CHAPTER ELEVEN: HONEYDUKES

The following day everyone was back in the Room of Requirement to practice duelling. Hermione was put in charge of pairing everyone and when she called out Lucy and Fred's names Lucy scowled at her, causing Hermione to laugh. Everyone had thought that yesterday was a display of affection from Fred but what they didn't know was what happened in the hospital wing yesterday afternoon.

"Stupefy!" Lucy yelled at Fred and he blocked the spell with ease.

"Hey!"

"You better watch out, Weasley," Lucy gave a sickeningly sweet smile that was enough to rival one of Umbridge's.

"You want to play that game, huh? Expelliarmus!"

Lucy blocked his spell, already expecting his retaliation. "Nice try."

"Stupefy! Reducto! Expelliarmus!" He chanted at her and she deflected each one with ease

Since when did you become so good at blocking spells?" Fred asked, shocked at how easy she was taking it all.

The truth was that straight after coming out of the hospital wing Lucy had gone to Snape's quarters. She asked if he could help her with some Defence Against the Dark Arts work and claimed she was struggling with some basic spells. So they pulled some furniture out of the way and instructed her on how to deflect spells properly. Within the hour she was a natural and was ready to move onto some trickier work but decided against as she still felt woozy from the incident with the blood.

Lucy ignored Fred and concentrated blocking the spells, it continued like this for a while until Harry told the class to gather around and watch.

"This everyone is an excellent example of duelling, nice work, Lucy and Fred!"

But the pair were too engrossed in their duelling to notice the attention. Fred stumbled against the force of a spell Lucy had thrown and Lucy took this opportunity to disarm him. His wand flew though the hair and Lucy reached up for it and caught it.

"You must want to just bleed out and faint for me!"

The room erupted in laughter and Fred raised an eyebrow to Lucy who curtsied.

Harry dismissed the class after that and everyone filed out of the room. Lucy waited for Fred there and held out his wand to him. Before he could take it she snatched it back. "If I didn't know better I'd say someone had slipped you some Amortentia."

He grabbed hold of the end of his wand and pulled it to him but he dragged Lucy to him in the process so their bodies were pressed together. "Implying you'd administer it to me."

She let go of his wand and walked away, leaving him standing there.

*

Finally, the weekend arrived. It had been a long week for Fred but he was glad it was finally here. There was a Hogsmede trip and he couldn't wait to go out and clear his head and feel a little more like himself by wearing his own clothes. It was delightful to wear something that actually fitted properly. He combed his hair and then tossed it in his trunk before he followed George down to the entrance of Hogwarts.

"Freddie," George slung an arm around his twins shoulder. "You've been acting a little strange recently so what's up?"

"Nothing, Georgie. I'm fine." Fred's voice was reserved.

"Uh-huh, so it has nothing to do with Lucy and the way you were vigorously throwing those spells at her?"

"Not at all."

George gave him a sideways glance. "She's just a friend?"

"Just a friend," Fred murmured.

George stopped walking and stood in front of Fred. "Look me in the eyes and tell me so."

"Lucy Snape is just my friend and a good one at that."

"And Fred Weasley isn't telling me the entire truth," George began walking again and it took Fred a moment to register and to follow. He should know by now not to lie to his own flesh and blood, he and George were practically the same person after all. Of course he'd know if Fred was lying.

"Wait up!" Fred called.

"Zonkos first?" George inquired, dropping the matter of Lucy like a hat.

"Absolutely," Fred's positive mood returned. "We've got to stay ahead and ensure they're not stealing our inventions for Weasley's Wizard Wheezes."

"I can see it now!" A sparkle appeared in George's eye. "We'll be making loads of galleons by doing what we love. The Professors of Hogwarts will think we'll have left at the end of this year but all the students will continue our legacy with the inventions."

"We'll put Zonkos out of business!"

"I like your thinking, let's go."

They sprinted down to Hogsmede and headed straight into Zonkos. Fred took out his notebook and began making notes about all the inventions that were similar to what he and George had already thought up while simultaneously thinking of new and better ones. Once a couple of pages of paper were filled the twins headed outside and re-evaluated.

"We need something better than dungbombs," Fred tapped the paper with his pencil, allowing George to see his notes.

George took the pencil and scribbled it out. "We've got extendable ears and skiving snack boxes, why do we need those?"

"Good point. What about the puking pastilles? I think they'll be a best seller."

George nodded in agreement and began scribbling some notes alongside his brothers as he spoke.

Just along the way Lucy was walking in time with Hermione, their coats wrapped around them tightly against the harsh winter wind. The skin on their face that wasn't covered by a Gryffindor scarf was tinged pink.

"What're you doing for Christmas, 'Mione?" Lucy asked, her voice muffled by her scarf.

"I'm going to the Burrow, Ron's invited me because Harry's going to be there too. Ron's mum is lovely, you simply have to meet her one day," she responded, shoving her hands in her coat pockets. "What about you? Where are you going?"

Lucy sighed. "I'm going home with dad, he's always tried to do the best Christmases for me but nowadays he ends up drinking a bottle of wine and falling asleep in the chair by seven."

Hermione turned to Lucy and then burst out laughing. Lucy couldn't help but join in. "My goodness, to imagine Professor Snape slumped in a chair after downing too much wine is quite an image!"

Fred's ears perked up at the sound of Lucy's laughing. He always thought that she'd had a sweet laugh — Fred cringed, he couldn't think of her that way. She was Snape's daughter, he didn't want Snape as a father in law.

But why was he worrying about that?

"Fred!" George snapped, bringing him back to reality.

"Oh you get used to it," Lucy smirked as she continued to walk into Hogsmede. "Aside from that we don't do much but he always buys me something nice."

"He sounds like such a good father but I can never quite put the brooding Professor with the loving father you describe," Hermione admitted. "But I'm glad he's good to you."

"He always has been even if he is a little strict."

"Pay attention!" George hissed. "We need someone to help us out with all this."

"What about Lee Jordan?" Fred suggested.

"We need more help than that! How about we stick up some posters?"

"What if someone steals our idea for a new joke shop though? That means more competition."

"But we're running out of ideas, we need some fresh ones."

"Fine, take a risk and do the posters."

"Alright," George stood up and waited for Fred to copy him but he stayed put on the bench. "Aren't you coming?"

"I need to..." Fred's voice trailed off as he watched Lucy and Hermione head into Honeydukes. "Grab some sweets from Honeydukes."

"Cool, I'll come with — "

"I'll catch you up."

"Oh, sure," George nodded a little disappointed, he waved goodbye and headed back to the castle.

Fred got up from the bench and headed into Honeydukes, on a mission to find the girl that was sweeter than the shop she browsed in.

Hermione grabbed a few chocolate frogs. "You know I still haven't found a Dumbledore card in one of these despite how common they are. How do you suppose I get such rotten luck?"

"You see the real Dumbledore all the time, you're not missing out," Lucy shrugged and searched for something appealing.

"I guess you're right but still, I want it for my collection and buying another for Ron won't hurt — " she held up the chocolate frog in her other hand. "What're you getting?"

"I'm not sure. Probably the every flavour beans as per — "

"I heard that the vomit flavour bean isn't all that bad," Fred said as he came up behind the two.

"I'll go pay for these," Hermione excused herself and headed for the till with a small smile on her face.

"That's certainly a lie, my father tricked me into eating one once."

"Snape?" Fred looked horrified. "Pulled a practical joke?"

"He's not that old and boring you know."

"I don't believe it for a second."

"You would if you'd known him for all your life."

"I count that as a blessing."

Lucy folded her arms. "What do you want?"

Fred pulled some coins out of his pocket. "How about those every flavour beans?"

They sat outside not so long later on the bench Fred had abandoned on his pursuit for Lucy. Hermione had claimed she desperately needed to get on with some homework, conveniently leaving the two alone. Fred held the box the beans had come in and then pulled a face after eating another bean.

"Grass," he pretended to be sick.

"That's not so bad." Lucy shook her head then took a yellow one from the box and popped it in her mouth. "Lemon."

"How're you getting all the good o—" then he narrowed his eyes. "You know which ones are the good ones don't you!"

"What can I say? I'm a Bertie Botts every flavour bean connoisseur." She smugly put another one in her mouth. "Strawberry."

Fred grabbed the last one, hoping this one was good and then gagged. "Vomit! Yuck!"

"I thought they weren't that bad?"

"I wish..."

"Well it was lovely food tasting with you but I think I'll follow Hermione's lead and attempt to get some work done," Lucy stood up and placed a hand under Fred's chin. "I think you should do the same."

"It's the last year, I have it all under control now."

"We'll see what my father says about that!"

He rolled his eyes after her and then realised there was a piece of parchment on his lap. He opened it up:

Fred, George;

I'm in.

Fred noticed the swirly print to be Lucy's and then saw she'd drawn some kind of invention and his eyes widened.

It looked like she was the perfect candidate for the job.