AN: I would now like to declare that Classysam is fantastic to realms you've ever dreamt of! Sam has been so good to me and I want everyone to know that if it wasn't for her encouraging critiquing of my work and her enthusiasm about this story none of you would get to read the following chapter. Sam you're the best ever, and these next several chapters are all for you! (So be great fans like her and R&R) –Richard S.
Picking and Choosing (Tales of Hogwarts Romance) Chapter 24
Sir came in softly this time. He was quiet and slow as he made his way to where she lay. He probably imagined that she wasn't even awake. But house elves were silent in comparison to his light feet. He shuffled across the floor, holding his breath to discourage his olfactory from taking in the smells around him. He usually didn't notice it, but then again neither did she. She had spent more than a year here, why would she continue to smell the stench of piss and open wounds. Why would month old animal sex and sweat even register at this point? He ran out of air, the smell almost made him sick to his stomach, she could hear him gag. He was standing above her now. It was like he was waiting for something.
Now she remembered. He had told her last time that she would have to ask for him to violate her. When she sat up it startled him, she could here him gasp, but she didn't want to open her eyes for this. "Please Sir, I want it." The words were worse than any pain he could physically inflict. But his response wasn't what she had expected, instead of gruff laughter she heard him let out a soft, boyish sob. She opened her eyes. It wasn't Sir, instead before her stood Sir's son. She could see him, blonde and pale, just like his father. But he was softer, maybe that was just the tears speaking though. In this light she knew that he couldn't make out anything other than a silhouette of her shape. He reached out a hand, it skimmed her shoulder, down her arm, warmer than anything she'd felt in months. She was totally still as his porcelain fingertips moved along her lower arm, but she flinched away from his grip when he touched her hand.
He tried again for her grubby fingers, slower now, and tenderer. His hands were soft like feathers against her filthy, calloused palms. She took in a deep breath as he rubbed his thumb and forefinger over her hands gently, exploring the scrapes and bony phalanges. "I'll help you…" He whispered to her in the dark. She cried, softly and silently. Tears poured down from her eyes, dripping off her chin delicately. "…I promise I will." He had released her hand now, he was taking off his coat. He draped it gently over her shoulders. It was lined with wool, warm delicious wool. She melted into its vast warmth in seconds, pushing her arms through the sleeves. It didn't matter to her if it got dirty, for all she knew he'd be taking it back in just a moment. "I have to go…I'll be back though." His soft childish voice was rushed. He must have known that his father would be coming down soon. He rose to his feet from his crouched position, he scampered to the door quickly but just before he opened it he turned around again, "What is your name?" He asked her. "I don't even know anymore." The words just came out of her. She didn't think about them, she just knew that she had no answer for his question. He left without saying another word.
Illy groaned with the morning, of course she would be lucky enough to dream about Draco as a night in shining armor the day after she decided he was an arrogant twat. She pushed the layers of blankets she kept on her bed to her knees and headed out for her morning run.
Three hours later she walked through the doors of the great hall and smiled to Draco mischievously as she took a seat next to him.
"So, I heard that you and Pansy had a good time last night." If she was going to be his friend she would need to get over all queasiness associated with Draco's love life involving other women.
"Who told you that?" He asked as he pushed a small bowl of porridge topped with a lump of brown sugar toward her.
"Thanks," She began stirring the hot bowl with anticipation. "And I don't think that anyone needed to tell me. The whole fucking dungeon heard her. So either you got lucky or she masturbates louder than anyone on earth."
"Fair enough." Draco shrugged with an arrogant smile.
"So are you together now?" She blew on her spoonful of porridge before eating it with scrutinizing attention to detail in flavor. Porridge was a food of all foods for Killious. It required no chewing, filled quickly, was served warm, and she could put almost anything into it for flavoring.
"No…why would I bother to date her when I get the benefits without any work?"
"I guess I just assumed, but whatever, if she's that loose than she deserves it."
"You forget that bedding Draco Malfoy is a gift from the gods, I blessed her enough with my presence, why over do it?"
"Apparently you blessed her with more than just your presence."
"Like I said a gift from the gods."
"Wow, you are one arrogant son of bitch you man whore." They both laughed lightly before returning their focus to their food.
"Is anyone going to explain what the fuck is going on?" Jackquinn finally blurted the question on everyone's tongue. It was not until that moment that Draco and Killious even noticed how silent the table had become from the moment that she sat down.
"Last night you were about to rip Pansy's voice box from her throat out of pure jealousy and now you're laughing about Draco's sexcapades?" Dolan finished Jacky's thought for him before he could.
"I feel like I've just entered a paradoxical universe." Jackquinn commented as he shook his head.
"Fuck their behavior; does anyone else see what she's wearing?" Christian managed to gather his jaw from the table just in time to put in his two cents. But he did manage to distract the entire table from the matter at hand to look at Killious' choice of clothing. She sighed as the boys tried their best to see over the table, and ended up standing and doing a slow motion spin around to move things in their discussion forward. Her ribbed, bodiced, black and white stripped, top had a minimalist corset lace in the back and a trim of black lace across its strapless top. Her crystal ball necklace was around her wrist and had been replaced by a black ribbon with two ruby cherries dangling from it. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail and rather than straitening it she had gone the other extreme and put it into elongated ringlet curls of ebony. She started to sit back down,
"Turn around one more time Illy, you just made my day." Christian winked at her as she turned around again to give a view of her backside, which was nicely accentuated by her skintight black skinny jeans. She smirked at Jacky who was currently mesmerized by her cherry red heels and took her seat again.
"Are we all set gentleman?"
"You may not have boobs but damn, all those salads go straight to your ass." Christian said with a pleased smile on his lips.
"Shut the fuck up." She reeled.
"He is right, what are you like an A cup?" Draco asked dryly.
"No!…I'm a B…a 28 B." Illy looked down at her food, suddenly uninterested in eating.
"Don't get all depressed and go entirely anorexic on us! You won't even have an ass then!" Dolan pushed her bowl towards her. She smiled and took a bite of the food.
"Aren't you going to be with Fred and George today?" Jackquinn asked.
"Yeah, why do you want to come and spend some time with Fred?" She called back his previous assertion about a certain red head with vindication.
"No, actually I was just thinking, how are you going to keep up with them in a ribbed bodice and a pair of pumps?"
"Fag." Christian immediately began chiding and pointed childishly at Jackquinn, who ignored him completely.
"Even I could have told you that it was a ribbed bodice and pumps you moron. And I think that Pansy informed us all that I'm not a fag!" Draco defended.
"Shit…damn it you ruined a perfectly good outfit." Illy pouted at Jackquinn.
"Yeah, you ruined a perfect outfit Jacky." Christian whined. "Can I help you pick out a new one? I can even help you put it on!"
"Keep it in your pants Christian." Dolan rolled his eyes at Christian.
"You don't need a bra for that outfit, do you?" Christian asked, now transfixed by the small amount of cleavage that peaked over the top of the lace.
"For Merlin sake, get fucked already." Draco complained.
"Of course you don't need a bra, we went over this, ribbed bodice, there's fucking pieces of wire in that thing along with a corset, you couldn't fit a bra in that!" Jacky burst out.
"Besides, you just heard her cup size didn't you?" Draco spoke under his breath.
"Not quiet enough asshole." Illy slapped the back of Draco's head.
"I'll be getting you back for that."
"What are you going to get your daddy to have me executed too?"
"Bitch."
"Whore."
"I hope you know you're the devil."
"I'm going to go change." Illy left the table, getting cat calls and whistles all the way down the rows of the hall.
"Good job not flirting Draco, she's got to be convinced that you don't want to make her squeal like Pansy now." Dolan said flatly.
"Shut your trap ponce." Draco took a bite of his toast and sighed.
"Why'd you change, we were hoping that we could put you on a corner and pay for lunch!" George teased playfully. Illy had locked arms with each twin, and was maintaining normal balance, now that she was in high top converse.
"At least before your shirt didn't have obscure folk bands on it." Fred growled.
"Listen bitch, I will hit you." Illy giggled. "Besides, I like my shirt." She looked down at the long-sleeved black shirt with a fiddler's green logo on it and smiled. "And just so you know, they're not folk dumbass."
"Fine, the fact remains that now we have to pay for lunch on our own." George smirked as he held open the door to Zonko's. Illy stepped inside and immediately rushed to the front counter.
"Maury!" She gushed at the middle-aged man who stood behind the counter. He smiled back at her and walked around to give her a hug.
"I haven't seen you since summer? What happened to you? I still need you for work."
"I'm going to Hogwarts now."
"Oh, parents finally let you go?"
"Yeah, I assume you know Fred and George already. They probably spend more money in here than most people spend on groceries."
"Of course, they hope to be my biggest competition one day."
"I'm helping them with that of course."
"I heard about Filch's office the other day; tell me that was you three."
"Of course it was! Well, mostly it was them. I just made sure that they didn't drain the entire black lake into the school."
"Good, I'd hate to see how the grindylow's dealt with that…Hey put those down! You can't test them in the store! Look it was great seeing you again, but I've got to go, I'll see you around." Maury gave Illy a last hug and rushed to where some younger students where about to set off a stink bomb.
"You're really killing us Illy." George began,
"If you hadn't changed he might have just paid off our bill in here too!" Fred finished.
"You both mistreat me horribly."
"I never mistreat you Killious, ever." Fred said, entirely serious, but with the same jovial air as before.
"Okay, so remember, we only have enough for a few cheap things. We really shouldn't buy anything, it's just that Maury doesn't like us to use his place for free inspiration." George informed Illy.
"If you're looking for something good, he keeps a lot of unauthorized stuff in the back room." Illy informed the twins with a nod towards a closed door in the back of the shop. It took each of them a moment to pick the word "unauthorized" out of that sentence. It was key, seeing as very little was unauthorized in the joke world.
"We'll go look, you stay and keep guard." Fred instructed George who considered putting up a fight but decided against it, before he pushed Illy in the direction of the door. She made her way to the back of the shop quickly. She had been there in crowds larger than this. She whispered a password to the door's keyhole and turned the brass knob, after a quick glance in Maury's direction. She opened the door just wide enough for Fred and herself to pass through the opening if they turned sideways. Her estimations were somewhat skewed however by her own slender figure, and it took a widening of several inches to allow Fred to pass through the door. His eyes sparkled in sight of the boxes and shelved of black market prank items. Things like this were clearly imported, and very dangerous.
Illy let Fred take in the sight for a few moments, it was overwhelming for him. The metal racks were carelessly stacked with containers of enchanted exploding matches that could blow a hand off, dummy portkeys that transported their user to the exact opposite side of the earth from their current location, boa constrictor blankets which proceeded to eat and slowly crush their victim to death, and even such a ruthless and rare item as one copy of "death by laughter: a book on comical murder" by Comicolus Crypt.
"Look at this!" He said pointing to the book. He was smart enough not to touch it without having the key to its lock on hand, as the first comical murder in the book was carried out by handing someone the book without giving them the key, resulting in a kind of splinching, in which someone's insides flipped out, creating a rather messy and rather dead pile of organs and bones.
"We're here for observation only, and you have five minutes."
"You're putting me on a time limit?"
"I'm friends with Maury, I feel bad enough about this as it is."
"How could any person feel bad in a place like this?" Fred gushed, as he moved back to where she stood. He picked her up by her waste and spun her around twice, totally invigorated by his surroundings.
For the next five minutes the two of them scribbled information down about every object that could produce a useful idea. When their time had run out, the two exited the room with electric excitement. They didn't even stop to look around the rest of the shop as they grabbed George's arm and headed for a restaurant down one of the back streets of the little town. Fred seemed to be the only one who knew where on earth they were going however and in his giddy mood it left his brother and friend practically running to keep up.
"Fred, you've got to slow down, we're not even in a shopping district anymore!"
"Then walk faster." His voice wasn't really irritated, just elated.
"Fred I take in somewhere around a maximum of one thousand calories a day. You and your fine burning brick house of a brother more than triple that. I'm going to faint." Illy did hate to come to terms with the limitations that her eating habit imposed, but when they were also useful it didn't bother her as much.
"Was that a red head joke? 'Burning brick house'? You're really off your game today love. And you're not even lying that well. You're the only female chaser, let alone player, on the Slytherin house quidditch team, you have a full blocked class schedule, which you excel in, and you still have the energy to pull pranks with us, put up with Harry, and fight with Draco all the time. You're fine."
"But…you're going to fast." She was at a loss for words. He knew her better than she thought, but he still stopped to look at her, frustrated as she was, and chose mercy.
"George, we're going to Magda's" George nodded and kept walking towards the restaurant, if that's even what it was.
Fred rolled his eyes and scooped Illy up easily, tucking one arm underneath her knees, and using the other to support her back. He smiled at her to assure her that he wasn't upset at all, and was really just excited to begin comparing ideas.
"You really are such a baby some times." He tickled her side with the hand he had placed around her back, producing a small giggle.
"You said yourself I put up with quite a bit. I'm just out of it today…last night was a mess."
"More with Harry and Draco I suppose? Those two really do cause you too many problems, you need to just leave them be. They may kill each other, but at least then you'll only have to deal with one of them at a time."
"I can guess which one would kick the bucket."
"Really, I'd love to see whose side Killious takes in the end."
"It's not a matter of sides, just personalities. Harry is a lot more violent than he lets on. Draco is just emulating his father, no matter how much he hates him."
"See what I mean, you can't even spend time with me and stop talking about those two."
"Fred if I could I would." Illy wrapped her arms around Fred's neck and leaned into his chest.
"Some day someone will come along and help you out with this whole mess…" Illy nodded into Fred's chest, agreeing with the hope of someone else solving her problems. "…Sadly the fairy god mother is out of town solving world hunger." Illy slapped Fred's chest jovially.
"You ruined a perfectly good moment."
"I'd do my best to bring it back, but we're here." Fred set Illy evenly onto the ground and led the way into a tall and shaky looking building. Each of its levels appeared to be put on as a separate home that was then fused, slightly off center, to the others and painted in shades of white that didn't quite match.
"What exactly is Magda's?" She asked as he led her up the stairs of the buildings first floor. Like everything else in the wizarding world, the inside of the building was entirely deceitful regarding the buildings outer looks. The interior of the pieced together town home was actually much more like something from a New York City or Parisian penthouse than a shamble of old home scraps. Illy and Fred reached the fifth floor of the building and took the exit off the spiral stair case to their right. Fred's eyes went back and forth down the hall, taking glances at the numbers that progressed with evens on the left and odds on the right. He stopped at the sixth door, in the narrow hall and knocked on the door.
George greeted the two and ushered them into an all green living room with preposterous decorum. The plush green couches were two shades darker than the pea green carpet, and worlds darker than the opaque walls that looked like key-lime pie. The room only seemed to get odder upon further scrutiny as the curtains were yet another shade of green, that didn't seem to quite gather within a palette of any of the other greens, let alone the almost yellow coffee table or the forest green book shelves. The oddest detail of the room however was not the greens, but was instead the surfeit of odd caged birds about the room. Illy had seen the birds once before in Peru. They were a rare breed that was around the size of a blue-jay but had a tail any where from nine inches to two and a half feet in length, comprised entirely of feathers identical to those of the peacock.
As Illy took a discomforted seat on the overly plush love seat Fred and George made themselves at home. George's shoes were already in the middle of the room and he was lying across a large couch flicking bits of cracker to nearby birds. Fred began to take off his shoes and lay down on the love seat, letting his legs rest across Illy's lap and over the arm of the small couch comfortably. Illy just sat still on the couch with Fred, she was very confused, and very uncomfortable with the foreign situation in which she had been placed. Fred and George exchanged grins and remained silent, leaving the room void of noise other than those of the birds and some clamor from behind the door to across from the entry.
Suddenly the door burst open to reveal a woman just as strange as the room itself, though strange in an entirely different way. The woman was normal height and looked to be in her early twenties, with a small nose and even smaller lips. Her brown eyes were surrounded by thick black liner that matched all of her clothing which consisted of blackish skinny jeans that seemed so hopelessly stuck to her frame that no one could aspire to remove them off without scissors. Her shirt was a simple black tank top that ended several inches before it even hit her belly button. She tucked what short black hair was down behind her ear to reveal nine or ten piercings, the lowest of which was gauged. She flashed a smile at Fred and George, calling Illy's attention to her lip, nose, and two eye brow piercing, in the left brow only.
"Nice pigtails." Fred complimented her.
"Thanks, who's your friend?" She asked, looking at Illy for the first time. Illy did her best to produce a small smile, she was a little shocked at first to hear Magda's sharp accent.
"My name's Killious, you must be Magda."
"At'd be me, I like your shirt…actually I fink I have 'ose jeans too, and get your fucking shoes off!" She was suddenly wide eyed looking down at Illy's shoed feet.
"Um, okay." Illy pulled the sneakers off and tossed them in the direction of Fred and George's.
"Forgive her, she's a wretched bitch to strangers who has a thing about shoes on her terribly ugly carpet." George explained, as though it was nothing. Magda moved towards Illy and stretched out a heavily bracelet adorned hand.
"Magda as we already said. I's a sevenf year when ese two bums came crashing into Hogwarts and I'll take credit for everythin they ever did." Illy shook Magda's hand after a moment of getting over the girls odd behavior. "The place obviously isn't mine and me aunt is very protective of her carpet, though she seems t'have gotten losts somewhere in the Carpathians again. Going on six monfs now actually."
"What they hell does she do there?" Fred asked, making it clear he really didn't care.
"Oh who fucking knows? Alright, so I jus' catered a big weddin' an I have leftovers in the kitchen, you're friend better be able to put down a lot of food or I might have to shoot myself. I have more dessert 'an I know what to do wif." Killious followed Fred and George into the room from which Magda had come, which turned out to be the kitchen. This room was far less obnoxious in design and while in place of a refrigerator it just had a massive ice box equipped with some useful cooling charms, it was relatively normal, and much larger than the living room.
"I live wif me batty aunt and take care of her place while she's off pissing around in the fucking mountains like a loon, so she lets me run my caterin' service 'ere."
"Not exactly a common magical career." Illy said, taking in the view of Fred and George shoveling down a tray of finger sandwiches.
"It's jus' not what they broadcast at Hogwarts. People still have t'run taverns and fix houses, we jus' get magic to 'elp. Or hurt, I'm not sure it really does more than land me en more shitty business 'an I can handle at once. Jus' because you can apparate you're s'pposed to be able to serve dinner to three separate parties of rich douches. Sucks a wanker if ya ask me." Magda opened the icebox and pulled out three more trays of food, each of these was spread with bon-bon's, truffles, molded chocolates and dipped fruit, which were followed by two more trays of miniature cakes and dessert bars.
"So, wus got you mixed up wif ese two?" She asked in between popping bon-bon's, Illy was feeling more and more out of place by the second, watching all three of the other people in the house eating.
"Oh, we go together…to school I mean."
"You're a Gryffindor too I s'pose. Here, try one of ese." Magda passed Illy a desert bar that looked like it had a crust of chocolate coconut, followed by some sugary filling, and topped with a layer of chocolate gnouche. Illy cringed, but took the bar.
"No, Slytherin actually."
"You've brought a snake into me midst boys," The twins ignored her and moved from sandwiches to desserts.
"I guess that means I'm in a house full of Gryffindor's."
"Yah certainly are, I'da flunked out a Ravenclaw, and gods know I don work 'ard enough to be a Hufflepuff…" She stopped there, clearly about so say something anti-slytherin, but deciding against it.
"Go ahead, clearly I don't struggle with house spirit issues." Illy said as she pointed at Fred and George who smiled up at her.
"I's jus gonna say that they's too mean for me."
"It's the truth, we're a mean breed. But Gryffindor's aren't all nice either, so I'm fine where I am."
"There's a battle between men going on right now. Harry Potter's a Gryffindor and Draco Malfoy is a Slytherin. The two of them get into quite a few scraps over her, even though half the time all they do is exhaust and frustrate her." Fred explained.
"The whole situation with Harry is pointless because everyone knows that Draco and I are just friends, Harry just enjoys instigating problems for whatever reason. In my opinion he's the one who's mean."
"You'll match, you don't eat or sleep and he'll be a serial killer." George chided.
"I do too eat! And the sleep thing is not my fault. Besides, I'm in perfect health I run every morning, I do quidditch, and I manage to put up with you."
"All on a meager diet of less than one thousand calories, as you informed me just a few minutes ago. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it true that if you burn more calories than you eat you continue to shrink until what? You die or something right?" Fred had now stopped eating and was advancing on Illy.
"Of malnutrition I believe it's called." George answered back to him.
"It wasn't enough to force feed me for a week was it?" Illy took a bite of the dessert in her hand smugly, just before Fred reached her. "It's good, have a bit." She pushed the dessert into his face, covering his eyes and nose in chocolate. George and Magda took an instinctive step back from the two, laughing, but preferring to stay out of the line of fire.
Fred reached behind him blindly; feeling for something to throw in Illy's direction, George smiled and placed a miniature strawberry cake in his hand. Seconds later Killious' face matched Fred's and the two had begun to hurl cake and chocolate ferociously. Magda and George ducked out of the kitchen in hysterics, opting not to be smothered head to toe in sugar and fruit. When the fight was over the walls and floor were coated in a layer of wedding leftovers and no tray had solid food on it, though they were used as shields at several points. Fred whipped the food out of his eyes and helped Illy do the same.
"You look delicious." He said, wrapping his hands around her waste. Illy's thoughts immediately went to Draco, Harry, and the boy from Gryffindor whose name she had never gotten. Adding Fred to the mix was more than she needed at the moment.
"We need a picture." She suddenly declared before pulling her purse from its hiding place behind the stove. She removed the camera and stood next to Fred, pressing their cheeks together, resulting in even more spread of gooey mess. "Sopping wet squid." The camera flashed.
"Lets go get cleaned up, I think my hair is beginning to dry like this." He pointed to his red hair that could just barely be seen beneath all the food, but was none the less a visible disaster. Illy followed Fred to the bathroom and waited as he turned on the shower.
"Do you mind just hoping in with me?" Illy's eyes widened slightly at the frankness of the question. Fred saw her reaction and immediately began waving hands and say 'no, no, no' repeatedly.
"I meant do you mind if we both get in with clothes on. We're going to need to get this stuff off them some how, I have other clothes here and you'll probably fit something of Magda's."
"Now that I know you don't plan on taking advantage of me in a stranger's house I guess the situation seems much more appropriate."
"Because if you're uncomfortable, just go first and-"
"Just get in." She pushed him through the shower curtain and into the warm water. Illy followed directly behind Fred and stole the majority of the available water spray, as she was not nearly as shy as Fred was being at the moment. He had managed to hide himself in the back of the shower to the best of his ability as Illy tried to rinse out her long hair.
"I'm gonna take these off okay? They're getting heavy in the water." Illy explained as she pulled off her jeans and shirt and dropped them to the floor of the shower with a wet squish. Fred was now frozen in place as his eyes wandered over her.
"Relax Fred its boy shorts and tank top, this is more than I wear swimming."
"We should have you over to the burrow some time then, great pond for swimming." Fred smiled, happy with himself for regaining his confidence suddenly. He pulled his own jeans and shirt of and piled them with Illy's on the floor. Illy did a double take at the sight of his chest, not because of its well toned shape, but more because it seemed somehow familiar. She switched places with Fred to let him rinse out his hair but couldn't stop staring. She had never noticed his muscles before in school clothes and they look all too recognizable.
"This is going to sound weird but…can I touch your abs?"
"Wha?...I mean I guess…sure why?" But Illy didn't answer him, she just reached out a hand and ran it across Fred's stomach. He didn't really have abs, not like Draco or a few of the boys on her quidditch team at least, these were less protrusive; they were really more like the start of muscles. She could tell he didn't work out beyond quidditch, his arms were banded with thick muscles that were helpful with the bludgers, but the rest of his body seemed just as softly toned as his stomach. Illy's fingers were light, she was more focused on trying to remember where she knew this feeling from than she was interested in rubbing her hands all over a close friends stomach in the shower.
Fred on the other hand was having problems, his head was buzzing like a mad man. Killious had her eyes tightly closed, he could tell she was deeply contemplating something but he could hardly begin to think about what as her thin fingers danced across his stomach and up to his chest. He was trying to just be still even though his brain was doing its best to tell him to tighten up his muscles, or reach out to her. Finally she opened her eyes and smiled.
"Can't figure it out, oh well. Let me help you with that hair." She reached up to his head on her tip toes and began trying to comb food out of it.
"What was it you were trying to figure out?" He asked nonchalantly, eyes squeezed shut to avoid getting food in them.
"You just looked familiar is all. But I can't figure out what from."
"We must have been filthy lovers in another life, wreaking havoc on the whole world."
"I'm sure, and George was our dog." Fred laughed and tilted his head back to let he rest of the food rinse out.
"What does that make all of the rest of the men in your life? Pesky owls." Fred turned around and took a step towards Illy to remove a glob of food from her face.
"Vicious, perplexing, irritating owls." Fred moved his hand from her face to the back of her neck.
"I probably bought a gun to get rid of them." He moved his face within one inch of hers. Illy froze, she knew what was coming and she had to find a way out of it. She was already drowning in problems, Fred was supposed to be an escape from that, he made her laugh about nothing and distracted her from Harry and Draco. He moved closer still, she could feel his breath on her lips…
"I can't." She started to get out of the shower but he stopped her.
"I understand Ill, I'll get out, you finish. I can go grab some of Magda's clothes for you." She nodded and finished washing dessert off of her body. Fred shut the door with a light click and whispered to himself, 'don't do what Draco does to her, she need friends not lovers dumb ass' before he walked down the hall towards Magda's room.
"Mag, I need a change of clothes for Illy." He knocked twice before opening the door.
"Closets tha' way." She stuck a thumb towards the back wall, refusing to take her eyes off the screen in front of her.
"I don't get how you manage to buy all this muggle crap." Fred made small talk as he riffled through the closet for a pair of jeans and a shirt. Magda had been collecting muggle objects for years, she was better at it than Fred and George's father, but the hobby was still peculiar. Her room was full of electronics, cd's, games, and other pointless things for wizards.
"Me an me aunts the only magic types in the famy, you forget tha?"
"No, it just still surprises me every time I come in here." He shrugged lightly and continued his search. He and George had immediately been drawn to Magda the second they saw her. Each of them had taken turns trying his damnest to win her but their efforts had been to no avail and in the end they both gave it up. When she graduated from Hogwarts and moved in with her aunt they had made a general practice of coming to see her on a regular basis. Over the last two years Fred and George had even gotten half decent at the silly electronic games she played all the time.
"Bitch! You just ripped my spine out!" George began shouting at Magda. Fred finally gathered a pair of jeans that he decided would fit, which wasn't hard because she was just as small, if not smaller that Magda, and a t-shirt that she wouldn't mind wearing.
"S'ok if I take these?" He showed Magda the clothes briefly.
"Yeah…but why're you in skivs?" She asked, pointing towards the boxers that she just seemed to notice. George's face lit up.
"Man, if you really did what I think you did I applaud and shun you at the same time!"
"Jus' wash anyfing off me showers walls I dun wanna find la'er." Mag chuckled and continued that game that she and George were playing from the bed.
"It's nothing like that, we just rinsed off because we were covered in food. Both of us have clothes on…well sort of, we're both in knickers really, but you get the idea."
"Yeah, I do get an idea." Said George with a wink.
"It's not like that George…"
"But ya wish it wus."
"I need to go get some clothes for myself as well."
"They's in your room. Speakin' a which, when's you two goin' move in?"
"Probably going to spend most of the summer here, but we've got world cup tickets so we'll be there in plenty of time for that."
"S'fine wif me."
Fred left the room and dropped clothing off with Illy, who felt even more awkward now than she did before. She slipped into the jeans which turned out to fit perfectly because they were just a bit big on Magda, who while she was probably not quite as thin as Illy, had no arse to be found. When she had changed she headed to Magda's room, eventually finding by following the shouts of George and Fred who were now both engaged in a game.
"I think I'm going to go meet up with Dolan and Christian if you don't mind…" She rubbed her wrist behind her back absent mindedly.
"Fine by us." The twins said in unison.
"I'll show y'out." Magda got up from her spot on the bed and walked Illy to the front door.
"Dun think too much about Fred. He's jus a sporadic guy, di'n mean nufing."
"I know, I just can't add even something like nothing to my list of things to think about right now. It's sad that at the beginning of the year I'd've probably never objected, but…Harry's just…he scares me some times." Illy's eyes were pleading for the near stranger to save her from a boy Magda didn't even know.
"Boys'll corner ya like 'at"
"So don't tell Fred or George but that's mostly the reason. I can't even talk to Draco when he's around."
"Be careful, and Kily'us"
"Yeah Magda,"
"Dun hurt me boys, I love 'em more 'an they know."
"I can tell." Illy closed the door behind her and headed toward the main road again. It didn't take long to find Dolan and Christian, they were ogling a new accessory kit for brooms in the window of a newer, rather large store. Illy spent the rest of her day with the two, which was only and hour or so more, but it served as a long enough time barrier for Fred to get his head on strait, as he was back to his normal self by dinner
