A hectic week rolled by as quickly as anyone would have imagined. Florence was ultimately busy with Pitch booking and practices, barely having any time at all to do her heap-load of homework, but managed to squeeze it into her schedule anyways. Alexander, on the other hand, was also immersed in prefect duties, which left Nicolai in the company of Fred and George most of the time when they were not at practice.

Time was so precious that she found it absolutely relaxing to have gotten a few spare minutes to sit down with the twins at the courtyards. They had just came back from dropping off a snackbox at the greenery for a costumer, meeting quickly with her before the bell rang again.

"It feels like a frenzy," she whined, snuggled up against Fred's chest, "This is not how busy I thought seventh year would be."

"It's okay, love, we have...three more days until the weekends, yeah?"

"But I'm having practices on Saturday. And you guys have them on Sunday."

"We'll figure something out..." replied George, "Hogsmeade weekend is coming up... There's that."

"I wish it would come faster. I'm tired."

"Well, there's nothing we can do but get busy before then," said Fred, "Just don't think about stuff too much, and before you know it, it will be all over." he planted a kiss on her forehead , just as the bell rang.

"Rats," she cursed, "I better get going. My next class is all the way up the third floor." Florence gave George a brief hug, and Fred a short kiss on the cheek (which still made George fake gag) before taking off.

"Why must you two do that infront of me?" George groaned, Fred playfully shoving him, "Godric's sake, what was wrong with it? It was only on the cheek."

"You wouldn't understand."

"Awww," Fred cooed, "Is Georgie tired of being single?"

"Stop it."

"You know, we should start looking for potential love interests of yours. After all, it is our last year here. We're not getting any younger, brother."

Florence, meanwhile, had made it to her Charms class just in time. As much as she loved the subject, she couldn't help but dislike it a little due to the fact that it was the only subject where she barely knew anyone. She took the seat closest to the door, waited for the lessons to start, and barely said a peep throughout the entire hour.

As Defense Against the Dark Arts rolled by, she found herself wondering how many days worth of detention Umbridge was going to give her if she threw a book at her face.

It was a rather long shot from her seat to the front of the room. But after all, long range was her specialty.

She was the primary reason why she can't send letters to Sirius normally anymore, Florence thought bitterly as she jotted down the notes written on the board.

"Have you been to the owlry lately?" Nicolai whispered.

"No, why?"

"Well, I went up there last night and Filch jumped out of bloody nowhere, accusing me of sending in an order for dungbombs."

She arched her brows, setting her quill down, "Just you?"

"Not just me, thank Merlin. He accused other people when they came up too. The question is why he would think that?"

"He's probably just being paranoid, is all—"

"Hem hem."

Florence's gaze snapped upward, "Yes, Professor?"

Umbridge folded her arms across her chest, "I was wondering how many house points I have to take off to get you and Ms. Clearwater to avert your attention to our lessons and not your...unnecessary chitchat."

She clenched her jaw, before forcing a smile, "You only have to ask us nicely, Professor. We'll stop."

"Please do." she smiled back, "Oh, and fifteen points from Ravenclaw."

"Oh boy," Nicolai rolled her eyes, leaning back against her chair, "Do you have practice this afternoon?"

"Yeah, it's our first one. I'm really excited to see Ivy play. She seems like a charming little girl."

"Xander and I will come by to watch. I don't have anything that I need to finish for tomorrow."

"You sure? You always have a tendency to procrastinate."

"Well... maybe I have a few things to do. But I can finish them after dinner. Don't worry.

-------

Florence flinched as she watched Jeremy fall five feet from his broom, crashing into the grass shoulder first. She jogged over to where he lay, cradling his injuries. "I'm okay..." he grunted, giving his shoulder muscle a little flex, "Nothing torn or broken...hopefully."

She heaved him up, watching as the team gathered towards them worriedly. "What was that?" Roger asked, frantically looking for any sign of injuries, "Are you alright?"

"Good. Nothing I can't handle. I was just a little off balance, is all. It's been awhile since I last flew. Just a little rusty."

"Well, we have awhile to work on that. Our first game isn't until after Holidays so we should be good." said Florence, "Just, try not to crash and injure yourselves. Okay, ten laps around the pitch."

Cho groaned, "I thought that would go away with you incharge?"

"No way," she grinned, "Davies is actually right. It helps build endurance. And we've all been thrown off track due to the Quidditch hiatus last year." Florence clapped her hands together, "Alright. Get to it."

She picked up the Quaffle, passing it back and forth between her hands, before throwing it to Roger, who was now atleast a few yards away, his reflexes quick enough to snatch it.

"Long range!" she yelled out, "Pass to Stretton!"

The ball went hurtling across the field, and into the arms of Jeremy. Florence yelled out more instructions, "Pass the the ball to another teammate while jogging. Don't let it hit the ground. Ivy," she called out to their youngest player, "Catch!"

Ivy did a little leap, locking her arms around the ball in mid air. She ran a couple of yards, before passing it to Cho, who tossed it to Anthony, Anthony to Owen, and Owen back to Florence.

By the time they were finished with ten rounds, they were sweating all over, running to their water bottles for a refreshment, some drying themselves off.

"Let's call it a day for now." she told the team, who sighed in relief. "Yeah, we know," Jeremy panted, "We didn't think you were going to make us do anything else after that."

"Well no... I was planning to push it to fifteen then do another round on broom..."

He stared at her, mildly horrified, before taking a head start towards the locker room

"Anthony, Owen, take care of the equipment, will you.?" the two gave her a brief salute, before heading out.

"Florence?" Ivy was walking towards her, her hands thrusted out, "I have blisters."

"Come here, let me see." she inspected Ivy's tiny hands, noticing the splotches on the palms, "Don't you have gloves, dear? It's an important gear that all Keepers should have."

"Yeah I do. I just forgot them upstairs today, is all."

"We'll bring them next time, alright? You can go to the hospital wing and get that checked out by Madame Pomfrey. She does wonders."

"Next practice is in three days!" she announced to the remaining people on the pitch, "Rest up, drink lots of water, exercise. Don't eat too much food. It will only weigh you down. And don't eat too little, either, you'll starve and crash due to lack of energy. Don't go to sleep hungry, or stay up later than curfew—"

"Yes, mum, we get it." Cho said, "And stop yelling so much. You'll tire your voice out."

"Just looking out for you guys."

As soon as she changed out of her gear, Xander and Nicolai were already waiting for her by the exit, chatting animatedly about something. "There she is!" Nicolai cheered as she spotted Florence.

"How do you think I did?"

"Brilliant. As usual." Xander chuckled, "Didn't expect anything less from you."

"Why thank you." she did a little curtsy, "Our first game will be against Slytherin, second with Gryffindor... I'm actually pretty excited for it."

"Not as much as I am, I'm sure. I can't wait to pit you against the twins."

"Now, now, Nicolai. That's not very nice," Florence tutted, rummaging around her bag to check if she had everything with her. The sun was now slowly slipping from the horizon as the three walked back to the castle for dinner.

She forgot how oddly satisfying it was to eat a meal after a practice, reminding herself not to eat too much even if she felt like she needed it. Florence let a yawn escape her lips, pushing her plate back as soon as she was satisfied. Nicolai, on the other hand, helped herself to more pumpkin juice.

Fred walked over to Florence as soon as the students started to disperse from the hall. He had a joyful look on his face as he caught sight of her sleepy face. "How was practice?"

"Tiering. But good, overall. I just need as much sleep as I can, and I'll be good. What were you two up to this afternoon?"

"Doing business, as usual." he said, planting a kiss on her forehead. "We found this unused classroom in the fourth floor while we were scouting potential places to do our transactions at. That way we can expand our products to other houses. George and I might need to produce new flyers so people will know where to go."

"That's good to hear," Florence smiled, "But I hope you two won't get into any trouble because of that."

"We got it all under control. Nothing to worry about...."

"Say, Florence, are you doing anything important this evening?" Fred asked hopefully.

"Apart from sleeping? No," she replied, noting the change in his expression, "Why?"

"Well," he held her hand, "I have a really good idea."

"We have a different definition of good, Fred. You'll have to elaborate more on that."

"I know you're tired, but the sky is awfully clear tonight. And as I recall, you love stargazing, so maybe you'd want to sneak out for a few hours and do that?"

She grinned, "You know what? I'm actually not as tired as I thought I was. Let's do it."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Why not?"

Fred strode over to one of the pillars and grabbed a blanket from behind it. He held her hand, "Come on, before anyone comes around to check."

"Wait, we're going outside?"

"Yeah. It looks better from the Quidditch pitch."

They ran as fast as they could through the halls, cautiously looking around incase anyone was standing guard. With as much stealth, they managed to exit the castle undetected, the cold evening weather hitting them, causing Florence to shiver a bit.

"I've never been out here in the dark," she told him as they entered the pitch, the moon full and round, it's light illuminating their surroundings a bit. Florence was mesmerized by its beauty for a moment, before a worried look dawned on her face.

"It's a full moon..." she said in a rather sorrowful tone, "I wonder how Remus is holding up."

Fred sprawled out the blanket on the grass, before plopping down on it himself. "I'm sure he's okay. He has a lot of people to take care of him now, compared to before when he had to deal with his transformation by himself."

"You're right," she settled down beside him, "Did you know that my mum's a grizzly bear?"

He gave her a look, rather taken a back by her statement, "She is?"

"Yeah, she was the one who helped Sirius and his friends become Animagi. Sirius is a Dog, Harry's father was a Stag, Peter Pettigrew a Rat, and my mum a Grizzly Bear."

"Wow...that's...remind me not to get on her bad side."

"Nah, she rarely shifts into her animagus form, being unregistered and all."

"I wonder what I would be if I was an animagus," he said as he lay down on the blanket completely, spreading one arm out for Florence's head to lay on. "Hmmm," she thought, "You'd probably be something cool... Although I can't really think of anything yet."

"Bill used to tell George and I that we'd learn how to do a patronus charm by seventh year." he was playing with her hair, twirling and unfurling it from his index finger gently, "That's what I was looking forward to this year."

"If only we didn't have that wretched witch of a teacher. We would have already learned that." scoffed Florence, who rolled over to her side, her head now snuggled up against Fred's chest.

"They say that your Patronus shows what kind of animal you'd be if you were an Animagus." he told her, "That's why I would want to find out what mine is."

"It would be nice..."

They fell into a comfortable silence, gazing up at the stars as they dwelled contentedly in each other's company. Florence pointed up at the sky, tracing a pattern of stars.

"I don't know if you can see it well..." she mumbled, "But that constellation is called Columba. It's Latin for dove." she told him, setting her hand back down, "Sloan said it's part of my family's coat of arms."

"Wow. The Prices are in to those traditional family coat of arms thing? I didn't know." he chuckled.

"Yeah, me neither. Until my birthday, that is. Sloan gave me a family heirloom that's basically a pendant of the Price coat of arms. It has a silhouette of a dove, and eleven stars, which is the number of stars that make up the Columba constellation."

He squinted his eyes, "I don't really count eleven stars."

"I did some research on it at the library, actually..."

"Ofcourse you did."

"And it says that the Columba is made out of ten stars, five of them being the main points."

He laughed, "So your family heirloom is wrong?"

"Something like that. Or maybe the eleven stars aren't for Columba, but for something else, and the meaning got lost within the generations before."

"I'm imagining one rebellious Price ancestor, wanting to screw up the glory of family heirlooms by passing down a garbled version of the original story."

"What an asshole, whoever it was." Florence snickered.

"Florence?" he said, turning his head to face her.

"Yeah?"

She looked beautiful under the faint moonlight, her brown eyes twinkling slightly through the darkness. They always managed to make his heart thump wildly in his chest, feeling an unexplainable sense of joy whenever he looked into her eyes.

"I think I'm completely in love with you."

Florence swore that her heart skipped a beat, hearing those words come out of his mouth. There was a rave of emotions in her stomach. Fear? Relief? Joy? She couldn't tell. All she could do was stare back at him uncertainty, which made him nervous.

"Say something," he pleaded, "You don't have to say it back. Just speak."

"I'm sure." she said, after a moment's worth of silence, making his brows furrow together. "Pardon?"

"You said that you think you love me. Well, I'm sure, Fred. I'm sure that I'm completely in love with you too."

"Really?" he said in absolute disbelief.

"Yes. Really."

A grin spread across his face, pressing his lips against hers for a kiss. He pulled back, still smiling, "I love you."

"I love you, too." she answered, without missing a beat.

"Woah." he said, dumbfounded, "I can't explain how happy I am right now. Florence, what have you done?"

"I'm probably as happy as you are."

"Oh believe me, I'm happier."

"I'm the happiest—" her words were cut off by an involuntarily loud yawn, which made Florence's eyes water. "Awww, love," Fred chuckled, "You're knackered."

"No, I'm fine..." she said, but was betrayed as soon another yawn escaped her lips, "Really. I can stay up all night with you."

"As much as I would love that...I know you can't..." he slowly sat up, before fully standing up, "Come on. Let's get you back to your common room."

"Let's just sleep here," she suggested, yawning loudly yet again, "I'm too tired to answer the riddle to get in. They have the hardest ones past curfew, for some reason."

"Well...why don't you spend the night at my room? I'll lend you some clothes that you can sleep in?"

She flashed him a dozy looking smile, "I'd like that very much."

By the time they had arrived to the Gryffindor common room, everything was dead silent. The two of them crept up to the boys dormitory, opening the door and entering as quietly as they could.

"There's two spare beds," Fred whispered, "We used to share this room with two older blokes. But they've already graduated. You could sleep in one of them."

He rummaged through his trunk, carefully pulling out an old Quidditch jumper that looked like it could fit Florence perfectly. Fred looked over to see her shimmying out of her pants, his eyes growing wide as he quickly swiveled his head away.

"What are you doing?"

"I can't sleep with my jeans on." she whispered back, "They're uncomfortable. Do you have any extra sweatpants or anything?"

With his head still turned, he handed her the jumper and a pair of grey pajama bottoms. She slipped them on, letting him know she was done afterwards. Florence climbed into the vacant bed, watching as Fred got in to his bed.

He noticed her staring.

"Do you want to lay here with me?"

She nodded her head gingerly, before clambering off of the vacant bed and sliding under the sheets with him. They faced each other, Florence inching closer towards Fred, his arms wrapping around her eventually.

"Did you mean what you said?" he whispered, as she was still awake.

"Which one?"

"That you love me."

She frowned, "Why wouldn't I mean it?"

"Because," he said, "You're really sleepy. And you may have just said it out of drowsiness."

Florence rolled her eyes at him. "I'm sleepy, not drunk. I know what I said. And I meant it. Okay? Now goodnight."

He chuckled, tucking a few loose strands of hair behind her ear, "Goodnight."

Light snores started to escape her lips after mere minutes, which indicated how extremely tired she really was. He couldn't help but smile, pressing yet another kiss on her forehead.

"I love you." he whispered, before his eyes fluttered close.

///
a.n: sorry for updating a lot 😅 I just get really excited 😂

-Denise