A week after lessons started again, all people seemed to be talking about was the Quidditch match with Ravenclaw versus Slytherin, which Slytherin was fortunate enough to win. This was good. Beth could walk the school halls without hearing about any Black nonsense. It felt like any other school year.

Beth spent the next few weeks surprisingly unbothered in the library with piles of homework spread around her. She was content in her own little world and everything was back to the way it was. Only, deep down, she found herself somewhat missing being pestered by one redheaded Gryffindor.

It was better than being pestered by Adrian Pucey, who was an absolute bore. At least Fred was...funny.

She was thinking all of this, reading about countercharms, when a small thud jolted her from her little world. Beth jumped and looked up at a wide grin. The grin of someone who had not approached her since the start of the Christmas holidays, and instead stole glances her way in the Great Hall, caught her eye and smiled at her in classes and grinned at her as they passed by each other in the corridors.

Beth looked down at what had made the thud and saw a pink, heart-shaped box. Her grey eyes flicked up at Fred's brown ones suspiciously.

"I'm not touching that."

"What? It's Valentine's Day!"

Beth felt her stomach jolt in a way she did not like. She didn't want any Valentine gift. The Christmas one was okay, but not a Valentine one.

"I...I don't want it," Beth said thickly, turning back to her book on countercharms. "You keep it or give it to somebody you like."

"Well, I want you to have it," Fred said slowly. "And I like you."

"Colin Creevey ran past me yesterday with a green face and spiky hair like he'd been shocked," Beth said simply, not looking up from her book. She heard Fred chuckling. "So, I don't trust you. And I just don't want it."

"Why not? It's just chocolate. If you don't trust me I'll even eat one."

Beth raised an eyebrow up at him. "Take off the lid."

Fred obeyed and took the lid off. There were about a dozen heart-shaped chocolates inside in little wrappings, and Beth chose one and passed it to Fred to eat just as he had reached for one for himself. As if she would believe it wasn't a prank if he chose which chocolate to eat.

Fred shoved it in his mouth and Beth watched him with a blank look. He chewed, swallowed, and then smiled widely.

"See? Nothing to worry about. I'm not going to prank you, Beth."

He couldn't prank her. Not as much as he wanted to, and he so very much wanted to prank this girl. He just didn't want to risk her getting mad at him; he knew she wouldn't find any prank on her funny at all and she would probably never speak to him again, and he would be right back to where he started.

Fred put the lid back on the box and pushed it gently towards Beth with a small smile on his face. He knew she wouldn't be very accepting of a gift on Valentine's Day, but he wanted her to know that he was thinking of her.

There was a faint pink shade on both of her cheeks as she looked away from him bashfully, even though she tried to hide it by clearing her throat and flipping to the next page of her book.

"Weasley?" a shocked and disgusted voice said from behind Fred, and he knew exactly who it belonged to before looking over his shoulder and into the eyes of Adrian Pucey. Adrian scoffed and waved his hand around, confused, as his other was already occupying a gift. "What are you doing here? You got Beth another unwanted gift? She is way out of your league, Weasley, go find yourself a gutter rat or something."

"Adrian," Beth said in low voice, as though to tell him to back off.

Fred only laughed. "Oh, very clever, Pukey. Drop your box off and run along now."

"It's Pucey, Weasel," Adrian growled. Fred looked at Beth to find her with her face in her hands, embarrassed. "Now leave."

"Why? It's the library. I don't see your name on it anywhere. I'm free to sit wherever I like."

Fred could see that Adrian was getting more and more frustrated with every word that came out of Fred's mouth. The Slytherin boy pinched the bridge of his nose for a second before narrowing his eyes down at Fred. He decided to just draw out a chair from next to Beth, despite Fred sitting across from her. Beth tensed and leaned away from Adrian as he scooted closer to her. She caught Fred's eye, as though to tell him she was uncomfortable.

Adrian scoffed.

"Like anybody wants to get fat by eating chocolates, right, Beth?"

Beth opened her mouth for a second before closing it, furrowing her eyebrows.

"That's no way to talk to a girl, Pukey," Fred said, wagging a finger in front of Adrian's face.

Adrian looked from Fred to Beth, opening and closing his mouth. "Well she knows what I meant, all right? Here, Beth. Open it. Look what I got you. I bet it's ten times better than old, fattening chocolates."

Fred was actually interested to see what Adrian had gotten Beth, and watched as she uncomfortably unwrapped the box and took off the lid. Fred snorted and then coughed into his hand.

"You got me a...lipstick..." Beth grimaced, taking the lipstick out. She took the lid off the lipstick to see what colour it was. It was a dark purple, a colour you wouldn't normally see anybody wearing at Hogwarts. "Thank you..."

"You're welcome! I saw it and I thought of you."

Fred snorted again. "Is that supposed to be a bloody compliment? That's terrible. You saw a dark lipstick and thought of Beth? Oh I'm sure she has her heart racing, Pukey. Only witches in Knockturn Alley would be seen wearing that shade."

He noticed Beth's mouth move slightly before she pressed her lips together, looking away from both of them.

Adrian opened his mouth to retort but Beth beat him to it.

"Thank you both, okay?" she said quickly. "Now can I please be left alone to study?"

"Of course," Adrian said instantly, glaring at Fred. "Up you get, Weasel. She wants to study alone."

Fred shrugged and made his way towards the other end of the library, watching as Adrian sauntered out of the library, before he made his way back over to Beth.

"What an odd bloke, eh?" Said Fred as he sat next to Beth where Adrian had been sitting. He noticed that she didn't move back or look uncomfortable. "So, will you come to the next Quidditch match?"

"When's that?" asked Beth, and it was a response Fred wasn't expecting.

"Oh - in two days."

"And it's Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

Beth pressed her lips together again. "Don't see why I need to be there then."

Fred sighed and leaned into his hand on the table. "Are you really going to make me say it?"

Beth pursed her lips at him in an amused kind of way, her hair that had fallen out of her braid falling in her face. Fred wanted to move it away.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Beeeth," Fred groaned, laying his head down all over her books and staring up at her with puppy dog eyes. She looked disgusted at first, but softened slightly at his pouted lips. "Please, please come. Doesn't the simple fact that I want you to go make you want to go?"

"Well, not really."

"What can I do to make you say yes?"

"You can--" Beth stopped herself short and squinted at Fred. "Nice try, Weasley. I see what you did there."

Fred scooted closer on top of her books, right in front of her, and stared directly up at her with his innocent face. Beth avoided his eye and looked around the library, like she was worried about who would see exactly what was happening.

"Pretty please, Beth. I'll prank Pukey for you. I'll prank anybody who's mean to you," Fred pouted, blinking up at her. Beth looked at him but quickly looked away.

"Weasley..."

"Fred," he corrected her.

"Weasley."

"Fred."

Beth narrowed her eyes. "Weasley."

"Fred," he said strongly, smiling up at her.

"Fine. Fred."

"Please come to the match. For me," Fred pleaded. "If that even matters."

"I'll go if you leave me alone to study, like I said before. You're making a scene right now!"

"Really? You'll go?"

"Yes, if you go."

"Promise?" Fred narrowed his eyes playfully, watching Beth smile dryly.

"I promise."

Fred gave her one last grin before departing.

It was a clear, cool day on the day of the match. Beth wouldn't normally be seen walking down to the Quidditch pitch, so it was probably an odd sight for anyone who actually paid attention to her.

"Coming down to wreak havoc on the game, Black?" someone hollered out, causing their friends to burst into laughter.

"Yes, you're bad luck," a Ravenclaw girl said from in front of Beth. She looked at Beth with pitiful brown eyes. "I'd say you should return to the castle. I've probably cursed my own team just by looking at you."

"You don't need to worry that I'm the reason your stupid House will lose to Gryffindor," Beth spat at her. "Everyone loses to Gryffindor, you imbecile."

"Not Hufflepuff!" said the boy from before, Zacharias Smith, Beth realised, as she looked back at him.

"That doesn't count," said the captain of the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, Cedric Diggory. "And leave Black alone. Everyone is welcome down at the Quidditch pitch."

Beth climbed her way up to the Slytherin stadium and made her way to the front for a better look. It was crowded, mostly with first and second-years who would obviously find every Quidditch match exciting, particularly if it was their own House out there on the pitch. She stared down at the two captains shaking hands, and scanned through the players. It was easy to spot the Weasley twins from this distance with their red hair, she just didn't know which one was which.

Until one looked up and scanned through the Slytherin crowd and winked at her. She smiled dryly at him. He didn't look away.

"Beth?"

She quickly looked beside her.

"Adrian," she replied in a quiet voice.

"What are you doing here? Since when do you come to games?"

"I don't know, just thought I'd start," Beth lied. "I needed a break from all the homework and studying. Some fresh air. The air is really nice up here."

"Oh," Adrian replied in a voice that made him sound very unconvinced.

When Beth looked down at the pitch again, Fred was frowning up at them, but quickly looked away when he caught Beth's eye.

The game started, and the team players automatically mounted their brooms and soared through the air. Beth could barely keep up with everyone flying around and she had almost forgotten how Quidditch was supposed to play for the first few minutes.

She knew it was Fred who flew near the Slytherin stands and knocked the bludger towards a Ravenclaw player, because he let it get that close to the Slytherins as an excuse to have to fly there. Beth heard Adrian scoff from beside her, and for some reason, it annoyed her.

"Problem?"

"Yeah, problem. He's just being a show off because he thinks that someone like him can fancy someone like you."

"Just stop it, Adrian," Beth shook her head. "He can fancy me if he likes."

"If he likes?" Adrian exclaimed, earning a few first-year glances. Beth glared at them all and they turned back towards the game. "I'm better than him. I'm the better option. He's poor and his whole family are blood-traitors --"

"I swear to god, if I hear that word one more time I will rip your teeth out and boil them, Pucey!"

Adrian jerked his head back, shocked. "That's it," he said, grabbing Beth's arm. "We're leaving. He's only going to show off for you and I don't want to give him the satisfaction."

"Excuse me, who do you think you are?" Beth growled, yanking her arm out of his hand. "I'm not yours to boss around. I can do as I like. Piss off if you don't want to be here."

"No, I just don't want you to be here."

"Flattering," Beth narrowed her eyes at him before turning back to the game.

Fred and George high-fived each other as Gryffindor scored, while Cho Chang and Harry Potter were literally racing each other for the snitch.

"Come on!" Adrian said strongly, taking Beth's arm again.

She turned to him with a scowl, but he let her go with a yelp and ducked just as a bludger went soaring above their heads and through the back of the stadium. Beth looked quickly at the pitch and saw Fred floating there on his broom, waving his bat.

"Sorry, sir!" he yelled out before flying off. Beth looked behind her and saw that Professor Snape looked very disgruntled.

"Oh, he did that on purpose!"

"Good," Beth muttered, shaking him off her and paying attention to the game.

Gasps shot through the stadiums and fingers were pointing to the bottom of the pitch. Beth quickly leaned over the edge and saw them. Tall, hooded-figures were wandering at the bottom of it, but the players didn't stop. Instead, Harry Potter shot a bright blue light from his wand towards the Dementors, while wrapping his hand around the Snitch.

Beth was impressed.

The Gryffindors all roared with cheers and laughter.

Adrian scoffed again from beside Beth, and she looked at him.

"I only came here to see Gryffindor lose," he grumbled before heading out of the stadium.

Beth waited a minute to let everyone else leave the stadium before she followed suit. As she headed down and walked towards the pitch, her eyes were on all of the cheering students, and a thought flew into her mind. She wished she was like all the other students. Full of laughter and cheers, enjoyed Quidditch and took a trip to Hogsmeade all the time. Instead she was boring, and grumpy and was always in the castle minding her own business.

A sweaty Fred was running towards her with his broom in his hand, a giant grin on his face.

"What did you think?" he said, panting.

"Well done," she couldn't help but say. "With Adrian as well, I mean. But the Dementors --"

"Oh, they weren't Dementors. That was just Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle and Flint. Your fellow House mates who I'm sure you absolutely adore."

Beth groaned. "I hate foul play. Why does he keep doing that?"

"Malfoy? Are you really asking me that. It's Malfoy. It's in his DNA to be a pain in the arse," Fred said, crossing his arms.

"Are you gonna do anything about it?" asked Beth.

Fred grinned down at her. "Nah. We won, and that's all that matters. That's enough to bother them. Although...testing out some new pranking products on them does sound rather tempting."

The two of them heard Professor McGonagall starting to shriek at the Slytherin boys from across the Quidditch Pitch. They shared a look.

"Or McGonagall has handled it," Fred said, nodding. He turned back to Beth and they both began to head back up towards the castle. "We'll be partying tonight, you know, to celebrate our win. I wish you could come."

Beth shrugged at him. "I'm not the partying type. Obviously. You're not missing much when it comes to me."

"Well sure I am! I'm missing your exquisite company, Miss Black."

"Exquisite company," Beth scoffed, quite amused. "Who says that?"

"Well...a lot of people I'm sure. So, what were you and Pukey bickering about before? You looked angry. You don't normally look angry when it comes to him, just bored really."

"He is...very jealous of you."

Fred only grinned at this like he was proud.

"And he says that you don't have the right to fancy me."

Fred lost his grin and glared up at the castle. Beth stared at him for a moment and turned away when he looked at her. She looked back and found him still staring. He wiggled his eyebrows for a split second and smirked down at her, making her chest feel so hot that she had to look away and cough.

"You really are the cutest little thing, Black."