A/N: I decided to make this a longer story, composed mostly of short shots featuring moments in Fred and Angelina's relationship. I'm definitely going to extend it further into how they grow, and then explore the tragedy of Fred's death and how she becomes close to George. However, it will take time, but I won't leave any cliffhangers that will require waiting. :)

I really like the title of this, so the chapters will have the theme of "being a Gryffindor," and it will sometimes be subtle and sometimes be prominent.

Please leave me your thoughts! If you have any suggestions on anything I should add or fix, I'd love to hear them. I read and respond to all of my reviews, and I really appreciate every single one.

~Maya

The Gryffindor Way

Quidditch

"Oi, Angelina!"

The Quidditch Captain slammed her locker door shut and turned to face her boyfriend. Fred Weasley was holding a large box, wearing a bright smile, and traipsing toward her.

"Fancy a sweet?" he said innocently, putting the box down.

She shot him a dark look; she knew exactly what the "sweets" in the box were, and all the house elves in the world would be begging to be set free before Angelina would want to even touch one.

Fred laughed. "Come on," he teased. "Would I ever give my girlfriend anything that would hurt her?"

"You bloody well would, and you know it," she said, smiling in spite of herself.

"I am insulted," said Fred, drawing himself up.

"As you should be." George strolled into the locker room as well, clearly oblivious to the fact that he was alone with the couple.

Although Angelina glared at him pointedly, Fred seemed just as clueless.

"Isn't it so, brother?" he said indignantly. "It hurts my pride."

"That's how it always is with a woman," said George wisely. "But, alas, we need them so."

"Shut up!" laughed Angelina, throwing her shoe at George, who ducked.

"See?" he said seriously. "A perfect example. Such a brash show of violence, yet she is still wholly irresistible."

She rolled her eyes, lacing up the shoe she'd snatched back from George. Neither she nor her boyfriend noticed the lingering look of longing on George's face.

"Flirting with your brother's girlfriend, George?" said Alicia Spinnet, who had just appeared in the doorway. "I'd be surprised, but as you two share everything…"

"HEY!" the three of them chorused.

"I'm not gonna share my girlfriend," cried Fred.

"I'm not gonna be shared!" Angelina said.

"It was a joke, Alicia," said George. "Which, coincidentally, is something we often do share."

"Speaking of which, we've got to go share one right about now," said Fred, checking his watch.

"Fred, we have a match in half an hour!" Angelina cried.

"Oh, don't worry about that," said George, waggling his eyebrows mischievously. "We're going to do both."

Shocked, she stared at both of them. "If you're going to risk anything in the match…" she began threateningly.

"Relax, Angie," said Fred, slinking his arm around her waist.

She smacked him across the chest. "I hate being called that," she grumbled.

Laughing, Fred squeezed her briefly, but tightly to him. "Sorry," he murmured, brushing his lips over her hair.

"Ew. I think I'm going to go change, now," said Alicia, looking disgusted as she walked past the couple.

"Hurry up, Fred," George warned. "The prank's not going to play itself, you know."

Fred nodded and waved his brother along, and, though he hesitated, George obliged him.

"And now we're alone," said Fred huskily.

Angelina's breath caught in her throat as he ran his hands up and down her sides until finally they came to a rest on her lower back. He leaned in with a breathtaking grin and kissed her. Instantly, a fiery lion roared in ecstasy inside her as her hands flew into his red hair, tangling into it and pulling gently. Moaning lowly, Fred pushed her back against the lockers and pressed himself to her, relishing in the feel of her muscular body against his.

She pulled away and smiled teasingly up at him, cocking an eyebrow. "Are you trying to get me out of my Quidditch uniform right before a match?"

"If you'd been any other girl," he chuckled. "But I wouldn't dream of compromising Angelina Johnson's Quidditch match."

"It's your match too, you know," she reminded him.

"Yes, I know. Speaking of which," he said brightly. "I've got to get down to the Pitch and help George out. I don't know how he's getting along without me. Merlin knows I'm the brains of our duo."

She laughed, pulled him in for one last, quick kiss, and then let him hurry away from her.

The team stepped out onto the field, and Angelina couldn't help but smile in amusement. All the stands now bore red and gold decorations, and the area in which the Slytherins sat was overcast with clouds that rained red and gold ribbons. The Slytherin students who were now filing into the stands were crying out in frustration, whipping out their wands and trying to magic away the ostentatious Gryffindor prank.

Although Madam Hooch, stalking proudly onto the Pitch, instantly turned the stands back to normal with a brisk wave of her wand, most of the students had already seen the spectacle, and many were shouting about it gleefully.

Angelina laughed openly, her downtrodden spirits about that horrible Umbridge woman, Ron's worrying Quidditch skills, and the looming N.E.W.T.s soaring as she was about to.

Beside her, Fred winked. He squeezed her hand quickly before mounting his broom, and muttered, "Let's kill Slytherin."

There was a loud tapping at her dormitory window, and Angelina moaned in her sleep, irritated at whoever was so determined on waking her up. When the tapping refused to cease, she groggily opened her eyes and saw the red hair on top of a frantic face, hovering by her window on a broom. Quickly, she scrambled out of bed, casting frantic looks around the dormitory to make sure her fellow seventh year Gryffindor girls had not woken up to her stupid boyfriend's antic. Sliding the window open, Angelina helped pull him inside.

"Where did you get that broom?" she demanded in a whisper. That Umbridge cow had confiscated his; she knew because she hadn't been able to stop thinking about the incident all day.

"Borrowed it from Ron," Fred said hastily. Something about the way he refused to meet her eye told her that he was using the word 'borrowed' loosely. He set the Cleansweep down and leaned in to kiss his girlfriend, but she turned away and sat back down on her bed.

Fred watched her in angst and said, "Come on, Angelina. I'm sorry. I said I was sorry."

"It doesn't matter, Fred," she said, looking up into his sorrowful eyes angrily. "Your apology isn't going to change anything. And anyway, you're not sorry. Even though you didn't do anything, we both know you would've. And you're not at all sorry."

He sighed; he could try to deny it, but he knew it was true. "I am sorry I upset you, though," he said.

"That's not enough, Fred," she insisted.

In despair, he beseeched her, "Please, Angelina. I-I can't tell you I'm sorry for what happened on the Pitch today, because I'm not. That Malfoy toad deserved it." Fred's jaw tightened as he thought back to the git's words that were ringing explosively in his head.

The image of the pale-faced boy's irritating smirk swam before her eyes and then melted away, leaving the real red-haired boy's desperate, pleading expression. Her boyfriend had been a real moron and they had all suffered horrible consequences for it. By trying to attack that Malfoy boy, he'd thrown all logic and reason out the window, risked more than anyone had realized. All to defend his family. Looking into the face she so loved now, she realized that he wouldn't be Fred if he apologized for it. He wouldn't be Fred if he hadn't beaten that brat to a pulp in the first place, which he would have done joyously had the team let him. He was a Gryffindor and a Weasley through and through, and Angelina couldn't have asked for anything else.

Finally, her face broke out in a grudging smile, and she reached out for his hand. Looking taken aback, but grateful nonetheless, Fred took it and sat next to her, raising his eyebrows inquisitively.

"Look," she began quietly, "I-I guess I understand, Fred. And if I wasn't Quidditch Captain, if I didn't need you on the team, I'd be—I dunno—proud of you, I guess. And of George and Harry. I'm just-just gonna need a little time. Like, to get past it."

Fred grinned his classic grin, but Angelina knew she saw a hint of intense relief behind it. "Thanks, Angie," he said.

She smacked him across the chest. "Don't call me that."

Laughing, Fred wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him, burying his face in the crook of her neck. Her fingers explored his shaggy red hair as his hands stroked the smooth skin of her lower back where her top had ridden up.

"I love you, Angelina," he whispered.

Angelina froze. This was the first time he'd said anything that even hinted at a commitment, and she didn't know if she was ready for it.

Pulling back, she looked uncertainly into his eyes and said, "What?"

His hands fell away, and he tucked them into his pockets before shrugging uncomfortably. Clearly, that had not gone the way he'd hoped. "Yeah," he said tersely. "You heard me. I love you."

"Wh-what?" she repeated. "Why-why now? I mean, why are you telling me? Like, why do you—yeah?"

Again, the confident, blustering Fred served as a cover for his vulnerable side, which was very obvious to her, though he may not have known it.

"Angelina," he said, "I love you because you get me. You always know what's going through my head. And I really get you too. I love you because you're brilliant, you're sassy, and you know how to stand up for yourself. I love you because you're bloody sexy on a broom. You make me laugh, and you're always the one who laughs the hardest at our jokes. At my jokes. You are…the most amazing girl—woman I've ever known. So yeah, I love you."

Thanking Merlin for her dark complexion that hid her blush so well, Angelina let out a little laugh. "Wow, Fred," she said, eyeing him appreciatively. "I'm impressed. I didn't know a jokester like you had the ability to use romantic words."

Eyes twinkling, Fred grinned. "Don't get too used to it."

Again, she laughed, and then pressed her lips to his firmly. "I love you too, Fred," she whispered.

And though he didn't say anything more, she could feel the intensity and passion in his touch, in his kiss, and she saw it in his eyes when he pulled away and smiled at her. For a moment, they let the silence hold them gently.

"So," she said, smirking teasingly, "Sexy on a broom, am I?"

Grinning broadly, Fred leaned in close to her and whispered, "So damn sexy."

As she tried to catch her breath, she murmured, "How about a broom ride right now?"

Allowing one hand to rest tantalizingly on her hip, Fred fingered the Cleansweep handle. "I think we could make that work," he said. "I've always fancied a broom ride on the grounds, after hours, with the most beautiful girl at Hogwarts, under that toad's nose."

Giggling, Angelina pulled back abruptly. "Thank God you mentioned her. It was all getting a bit uncharacteristically romantic."

Fred grimaced. "Yeah, well she's a big part of what's on my mind right now."

She couldn't help but agree. That horrible woman had singlehandedly snatched away the only joy left at Hogwarts from her and her teammates. Flying around the grounds after hours with one of the people who weren't supposed to have a broom sounded like perfect, quiet revenge.

With a coy smile, Angelina took Fred's hand and pulled him onto the broom with her. His hands slipped around her waist and held tightly, and his hot, excited breath tickled her ear. This was the first time she'd gotten on a broom with someone else and definitely the first time she'd done so without Quidditch uniforms, and she could feel Fred's remarkably well-muscled chest against her back through the thin fabric of their clothes.

"If we get caught, we'll get into loads of trouble," Fred murmured in her ear.

"Then we won't get caught," she shot back, smiling widely.

Fred chuckled lowly. "I knew I could only ever love a troublemaker."

And they flew out into the night sky.

A/N: I hope you liked that!

Again, please review:)

~Maya