Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, I'm just borrowing them, and no profit is gained.
"You….can't…..escape….me…."
The heavy breathing of Filch could be heard over Dell's pounding feet as she ran down a hidden short cut, skipping two floors while doing so. But Filch knew every short cut, and even though he was old and slow, he'd been working at Hogwarts since before the guys parents time, he knew the shortcuts just as well, and Dell didn't have the map on her, James had been using it to hide from his fan club that day.
It was the day before they all left for Christmas vacation, (Dell was going to the Potters, as her parents had Great Aunt Marge coming and that was something Dell couldn't stand. So, she'd wiggled out of it by saying she wanted to stay with her other cousins – the Potters) and everybody had been off doing something, and Dell nothing. So, bored as she was, she grabbed her last bag of dung bombs, and started dropping them on the heads of people in the Entrance Hall. There was this ledge that was perfect, where you could see everything, but nobody could see you. Well, eventually Filch went looking, and Peeves ratted her out. He hadn't liked her since she had confused him that one time.
So now Dell was running from Filch, but she was running out of steam. Now she was no longer sure what floor she was on. Was it the third – or maybe the fourth? Who knew – it could be the fifth or second. Dell wasn't really paying attention. She was just trying to lose Filch.
Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, a hand grabbed her arm and Dell was pulled into a closet, the door was snapped shut behind her and darkness enveloped her. Dell opened her mouth to speak, but a hand slid over it, and she listened confused. Soon she heard pounding feet, and the uneven breathing told her it was Filch. Dell smiled in relief as he passed and the feet faded away.
"Thanks," Dell whispered, just in case Filch was still in the area. She had realized who it was by the smell that had wrapped around her, and as her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she looked up into the blue eyes of Fred Weasley. He gave her his little grin and she realized how small the closet was so that they were pressed right up against each other. She was glad that the darkness hid the blush that crossed her cheeks. She just hoped he couldn't hear her heart thudding against her chest.
Ever since that day when she had woken up with his sweater on, and doodled his name upon her page Dell had come upon a few realizations. First off, Fred smelt good. How she had never noticed his scent before – she didn't know. Two, he was unbelievably good looking. Seriously, had you seen the boy? Three, she had a crush on him. And it was a huge crush – on one of her best friends. Not good, not good at all. She hadn't told a single person – though she was pretty sure Hailey knew. She had been able to act pretty normal around Fred, though sometimes she caught herself doodling his name on a page (the page was immediately destroyed, though she hid the act from others) or staring at him, which she immediately stopped, hoping nobody had seen. And every night she wore his sweater to bed, always putting it on after everybody else was asleep, and she always woke up before everybody else and took it off, stuffing it deep into her trunk, going back to sleep. Sad, yes, but nobody could know she was crushing on one of her closest friends – and that she was crushing hard.
So, as you can tell, being unable to move, and pressed right against him, that had her heart going a mile a minute, she had to remind herself to breath. Fred looked uncomfortable too.
"Umm, we should get out," Fred murmured, reaching for the door handle. It was locked. "That's OK we just need to get our wands…uh oh." They were both panicked then.
"Where's your wand?" Dell asked him, her voice low, having a pretty good idea of where he kept his wand.
"In my back pocket and you?"
"In my back pocket." Both of their faces fell. It was absolutely impossible to move within the closet, it had to be one of the smallest closet in the school, in Dell's opinion. They couldn't move a muscle, and were hence forth not able to reach their back pockets, nor their wands. So they weren't able to unlock the door. "Damn," The two muttered at the same time, Fred's breathe tickling Dell's face and sending a shiver down her spine. She had to get better control of herself.
So what did they do? They started pounding against the door with the one hand laying beside it, and calling for help. But they soon gave up. It was the day before everybody left, there were no classes - the chances of someone passing by was highly unlikely. They sighed and tried to get as comfortable as they could pressed together as they were.
"So, why was Filch chasing you?" Fred asked just to talk about something and to try and ignore the fact they were barely an inch from each other.
"I was dropping dung bombs on people's heads in the Entrance hall," Dell said casually as though it was nothing. Fred stared at her for a second before they both burst out laughing.
After they had calmed down, Fred asked "Who'd you get?" Knowing she'd only had a single bag left.
"Oh, mostly random people, but I get every single one on the Slytherin Quidditch team, made sure of that. Even your sister, though she thinks it was James." Fred smirked at that. Most members on the Gryffindor Quidditch team were mad at the Slytherin Quidditch team – not Gryffindors, just the Quidditch team.
See, the Gryffindor team had just narrowly beaten them at the Quidditch game. They'd won by thirty points – thanks to Albus catching the snitch. Dell herself had ended up in the hospital wing for two days with a concussion, (thanks to North hitting her in the head with the actual bat instead of the bludger – she'd continued to play, though she'd barely been conscious, even Dom had told her to sit out, but closer to the end, she'd gotten hit again in the head, that time by a bludger, North hitting it towards her, and Fred and James barely caught her when she fell off her broom. Luckily two minutes later Albus caught the snitch or North would have been dead, because according to Dominique both James and Fred had murder in their eyes.) There had been many injuries, Roxanne had a broken leg, and something had happened to Matt, while Lake, a chaser from Slytherin, was out with a broken leg and itchy purple dots – James had gotten detention for that. Later on North had ended up in the hospital countless times with different stuff from spells to injuries.
"Did you get North good?" Fred asked as though he'd read her mind.
"Countless times," Dell replied with a smirk as she rubbed her head in remembrance. It was still a soft spot for her. North was the captain of the Slytherin team, Nicolas North, and he had probably targeted Dell during the game as Roxanne had already been angry at her brother and James (for having threatened her new boyfriend countless times, and barely leaving her alone) so it seemed he felt as though they just needed somebody on Dell. Well, he got paid back for that, that's for sure.
"Hey, why's Hailey been acting so weird? I mean, weirder than normal. I see her smirking at you all the time, and everything…" Fred trailed off, his eyebrows raised at Dell, confusion in his eyes. Dell knew what he was talking about. It was how she thought Hailey knew how she felt about Fred. Dell would, of course, either just ignore Hailey, or when no one else was looking, glare back. It seemed as though others had noticed Hailey acting differently though – not Dell, oh no, just Hailey, of course.
"Oh, who knows, the girl is wacked, I can see why Kailey doesn't get along with her," Dell said, rolling her eyes and clicking her tongue up against the roof of her mouth. Fred was looking at her strangely, and she averted her eyes from him, not knowing what he was going to say next.
"I thought you liked Hailey better than you liked Kailey?" Fred said his head tilted to the side in confusion. Damn, that was what it had been (though both of them were pretty annoying – mainly when they were together). Hailey always knew better, she knew what was going on around her. Kailey was pretty stupid she never knew a thing about what was going on, or what to do in any given situation. But now because Hailey was observant Dell liked Kailey better – because Hailey observed how Dell felt – and she was the only one.
"Well, yeah, I did, but Hailey has become really annoying, and I took Kailey for granted. I hung out with her the other day," a lie, "and she was pretty OK; better than her sister, at least." Dell finished, looking at a point on right above Fred's left shoulder. Don't look into their eyes; that was lesson one of lying.
"OK….." Fred said, a bit confused, and not fully believing her, as Dell could tell from the sound of his voice. But he wasn't pushing it; either he didn't want to hear more lies, or he thought she had a plausible reason for her lies. If only he knew, if only he knew.
Before any more could be said, any other subject breached, voices were heard outside of closet door.
"James, what are we doing down here?" Dominique's voice could be heard, sounding annoyed that she was brought along.
"You tell her Tyler," James voice was brought up, bringing another voice belonging to Tyler.
"We're getting Fred and Dell." One of the three pair of footsteps hesitated before continuing.
Fred and Dell looked at each other, a smile on their faces. They didn't make a sound because they both knew they would be found, knowing what James had upon him: the Marauders Map.
"And how are we doing that? We don't even know where they are, you said so yourself?" Dom's skeptical voice came into sound once more. Thankfully there was no Lucy, or an answer wouldn't have been given.
"That parchment in James' hand isn't a normal one. Look at it," Tyler offered, and the silence that followed told them Dom was looking.
"Wow. This is how you get around the school without getting into trouble, I'm guessing?"
"Bingo," There was James again, and the ruffle of a paper meaning he was looking at it closely.
"Wait – this was the thing you got that howler for in that first year, wasn't it? The thing Teddy knew about?" Dom asked, figuring out. No reply was heard, but she must have gotten her answer because continued to talk.
"So that means that Fred and Dell are," All three set of footsteps stopped right in front of the door to the closet that Fred and Dell were locked in, "in here."
"That is correct," Fred said through the doorway smirking at Dell.
"Now get us out of here," Dell finished the annoyance clear in her voice.
The door was opened and Dell and Fred tumbled out, Dell landing on top of Fred. "Oof," Came their voices, as both looked up at the smirking faces of James, Tyler and Dominique.
Dell rolled off of Fred wishing her face wouldn't be so beat red – Fred's was too though, so it wasn't so bad. "Well, are you going to help us up? We've been stuck in there for," Dell looked at her watch, "an hour!" The three laughed and helped the two up.
"So, how'd you two end up in there?" James asked, a smirk on his face. If possible, Dell's face went even redder, and she was surprised to see Fred's do so too.
"I was running from Filch 'cause he caught me dropping dung bombs – by the way James Roxanne thinks you dropped dung bombs on her – and Fred pulled me in to escape him." Dell said quickly.
"Then when we went to get out, the door was locked, and have you seen that closet? It's the tiniest one alive. Both of us had our wands in our back pockets, so we couldn't reach them. So we were stuck in there." Fred finished.
The three of them nodded, though Dom looked – disappointed? What was that about? Dell must have missed something while she was stuck in the closet. Maybe her and Lucy had a fight (Lucy probably couldn't find Molly to fight with, and since Victoire no longer attended Hogwarts,) Dell would have to talk to her about it later.
"Wait – you dropped dung bombs on Roxanne, and she thinks it was me? Why would she think it was me?" James said outraged. Dell shrugged. "I don't know, I dropped one on her – dropped one on every one on the Slytherin Quidditch team, and Roxanne just seemed to think it was you. She yelled your name, and said 'I'm going to get you James!'"
Tyler laughed and swung his arm around Dell's shoulders. "Well, that's Roxanne for you. I'm glad I'll be nowhere near the Potter/Weasley residents this holiday. I feel sorry for you, Dell." He said with a joking manner.
"Ah, well it's much better than what I would've been going to. You've never met my Great Aunt Marge. Plus, my dad's parents still aren't too thrilled with me, when we're with them it's so tense you could hear a unicorn hair drop. Plus, with Great Aunt Marge staying at our house, no signs of magic what so ever, she can't know it exists. I'd much rather be in the panic resident a.k.a. the Potter/Weasley Christmas than that."
"Hmmmmmm does sound pretty horrible," Tyler agreed, squeezing her shoulders and giving Dell a smile. By then they'd reached the Gryffindor common room.
"Balderdash," Dominique said to the Fat Lady who swung open with a smile. The five entered.
"Well, it's off to bed for me," Fred said, and the rest agreed, though Dom muttered about having something to do, which the boys ignored. With a slide glance Dell saw her head over to a corner table where a few from the Quidditch team sat. Dell saw Matt look up at Dom with a huge smile. Dom didn't even notice, yet Dell saw it so obviously. Nothing was in the way from stopping Matt though, not like Dell…
"Night," James muttered, and the others replied. Before heading up Dell sent one last glance over to Fred, and a small sigh escaped her lips. It wasn't possible, he was her best friend. She hesitated another second feeling eyes on her back, and with a look to the left….Hailey, of course, with that little smirk of hers. With a glare Dell went up.
Hailey followed, of course. Dell was changing quietly, as all the rest of the girls were sleeping. Hailey sat down on her bed which was the closest to Dell's, though Dell's was the farthest from any others. Finally, tired of her looking at her as she changed, Dell stood up straight and snapped "What?"
"You should tell him, you might be surprised by the reaction." Hailey said quietly, not at all what Dell expected to leave the girls mouth. But she gained her posture again quickly.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Dell said stiffly but smoothly, turning her back on her as she moved her covers ready to get into bed.
"Oh really?" Hailey asked, reaching into Dell's trunk and pulling out something that she laid in front of Dell. "I believe you like sleeping with this on." With that she went back down into the common room.
Dell looked down at what Hailey had given her and saw it to be Fred's sweater. She picked it up and picked at a fuzz it had on it. Dell had a feeling Hailey woke up in the middle of the night often. She slipped the sweater on and slipped into bed not knowing what was going to happen that Christmas.
Edited 2020-02-15