Fireworks
Sorry about no update last week. I accidentally ingested fuel cleaner lol. I was sick for like couple days, anyways. I hope your week goes well.
——
I made my way back to my room. There was no one in there when I got back. I sat on my bed looking at the card. It felt heavy in my hands. I pulled out my wand pointing it at the card. I made it small, about the size of the tip of my pinky finger. I transfigured a loose string into a necklace chain. After connecting the two pieces I placed it around my neck. It rested just below my collarbone. It appeared as a silver rectangle. If you looked closely you could make out what card it was.
I made it to potions a few minutes late. Snape didn’t even acknowledge me as I sat at my table. He hadn’t even started teaching yet he was busy writing something at his desk.
Fred waved at me across the room smiling wide. George and Lee looked at him weird. Lucian tensed next to me.
“Why is he waving at you?” He asked under his breath. Leaning towards me.
“No idea, I’m going to ignore him.” I turned my head to look at him. He was looking at Fred, glaring really. Fred wasn’t paying attention to us anymore; he was looking at Snape. This was advanced potions making. It was a tough class but getting close to the end of year exams was making it even more difficult.
I also turned to look at Snape. He finally stood up and moved to stand in front of the class. Lucian looked at me. His hand reached out and he touched my necklace.
“When did you get this?” His eyes flickered to Fred. I fought the urge to roll my eyes.
“This morning from professor Trelawney.” I pulled out my notebook and started writing. He seemed satisfied with my answer because he did the same thing.
I struggled to concentrate on Snape. I hadn’t realized I had zoned out until Lucian put his hand on my shoulder shaking slightly. Snape was standing directly behind me.
“Miss Cromwell, care to share.” His words cut off in his throat as he looked about at my notebook. I looked down at it. I hadn’t realized I was writing on it when zoned out. Again I had written the same phrase over and over again. He cleared his throat.
“See me after class Audrey, and please pay attention.”
My whole face turned red as everyone stared at me. I looked down at my notes. Staring at those words. Why was this phrase plaguing me now?
After Snape dismissed class I slowly made my way over to him.
“You wanted to speak to me, professor?” I said. I felt tired to my bones. I felt like I hadn’t slept in days.
“Why was ,Mors certa, hora incerta, written all over your notes?” He raised his eyebrows. I guess it doesn’t surprise me that he speaks Latin.
“I honestly don’t know sir. I apparently was screaming it in my sleep this morning. I spoke with Trelawney this morning about it. She says that she sees loss and pain in everyone’s future..” I shrugged.
He took in the words his face never changing, never showing any emotion.
“I don’t think she’s wrong, perhaps you could benefit from occlumency.” He turned his cloak flowing behind him. He walked towards the door.
“Meet me here at noon on Saturday. I'll try to teach you the art of occlumency. Some can’t learn the art.” I hurried after him out of the room.
“Thank you professor. I’m willing to try.” I turned and headed in the opposite direction.
“Oh one more thing, professor?”
—
I stopped in the Gryffindor common room later that day. My roommates were sitting and chatting. I sat down next to Gwen. They all looked at me, mouth open gaping.
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry for waking you guys up this morning.” They seemed to slightly compose themselves but they still stared.
“It’s no problem, really.” Emily said. We stared at each other for a couple more seconds before I tapped my leg lightly.
“Thanks again.” I stood up.
Just then a group entered the common room. Being noisy as usual. Fred’s blue eyes landed on me. He paused a second, having noticed I was sitting. I turned toward the stairs. He broke away from the group to follow me.
He stopped me on the landing.
I crossed my arms. Looking at him. He leaned in the doorway and smiled at me. Putting his hands in his pockets.
“Yes, Fred?” I tilted my head to the side.
“I have a question.” His gaze pierced through me.
“I’ve had a bad day so I’d prefer if you left me alone.”
He stood up straight. He was really looking at me now. “What’s wrong?”
“Just bad dreams and deep existential thoughts. Those two things are not good together.” I sighed sitting in one of the chairs. I covered my face with my hands.
“Do you want to talk about it?” He sat in the seat next to me.
I looked at him. His hair was a mess, hanging in his face. Red streaks across his cheek bones. It made his features appear sharper. The soft glow of lamp light made him appear softer and more sensual. I found myself wanting to talk to him.
“Do you ever think about the future?” I asked him.
He looked surprised before He furrowed his brows. “All the time.” Was his short answer.
“I don’t, usually. I had a dream last night with a weird proficiency type feel to it. I made a visit to Trelawney this morning and got a bad reading…” I was cut off to a laugh. I shot a glare at him.
He held up his hands. “Sorry, but you believe in divination?”
“Is that so surprising?” I snapped at him.
“You always seem so grounded, never expected it. Also everyone knows Trelawney is a fraud.” He huffed.
“She is not! If you paid attention in history of magic you would know all proficiencies had come to pass. They are just cryptic and don’t always mean what we think they do. It’s the Faerie magic in them. Seers have been noted for centuries. I’ve grown up reading the stars and what they say. Same as the centaurs, that's why they seem to know everything.” My face turned red. I’ve had this argument one too many times.
“Ok I’m sorry! Please continue.”
I laid my head against the back of the chair. Trying to remember where I was.
“I was screaming in my sleep. The other girls In my room had to shake me awake. I was repeating the same phrase over and over again. That phase has been going through my head all day. It goes hand and hand with my reading from this morning. In potions I zoned out as you probably saw.” I waved my hand in his direction.
“I came back to myself and realized I had written the phrase over and over again on my paper.”
“Is that what Snape saw? He looked genuinely stunned. As much as he can, it’s Snape after all.” He interrupted me. I nodded my head.
“What was the phrase then?” He asked.
“Mors certa, hora incerta.” I said. I looked at a painting. The people in it were running around and laughing. I saw him shift from the corner of my eye.
“What does that mean?”
“It’s Latin, meaning that death is certain, it's the hour that is uncertain. Nice and cryptic isn’t it. Not necessarily a bad thing. Death comes for us all in his own time. I just don’t know why I’m getting this now.” I let out a huff of frustration. He was looking at me. He looked serious.
“You don’t think you're going to die?” He leaned over to me. I shook my head.
“No, my reading was very adamant about me being alive.”
It's the death of people I love I’m worried about. I looked at him. Maybe I can stop myself from caring about him. Maybe he won’t be someone who gets hurt. He looked so young. I had the sudden urge to protect him.
“Where do you see yourself in ten years?” I asked. Dreading creeping up my back. I need to stop thinking about doom and gloom.
“Easy running my joke shop with George. Everything else is a bonus. It’s all we’ve dreamed about.” He smiled at the thought. In that moment I would give anything to make sure his dream came true. He looked at me.
“What about you?” He tilted his head looking at me.
“I have no idea, truly. I think I might travel around studying different forms of magic. I’ll know when I know.” I shrugged. I don’t think about the future much. I like to live in the moment and let life take me on its course.
“You believe in divination yet have no idea what you want to do.” He shook his head to himself.
Glaring at him, “I don't like to think about my own future, other peoples are easier.”
“Yeah that’s fair.” He replied.
I heard footsteps before I saw the person round the corner. Lee Jordan popped his head into the landing. He had half of his long dreads pulled up into a bun behind his head. His wand was stuck through it.
“There you are, mate. George and I have been looking everywhere for you. Oh hi Audrey.” He leaned in the doorway. He waved easily to me. Lee never seemed bothered by anything. Always happy, especially with chaos.
I waved back. I then waved Fred away. I pulled my hood up sinking into the chair. Fred looked down at me. From this angle he seemed to tower over me.
“I believe the future is what we make it. We all get to make choices.” He said.
I didn’t reply back. I didn’t think not dying was an option I could choose. I didn’t want to think about this anymore. I stood up and headed to my room.
—
I sat at my desk. It was getting close to the end of the year exams. I’ve been studying relentlessly. I figured it would be the best distraction. It didn’t work unfortunately.
I made my way to dinner after sitting in my room for hours. I pasted the landing when I heard three distinct voices from below. I really didn’t want another interaction with Fred at the moment. I ducked into the landing. I leaned over to see them sitting at the table directly below me. I’m pretty sure they were discussing things they could sell at their joke shop.
“Yeah but how do we make it not hurt people?” Lee asked. George scratched his chin.
“Well we will have to figure out a charm. Maybe the library has something that could help?” He shrugged.
“Not possible, did you forget we have a two week ban Georgie?” Fred said.
“Oh yeah I guess I did. I’m still surprised that pince hasn’t banned us for life.” They all laughed.
“Maybe we could get gin to do a little research for us.” George suggested.
“Sure, How are you gonna bribe her this time?” Lee asked, laughing.
Fred was leaning back in his chair smiling at them. He had a tea cup in his hands. It was empty but he was running his finger around the rim. I gripped the railing. I couldn’t help watching him repeat this motion. I didn’t want to think about his fingers or where they had been. He had such big hands. I sucked in a breath thinking about them sliding down my body.
I’ve done such a good job at avoiding these thoughts. They ran like water now. I felt hot all over and he wasn’t even doing anything to me. I had to get out of here.
I made my way downstairs and walked past them. My movement is stiff.
“Hey Audrey, can I ask you a question?” Lees voice rang out surprising me. I reluctantly turned towards them. I was completely red. My pale skin and hair always gave me away when I was blushing. I was on fire under Fred’s stare now.
I cleared my throat. “Go ahead.” I focused all of my energy on Lee refusing to look directly at Fred. I watched Fred and George exchange a look. Lee seemed completely oblivious.
“So I’ve noticed you have weirdly strong magic and you're pretty good at it. Not annoying about it either. I know I would be insufferable if I was that good at magic.” He rambled. My face got even more red at the compliment. God this was insufferable.
“What’s your question Lee?” I said.
“Oh right I was wondering if you could help us figure out this problem we are having.” He motioned to the middle of the table.
There sat a tiny box. He tapped it with his wand. Little fireworks shot from the box. It was small so the fireworks were contained to the middle of the table. They were bright and beautiful.
“It’s going to be a larger model once it’s done. But we can’t figure out how to make it not painful. It’s more for surprise and show.” George added. Lee motioned for me to sit down.
“Have you tried a cooling charm to counteract the heat?” I asked sitting down. Luckily it was between George and Lee. Unluckily Fred was now in my direct line of sight. He tilted his head to the side studying me. The heat crept back up my face.
“Glacious should work.” I picked up the little box. The fireworks had stopped then started again. With my wand I wove the spell into the fireworks themselves. They watched me work with Fascination. I waved my hand through the fireworks feeling nothing. The cold counteracted the heat. I felt nothing at all from them. I looked up and smiled.
“You're incredible!” Lee said, waving his hand through them.
“I second that, we’ve tried the cold spells before but they’ve never worked before.” George said.
“I wove Glacius into the fireworks themselves, where the heat is coming from directly.” I said.
“That’s incredible, truly.” Fred said. My cheeks grew warm again. What was with me today?
I stood up. Way to ready to be away from his gaze.
“You're welcome, anytime.” I said without thinking.
“We’ll hold you to that.” George said unseriously. Fred’s eyes said he was serious though.
I waved before heading out of the room. It wasn’t long before I realized I was being followed. I turned and saw Fred behind me. The angry comment melted on my tongue as I saw the look in his eyes.
He pulled me into one of the alcoves. Curtains falling behind us. He pushed me up against the wall. Not really touching me. His hands braced against the wall behind me.
“What the hell was that?” He said almost breathlessly.
I shifted my weight and gripped my robes. I wanted to reach out and touch him so bad.
“What do you mean?” I stared up at him. His eyes were dark as he looked at me. It felt like looking into the eyes of a predator and I, his prey. It was a look of hunger.
“You were blushing and squirming that whole time. Plus you wouldn’t look at me at all. I’ve never seen you that flustered. It was driving me mad.” His voice was deep and husky.
My cheeks grew warm once again. He had noticed everything.
“It’s nothing, I’m fine actually.” I knew he wouldn’t believe that. The words came out too high.
“Are you sure about that?” His eyes trailed down landing on my hands. They were still clutching the fabric of my robes so tight my knuckles were white. They trailed back up to my face. It was so hot that way he just looked at me. My body betrayed me at every turn. I felt that damn aching. I wanted to run and at the same time let him do whatever he wanted.
“Yes!” I was choking on the word.
“I don’t believe you darling. Tell me what did I do to get this reaction?”
I could feel the heat of him so close but not close enough. I felt the press of him without his touch. it was infuriating and insufferable.
“It wasn’t you, it was me.” My voice sounded desperate to my ears. It made me cringe internally. He shook his head. A tiny smirk playing on his lips.
“I’m not letting you leave until you tell me.”
So this was torment. I let my mind wonder once and this is my punishment. My eyes flickered across his face. I could try to push him out of the way and run; but I’m afraid that if I put my hands on him, I’ll only pull him close.
“It was your fingers,” I looked down, my cheeks were on fire. “I was watching from the landing. You were messing with the rim of your cup.” My voice was a whisper.
He shifted in front of me. He lifted my chin with two fingers.
“These fingers?” His eyes were almost black. I had thought this couldn’t get any worse. I was wrong so so wrong.
“Fred please!” I wasn’t sure what I was begging for.
He bent down leaning towards my mouth. When he was inches away he moved his head towards my ear. His breath leaves tingles in its wake.
“Do you think about them inside you when you're alone? Because I do.” He whispered, his voice was rough and breathy.
My breath left me in a huff. I was barely holding myself together. My knees started to shake. My entire being was trembling. I closed my eyes and pressed my back against the wall. Then his presence was gone. He pushed off the wall with a chuckle.
He didn’t even turn to look at me as he left. “See you in your dreams sweetheart.”
I let out the breath I didn’t realize I was holding. I slumped into the nearest chair. I put my face into my hands. He was going to be the death of me.