Serpentine ; Fred Weasley

Fifty-four

I don't know what is happening.

I woke up this morning, completely stiff in my shoulders and this burning sensation in my one leg.

Later that day I noticed my leg was completely scratched up in one spot and it was swollen and really hurting.

Now I suddenly felt like someone scratched me and I looked and I'm bleeding from the back of my leg.

-

"Neon green, seriously?"

Fred laughed and slid off the counter before marching over to the kitchen island where the different colour samples laid.

"It would be cool." He told me. "Imagine going to get a snack at night and the green just lights up the entire room."

My eyebrows fell into a frown as I stared at him while he went through the colours.

"You mean glow-in-the-dark green?" I asked. "That's different from neon green."

He turned his head to look at me.

"Yes, glow-in-the-dark but in the colour of neon green."

I tilted my head and as we continued to look at each other for a moment, a small smile spread across his face.

"Oh c'mon. A white kitchen is too boring. The same with a natural wooden coloured one."

I shrugged and walked over to him, grabbing the samples from him so I could go through them myself.

"Maybe..." I breathed, finding a dark green colour. "...maybe George'll agree to this."

Fred took the sample from my hand to study it before narrowing his eyes.

"I thought you said you didn't like the colour green."

"I don't like the light shades." I chuckled. "But this one is nice and it'll look pretty on the kitchen cupboards."

He nodded slowly.

"I'll go ask George what he thinks." He said before leaning down to kiss me quickly, then hurried off downstairs into the shop.

I finally put my bag down on the counter, then made my way into the room that would be me and Fred's once we moved in soon.

The walls were freshly painted. Fred and I had decided on white apart from the wall behind the bed that we wanted to be grey.

We decided that we wanted our bed pushed up in the corner under the window to make it all a little cosier and while I wanted fake plants in the room, Fred was already planning on where to put his music posters and his vinyls.

Not long into our relationship, he introduced me to his vinyl collection. He told me about them and when he had the chance, he showed me. He talked about them like it was his babies and it was adorable watching him be so passionate about something — other than the joke shop of course.

My hobbies were books. That was probably it.

I walked around the room, imagining what it could turn into, until I heard the front door, followed by steps.

Fred joined me, grinning as he leaned against the doorway.

"George likes the colour."

"Yeah?"

He hummed in response, watching me move around the room.

I kept imagining it inside of my head — how the room would look like once we moved in — how it would be to live with the twins and wake up to Fred every single morning — how it would feel to spend the future with him.

"What are you thinking about?" Fred's voice caught my attention and when I looked at him, a smile spread across my face.

I shrugged.

"You don't know?" He chuckled, approaching me. "You have to be thinking about something."

Smiling, I turned my body towards him and I lifted my arms to wrap them around his neck once he leaned down to kiss me.

"Do you reckon we've got a future?" I asked quietly as I looked up at him. "Not just the two of us together but the entire wizarding world? If you-know-who is back like Potter says..."

"You're not worrying, are you?" he grinned, causing me to roll my eyes.

"We were three when the war ended. I don't really remember anything but the thought of going into another war and not knowing the outcome..."

"Well, that's kind of the point of a war." He chuckled. "You don't know the outcome. You've got no idea who wins."

I stared up at him, unimpressed.

"Thank you, Freddie. That certainly calmed me down."

He laughed and wrapped his arms around my shoulders to pull me close and at the same time, I dropped mine to around his waist.

"We'll be okay, pretty." He whispered. "I've got your back, yeah? Even if we are going to war, I won't let anything happen to you."

He pulled back to look down at me, placing a hand against my jaw. He smiled at me and then kissed me again before looking into the room.

"I was thinking your bed would fit in nicely here." He said. "It's big, it's comfortable and it's familiar... for the both of us."

I stared at his face for another moment before I too looked towards the corner where we wanted the bed.

"Okay." I nodded. "Though, the frame isn't neon green or anything."

He laughed and playfully shoved me with his shoulder. I chuckled and walked over to the window to look out at Diagon Alley.

"What're you looking at?" Fred asked, and only a second later, I could feel him behind me as he leaned an arm against the window frame above my head. "Oh look... that's my brother?"

"Your brother..."

"Bill." He said and I looked at him to see him point out of the window.

I followed his finger with my eyes until they landed on Gringotts across the street where a young red-haired man left.

"That's your..." I cleared my throat. "...your brother."

Bill Weasley was far more attractive than what I had remembered from seeing him once when I was younger.

He had long red hair that was pulled back into a bun at the moment, a denim jacket pulled on and his hands shoved into the pockets.

He had a concentrated look on his face as he crossed the street and disappeared out of sight once he approached the joke shop.

"What's he doing?" I asked. "You think he's visiting you and George?"

Fred shrugged and I looked at him.

"Probably. We should go say hi." He grinned at me. "That's just one step closer to you having met my whole family."

My eyes widened.

"I wasn't prepared to meet your older brother today, Fred!" I exclaimed. "If I did, I wouldn't have dressed so lazy!"

"Lazy?" Fred laughed. "You're beautiful. C'mon. He's nice and he'll love you."

His hand found mine and he intertwined our fingers as he dragged me out of the room and out of the flat while I complained quietly, not wanting either George or their brother to hear me.

Downstairs, George was talking to Bill about something but at the sound of us making our way down the stairs, they both turned their attention onto us.

"Bill, dear brother!" Fred grinned widely. "Meet my girlfriend. This is Kai."