As soon as class was dismissed, Fred sprinted out the door. George told him he had to stay behind to ask about an assignment. Fred didn't want to think about how much of a lame excuse that was if he hadn't been there. He and George were fine in that class, and the assignment was extra credit. If Fred hadn't been in the room when McGonagall had proposed the idea to George, he would have thought George was purposely avoiding him.

After breakfast hadn't been one of his best moments. He had basically told his twin that he felt nothing for Harry but friendship. Which wasn't exactly true... Fred knew George didn't believe him. He never could quite hide everything from his brother.

Fred continued running as his thoughts went from George to Harry. He felt himself smile.

Bloody sap, he thought to himself. This only made him grin wider as he felt his legs grow sore and his lungs burning. Fred quickly dodged a second year Hufflepuff girl, throwing out a breathless apology as she screamed. She might have dropped her books, but Fred was scrambling down the halls too fast to care.

"Fred Weasley, you stop this instant!" Fred ignored the professor's shout. Harry would get out of the class in just a few minutes, that is, if Snape had taken the time to do a dramatic monologue about James Potter that evening. He spotted Ron's hair and heard Hermione's voice as he turned the corner.

"Fred, hey! What're you doing here? Where's George?" Ron asked as Fred came to a halt. Fred panted and looked at them for a minute. He put his hands on the back of his head and tilted his head up.

"Harry still in there?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Wow thanks for answering my questions!" He said. It was sarcastic and boarder line disrespectful that Fred was tempted to tease him about "having his innocence spoiled by the big boys in his dorm." Fortunately for Ron, Hermione had taken Fred's focus from his brother onto Harry.

"He left a minute ago. Said something about making some finishing touches on a charm essay." She told him. She seemed so confident in her answer, as if she expected a professor to give Gryffindor points just for responding to Fred.

Fred had to take a second to remind himself that Harry wasn't really working on the essay. That had already been established last night;

"When can we hang out again?" Fred felt a bit needy asking Harry this. The question, however, wouldn't stop echoing in his mind. Harry looked up, his glasses crooked on his face.

Fred grinned with a soft chuckle. He reached over and fixed the glasses on Harry's face. The back of Fred's hand brushed against Harry's cheek. The boy blushed and Fred dropped his hand.

"How about after my potions class," Harry told him. Fred nodded.

"That should work."

Harry reached across his lap and took one of Fred's hands in his own. He ran his thumb up and down the top of Fred's knuckles. Fred couldn't help but notice how soft his hands were.

Fred maneuvered his hand so his fingers intertwined with Harry's. Harry chuckled and Fred brought the hand up to his mouth.

He kissed it.

Fred watched, amused, as Harry stammered out some unintelligible mess of words. His eyes were widened, showing off the emerald color of his eyes. Fred's heart skipped a beat.

"Should I show up to Snape or should we meet up somewhere?" Fred asked him.

Harry bit his lip, fighting the fluttering in his chest. The place where Fred's lips were tingled. He felt warm inside, no thanks to the older boy's hand still holding his.

"Uh– maybe.. maybe we can have a code phrase? Then we could meet in the common room before going somewhere else."

"That's brilliant! What would the code phrase be?" Fred beamed. This made Harry feel giddy. His hand squeezed Fred's. Fred did a silent chuckle and squeezed back twice. The grip on one another was soft, and the squeezed were barely more than a twitch of fingers.

"I'll tell Hermione and Ron that I'll be making some last minute touches on my charms essay. That can be our code."

Fred disconnected their hands, leaned over and kissed Harry's forehead.

"Sounds like a plan." He murmured. Harry took this opportunity to hug him. His head lying on Fred's chest. Fred wrapped his arms around Harry's shoulders.

"You okay?"

"Mhm."

"Okay thanks, Hermione!" Fred hollered as he made his way to the common room. Hermione opened her mouth to remind him to not yell in the halls, but she closed it when she saw that Fred was already gone.

"That was weird," Ron commented.

"Yeah, super weird." Hermione said.