"Ouch," Fred whined as Madame Pomfrey poked her wand at his wound.

"Are you okay?" Phoebe asked for perhaps the fifth time, standing worriedly over the nurse's shoulder. She had been shooed away several times by the witch, but every time Fred let out a pained noise, she would leap back through the curtains to make sure he wasn't dying.

"I'm alright," He said through a wince. Phoebe frowned at his pathetically obvious lie, to which he gave her a cheesy grin.

She was herded back behind the curtain by Madame Pomfrey, who scolded her for her impatience. Phoebe huffed in annoyance and plopped into one of the waiting chairs opposite Ron, who was waiting nervously for his brothers and Harry to be released.

Phoebe sat for a moment, tapping her fingers and bouncing her leg, before deciding that she couldn't just sit there and she may as well visit Draco, seeing as he was in the Hospital Wing as well. Walking to his designated bed, Phoebe pushed back the curtain and stepped through.

Draco looked up, his eyes hard until they met her own furious ones, then they softened guiltily.

"I'm sorry," He whispered, not wanting the other inhabitants of the ward to hear.

"You got them banned for quidditch for life, you know that right?" Phoebe asked pointedly, raising an eyebrow and sitting on the end of his bed, by his legs.

"Yeah, I heard," He said, not sounding as guilty as Phoebe thought he should.

"Why must you start fights with them?" She asked quietly, thinking about the fight that had broken out on the quidditch pitch between Fred, George, Harry and Draco.

"Didn't I tell you when you first got here that I have to act like a dick?" Draco reminded her defensively.

Phoebe shook her head in frustration, "I didn't think that meant you would go out of your way to make my friend's lives miserable," she argued.

"You're the one who decided to become friends with the people I have to hate," he shot back, like this whole ordeal was her fault.

She sent him a glare and his annoyance retreated again, "Look, I'm sorry," he said, lowering his tone, "I didn't mean to upset you Pheebs, but I have to stay in character, if I suddenly started being nice nobody would believe it."

Phoebe understood, she really did, but that didn't mean she was happy about it. She hated seeing Draco act so horribly; she missed being around the boy who could rant about books for hours and who helped people when they didn't understand something, whether he was friends with them or not.

"I get it, that doesn't mean I like it," Phoebe voiced her thoughts out loud.

Draco gave her a small smile, "Are we good?" He checked.

"You're one of my best friends, 'course we are," She smiled reassuringly, unable to stay mad with him for long.

"Phoebe!" Fred's distraught voice made her turn around.

Madame Pomfrey had finished healing his scrapes and cuts, and opened up the curtains so that he wasn't enclosed by himself anymore. He was staring at her in betrayal, his mouth agape.

"What's up with you?" Phoebe asked, not bothering to hide her amusement at his expression.

"You abandoned me for him!" He cried, standing up as Madame Pomfrey dismissed him as free to go. Normally Fred wasn't that bothered by Draco, but for once there was genuine hostility in his voice; he was bitter from the day's fight, and understandably so.

Phoebe didn't know what had caused the fight to break out in the first place, but whatever Draco had said, it had caused three people to pounce on him in anger - something told her that it hadn't been any of his usual petty jabs, it had been something that struck home.

"Sorry Fred," She grinned and rolled her eyes, playing it off cool despite knowing that Fred really was hurt or annoyed or put off that she was with Draco.

Phoebe waved goodbye to Draco, then walked to Fred, hooking her arm through his and dragging him from the room. She stopped a few paces away from the doors, knowing that he would most likely want to check up on his twin in a few minutes.

"What happened?" She asked softly.

"The rat insulted my parents, then he insulted Harry's mum. The bastard just doesn't know when to stop!" Fred said through gritted teeth, his ears flushing in anger as he recalled Draco's remarks.

Phoebe gently squeezed his hand, she'd never seen Fred so worked up before and wasn't entirely sure how to handle it.

"If it makes you feel any better, he did apologise," She tried to amend her friend's mistakes.

"I find that very hard to believe," Fred scoffed.

"It's true," Phoebe nodded quickly, "I mean, he'd probably never admit it and he'll never say the words again, but he honestly did," she rambled.

Fred still looked doubtful, but he didn't argue, instead he changed the topic completely.

"Are you going back to America for Christmas?" He asked, intertwining his fingers with hers and focusing more on the conversation, Phoebe hoped that these were signs he was calming down.

"Yeah, I haven't seen my friends over there in ages," Phoebe smiled at the thought of her sister and best friends, she couldn't wait to go home.

"I was going to say, if you weren't, then mum would love to meet you," Fred said, catching Phoebe by surprise, "She would be more than happy to have you over if you'd like."

"Really?" She grinned, the idea that his mother would like to meet her was both terrifying and exciting - it meant that Fred saw this as more than just a high school fling.

"Of course! I've told her about you, and us, in my letters," he explained, "and I'm sure Ron's mentioned you as well."

"Oh no," Phoebe groaned, "She'll probably hate me from the things you two have told her," she joked.

"Don't worry, all good thing, all good things," Fred assured, a small smile on his face for the first time since the quidditch match.

Phoebe laughed, "I would love to meet the rest of your family, but I really want to go home as well," she thought about it for a moment, "Maybe I could come back to the UK early and spend the last couple of days with your family?" She suggested hopefully.

"That sounds great! You'll love my mum, definitely, and my dad will have loads of fun asking you about all of the American muggle stuff," Fred explained, excitement lighting up his face.

"Tell me about them," Phoebe prompted, "So I'm not going in totally blind. All I know is that your mum is an amazing cook."

"You're right about that," Fred nodded, "Hogwarts meals are great, but nothing can beat mum's cooking."

Phoebe smiled at how happy Fred was talking about his family. People teased the Weasleys, but they clearly had an amazing family bond.

"My mum is the definition of mother hen, ask Harry, every time the poor boy comes round he's fussed over and stuffed with food. My dad loves all things muggle, it's an obsession really, once he bought an old muggle car and enchanted it to fly, which was cool," Fred spoke, leaning against the wall to get more comfortable.

"Is that the one Harry and Ron crashed?" Phoebe asked, recalling a story the two had told her about a flying car.

"That would be the one, yeah," Fred chuckled, "Mum was pissed about that."

"I'm sure," Phoebe laughed, thinking of how furious Piper's dad had been when she stole a car.

"And then there's my other brothers, Percy, but he's being a prat recently so we're not on speaking terms," Fred explained, cringing as he spoke, "And there's Charlie and Bill, but I doubt they'll be there, they both hav-"

"Fred!" Ron's voice calling, cut him off mid sentence, "George is just about ready to be set free, you coming?" He asked, gesturing to the Hospital Wing doors.

Fred nodded and started walking back towards him, Phoebe close behind.

"I'll tell you more in a bit," the boy promised upon entering the room.

Phoebe nodded, smiling affectionately at the back of his head as he raced over to his twin. The winter holidays were shaping up to be amazing so far, lets just hope it stayed that way.

word count: 1410

what did I just write?? anyway, enjoyy