Chapter 5

"Fred!" Mason called to him after dinner.

"What?" Fred snapped.

"Lily thinks you still love her." Mason said.

"I do still love her." Fred said bitterly.

"Well stop!" Mason said.

"Stop? I can't just stop loving her!" Fred said.

"She's not giving up on you until you're over her." Mason told him.

"I'll never be over her." Fred said, looking at the floor.

"Whatever, just tell her you don't love her." Mason instructed.

"So it's not enough that I've broken her heart, now you want me to rip it out?" Fred asked rhetorically. The two boys stared at each other hatefully for a while before Mason finally replied.

"Stomp on it if you have to."

Lily was in her dorm now, pondering what could've gone wrong. She was determined to make it right and get back her love. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't even notice the girl standing in the doorway.

"Lily?" she said, wondering if Lily could even hear her.

"Huh? Oh, Tina, hi." Lily said half-heartedly.

"How are you?" Tina asked, stepping closer to Lily.

"I'm, I'm...I'm really not okay." Lily said letting the tears fall again. Tina brought Lily into a friendly hug, trying to console her.

"I can't believe you and Fred broke up," Tina said, "I thought you guys were perfect for each other."

"Yeah, so did I." Lily said quietly.

"What I don't get is why. Okay, yeah, your relationship was getting a lot of hate, I understand that could've created some conflict, but from what I've seen, you and Fred could've gotten past it. At least, that's what it seemed like." Tina said.

"I thought the same thing. I honestly thought that after I'd gotten disowned for being with him, and being shunned by my own house, that we could survive anything. Obviously I was wrong. I guess he didn't realize what he signed on for when he said 'I love you'." Lily said avoiding Tina's eyes.

"Have you talked to him since..." Tina trailed off. Lily shook her head.

"I just cried. All day. I was going to talk to him after dinner, but I looked at him and chickened out. So I just came here." Lily admitted.

"Do you want my advice?" Tina asked.

"Yes please." Lily whispered.

"Talk to him. If you don't, you'll never have closure." Tina said patting Lily on the shoulder as she left the room. Lily thought for a second before gathering up the courage to follow Tina's advice. Talk to him. How hard could it be?

Lily walked quickly out of the dungeons and towards the Gryffindor common room. What if Fred was asleep? What if he didn't want to talk to her? She was so busy looking at the floor and muttering to herself that she wasn't paying attention to where she was walking, and that is when she ran into Fred. Quite literally.

The two collided and their senses took over. The smell of him made Lily's tummy fill with butterflies. The sight of her bright green eyes against her dark, thick, eyelashes made Fred's knees go weak. She was still the most beautiful girl he'd ever seen. Even with her messy hair, red puffy eyes and makeup smeared all over her face from crying. She was all he wanted. When he saw her, his first instinct was to tell her she looked beautiful, and then tell her he loved her, and then kiss her, and it took all of his will power to ignore these instincts.

Her instincts weren't much different. She wanted to run her hands through his shiny red hair, and then tell him she loved him, and then kiss him. And she nearly didn't ignore these instincts when she reached up her hand, but pulled away at the last second.

"Lily, I was just looking for you." he managed to say.

"Me too," she said with a shaky voice, "look Fred, I have no idea what I did wrong. I need to know so I can make it better. Please tell me what I did." she pleaded.

"You didn't do anything Lil," his expression was so loving and sad at the same time, until a cold one washed over it, "it's just, I don't feel the same way I did."

"What?" she said on the verge of yet another breakdown, "What changed?"

"I don't know. I can't explain it Lily, I just don't." he said.

"Say it." Lily demanded.

"What?" he asked in disbelief.

"Say you don't love me." she said.

Fred didn't say anything. He felt like he was about to throw up. He was standing before the girl he loved, and he had to say he didn't love her. It was hard enough for him just to say 'I don't' let alone finish the whole sentence. He knew he had to though, for his family. So he put on a brave face, and acted like he had no emotions, like nothing could hurt him. He mustered up all the strength he had and finally spoke.

"Fine, I don't love you." he said leaving Lily standing alone in the corridor.