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On the first of April, the significance of the day sent excitement through Valerie Carter’s veins before she could even open her eyes.
One, she woke up next to a still sleeping Fred, whose cheek was resting atop her chest as he quietly snored into it, his arm wrapped around her middle and leg atop both of hers. Two, it was a Saturday, so there was no need for any studies or assignments (though she usually thought that was the perfect day to do it… however-)
Three, it was his birthday.
And yet she hesitated on the idea of waking him up. He’d probably be thankful if she let him sleep in, let him subconsciously feel the way she gently raked the hair from his eyes and forehead. However, daylight wouldn’t last forever, would it?
Mid twirl of his hair, she gave a soft tug. That got a quiet grumble out of him.
“What?” he mumbled, eyes still closed.
“Oh, nothing,” she whispered with a smile.
Brows furrowing, he lifted his head and turned to look at her, the fabric of the sheets still imprinted on his face. “What?” he asked again.
Still smiling, she shrugged and coyly looked away.
Pouting, he groaned and lay himself back on top of her, being purposefully heavy.
“Christ- Fred,” Valerie laughed. “You know what today is?”
“Best day of my life?” he guessed.
“Possibly. Do you know why?”
“Woke up next to you, didn’t I?”
She opened her mouth to speak and promptly shut it when she felt her face warming.
“That’s one of the reasons, yeah,” she nodded. “You have a calendar, don’t you?”
His head slumped impossibly further into her before he made a show of sitting up in bed, his toned and freckled back stretching as he rolled his shoulders. Before he could draw back the curtains, the realization hit him and he looked at Valerie with stars in his eyes.
“I was born today!” he whispered, pumping his fist into the air before grabbing her face and giving her a wet kiss on the forehead.
She concealed her giggles as he came to a stand and marched directly to George’s four-poster.
“Georgie!” he bellowed, ripping the curtains back. “Oh, and Angie! Sorry- shit- mate, today’s the day! We’re thirty-six!”
George gave a very tired, very unenthusiastic, “We’re thirty-six!” in return before shutting the curtains in Fred’s face.
Fred grimaced in Valerie’s direction, then shook it off. “He’s done that to us what- three, four times?”
“And counting,” she agreed with a nod.
~
The two ventured into the brisk spring air, the smell of budding blossoms and the breakfast they snuck out carrying through the wind and into the excitement of the day.
“So,” Valerie began, taking a generous bite of her apple. “What would you like to do today?”
That was the question, wasn’t it? What did Fred want to do that day, on his eighteenth, with his girlfriend?
He genuinely wouldn’t have minded just spending the day in bed with her, reading the rest of the novel he had gotten her and just being with her. But for some reason, she was very keen on getting him out into the sun today. He wondered if he looked paler than usual or if she just wanted him to be more active- cripes , was he losing muscle mass-?
“Oi,” she waved in his face, pulling his attention back to her. “Don’t get lost now.”
He grinned. “What if I said I was lost in your eyes?”
“I’d take it as an answer but I wouldn’t believe it,” she snorted.
He inspected his croissant, light and warm and lightly coated in butter. “Why’s that?”
“As ravishing as my eyes might be to you, yours were going a bit bug-eyed. You weren’t looking at either of them.”
He laughed through his lips, covering his mouth so as not to spit croissant in her face. “So you think I’m hideous?”
She nodded solemnly. “A creature, really.”
Palm over his heart, he sighed. “What a shame. I thought you were with me for my blazing good looks.”
“No,” she frowned, but her lips were itching to grin. “I’m with you for the shop.”
He tsked. “Knew it.”
They peered into each other's eyes- actually looked at them that time- and twin smiles grew on their faces. And then, of course, they moved as one to kiss each other gently before going through their small breakfasts.
While partners can be quite different when they initially meet, they tend to mesh and mold to become one in the most beautiful way, don’t they?
~
After traversing through the One-Eyed Witch passage, the two of them found themselves walking around Hogsmeade with a plan. Not one of chocolate frogs and hot butterbeer though, that was Valerie’s plan. She had never seen Fred’s routine before, and she was excited to learn.
While their first stop was the Three Broomsticks, it was not only for drinks but for food. Valerie quietly ate her stew and watched as Fred dug into his shepherd's pie.
“Is that your favorite meal here?” She asked.
His eyes wandered off to the side in thought for a moment before nodding. “Roast beef’s a close second but yeah. You want to try?”
She nodded as well and watched him turn his bowl and slide it towards her. She began to clean her spoon before he waved her off.
“What, you think I have cooties? Just use mine.”
And so she did. When she took her first bite, warmth filled her chest and belly. Like she had eaten a home-cooked meal made with care, one that made her eyes soften and brows relax.
“This is quite good,” she said with a small smile. She met his eyes that hadn’t left hers the moment she had taken his spoon, and the look he gave her was warmer than the bite.
So soft. Caring. She wasn’t sure if anyone had ever looked at her quite like that before. She also wasn’t sure if she could feel more assurance from a gaze than she could with words.
This is love.
She showed hers by following him into different shops, showing genuine interest in the things he pointed out or raved about. She knew little to nothing about the items in Zonko’s, but Fred described them to her in generous detail, his grin never faltering and his eyes always sparkling.
Their last stop of the day was the bookstore, which was Valerie’s only demand, to get the next two books in the series they liked. She paid for them, to which Fred thanked her numerous times as they made their way to the willow tree.
As she laid down a thick quilt, he set their purchases on the grass beside them.
She sat down in content with a small sigh, crossing her legs and getting comfortable against the ever-smoothing bark of the tree, its form a bit wider than last time. As he took his place next to her, she frowned.
“I should’ve brought the second novel,” she huffed. “We still haven’t finished it.”
Fred waved her off. “No need. We’ll just create our own ending.”
With a single brow raised in amusement, she smirked. “Yeah? What’ve you got?”
And so he recounted everything he knew thus far from the story. The characters, their shortcomings and development, the foes of the land and its dastardly ruler. She couldn’t help the smile that bloomed across her face as she listened, because he had listened. Had paid attention to every detail she thought he wasn’t paying attention to. Perhaps he had formed a liking to the story, but she knew he had entertained it from the start for her.
In the midst of coming up with a very unrealistic and comical ending, Fred did a double-take towards the Hogsmeade shops.
“George!” he beamed, waving him and Angelina over.
Valerie and Angelina looked at each other tensely for a moment, then put on faux smiles.
Seeing as George was properly awake, he laughed as Fred stood to greet him and bear hugged each other.
“Carter,” George greeted with an almost crazed grin, high off the energy of the day.
It made her laugh as she gave her usual, “Weasley,” in return.
Then, a minuscule raise of her brows towards Angelina. “Angelina.”
A not-so-conspicuous raise in return. “Valerie.”
The boys narrowed their eyes, decided they didn’t quite care, and moved on.
~
“My legs are about to turn to pudding,” Fred groaned as he dragged himself back through the passage.
Valerie covered her mouth with her fingers, hiding a smile that Fred caught anyway. “I do understand. I just wanted you to get the most out of your day.”
“Oh, I’ve gotten the most out of it all right,” he laughed, breathless.
“You had fun, didn’t you?”
“...yes.”
“Then stop complaining. You can sit all you want in a few minutes, yeah?”
That was a lie, but he didn’t have to know that quite yet. She had a feeling he’d forgive her.
For as they reached the Gryffindor common room, as Fred huffed out the password, music billowed through the portrait hole. Not the usual music that they’d occasionally play, but songs of celebration.
Fred made a face of confusion and peeked at Valerie, who was trying her hardest not to smile. At the sight of that, he gave her a double take.
“Are my eyes deceiving me or do you have something to do with that? You know what’s going on?”
“Oh,” Valerie giggled and cleared her throat. “It was proved earlier today that your eyes aren’t the strongest, so perhaps you shouldn’t trust them.”
Grinning, Fred continued to stare at her, waiting for her to crack under the pressure of it. “I trust my ears.”
Shrugging coyly, Valerie waved him on.
The furniture in the common room, staircase banisters, the heart of the fireplace- every inch of space was decorated vibrantly. Not just with birthday blessings, but with magic. Small, harmless jinxes and charms gave streamers and balloons an iridescent glow, party hats (when worn) sparkled and shimmered, small fireworks boomed and fizzed from the roaring fire.
Drinks were being poured into seemingly endless cups, and the liquid inside changed color depending on the person's mood. Most were a bright, mossy green, some were a gorgeous shade of magenta.
A solid amount of students from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff had joined the secret celebration as well, tipping their drinks back and making conversation with one another. Alright, perhaps they they were just there for the liquor, but the more the merrier as Angelina put it.
“Oh-!” Ron giggled, red in the face and hiccuping in Fred and Valerie’s direction. “Hell, we weren’t paying attention ‘Mione.”
Hermione’s tipsy smile fell, and she began to groan and speak about how rude it was that they weren’t paying better attention to the door.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” Harry cheered obliviously, a cup in each raised hand.
A choir erupted in celebration, and Fred stood there with a dropped jaw and a wild look in his eye.
After the room clapped and cheered, they all fell back into conversation. Fred’s friends came up to wish him well, said hello to Valerie, and tapped their cups against his before meandering back to wherever they came from.
“You planned this?” Fred asked quietly with a disbelieving smile.
“Of course I did. Well, Angelina and I both did- she and George should be here shortly… and when I say of course I didn’t mean it like- ‘obviously, because I’m so grand’ -“
“Why’d you make that voice for yourself?” He laughed.
She hushed him before she could lose her train of thought.
“I meant it in a way where- erm- well of course I would plan this for you because well… you know.”
While his face softened, he pushed her.
“I don’t know. Maybe you should tell me.”
It was still a fairly new thing they were saying to each other. In the dark before bed, in the odd, gentle hours of the morning. Randomly in the middle of assignments where she’d help him with an answer, or when he’d rub the knots out of her neck and back after a particularly intense study session.
Why did it feel so nerve-wracking to say it when he asked? Because she spent secret nights concocting this plan? Because she practiced her facial expressions in the mirror since Fred could read her like a book and she had to keep this all under wraps for the past month and a half?
Perhaps because it was so true it was slightly terrifying. But oh, what a beautiful thing to be scared of.
“Because I love you,” she managed quietly with a small shy smile.
And though he knew it, felt it in the way she held him, looked at him, kissed him, it still settled something in his heart when he heard her say it.
Holding her face in his hands, he kissed her softly.
“And I love you.”
~
That night, after several mixed concoctions handed out by people they didn’t look at for they were too busy looking at each other, they retired to Fred’s room.
They giggled into each other’s lips, arms wrapped around each other and squeezing until they thought they’d combine. Sighed and moaned into the pillows.
He intertwined his fingers with hers, gazing into her eyes as he rolled his hips, listened to each one of the sounds she made like it was music made just for him. Tucked her head into the crook of his neck as she began to pant, and kissed the crown of it as she went slack in his hold.
It was then that he realized, on such a wonderful day planned out for him, that he thought he could do this forever. Not shagging- though they’d definitely keep doing that- but just existing with her. It was a thought that was minorly terrifying since all he’d known was his family, his twin. But they loved her, and so did he.
It was as if she was just handed to him one day, just dropped into his palm, and he wasn’t sure what he did to deserve it but he was never going to let it go.