↳ 4.23
at last
April 23rd, 1996
FRED COULDN'T WAIT until the sun's up to see Daisy. He tried to, per his mother's suggestion, since the deep dinner talk stretched on until nearing three o'clock. But after tossing his stuff onto his bed, he stood still, thinking, then said to his twin, "I'm gonna head over to Daisy's real quick."
George yawned, "You sure? She's probably asleep, Freddie."
"I'll just drop in and say hi," Fred shrugged.
He closed his eyes and focused his mind on his desired destination. He remembered Grimmauld Place as clearly as if he just left the premise yesterday, and he remembered Daisy —his true destination— as if she had been with him in person all along. Just like that, followed by the feeling of being pressed from all sides, he arrived in its very dark hallway.
He tiptoed towards Daisy's room and knocked lightly.
"Daisy? Are you asleep?" Fred whispered. Of course, there was no reply.
Slowly and quietly, he pushed the door open.
She definitely had marked this room as her own, he thought, noting some familiar things placed neatly all over. He had only been in her Muggle room back in Devon once, when he was nine (after which he was forbidden to by his concerned parents), so he could only vaguely recall the purple teddy bear, but he remembered that brown, checkered duffel bag she used to carry her clothes whenever she slept over at the Burrow. And the cute sundress she wore to King's Cross three years ago was hanging on the cupboard. The nightlight was turned on, illuminating a number of quills and books arranged alphabetically on her desk, as well as her empty bed.
Huh, Fred tilted his head a bit. She wasn't asleep after all.
Where would she be?
When he turned around, though, a tall man was blocking the door with his wand dangerously pointing at him.
"GAH!" Fred shouted, jumping backwards.
"...sneaking around now?" The man croaked, like the scene before murders happen in horror movies.
"Sirius!" Fred said shrilly, like a deer caught in headlights, "What are you doing up at three in the morning?"
"Sirius?" The man stepped forward into the dim lighting and the horror image immediately disappeared. It was Remus, clad in matching striped pajamas, rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Shouldn't I be asking you that question, Fred?"
"Oh, Remus, sir. Sorry, it was too dark to see you."
"Why aren't you at school?"
"Er..." Fred's eyes darted sideways, "George and I dropped out. Yeah."
"I'd ask about it, but I'm too tired to. If Daisy's not here, she's probably in the attic."
"Ah, well, thank you!"
"Refrain from coming in the middle of the night without prior notice, please. This place is still the Order's headquarter, and sleep... is a rare privilege," Remus turned around and walked sleepily back to the guest bedroom, "Loverboy."
Fred waited until his former professor disappeared from view before grinning ecstatically and climbed the long sets of stairs, two or three steps at a time, and barged into the only properly lit room in the whole house.
Honestly, he couldn't say he wasn't distracted for a short moment by the weird apparatus sitting around the attic —the huge bird cage with cords leading towards the window, four long tubes with buttons and holes aligned on their longitudes, mathematical equations scribbled over the wall, pliers and electrical wires and everything— but then he met Daisy's bright blue eyes and everything just faded away.
"Frederick!"
She exclaimed, looking utterly astounded.
"I'm not... This is not a dream, is it?" She put down the tweezers and razor blade she had in hand onto the floor, then scrambled up to her two feet. She was beaming so brightly, it looked like her cheeks were stretched sore.
Fred, on the other hand, was wordless. A part of him was afraid that this was too good to be true, and he could only breath out a soft Hey.
Daisy immediately ran and threw her arms around his neck, squeezing the hell out of her number one best friend. He hugged her waist and buried his face into the nook of her neck. "What are you doing here?! Is this the surprise?"
She stepped back to meet his chocolate brown eyes, "Did you decide to leave Hogwarts and take the spot in Diagon Alley? How did you leave? Did George leave with you?"
Fred just smiled. He was happy, too happy, beyond words, and he just didn't know what he wanted her to hear first.
He just drank in her refreshing presence, her hearty soft laugh, and her beauty.
Merlin, she was beautiful. Inside and out.
"You should've come in the morning!" Daisy shyly said, tucking a loose strand behind her ear. Her wavy blonde hair was let loose naturally, and she had his green jumper pulled over her white nightgown, clearly oversized. "I'm a mess, all ready to sleep. I just... couldn't wait to try a new theory on my project so I decided to get up, just for an hour. What time is it now?"
She did look different. A lot healthier, leaner, and stronger compared to her broken self back in December.
Definitely surer of herself and her choice of life after their forced separation.
A bit more mature than she was before Cedric's death, and calmer than she was at the Quidditch World Cup.
A little more carefree than the day she met Hermione for the first time. More laidback than her poised persona when she was thirteen. A tad more cheeky and mischievous than she was at ten.
"I look different now, don't I?" Daisy chuckled, feeling a little insecure under Fred's scrutinizing eyes. "It's still me, though."
Yeah, it was all her.
Everything, every little smile and cry and ups and downs, every bruise and blood and cut, every strand of hair in her braid and every single advice she had given to him throughout the years. Just... all of them.
How stupid of him to be swayed last December, just because they hadn't seen each other in five mere months.
What was five months to ten years? Hadn't he known her before they could even form a sentence properly?
He realized that he had fallen in love with every version and every single detail of her, on any timeline of their companionship in life.
Fred caved in to his desire and closed the distance between them. He captured her lips with his, lingering for three or four seconds...
Then he stopped, way too quickly, and pulled back in realization. With eyes widened, he sputtered in panic, "I— I'm sorry, I haven't even said anything since I got here. I just— It's just—"
Daisy's cheeks and ears flushed red. She looked up at his taller figure, still awestruck, with her fingers lightly touching her pink lips.
It was her turn to be wordless.
Fred took a deep breath to calm himself down and continued, "No, actually, I'm not sorry. Kissing you, it's not a mistake. It's actually the thing I've been meaning to tell you since early last year."
"I wanted to tell you that... I want to say that meeting you, crying in the Burrow's lawn, is the best thing that ever happened in my life. You make my family... and me better. You're the one person I want to write letters and tell my stories all day and all night to, whose advice and perspective I seek the most. I— I want to care, protect, and— and love you, Daisy, more than I've ever done."
Then he cracked his endearing lopsided grin and added jokingly, "You know, you're the best Quidditch partner I got whenever we play catch with apple at the dock. Who knows, right? We could be good partners, too, in life, and you know I'm not that bad of a guy either—"
He was abruptly cut by her lips on his.
Her eyes fluttered close, then his, and their fingers intertwined as daisies blossomed like warm spring within their chests.
✿ ❀ ✿ ❀ ✿
April 23rd, 1996
FIRST KISS WAS every bit of magical as Daisy had imagined. It was worth the long wait, for the right moment and the right person.
She never thought that she would ever feel ready for a relationship, but she just... stopped thinking. She stopped thinking and her heart just knew that she was.
She was finally full, and she was ready.
There was an awkward pause after they finally pulled away, huffing for air with their foreheads still pressed against each other, and they simultaneously burst out into a fit of laughter.
"I mean—"
"Yes, that was a bit—"
"—we were kind of—"
"—awkward," they chorused, after which they burst into another fit of laughter again.
Fred pulled her into a hug and placed his chin over her head, "I'm sorry, Dais, but you really need to explain what's going on in this place and that head of yours."
"But I did explain everything in my letters," Daisy said, "That one's the Faraday Cage where I can charge my Muggle phone and get signals. Those are the Protego machines, and I'm working on its compact form to put on wristbands or gloves. The idea is to create a portable shield."
"What gave you the idea?"
"It'll quadruple my chance of winning against Sirius if I could block his spells directly."
"True," Fred shrugged, "But until when is your ruse against Sirius going to last?"
"We made a pact to do it as a part of my training once a month until I leave the house."
"Wh— Until August?!" Fred pulled away, "That's unnecessary and dangerous, don't you think?"
Daisy chuckled, "I think, you sound just like your mother."
"Pfftttt— what? No, I don't, babe."
The young couple looked at each other, then burst out laughing again. "Sorry, that is—"
"Stop that, it's—"
"—so cringe!"
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April 23rd, 1996
GEORGE APPARATED INTO Grimmauld's kitchen after having a hearty breakfast at home, "Goooood morning. There you are, Fred! You didn't come back last night."
"Yeah," Sirius said in a voice dangerously laced with disdain. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was leaning back in his chair, his chin slightly tilting upwards as his eyes lasered down on the Weasley boy sitting across him. "There... he is."
"Mum's got a thing to do with Bill, dunno what. Said she'll come visit a bit after ten."
Fred scratched his unkempt hair awkwardly and said hollowly, "Hey, George."
He looked like a kid who was just caught doing something bad. And he never looked like that, not even when he and George were caught trying the Unbreakable Vow with Ronald when they were kids.
"Whoa," George raised his hand, "Weird vibe detected."
"Padfoot..." Daisy said warningly. She, on the other hand, was calmly cutting through her breakfast toast.
"You don't get to use that tone on me, Flower," Sirius pointed his finger at her, "I'm your guardian."
Let's just say that he had been worked up about Daisy pulling unhealthy all-nighters for her science projects, because after living together for four months, he truly considered her as his family and cared for her health. She just had a fever last week due to exhaustion.
Also, because that meant he had to make the effort to wake her up and call her down the next morning.
And then, his Patronus failed to wake her up this morning, so Sirius had to climb up all the stairs and had the heart attack of his life when he saw Daisy curled up asleep in a boy's arm who wasn't even there the night before.
He was definitely not happy.
"What's up, Sirius? Daisy," George walked over to gave her a hug, "Too bad, I was looking forward to see your face when you find out that we left Hogwarts."
"Well, Fred ruined that for you," Daisy returned the tight hug, "But I missed you, George! I'm glad that we're going to meet each other more often."
"I see, did Fred ask you already?" George said oh-so-naively, pulling up the chair beside Sirius, and Fred's eyes widened in alarm. He began making a cross using his hands and mouthed 'No! No!' over and over again.
"Ask what?" Sirius asked sharply in suspicion.
"Oh, is it about helping you set up the store?" Daisy replied, also naive, "I was just unsure if I'm allowed to leave the house."
"Of course not."
She continued, ignoring his remark, "I should ask Remus, Moody, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley tonight, before the Order meeting starts."
"Nope, I'm an Order member, and I said no."
"Oh, so," George still pressed on with a cheeky smile, "So you haven't asked her to move in with us—"
Sirius whipped his newly shampooed hair and screeched in his seat, "You WHAT?!"
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A/N:
Poll!
Sirius, dead or alive?
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