour or so later with a large, empty flower pot, which he would leave somewhere conspicuous around the flat. The plants were the most luxurious, verdant, and beautiful in London. Also the most terrified.'"
Fred snorted and Leili continued grinning like a maniac. Unable to resist sharing this new gem with someone who seemed interested, she continued reading. Somehow, his red head wound up in her lap and her fingers in his hair. At the end of each page, she dropped the book down to his level and he would turn it for her.
At the end of one chapter, she paused, dropping the book to her side, "Fred, can I ask you a question?"
"Always."
"D'you… do you mind if I… if I don't watch your Quidditch practices? I just—I just don't want to… see him… right now. …Maybe ever... Is that ok? I'll still come to the games, if you want me to."
Fred sat up, leaning on one arm so they were roughly eye level. Her voice had quavered and now that he looked at her, he could see the fear in her face; the way her lips pressed together, the little crease between her brows, the uncertainty in her eyes, like she expected him to yell at her.
"You don't have to go anywhere or see anyone you don't want to."
"Really?"
Merlin, what did Wood do to her? Fred wondered. "Really."
The smile she gave him lit up her whole face, he did his level best to memorize it. Reaching out, he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.
"Do me a favor? Don't lie back down?"
"Making you uncomfortable?"
her smile turned teasing, "Only in the sense that your head is heavy and I'm losing feeling in my legs."
Fred laughed and obliged, moving back to sit beside her. Leili shook her legs out before curling them up and leaning on his shoulder to continue reading.