a/n

oh to be her...

The next day I slept through breakfast. I had vaguely remembered waking up to see Hermione and Ginny getting ready, but I was much too tired to get up and it was Sunday for Merlin's sake, so I waved them goodbye and buried my head into the pillows again to re emerge myself in the comforting warmth of sleep.

When I woke up, the two girls were already back, chatting quietly about something.

"Morning, sleepyhead," Ginny said teasingly when I sat up in bed.

"Shut up," I said while rubbing my eyes. "I can never sleep in anymore because i've gotten used to the school schedule so I'm going to take the opportunity if it comes along".

They both nodded in acknowledgement to my point and then continued talking.

Once the sleepy fog lifted from my half-asleep brain, I got up from bed and went to the bathroom to get freshened up for the day. When I was brushing my teeth, I remembered that I had plans to go out with the twins that day and hastily made my way out to the closet to find an outfit, still with a foamy mouth and a toothbrush hanging out of my mouth.

They hadn't specified what they wanted to do, just that we hadn't left the school in a while. I felt bad that I hadn't gone to breakfast to talk about it with them and made sure to get ready as quick as I could in case they had specific plans that required more time.

I decided to grab a black pleated skirt that I had been meaning to wear out as well as a collared shirt and an oversized argyle sweater to go over the top of it.

I brought them into the bathroom, got dressed and threw on a bit of makeup.

"I'm going out with Fred and George," I said as I threw on a pair of white tennis shoes.

"Have fun," Hermione said genuinely.

"Not too much fun," Ginny warned with a smile.

I rolled my eyes at them but couldn't help but keep the fond smile off of my face. It felt so good to be able to be open about this stuff with them, especially without hearing any suspicion from them in return.

"Bye," I said and stepped outside the door.

When I made it to the twins room, I opened the unlocked door and stepped inside only to be surprised at the drawn curtains that blocked out the light from the dark room.

"Guys?" I asked in a quiet voice that seemed to suit the dim room.

Fred walked up to me, his body now illuminated from the light that spilled in from the open door, and ushered me back outside into the hallway before shutting the door behind him.

"George has a migraine," he informed me.

"Oh no, does he need anything?" I asked with concern. I had gotten a few migraines before and knew how miserable that they could be.

"No, I don't think so. He's just sleeping for now".

I nodded, still a bit worried that he would wake up in pain and need a potion or something.

Fred seemed to sense my unease. "There's a potion by his bed as well as some water and some breakfast I brought up for him. He gets these all the time, trust me, I know how to handle it. Been doing it for years".

I sighed and nodded, knowing that he obviously did know what to do. "I know, I just don't want him to be uncomfortable".

"Awww," he cooed and wrapped his arm around my shoulders before kissing me on the cheek. "You're worried".

I rolled my eyes but didn't object to his claim or shrug his shoulder off.

He then looked down to my outfit as he took his arm off of me and stood up. "You look beautiful," he said with a smile.

"Thanks".

"Do you still want to go do something?" he asked.

"Yeah, sure".

"Yay, finally some alone time with you," he said with a beaming smile.

"What do you mean? We have alone time all the time".

"I mean alone alone. No George".

I hummed in agreement. I had wanted to start spending some individual time with each of them, there was always a bit of competitiveness that ran through them when they were together. I had always thought that it would be nice to get some quality time with the two of them by ourselves. "Did you have anything in mind?".

"Well, we had originally planned to take you to this theatre that plays muggle movies, but that was sort of George's idea so I would feel bad going without him," he said and looked to be thinking of other options. I nodded in agreement that we shouldn't go without George. "Why don't we just go take a walk? I know this really pretty loop that goes through the forest".

"Yeah, let's do that. As long as we don't get lost again," I said with a chuckle as we began to head towards the school exit.

"I was too distracted by your beauty to pay attention to where we were going," he said as he slipped his hand so that it rested on my waist.

I looked up at him with an unamused look. "Mmhm".

"It's true".

"I'm sure it is".

He rolled his eyes and chuckled. "Y'know I'm mad at you for ditching me at breakfast this morning. George didn't go either, so I was all alone".

I scoffed. "Yeah, it's not like you didn't have two of your siblings with you".

"Ron was all over Hermione, same with Ginny and Harry. It was practically the same as eating all by myself. I mean, Neville was there, but he doesn't talk to me much. I think he's scared I'm going to prank him or something".

I laughed and said, "It's understandable. Remember that time you guys put a whole bunch of frogs in his desk? Or when you turned his hair pink? Or when-".

"I know, I know, we prank him a lot".

I chuckled. "You do. No wonder he's terrified of you. Poor guy".

He shrugged as if his friends being scared of him wasn't a big deal. "What's going on with Harry and Ginny anyways?".

I smiled at the thought of the two lovebirds. "I'm pretty sure they're dating, it's really sweet actually. I mean, he hasn't asked her to be his girlfriend, but I'm sure he will soon. I should really talk to him about that. See, I told you nothing was going on with him, I was just talking to him about Ginny," I said and gave him a nudge with my elbow, happy that I could finally tell Fred and George about Harry and Ginny to aid any suspicion that the twins had had.

He made an unsure noise. "First you, now Gin. Might have to kill him," he said, completely serious.

"Fred," I scolded and gave him a jab in his side with my elbow. "Harry's a really good guy, you should be happy Ginny's with him".

"We'll see, might have to rough him up a bit just in case".

I could tell that he was already thinking of ways that he could torment Harry, probably with the motivation of both Harry dating his sister and also trying to date me a while ago. I chuckled and shook my head, knowing that there was no way to stop him or his brother once they got their mind on something.

"Which way?" I asked in reference to the different paths. We had made our way outside of the school and down one of the paths and were now a bit of a way from the building.

He nodded his head to the left and we began to walk in that direction.

I didn't know how much time had passed since we started on the loop, I had been having too much fun to think about the time. We had walked over a little hill that looked over the lake that sparkled in the sunlight of the winter day, then down by a garden of flowers that I had no idea existed, a whole bunch of green stems spotted with dots of white, pink and purple. We then walked over by Hagrid's hut and through the magical forest, and we were soon stepping out of the shaded trees and into the familiar sunlight.

We talked about everything from our childhoods to hopes and dreams, and I had actually gotten to know him a lot better than I had thought that I would on the date. I had found out that he dreamed of living in a small, homey house with a little family, and that his biggest dream was just to wake up on a cold morning with a woman that he loved and go make hot chocolate with his kids, something that he and his family had done on particularly cold mornings. I couldn't help but stop our walk and give him a kiss after the endearing dream. He was just too perfect.

I had told him how that sounded wonderful, and how I dreamed of the same things. I wanted a little family, and I didn't care where we lived as long as we were happy. It was obvious that we both wanted the same things in the future and our cheeks had turned a rosy pink at the fact, for it wasn't far along enough in the relationship to truly have that discussion. It was nice to know that there could be a future though.

We soon ended up back at what seemed to be his and his brothers favorite spot, the little beach by the small portion of the lake.

"Here, I brought this just in case we needed it," he said and brought something out of his pocket before enlarging it to reveal the big picnic blanket.

He walked over to the tree that sat right beside the sandy area and laid the blanket out. I walked over to him as he sat down against the trunk of the tree and he pulled me down with him so that I was sitting in between his legs, my back leant up against his chest.

We both sighed and looked out at the lake, basking in the comfortable silence and the beautiful, albeit a bit chilly, day.