Chapter Text
You were tired to say the least. And you were angry, if anything. For a couple of nights you have laid in bed waiting and begging for sleep to finally take you, only to have your mind spiraling even more deeply into the matter than before. It was as if the universe had conspired to awaken something within you, something you never knew existed until now. And that something drove you mad.
That is why you were currently standing in the Weasley Wizard Wheezes, looking around trying to avoid anyone's interested eyes directed towards you. You were looking for something in particular, yet after standing in one place for a bit of time, you were sure you won’t be able to find it here at all. Suddenly you became aware of a tall body behind you.
“Having a bit of trouble, love?”
You jumped, startled, and quickly reached for a shelf to steady yourself. In the process, accidentally knocking at least fifteen of the potions you were interested in to the ground.
“Scared me, Weasley.”
Fred laughed a little. “Oh, did I? I am sooooo sorry, darling.” He said in the most over the top apologetic tone you have ever heard, but of course, he didn’t mean one bit of that apology. Afterall, after you turned around, the smirk was there, on his lips. “I would ask you, what you are looking for…” he laughed, “but seeing you here, standing in front of this Amortentia Potion stand, for at least…” he checked his non existing watch, “30 minutes, I wish to ask, who you’re looking to attract?” He whispered the last part, moving closer to you.
“I don’t want to attract anybody,” you murmur, the fact that he was staring at you completely flying over your head.“ I am just looking for the effect of this thing, I assumed you would have mentioned it somewhere on the bottle.”
He laughed, taking one of the Amortentia bottles from the stand, turning it around and reading the back of the item. “Well, darling, everyone who has taken the potions class knows the effect of this thing, isn’t that why the potion is so popular among you, girls?”
But instead of answering, you only looked at him and frowned. Why would anyone be interested in this potion.. You thought. Becoming very well aware of the bottles lying on the ground. Fred followed your glimpse towards the ground and smirked. “Forget about it, George or I will pick it up later.”
“Now tell me…” he said slowly as he came a little closer, his voice was low and this caused your arms to tremble slightly. But fortunately (unfortunately) for you he only reached past you to put the bottle he was holding back to the stand shelf. You felt his eyes on you, he was smiling slightly with his lips curved upwards, the way he smiles when he talks to girls. The way he smiles when he flirts with girls. “… what’s up with you and the effects of this potion?”
You suppressed a shiver. You tried to look as normal as possible, not to make him ask any unnecessary questions about why you are acting so suspicious, because, let’s face it, even for you… you were acting a bit suspicious.
“I don’t know why… But I think. I think someone might have slipped a little Amortentia into my drink, or something. And I just wanted to be sure that that is exactly what happened.” you explained. It sounded dumb. You know it did. But that was exactly what you were thinking. How else would you explain the feelings that surfaced within you at random.
Fred laughed out loud. He only laughs this way when a prank goes well, or when the teasing he does works on people and gets them all flustered. “Would you like me to use some Amortentia on you, so you can see if the effects are the same?” He chuckled silently into your ear.
WHY… you yelled to yourself in your thoughts..why would I want to feel the same way I do now!!?
“But you know…” he said casually, still leaning slightly towards you, “I always assumed my good looks and my charming personality does the job better than any amount of Amortentia could…”
Your heart was jumping rapidly in your chest, you could hear its beats in your ears. “Why won’t you ask the girls if they find your personality charming.” And there it was. That little, small, yet powerful ping of jealousy.
He chuckled, purposefully shifting his body so close to you,
that if he leaned in a little closer, somebody from a side would think you were kissing. This made you slightly uncomfortable.
“Now now…” he shook his head and you felt his right hand’s index finger brushing your left hand, that was resting on the shelf’s edge, slightly, “don’t be bitter. But do tell me, who has occupied your mind so bad to have you blame it all on this innocent potion?”
“Oh I will tell you… that this is none of your business. You had no business whatsoever writing the effects of the potion on the potion, so I have no business telling you anything about the consequences of the potion.”
“Something tells me that you’re not that sure…” You raise your eyebrow at him suppressing a deep inhale while his eyes look straight into yours. “You’re not that sure if it is the Amortentia, are you?” The look he saw in your eyes almost made him suppress a laugh, but seeing you, slightly stressed, he only managed to let out a ‘tsc” with his tongue falling from the roof of his mouth. “Ah. So you might have actually caught feelings, haven’t thought of that, did ya’?”
“No, of course I have thought of that. But it’s simply impossible.” Freds smirk grew a little wider and you felt a blushing creeping into your cheeks. He sure as hell was getting a kick out of you struggling to make sense of yourself and falling into his little tease-traps.
“Well there is a very simple solution.” He says and you’re quite sure he will suggest you some sort of an antidote to lift the effects of Amortentia. Only he doesn’t. He reaches past you again, slightly and very gently brushing past your hair with his nose, to pick up another bottle of the potion. You start shaking your head. He silences you with his strict look and starts unscrewing the bottle cap letting the steam rise in characteristic spirals.
Only then it hits you, when some sort of trance lifts your body faintly, that you two were in public the whole time. Kids run past you holding differently shaped candies in their palms, wanting to show it to a friend. The bottles you accidentally dropped before are nowhere to be found on the ground now, someone must’ve swooped them up without you noticing.
Your attention turns back to the redhead when he moves the bottle faintly in front of your nose, his eyebrows lifted slightly up while he looks down, straight at you. “Smell it.”
“Are you stupid?”
“Oi! I’m trying to help you out and you’re insulting me. Not nice, not nice, Y/N.” You quickly try to push the open potion away from your face as he pushes it closer to you, but then with his free hand he grabs your own hand, trying to keep you from jerking it away. “C’mon, doll, don’t you want to know?”
“At this point, I am convinced you want to figure this out much more than I do.” You sighed.
“Not gonna lie, I am interested.” He still held the bottle near your face, someone passing by laughed at you both, but before you could react, Fred already spoke “Go on, would ya?” Then quickly he turned back to you.
“I don’t get what you are so afraid of. Ya already know what you like and if you don’t smell something else, there ya go, we will find the bloke that slipped this to ya, and jinx him, alright?” At this point he seemed to be watching you very closely as if you would sprint through the door at any given moment.
You nodded slightly, rolling your eyes a bit. You took the potion from his hand, raised it to your eye level and just started at it for a moment. You tried to understand what you wanted the outcome to be. Fred was still watching you closely. You lowered your head to have a whiff of the potion.
At first, you smelled absolutely nothing, for a second you thought the bottle was filled with water. But then it hit you. It started coming in like a well written melody, well assembled together by different instruments. At first you noticed the refreshing, yet salty scent, there was a bit of a moment you thought you had smelled the sunscreen…Must be the ocean. Then the second smell overtook the previous one and you’ve realized that now you smell of old books, the ones you and Hermione loved to read in your free time. But the last scent almost sent your heart spiraling. You smelled The Burrow. Not the house specifically, but one person who lived in it. The scent was so strong that you couldn’t help yourself from remembering when you got familiar with the smell:
That one summer you stayed for a couple of weeks at The Burrow. At that time you stood shivering in Molly's garden, while the rest of the Weasley children sent the gnomes flying in the air. Molly was pissed at all of them for neglecting their duties all day long, so there you were enjoying the view late at night. Ginny giggled slightly at you being cold, because you completely forgot to bring your sweater with you. The excitement of seeing gnomes getting the best of you. One of the twins furiously thrusted his sweater into your hands, complaining that you gnashing your teeth in cold was even more annoying than trying to grasp the gnomes in the dark. He urged you to put the sweater on and help them all out. And that was the first time you smelled the fire, cookies, hints of broomstick polish from Quidditch practice ever, associating the smell to Fred Weasley ever since.
“So?” Fred asked impatiently when you opened your eyes suddenly in a very heavy shock.