THIRTEEN

RORY MADE HER WAY down the steps of her dormitory to the common room following Angelina and Marina. She couldn't contain her excitement when she saw her fellow Gryffindors sitting in the common room waiting for their dates. Everyone looked so beautiful to Rory, all dressed in their best gowns or dress robes and smiling from ear to ear.

Rory saw Fred, George, and Lee sitting by their usual spots near the fire, facing away from the girls. Rory snuck up behind Fred and grabbed his shoulders in an attempt to scare him. He quickly turned around and his usually joking smile faded and his jaw nearly dropped.

"Whoa," he whispered.

Rory raised an eyebrow, "C'mon Freddie, we're all ready! You want to head down now?"

Fred nodded, still not picking his jaw up.

"Wicked dress," George said to Angelina, giving her a high five.

Rory grabbed Fred's hand and led him out of the Gryffindor common room. She was careful with her long gown on the tricky stairs down to the Great Hall.

Rory was absolutely breath taken by the inside of the Hall. The music and decorations made it like something out of a fairytale. She watched as the champions and their dates danced and twirled with smiles on their faces. Harry looked rather uncomfortable with Parvati Patil, his date. Cedric and Cho looked quite happy, it made Rory smile. They were quite a nice pair, they balanced each other out much more than Rory and Cedric had. It was nice knowing they could both move on to other people after their short fling months prior. Eventually, the floor opened up to everyone else and the dance began.

"You look so beautiful," Fred said to Rory as he led her on to the dance floor. Rory felt not just butterflies, but a whole zoo in her stomach at his words.

"Thanks, Freddie." She smiled. "You look pretty nice yourself."

The two decided after a few high energy songs performed by The Weird Sisters themselves, that they'd gone too long without a prank. Fred had a small flask of fire whisky hidden beneath his dress robes, and decided it was time to put it to use.

"Alright Rory, you're on watch." He said as he poured the flask into one of the punch bowls behind his back.

"Roger that," she said with a wink, standing in front of him making sure no adults were passing.

"Good girl," he said quietly, shaking the last bit of the flask into the bowl.

"What are you two up to?" Ginny Weasley asked as she approached the refreshment table.

"Nothing!" Fred and Rory said in unison with a giggle.

"Just don't drink the punch," Fred winked and walked off, grabbing Rory's hand and heading back to the dance floor.

Fred spun Rory around in the middle of the dance floor and then brought her close as the song changed from a fast paced one to a rather slow one. During the first slow song played, Fred and Rory decided to do an upbeat dance to it and received strange looks from other couples. This time though, their dancing matched the song being played. Rory could hear his heart beating, and it was rather fast. She could smell him, the sweetness of entering a bakery mixed with the musk of gunpowder. She would have made a bloody candle out of it if she could.

"Alright, you spent all last week calling yourself the dancing queen... let's see it then!" Fred said (in reference to her celebrating her seventeenth birthday by playing ABBA on the piano) as the song once again changed to up tempo.

The two continued to dance, almost forgetting that others were surrounding them, until she saw the familiar face of Angelina.

"Where's George?" Rory asked the girl, who was now dancing with a Durmstrang boy instead of the Weasley twin.

Angelina smirked and jerked her head towards the corner of the room where George was seen exchanging passionate kisses with a girl Rory recognized as Kirsty Blaine. She giggled when she saw them, only assuming what a lethal combination fire whisky and mutual attraction was. Their bodies were so entangled she couldn't tell one from the other. Angelina didn't seem to mind, though. Rory saw that Marina and Lee were having fun, still together, although it seemed her attention was elsewhere. It wouldn't have surprised Rory if they woke up the next morning to her telling them how she'd fallen in love with a boy from Beauxbatons or perhaps a forbidden romance with a Slytherin.

"I'm tired," Rory said to Fred suddenly. The boy nodded in agreement and they hurried off the dance floor.

Rory had taken off her shoes and was now sitting cross legged in an ivory colored chair. Fred handed her a glass of punch (with a secret ingredient) and sat in the chair next to her. In front of them were a pair of very unhappy fourth years.

Those fourth years were of course Harry and Ron. They were just sitting there moping like a couple of blokes. Rory would have played the older sister and gave some golden advice to the pair, but she really had nothing to say. They had done it to themselves, deciding to be miserable and jealous, she only felt sorry for their dates.

Rory uncrossed her legs and placed them in Fred's lap. He began playing with the fabric of her dress which he was so fascinated by for some reason.

"Ror," Fred said quietly as he tapped along to the beat of the song lightly on her legs.

"What?" She smiled.

"I'm bored," he complained, giving her a small pout.

Rory nodded in response, they had been dancing for about an hour and she was tired, but for some reason she didn't want to leave.

Suddenly the boy's eyes were lit with realization of something the girl wasn't sure of.

"Oh no, did you have an idea?" Rory joked, but deep down she knew a look like that only meant trouble.

"I actually did," he smiled, "Follow me."

Rory smirked and put her shoes back on. She grabbed his hand and they walked out of the Great Hall together, passing George still under the spell of a certain Scottish girl. Fred began taking Rory up the staircase, higher and higher until she realized where they were going.

"Fred," she questioned, "Why are you taking me to the damn Astronomy Tower, it's probably freezing up there!"

"Because I want to show you something!" He urged, lightly tugging Rory's petite hand to follow his path.

"It better be good," she mumbled.

When the pair got to their location Rory was absolutely breath-taken. The sky was decorated with small stars and a nearly full moon illuminated the castle and its surroundings. For once, the Forbidden Forest didn't scare her to death and the Quidditch pitch looked like something out of a fairytale. Out of the corner of her eye, Rory saw Fred wasn't admiring the view, but instead, her.

"Well this is better than what I imagined," she said to herself. Then with a small smile she turned to face the boy, "I'm very impressed, Weasley. But I just have one question."

"What's that?" He said, cocking a smile.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Rory blurted out. His eyes seemed to match the stars and his gaze was deeper than she ever noticed.

The boy remained the same, "I always look at you like this."

The brunette inched closer with an expression of confusion and smugness on her face. Her brows were slightly furrowed as her lips were slightly curved.

"Fred Weasley in the six years I've known you not once have you looked at me like that," she said, lowering her voice a bit. Perhaps he was right, maybe she never noticed before if Fred had always looked at her as if she was the most beautiful sight he'd ever seen.

The seriousness of the situation had hit the girl. They were two teenagers under the stars with passion and a bit of firewhisky flowing through their veins. Only a few times had Rory thought of Fred as more than a friend, she didn't think anything would change that.

"Fred?" She said, breaking the silence, "what's happening?"

"What do you mean?" He asked, tilting his head a bit.

"Because you're looking at me like you never have and we're together and we're alone and there are a thousand stars in the sky and don't try to ignore the mistletoe above us," it was spoken quickly from her lips but Fred seemed to absorb every word. Then he looked up confused.

"Ror, there's no mistletoe." He shook his head softly.

The girl smirked, "Made you look!" She leaned in for a playful nose kiss but once she did Fred cupped her face in his hands and stared at her.

And then he kissed her. It was the oddest sensation of her life. She was kissing her best friend.

And she was enjoying every second.

He tasted just as she imagined. Firewhisky still lingering on his lips and the cool taste of cinnamon. She never wanted to stop. She placed a hand at the back of his neck and kissed deeper. He moved his hands from her face to her waist and pulled her a bit closer. It was better than she could have ever thought. His kiss was enchanting. Each motion set off something in Rory's mind that told her she couldn't stop. Maybe because she didn't know if she'd ever kiss anyone like that again.

If all of the world's kisses were ranked, Rory knew her and Fred would make the top spot.

"Rory," Fred said, pulling away, "I — "

The second he pulled away, it was like Rory had awoken from a dream. She almost didn't know where she was for a moment.

"What just happened?" She asked him.

Fred took a deep breath, "Rory..."

"Fred!" She said, imitating his heavy tone. "We just..."

Fred nodded. Rory realized they were still in the same position as earlier, her hand slightly gripping his red hair and his hands down her dress placed so delicately on her waist. Rory removed her hand from his hair and stepped back.

"That wasn't supposed to feel so good. That should've felt wrong, Fred." She said slowly, "Right?"

Fred shook his head, "Why would it have felt wrong?"

Rory turned away from Fred and placed her hands on the railing of the tower, looking out at the night sky. "Because, Fred... we're best friends. Friends don't just kiss each other, not like that."

Fred stepped closer and was now behind her, "Sure they do."

"Let's just... enjoy the Ball. Go back down, and dance with our friends, okay?" Rory said quietly. Fred nodded and took her hand. They walked back down together, not saying another word until they reached the Great Hall.

Rory wasn't sure why she wanted to stop and go back down to the dance. Perhaps because she was afraid, terrified almost. It seemed to Rory that Fred was too.

The rest of the night ended as it started. George had finally joined them again, red lipstick slightly smudging around the now permanent smile on his face. Fred and Rory danced together, fast and slow, not missing a step until neither of them could stand anymore and walked off to the common room.

"I'll never forget this night, Fred." Rory smiled, "I'll remember it for the rest of my life."

"Yeah, me too, love." He said softly, "Can I tell you something?"

Rory nodded, suddenly becoming very nervous.

Fred leaned in and whispered, "What we did up there, at the Astronomy Tower... I've been wanting to do that for a very, very long time."

He pulled away and before Rory could answer simply smiled and said, "Goodnight, Ror."

Rory stood there, speechless, until the scent of his smoky sort of sweetness no longer lingered in the air. All of her suspicions were slowly becoming clearer. Because no such passion, force, and magic could ever be explained as strictly platonic.