Chapter 13
The next couple of days were boring. I did end up getting detention for skipping class but I didn't care. I was more busy thinking about Parker's party, which is going to be in a couple of days. And the detention gave me more time to talk to Fred and George about her party. I have pretty much everyone except Ron in on the plan. By everyone I mean Fred, George, Hermione, Draco, Harry, Ginny, and Neville in on the surprise. The extra time with Fred and George is kinda pissing Malfoy off. I find it very amusing. He obviously doesn't. I know I shouldn't pick on him for being jealous but I find it cute when he is flustered so yeah.
Anyway, I'm in divination. About to fall asleep. Parker and I have been writing notes back and forth to each other. We are both very bored. We have no clue what Trelawney is saying. No clue what the lesson is about either. And this is why I am failing class, because I get bored of it. You'd think I wouldn't. This is a school about magic, but no, I still get bored.
The note gets passed back to me. Hermione gives me a glare, even though she's not paying attention either. The note says, "Did you stay up all night again?" We were talking about how tired and bored we both were so yeah that's why.
"Yeah." I write back, then pass it back to her. She quickly writes something then slides it back to me.
"Nightmares again??" Parker's note says.
"No. Detention last night got out late so I decided to stay in the common room afterwards. Didn't want to wake anyone up." I slid it back to her. She looks at it, then nods her head ok to me. The class is dismissed, so I grab my stuff and put it in my bag. I don't know how I haven't lost this stuff.
"Hey Park I'm gonna head to the Owlery to pick up the mail. Do you want me to grab yours?" I say as Parker and Hermione walk up beside me.
"I don't think I have any but if I do yeah." Parker responds.
"What about you Hermione?"
"I'm going to go there later so I'll grab it. Thank you though. Also shouldn't you be heading to care of magical creatures?"
"Yeah, but I don't really wanna see Buckbeak right now. And also you know me. I don't think there's been a day where I went to all my classes."
"True. However, you really need to come to class more. You're going to end up failing."
"Thank you Hermione for your concern but that is why I have been picking up extra homework. So I won't fail."
"Alright." She shrugs but I know she isn't convinced.
"Don't worry Hermione. She'll catch up." Hermione nods her head, then waves bye to me as we go in different directions. After about a minute of walking to the owlery I felt someone walking behind me. Following me. I didn't care who it was and most likely it was a student heading to class.
"You know I was waiting for you to turn around." The person said as they put their arm on my shoulder.
"I just thought that you were a student heading to class, Fred."
"Still you have to be cautious. I could've been somebody who wanted to kill you." He jokes.
"Wouldn't be surprised to be honest."
"What's that supposed to mean? Who would ever want to hurt a little baby face like yours." He pokes my face saying the last part.
I swat his hand away and laugh a little bit. "Fred! Not funny."
He shrugs while a smirk plays on his face. "Well I think it is. Anyway, where are we going?"
"We? I wasn't aware you were coming with me."
"Well I invited myself, so yes I am coming with you. So where are we going?"
"We are going to the Owlery. I'm checking to see if I have any mail."
"Ok. Good thing I wanted to check as well."
"I don't believe that." I shake my head. I don't think I will ever believe him when he says something like that.
"Come on. Give me some credit." I roll my eyes and not say a word. We walk the rest of the way in silence, which is unusual for Fred. I walk up the steps to the Owlery, Fred following now behind me. I walk in, owls and feathers everywhere. Obviously. I haven't been here before, so this is new. I don't usually check my mail. I walk over to the black owl sitting by the window. If you can't tell, I guess my DR mom really likes black. Black owl, black cat, black clothes. I'm not complaining though. I like dressing in all black. Though my real mom usually says it doesn't look good on me.
I grab the letter from the owl's beak, but don't bother to open it. It's probably about Malfoy anyway and I don't want to read that in front of Fred. Now looking around I realize I don't know which owl is Parker's.
"Do you know which owl is Parker's?" I ask as I turn to Fred.
"No. I thought you'd know. You're her best friend." He argues.
"I thought George would've told you. Whatever. I'll just tell her later that I didn't know which owl."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure."
"Can you tell me at least one thing about my future?" I froze for a second. I can't tell him anything. If I do it could change something. I want the plot to stay the same. Even though I don't want him to die. Even though I could probably change it, I still want to follow the plot. I know it's selfish, so maybe in another DR I'll keep him alive.
"I-I can't and you know that. If I reveal even the smallest thing, it could change something." I somehow managed to get out.
"Come on. Something small can't hurt. What if it's not about me? Like who is Draco supposed to marry?" I roll my eyes.
"Why is that the first thing that comes to your mind?" He smirks at me, while giving me a knowing look.
"Astoria Greengrass." I blurt out. "I swear to god if you tell anyone I will find you and hurt you."
"Hm. Not a death threat this time?" He jokes.
"No. But seriously. You can't tell anyone. I wasn't supposed to tell you that."
"Ok. I won't. Is that why you're so determined to stay with Malfoy? Because you don't want him to be with Astoria?"
"No." I say as I start walking out. He easily walks up and matches my steps.
"Alright. Why are you still with him then?"
"Because I'm in an arranged marriage with him. I can't get out of it." The lie spills out like I had rehearsed it.
"That's bullshit because I know that they called it off." I froze for a second. How long had he known?
"Can we talk about Parker's birthday please? It's coming up soon and I still have some things to work out." I say, trying to change the subject and also because I genuinely needed to work out some things for her party. I have last minute spells that I need to work on, that I needed Fred to teach me for decorations. Hopefully, it won't turn out to be a prank spell.
"How bout this you answer the question and I'll teach you the spell that I promised?"
"Fine. I don't know. I like him a lot, but sometimes I don't. I know he's a real git sometimes but when you see him from where I stand, you see a different side to him. He can be sweet when he wants to be. I don't know how else to tell it to you." I start walking again while I'm talking. Maybe even trying to walk a little faster than him but I know it's no use to try and get away from him. He's faster than me by a long shot.
"You know it's hard to believe you are attracted to that git. I mean it in a brotherly way. I guess." I roll my eyes. I know what he means. I'm not going to say and he's not either.
"Can you teach me the spell now? Without it being some prank spell." I ask, getting slightly irritated.
"Ah. Feliz you think so lowly of me. I would never pull a prank on my lovely brother's girlfriend." I roll my eyes. The joking is very evident in his words.
"I would sincerely kill you if you made me prank my best friend. It's never fun when me and her are cross with each other."
"Back with the death threats I see." I grumbled something incoherent to me and him. Meaning I have no clue what I said either.
"So, where do you want to learn the spell?"
"I would say your spot but I'm probably going to get into trouble for skipping." I reply.
"You know my dear brother Ronnie suspects there's something more than you always being late." Anger bubbles inside my chest.
Me. "I thought we just finished this conversation."
Fred. "I just wanna know."
"Whatever Ron says about me and Malfoy isn't true. Your brother needs to stay out of my business. He's really starting to irk me." Agitation rising in my voice. I hate the things Ron has said about me. I've literally only talked to him once and he still decides to say shit like what he said in Defense Against the Dark Arts. It's gotten on my nerves but this is the first time I've actually said that out loud.
"Can we please practice the spell? Parker's birthday is in a couple of days and I want to be prepared." I lower my voice a bit. I probably shouldn't have yelled.
"Yeah. Why are you so defensive about this?" I sigh in frustration. I haven't been able to explain to myself why I care what people think of me and Malfoy. It's even harder to explain to Fred. Especially because of the beginning of the year.
"I don't know." With that I started walking faster to the castle. I'm going to learn that spell on my own. So off to the library I go. Unfortunately, Fred didn't get the hint and continued following me. We get to the library, both of us being silent. We walked to the back of the room, where Madam Pince wouldn't hear if we were too loud. I sat on a cushion, they kept back here, waiting for Fred to sit down.
"You know this is not a good place to practice the spell." Fred says, while sitting down on the cushion next to mine.
"You said that the ceiling's design would change to anything I imagine right?" I ask.
"Yeah, why?"
"Fred. In this library, right now. How many of the students do you think are scared of spiders?" Fred starts smirking, catching on to my idea.
"I don't know Feliz. A fair few here. I guess we'll have to see." He smirks at me and then starts silently teaching me the spell.
"I think you have it. Go ahead. Try it." He says after a couple of tries. I say the spell and imagine the ceiling having a bunch of giant realistic spiders crawling across it. The ceiling starts morphing into spiders, and from the entrance I could hear some screams. I put my wand away and act like I'm reading. I have a feeling Madam Pince is going to come over here and yell at Fred for it. This most likely isn't the first time he would be yelled at by her. I feel Fred's presence move beside me, coming close to my ear.
"How bout we find some place else? To practice the spell I mean." He whispers in my ear, loud enough to only where I can hear. Before I can respond Madam Pince comes into view, clearly mad.
"YOU TWO OUT NOW!!" She screams at us. We get up quickly, and run to the exit, laughing on our way out. We stop outside the library door, me trying to catch my breath.
"That was hilarious." Fred says between laughing.
"Yeah. We better go before we get detention. Again."
"Too late Ms. Wilhite." Snape's voice calls from behind me. I turn around to face the annoying teacher.
"Awe. Look who it is, my favorite potions teacher." I say sarcastically.
"Do not start with the sarcasm Ms. Wilhite. You and Mr. Weasley will have detention again tonight. Now that that is discussed Ms. Wilhite I need to have a quick discussion with you."
"I'll be right back Fred." I follow Professor Snape to a nearby hallway.
"Your mother has told me to keep my eye on your progress with Mr. Malfoy."
"Of course she did. I hope you know that I'm not with him because my mother told me to. I'm with him because I want to be."
"I don't doubt that but you seem to possess the personality of your mother. Switching back and forth between two boys." I suck in a breath. I hate being compared to my DR mother. I hate being compared to people in general.
"Wow. Can't believe Professor Snape deals with teen drama. I'm not going to do what my mother says." I turn around and head back towards Fred, who is waiting for me by the edge of the hallway. Meaning he probably heard the conversation. We walk together to who knows where. Not talking about what he heard but talking about Parker's birthday party. Which I'm grateful for. I prefer to think about that.
May 13th comes fast and I am super excited. So is Parker. I have a party planned for her obviously. George is making sure she stays away from the seventh floor, while me and Fred have been decorating the Room of Requirement. The ceiling resembles a starry night sky because I think Parker will like that. Fred has it set up to where there should be fake fireworks going off at midnight. I made sure he didn't put any pranks in it. I don't trust him when it comes to pranks. I know Parker would like pranks but Fred goes a little extreme with them, so yeah.
"So....what is it like in your reality?" Fred asks.
"Different."
"Are there any wizarding schools?"
"If there was, I wouldn't be here."
"Ouch. So it's just a world filled with muggles?"
"Yep." I put a banner up quickly, then start fixing up the table.
"Sounds kind of boring. What do you do for fun in an all muggle world?"
"Well I read and go hiking in forests. Some people play sports." I shrug. Nothing interesting.
"My dad would love to know all the knowledge you probably have about muggles."
"I don't know about that. I'm usually reading so I don't pay attention to things. I know I wouldn't be able to tell him the function of a rubber duck if he ever asked." He stops and looks at me for a second, looking shocked. I give him a smile and get back to fixing the table.
"You know that. I didn't even remember that until you said that."
"I know a lot, Freddie. Like I also know that you, George, and Ron stole your fathers car to bust Harry out of the Dursley's house."
"I'm impressed." He says as he comes up behind me and puts his hand on my lower back. I look up at him and smirk, then get back to looking at the table.
"I hope Hermione and Ron get the snacks and cake done."
"Yeah. I think we are about done in here. Classes will be ending soon. Do you want to go check on Ron and Hermione?"
"Yeah. Let's go." He removes his hand from my back, and I let go of the breath I didn't know I was holding. That didn't make me nervous. That didn't make me nervous. I follow him out the door and quietly tell the room to not let anyone in except me and Fred. For the time being. We walk all the way to the kitchens, joking around. Fred opens the painting and lets me walk in first, him following behind me. We walk in and were met with Ron and Hermione arguing.
"Problems?" I ask and they turn around startled.
"No. We are done with the baking. We were just debating whether we should wait for you two or go to the room of requirement." Hermione answers.
"Ok. Well, we'll take the desserts and you two can do whatever. Just make sure Parker stays away from the room of requirement." They nod their heads and leave. I walk up to the table, getting the trays of sweets Hermione had wrapped up.
"Here I'll take these and you take the cake." He takes the cookies, brownies, and blondies out of my hands. Thank god, I'm clumsy so I would have probably dropped that.
"Ok." I grab the cake and we carefully walk out of the kitchen, and back to the room of requirement.
"Do you think we have time to make it to dinner?" Fred asks.
"Yeah if we get to the room of requirement quickly."
"Are you going to actually come to dinner today?"
I shrug. I don't want to go to dinner. "Probably not. I don't really want to. Besides, I went to lunch today."
"Yeah but you didn't eat much."
"I'll be fine. I promise." I argue.
"You really need to eat." He argues back.
"Seriously, I'll be fine."
"Why do you do that?"
"Do what?" I ask innocently.
"Act like things are fine, when they're not. This thing, you not eating is not fine."
"I don't eat because I want to make sure I keep myself skinny. I want to feel good about myself. In my other reality, I don't look good and I've been trying to fix it. Not eating is something that I always found to help. I know it's not good, but I feel better about myself. I need to stop telling people these things." The words fell out of my mouth before I could stop them. I couldn't control it. I think I needed someone to know about this. Even though the person I told is fictional.
"I-"
"Let's just get to the room of requirement so you can head to dinner and I can fix up the room a bit more." I cut in before he could say anything. We get to the room a couple minutes later and put the stuff away. I put some enchantments up so the sweets stay fresh, then stop and look around for a second to see what I need to add.
"If you want to talk I'm here to talk. This is one of the few times I want to be serious."
"There's nothing to talk about." I shrug it off.
"Yes there is. What do you look like in your other reality?"
"Fat and ugly."
"An actual description would be nice."
"Ok. Fat arms, fat stomach, fat face, stretch marks. I look pregnant when I wear tight shirts. So I wear hoodies all the time. There's the description." I grab my wand and start hanging more streamers.
"I bet you look great. I bet you get a lot of guys."
"Trust me. I don't. No one could ever like me. I'm too ugly for that." He walks up to me, and put his hand up to my cheek.
"People should like you for your personality. Not by how you look. If they can't see that then they're dumb."
"Don't do that." I pull away from him. Concentrating on what I was doing.
"Do what?" He asks.
"A pity saying. I hear those all the time. I don't need to hear them from you."
"It's not pity when it's true. Now come on. We are done here. Let's go down to dinner." He takes my wand from my hand and sticks it in his pocket.
"Fred. Give me my wand back please."
"Not until you eat something." I roll my eyes as he extends his hand for me to take it.
"We can't be holding hands when we get to the great hall."
"I mean we could do it to piss off your boyfriend."
"No. I don't want this day to be ruined. When he's moody he makes it everyone's problem."
"Ok. Well I'm still taking your hand. I'll let go when we get to the great hall." I nod my head and take his hand, letting him lead me out of the Room of Requirement. We walked together hand in hand, him swinging my hand back and forth, all the way to the great hall. Once we got to the Great hall, Fred let go of my hand and we walked in together. I walk to the gryffindor table, waving at Malfoy to let him know. I sit down next to Fred, who sat down next to Parker. I grab some salad and start eating.
"So Felicity. What have you and Fred been doing all day?" Parker asks.
"Nothing. We just hung out." I shrug, hoping my lie seems real.
"Skipping class like usual?" She smirks. She knows I'm lying.
"Yep. Speaking of which. Since we haven't been able to hang out all day, I wanna hang out at the black lake for a while." I say quickly.
"Sure." Fred snorts a bit, nearly spitting out his drink. I smack him lightly on the arm.
"What's so funny?" Parker asks, confused.
"Nothing. Fred, George you are coming with us." I turn to Hermione and whisper in her ear, "Can you take care of the Room? I don't trust Fred and George to do it. I trust you more." She turns to me and shakes her head yes. I go back to eating and talking to Hermione about homework.
"What subjects will you need help with?" Hermione asks.
"Potions. I think I have the others down." I reply.
"Ok. Meet me in the library, the day after tomorrow. I'm busy tomorrow so I can't really help."
"That works. I wasn't planning on trying to do homework tomorrow so yeah."
"You need to catch up though." Hermione says quickly, suddenly getting worried about my grades.
"I will. I just want to sleep in tomorrow." I shrug.
"We have school."
"I know." I smirk as she realizes I was messing with her.
"You're not funny." I laugh a little bit. I knew that would get her.
"I'm sorry. I find it funny. I am going to class though. Don't worry."
"I wouldn't count on that." Fred says from beside me. Hermione shoots him a death glare and goes back to eating. I continue eating till I'm about a quarter of the way done. I feel something get dropped onto my lap, so I look down and see my wand with a note attached to it saying, "Thank you." I crumple the note and put it in my pocket along with my wand.
After a couple minutes, I get done eating and stand up, followed by Parker, Fred, and George. We head out to a spot by the black lake, talking about what Parker and George did all day. We stop near a tree and sit down all together. We talk about pranks for the next couple of hours, just to pass the time. When the sun goes down I stand and say, "I think it's about time to go." We all get up and start heading to the castle. As we get closer, George walks behind Parker and covers her eyes while I take her arm so she doesn't run into anything.
"Guys, what's going on?" Parker asks worriedly.
"You'll have to wait and see." I reply with a shrug that she can't see.
"Well right now I can't see anything, so I don't know how I'm going to do that."
"Just come on. It'll be fun." She sighs as I start pulling her to the Room of Requirements. With the help of Fred we got to the Room of Requirement without getting hurt or getting caught by Filch. I guide Parker into the room, then move away, signaling to George to uncover her eyes. He uncovers her eyes and the rest of our friends jump out and shout, "SURPRISE!!"
"Oh my god! Thank you guys!!" Parker says, excitedly.
"Come on, let's have some fun." I say. Everyone heads to the food table, including me, while Fred goes over and starts playing music. I made sure that sound couldn't escape the room earlier, so we wouldn't get caught by teachers. I grab a brownie then walk over to a corner of the room and watch the party happen. Yes, I am one of those people who don't really party, I just sit and watch while enjoying the food.
"Why am I not surprised you're hiding in a corner?" Ethan says as he stands beside me.
"Because you know me so well." I say, then take a bite of my brownie. Damn the brownie is delicious. Whoever made this did really well.
"I guess. It's a nice party by the way. Who planned it?"
"Me." I say, smacking him slightly on the arm. He gives me a small smirk, making me roll my eyes.
"It is nice though. I wasn't joking about that."
"Thanks." After a couple of seconds, Parker walks up to me, smiling like crazy.
"Hey, George suggested we play truth or dare, want to?" I nod my head and she turns to Ethan with a look of disgust on her face.
"You can come too." She turns around, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her to the circle of people that has now formed. I sit down on the floor next to Draco, with Parker sitting next to me and on the other side of her is George.
Once everyone sits down, Parker goes over the rules. Mainly explaining that we can't do any sexual dares. Which is understandable. Also explaining why we aren't going to use Veritaserum for the truth part of it.
"Alright, who wants to go first?" Parker asks.
"I think you should, since you're the birthday girl." I pipe in before anybody else could say anything. Most of the group nod their head in agreement, the others grumbling but agree anyway.
"Alright, how bout George. Truth or dare?"
"Easy. Dare." George replies.
"Ok. I dare you to chug a whole cup of butter-beer but you have to add a bit of fire-whiskey in it." He nods his head and shrugs like it's something easy. He gets up and grabs a cup of butter-beer, and some fire-whiskey, then sits back down by Parker. He completes the dare easily, without hesitation.
"Alright, my turn. Ginny. Truth or dare?" Ginny looks up at George confused. Obviously not paying attention.
"Uh. Truth I guess." For a split second George looks disappointed, but then a sly look comes across his face.
"Alright. Who was your first crush?" Her face falls into a frown.
"No one. I haven't had a crush on anyone." She says quickly. Everyone except maybe two people know who she has a crush on. It's quite obvious. I guess not to Harry though.
"Anyway, it's my turn. Harry, truth or dare." She says, trying to turn the attention off of her.
"Uh-um. Truth." Harry says.
"Is it true you and Ron crashed my dad's car last year?"
"Yeah, but to be fair Ron was driving. Not me." He puts his hands up in defense.
"Way to call me out." Ron says bitterly.
"And before you ask Malfoy, we did get into trouble for it. And on that note. Malfoy, truth or dare." Malfoy rolls his eyes.
"Truth." Draco shrugs.
"Why are you actually with Felicity?"
"Because we are in an arranged marriage. Why else would I be with a half-blood?" He says confidently. My breath hitches in my throat. He doesn't mean it. Does he? I mean we aren't in an arranged marriage anymore, but could he be lying?
"Felicity. Truth or dare?" Draco says as he turns to me.
"Dare." I say, bluntly.
"I dare you to drink two shots of fire-whiskey." I nod my head and get up. I walk over to the food table, then grab the bottle of fire-whiskey and a shot glass. I take the shots not very quickly but not slowly. I want to get it over with because the liquid burns going down my throat.
"Done. Ethan truth or dare?"
"Dare."
"I dare you to let Parker cast whatever spell she wants on you." I say with a smirk.
"You want me to get tortured don't you?"
"I'm not answering that."
"Whatever. Let's get this over with." Parker and Ethan stand up, Parker's wand is drawn.
"Immobulus." She says pointing her wand at Ethan. His body tenses up and falls to the floor. I cover my mouth stifling a laughter. Parker smirks then sits down, undoing the spell so Ethan can take his turn. Ethan sits up quickly, then turns to Fred with a sly look on his face.
"Fred. Truth or dare?" Ethan says.
"Dare of course."
"I dare you to kiss Felicity." My smile falls for a second, but I put it back up so people don't see that this will bother me.
"You know she's taken Smith." Draco says, grabbing my hand.
"It's just a dare. It won't mean anything." Ethan says with a laugh.
"Dray, it's fine." I whisper in his ear. He loosens up a bit and nods his head. But he still holds onto my hand.
"Get it over with." He mumbles. Fred walks over to me and lifts up my chin with his finger to face him. He quickly kisses me and goes back to his seat.
The truth or dare game goes on for a little longer, then turns into a game of Would you rather. It's a few minutes before midnight and I'm kind of excited to see the fireworks.
"Felicity. Would you rather have chocolate frogs or butter-beer?" Parker asks.
"Easy. Chocolate frogs. Butter-beer is disgusting." I reply.
"No it isn't." Harry argues.
"Yes it is. Anyway, Harry, would you rather give up quidditch or give up magic?"
"Well either way I'd have to give up quidditch."
"Not necessarily." Hermione cuts in.
"Quidditch. I'd prefer to give up quidditch. I've lived without magic before so I want to keep it." Harry says, completely ignoring Hermione. I mouth, "Explain later," to her and she nods her head.
"Feliz it's almost midnight." Fred says.
"There's one more surprise before the party ends. Look up at the ceiling now." The fireworks start to go off. An array of colors shooting across the ceiling. It's so beautiful. The fireworks go off a couple at a time, not making that much noise. There are green ones, red ones. All sorts of colors. I am starting to sound like a little kid.
A little bit after the fireworks end, everyone clears out to go to their common rooms, except me and Parker. I start cleaning up, needing to think for a bit.
"Need any help?" Parker asks.
"No, I'm good. Thank you though. You should head back. I don't want you getting caught by filch." I reply.
"Are you sure?" Parker asks.
"Yeah. I'm sure. By the way, happy birthday because I didn't get to tell you yesterday."
"Thanks. And thank you for the party."
"You're welcome."
"Well if you don't come into our dorm tonight, goodnight and see you in the morning." I look up at her and give her a small smile.
"Goodnight, Park." She smiles, then turns around and leaves. Leaving me here alone.