Beth didn't care who the hand belonged to, was only afraid of what lurked beneath the murky water of the Black Lake, and felt herself being pulled from it. Her free hand slapped against the grass, pushing herself to her feet once she yanked her other hand from someone else's.  

He watched her stand up to her full height, her school uniform pressed tight into her body as she hugged herself self-consciously. She looked up to his face and scowled.

"Fred Weasley, I knew it was you! You did this!" she spat at him, her wet hair sticking to her face. She began to stalk off, talking at the top of her lungs. Fred quickly caught up to her, sneaking a look at the tree where George and Lee were behind, grinning and sticking their thumbs up at him. "Why can't you just leave me alone - that's all I want, is to be left alone!"

"Hey, relax, I just saved your life!" he told her. Before she could go any further, he reached out and gently pulled her back by the shoulder. She cringed away from his touch and threw off his hand, staring at him with an expression torn between disgust and confusion. "I saved you, don't you think I should be receiving a bit of gratitude? What d'you think would've happened if I didn't see Adrian Pukey dragging your unconscious body from the castle! Here," he added, taking off his robes, "cover yourself with my robes."

She shook her head and took a step away from him.

"I didn't poison my own robes if that's what you're worried about. Oh - you reckon I somehow managed to slip a love potion inside! Now that'd be awful tricky, don't you think I'd be in love with myself by now?"

"There'd be no difference," Beth snapped, snatching Fred's robes from his hands and sliding it over her shivering body. Fred grinned. "Where is Adrian? Oh, he'd best pray I don't spot him in the next week because that's exactly where I'll be hexing him."

"Don't worry," Fred said, pretending to crack his knuckles. "I took care of him for you."

She eyed him suspiciously. "You're being really weird and calm. You didn't have any part in this, did you?"

"No! You think I – me, adorable, innocent Fred Weasley – am capable of kidnapping you? A terrifying Slytherin, if I do say so myself. I'm wetting myself already."

"Ew – just shut up," she snapped, huffing as she stalked her way up to the castle. "How'd you even get out of the castle, anyway? Filch is usually guarding around there."

"Can't say," Fred told her, smiling as she looked back at him with a glint of irritation in her grey eyes.

"Why not?" she demanded.

"You told me to shut up, didn't you? Well - this is me shutting up. Sort of."

"Has anyone ever told you you're really annoying?" the Slytherin huffed, rubbing her arms. Fred took in how big his robes looked on her.

"Oh, believe me, love, I'm rather familiar with that saying."

"Don't call me that," Beth said in a voice higher than her usual. She looked at him quickly from the corner of her eye.

"Why not, love?"

"Weasley . . ."

"Yes, love?"

"You're lucky I don't have my wand on me at the moment."

"Allow me," he jumped in front of her when they reached the castle's front doors. She moved away from him when his arm brushed against hers; she hugged Fred's robes closer to herself. Fred pulled the doors open and stepped aside, "After you, my lady."

She rolled her grey eyes dramatically before stepping past him. He grinned and glanced over his shoulder, where he could see George and Lee slowly creeping up in the shadows. He returned the thumbs-up and stepped inside, leaving the front doors opened for the two boys and catching up with Beth, who was already in the middle of the Entrance Hall. It was empty in the castle and it was odd not seeing any of the teachers pass this area of the castle, especially from the noise that the giant oak doors had made when he opened them. In fact - why weren't they locked? He was half hoping they'd be locked so that Beth would have no choice but to sleep outside alongside him, meaning he'd have a better chance of getting to know her without her finding an excuse to shove him away.

"Here, I'll walk you to your common room, even though I don't particularly look forward to approaching anymore Slytherins. I'll do it for you, though," he added cheekily with a wink, walking alongside Beth, who looked ten times more uncomfortable than she had when he'd offered his robes. "D'you want to hold hands, too? To ensure that you don't get lost in the dark, is all."

Beth looked at him quickly, a look of contempt overtaking her flawless features. George had told him before that he'd overheard older people speaking of Sirius Black and how his family were full of gorgeous members, and that it was a shame Sirius had turned out the way he had. That they all had the same grey eyes and black hair, that Sirius was practically gawked over during his entire school life. He wondered why Beth didn't have that, why she was normally overlooked . . . in fact, he wondered who her mother was . . .

He wanted to ask her, but now was not the time.

"Do you want me to punch you in the face?" she shot back carelessly, finding a sudden interest in the stone walls as they walked.

"Hey, I'm just protecting you."

"Protecting me?" she said, her voice shadowed with revulsion.

"You know, in case Pukey comes back. Who knows what he would've done with you had I not showed up when I did."

Beth scoffed. "He's not like that, you idiot."

"Then what was he doing with you out there - even your robes were missing. I arrived just in time to see him removing them!"

Fred felt a twinge of guilt for lying; what if she'd believed him and would go on to feel even more self-conscious around the people she was closer with than she was with him? He would not forgive himself if he was the cause of something like that . . . especially as he thought about Ginny and if someone had ever stooped as low to do something similar with her. He even fumed just thinking about this Tom Riddle bloke who had took her last year, only to find out that he was actually a memory of Lord Voldemort, which didn't make him feel any better.

If Fred's timing was correct, Adrian would be awake in about five minutes, feeling confused and woozy, would wander around, wondering who he is, then would gain full consciousness and turn up to his common room. This should've given him a good ten to fifteen minutes to walk and talk with Beth.

"So," Fred trailed off. "Do you like . . . Quidditch?"

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Beth kept quiet, her head turning an inch away from the walls and looking at him from the corner of her eye; he saw the grey-blue of it sweep in his direction before she shook her head slightly and went back to looking at the wall.

"Not particularly."

"Not particularly?" he gasped. "You liar. You're only saying that because you know it's not what I want to hear. Moving on, are you going to thank me?"

"For what?"

"You know very well what, love. I saved you from Pukey."

"Oh, did you now? Well, I'll know tomorrow after I tell Dumbledore and I'll see what he has to say about the situation."

"D - Dumbledore? You're going to Dumbledore?"

Fred had not thought this through very well, and neither had George and Lee, who were probably high-fiving each other along the way to the Gryffindor common room at this moment. He swallowed the worried lump in his throat. If his mum somehow found out he was the cause of this, he wouldn't need to worry about dying for Beth because Molly Weasley would already have killed him.

"Yes, Dumbledore," she scoffed. "As if I wouldn't go straight to him, you stupid boy."

"Hey, now that's no way to thank your saviour!"

"And once I know for sure that you did actually help me, I'll be writing your mother and telling-"

His mother?! She couldn't write to his mother!

He pulled her back for a moment and looked tenderly into her grey eyes, hoping he would somehow distract her from the topic of telling the story to people who had higher authority over him, and wiped the wet hair from Beth's face. It felt odd to touch her skin, it felt soft, foreign to him, knowing that she would never actually allow him to do this. It felt funny as he dragged his hands across her face to push aside the hair. She slapped his hand away and shoved him by the chest.

"Don't you dare touch me!"

"Sorry," he muttered, turning away from her. He was glad it was dark and his red hair was long; his ears were surely the colour of his hair.

"You should leave now," she told him in a grumpy voice, cringing away from him slightly. "We don't want outsiders knowing where our common room is."

"OK," Fred said, caught in a daze. "OK. Er - bye, Beth. I'll . . . I'll see you tomorrow."

He turned away, smirking. He hoped his little moment of 'sadness' would have touched Beth's heart and softened her up to him, but he was wrong when she called out to him.

"No you won't!"

"Oh, yes you will, love," he said to himself. "You've still got my robes."