"What is it?" Fred asked, after a moment of silence, watching Beth's grey eyes move down the bit of parchment. 

"It's... er... nothing," she lied, looking up at Fred before scrunching up Sirius Black's letter and stuffing it into her pocket. Beth sighed, bringing her arms up to cross over her chest. "Just my...er...my mum."

"Your mum?" Fred arched a brow. Beth cleared her throat -- she didn't know why suddenly she was such a horrible liar, and if she didn't stop being so awkward and speak so shaky Fred would catch on. "Well, was she apologising?"

"Apologising?" Beth's mind blanked. 

"Yeah, for what she did to you," Fred said slowly, furrowing his eyebrows. "Are you... is that letter actually from your mum?"

"I said so, so yes it is if you really must know," Beth half-snapped, scoffing and taking a step back from Fred who was inching closer to her. "If anything, it's none of your business, Fred."

His face suddenly fell and he stopped creeping closer to her. Beth's heart sank at what he said next, and how sad he sounded when he said it. "Have you got a boyfriend?"

Beth's eyebrows shot up and she had never responded so quickly. "No! No, I... I don't. It's not like that."

"Not like that..." Fred repeated in a quiet voice. Beth licked her lips at the scornful look on Fred's face, she didn't even know if he realised he looked that way. 

He sighed, looking so very defeated. Beth bit her lip, she didn't know what to make up on the spot to throw him off his suspicions. She couldn't say it was from Sirius, the only people here at Hogwarts she could talk to about Sirius, was Harry, Ron, Hermione and Dumbledore. She couldn't tell Fred, he would lose his mind. She could see how it would play out. Fred would promise not to tell anyone a single thing, would then lose his mind when he learnt about Sirius, tell George, who would also freak out and then who knows who else the ginger twins would tell? 

But then again, nobody knew where he was. Not even Beth. All she would have to tell Fred was that Sirius was innocent and that she and her uncle had been in contact. 

Beth was snapped from her thoughts at the sight of a mischievous grin on Fred's face as he lunged for her pocket. Heart in her stomach, Beth jumped back but not quick enough. Fred laughed as he and Beth spun around and wrestled. He couldn't see that she was solemn and not playing around as she tried to fight him off, and with one strong push, Fred flew back, but not without the letter dangling in between his fingers. 

Beth inhaled sharply, being sure to give Fred a deadly look to show she wasn't playing around and that he had better not invade her privacy. 

"Fred," she said in a sharp tone. But he wasn't looking at her. He looked at his hand that held the letter, he clearly didn't realise he'd managed to grab it. He was all smiles and barked with laughter. "I'm not messing around, give that back right now."

"I just want to see the name of your secret boyfriend. Is he here, at the castle? Do you guys owl each other to keep it secret?" Fred chuckled, playfully waving the letter around and chuckling even louder as Beth followed it. 

Seeing Fred make a huge joke out of her wanting to keep her letter private was infuriating. His grin, his chuckles, his toying with her as he waved it around knowing he had the power to open the letter and watch as Beth stood there helplessly. She knew he was just trying to be funny, but she was not having it. 

"Fred Weasley, you give that back right now or I will never speak to you again. Ever!" Beth seethed at him. Her furious stare was enough to silence him. Fred looked quite scared for a moment, and his smile wasted no time in disappearing as he held the letter out for Beth. 

Beth snatched the letter out of his hands, stuffed it back in her pocket, and made sure to barge into his shoulder as she made her way back up to the castle. She ignored Fred saying her name; she was far too angry to be near him right now. 

As Beth made her way back up to the castle, she noticed George leaning against a boulder, writing in a notebook. There was no doubt about that notebook being full of pranks and products and whatever else George and Fred were interested in, but once he noticed her hostility as she made her way back up to the castle, he called out to her.

"Oy, you alright?" 

"Fine," Beth said as plainly as she could, without so much as glancing his way. 

Fred watched as Beth became a figure smaller and smaller as she retreated back to the castle, and George as he jogged down the slope back towards his twin brother. Fred went too far but he never would've actually opened the letter, he was just playing around. Why was she so secretive and serious about it? This all did nothing but confirm that she had a boyfriend. 

George could clearly sense something went wrong, because once he slowed to a stop, he winced. "What did you do?"

Fred looked George's way and shrugged helplessly. "She has a boyfriend."

George scoffed, but he looked amused. "Beth? Boyfriend? Absolutely not."

"She didn't deny it," Fred said, kicking at the dirt by his feet. George was chuckling as he tucked away his notebook into his book bag. "What on earth is so funny, Georgie? There's nothing funny about this. This hurts."

"Any idiot can see that she fancies you," George snorted, wandering over by the tree and leaning against it, waving his wand around to draw love hearts in the air. "What made you accuse her of having a boyfriend? No wonder she was so mad--"

"She got a letter from him, just now! She lied to me, saying it was from her mum-- quite terribly I might add, even I'm a better liar than her." Fred slumped his shoulders and moved to the tree, falling down to the grass and bringing his legs up to dangle his arms over his knees. "If you saw how defensive she was when I snatched the letter from her, you'd think she had a boyfriend too. She all but admitted it, without even saying it."

George twisted his mouth to the side thoughtfully, stopping his heart drawings. "Yeah, well I suppose I had to be here to see it to really have an opinion on what went down. But I am right you know, she does fancy you. Why would she have a boyfriend? She doesn't even seem the type to want a boyfriend, not even you -- who she fancies."

"You can stop saying that. She doesn't like me like that. I ruined all chances of that last year when I agreed to that stupid vow," Fred grumbled, staring at the lake as though it offended him. He picked up a stone and threw it into the water. "I wish I could go back and not have agreed to it."

"Then you wouldn't know her?"

"Good," Fred mumbled, pulling up a bundle of grass from out of the ground and messing with it. "Then I wouldn't feel this way. I could focus on other things, our plans and our plans only. The tournament, our friends, our classes, our pranks. I wish I didn't feel like this about her."

George didn't say anything. Fred didn't blame his brother. After all, what could he say? All he could do for his brother was listen.