Thank you emmawatsonfan1 for your continued support, as well as SwishyWishy for reviewing. As per the suggestion, I have changed the rating to "T" at least for now. I'm not sure how in depth I'll be going with adult content, what do you guys think?
For someone who had a lot packed into their day, my day ended up pretty boring. I went to Diagon Alley with my sister for lunch, which was fun.
My sister was ten years older than me, and although we had very different lives, we connected so well and felt very similar. We were technically half sisters, as we had different mothers, but that meant nothing to both of us. Unlike me, she had actually gone off to Hogwarts. Like our dad, she was sorted into Gryffindor. Also unlike me, who was the loser of every school I attended until I moved to London when I was sixteen, she was really popular, and still hung out with Hogwarts friends to this day.
Although our upbringings were different, we were now very similar. We had the same attitudes, same ideals, and the same opinions on most things.
As it was both of our lunch breaks we could only have a quick catch up. She had recently broken up with a long-term boyfriend so having nothing to report, she was interested in asking me about Percy a lot. She also expressed a keen interest in wanting to meet him, something that would be easier to organise than with Ellen as Kate (my sister) was a full-blooded witch.
I also told her that I had been meeting up with Fred his younger brother, although amicably. Her words to me were to be careful, which I shrugged off. I was going to tell Percy, it wasn't going to be a permanent thing and I wasn't doing anything wrong anyway.
Then after work, I met up with Ellen. Ellen lived in Cambridge, but drove to and from central London everyday for work, so it was easy to convince her to drop me off at my house by nine o' clock, as she wouldn't be home until after ten. This was the time I arranged to meet Fred so we could go flying again.
When we pulled up outside my apartment block, Fred was already waiting outside.
"Does he live in your apartment block? He's kind of cute." Ellen said to me.
I gave her a weird look. Ellen usually went for guys who would be labelled as pretty boys. The kind of guys who play the footballer jerk in American high school movies was the best way to describe her type. Not types like the Weasley twins, or any Weasley for that matter.
"Um, no. He's here to see me…" I trailed off, not knowing how to explain this to her.
"Oh? And who is he, then?" She smirked, wanting to know the gossip.
"He's just a friend." I muttered, not wanting to go into the fact he was my boyfriend's younger brother for the second time today.
I wasn't scared of Ellen being judgmental. That's one thing she wasn't; judgmental. She had been there when I cheated on my first boyfriend (In my defence, I kept trying to break up with him to which he threatened my life and my family's, although I do admit if I was put in that situation again I'd do things differently) and she was there when I'd run around and date three or more guys at once. She had never uttered one judgmental word to me.
I wasn't even sure what I was scared of, but I felt nerves build up inside of me.
Fred, who had noticed the car had pulled up to my apartment block grinned and waved at me. I smiled and waved back, beckoning him over as I thought that perhaps if Ellen could meet him she might drop it.
"Fred, this is my best friend Ellen. Ellen, this is Fred." I lazily introduced after winding my window down, waving my hand in-between them.
"What are you both up to tonight?" Ellen asked curiously, not dropping the stupid grin she had on her face.
"We're um…" Fred trailed off, looking at me for an answer. He knew she was a muggle so we couldn't say we were going flying, and he also knew what we were doing was technically wrong, so he obviously didn't want to broadcast that fact for my sake.
"Going through legal stuff. It's really long and boring, I promise. I promised Fred I'd help him with some legal stuff." I quickly replied, panic spreading through me as I realised my answered wasn't very well articulated, delivering it sloppily.
"Hmm, okay. You'll have to tell me all about it next time we hang out. I'll see you soon, okay?" She asked me.
I went bright red, and just muttered a goodbye as I got out of the car and onto the street with Fred. She parked for just long enough to see how we'd properly greet each other, and beeped the horn as Fred embraced me and she speed off.
"Um, don't mind her. Her life is so boring she takes the smallest things and in her head turns them into big deals. She's now convinced we're going to run away and elope tonight, or something else that is insane. I didn't bother telling her you're Percy's brother, she would just think more crazy things." I said to Fred, rolling my eyes in the process.
"Ah, okay. I'm sure everything will be alright though, when she realises nothing happens she'll drop it…Has she met Percy yet?" Fred asked curiously.
"No…actually that's amusing. You're meeting my friends before Percy. Let's go inside, I'll quickly get changed into something more comfortable, and we'll go in." I said to Fred, who quickly began to mirror a smirk on my face as I completed my sentence, but stayed silent as I used my swipe on the front door and headed up to my apartment.
Fred had apparated both he and I back to the same countryside we were in last night. Even though we went zooming around, we didn't get to go very high and mostly zoomed around the same paddock over and over. This time we were going to explore the paddock properly.
"You're steering tonight, so like you were last night, tonight I'll be sitting behind you, grabbing your waist screaming into your ear. Doesn't that sound like fun?" Fred asked me, and I scowled at him taking offense.
He chose to ignore my scowl, but worry flashed in his eyes as he passed me the broom. I only smiled to show I was over it, and mounted the broom. If I verbalised the fact I was okay it would just bring the topic up again, and it was much easier to just let the topic pass.
"You'll have to move down the broom a little, which gives us closer contact unfortunately. But you'll need as much room as possible to be able to steer. I won't bite." Fred said to me, and I just slowly nodded as I did as he asked.
"Okay, um. I'll be getting behind you now. Just thought I'd warn you in case it gave you a shock." Fred said to me, and I felt him mount the broom behind me, and slowly put his hands around my waist.
"O-okay." I shakily replied.
This physical contact with Fred was making me feel nervous, and I didn't really know why. My breath was shaky and I was fighting back shivers. I had never had this physical contact with a male unless I had been interested in him, which I guess was subconsciously making me nervous. I had low self-esteem not with my appearance, but the way others perceived me and interacted with me due to years of bullying, so receiving contact from someone I'd usually have romantic intentions with was triggering nerves, even though our current actions were entirely innocent.
"Alright, everything seems to be ready to go. All you need to do is kick off, and I'll direct you from there." Fred stated to me.
"This is such a nice view!" I gasped, once we reached our destination.
I had been flying around for a while, until we landed upon a large tree. Near the top a platform had been created, and I wasn't sure whether it was a muggle tree house, or wizard made but it was completely deserted. Fred asked if I wanted to climb it, but I refused. I climbed a lot of trees when I was six, but after my mother moved us away from the orchards we lived in, I stopped as I missed those orchards and climbing trees reminded me of them.
I was also not confident enough to fly that high, so I made Fred apparate us to the top. Now we were sitting on the platform, legs dangling over the side as we appreciated the view.
"Yeah, it is. I forgot how peaceful the countryside is, and lovely the scenery is. I couldn't wait to move to London to start my joke shop, but I miss home a lot more than I thought I would. Of course we don't want our family to think that, so George and I always claim it's the food alone." Fred smirked.
"Yeah, I know what you mean. I miss the scenery of a less dense area too." I sighed, not even bothering to face him as I looked at the countryside below.
"Oh?" Fred asked, turning to look at me.
I contemplated whether I should tell him or not. I hadn't even told Percy the full story, not wanting to burden him with my emotions or seem like I was seeking attention. But Fred looked genuinely interested, and his comic relief was probably what I needed right now. Besides, it would be rude not to elaborate.
"It's a long story…" I trailed off, deciding to warn him before I went into details.
"We have all the time in the world." Fred shrugged, and shifted his entire body to face me to show I had his full attention.