I didn't mean to take this long to update but it's been a hectic last few months for me! This is a fairly long chapter though so I hope that somewhat makes up for it. :P I hope you guys like it! Enjoy.

~Fluffy

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CHAPTER 17-VALENTINE'S DAY

George left Brooke standing before the Great Hall and kissed her on the cheek before walking up the stairs. He told her Fred was going to meeting her there so Brooke watched George walk up the stairs and waited patiently for Fred. George had stuffed her full of both their favorite foods and desserts before they ended up reminiscing about old pranks and fun times they'd had together. It was difficult to find memories of just her and George together without Fred but they managed to remember a few, which happened to include a few of Brooke's favorite memories. It was a fun date and Brooke was content as she waited for Fred to take her on his.

After a few minutes Fred came down the stairs and beamed a smile at Brooke that she fully returned. He came up beside her and wrapped his arm around her waist and began to lead her outside. Brooke found it a little odd how he had taken her waist but figured he had used to do it before and was just slipping into an old routine. They stepped onto the grounds and Fred led her around, watching as the sun made its way towards the mountains.

"I hope just a walk around the grounds is okay," said Fred, and Brooke just smiled.

"It's fine, Fred," said Brooke. "This is nice, I don't think I've watched the sun set since we got stuck out in the forbidden forest in fourth year."

"Oh yeah!" Fred laughed. "We went out there looking for an ingredient for one of our food pranks. Then on our way out Filch started patrolling the ground after a student told him he saw us out here. He kept looking for us for a few hours while we were up in one of the trees trying to hide behind the limbs."

"Eventually he went back into the castle but we stayed long enough to finish watching the sun set."

"That was the night that I realized my feelings for you had changed, there you were about to get in huge trouble for being out in the forbidden forest at night and you didn't care. You were laughing and joking and you were just watching the sunset with this little smile on your face. It kind of changed the way I did things with you from then on, I was afraid you'd find out before I had time to sort things out."

"I never knew, Fred, not until this year."

"When it was kind of sprung on you in the worst way, I'm sorry about how it happened but I'm not sorry I kissed you."

"I was at first," Brooke said. "There were these days when I would be around you or George and forget anything my mind was trying to conceive. It was like I got all jumbled when I ended up alone with you and I didn't understand what it meant. I think at some point I would have figured it out but by then it could have been too late. The friends I lose because of what happened is hard, friends I'd had since my first year here, but I know that I'll still have you and George when this is over. You guys have, and will always be, the most important people in my life; I couldn't stand to lose you."

Fred turned and smiled at Brooke and leaned forward to kiss her but Brooke turned her head so his lips landed on her cheek.

"Fred, that's not what I'm here to do right now," Brooke said. "It would be wrong for me to kiss you."

"Didn't you kiss George?" asked Fred.

"No, he didn't try and neither did I."

"Oh."

Fred blushed and then cleared his throat and looked like he was having a hard time trying to find something to say.

"I'm sorry," Fred said.

"It's okay," Brooke replied, resting a hand against his cheek and nodding. "I can understand why you might have thought that. For now though, I'm not going to do anything like that, it would be wrong of me. We're trying to go about this the right way and that's not the right way."

"Won't happen again, promise."

Brooke smiled and then dropped her hand into his and they continued their walk across the grounds. There were a few people out, with it being Valentine's Day most of the people were couples. The sun was settling across the sky, drawer nearer and nearer to setting. Fred began to get on the topic of a new prank him and George had been working on and wanted to get her opinion on whether she thought it was a good idea.

"I mean all it does is cause a fever," Fred said. "The side effects don't happen every time and a fever is easy compared to our puking pastils."

"And the side effects are?" asked Brooke.

"Well, depending on how high your fever goes it could cause you to faint or get nauseous. Sometimes they work the wrong way and your temperature drops so you're actually cold but really, it's not so bad."

"Who experienced these symptoms?"

"Me and George, Lee did once but I don't think it will happen again."

Fred scratched his head in a diversion kind of way and Brooke turned and looked at him.

"What happened to Lee?" Brooke asked.

"He, uh," Fred replied. "He lost all his hair."

"What? How is that even a symptom for creating a fever?"

"We're not sure but it hasn't happened again."

"I think you should work a little bit more on this one."

"That's what George thinks, it's hard to keep these things from the students here. Not being able to help them out of skipping school just really breaks my heart."

"Yeah, that's definitely terrible thing."

Brooke rolled her eyes sarcastically and Fred bumped her with his arm. She bumped him back and then they got into who could bump the other one harder and knock them further away. Brooke managed to get in a particularly hard bump causing Fred to fumble and then he hit a rock with his steadying foot and ended up falling onto his butt with an umpth. Though she tried to stop it, fits of giggles bubbled up from her throat and she tried to cover them with her hand. That was when Fred reached up and snagged her wrist dragging her down next to him where he attacked her ribs with his hands, tickling her. Brooke was laughing out loud now, begging Fred to stop and trying to catch her breath as his assault on her ribs continued.

"Do you give up?" Fred said and Brooke attempted several times to say yes while gasping but Fred did stop and she continued to laugh anyway, falling onto her back. She could hear Fred laughing too as he fell down beside her and after a few moments their laughter stopped as they looked up at the sky and saw the sun was just setting. Brooke could still picture them hiding in the trees laughing about how dense Filch was no to be able to find them. Just like now they had gone silent as the sun set, just watching how beautiful it looked as it disappeared behind the mountains.

"We should probably head in, unless we want a repeat with Filch," Fred said and Brooke nodded. He stood up and grabbed her hand, helping her to her feet and kept her hand is his as they followed the flow of students into the castle. They headed up the stairs and to the Fat Lady; Fred said the password and the two stepped inside to see it bustling with people. Everyone was talking and laughing, eating heart shaped boxes of chocolate and cuddling stuffed animals to their chest. George was talking to Lee and Brooke noticed that Lee had wearing an awful lot of hats lately and finally understood why. When George went to touch his hat Lee slapped his hand away and George started laughing. Brooke and Fred walked up to them and George turned, beaming a smile at Brooke.

"Lee, I love the hat," said Brooke and Lee turned to Fred and smacked the side of his head.

"You told her, didn't you?" asked Lee.

"Yeah but what if I hadn't?" Fred said, rubbing his head.

"You still deserved it."

"I'd have to agree," Brooke added and Lee gave her a high five.

"You've always been my favorite," Lee said, winking at her and then he noticed a girl who entered the common room and headed off towards her.

"What's that about?" asked Brooke.

"Amanda Billings," George replied. "She asked Lee out last weekend."

"She asked him out?"

"Yep, it was really funny, Fred be Amanda."

Fred walked up to George with his hands on his waist.

"Hey, Manda," George said, failing to catch Lee's voice or mannerisms at all.

"Lee, you're going to go out with me," Fred said, his attempt at sounding like a girl failing greatly. "If you break up with me before Valentine's Day I'll slip a love potion to you somehow and make you fall in love with Ramilda Vane."

"Uhm, okay."

"Good."

Fred then turned on his heels and walked away with his nose in the air. They were right that the story itself was pretty funny but Brooke was gasping from laughing so hard because they failed terribly at their parts. Both of them could never be actors, ever, or liars, if they acted that bad they definitely didn't have a good poker face.

"Are you going to pass out?" asked Fred and Brooke held her hand out and shook her head.

"No," she managed to say. "You...are...bad actors."

"Awe, Brooke, that hurts," George replied.

"The truth hurts."

"I think we should leave, Fred, Brooke doesn't appreciate us."

"Good idea, George," Fred said, they stuck their noses in the air and then walked away and Brooke started laughing even harder as she watched them go. It was nice to see them together, playing out a scene and not fighting. Brooke didn't realize just how amazing the twins were when they were on the same side, together they were a whole and apart they were half a person. She finally managed to stop laughing and then looked around wondering where the twins had gone off to but with all the people in the room she couldn't find them. Seeing as most of the girls were still giving her dirty looks she decided to head up to the girl's dorm for a little while. She walked up the stairs and into her room, when she reached her bed she pulled her curtain back and an awwwwwwwe escaped her lips.

Sitting on her mattress were two very similar baskets. One was green, which was Fred's favorite color, and one was yellow, George's favorite color. The green basket had a heart shaped box of chocolates and a brown teddy bear and the yellow basket had the same heart shaped box of chocolates but had a white teddy bear instead. Brooke took both of the bears and hugged them to her, smiling. She then put both bears on her bed and set her baskets by her nightstand.

"That's just like you, Brooke, indecisive and wanting two boys in your bed," Alicia said and Brooke saw her taking her shoes off as she was sitting on her bed.

"I'm not going to do this," said Brooke. "I'm not going to fight with you."

"The guilty need no argument."

Brooke ignored Alicia and sat down on her bed and pulled her own shoes from her feet.

"You didn't learn anything did you?" asked Alicia. "No matter what we do you're just going to sit there and continued to string Fred and George along. You are the worst kind of person, Brooke, not even a dip in the lake made you realize that."

"Leave me-" Brooke started to say but then that last line made her stop. "Did...did you push me into the lake?"

"Someone had to show you that you can't hurt people without any consequences."

"What you did was worst than anything I did!"

Brooke stood up, angry now.

"You could have physically hurt me, Alicia!" Brooke cried. "It was freezing out there and the lake was like ice. Can you imagine if I had hit my head or got so shocked by the cold that I couldn't swim? At least what I did didn't have the prospect of killing you!"

"W-well, yeah, you," Alicia faltered. "You should just give up; none of the girls are going to be friends with you anyway."

"So what? Girls backstab, they're petty, and while all the guys could care less about any of this, the girls blew it all out of proportion. I don't need any of you, Alicia, I have friends, the guys are my friends. If you try to hurt me again I will tell Fred and George and Lee and then we'll see who has the most pull here, the guys or the girls."

Alicia stormed out of the dorm and Brooke fell down onto her bed fuming, annoyed that Alicia could be so cruel. What stake did she really have in any of this? The people who were hurt the most were Angelina and Katie as they had been who the twins asked to the Yule Ball. Brooke fell back on her bed and the two teddy bears ended up on either side of her head. It was exactly how Brooke felt, caught between Fred and George and the boys and girls.