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chapter twenty four | trouble (pt. 2)

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Fred,

I know you probably think I forgot about the Hogsmeade situation. I didn't. And I'm feeling in a particularly good mood compared to previous days, so do you fancy meeting up? Wherever you want, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade, even some muggle park or whatever. It's up to you.

Your Kaya x

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K,

Well I don't know about you but I definitely didn't forget, I thought I'd just wait until you hopefully brought it up.

Diagon Alley, Wednesday, 1 o'clock?

Your Fred x

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Fred,

Sounds like a plan - meet at Fortescue's x

Your Kaya x

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Fred, surprisingly, made it to Florean Fortescue's first out of the two. His mother had taken some convincing to let him go since she wanted to keep her children close at the sudden return of Lord Voldemort. But after George had dropped his twin in it and told her he was meeting a girl, Molly admittedly was a bit excited. And one day in Diagon Alley couldn't hurt, right?

Kaya's mum knew immediately that she was meeting a boy, because mums are weird and have some strange motherly-legilimens-instinct where they could just tell what their kids are up to. That or Kaya was just really obvious.

Fred gave his mum what felt like a ten hour explanation of who he was meeting, where she was from, and pretty much her whole bloody life story - shooting George and Ron, who'd been smirking at him hiding in the shadows of the staircase, dirty looks as he did so.

The reason Fred's conversation took so long was because he was trying to dodge questions his mum was asking him (which was pretty much every question under the sun) such as,

"Is she your girlfriend?"

And when he'd replied 'no' she'd asked,

"Do you want her to be?"

Fred had mentally made a note to murder George in his sleep.

Kaya just laid it out straight for her mum, because there was no way of getting around Cher Bennett. She told him he was a boy she'd met at school, she might like him, and no, they were not together.

And then Alfie decided to interrupt, being the irritating little brother he was, and decided to tell their mum that Fred had helped him to History of Magic at the start of his first year, and also mentioned how he'd always seen him and Kaya together in the halls and during meals. Little shit.

If there was one thing both Fred and Kaya agreed on, it was that brothers are a curse.

When Kaya arrived, she caught sight of Fred with his back to her, sitting at one of the outside tables at Florean Fortescue's, drumming his fingers and bouncing his knee. His long hair had vanished, leaving a short cut of ginger on top of his head. It was quite amusing that the two had cut their hair at the same time. She almost bounded up to him before the thought struck her - what better way to greet him than scare the shit out of him?

The brunette girl pounced, clasping her hands over his shoulders,

"Hey!" she barked, as he jumped out of fright with wide eyes.

"Fuck me, Kaya," Fred breathed, turning around and blinking a few times, before raising his eyebrows in surprise at the sight of Kaya's new hairstyle.

She smiled down at him, her big, brown curls now more prominent due to the new length of hair. He broke into a smile.

"Come here,"

Fred wrapped her in a tight squeeze and almost ended up lifting the small girl off the ground. She smiled into his shoulder.

"You cut your hair!" He exclaimed, once they broke apart.

"So did you!"

Kaya didn't take her eyes off him as she sat down. She couldn't help but take note how much older he looked just from having a haircut (and okay, maybe even more fit, too). He was clearly scanning her, as well, for the girl could practically see his brain working as he thought, a short silence lingering between the two.

"Do you think it's too short?" she asked, putting a hand to her hair and feeling it's length. She still wasn't used to it and surprised herself every time she looked in the mirror.

"No!" Fred blurted out quickly, before blinking twice and relaxing his shoulders. Kaya smirked. "It looks pretty,"

The girl beamed.

"Yours looks pretty, too," she joked, and he playfully rolled his eyes.

"Thank you, Miss Bennett, I do try,"

She laughed.

"How are you doing?" she asked. "How's everyone else?"

"Oh, don't even get me started," he said, leaning back into his chair and pulling a face. "It was a nightmare trying just to come here, I ended up being interrogated because George is a bum and decided to tell mum about you-"

Kaya gasped with a fake look of hurt.

"What's wrong with me?" she asked, putting a hand over her heart. Fred pouted, trying to think of an answer.

"...Nothing," he said. "Just you know - mums and finding out their son's meeting up with a girl, they get all excited-"

"And why's that?" Kaya raised an eyebrow.

"Hm," Fred scowled, an unsure expression on his face. Kaya's grin widened. "You know..."

"Not really, Jae and I meet up all the time and his mum doesn't bat an eyelid-" she teased.

"Yes, because you two are non-biological twins,"

Kaya paused, but shrugged.

"Fair enough. But why is that different, with us, then?" she added with a smirk. He sighed, his lips beginning to curve upwards.

"You're trouble, aren't you?" He said to her, to which she just grinned and winked.

"Hmph," she smiled to herself.

"What?" Fred frowned.

"Nothing," she said. "Just déjà vu,"

Fred broke into a warm smile. "It's weird to think that was practically a year ago,"

"I know," Kaya said. "It feels longer than that,"

"Oh, thanks,"

"I just mean so much has changed," she laughed, before her grin faded and her eyes flickered with grief. So much has changed.

But, she shook it off, quickly. The last thing she wanted today was to be upset about Cedric, so she wouldn't be. She'd force herself not to be.

"I bet you thought I was a right knob," she said, to which Fred laughed.

"No, I was like, 'why is this pretty girl speaking to me?',"

Kaya rolled her eyes and gently kicked him.

"Shut up, you,"

"I'm not lying!"

They were silent for a few seconds, both looking at each other with beams on their faces.

"Shall we buy an ice cream?" Fred suggested. "I feel a bit bad sitting here not buying anything,"

"Yeah, go on, then,"

And so the two stood up and headed inside, Kaya's eyes running over the menu even though she already knew what she was going to order.

"Hot Fudge Sundae, please," she smiled, and handed over the money quickly before Fred could move a muscle. She knew what he was like.

"Why," he huffed, pulling out some sickles.

"You can't pay for everything," she told him.

"Yes I can,"

"No,"

"Yes,"

"Well you can't now because I've already paid,"

He pulled a face at Kaya, before ordering an ice cream of his own.

As they ate, Fred and George's planned joke shop soon became the subject of the conversation. The ginger told her about all their different ideas for joke products with bright eyes and an enthusiastic grin, going off on a ramble as he spoke.

"We've made some 'Skiving Snackboxes'," he explained. "Sweets that make you ill - not too ill!" he added, after seeing the aghast look on Kaya's face.

"Just ill enough to get you out of class, you know like puking pastilles, nosebleed nougats, fever fudge... we're gonna need to test it on other people first, though,"

"Can't you two just test them?" Kaya asked with a slight frown.

"We have, and they work on us. We just need to test it on other people to check it has the same effect,"

"Right," she nodded. "Test them on Jae, or Alfie, please!"

Fred laughed.

"There's no way Jae's gonna let us,"

"You don't have to ask him - in fact, I'll do it! I'll slip a puking pastille in his drink any day,"

He shook his head, grinning.

"Sometimes I forget you two aren't actually brother and sister,"

"Not by blood, at least," she responded, before continuing. "Or you could test it on Alfie - he'll probably let you, as well, because he's weird,"

"Ten out of ten big sister points there," Fred teased. "You're really looking out for him, aren't you?"

"At least I didn't traumatise him when he was three by turning his teddy into a spider,"

Fred froze, his mouth still grinning but hanging open, having being beaten.

"Yeah," he shrugged. "That's fair,"

Kaya let out a laugh, as she finished up her sundae.

The two spent the whole day in Diagon Alley, wandering around the shops and looking at random products. They didn't buy much, they were too busy chatting and mooching, Fred on a mission to try and get something to do with Kaya's music out of her.

"Have you got loads of songs you've been hiding from us all?"

"No,"

"Have you got melodies that could be potential songs?"

"...Yeah,"

Kaya couldn't lie to Fred - he'd told her everything about his hopes and plans, she couldn't not do the same.

"Have you written any lyrics?"

"...Maybe..."

Fred's jolly face somehow lit up even more.

"Can I read them?!"

"No!"

"Why not?"

Because most of them are about you.

"I don't have them with me," she said, quickly. "I left the book with them in at home. Besides, it's all private. Nobody's allowed to read them until they're finished and I choose to play it for you,"

"Ooh, private!" Fred teased, putting on a high pitched voice. She pulled a face.

"I'll get ahold of them," he said arrogantly. Kaya scoffed.

"I'd like to see you try,"

"Oh, I will,"

Kaya really hoped he wouldn't.