December 1994

Angelina Johnson was always a brave girl, some might say she was the textbook definition of a Gryffindor. She was strong-willed, opinionated, and unafraid of conflict - she was truly a force to be reckoned with.

However, there was one person in the world who had the power to make her hesitate, to make her speechless and take her breath away. The boy who threw caution to the wind at nearly every turn, whose middle name may as well have been 'Chaos' or 'Trouble'. The boy who at some point had suddenly gone from best friend to crush before Angelina could even realize it had happened.

Fred Weasley.

The two of them met during the sorting ceremony in their first year but they didn't really become friends until their second year when they both decided to try out for the Quidditch team. Fred had made some sort of joke at her expense during their try outs - something about girls not being good enough for quidditch, which he didn't truly believe but knew would likely get under her skin, and he was right.

Whether it was his goal or not would forever remain a mystery, but all his words did was motivate her to prove him wrong. Every shot she made soared through the hoops, only being stopped by their Keeper, Oliver, once. Their Captain at the time, Charlie Weasley, offered the tiny twelve year old girl a spot on the team as a Chaser before she'd even dismounted her broom and Fred wore a grin on his face for the remainder of the day as if he was claiming partial credit for her success.

It was the beginning of a fiery friendship - two strong personalities that never knew when to quit and always had to have the last word.

The main difference between Fred and George, and maybe what caught her eye in the first place, was that Fred never seemed to back down. While being a kind girl, Angelina did tend to have a domineering personality on occasion, especially when it came to Quidditch. But Fred was the one person in the world she couldn't ever hope to boss around, and something about that intrigued her.

While George was always the first one to attempt to keep the peace, Fred never hesitated to give her a piece of his mind, on or off the pitch. That's just how their friendship worked. They challenged each other, teased each other, bickered with each other, and on more than one occasion pushed each other a bit too far until they spent the rest of the day not speaking to one another at all. But it always ended in laughter, no matter what.

Somewhere along the way though, Angelina's feelings for Fred began to change. When exactly it started, she couldn't quite pinpoint. But one day in particular stood out among the rest.

It was after a rainy practice when Fred asked her to walk back with him to the common room. There was no Alicia there to tag along, no George there to crack jokes, just Fred and Angelina walking across the grounds together in the rain. Although she couldn't even remember what they were talking about that day, she knew she was deeply in trouble the moment she gazed at him and really took in all of his features.

The way his usually bright red hair became dark as the damp strands stuck to his forehead, the way his crooked smile got a little wider every time she said something he found amusing, the way his brown eyes looked sweet like honey even on the dreariest of days. But it was when he called her 'love' so casually as he was complimenting a goal she'd made during practice that Angie felt her heart stop and then race wildly.

It was a feeling that had probably been building over years but the realization crash landed into her suddenly with no warning. If there was anything that ever scared Angelina, it was the moment she knew she'd fallen for Fred Weasley.

That secret remained buried deep in her heart for over a year, she hadn't even dared to utter a single word of her crush to her best friend Alicia. Honestly, she'd done a very good job at hiding it from everyone around them.

But when the Yule Ball was announced at the beginning of December, a sinking feeling grew in her chest. A feeling of longing that was unfamiliar to her spurred on by the fact that she desperately wanted to go to the ball with Fred, yet knowing there was no way he would ever ask her.

Despite how forthright she usually was with her thoughts, she was no where near brave enough to be the one to ask him. Knowing him, he'd probably say no out of principle, because to him it was the boy's responsibility to ask. Maybe it would have given him the push he needed to get a move on and ask her though. But she shook the thought from her mind. All she could imagine was the horrifying embarrassment coming from that entire situation.

Instead, she waited for weeks, wondering if he'd ever ask.

One afternoon shortly after the announcement, he and George caught up to her and Alicia in the corridors after Transfiguration to ask if either of them had dates yet. When they both said no, the twins merely smirked and said 'Interesting' in unison before turning around and heading off in the opposite direction. So, that was it. Angelina thought if there was going to be any point where Fred would have asked her, it would have been right then.

But he hadn't.

Still, she did her best not to let her silly crush and a lack of a date to the dance sour her mood. The weeks went by and Angelina treated Fred just as she always had, bossing him around, cracking jokes at his expense, and sharing a lot of laughs with him.

A week and a half before the ball, Angelina had finally come to accept the fact that he was never going to ask her. By that point she, Katie, and Alicia had already agreed to all go as friends, so she knew the night wouldn't be a complete bust. While she was rather disappointed, it wasn't like she'd be sitting in her dorm crying and listening to sad songs while other students were falling in love and having their first kiss, at least she had her friends.

Just when she'd given up all hope, Alicia and Angelina were sat by the fire on what seemed to be an evening like any other in the Gryffindor common room. The girls were chatting away about what they were going to wear to the ball when a familiar voice called to her across the room.

"Oi, Angie!"

When she turned her head, she saw Fred sitting with Ron and Harry at a table near the portrait hole. The two younger boys had confused looks on their faces, but Fred looked at her with that signature smirk he always had when he was up to something.

"What do you want?" she called back to him.

"Want to come to the ball with me?" he asked with such confidence, he didn't seem to care at all that every Gryffindor in the room now had their eyes on him.

Angelina hesitated for a moment, in the way that only he could make her do. Instinctively, she narrowed her eyes at him, as if trying to decipher if this was a real invitation or if it was just a set up for an elaborate prank.

Who could blame her after all? She'd been friends with the twins for four years now, it was survival of the fittest when it came to being in their circle, no one was safe from the occasional prank. But Fred's smile didn't waver as he awaited her response.

"Alright." she finally said with a shrug.

As casual as she made it seem, in reality Angelina's heart was beating wildly in her chest. She watched as Fred gave her a quick wink and turned back to Ron and Harry with a triumphant look on his face. It took nearly every ounce of her willpower to break her eyes off of him and turn back to Alicia, doing her best to hide the smile that was desperately trying to form on her lips.

Fred Weasley had finally asked her to the ball.

-

On the night of the ball, Fred was chatting in the entrance hall with George and Lee. His hands were buried deep in the pockets of his dress robes, fiddling around with a small bottle of firewhisky that no one other than his twin and Lee were any the wiser to being in his possession.

Of course, if anyone was going to spike the punch, it would be those three.

Although all three boys were patiently waiting, Fred was the only one of the three to actually snag a real date.

George, whose crush on Alicia Spinnet since second year was well known to Fred at this point, hadn't been brave enough to ask the girl to accompany him. Even though Fred had threatened on more than one occasion to ask her for him if he didn't pluck up the courage to, George had somehow managed to convince him not to and therefore remained completely dateless.

Lee, however, assured them that only reason he didn't have a real date was because he simply couldn't decide which girl he wanted to go with the most, so in the end asked his best friend Verity to go with him so he 'Didn't look like a dateless loser', which was a comment that George didn't appreciate very much.

Over the twin's shoulders, Lee was the first to spot Angelina and Alicia descending the stairs. Both Fred and George spun around at the same time when he mentioned their presence, though neither twin's eyes landed on the same girl.

Alicia broke away from Angelina when she spotted Katie across the crowd and the girl wearing a long orange gown instead made her way over to the boys. As she'd come to expect, a mischievous grin was already on Fred's face the second she laid eyes on him.

"How'd you know orange was my favorite color?" he asked as his eyes fell to her gown.

"Bold of you to assume I picked this dress for you."

"Oh, but we both know you did." he grinned widely which earned him a playful punch in the arm from the girl.

At some point between Angelina and Fred locking eyes with each other, George and Lee had slipped away and gone into the Great Hall without them. Within seconds, it seemed like they were both totally consumed with one another and the world around them had slowly disappeared.

"You really do look beautiful, Angie." he said with the faintest hint of a blush forming on his freckled cheeks.

Fred Weasley blushing? Angelina didn't think it was possible. The boy oozed confidence at every turn and she was certain that she couldn't possibly be the cause of any butterflies in his stomach. Not to mention him calling her 'beautiful'. Knowing Fred, she half expect him to call her 'hot' or 'fit' - that's how she'd heard him talk about numerous other girls as she had to just sit there beside him and pretend that it didn't shatter her heart into a million pieces to know that he was attracted to someone else.

But beautiful? The word almost sounded foreign coming from his lips, it was uncharacteristically soft for him but it felt genuine and somehow like it was a word reserved only for her.

"You clean up rather nice yourself, Freddie." she smiled as she reached up and ran her fingers over the lapel of his dress robes.

When Fred realized Lee and George had slipped away, he brought his hand up to meet hers, grasping it tightly as he pulled it away from his robes, "C'mon, we've got to be quick."

Without giving her a chance to register what he'd said, he pulled her through the doors and led her into the Great Hall. Angelina practically had to jog to keep up with the boy whose long steps seemed to span at least three of hers. He was barely giving her the chance to take in the breath taking scenery of the Great Hall as they weaved through the crowd of students on their way to the drinks table before finally coming to an abrupt stop near a short blonde Hufflepuff girl.

"You and Ver keep watch." Fred ordered in a whisper, placing a kiss on her hand with a wink as he dug around his pocket with the other.

"You three can't go one night without causing trouble, can you?" Angelina laughed when she saw Fred pull out the bottle of firewhisky.

"What's life without a little risk, love?" he smiled before releasing her hand and turning over his shoulder to join Lee and George at the punch bowl.

Luckily most of the more eagle-eyed members of the Hogwarts staff were still in the entrance hall helping line up the Triwizard Champions and their dates while a majority of the students around them were much too busy gushing over each other's outfits or making googly-eyes at their dates to notice the boys.

"Get used to this, when you and Fred start dating you'll be put on look-out duty all the time." Verity laughed as she glanced over her shoulder to see if the boys were nearly done spiking the punch.

"What makes you think we'll start dating?" Angelina laughed in an effort to hide her nerves.

Verity turned to face her with a knowing smile, "Because I know Fred's fancied you since last year. Something about a rainy practice and blah, blah, blah."

Angelina glanced towards Fred who met her eyes immediately and gave her a thumbs up, letting her know their mission had been a success but she didn't care at all about that. All she could think about was the fact that somehow she and Fred had seemed to fall for each other at exactly the same moment and had done nothing about it for over a year.

The boys returned to her and Verity just in time to watch the Triwizard Champions walk into the Great Hall. As the crowd of students clapped for the champions and their dates as they entered, Fred's hand snaked around Angelina's waist causing her to jump slightly at his sudden touch but it didn't deter him from pulling her closer to his side. They watched as the four champions kicked off the ball with their traditional dance and Fred couldn't help but lean close Angelina's ear and make a joke at Harry's expense, comparing his dance with Parvati to Ron's awkward dance with Professor McGonagall a few weeks prior.

Finally, the dance floor opened up to everyone and Fred didn't hesitate to pull Angelina to the center of the crowd, spinning her around before he pulled her close. Even in the moments where they fumbled a bit or lost the tempo causing one of them to step on the other's shoes, Fred didn't lose his confidence for one second. His magnetic smile stayed intact the entire time and the two of them remained in the center of the floor for what felt like hours, transitioning from awkward waltzes to upbeat dancing that felt more like jumping to the rhythm rather than any coordinated moves as the Weird Sisters performed their set.

"Want to get a drink?" Fred asked as he leaned closer to her so she could hear him over the music.

"Sure!"

With her hand in his, they made their way off the dance floor, bumping into a few students who were still in the midst of dancing. Nearly the second they arrived at the refreshments table, Lee was already approaching them as if he had been waiting all night for a moment to chat with them.

"Oi, lovebirds." he grinned widely at Fred and Angelina.

"Hey," Fred greeted as he glanced around the boy's shoulder, "Where'd Ver run off to?"

Lee shrugged, "I think she's off somewhere hanging out with her Hufflepuff friends but forget about that, check out Allie and George."

The three of them glanced over towards the table where the two were chatting and even from this distance the crimson blush on George's face was clear as day as it contrasted against his pale skin. As much as Angelina wanted to remember this moment forever, imagining that she'd one day be recounting it in her maid of honor speech at their wedding, Fred broke her away from her thoughts when he held a drink out to her.

She took a sip of it and grimaced immediately, the boys had added way more firewhisky than she'd originally thought, "Merlin, are you trying to get me drunk, Weasley?"

"That wasn't a part of my original plan, no." he chuckled as he took the cup from her hand to taste it for himself, raising his eyebrows and letting out a cough as the liquid hit his throat, "Okay, that's just straight firewhisky at this point."

"You two are a nightmare, honestly." she said as she looked between him and Lee.

"But we're your nightmare." Lee said with the most charming smile on the planet.

"Don't flatter yourselves, I'd lump George into that too but he looks so happy I can't possibly blame him right now." Angelina mused as she leaned her head on Fred's shoulder and watched George and Alicia who'd now moved from the tables to the dance floor.

"He's got two left feet." Fred snorted.

"So do you." she looked up at him with a smirk.

"I didn't take you for a liar, Johnson."

"The only liar here is you." she responded, poking a finger to his chest.

As if the boy had the reflexes of a cat, Fred quickly grabbed onto Angelina's wrist with a devilish grin, "Follow me."

"I don't think you're giving me much choice."

A glint of mischief sparkled in his dark eyes, "Now you're catching on."

Without George, every little scheme that came into Fred's mind had very little planning involved. The boy was always flying by the seat of his pants. To be honest, he needed someone like George to keep him grounded because to Fred even the most mundane ideas felt like a grand adventure that had to be conquered right this second. But George was a bit preoccupied  at the moment and Angelina was alone sitting front row for the ride without a seatbelt.

He led them out of the Great Hall towards the main doors of the the castle before Angelina planted her feet firmly on the stone floor beneath her.

"I'm not going out there, it's bloody freezing." she frowned as she pulled her hand away from him.

Fred merely smiled at her as he rested his hand on the small of her back, his fingers grazed her bare skin lightly for just a moment which sent a jolt of electricity through her entire body, "Don't think I can keep you warm?"

The only person in the world who could ever hope to render Angelina speechless was proving the exact effect her had on her and her hesitation only seemed to amuse him more. With a chuckle, Fred took a step away from her and pulled his dress robe away from his body before wrapping it around her and pushing the door open.

Instinctively Angelina followed him, she'd follow Fred to the end of the Earth if he asked her to. But the cold winter air and falling snow did make her question that notion for just a moment.

"Freddie, I can't walk out here. My feet will actually fall off." Angelina froze in place to show him the strappy sandals she was wearing.

"Then hop on." Fred crouched down in front of her, more than willing to carry her across the grounds if it meant getting her where he wanted to go.

With a laugh Angelina held up the bottom of her dress with one hand and grasped Fred's shoulder with the other before jumping onto his back. The boy tightened his grip on her legs before standing up straight and giving her a piggy back ride through the snow.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck to hide from the harsh breeze.

"Just trust me."

Eventually the two of them came to a stop in the courtyard, finally sheltered at least somewhat from the falling snow now. When Fred set her down she looked around at her surroundings before gazing up at him. Everything had seemed just as it always was, there was no hint of mischief anywhere in sight.

"Why are we here?"

"I'm so glad you asked." he said with a grin as he reached around to his back pocket.

He pulled out his wand and after muttering a few spells under his breath and with the flick of his wrist, hundreds of orbs of golden light filled the space around them but what really caught Angelina's eye was right above their heads. Out of thin air, a sprig of mistletoe appeared right above them. While Fred seemed quite proud of his handiwork as he pocketed his wand, his face fell slightly when Angelina let out a laugh before she could even hope to stop herself.

Angelina quickly shook her head and rested her hands on his chest, "I'm not laughing at you, I promise. I'm just surprised, I didn't realize you were such a hopeless romantic."

An inaudible sigh left his chest as relief washed over him. His hands immediately cupped her face as the golden orbs above them reflected on her warm skin. The confident, charming Fred had quickly returned as he smiled, "Only for you."

Angelina parted her lips, ready to quip back just as she always had throughout every moment of their friendship - they were always fighting for the last word, after all. But this time Fred was going to make sure he was going to get the last word.

Before she could say anything, Fred tilted her head up and closed the space between them, planting a kiss on her lips that he'd been imagining for over a year now.

Kissing Fred felt exhilarating yet familiar, as if they should have been doing this for months by now but that perhaps without all the anticipation and longing, it wouldn't have felt nearly as good.

It tasted like firewhisky and snow and was better than anything Angelina had ever imagined. As their kiss deepened, she instinctively tightened her grip on his vest, pulling him in closer and she felt a hint of a smirk from Fred forming against her lips. The two of them moulded together perfectly and for once it felt like neither of them were fighting for dominance over the other, it finally seemed like they were on the same page.

Fred was the first to pull away, although reluctantly. It seemed like if the boy could kiss Angelina forever, he would.

Taking in a deep breath, he looked down into her eyes with his hands still cupped around her face gently. A sly grin formed on his lips once he caught his breath which caused Angelina to raise an eyebrow at him.

"What are you thinking?" she asked quietly, subtly flicking her gaze between his eyes and his lips.

"That I should have kissed you much sooner, you're not half bad at it y'know."

Angelina hit him against his chest, causing him to let out a laugh.

"You're so stupid," she grinned before pulling him back towards her, "Kiss me again."

"As you wish."

A/N:

I decided to base how Fred asked Angie to the ball on how it happened in the book, rather than the movie, because I've always thought that him literally shouting it across the room was the most Fred Weasley ever hahaha

And as much as I love writing George (and maybe contrary to popular belief) I really am a Fred girl at heart! Any excuse to write more Fred content is one I'm going to jump on, so here we are! Anyways, hope you liked this quick little fluffy story and thank you so much for all of your support on 'Learn to Love Again' 🧡