XI
To Win An Independent Heart.

-x- Angelina Johnson & Fred Weasley –x-

'I'm not the sort of person who
falls in and quickly out of love,
but to you, I give my affection
right from the start…'

It was a widely known fact that Angelina Johnson – Charms major and Gryffindor Chaser extraordinaire – was not the kind of girl to fall in love. Sensible, strong-willed and fiercely independent, she was definitely single and proud of it.

It wasn't that she was unattractive: with long ebony hair, large brown eyes, and a mix of African-American and English blood, she was definitely attractive; but with her haughty, powerful stride and confident, high-held head, she was slightly intimidating. Most of the Hogwarts boys knew better than to make advances on her: many of them had suffered first hand, the wrath of her sharp words and quick wit, but there was an exception… an exception by the name of Fredrick Arnold Weasley.

Cheerful, easy going and more often than not incurably lazy; tall and gangly Fred was her exact opposite, from the wide smile that constantly shone on his face, to his snow-white complexion, and yet, there was some undeniable chemistry that sparked between them. An undeniable chemistry that both were quick to deny.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Smack!

Rather viciously hit in the back of the head by a large roll of parchment, Angelina winced and cursing under her breath turned around with the full intent of throttling the culprit, who she knew would be none other than Fred Weasley.

'What do you want, you prat?' she hissed under her breath at the red-headed, beanpole of a boy who was in silent hysterics, rolling around in his seat.

'Needed – hahaha- to –hahaha- ask you –hahaha- something!' he gasped through tears of mirth.

'No need to nearly concuss me!' she exclaimed as quietly as possible over the monotonous drone of Professor Binns.

'Sorry, that was George's fault,' he whispered in return, smirking as George wrenched his gaze away from Alicia and opened his mouth furiously in indignation.

'Hmmm… right.' she muttered, rolling her eyes, long, dark braids whipping around her face, 'what seems to be the problem?'

'Well I - ' he started, but was ruthlessly cut off by the scrape of chairs and instant rise of chatter that signalled the end of class.

'What? I didn't hear you.' Angelina called over top of George's head, craning her neck to try to see him.

'I um,' he looked annoyed, 'I uh, nothing … I'll talk to you later about it.'

Frowning, Angelina watched him quickly hurry out of the classroom. It was so out of character for Fred to be hesitant to say anything, usually one couldn't shut him up.

'What did Fred want?' asked Alicia as they both walked out of the classroom and headed towards the Common Room.

'I don't know, he didn't actually get around to saying it,' Angelina replied with a shrug.

'That's strange,' Alicia mused with a thoughtful expression, 'he doesn't usually let anything stop him when he wants to say something.'

Angelina shrugged.
'When he wants to tell me, he will.'

Nodding in agreement, Alicia smiled briefly before sighing wistfully.
'How great would it be if you and Fred and George and I went to the Yule Ball together? It would be so perfect…'

Shrugging again, Angelina continued her brisk walk to the Common Room.
'I suppose so. What colour dress-robes are you wearing?'

This sparked a lively conversation that carried them through the entire trek back to the Gryffindor tower and continued even as they sank tiredly into arm-chairs by the fire.

While this conversation took place, Fred, along with George, was taking in part in one of his favourite past-times: tormenting his younger brother. Having come downstairs to borrow their younger sibling's psychotic owl, they had discovered that he'd somehow managed to set his own eyebrows alight.

'Nice look, Ron… go well with your dress robes, that will,' remarked George with a smirk as they seated themselves down amongst their brother and his friends, 'Ron, can we borrow Pigwidgeon?'

'No, he's off delivering a letter,' said Ron amidst his tender examination of his singed ginger eyebrows, 'why?'

'Because George wants to invite him to the ball,' Fred replied scathingly, rolling his eyes.

'Because we want to send a letter, you stupid great prat,' said George, sighing.

'Who d'you two keep writing to, eh?' asked Ron, looking thoroughly annoyed.

'Nose out, Ron, or I'll burn that for you too,' said Fred, waving his wand threateningly, before spotting Angelina in the corner, 'So… you lot got dates for the ball yet?'

'Nope,' said Ron, scowling.

'Well, you'd better hurry up, mate, or all the good ones will be gone,' Fred said, eyes still on Angelina.

'Who're you going with then?' Ron enquired indignantly, exchanging glances with Harry, who'd been watching their conversation with a mild brand of interest.

'Angelina,' he said quickly, turning his gaze back on them.

'What?' Ron yelped, taken aback, 'You've already asked her?'

'Good point,' Fred remarked, straightening up his posture, he grinned before bellowing across the room, 'Oi! Angelina!'

She turned, her dark braids whipping about her face as she did.
'What?'

'Want to come to the ball with me?' he called, his grin wavering slightly.

She studied him for a minute before answering, throwing a scowl at Alicia who'd begun to giggle hysterically. 'All right then.'

Fred watched her until she and Alicia finally started chatting again, a smile on her face that hadn't been there before, and then smirked as he turned back to Harry and Ron. 'There you go, piece of cake.'

Raising an eyebrow, Angelina laughed when she heard him say this to the two younger boys. 'Oh, so he doesn't tell them how it's his second attempt or anything.'

'Of course not,' replied Alicia, still grinning, 'he's a boy, they don't like admitting they're rubbish at something.'

'I wouldn't call that rubbish, though,' Angelina commented, glancing back at Fred for a second and studying his mischievous face with a smile, 'I'd call that brazen, actually, and I quite like that in a boy.'

A/N: lyrics used - "The Weakness In Me" by Joan Armatrading.
Excerpt also used from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" by JK Rowling -- no copyright infringement intended!!

can you believe that i'm not allowed a copy of HP7 til my assignments are done??
i'm about to cry, seriously, people. lol.

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