A Classic Weasley Scheme
Fred Weasley x reader
synopsis: Fred asks you for an odd favor at the beginning of Summer holiday. Against your better judgement, you agree.
word count: 3.7k
warnings: nothing, maybe some swearing? I actually don’t remember.
Fred Weasley was walking purposefully across the grounds toward you and you did not like the look on his face.
You and Fred were not close. With you being a year younger than him, and him being a Gryffindor to your Slytherin, there weren’t that many opportunities for friendship. Still, you crossed paths. The Weasley twins were notorious for their pranking schoolwide, and you happened to have a bit of notoriety in the vein of scheming yourself. You were peers in mischief, so to speak.
In fact, that very thing had spared you from ever being pranked by the Weasleys. Until now, maybe, because Fred was definitely headed toward you, and he had on his scheming face, and suddenly you were glancing around at all the grass and trees and wondering what the hell kind of prank he could be hiding around there.
“(L/N), hey!” he called, a few long strides covering the remaining space between the two of you. Before you knew it, he was standing right in front of you, a self-assured smirk on his face.
“Fred, to what do I owe the pleasure?” you asked breezily, trying to discern from his body language whether or not you were about to get your shit rocked.
“I have a proposition,” he announced grandly, and you only cocked your head to the side, confused. Instead of clarifying, he only said “Walk with me.”
You’d finished your homework and really had nothing better to do, so you shouldered your book bag and fell into step on the path beside him.
“Okay, Weasley, are you going to tell me what this proposition is, or am I going to have to guess?”
“Relax, will you? Honestly, woman, I’m getting there,” he returned, and you rolled your eyes at him. “It seems I’ve dug myself a hole that I can’t quite get out of, and I need your help.”
“Oh? And what kind of predicament could you have possibly gotten yourself into, that you and George can’t fix for yourselves?”
“Well, see, that’s the thing. I can’t ask George for help. He’s the one I lied to.”
You looked at Fred incredulously. He lied to George? Rarely had you ever seen the two physically separated, let alone keeping secrets from one another. You had to admit, this had very much gotten your attention. “Okay, what have you lied about then?”
“A couple of weeks ago I told dear George that I had a girlfriend so that he’d stop trying to set me up with Mabel O’Neill, and I couldn’t tell him who she was because we were keeping it all very secret and thrilling,” he smirked waggling his eyebrows, “I planned to keep it up long enough that he’d forget about Mabel, and then I’d tell him we tragically broke up and I would move on with my life.”
“Sounds risky, seeing as you and George spend all of your time together,” you remarked.
“Don’t you think I know that by now?” he asked, “anyway, I had sort of forgotten about getting around to telling him that my girlfriend and I broke up, and he went and told my mum and now she’s expecting me to bring a girl home for the summer holiday.”
You let out a laugh. “That is quite the predicament, Fred.”
“Yes, yes it is. So, will you help me?”
“In what way?”
“Honestly, (L/N), I thought it was obvious. I need you to be my pretend girlfriend for a week.”
You burst out laughing again, but a quick look in Fred’s direction let you know that he was being completely serious. That only made you laugh all the more.
“Let me get this straight: you want me to come home with you for a week and pretend to be your girlfriend in front of your entire family, just so you won’t have to fess up to lying to George?”
Fred nodded. “Please, (Y/N), you’ve reduced a man to begging.”
“Why me?”
“You scheme, I scheme, this is just a longer version of all the other schemes you’ve ever done.”
You considered him for a moment. Truth be told, you didn’t have anything going on for summer holiday. In fact, every summer your parents were so busy with work they hardly had a moment to spend with you. It would probably be a relief to them if you were somewhere else for part of that time, because at least then they’d know you weren’t spending the day rotting inside your house.
“Yeah, okay. I’m in,” you said, extending your hand. Fred shook it animatedly.
“Fantastic! See you,” and with that, he ran off. You sighed, shaking your head as you watched his retreating form, before heading towards the castle.
***
A week later, you found yourself standing on the train platform, trunk and cage containing your owl in front of you. Fred had told you to wait for him before boarding the train, but clearly punctuality was not on his list of priorities.
Smoke billowing from the head of the train curled around the station, obscuring your view of nearly everything around. Which, of course, meant that Fred couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sneak up behind you and scare the shit out of you as a greeting.
He still had his hands on your shoulders when you whirled around, sending him a glare.
“You know, (L/N), I almost didn’t recognize you without your uniform on. You looked down at your green sundress, and back up at him.
“I still have the same face.” Fred laughed, hooking an arm around your shoulder and steering you towards one of the entrances to the train.
“I told George that I wasn’t sitting with him, because you and I wanted to sit alone,” he explained, “that way we can figure out the details of our ‘relationship’ before we get to the Burrow.”
“I’m spending this entire trip alone with you?” you asked, “lucky me.”
“Indeed. Now let’s find a compartment.”
It didn’t take long for you and Fred to find an empty compartment near the back of the train. He closed the door against the students in the hall, and took a seat across from you.
“So, what exactly did you tell George about you and your fake girlfriend?” you asked, trying to settle in more comfortably to your seat.
“I didn’t tell him much, just that my girlfriend was in a different house and that she was a private person so she wanted to keep our relationship under wraps.”
“Well, I am in a different house, and I do keep my life private, so that’s not much of a lie,” you conceded, “and, that gives us a lot of freedom in figuring out the details of this scheme together.”
“Right-o, (Y/N). First order of business, how did we get together?”
In the end, you two decided on a rather straightforward backstory. You’d gotten together two months earlier, when, after a quite messy prank, he helped you clean up. You two found out that you had more in common than you thought, and Fred had asked you on a first date to Hogsmeade, that weekend. Since the relationship was so new, you two had been keeping it on the down low in order to spend time getting to know each other in this new context. By the time the Hogwarts express was pulling into the station, the two of you had gotten your acts together.
“Right, (L/N), as soon as we open this compartment door, we’re officially fake dating,” Fred announced, turning to face you with his hand ready to open the door, “can I count on you to really sell this?”
“Of course, what do I look like to you?”
***
You were nervous.
You knew this was quite ridiculous, seeing as you were not Fred’s real girlfriend, and therefore had no reason to be nervous to meet his family, but that did not seem to matter to your brain.
You were trying to be rational about it. You already knew three other Weasleys, and they liked you well enough. You’d aided George with a prank or two in the last few years, and you gave Ron all of the notes you kept from the previous year when he didn’t want to do his own. Plus, you and Ginny were actually sort of friends, the kind who will sit together in the library to study just so you don’t have to sit alone.
The problem here was that Fred’s family included quite a bit more people than that. He had three more brothers, and his parents, and Harry and Hermione were coming to stay over holiday as well. That was a lot of people that you had to fool with this scheme. It was also a lot of people that you oddly felt you needed to like you.
Fred, feeling you tense beside him, grabbed your hand and squeezed it tight.
“Are you alright, love?” he asked, and you managed a nod before voices were shouting behind you.
“You’ve got to be bloody messing with me! Fred, there’s no way that (Y/N) (L/N) is your girlfriend,” the shocked voice of George Weasley called. The two of you whirled around to see him standing a few feet away, matching shocked expressions on his, Ron’s, Harry’s, and Hermione’s faces.
“Oh, sod off, George. You know I’m the ladies man out of the two of us,” Fred teased.
“(Y/N) --? You and Fr-- my brother Fred? Are you sure you’re all the way there, mentally, right now?” Ron asked, gesturing wildly between the two of you.
You let out a small laugh, nodding. “Yes, Ronald, me and your brother Fred are dating. And I happen to have all of my mental facilities about me.”
“Well, er, congratulations to you two,” Hermione smiled brightly.
“Thank you very much. Now, Mum’s probably off her head thinking we’ve died because it’s taken us so long to find her,” Fred said, turning and pulling you by the hand into the crowd. You wove between reuniting families, holding tightly to Fred’s hand so you don’t lose him in the crowd. Not that that would be very easy, what with him being a head taller than eighty percent of the people in the vicinity, with flaming red hair.
Before you were really ready, you and Fred were stopping in front of a kind looking red headed couple. You had never seen Mr. and Mrs. Weasley in real life, but it was easy to tell who you were looking at.
“Fred, there you are! I was getting worried,” Mrs. Weasley said, pulling her son into a bone-crushing hug. As she pulled away, her eyes landed on you. “And you must be the darling girl we’ve heard so much about!”
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Weasley, I’m (Y/N) (L/N),” you said, offering your hand for shaking. She just chuckled, surpassing your hand and pulling you into a hug with the same enthusiasm as when she hugged Fred.
“We are so happy to have you for the holiday, love!” You were saved from having to figure out an awkward reply by the arrivals of the others behind you.
“How’m I doing so far?” you whispered to Fred.
“Fantastic,” he beamed. “Mum loves you!”
***
The Burrow was the coziest home you had ever set foot inside of. Every room was stuffed to the brim with vibrant, eclectic furniture. Everything about the place screamed life, yelled that people lived there, loved and laughed and held each other in these rooms. You couldn’t get enough of it.
“Right, (Y/N), dear, you’ll be staying in with Ginny and Hermione,” Molly said, as the large group emptied into the house, “Ginny, show the girls upstairs so they can put away their things.” The redheaded girl nodded, motioning for you and Hermione to follow.
“You know, it’s been a while since we’ve had the house so full,” Ginny noted.
“I’ve never been in a house so full,” you responded, “only child.”
“Me too,” Hermione said. An awkward silence fell upon the trio as you made your way up the stairs. It dawned on you then that you had never really had a deep, personal conversation with either of them, and you were about to spend the holiday as their roommate. It’s not that you didn’t want to be their friend, it was just, again, like with Fred and George, there weren’t that many opportunities to forge a friendship. Everyone else in this house was a Gryffindor, had been living together their whole lives or rooming together since they were eleven. You were feeling distinctly out of place.
That is, until the three of you made it into the room. Ginny’s room was distinctly Ginny: drenched in the Gryffindor colors and covered in Quidditch posters. Ginny tossed the belongings she carried up into the corner by her bed and turned her freckled face to you.
“So,” she started, collapsing onto the bed, “Fred, huh?”
“Oh, (Y/N), do tell what you possibly see in him,” Hermione said as she arranged her things next to one of the two cots that had been set up in the room.
“There’s not much to say,” you started, thinking carefully of what to say next. “Fred and I just… clicked. He’s fun, and good to me. He makes me happy.” Ginny had a look of slight disgust on her face, but Hermione’s beaming face was flushed with happiness.
“That’s adorable! I mean, I never expected Fred to find someone… not at school, at least, and certainly not you,” Hermione said, “but seeing you two together does look right.”
“I’m sorry, I just can’t imagine anyone wanting any of my brothers,” Ginny said abruptly, causing Hermione and you to burst out laughing.
“Ginny! Girls! Come wash up and help with dinner,” the faint voice of Mrs. Weasley floated up the stairs.
***
Family dinner was an affair, and you couldn’t get enough of it. With the extra chairs for guests, there was barely room to get to a seat, let alone move. The table was full of delicious looking food, and everyone was talking over each other, arguing and laughing. You had been introduced to Bill, Charlie, and Percy, the only Weasley children you had not formally met, and they seemed to welcome you. You were wedged into a seat between Fred and Harry, so close that your arm and Fred’s were constantly touching.
It took you a minute to notice that Fred was nudging you to get your attention, not just because he had no space. When you did, you turned to him, a smile on your face.
“You hanging in there, love?” he asked, quietly. In the din of the room it was easy to have a somewhat private conversation masked by the noise.
“If I knew your family was this cool, I would have agreed to date you ages ago,” you grinned. Fred laughed, hooking his arm around you and pulling you into a hug as best he could, before letting go.
***
You waited for Ginny and Hermione to fall asleep, before leaving your cot and descending the stairs as quietly as you could. Despite being exhausted, you couldn’t sleep at all. You kept replaying the day through your head; it was completely jam-packed of memories you knew you’d hold with you for a long time.
You were surprised to find the kitchen light on when you made it to the first floor. You hesitated at the bottom step, wondering if you should just go back up so as to not disturb whoever else was still awake. Probably they thought you were intruding on their private time. It wasn’t your house, after all.
“(Y/N)? Is that you?” You had just turned to head back up the steps when you heard Fred’s voice. Turning back around, you crossed the floor to the familiar redheaded boy standing in the doorway to the kitchen.
“Why are you up so late, Weasley?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I just wasn’t very tired,” you shrugged, “your turn.”
“George is snoring extra loud tonight,” he said, and you laughed quietly.
“Our first day went pretty well, huh?” you said after a moment.
“ ‘Pretty well’? It went amazing, love! Hell, if I didn’t know better, I would’ve bought it myself.” You nodded in agreement as Fred retreated back into the kitchen, grabbing a bright green mug from one of the cabinets. He filled it with orange juice, before returning the carton to the fridge and leaning on the counter, facing you. His orange hair was mussed about his head, as if he’d tried to sleep before eventually giving up, and there was some sleepiness fogging his eyes.
“You know (L/N), I always wished we were closer,” he said abruptly, “the more I think about it, the more I don’t understand how we weren’t. I mean, you fit perfectly with me. And George.” Fred had become somewhat flustered by the end of his sentence, jumbling his words in a way that had you laughing softly, a bright smile on your face.
“Yes, I suppose you’re right,” you hummed, “I think, if I were a Gryffindor we would have been best friends the minute I stepped on campus at eleven.”
“I’m glad we’re getting close now, even if it is a couple years late.”
“Better late than never, right?” you said.
“Right.”
***
The next few days went by quicker than you thought possible. It was unusually sunny and hot for England, and you, Harry, and Weasleys took advantage of the weather by playing Quidditch in the garden for the long hours of the afternoon. Hermione sat in the shade on the sidelines, occasionally cheering Ginny on in between getting a headstart on the required reading for next year.
In the mornings, you, Hermione, and Ginny helped Mrs. Weasley prepare breakfast. It never felt like a chore, waking up early in the morning and cooking, as it had become the time of the day that you were able to bond with the girls-- that, and the hour or so before bed, when the three of you congregated on Ginny’s bed and talked about anything and everything before sleep came calling.
After breakfast, you and Fred always did something together. At first, it started to make your fake relationship more realistic, but the little activities he planned had quickly become your favorite part of the day. You’d taken a picnic blanket out to the top of the hill and laid under the sun for a few hours, sipping iced tea and goofing off. You’d gone on walks down the little trail in the thick copse of trees down the road, you collecting flowers off the side of the path as you went, him picking up frogs and chasing off dragonflies. You taught Fred how to make a lemon cake once, which surprisingly did not end in the two of you destroying Mrs. Weasley’s kitchen. All the while, you’d gotten to know Fred better. Every single thing you learned made him more endearing to you.
After dinner and the long parade of showers was over in the evening, everyone crowded into the living room, partly for tea, partly to carry on conversations and arguments from the dining table. You and Fred squished into the large armchair closest to the fireplace each night; Fred’s arm resting behind your back, your legs laid over his lap. You would talk to each other mostly, or listen to the other conversations going on. You tried to pretend that you didn’t notice when the others stared at the two of you, like they still couldn’t believe it.
Now, you only had a couple of days left at the Burrow, and you felt the dread of leaving beginning to settle in. The Summer was going to feel so empty without the Weasley clan constantly around. The rest of the summer was bound to be as empty and lonely as you could imagine. With two muggle parents, you were bound to spend the summer totally without magic, alone in the park or the library in London.
Most surprising to you, though, was how much you knew you were going to miss Fred. You hated to admit it, but some sort of real feelings had grown inside you for Fred. You had a soft affection for the boy who only seemed to make you like him more by the day. You supposed the whole operation was ill-fated from the beginning. You were bound to end up this way.
You and Fred were sitting in the garden after dinner, waiting to be called in for tea. He was sprawled out in the grass on his back, looking up at the stars, and you were sitting cross-legged beside him, leaning on your elbows.
“You know, I’ve never seen so many stars from my flat-” you started, looking over at the boy, only to find he was already looking at you. “What, Weasley?”
Fred sat up, a goofy smile adorning his face. “If I tell you, you’re going to laugh.”
“No! Have a little faith in me, will you?” you asked, mockingly scandalized.
“I’m bloody serious, (Y/N).”
You stopped laughing, and put on the most serious face you could muster. “Fred, I pinky swear, no matter what you say, I will not laugh.” Fred heaved a sigh, closing his eyes.
“(Y/N), I know this started as a fake relationship, but… I don’t think my feelings are completely fake anymore,” he said earnestly, “and it’s alright if you don’t feel the same way, but I couldn’t just keep on pretending without telling you.”
“Fred Weasley, you are definitely thicker than everyone says if you seriously don’t think I feel the same way,” you said bluntly.
You watched his face as he realized what you said, a grin breaking out across his dimpled cheeks.
“Really? You do?”
“Yes, of course! Did you really think that I was that good of an actor?” you asked. Fred laughed, drawing you in for a hug.
“Is it safe to say I can kiss you now?” he asked, face inches away from yours. You nodded vigorously, causing him to laugh as he cupped your face in both hands and brought your lips to meet his. The kiss was slow and sweet, and felt as natural as if the two of you had been together forever.
“I can’t believe I was able to wait so long to do that,” Fred laughed.
“Neither can I.”