WARNING: mentions of suicide.

DEV AWOKE AND WAS OVERCOME WITH A SENSE OF DREAD. Quickly, she shot up in the bed and glanced around, trying to decipher where she was. The room certainly wasn't her own, covered with red decorations and clothes and books thrown around haphazardly. A moment of relief entered her as she remembered the events of the night before and that she was in Fred's dorm, apparently having dozed off there. She squinted at her surroundings, assuming the lumps in the other beds were George and then Lee Jordan. So, where was Fred?

Peering over the edge of the bed, she spotted Fred's familiar form on the floor. He was snoring lightly, covered in nothing but a small blanket and using a rolled up robe as a pillow. Almost instantly she felt guilty for stealing the bed from the boy.

"Morning," A voice startled her and caused her to look back at George as he sat up and stretched in his bed. He gave the girl a knowing grin before raising his brows. "Sleep okay?"

"Shove off, Weasley," Dev rolled her eyes at his smugness, causing him to feign hurt. He threw his legs around the side of his bed and began to get ready for the day, confusing Dev. It was a Saturday, and looking at the time on her watch, they had a while before breakfast. When he began to get dressed, he gestured for her to look away and she happily obliged. "Where are you going?"

"Well," George shot her a pointed look, finishing tugging up his trousers. "After you and Freddie boy left me for the wolves, everyone caught at the party got a week of detention, starting this morning."

George made his way over to Lee and shook the boy awake, who responded with a loud groan. The noise caused Fred to stir before he took the robes he was using as a pillow and covered his face with them.

"Will you lot shut up?" He groaned into the robes.

"Freddie," Dev leaned over the bed. "You can come back up into your bed, I think I'm going to sneak back."

"Ah ah, not so fast," George wiggled his finger from where he stood across the room. "You can try to sneak out, but I don't know how successful you'd be."

"What do you mean?" Dev furrowed her brows.

"Our detention," Lee sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. "We have to start by deep cleaning the common room by hand. McGonagall is overseeing it."

Dev made an 'oh' shape with her mouth before nodding. Still, she stood from Fred's bed and crossed her arms over her chest, feeling guilty for commandeering his bed for the night. She was still in her jeans and t-shirt from the day before and desperately wished she could take a long, hot shower and probably a nap.

"So, looks like you might be stuck here until breakfast," George smirked before throwing an arm around Lee and guiding the tired boy towards the door. While he had seemingly kept his word on keeping her feelings a secret, it didn't stop him from teasing her when he could.

"Did you want to go back to sleep?" Fred rubbed his eyes as the door closed.

"No, I'm okay," Dev shook her head. "You can though, I'll find something to busy myself with."

"No," Fred shook his head, letting out a loud yawn. "I probably won't be able to fall back asleep anyways."

With that, he kicked off the blanket covering him and folded it up. Dev noted how clean his side of the room was and was notably shocked. She never would have pegged him as someone as neat as he seemed to be, considering the usual air of chaos that followed him. But as she glanced around, he kept his area pretty tidy.

"I wonder if May made it back," Dev thought aloud, her mind wandering to her best friend. She began to feel guilty for not considering her safety sooner, but she knew there was no real way she could've helped her not to get caught.

"She wasn't at the party, she could just say her and Hermione were studying," Fred shrugged. "Most she'd get in trouble for would be being in our house, but I'm sure McGonagall would be more worried about other things to punish her for that."

"Yeah," Dev nodded, forcing her worry away. "Well, what should we do?" Fred shrugged before plopping down on his bed.

"George and I were supposed to work on a few products this morning, but it looks like that's outta the question."

"I can help you?" Dev offered, stepping back to the bed and taking a seat beside him. It had been awhile since Dev or May had helped them with any specific products, only offering their services for pranks. It always felt like something more special between the brothers, so neither wanted to intrude.

"Yeah?" Fred smiled at her. "Alright, we got a few options." Fred stood and made his way to the trunk at the foot of his bed, beginning to rifle through it. Dev watched him absently with a warm grin, lost in the way he got so passionate about his products. "What're ya thinking, we've been working on what we're calling happy bubbles, some canary creams, sticky trainers..." He trailed off, his eyes focused on the contents of the trunks. Dev was working off of the names alone, not entirely sure what any of the products would be or do.

"Ooh, let's do happy bubbles," She decided after a moment, nodding her head.

"Excellent choice," Fred smiled up at her, sending her stomach into fit of flutters. Mentally, she cursed his charm. "Alright, so here's what we're working with." He pulled out a small box and shut his trunk, returning to his spot beside her on the bed. "We think we've got the charm down, but we've had a few bugs."

"Well, what're you trying to achieve?" Dev knit her eyebrows together as she looked at the box in his hands.

"When you open this," Fred tapped on the top of the box. "Bubbles come out. As they pop, you're supposed to hear things that make you happy. But some of them, er, haven't been."

"Does everyone hear the same thing?" Dev cocked her head to the side, to which Fred shook his head 'no.' "That's like, super complex magic then, Freddie. The two of you have come close?"

"Don't sound so shocked," He grinned. "We're not as dumb as we may look."

He slid his hand down to the latch on the box and flicked it up. He opened it and allowed one bubble to escape before quickly shutting it again. Dev watched the glossy sphere float between them, distorting the image of Fred's grinning face as she gazed through it. Raising her index finger, she popped it. The chorus of her favorite song, a muggle song May had showed her, played briefly. She giggled excitedly.

"What'd ya hear?" Fred posed.

"A song I like," She smiled. "What about you?"

"Mum calling that dinner's done."

"That's brilliant, really!" Dev clapped before settling her hand on his shoulder. Of course, through years of being his partner, she knew just how talented he was at charms. Still, they had seemed to out do themselves.

"Ah, just wait until you hear one of the bad ones," Fred grimaced. He allowed three more bubbles to escape then popped them one by one.

Fred calling her 'Bee.' The flitter of the pages of a book. Then, a deafening screech. Dev raised her hands to her ears and grimaced, noting that Fred was doing the same.

"Told ya," He lowered his hands when the screeching ceased. "So, what should we do?"

Dev and Fred talked through the process of how George and him had made the bubbles. The next hour was spent trying various charms and new strategies to weed out the bad bubbles. After multiple test runs, and multiple god-awful screeches, they finally felt like they had gotten it down. Dev hoped they had, she wasn't sure how much longer she could listen to the scream before she got a headache.

"Ready?"

Fred raised his brows. When Dev nodded, he let five bubbles go and drew in a deep breath, popping them one by one. Each was wonderful, causing Dev to smile at the comfort they were bringing. When Fred popped the last bubble, the sounds of soft humming filled her ears. It was familiar, something she'd thought she'd never hear again, and it caused her eyes to fill with tears. Soon, they were spilling.

"Oh no," Fred pushed the box aside, quickly pulling the girl into a hug. "They all sounded good to me, was it a scream again? Dev, I'm so sorry. We can stop—"

"No, no," She shook her head, smiling as the tears streaked down her face. Her cries were mixed with a somewhat elated laughter as she tried to work through her emotions. "It was my dad, Fred."

"Oh," Fred pulled back slowly, letting his eyes linger over her face. It wasn't often Dev talked about her parents.

"I didn't think I'd ever hear him again," She wiped her tears and let her eyes rake over the boy's face. "This is wonderful, Freddie. You both have created something really special."

"We have you to thank for that, too." He smiled at her softly, wiping away a stray tear with his thumb. His touch lingered for a moment before he retreated his hand and let them rest in his lap.

"I'm sorry," Dev shook her head. "I didn't mean to get all emotional."

"Hey, don't apologize," Fred spoke seriously. "We can talk about it, you know? I know we're usually all pranks and jokes, but I mean it, if you ever want to."

Even with May, Dev tended to keep thoughts of her parents to herself. It felt like it should be something reserved to her family, something they shouldn't talk about. It had taken years before even her Nan and her would talk about it, so she always felt the need to keep it in.

It was common knowledge that Dev's mother was one of many lives lost in the first Wizarding war. Her Nan told her that while her father begged her not to, the woman simply couldn't sit by and do nothing while the war loomed. So, she had joined the effort to stop the Death Eaters. While she's told her father would follow the woman anywhere, through anything, with Devora's birth he no longer could. When he lost the woman, he crumbled. His mother, Dev's nan, moved both baby Dev and her father in to live with her and help out, but evidently he had changed entirely.

Dev only really knew her mother through pictures and stories, having lost her before her third birthday. She remembered her father in a different light. There seemed to be two sides of the man that loomed in her memory. Some days, he was her best friend. She'd wake to the smell of french toast and hear his soft humming and would know it would be a good day. They'd go to the park, or browse Diagon Alley, and she'd go to sleep praying the next day would be the same. It never was. On his bad days, he wouldn't get out of bed at all. Dev would silently slip into his room and place food on his nightstand, then go back at night to retrieve the untouched plates.

A week before Dev's eighth birthday, on the five year anniversary of her mother's passing, Dev's nan found the man slumped over his desk, not breathing. The woman held a young Dev back as she fought her grasp, trying to rush past the healers and mediwizards into her father's room. He had left two notes behind, one for his mother and one for his daughter. To this day, eight years later, she still wasn't able to bring herself to open hers.

"Maybe one day," Dev brought herself back to reality, smiling to ease the worried gaze of her best friend. "But for now, I'm just thankful I have you guys to keep me smiling."

"Well, that's what we're here for," Fred responded warmly, throwing an arm around the girl.

The sound of the door flying open shot both Dev and Fred's heads upwards.

"That was awful," Lee groaned as George and him re-entered the room. Both paused momentarily at the sight of Dev and Fred on his bed, Fred's arm around the girl. While George looked like he was about to make a sarcastic quip, he took notice of Dev's red, splotchy face from her former tears.

"Oi, way to go Fred," He approached Dev tentatively, concern written over his face. "First girl you bring back to our room and you make her cry."

"Oh shove off, George," Fred rolled his eyes. Quickly, he recovered from the blow and returned to his joking self. "She's hardly the first."

Dev went cold as the boy's words seemed to punch her in the gut. The bed beneath her, the bed she had slept in the night before, suddenly felt tainted. How many girls had been beneath Fred there? While she often steered away from conversations with the boy about his romantic endeavors, she had known of a few dates he'd been on or short-lived flings he had been in. How often had Fred snuck girls up there?

"McGonagall gone?" Dev forced a smile, refusing to glance over at Fred. Instead, she looked between Lee and George, willing herself to ignore the look of concern on George's face.

"Yeah," George nodded.

"Alright then, I should probably get going." Dev shrugged off Fred's arm from her shoulders and stood quickly.

"You don't have to—" Fred started.

"No, no, I've got some studying I need to do," Dev forced a smile at the boy, who was completely oblivious to her pain. "See you later, then?" He simply gave her a nod before she took off out the door.

As she made it to the steps, she hadn't considered that they would fall out beneath her, too focused on Fred's words. When she reached the sixth step, they shifted and immediately turned into a smooth, stone slide. Dev lost her balance, falling to her butt with a thud and sliding the rest of the way down. Pain radiated up her spine as she sat stunned momentarily, feeling the familiar tears well in her eyes. Distantly, she heard the sound of laughter.

"Dev?" Ron laughed out, beginning to approach her from the common room. "What're you—"

Dev covered her face and stood quickly, willing herself to ignore the pain and ran from the scene. Some of the laughter subsided as people realized she was crying, but she didn't notice. Soon, she was out of the common room and in the corridor. Her pace didn't lessen as she ran back to the Ravenclaw common room, sobbing the entire way there.

While she wanted to believe she was sobbing solely from the pain or the embarrassment, she knew it was coupled with her broken heart. When she made it to her common room, she barked the answer to the riddle, only to be turned down. She screamed out in frustration, before backing into the wall and sliding down with her face in her hands.

Right about now, she could use a few happy bubbles.

author's note !

I actually feel so bad for Dev and I'm the one writing her story dude what

This is a heavy chapter, discussing the deaths of her parents. Considering the way her dad passed, I just want to say make sure you guys are talking care of yourselves and even if I don't know you and you need someone to talk to, you can always send me a message

also! I looked up Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes products, and happy bubble box is actually one of them! It's not listed what it does, so I decided to make that part up. :-)

rose <3