FicWad

It was a cold winter's evening at Hogwarts and Alexandria Wong shivered, despite her thick jumper.
The young Gryffindor stretched out a gloved hand to trail along the stone wall, thinking of how lonely the next few days would be. Sure, she had Hermione, who had also promised friendship from Ron and Harry; but it was the first year Alex would spend Christmas Day without her parents.

Alexandra was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't see the two, flame-haired boys running towards her until it was too late.
A lean body smashed into her own, the assault sending her flying back against the wall and causing a torch to quiver in its bracket.

"Merlin's Pants!" Alex squealed, looking up to see the Weasley twins: one still smushed against her and the other standing back with a raised eyebrow.

"Jesus, George! You don't want to be crushing poor Alexandria here, do ya?" Fred questioned, he pulled his dazed brother from his slumped position an winked at Alex. "Sorry, Alex. My brother's not exactly the lightest on his feet" and with that he sped off down the corridor with George in tow.

And the whole way back to the common room Alex could only think of one thing:

How on earth did he know my name?

**


The next morning Alexandria was woken by her bushy-haired friend shaking her shoulder.

"What is it Hermione?" The young witch groaned, rolling over.

"Breakfast!"

And so Alex picked out a pair of black jeans, furry boots and a cute jumper. She pulled her sleek black hair into a loose ponytail and applied a little make up before heading down to the great hall.
The witch was greeted with a chorus of friendly 'hello's when she sat next to Hermione. Alex smiled shyly, she knew of Harry and Ron through rumours and Hermione but had never formally met the two or the Weasleys.
She was quite nervous.

"Alex! So we meet again!" The twins chorused cheerfully.

"George didn't crush you too hard did he?" Added Fred.
The golden trio gasped and Alex blushed.

"What?!" Ron exclaimed, jumping to the wrong conclusion.

"Oh, yesterday George ran into me... Literally. It was quite funny really," Alex corrected his thinking and resumed eating the last of her cereal.
"Hermione I'm going to the owlery to send a message to my Mum, are you coming?"

"Um... I promised Harry that I would help him with his homework in the library, sorry" Hermione's brows drew together in a worried fashion. "I hope that's okay,"

"Hey! I'll come with you!" All heads snapped towards Fred who had stood. He blushed slightly but followed Alex out.

"What's up with him?" Harry asked a he watched Fred's red hair disappear.
George groaned in response.

"He hasn't stopped talking about Alex for the past few days. I don't know if he likes her or what but for once in our lives I have no idea what's going through his head... And it kind of scares me."

Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to each other and smirked.

****

While walking towards the owlery Alex tugged on her sleeves awkwardly and hummed the first few bars of a song by a muggle rock band she liked.

"Thanks for coming with me..." She whispered, looking up through her thick lashes at the Weasley walking beside her.

"No problem," he flashed her a blinding smile.
As they neared the steps leading to where the owls were kept Alex finally voiced her thoughts:

"I just need to ask... How did you know my name? I mean, we're not in the same year and we've never spoken before...."

Fred chuckled,
"Hermione speaks of you quite often and I've seen you around," he smiled again.

Alex nodded slightly and pulled the role of parchment from her pocket, tying it to the leg of an owl.

"Thank you, Fred. I appreciate you coming with me," instead of answering her like she thought he would, Fred merely smirked mischievously.

"Race you back to the common room!" He yelled suddenly and sped off back towards the Gryffindor tower.

***


It was the evening of Christmas Eve and their plan was set. The previous night enchanted sprigs of mistletoe had cropped up at various intervals across the ceilings and walls through out Hogwarts.
Everyone blamed Peeves.
However, this seemed to work perfectly for their plan: Hermione had organised to meet Alexandria outside the library in an hour and George had asked Fred to meet him there too; but Hermione and George weren't going to show up. It was sneaky. It was genius.


Eight o'clock came around. Alex rushed to the library and, unknowingly, rested against the wall below a particularly large crop of mistletoe. A few minutes later and Fred rounded the corner,

"Hey," he greeted her, "whatcha doing here?"

"Waiting for Hermione, you?"

"George. But I have the strange feeling that he's not showing up." Fred chuckled and Alex felt her cheeks heat a the sound.
They chatted quietly to each other while they waited, about school, family and themselves. But after half an hour the couple admitted defeat. They'd been stood up.

Just as they were about to go their separate ways a second year Slytherin exited the library. She spotted them and her eyes snapped to the mistletoe.

"Oooh, you have to kiss now. The mistletoe's enchanted so if you don't your skin will turn pink" she gave a high pitch giggle and sauntered off.
Alex's eyes popped at the thought but as she turned to Fred and their eyes locked: something sparked through her.

"I don't know about you," Fred murmured, his voice low and husky, "but I don't fancy pink skin. It won't match my hair,"
Alex silently shook her head, speechless, as he gently swept back a strand of stray hair and slowly closed the distance between them. When their lips finally met, Alex closed her eyes and let him pulled her closer. Their lips moulded together perfectly, warm and soft.

When they finally pulled away Fred enveloped her into a tender embrace. With his lips at her ear he muttered:

"Merry Christmas,"

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