The end of Christmas break was drawing near, but we still had a few days before the other Gryffindors came back from their holidays. So luckily, we still had the common room all to ourselves for New Years Eve.

Fred managed to swipe two bottles of firewhiskey from the kitchen after dinner when the house elves had been scrambling to clean the kitchens. He brandished them proudly as he strutted into the common room, giving me a swift kiss as he set the bottles down. "We're going to have a lot of fun tonight." He declared.

Ron, George, and Harry cheered, Ron looked particularly thrilled. While Hermione scoffed and gave a disapproving look at the amber liquid. "Honestly Ronald! We're fourteen, do you need to engage in that?"

"Hermione, it's not like I'm going to do anything stupid, we're the only ones here!" Ron laughed.

"Everything you do is stupid." She muttered, opening a book with a considerable amount of force.

I bit back a laugh as Ron gaped. His mouth opening and closing like a fish as he tried to find something in retort. I knew there was more to that jab than what it seemed, Hermione was still upset about what happened at the Yule Ball.

"C'mon, Hermione, lighten up!" Harry said awkwardly, trying to break some of the tension.

"Yeah, like Ron said, we're the only ones here. You've got no one to impress. Why not try a sip or two?" Fred suggested innocently, but a wicked smile stretched across his face.

I decided to play along. "Yeah, we're all planning on being too drunk to remember tonight anyway. How would we know if you spoke with improper grammar while slightly tipsy?"

Hermione tried to glare at me, but she couldn't hide her smile. I didn't push more, not wanting to pressure Hermione, just reminding her that this is a safe space.

Fred wasted no more time. He cracked open one of the bottles and poured us both a glass. I grabbed mine, "Cheers, darling," Fred said, clinking our glasses.

I took a deep sip, cringing slightly as the liquid burned down my throat. A warmth spread through me, I coughed slightly at the firewhiskey. Fred chuckled and snaked an arm around my waist, he led me to the couch in front of the fire and pulled me down so I was sitting sideways on his lap, despite my protests. Our faces were mere inches apart, a faint smile was on Fred's face as he looked at me. I could hear Ron and George squabbling over the liquor, but I was focused solely on Fred.

The position we were in created an intimacy I wasn't used to with Fred. I was hyper aware of Fred's arm, still wrapped tightly around my waist, his hand grasped my hip, fingers digging in slightly to the soft flesh. My arm was draped over his shoulders, unintentionally keeping him closer to me. Without breaking eye contact, Fred raised his glass of fire whiskey to his lips and drank. A blush rose on my cheeks, I was well aware of what lay beneath my legs, but tried hard not to think about it, I didn't want to let Fred know how much of an effect he was having on me.

I was snapped from my thoughts of where this situation might go had the others not been there by a loud crash. I whipped around at the noise, fragments of glass lay on the carpet beneath George and Ron. George dangled the bottle of firewhiskey high above Ron's head. "Now look what you've done, Ronald!" George scolded.

Thankfully, it had only been an empty glass that had broken. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, I thought you wasted the firewhiskey I worked so hard to get." Fred laughed.

"Reparo." Hermione sighed, the shards of glass floated back onto the table, the cup back in one piece.

George finally relented and set the bottle down. He already had a full glass and settled in an armchair beside the fire. He wiggled his eyebrows at me, and I scowled back. Ron and Harry finally came to join us with brimming full glasses. "Ron, you are so greedy." Fred said, eye wide as he watched the two younger boys try not to spill.

Harry blushed scarlet, "Ron poured, not me." He sputtered.

"Oh, we know, Harry." George replied.

Ron scowled, "We've got two bottles mate. What's wrong with wanting to make less trips?"

"You know full well that's not the reason for those full glasses. You're just trying to show off in front of the ladies." George teased.

"What ladies? Louise is dating Fred now, he'd kill me."

"Damn right." Fred laughed, he pulled me in tighter to pepper kisses on my neck.

I laughed loudly at the sudden display of affection. But it made my heart swell that Fred wanted to show me off as his girlfriend, even just in front of his friends and family.

"And Hermione is hardly a lady, besides, she's into older men." Ron continued.

The room went silent, we all knew Ron had crossed a line. Hermione blushed scarlet. She slammed the book in her lap closed and shot up. "You're such an ass!" Hermione shouted.

I thought she was storming for her dormitory, but instead she grabbed the bottle of firewhiskey from the table, raised it to her lips, and drank straight from the bottle. We all watched in astonishment as she took three deep gulps from the bottle. She slammed it back down and grimaced. "Try not to spoil my fun yet again, Ron." Hermione gasped.

The room stayed silent, all eyes on Hermione. Her cheeks were deep red, her nostrils flared. "What are you bloody staring at?! You told me to 'lighten up', that's what I'm doing."

Again, no one spoke. Eventually, Fred cleared his throat awkwardly. "Music, anyone?"

We all nodded, Harry most enthusiastically, eager to get rid of the horrible tension. "C'mon, love." Fred whispered in my ear.

Fred's arm never left my waist as he stood up, bringing me up with him. He lead me to the table with the firewhiskey. Hermione walked past us, now with a glass of firewhiskey, and sat in an armchair furthest from everyone. Fred put his cup down and pulled his wand from his pocket. Wordlessly, he flicked his wrist and a record player appeared on the table, along with an impressive collection of records. Fred began flicking through the albums, settling on the Queen album 'Sheer Heart Attack'. With another flick of his wand, the record flew from the record cover onto the record player. The needle moved by itself and landed on the spinning record. The crackled first notes of 'Killer Queen' began playing loudly. Fred started humming along softly in my ear as he brought us back to the couch.

The night had started off rather awkwardly, but as the alcohol flowed, so did the conversation. The record player had been enchanted, so rock music kept playing. Hermione had loosened up as she started to feel the alcohol, and was laughing loudly at something Harry said. The three younger teens were clearly quite tipsy, their cheeks were red, especially Ron's. Fred was talking animatedly to George about something to do with a new product. I had moved onto the couch cushion beside Fred, my legs over his. I stopped paying attention to what Fred was saying, suddenly way more interested in whatever Harry had said. "What's so funny, 'Mione?" I giggled.

"H-Harry said something funny, but I-I don't know what he said." She laughed.

I faked a laugh, but made a mental note that she needed to be cut off. "Let's play a game!" Ron shouted suddenly.

"What kind of game?" George asked, halting his conversation with Fred immediately.

"I don't know, tag?" Ron suggested.

"Ron, that's the dumbest thing I-" Fred started, but Hermione cut him off.

"Harry's it!!" She shouted, smacking Harry a lot harder than she probably intended.

Hermione squealed with laughter as she stumbled away. After a moments hesitation, we all abandoned our glasses and scattered. Harry took a moment to get up before charging at Ron. The common room was suddenly a blur of chaos as an intense game of tag took hold. The Weasley twins easily outpaced everyone with their long legs. They vaulted over furniture to escape Ron when he was tagged. Ron easily gave up and chased after Hermione. She also tried to vault over an armchair, but ended up bringing it crashing to the ground, she seemed to forget to jump. She lay on the ground shaking with laughter as Ron tagged her. I did feel bad, she seemed a little too intoxicated to be able to chase anyone. So when she finally got up and chased after me, I may have let her tag me. I surveyed the room quickly, George had somehow managed to get onto of the small ledge of the mantle above the fireplace, and was kicking at Fred to prevent him from climbing up as well. Ron was standing on the couch, ready to run in any direction. Hermione was still trying to stumble away, but I noticed Harry trying to hide behind an armchair in the corner. I started sprinting right for him. For being the Gryffindor seeker, I don't know how he didn't see me coming. Harry didn't even try to run away, he seemed shocked when I tapped him on top of the head and ran away.

For the next fifteen minutes, Fred and George evaded being tagged even once. It seemed to rotate between Ron, Harry, and me. But when Harry took the easy way out and tagged Hermione, Fred decided to take pity on her this time. He ran slowly, not jumping over any furniture. And somehow, Hermione missed and almost fell. Fred started laughing, holding out his arm to Hermione. She tagged his arm, and Fred immediately turned to me. He had a glint in his eye that I normally only saw when he was about to pull a wicked prank. A prank I was now the victim of. "Ohhhh shit."

Fred started charging at me at full speed, it was terrifying having a six foot tall man run straight at you. I ran away as quickly as I could, but I couldn't outrun him. I knew Fred was right behind me. The others cleared to the sides of the room to stay out of the way. I laughed loudly as I ran around the common room, jumping over couches that Fred easily cleared, trying desperately to not get tagged. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a blur of movement and red hair. I tried to stop and run the other way, but it was too late. Fred had climbed on top of the couch to cut me off and was launching himself at me. He knocked me to the ground, but managed to get his hand beneath my head so I didn't smack it against the ground. I laughed weakly as the wind got knocked out of me.

Just as I caught my breath, I suddenly found it hard to breathe again as I looked up at Fred. He looked down at me with a cocky grin, one hand beside my head propping himself up, the other still cradling the back of my head. His eyes got a dark gleam to them as he slowly looked me over. Fred bent his head down and kissed me hard. He pulled away slowly and leaned down towards my ear. My entire body was tingling with anticipation as I felt his hot breath on my ear. "You're it." He whispered.

As quickly as he had knocked me down, Fred was up and running away. I blushed furiously as I stood up, "You'll pay for the, Weasley!" I yelled, and gave chase.

*****

After another twenty minutes of tipsy tag, we collapsed around to fire, exhausted. "You know what Ron? That actually wasn't a bad idea." Fred laughed, wrapping his arm around me.

Everyone nodded in agreement. To my surprise, Hermione had chosen to sit on the ground between Ron's legs as he sat on the couch. She swayed slightly, having grabbed another glass of firewhiskey when I wasn't looking. "Harry, what do you reckon the second task is?" George asked.

"No clue, George. I can't make out that clue. It's just a bunch of screeching." Harry sighed.

"Maybe you've got to fight a banshee!" Ron said.

This started a loud debate over what the screeching could be. Fred leaned down to my ear and whispered, "Y'know, I enjoyed the view when you were underneath me. Wouldn't mind seeing you like tha-"

"Fred!" I hissed, smacking his chest lightly.

"What? I'm just saying." He laughed.

At some point, the second bottle of firewhiskey had gotten opened. We talked easily about anything and everything, jumping from topic to topic as we got distracted. "Guys! It's nearly midnight." George shouted suddenly.

I glanced at the grandfather clock across the room, both hands were getting close to twelve. "Everyone top up your glasses, except you Hermione, yours is still pretty full." Fred said.

Hermione nodded absentmindedly, too far gone to understand. "She is going to have a lovely morning." George laughed.

We migrated towards the clock, wanting to actually count down to the new year. "Okay guys! Ten seconds!" George announced.

We counted down all together, Hermione trying her absolute best to remember numbers. "Three, two, one, happy New Year!" Ron yelled overtop of everyone.

Fred turned me to face him. "Happy New Year, darling." He said.

I had seen a few muggle movies when I was younger, the dramatic romances where the woman was swept off her feet for a kiss of a lifetime. This kiss was exactly how I'd imagined those to feel like. Fred's hands grabbed my waist and pulled me against him, I threw my arms around his neck, pulling him closer to me.

After a moment, I pulled away. "Happy New Year, Freddie."

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