S I X T E E N

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Charms class on the first of April seemed much more chaotic than usual when Adeline stepped in. At first, she just chalked it up to students being stressed over the upcoming O.W.L.s exams. It took her a few seconds to realize that not only was it April Fools Day, it was the Weasley twins' birthdays.

Adeline sat next to Estelle, the pair of them reviewing notes and spells with Ophelia across the row of desks, as Professor Flitwick tried shouting over the class in an attempt to quiet them down and bring them to attention. Both the class and Professor Flitwick, however, were distracted by the small colorful sparks that Fred and George had conjured up and were now shooting at random across the classroom.

Professor Flitwick had decided the class was going to practice the Disillusionment Charm today after studying the theory behind it the class period before in order to prepare for the O.W.L.S. exams which were coming up in a month or so. The charm was supposed to make the caster effectively invisible, which made the spell incredibly difficult to pull off.

Around the classroom, students attempted the spell the best they could, sometimes making parts of their body transparent but not their entire body. Next to her, Estelle was trying her best to make her head disappear along with the rest of her body and Ophelia was attempting to make more of her body besides her torso become invisible.

After a few attempts, Adeline managed to successfully perform the Disillusionment Charm, shocking both herself and many others in the class.

"Ms. Reyes, that is a brilliant Disillusionment Charm!" Professor Flitwick squeaked out, beaming when he realized that Adeline had blended herself into the surrounding classroom. "Very rarely does a student do it so well on the first lesson. Five points to Ravenclaw!"

Adeline heard someone scoff near the back of the classroom. "He's just looking for a reason to give his house points," Riley O'Niell, one of the Gryffindor boys, commented to his friend as he rolled his eyes. "Anyone can do that spell."

"I'd like to see you do it as well as she did," Estelle snapped back, shooting the boy a glare.

With a cocky smirk, Riley waved his wand over himself as he loudly said the incantation for the charm. Adeline decided to keep quiet about the fact that he emphasized the wrong syllables in the spell and did the incorrect wand movement. When only his feet became transparent, the class burst into loud laughter over Riley's reddening cheeks.

"You would think O'Niell would learn how to keep his mouth shut by now," Lee called out, causing the room to roar with laughter. Out of the corner of her eye, Adeline even caught Professor Flitwick fighting back a smile.

"Nice try, Mr. O'Niell," Professor Flitwick said after composing himself. "But the correct pronunciation and wand movement will go a long way, and also not insulting my teaching and your fellow students."

If anyone in the class wasn't laughing at this point, they certainly were now. Riley muttered an apology to both Adeline and Professor Flitwick, his face now as red as Fred and George's hair.

A few minutes had passed, all the students practicing the incantation and succeeding at a variety of levels. While some people like Adeline had managed to master the charm and were now messing with their friends while invisible, some had yet to manage even making part of their body invisible.

Adeline had just finished helping Estelle fully master the charm when she felt someone appear behind her. She felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned her head, she saw George smiling sheepishly down at her. "Can the Charms master spare some time to help a lowly peasant like me?"

"Not normally," Adeline teased, which made George's smile grow even wider than what it was before. "But since it's your birthday, I'll make an exception."

George moved so he was now standing beside her, and Estelle and Ophelia moved a distance away, quietly giggling as they did. Adeline shot them a glare that seemingly went unnoticed.

"You know, I'm surprised there hasn't been a huge prank yet in this class yet," Adeline remarked. "Between it being April Fools Day and your birthday, I figured I wouldn't be able to go anywhere without seeing one of your pranks."

"We try not to prank people as much in Professor Flitwick's class," George told her, leaning down so he was practically whispering in Adeline's ear. "He's the one professor who actually enjoys our pranks. Calls us 'some of his brightest students.'"

"Professor Flitwick's always been an amazing professor..." Adeline said with a sigh, smiling to herself. "I could only dream of being as amazing of a Charms Professor as him when I grow up."

George's eyes widened in surprise. "You want to be a Charms Professor at Hogwarts?"

Nodding, Adeline bashfully replied, "That's the plan for right now. It's been my dream since fourth year to be a professor, and Professor Flitwick has already started training me to help him teach Charms after I finish Hogwarts. I just hope that I'm good enough to be a professor."

"I think you'd be brilliant," George said quickly, causing Adeline's cheeks to burn. "You'd be an amazing professor."

The two looked at each other for a second, unable to find the words to say. Adeline wanted to thank him, but for some reason the words felt caught up in her throat. "Anyways," George eventually choked out, the tips of his ears as bright red as his hair. "Can you help me with the spell?"

Adeline nodded quickly, glad to have the distraction from whatever feelings were brewing inside her chest. George performed the spell, and his arms turned an opaque color and became semi-transparent, but the rest of his body remained normal. He turned to Adeline with a defeated sigh, and she shook her head at George, the corner of her lips twitching as she fought back a smile. "You're saying the spell fine, but you're completely messing up the hand movement. Hold on..."

Adeline reached her hand over to George's wand arm and glanced down at his arm before looking back up at him, silently asking if it were alright to grab his hand. When George nodded, Adeline grabbed tightly on his wrist and hand and proceeded to help him through the wand movement, going slowly to make sure he understood the movements properly. Adeline refused to look him in the eye, already her cheeks beginning to burn from the close contact with George. She also tried her best to ignore the electricity that shot up her arm when she grabbed his hand

"Have you got it?" Adeline asked quietly, trying her best to not look for too long at their hands.

George didn't speak for a few seconds, instead staring wide-eyed at Adeline's hand on top of his. "Yeah...yeah I got it," he replied in a shaky sort of voice. "Should I try it now?"

Nodding, Adeline moved her hand away, frowning slightly from the loss of warmth from his hand. George was now doing the wand movement perfectly, and after saying the incantation, had made most of his body effectively invisible except for his feet. When he reappeared again after a few seconds, Adeline beamed at George, excited over how quickly he had gotten the charm.

"That was brilliant!" Adeline exclaimed, earning a wide smile out of George. "It's amazing how much the correct wand movement can help."

George wanted to say something. He wanted to thank her or even just make a joke about how much easier pranks were going to be now that he could make himself invisible. But once he looked over at Adeline, he couldn't seem to stop staring at her. Their eyes locked onto each other, and the silence seemed to be never-ending as the two stared at each other. Neither of them could find the words to say, and Adeline's normally sharp mind now seemed to be turned to mush.

The sound of someone loudly clearing their throat cut through the silence, and the two snapped out of their daze to see Fred and Lee standing nearby, and Adeline became confused as to why the pair had practically identical smirks on their faces. "You done over there, Georgie?" Fred called out, sending another one of his winks towards the couple.

George glared at the two before turning back to Adeline, embarrassingly rubbing the back of his neck. "I'm going to head back to Fred and Lee..." George eventually said, pointing to the two boys who had turned their attention away from the couple and were now cackling as they tried to perform the charm on each other rather than themselves. "Thanks again for the help. You're seriously the best."

As soon as he was gone, Estelle and Ophelia appeared next to Adeline again with teasing grins on their faces, causing the girl to look back and forth between the two, bewildered as to why everyone seemed to be acting like this. "What's up with you two?"

The two girls shared a look before Ophelia decided to speak for the pair. "Did you not happen to notice Professor Flitwick comment on George's near-perfect Disillusionment Charm before he asked you for help?"

Adeline had not.

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Later on in the evening, even though Adeline was trying to study, her mind couldn't seem to leave the events from the Charms class. Adeline couldn't seem to understand why she had frozen up like with George. While she was normally a quiet person, Adeline had never felt as truly speechless as she did when her and George were staring at each other.

In the back of her mind, one thought kept trying to creep out, but Adeline pushed it back down each time. There was no way that was even a possibility. Sure, there had been small crushes in the pasts. There was even a few awkward dates with Patrick in her fourth year and an even more awkward kiss with Brennan Doyle during a late night spin the bottle game in the Ravenclaw common room.

But Adeline had never felt quite like this around a boy, and the thought of it absolutely terrified her.

"Uhm...Adeline?"

Adeline looked up from her Potions notes and grinned when she saw it was Neville. Her smile faltered, however, when she realized how stress the young third year looked. "Hey! Do you need more help on your Charms?"

Neville shook his head. "No...no...I'm all good with Charms, thanks to you."

"It wasn't me, you were already great at Charms," Adeline reassured him. "What can I do for you?"

"Listen, I know you're busy and everything with your O.W.L.s, but I really need your help with Potions," Neville told her nervously, clutching the Potions textbook so tightly in his hands that his knuckles were turning white. "If I don't figure out how to brew a good Shrinking Solution, Professor Snape is going to fail me in the class and he already hates me enough as it is. I would ask Hermione, but she's practically on lockdown, and I need to pass this class and–"

"Neville, I would love to help you. Plus I was already needing to review Shrinking Solutions so this works out perfectly for me."

Adeline was lying about that last part, but seeing the relief wash over Neville's features made the fib worth it to her. She even brought over Estelle to help Neville as well, who had always excelled at Potions and could make even the worst in their class brew a draught that was acceptable enough for Professor Snape.

The three ended up spending most of the evening in the library, even missing dinner so Adeline and Estelle could help out Neville with Potions. Neville's confidence only seemed to grow over the night, so while he was still nervous for his Potions exam, he was feeling a lot more sure of himself.

But even with all of this and how happy she was to help Neville, Adeline couldn't stop thinking of George. Her mind kept telling her that she was being ridiculous, that she just saw George as a friend. But the problem was that Adeline had never experienced feelings like the ones about George with anyone before, and she had no idea what she was going to do.

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a/n:

idk i just really enjoyed this chapter!! i hope you all enjoyed it as well and that you have a lovely day :))

- g ♡