FOURTEEN

RORY WOKE UP ON DECEMBER TWENTY SIXTH with a pounding headache. She had slept in till about ten, still wearing half of her makeup from the night before. Getting out of bed was hard for her. Partially because she didn't want to go down and see Fred, and partially because she was so bloody exhausted. Marina and Angelina were having the same issues, not wanting to get out of their comfortable beds and face the real world. However, they all did it. Taking hot showers to wash away the night before and packing up their dresses back in their trunks, never to be worn again.

"Wonder if the boys are up yet," Angelina yawned, leading them out of the dormitory.

Anxiety flooded Rory's stomach as she got closer to the bottom of the steps. She didn't want to face the reality of her actions from the night before. She was worried Fred was going to be awkward... maybe she should have been more worried for herself, given the fact she was normally the one to make things awkward.

"Morning ladies!" Lee exclaimed when he saw the girls, he was probably the most cheerful of the six.

"Good morning, Lee." Marina smiled, "I had a good time last night."

"I agree. Although I don't think any of us had nearly as good of a time as George," Lee smirked.

The others laughed as George's face filled with blush and he bit back a smile. "I blame it on Fred and Rory spiking the punch!"

Rory scoffed, "Oh, save it! Everyone knows you've thought Kirsty was hot since third year!"

"Whatever," George rolled his eyes, still pink in the ears.

"That reminds me," Angelina said, "Where'd you two go off to?" The girl gestured at Fred and Rory, both of them wide eyed and blushing.

Marina gasped and covered her mouth with her hand, "Oh. My. G – "

"Hungry, anyone?" Rory said sharply, "I'd fancy some breakfast just about now!"

"Me too!" Fred said. The two of them quickly walked out of the portrait hole and their friends slowly followed.

"Sorry about that," Rory said quietly to Fred.

"It's alright, we don't have to talk about it if you don't — " he began.

"It's fine. Let's just... we'll talk another time. I think we just both weren't thinking." She said as they approached the Great Hall.

"Yeah, 'course." He nodded.

Rory truly didn't want to talk about what happened. She wasn't ready to dive into a conversation about the future of her and Fred's relationship. Not with the stress of Cedric in the Tournament still on her, even if they weren't romantic, he was still always on her mind. Fred was always on her mind too, just not in the same way.

The group sat down at the long Gryffindor table not too far from Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were whispering about something. Rory shrugged it off and turned back to her friends.

"How's the business going?" Rory asked the twins, hopefully getting the subject far away from the events of the Yule Ball.

Fred and George gave each other a strange look and Fred leaned down to Rory.

"We'll explain later," he said quietly.

"You're not doing anything illegal, are you?" Rory said, only slightly joking.

Fred and George didn't seem to find it funny and didn't answer, only giving her a slight shrug.

"Love potion going well?" Marina asked, not being aware of the exchange that happened seconds earlier.

George smiled and nodded, "Yep! We'll have to test it out on you ladies... in secret though. It's banned at Hogwarts, technically."

"I wonder what mine would smell like!" Angelina beamed.

Rory raised an eyebrow, "Smell?" She wasn't quite familiar with all the potion itself, given her awful potions grades in the past.

"Amortentia smells different to everyone. It changes its scent to what you find most appealing. Essentially, it smells like what or who you love." Marina explained, "I pity the poor soul who falls in love with Lee and has to smell dirt and way too much cologne."

Lee scoffed, "I do not smell like that!"

"I bet Rory's love potion smells like textbooks and a rusty old piano!" George joked. Rory rolled her eyes and laughed, but began thinking what her Amortentia would smell like. Maybe fresh baked cookies and pine, like Christmas at the Burrow. Rory glanced at Fred and wondered what appealed to him the most.

"Well, we financially can't produce Amortentia at the moment... but we're taking care of it. Once we successfully brew some you'll all get a sniff, don't worry." Fred said.

The rest of breakfast carried on as usual, everyone making a plan on how to cram in all their homework they held off the week before. The Gryffindor common room was filled with students working in silence, only the sound of occasional sighs, the scratching of a quill to fill the air.

That's how the remainder of the holidays went, except for New Years which was celebrated in true Gryffindor fashion. Music blaring through the magical "wireless" and firewhisky being passed around like a Quaffle during a Quidditch match. Rory loved parties. Her favorite part was using it as an opportunity to get quieter students in the house out of their shell. Marina was usually one of those quieter students. Since the girl didn't care much for Quidditch, she didn't attend most of the parties given the sport was the reason for them.

After a drink or two (or three) Rory was nearly intoxicated. Marina had decided not to drink too much, while Fred and George were at a middle ground, not nearly close to the same state as Rory. George was trying to convince Ron to loosen up and accused him of turning into Percy when he declined and went up to bed early with Harry and Neville. Normally Ron would be one to partake in the copious amount of alcohol being consumed, and sometimes controlled the music himself, but it seemed helping Harry figure out the second task was more important - even just for one night.

To Rory, a party was a nice distraction from the craziness of the year they had had. It was her way of letting it all behind her as ninety four turned to ninety five. The music got louder and the party raged on as the clock approached midnight. Rory felt herself slip more and more into a drunken state. However, her body was craving more of the burning taste of alcohol.

"Hey! Fred!" She said loudly over the blaring music, "Are you gonna finish that drink?" She pointed to the cup in his hand, half full with an alcoholic beverage.

"I'm not gonna let you drink it!" He said, jerking it away from her.

"Why the bloody hell not?" She snapped. "Please, Freddie?" She pouted, then soon giggled after.

"You're too drunk, love." He said, although inebriated himself, "I know you get upset when you can't remember the night before."

In Rory's drunken state, she thought it would be clever to attempt and flirt her way to Fred's beverage. She placed a hand on his chest and leaned in with puppy dog eyes.

"Freddie, my love... I can handle another drink." She said, slightly slurred. Fred shook his head and handed his cup to Dean Thomas who gladly consumed the contents.

Rory huffed, but continued her act on Fred because in her mind, she would still somehow convince him to let her have another drink. She wrapped her arms around his neck and he lightly pushed them off. The girl stumbled on to the couch next to them and groaned. Fred took a seat next to her, his hand gently placed on the small of her back to balance her.

"We've only got a few more minutes until midnight, I'm trying to keep you conscious until then, love." Fred said softly, but still loud enough for her to hear over the music.

Rory giggled and propped herself in Fred's lap, "Are you gonna kiss me again?" She gave him a light bop on the nose and started running a hand through his fiery locks.

"No." He said with a smile.

Rory's face fell and she furrowed her brows, "Why not?"

Fred gently removed the drunken girl from his lap, "Because you're too drunk."

Rory rolled her eyes, "Am not."

"Yes you are," he insisted. Rory was slightly upset. The girl partially wanted him to reciprocate her physical affection and they would have an epic makeout session in the middle of the party, like some sort of teenage muggle movie. Of course it was a drunken fantasy and sober, Rory was much more rational.

"I'm mad at you, Freddie!" She said, wanting to storm off, but a wave of sickness took over her as she stood up and sent her immediately back on the couch.

"I'm going to get you some water." Fred said and walked off. Rory, no longer under his supervision, took an unoccupied cup off the table and quickly drank what was inside. The girl cringed as she felt the burn of alcohol go down her throat. She looked around the observed the party, still raging on. A countdown was bound to start soon into the new year. Marina was still very much sober and chatting it up with George, who was slightly less sober. After his actions at the Yule Ball, Rory wouldn't have been shocked if he started snogging Marina in the state he was in. Although that would be very strange given the two were very close. But then again... her and Fred...

"Here you go, love." Fred said, handing her a glass of water.

Rory sighed and sipped on the clear liquid, definitely still very nauseous. She felt a familiar pit form in her stomach.

"Fred..." she said slowly, "I think I'm gonna be —"

"I got you, love." He said quickly, holding her hair back as she regurgitated on the carpet. Fred took his wand and muttered "Scourgify" to remove the mess. She felt like absolute shit.

"I'm sorry!" Rory said quickly, wiping her mouth with the edge of her sleeve, "I had another drink when you weren't looking."

Fred nodded, "It's alright. Please drink some more water."

The girl nodded and took another sip, realizing Fred's hand was still slightly tangled in her hair.

"One minute 'till nineteen ninety five!" Seamus Finnegan announced. The common room erupted in cheers and certain individuals (Lee) started counting down all the way from sixty.

Rory looked up at Fred who was watching her with careful eyes and said, "I really want to kiss you."

"You're just saying that because you're drunk." The boy replied. Perhaps he was right, but Rory had wanted to kiss him sober before. Even though they spiked the punch at the Yule Ball it wasn't enough to even get her tipsy. She placed her hand back on his chest and scooched herself closer to him. There was a look in his eye, the same one she saw on the Astronomy Tower not too many days before. She knew he wanted to kiss her, but wouldn't. Although when she sobered up the next morning, she would appreciate him being so respectful. However in the moment, there was nothing more she wanted than to wrap her arms around him and taste his lips again.

"Ten! Nine! Eight! Seven!...." the rowdy students began counting down, "Five! Four! Three! Two! One!"

"Happy New Year!"

Rory cheered along with the rest of the students and gave Fred a look. He sighed and gave her a peck on the forehead in an attempt to satisfy her.

"Holy shit!" Fred laughed and pointed to a very drunk Angelina and Lee tongue tied on a small armchair. "Oh they're both going to hate themselves tomorrow!"

"I wouldn't hate myself for kissing you." Rory rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you would." Fred said. "I think you should go up to bed, Rory."

"Fine!" She said, standing up. But once again, she fell right back on the couch.

"I'll help you." Fred said, standing up and extending a hand to her. He really did have nice hands.

Rory shook her head, "You can't even get up to the girl's dorms! So... I guess I'll stay here."

"You are the most difficult drunk ever, you know that?" He sat back down next to her.

She giggled and laid her head in Fred's lap, looking up at him with a smile. That was all she remembered until she woke up the next day, magically in her bed around two in the afternoon. She barely could recall all of the details from the night before.

She knew she kept asking Fred for a drink, and she got sick, she remembered being really needy. Did her and Fred... did they kiss again?

Slowly, Rory got out of bed and dragged herself down to the common room.

"There's Sleeping Beauty! Living up to her name!" Angelina joked from across the room as Rory reached the bottom of the steps.

"Very funny." Rory rolled her eyes. "One of you needs to tell me what happened last night."

George laughed, "Whatever you did, can't be as bad as what Angelina —"

"GEORGE WEASLEY!" Angelina shouted giving him the most intense dirty look Rory had ever witnessed. Another memory came back to her at his words. The image of Angelina and Lee entered her brain and she quickly pushed it away because she never wanted to see it again.

"I wish there was a better story about you dancing on a table like last year after the Slytherin match... but all you did was fall asleep in Fred's lap after..." Marina said slowly. "After you were all over him the whole night."

"Well where is he?" Rory asked, nervously, noticing him and Lee were absent from the discussion.

"Owlery, with Lee." George said simply, "He'll be happy to see you're up though. He was really worried about you."

"Oh," was all Rory had to say. She was glad she didn't pull an Angelina and completely lose all control. She was glad Fred was sober enough to know kissing her would be a bad idea. But something in her wasn't glad. Something in her wished she had kissed him again.

A/N:

the internalized misogyny in the comments towards rory for being confused abt her feelings need to stop. look inside yourselves and do some reflecting and hold male characters to the same standard.