I need to make it up to him. I send a letter to Fred, asking him to accompany me to Hogsmeade. Strictly potion-making business, I tell him. An idea for a prank for them to pull. There is no risk of running into my friends there. Rather, they spend their weekends at the castle, eating fancy foods sent in through parcels by their parents. Nothing at Hogsmeade is up to their calibre.

To my surprise, Fred says yes.

On the day of the Hogsmeade trip, I wait in the courtyard. Fred shows up, but he is with George and Lee. All three of them approach me.

"So, you had a prank in mind?" Fred asks.

I nod. "I think I can brew a laughing gas."

"We've done that before," George says.

Fred nods. "Filch dumped the cauldron, cleared the smoke quickly."

I wasn't expecting such a quick rebuttal. It seems that though they have spent some time watching me, I haven't spent as much time watching them. Still, that wasn't quite my idea. "What if I could make it invisible? Bottle it, so that it can be released in the Great Hall or something. I just need a few ingredients, and I haven't been able to knick anything from Professor Snape in a while."

"What's in it for you?" Lee asks, leaning forward. There is a smile on his face, like the twins, but it's a little bit more curled in at the edges.

I shrug. "I could use something exciting. Especially since the next event of the Tri-wizard tournament isn't for another two months."

"Right you are," Fred says. "Why don't we all head off then?"

We begin our descent away from the castle. They mostly talk about classes, potions being one of the few that they are in with me. Apparently, they got their Amortentia to work, and they're trying to put a twist on it to turn it into a perfume.

"You could just bottle and dilute it," I suggest. "Instead of water, use vinegar. It'll preserve the potion longer."

"Won't it tamper with the smell?" George asks.

I shrug. "It might. Water would make it go sour after a few weeks. The smell'd be ruined."

"What did you smell anyway?" Fred asks, looking down at me.

"You're Mum," I answer, earning a laugh out of Lee and Fred. Even George chuckles a little.

"Funny thing, Fred, I also smelled your Mum," Lee adds, a smile on his face. He turns to George.

George raises an eyebrow. "If I say I smelled our Mum, that's just sad now isn't it?"

"Fair enough," Lee manages through a snort.

When we get down to Hogsmeade, I admire the old brown and grey buildings. I haven't been here in years. The laughter of other students echoes around us off the cobblestone. The sky above us is grey and so is the ground. Everything is monochrome, not filled with colour like I remember.

At least I'm with a couple of gingers.

"I figured that we'd spread out, cover our basis," Fred says.

George nods. "We've got a few things to get for our own purposes."

"George and Lee will meet us later for butterbeers, yeah?" Fred offers.

All of us seem to agree. After they head off, we head towards a potions' shoppe. I don't know my way around as I used to in my third year. In the last three years, nothing has changed, but I guess I have.

We make our way into the potion shoppe and begin to look around.

It's much narrower inside than it appears. There is barely room to walk down the aisles. Above us are towers of ingredients, components, and potions. They vary in size and colour. The shelves are made of wood, and so they creak as I walk past them, swaying slightly. One wrong move and everything could come tumbling down.

"You know, it's always weeks between every time I see you," Fred points out. "What's up with that?"

"You've met my friends," I shrug, my eyes preoccupied by ingredients. This collection is more extensive than Snape's. I wonder why someone hasn't been coming here, and has been instead stealing his ingredients.

"George told me not to bother with you, after the stunt you pulled last time."

I turn to face him. He's pretending to be occupied by the shelves. Examining the different kinds of vinegar, staring each down.

"You pulled the stunt, not me," I tell him.

He snorts out a laugh. "I didn't realize that talking to you was a stunt. Figured it's what friends do."

He grabs a vial and chucks it at me. It's plain white vinegar. I hold it in my hands, staring down at the vial.

"For the Amortentia," he says.

I put it in my satchel.

"Ginger," I tell him.

He looks up at me with a furrowed brow. "To neutralize the vinegar?"

"Yes," I tell him. They interact in the Wolfsbane potion in the same way. Fred might know that since it seems he is decent at potions. After all, most of his pranks involve potions to some degree.

"I take it you're doing well in herbology then?" he laughs. "I don't know why you're taking so many classes."

Bronwyn wanted us all to take the same classes. She managed to rope me into a couple of them, like herbology, but not into some of the others. I refused to take divination and care for magical creatures, for example.

Not that he needs to know that.

"I like herbology," I tell him. "Besides, you need it to become a potioneer." In reality, I just got lucky that Bronwyn made me take it.

"My talents are more suited for extracurriculars," Fred smirks. He looks down at my hand. "What else do we need?"

The pair of us continue to gather the components necessary to make the laughing gas potion. After a good twenty minutes of searching and wandering, we have everything. We go up to the front desk, and Fred tries to pay. I win out though, since they are my ingredients, and I have them covered.

"I'm paying for your butterbeer then," he insists. His lips are tight though, he's serious. I rarely see him acting serious, and I don't know how well it suits him.

"Just pay me in firewhisky," I smile as we walk out of the shoppe.

The various vials in my satchel clang off each other as we walk back to where we are supposed to meet up with George and Lee. Above us, I can hear birds calling out to each other, finally coming back with the beginning of warm weather.

"What are they getting, anyway?" I ask.

Fred shrugs, "I honestly haven't the foggiest."

"Hello."

I whip my head around and see Elora, standing behind us. She's got a timid smile on her face. She's holding hands with the Beauxbatons boy, Henri, if I recall correctly.

"Larkin," she says, her eyes unblinking. "Fancy seeing you here."

My stomach drops. I don't let my eyes dart over to Fred. Doing so would betray me for sure. Instead, I smile back.

"I don't think I've seen you outside of Hogwarts in years," I smile. Which is true. We saw each other a few years ago at Bronwyn's cottage, but it's not the point I'm trying to get at. It's easier to turn things around at her. "How's your afternoon?"

"Just showing Henri around," she moves her hand, pulling Henri into the conversation.

The boy flashes a smile. "Sorry, my English... not good."

I nod. Elora says something to him in French that I don't understand, and he laughs. My hands tighten around my satchel.

"I'd invite you to join us for butterbeer, but I assume you've already taken him," Fred offers.

I cringe, trying my best to keep any sign of infraction internal.

Elora's grin widens. "I hope you both have fun, but we ought to be on our way. So many sights to see."

With that, Elora continues walking. She brushes past me, her shoulder grazing mine. We make eye contact, and she winks at me.

As they walk away, Fred turns to me. "She seemed nice enough. A bit stuffy, you know, but she's a Slytherin."

"That was not nice," I correct, moving to adjust my cloak and my shirt, and my pants and every part of me, which feels slightly skewed. Even my hair, I flatten down.

Fred takes my satchel off me, throwing it over his shoulder, to help free my hands.

"Oh, she was being a tosser," Fred looks over to her as she walks away, his voice hushed. "Honestly, I don't understand why you don't just tell her to fuck off. It seems much easier than whatever weird way you have of communicating."

There's no use explaining to him that we are friends. "Did you want that butterbeer?"

"Not afraid of being caught with me?" he asks, moving in closer.

I look up at his warm brown eyes. He smiles at me. I break eye contact, looking down at the ground. "If the cat's out of the bag, then it's out of the bag."

Even though I say it, I'm not sure I believe it. I swallow, and together we head off to get butterbeer.

~~~~~

YEAH! Hell yeah. It is starting to warm my heart, each chapter. I hope it doesn't feel like the same thing is happening over and over again. Really, a lot is changing. A lot is growing. There are only five chapters left in this year, and then we are moving on to the Order of the Phoenix, and I'm so stoked!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy and I will see you soon.