CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT - Hogsmeade

The subject of Harry and Attuoria teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts was left untouched until the end of September, only a few days before the weekend trip to Hogsmeade. They had to come up with a plan if they were really going to do this.

"Just you and Ron, yeah?" Harry confirmed when Hermione asked him if he was still down for the idea.

"Well…" Hermione explained that she actually thought that a lot of people would want to learn from the two of them. "You know how the first weekend in October is a Hogsmeade weekend? How would it be if we tell anyone who's interested to meet us in the village and we can talk it over?"

"The first Hogsmeade weekend? You mean this weekend?" asked Attuoria.

"Yeah, this weekend - Oh wait," Hermione suddenly realised why Attuoria was asking. "Fred, right?"

Attuoria nodded timidly. "I mean, it's okay. I'm sure he'll understand, I can just reschedule with him."

"Wait wait wait, I'm not following." said Ron, holding his arms out over the table where they were studying. "What Fred?"

"Did he not tell you? He's going on a date with Attuoria." said Hermione.

"What?" Attuoria couldn't tell what expression was on Ron's face. "You're going on a date with my brother?"

"Apparently…" Attuoria said hesitantly, unsure of the waters she was testing.

"Oh." Ron sank back into his chair. "That's why he looked so unhappy when we heard that rumour about you and Malfoy."

"Unhappy? Why was he unhappy?" asked Attuoria curiously.

Her three friends stared at her in shock.

"You're kidding," said Ron.

"About what?"

"Come on don't be too harsh on Attuoria," Hermione said, putting an arm around Attuoria's shoulder. "Fred likes you, that's why he asked you on a date. He was unhappy because he didn't want you going on dates with other guys like Malfoy."

"Well that's unfair," said Attuoria. "Why can't I go on dates with other guys? I like Fred just as much as I like, I don't know, you guys! If I went on dates with one of you, would he be unhappy again?"

Ron smacked his forehead and Harry chuckled. Hermione glared at the two and continued patiently explaining to Attuoria.

"Dating is exclusive. It's when you like one person a little more than others, as in you're romantically attracted to them. If you hung out with us, it would just be as friends. But Fred is asking to hang out with you as something more than friends."

"What's more than friends, though?"

Hermione sighed, and the two boys started laughing even harder.

"Heh, sorry," Attuoria said sheepishly.

"No no, it's alright. It takes time to fully understand it, I suppose." said Hermione, resting her face in her hands as she stared down at the potions book in front of her.

"More than friends is like, girlfriend and boyfriend." said Ron.

"Girlfriend and boyfriend?" Attuoria wrinkled her nose at the two words. "But both of you are my boyfriends -"

"No!" Ron and Harry burst into laughter, and even Hermione cracked a smile.

"We are your male friends," said Harry. "As in we're boys, and we're your friends. A boyfriend, like Hermione said, is exclusive. You can only have one boyfriend, because that's the person you go on dates with."

Attuoria stared at him blankly. "I still don't get it. It's another one of those weird human things, isn't it? Why can't you guys just keep things simple?"

"Even a Nightmare Demon who's never had experience being human is doing better than us," said Ron, nudging Harry with his elbow.

"Well she has an upper hand here, she picked how she looked."

"No I didn't." said Attuoria.

"You clearly did," said Harry, beckoning at her face.

Hermione and Ron stared at Harry awkwardly. Attuoria had no idea why Harry was saying that, because she knew she did not pick her own human body. It was randomly given to her.

"Come on! You literally thought she was a Veela!" Harry exclaimed, glancing at Ron. "I'm just making a point."

"Um, Harry's just trying to say you look attractive." Hermione explained, noticing the confused expression on Attuoria's face.

"Oh. Thanks?" Attuoria said hesitantly.

"Er, yeah, no problem." Harry's face had turned slightly pink.

The four of them fell into silence and continued to read their potions textbook.

***

The next day, after Gryffindor quidditch practise had ended, Attuoria and Hermione joined the rest of the team in the quidditch changing rooms.

"Ooh, what's this all about?" Fred cooed, giving Attuoria a wink as she walked in.

"Alright guys, there's something me, Harry and Attuoria want to talk to you guys about." Hermione announced, standing in front of all the quidditch players. They immediately quieted down, waiting for her to continue.

"We were thinking, since that awful Umbridge woman isn't teaching us any useful Defense Against the Dark Arts, that Harry and Attuoria could teach us what they know. Are you guys interested in joining?"

Murmurs broke out between the members of the quidditch team. But within a minute, all of them had voiced their interest.

"That's great!" Hermione said happily, clapping her hands together. "Our first meeting will be at Hogs Head in Hogsmeade this Saturday. We'll give more details then."

The group dispersed, and like Attuoria expected, Fred came up to her.

"So -"

"I -"

They both spoke at the same time, but then beckoned one another to speak.

"Reschedule?" Attuoria asked after multiple failed attempts to get him to talk first.

"Yeah, that's what I was about to say. You know, we don't have to go to Hogsmeade for a date." said Fred.

"I, uh, actually don't know what a date is supposed to be like." Attuoria said, lowering her head slightly.

"You don't need to know," Fred brought a finger to her chin and lifted her head up so that their gazes met. "It'll be an experience for both of us."

"AWWWW!" George screeched at the top of his lungs, making Fred wince and Attuoria frown. "I didn't know you had that in you, Fred!"

"Good one, wasn't it?" Fred smiled at Attuoria, who smiled back at him. She was content with what he said. Clearly this was going to be his first date, too, so they were going to figure things out together.

***

On the bright, windy morning of Saturday, Attuoria queued up with her friends in front of Filch, who checked each of their names to make sure they had permission from their parents or guardian to visit Hogsmeade. Thanks to Draco's parents, Attuoria was allowed to go. They were technically her legal guardians now, since she had spent her summer in their household.

They entered the village and headed straight towards Hogs Head. Attuoria spotted Fred, George and Lee Jordan near a shop named "Zonko's Joke Shop".

"I'm sorry your first trip to Hogsmeade is going to be at a filthy, dodgy bar that no one goes to," said Hermione, glancing up at the picture of a bloody severed hog head that hung above the door of the pub.

"It's all good," said Attuoria. "If you haven't realised by now, I tend to find everything related to humans very interesting."

"I don't think any human would want to be related to this place," Ron said grimly as they pushed through the old wooden door. The pub was small and dingy, and reminded Attuoria of the dungeon at Malfoy Manor. The few windows were stained yellow and covered with grime, blocking any sunlight from reaching the interior. The only light source came from some stubby looking candles around the room that were clearly on their last legs, flickering and casting eerie shadows along the walls.

They reached the disheveled old man behind the counter, and Hermione asked for four Butterbeers, which Harry quickly paid for. Attuoria noticed that this man looked like a homeless Dumbledore. He had the same long, grey beard, except it was a much darker shade than Dumbledore's due to all the soot that was collected in it. His eyes were also blue, except it didn't shine the way Dumbledore's eyes did. While Dumbledore's eyes resembled a clear ocean sparkling under the sunlight, this old man's eyes were the same color, but looked more like what one would see if they were drowning.

Holding their drinks, they sat down at a table near the back of the pub and waited.

"So we know the entire quidditch team is coming," said Harry. "That would be Fred, George, Angelina, Alicia, and Katie. Who else did you ask?"

"Just a couple of other people," said Hermione, checking her watch and glancing at the door. "I told them to be here about now - Oh look, that might be them."

Sure enough, the door of the pub opened and in came a large crowd of people. Attuoria flipped through her memories as fast as possible as she remembered the names of each person: Neville came in first with Dean, Lavender, Parvati, and Padma. Cho and a group of girls she didn't quite recognise came in as well, followed by a dreamy-looking blonde girl. The Gryffindor Chaser girls came right after, then a whole lot of boys and girls, which Attuoria was surprised to find she didn't recognise a single one of them. A few of them had familiar faces, but no names came to mind. One of them might've been Hannah Abbott, but she wasn't too sure. Then, at the end of the crowd came Ginny and her twin brothers with Lee Jordan. The three guys were carrying large paper bags crammed with boxy items.

"A couple of people?" Harry stared open-mouthed at the group. "A couple of people?"

Attuoria watched as Fred plopped the bag he was carrying down on a table and walked to the old barman. "Hi, could we have twenty-six Butterbeers, please?"

The barman looked so irritated that it made Attuoria want to laugh. He should've been glad to have so many customers - twenty-six Butterbeers wasn't exactly cheap- but this guy looked like he wanted all of them to get out.

"Scoot over, Ronnie boy!" Fred declared, trying to shove a chair in between Attuoria and Ron.

"Oi, there's space over there!" Ron complained, pushing his brother away.

Fred gave a dramatic pout and glanced at Attuoria before dragging his chair over to Lee and George.

"See, Ron, this is literally what I'm talking about." Hermione whispered.

"What?"

"Fred wanted to sit with Attuoria," she said matter-of-factly. "Couldn't you tell?"

"Oh. Sorry," Ron shrugged at Attuoria, who just shrugged back at him.

When everyone had pulled up a chair around the table, Hermione stood up.

"Er, hi. Well, uh, well you know why you're here. Harry here had the idea - I mean, I had the idea that it might be good if people who wanted to study Defence Against the Dark Arts - and I mean, really study it, you know, not the rubbish that Umbridge is doing with us, because nobody could call that Defence Against the Dark Arts - We could all, well, I guess, take matters into our own hands. And by that, I mean learning how to defend ourselves properly, not just in theory but doing the real spells. But it's not just about passing our O.W.L.s. I want to be properly trained in defence because… because… because Lord Voldemort is back."

The crowd had a flurry of mixed reactions of surprise and fear at the mention of the Dark Lord's name. Attuoria suddenly realised that things weren't as simple as she had thought it would be. If Hermione was doing this to prepare themselves against Lord Voldemort, and she was helping them… Would she be betraying Voldemort?

No, she affirmed in her head. I said I would help him, but I didn't say I will only help him. Our deal never specified that I can't associate myself with other people. I can help both sides at the same time.

"If you want to join us, we need to decide how we're going to -"

"Where's the proof You-Know-Who's back?" said a blonde guy sitting near the back.

Hermione frowned. "Well, Dumbledore believes it -"

"You mean, Dumbledore believes him," the guy interrupted, nodding at Harry.

"Who are you?" Ron said rudely, glaring at the guy.

"Zacharias Smith, and I think we've got the right to know exactly what makes him say You-Know-Who's back."

"Look," said Hermione. "That's really not what this meeting was supposed to be about -"

"It's okay, Hermione." said Harry. Everyone went silent, staring at him eagerly.

But all he told them (whilst very aggressively staring at Zacharias) was that he wasn't here to talk about Voldemort or Cedric Diggory or anything of that matter. He told them that if they were here to listen to a story, then they should just leave. But no one left.

Then, one by one, people started to ask him about the things he had done: producing a corporeal Patronus, killing a Basilisk with the sword of Gryffindor, saving the Philosopher's stone from Voldemort, and getting through the tasks of the Triwizard Tournament. Harry tried to humble himself down, but by the end of it, everyone was thoroughly impressed with Harry's abilities.

Well, except Zacharias Smith, apparently.

"We've all turned up to learn from him and now he's telling us he can't really do any of it," he said, completely not picking up on the fact that Harry was just trying to be humble.

"That's not what he said," snarled Fred rather aggressively.

"Would you like us to clean out your ears for you?" enquired George, pulling out a long and lethal-looking metal instrument from inside one of the Zonko's bags.

"Or any part of your body, really, we're not fussy where we stick this," said Fred.

"Where else could you stick it?" Attuoria asked rather loudly, putting on her usual blank expression.

"Oh you don't even know -"

"YES, MOVING ON," Hermione hastily interrupted Fred, who was now smiling unbelievably widely at Attuoria. George and Lee snickered behind him, with George still waving that metal stick around threateningly.

"The point is, are we agreed we want to take lessons from Harry?"

"And Attuoria." Harry pointed out. All the attention had been solely on Harry, and Hermione completely forgot that Attuoria had also agreed to help.

"Oh my, I'm sorry Attuoria," Hermione quickly apologised, but then looked back at the crowd. "Attuoria will be teaching as well."

"What can she do?" One of Cho's friends, a girl with reddish-blonde hair, called with a certain tone of disgust.

"Yeah, go out with Malfoy, apparently?" A random guy shouted. "Who knows if she'll just tell the Slytherins all about this."

Attuoria sighed quietly to herself. Humans were such gullible creatures.

"That's just a rumour -" But before Hermione could finish, Fred stood up from his chair, which let out a loud and cringeworthy screech.

"Who Attuoria chooses to date is none of your concern, but if you must know, I'm dating her, so you can give up on that little dream of yours." Fred announced, leaning his tall torso over the many chairs and patting the guy who spoke on the head.

"Who said I -"

"THE POINT," Hermione interjected loudly for the third time, "is that Attuoria is also very skilled in all kinds of spells, and I think it would be much easier on Harry if he had someone else helping him arrange this. Are you guys all okay with that?"

"But we don't know what she can even do," said a different boy this time. "She wasn't even in school the past three years."

"Yeah, where were you the past three years?" Someone asked.

"Weren't you homeless or something?" spat Cho's friend, who was giving her a heated glare.

Gullible, gullible, gullible, was all Attuoria could think as she slowly moved her gaze towards the girl. Whoever she was, this girl reminded Attuoria of the way Pansy Parkinson treated her. And she most definitely did not appreciate such baseless judgement.

Attuoria gave her a small smile before entering her mind. She figured she would give the girl a little scare, just some harmless fun, and maybe she would stop talking so much rubbish.

"Marietta Edgecombe, right?"

The girl just glared at her.

"That humming sound you hear at night? You need to stop telling people that it's your guardian angel calling to you. Those are puffskeins. There's a nest of them under your bed."

Marietta let out a loud gasp as a few people broke into laughter (mainly just Fred, George and Lee). "You - What - How -"

"Er, right," said Hermione, flashing Attuoria a small glare before returning to the group. "The next thing we need to do is set up a time and place for this. Anyone got any ideas?"

"We need to make sure this doesn't clash with our quidditch practises," said Angelina, and a few Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs murmured in agreement.

After a long discussion, nothing came up, but Hermione got everyone to sign their names on a piece of parchment as a sign of commitment to the group. One by one, people left the pub. The meeting was done.

"Hey Attuoria," Fred called, strolling up to her. "George, Lee and I have got some items of sensitive nature to purchase, but I was thinking we could at least spend a bit of our time at Hogsmeade together."

"Sure!" Attuoria gladly agreed. "Where exactly are you going?"

"Just back to Zonkos again. We could go somewhere else afterwards, if you want?" said Fred, picking up his large paper bag. It looked heavy.

"You're carrying a lot, though. I don't want you to get tired."

"Nah, don't worry about that, who gets tired these days anyways?" Fred shifted his bag to one arm and grabbed Attuoria's hand. "Come on boys! Off we go!" He marched off, dragging Attuoria with him, who was smiling. She turned around and gave her friends a quick wave before she was underneath the daylight once again.

After the three boys bought yet another bag full of items from Zonko��s joke shop, Fred dumped all his stuff with George and Lee, telling them to bring it back to the dorms for him. Surprisingly, they looked completely happy to accept the extra weight.

The two ate lunch at the Three Broomsticks, where they spotted Ginny sitting very close to Michael Corner, a Ravenclaw in Attuoria's year.

"Ca shu welly eh?" said Fred, covering his mouth as he spoke. He had stuffed so many pieces of sausage in his mouth that Attuoria couldn't believe he hadn't spat it all out yet.

"Take your time." said Attuoria, her eyebrows raised as she watched him chew. He shook his head, as if he still wanted to speak. "Talk in your head, then, I'll listen."

Fred flashed an 'OK' sign at her, and so she entered his mind.

"Can you believe it? My sister's dating a guy in your year. I guess it's just easier for girls. None of the guys in our family are dating anyone, well, with the exception of me now, of course."

Attuoria glanced over at Ginny and Michael. They looked very comfortable.

"Are they boyfriend and girlfriend?" she asked Fred.

"Yeah they are, they're dating."

"So are you my boyfriend then?"

Fred finally finished chewing, so he spoke. "Well, that depends if you want me to be."

"I still don't know what that entails."

"We would hang out a lot, because we like each other more than we like other people."

"We do?"

"Do you?"

They stared at each other quietly.

"You like me better than other people?" Attuoria asked, unsure of how to answer Fred's question.

"Of course I do, otherwise I wouldn't be here right now." Fred said, the previous tension dissipating immediately. "I could be working on the new Puking Pastilles, we've almost got it y'know, but instead I'm hanging out with you at Hogsmeade."

"Well you don't have to hang out with me -"

Fred grabbed onto her hand, intertwining his fingers in hers. "But I want to."

Attuoria stared at their connected hands, then looked back up to his face. She broke out into a smile. "You're not annoyed at me?"

"No," Fred said with a frown. "Why would I be?"

"Most people get pretty annoyed because I pick up on human interactions slowly. A lot of things I don't understand at all."

"It's kind of funny," Fred admitted. "But not in a bad way. That's why it's fun talking to you. Like that moment in Hogs Head with the Thirsting Wacker, you know, that long metal stick George was waving around. When you said 'where else could you stick it', MAN," Fred laughed. "That was solid gold right there. You complimented what I said perfectly."

"No honestly, where else could you stick it?" asked Attuoria. "George said to clean Zacharias's ears with it, so that's one hole you could stick it in. Then there's the mouth and the nose, right?"

"Yeah, we'll just leave it at that."

"So there's more?"

Fred waved his hand in front of his face. "Forget it, forget it. I'd rather you not know. Anyways, I wanna show you this place, it's called the Shrieking Shack."

"The Shrieking Shack?"

Hermione said that's where she, Harry and Ron first met Sirius Black and found out Ron's rat was a man and fought against Snape as well as a werewolf Lupin. What an adventure. "I've heard about it."

"Well we can't go into the shack," said Fred, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "But it's always fun to just take a look from the outside. Nothing in particular is in it, though, but there are a lot of silly rumours."

"Rumours are so stupid." said Attuoria with a groan.

Fred gave her a sympathetic smile. "Now you know how humans can be like, sometimes."

Rumours have been consistently plaguing her since she got to Hogwarts. There was the one about her dating Draco, which a lot of people have brought up. There was another one about her being homeless, and lots of girls talked about it with certain jealousy, saying that that was the reason she was skinny (Attuoria didn't get why girls were jealous about her being 'homeless').

There was an even funnier (but less popular) one about her being Lord Voldemort himself, because she showed up in year one, when Quirrell was caught attempting to restore the Dark Lord, disappeared for three years, and then showed up again the summer after Voldemort's supposed return.

To be honest, Attuoria kind of liked that rumour. There was a certain truth to it. After all, her presence in the mortal realm was due to Voldemort's request for help.

She told Fred about these rumours as they walked to the Shrieking Shack, excluding the bits about her and Voldemort. They spent the rest of the day wandering around the village, with Fred showing her all the nooks and crannies that he had discovered through his many trips to Hogsmeade. They decided to head back to Hogwarts late in the afternoon.

"I was wondering, Attuoria, if you've ever experienced happiness before. You know, since you're not exactly human and all." Fred asked as they walked through the metal arch out of Hogsmeade.

"I think so," Attuoria said hesitantly. "Remember Christmas, during my first year? That was the first time I was happy. But I can't remember how it feels like anymore. It's been too long."

"Really? I was in your first happy memory." He grinned. "I feel honoured." But then his expression turned slightly more serious again. "What about today? The whole time we were together, were you at least a little bit happy?" Fred asked. He almost sounded nervous, but tried to keep his tone as light as possible.

Attuoria thought about it. When they went to Honeydukes, the candy store at Hogsmeade, Fred bought a pack of Bertie Botts Every Flavoured Beans. He had bitten into a jelly bean, put on a straight face, and fed it to her telling her it was toffee-apple flavoured. While he tried not to gag, Attuoria chewed and swallowed it with absolutely no reaction whatsoever.

"That tastes weird. I don't like it," she had said, glancing at Fred, who finally spat the jelly bean out of his mouth.

"Of course you don't, it's earthworm flavoured." He quickly snatched a piece of treacle fudge from the bag Attuoria was holding and stuffed it in his mouth. "How did you even manage to eat that without puking?"

"I dunno," said Attuoria, taking a piece of fudge for herself. "I've never tried anything toffee-apple flavoured, so I didn't know what to expect."

"Trust me, toffee apples taste so much better than that."

When they visited the Shrieking Shack, Attuoria was leaning over the fence trying to take a peek inside one of the broken windows when Fred 'attacked her' from behind, shrieking loudly as he pulled her away from the fence by her waist. But Attuoria had been completely unfazed by the attack, so Fred, who had expected her to fight back, lost his balance and the two fell down and rolled into a patch of wild grass.

On the dirt ground, Attuoria's head was on Fred's chest, and he had one arm around her waist, while the other was shielding her face from the grass.

"Nice try," said Attuoria, tilting her head upwards to look at Fred. "But I don't get scared."

"Aw come on!" Fred complained with a smile. "But I guess this turned out better than I expected."

"What, us two lying on the ground surrounded by dead grass?"

"Yep. Absolutely wonderful."

The two lay in silence for a good minute or two, peacefully watching clouds drift across the bright blue sky.

"I feel like you're going to get me back for this."

"No I'm not," lied Attuoria. She had to admit, the idea of scaring Fred excited her. After all, scaring humans was literally her job. Although she didn't want to scare Fred too bad, just a little bit would be fun enough.

"I'll be waiting for your next move." His grip around Attuoria's waist tightened slightly.

"I'm going to win."

"We shall see."

Fred's voice in the present brought her out of her thoughts.

"You're smiling a lot. That's a good sign, isn't it?"

Attuoria jerked her head up and realised that her cheeks were aching. They had already reached the top of the hill, and Hogwarts was just up ahead.

She glanced at Fred, who was staring hopefully at her. All of a sudden, she felt a surge of warmth flow through her. She was happy today. Fred was such a fun person to be around that just being in his presence made her happier.

Thinking back at Christmas, she could feel it again. The pure bliss of hanging out with her friends, and the only thing on her mind that day was to have fun. That's how she felt today. Even after a tense morning at the Hogs Head, her date with Fred made her forget about all her worries. She had temporarily forgotten about possibly 'betraying Voldemort', and about the severity of her secret.

That was happiness, wasn't it? There had to be contrast. In moments of uncertainty and hardships, moments like these were moments of happiness.

Attuoria chuckled slightly, looking down at the ground before looking back up at Fred. "You make me really happy."

"No way," said Fred, his mouth wide open.

"Yes way," said Attuoria. She wanted to thank him for helping her remember happiness again, but she didn't quite know how. It didn't feel right to say it out loud.

"I really want to kiss you right now but I don't want to make you uncomfortable." Fred's cheeks turned slightly pink.

"Why would that make me uncomfortable?" Attuoria asked. "I thought kissing was a nice thing. Isn't it supposed to show love and affection?"

"Yes, but…" Fred trailed off, his eyes flickering down to her lips before he quickly looked away. "I guess it's another thing you wouldn't understand if you didn't grow up as a human. We're taught to respect other people's physical boundaries. When you first meet someone, you usually shake hands. Once you're much closer to that person, let's say you're friends, then you can hug them. Kissing is usually reserved for that one special person you love."

"So it's exclusive, just like dating."

"Exactly. Kissing is a thing for couples that are dating."

"But we're dating, aren't we?"

They were now in front of the Fat Lady's portrait. The Fat Lady let out a long and ear-splitting glissando before saying in an opera voice, "Oh, young love! Back in my day, I used to sing for all the boys in the courtyard, LAAA -"

"Yes, very lovely singing m'lady. Now if you please, Mimbulus Mimbletonia." Fred said, giving a small courteous bow, and the portrait swung out of their way with a huff from the lady.

The moment they stepped into the common room, they saw George and Lee sitting on armchairs staring right at them.

"Did you guys kiss yet?" Lee asked, eyes wide.

"Uh, no." Attuoria and Fred replied at the same time.

"Dammit!" Lee thumped his fist onto the cushioned armchair.

"Ha! I told you so. Fred's too much of a sissy to kiss her on the first date. One Galleon, please." George held his palm out to Lee, who groaned and started digging through his pocket.

"I'm not a sissy!" Fred immediately protested, stomping over and snatching the golden coin out of Lee's hand. "I'm just a gentleman who respects ladies."

"Another word for a sissy." Lee snickered, grabbing the coin back and giving it to George.

Attuoria glanced around the common room and spotted her three friends waving at her from their usual spot around the fireplace.

"Hey Fred?" said Attuoria, walking up to him and grabbing him by the arm. He immediately stopped scuffling with Lee and brought his full attention to her.

She stood on her tippie-toes and pulled Fred's neck down slightly before planting a small kiss on his cheek.

"Thank you for today," she said with a smile, wrapping her arms around his torso as a quick hug. Just as she was about to walk away, Fred pulled her back into his arms.

He leant down and before she could even react, his lips were on hers.

It was just a quick peck, but Attuoria could feel a slight rush of heat to her cheeks. It was the first time she's ever felt that. There was even a tingling feeling that lingered on her lips and the tips of her fingers. She tried shaking it off, but it wouldn't go away.

"AHA! I WIN! GIMME BACK MY MONEY!" Lee's sudden cry interrupted their moment, and they looked over to see George's horrified expression.

"You did this on purpose, didn't you?" George said, reluctantly handing the Galleon back to Lee. "I can't believe you made me lose. On purpose! Come on man, to your own brother?"

"Hey hey hey, whatever it takes to get the girl." Fred grinned at Attuoria.

"See you at dinner," said Attuoria, giving him another smile before heading off to her friends.

Hermione and Harry were grinning widely at her, while Ron was trying to look happy but seemed slightly ticked off.

"Way to go, our local Nightmare Demon." said Harry. Attuoria chuckled and sat down on an empty armchair next to him.

"You can be so blank and unresponsive sometimes, but look at you and Fred! That was so sweet." Hermione said with a sigh, resting her elbows on her knees.

"Er, Ron, are you okay?" Attuoria asked, glancing at the redhead that had fallen into a daze with a semi-murderous look on his face.

"What? Oh, yeah, yeah, I'm alright," he straightened himself up, "good for you and Fred, really, I mean it. It's just Ginny and that Michael Corner…"

"I can't believe you're still on about that," said Harry, laughing. "Michael Corner can't be that bad of a guy, at least he's not Malfoy."

Ron groaned. "If she dates Malfoy, I will literally throw myself into the black lake."