A/N: One chapter left, guys! Thanks so much to all who have read and reviewed so far!

xxx

The breakfast was lovely, as usual - boiled eggs, the yolk runny, with toast to dip in. It was my favourite meal to start the day with, and if it were any other day I would have eaten it as quickly as possible, trying to finish it before it got cold. But today, I couldn't. I couldn't savour it - I could barely concentrate on ensuring the food went in my mouth, and not on my cheek. You see, I was rather distracted.

The distraction was provided in the jovial form of Fred Weasley.

He was sat opposite me at the breakfast table, laughing with George, and seemed perfectly content. I scowled, rather jealous at how able to live he was. Since the kiss the day before, and the fact that he confessed he loved me, of all things, I couldn't focus upon anything. But there he was, the arse, laughing and joking and acting as though nothing had happened between us.

After we had Flooed home from St Mungo's the previous evening, we hadn't spoken anymore about what had happened. All evening we had avoided each other, but often found our eyes meeting, whereupon we'd both smile and look away. I never thought I'd see Fred acting coy, but it seemed that he indeed had it in him.

When I'd woken in the morning, I'd found Fred sitting on the end of my bed, George having already gone down. Before I could say a word - probably an angry word too, about him scaring me the moment I'd woken up - he'd leant forward and pressed his lips against mine for the merest moment, before fleeing downstairs. I'd been tempted to shout after him, calling him a coward, but the kiss - however small - had left me rather breathless.

Here I was now, however, longing for some kind of certainty. I wanted to know for definite whether or not we were - the phrase alone made me feel all silly and girlish - boyfriend and girlfriend, or if we were just very, very close friends, who kissed every now and then. I know I'd prefer the former, however much it made me panic to realise I was turning into some kind of - of girl.

We hadn't told anybody about the kisses. George, however, seemed to sense something had happened - he kept shooting me suspicious looks, and then glanced at Fred in the same manner. Of course, he knew about the first one, when I broke my leg, but he had no idea it had developed even further. Nobody else seemed to realise something was different, which I could only be relieved about - the Weasleys were lovely, but I was sure they'd go on and on about the relationship, probably even coming up with wedding plans.

Hang on, wedding plans? Shut up, brain.

Just as I was stabbing out the mental images of me in a frilly white dress with a mental knife, Fred stood up abruptly. The table fell silent, questioning looks being shot at him. He cleared his throat, beamed around at everybody, and raised his glass of pumpkin juice. Then, he looked directly at me.

"I have an announcement to make."

I blanched. I should have expected some eccentric and outlandish, but I'd evidently forgotten in all the excitement that Fred Weasley was the world's biggest prat. As I cast around for something to throw at him, he went on. "Yesterday, as you all know, Claudia broke her leg. We led you to believe that she fell down the stairs - which she did - but that's not the full story.

"Claudia, will you stand up and help me tell the family what really happened?"

"No, I won't!" I spluttered, cheeks turning red. I looked around at everyone's confused faces, wishing they'd look away. "Sorry about this," I said, apologetically. "It's nothing, you can all carry on eating."

Fred leant forward, looking annoyed, and hissed through his teeth, "Claudia, you're kind of ruining the moment here."

"We don't need a moment! There is no moment!" I hissed back. Looking around once more, I laughed nervously. "No moment at all."

"I - what?" Percy asked, raising his eyebrows. "I don't have a clue what the two of you are on about."

"No, me neither," Mrs Weasley said, studying the two of us suspiciously. "Either say what you have to say, Fred, or sit down."

"Well," Fred blinked, evidently rather let down that I wouldn't be assisting his little 'announcement'. "Well, err, the thing is. Claudia didn't just trip down the stairs by accident. Someone else was involved, so to speak."

"You pushed her?" Ron gaped.

"No, no," Fred said, hastily. "Well, not really. What I mean to say is -"

"You pushed her, didn't you?" Ginny pressed, looking shocked.

"No!" Fred insisted, ears growing red.

"No, it was slightly more dramatic than that," George helped, now grinning.

"Don't encourage him," I groaned, bright red. "This is - this is stupid, Fred. Can't you just sit down and -"

"The reason Claudia fell down the stairs and broke her leg," Fred went on, raising his voice over my protests. I buried my face in my hands as he finished, "is that I - um - I kissed her."

A shocked silence met his confession. I groaned again and didn't look up from my hands, instead cherishing the darkness. I'd never be able to look Mr and Mrs Weasley in the eye again, now they knew I'd been snogging their son. In the prickly silence, Fred cleared his throat again, this time a little more half-heartedly. "Um. Somebody say something?"

"I knew all along," George sniggered, and I couldn't help but glare at him for his childishness. He merely winked at me. Now I was looking somewhere else than the palms of my hands, I decided to risk a glance around the table. Ginny looked amused, and pleased. Ron was still gaping. Percy was blinking rapidly behind his glasses, glancing between Fred and me. Mr and Mrs Weasley were, to my utter amazement, smiling.

"Well, it is about time," Mrs Weasley commented, sharing a look with her husband. "We've been expecting this, you know."

"You have?" I asked, too surprised to keep silent. "What - why?"

"Well, the two of you have hardly been subtle," she chuckled, standing up to clear the table of the dirty plates. "Sometimes when one of you speak, the other will go red or leave the room. Whenever the subject of certain other people is brought up, the two of you get jealous. It's all been very obvious."

"It has?" I asked, laughing slightly. "I didn't realise."

"It wasn't obvious to me," Ron remarked, having finally assumed an expression that didn't remind me of fish. "So it can't have been that obvious."

"Ron, Ron, Ron," George sighed, shaking his head sadly. "You probably wouldn't have found it obvious if they confessed their undying love for one another right in front of you."

Whilst Ron spluttered, and everybody else laughed at him, I found myself looking at Fred. Though it had been embarrassing, his lavish announcement had been somewhat romantic. It seemed, I realised as I gazed at the chortling boy, that there were sides to him even I hadn't known about. It was confusing, but oddly exciting.

He looked away from his indignant little brother, and our eyes met. Immediately, his expression softened, and his ears went red again. My own cheeks began to go pink once more, but I couldn't help but smile. He looked around, saw that all his family were still talking, and leant forward slightly.

"Want to go for a walk?" he asked, nodding to the open door.

"Alright, then," I grinned, somewhat nervously.

We stood up at the same time, and headed for the door, hoping to slink away inconspicuously. Our plan was somewhat foiled, however, as George called after us. "Where are you two going? Wait a sec, I'll come too."

"Err -" Fred and I looked at each other awkwardly, as George stood up. Fred, looking immensely guilty, turned to his twin. "Err, George, Claudia and I were kind of planning to go for a walk. Alone."

"Oh!" Comprehension dawned on George's face, and he smiled faintly, sitting back down. "Oh, of course. Have fun."

"I - George, you can come if you want," I said, a little guiltily. "We don't mean to leave you out. It's just -"

"No, seriously, I'm fine," George replied, grinning a little more confidently. "You two go and have a walk. I think there are more than enough people here to keep me preoccupied."

We both smiled at him and left, walking into the bright outdoors. It was strange how the overgrown weeds and the mismatched boots on the lawn suddenly seemed picturesque. We strode out into the garden, avoiding touching and looking at each other. Suddenly things felt awkward, and I had no idea what to say.

"Err," Fred said, coming to a halt, his arms swinging uselessly by his sides. "Do you want to go flying?"

"Not particularly," I admitted, twisting a lock of hair around a finger.

Fred laughed, a short and nervous laugh. "You know, I never thought I'd date a girl who hates flying so much."

"I could pretend to like it," I offered, hoping he didn't see me grinning like an idiot at his words, "but wait, we're - um - we are a couple, then?"

"Oh, only if - well, I thought so, but I mean, if you don't want -"

"No, I want," I said, quickly, nervously licking my lips. "I just didn't know if you wanted."

"Well, I kind of did admit yesterday that I've pretty much fallen for you, didn't I?" he smirked, a glint of his old humour shining in his brown eyes. "It hardly takes a lot of brains to work out that I wanted to go out with you."

"I never claimed to have a large amount of brains," I grinned, happy the ice was breaking, bit by bit. "If we are going out, then, you do realise that Lee is going to have to give you some kind of 'protective older brother' talk? He's practically my brother, after all. It'll be the typical, 'I'll kill you if you hurt her' stuff."

"I can deal with Lee," Fred scoffed, settling himself against a tree at the edge of the orchard. I sat down opposite him, crossed legged, and picking daisies from the lawn. "He's scrawny."

"Scrawny?" I snorted, picking the petals off of the white daisy. "He'd beat you in a fight any day. He's got surprising strength, believe me."

"Am I supposed to be jealous?" he teased, and in a moment he had moved rather closer. Not a trace of fear to be found on his face any longer, he leant forward and kissed me, hard, upon the lips. I let out a strangled noise, rather taken by surprise, but after a moment or two of motionlessness, I kissed back.

It was an odd, slightly uncomfortable kiss, that nonetheless made me want to burst into song or something equally embarrassing. He leaned closer into me, running a hand through my hair, the other settling on one of my hips. I had no idea what to do with mine, so I simply strung my arms around his neck, and hoped it would do.

The hand on my hip slipped upwards slightly, to my stomach, and then just a little higher, to the curve of my breasts. I took in a sharp breath, and tensed. He pulled back a little, resting on his knees, and looked at me, concerned. "Um. Are you okay?"

"I - yeah," I muttered, fiddling with the hem of my skirt uncomfortably. "It's just, well. This is a little weird, isn't it? We've been friends for God knows how long, and now we're - well. You know."

Fred look troubled, and he didn't meet my eye. "If you don't want this, then -"

"Oh, God, no, I do," I said, hastily. I didn't want him to think I didn't have feelings for him or anything, because even now the butterflies in my stomach were dancing. I was acting stupid, unwillingly throwing something amazing away. Smiling slightly, I got to my knees so I was nearly at his height, slipped my arms around his neck and kissed him. It felt rather better this time. Pulling back slightly, I smiled. "I'm sorry. Just ignore me. Of course I want this."

Fred grinned. "You are such a girl."

Before I could reply indignantly, however, he was kissing me again. It was gentler this time, more tentative, and I smiled against his lips.

This was, I thought, idly curling a finger in his red hair, worth every broken leg and stuffy stepsister in the world.

xxx

"Right then," Mr Weasley said, brightly. "The connection to the fireplaces is sorted out, so we can get on and pick the two of them up. We'll get Hermione first. Who's coming?"

"I'll come," Ron said, immediately, followed by the twins and Ginny. Mr Weasley smiled at everyone, and stood up from where he was sat at the table. As everybody else who'd agreed to go stood up, as well, Bill and Charlie smiled at me.

"Want a game of Exploding Snap whilst they go pick Ron's friends up?" Charlie asked, withdrawing a pack from his pocket.

"Alright, then," I grinned, tucking a few strands of hair behind my ear. I didn't know the elder Weasley brothers that well, and it would be nice to spend some time getting to know them. I glanced at Fred, who was getting out of his chair and stretching, and at George, who was talking to Ginny. "I hope you're better than the twins. They've never beaten me, and we've played hundreds of times."

George snorted, looking up from his conversation. "It's pure luck. I'll beat you one day."

I smirked, sceptically. "The man who can beat me at Exploding Snap will probably get my hand in marriage."

The moment the words were out in the open, I winced. I often made stupid jokes about boys and marriage, knowing full well it was rubbish, but now I had to be a little more careful. I was, after all, in a relationship. And anyway, why did I keep mentioning marriage? We'd not even been going out for a day.

To my relief, however, Fred just grinned. He planted a kiss on my lips (oh god, that felt lovely), and then mockingly shook his fist at Charlie. "If you beat her, I might have to hurt you. No hard feelings, yeah?"

"None at all," Charlie replied, looking somewhat bemused, and shared a look with Bill.

"Well then, let's be off," Mr Weasley said, smiling slightly at the talk, and made his way over to the fireplace. As everybody left - Fred winking at me as he did so - I turned to the now set-up card game and pushed my sleeves up.

"Right then," I said, brightly. "Who's ready to lose?"

xxx

As we sat around the table underneath the darkening sky, I was still cheery at having thrashed everybody, once more, at Exploding Snap. Despite the fact the twins had argued with their mother over a prank they'd played on Dudley Dursley (Harry Potter's Muggle cousin), I was in a fairly good mood. Everyone was generally in high spirits because of the World Cup the next day, and Fred couldn't seem too look away from me.

Every time our eyes met, I was reminded why I'd started to fancy him in the first place.

To distract myself, I looked down the table, examining the newcomers. I didn't know either of them that well, but I liked them well enough. Hermione Granger had a head of brown curls, and rather large front teeth, and was the sort of girl I'd usually despise. For some reason, though, I didn't mind her. Despite her love for rules, she was polite and evidently a good person.

I'd only spoken to Harry Potter a handful of times at most, but he was always pleasant. It was nice to see he didn't have a stupidly sized ego, plus he was up for breaking the rules every now and again. I'd raised hell when Fred and George had given the Marauder's Map to Harry the year before - I missed that old parchment rather a lot - but bore him no ill will. I suppose his needs were rather great, even if I'd get caught a lot more by Filch because of it.

I found myself thinking about the last time I'd been caught by the dear old caretaker. I'd been starving at about eleven at night, and had snuck down to the kitchens, but had accidentally tripped into a suit of armour. As Filch came thundering down the corridor, shouting about how many detentions I was bound to get, Cedric Diggory had come up the other side.

Being a Prefect, he'd managed to talk Filch out of punishing me, and then had walked me to the kitchens. We'd had a hot chocolate each, had talked for a couple of hours, and then he'd walked me back to Gryffindor Tower. At one point he'd taken my hand, which had just about made my heart burst, but nothing else had happened. Then, my mind rushed to the memory of him kissing me on his sofa, and how wonderful it had felt.

"Claudia?"

I looked up, cheeks burning, to meet Fred's eyes. He was looking curious, but once I'd given him my attention, he merely smiled. "Sorry, you were miles away. You looked like a right idiot."

I sniffed, pretending to be hurt. "Well. If that's how you feel about me -"

"Yeah, course it is," he commented, rolling his eyes. "You're just an idiot."

"Well, then, this idiot is withholding kisses," I smirked, triumphantly.

"You can't do that!" Fred gasped, clutching his chest.

"Oh, would you two please get a room?" George groaned. "I'm happy you're together and everything, but if you're going to get sickening…"

"A room? What, you mean the one we share with you?" Fred asked, innocently. George scowled, though I could tell he wasn't really mad. I suppose he was just happy the two of us had gotten our acts together and had finally admitted our feelings to one another.

Before long, however, it was Mrs Weasley banishing us to our rooms. We had to get up early, for that damn World Cup, and I suppose we needed all the sleep we could get. I felt full and content, thanks to the lovely dinner and a good few games of exploding cards, and stumbled up to the twins' bedroom happily.

Just before crawling into bed to sleep, Fred pulled me close to him and kissed me, long and hard, upon the lips. I pulled back, smiling a little dazedly, and laughed. "Well. I'll see you tomorrow, then."

"That you will," he grinned, and quickly kissed me once more. "Night."

"Night," I sighed, lightly, and clambered into my bed. As the lights switched out and the darkness swirled around us, I grinned happily. Things were getting rather good in the life of Claudia Paisley, for once, and it was quite enjoyable.

Suddenly, I remembered that I'd most likely be seeing Cedric the next day, and mentally swore.

All I knew was I'd have to keep those damn butterflies under wraps, and not let one escape.

Fred Weasley, for all his laughter and jokes, was one jealous bugger when it came to it.

xxx