Evader

A HariPo oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not to me (except for my OC, Calytrix Zabini). Done for a quote prompt. This pairing is a Mew and Mor's Weird Pairing, which you may find in the M&MWP forum (see my profile for details). Check out and join the forum FUN! Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

"Platonic love is from the neck up." —Thyra Samter Winslow

"It's all fun-and-games until someone gets hurt. Then it's hilarious." Fred Weasley—oh, the son of George and Angelina Weasley, that is—lived by that saying. Well, he didn't want anyone to end up gravely injured, but comedy had its prices, didn't it?

Other things had their prices, too.

All his life, Freddie had known fun. He and his twin sister, Roxanne, took after their father and his deceased twin, Fred's namesake. They were troublemakers and pranksters and the jolly light of Hogwarts.

Then Roxanne had to go and mess things up. She just had to get a boyfriend. Ugh, Scorpius Malfoy, no less.

Freddie didn't hate the guy. In fact, he thought Scorpius a kind of friend. Scorpius hung out with their lot—Weasleys, Potters, and Scamanders—and he was an all-around likable bloke. But there was something about him that Freddie didn't like. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

He supposed it had something to do with the smaller and still-decreasing amount of time Roxanne spent with her twin due to wanting to be with Scorpius, snogging the Malfoy. Freddie found himself frowning a lot ever since Scorpius had accepted Roxanne's feelings. He was glad his sister was happy, but he didn't want to see her with someone who'd take up all her time.

That and… Well, there was just something off about Scorpius.

Freddie thought himself a pretty good judge of character. After all, his best mates were Roxanne and Lorcan Scamander. Lorcan was a sly Ravenclaw a year above them with a penchant for pulling jokes on people just like the twins, so he fit right in with Roxanne and Freddie.

As for cousins… Freddie and Roxanne had a lot of them. They were all pretty good people and nice enough. Well, Victoire was rather full of herself, and Louis liked to brood, and Molly was stuck-up, and Lucy was the family screw-up… Er, James wasn't quite the skirt-chaser people made him out to be, and Al was pleasantly and refreshingly apathetic, and Lily did think about things other than Teddy Lupin… … Well, Rose wasn't quite the terrible know-it-all others saw her as, and Hugo did stick out as being something more than the "bland one."

Er, yeah. A good judge of character…

Well, Freddie's judgment was beside the point. Roxanne was much better at that, anyway, so if she liked Scorpius, then so would Freddie. Unfortunately, he was beginning to like Scorpius in that way, despite being unsettled by him.

Freddie blamed it on that whole "twin connection" thing.

He wouldn't act upon it, of course. Freddie saw it as a passing attraction, merely something that happened since he was a teenage boy. Surely it wasn't that uncommon to have crushes like this when one was young? No, certainly it wasn't uncommon. There was only one problem:

Was it Freddie's imagination, or was he starting to catch Scorpius' eye?

- ^-^3

It was the start of sixth year for Freddie and Roxanne. Roxanne and Scorpius had been going out for a year now, and Freddie enjoyed his sister's happiness. He'd sworn to himself and to their dad ages ago that if a boy ever made her cry, Freddie would Crucio the guy and maybe Avada Kedavra him afterwards.

But Scorpius didn't elicit those feelings. He treated Roxanne like a lady, which was hilarious. Roxanne was a tomboy and had no problem acting like it. But Scorpius drew out the girl in her, though she was buried deep down under a horde of lewd ideas and possible future Wheezes.

Shyeah. Roxanne was a true Weasley.

Anyway, Freddie couldn't help but feel content that everything was going right for everyone. Currently there weren't any rivalries. Currently there weren't any grudges. Currently there weren't any lines drawn because someone had looked at someone's significant other…yet.

Of course, as the Fates would have it, that was bound to change. And it did.

Not through any fault of Freddie's, though.

Freddie cursed to himself as he sat in the Gryffindor common room with his sister, getting a little bit of Charms homework done. It was one of the few subjects they liked since it was so useful to them—for the obvious, troublemaking reasons. But he couldn't focus. All he could think about was something that had happened earlier at lunch.

In the Great Hall, the twins had been sitting with Lorcan, Rose, Al, and Scorpius at the Gryffindor table. Lorcan, Rose, and Al had sat on one side; Scorpius, Roxanne, and Freddie had sat on the other. Freddie had been preparing to fling some eggs at Al when Roxanne had said something that made the table laugh. She'd then asked if Scorpius had agreed.

Scorpius had said "yes." But he hadn't looked at her when he'd responded. His eyes had been locked on someone else's, and no one but that person had seemed to notice.

Freddie had caught Scorpius' eye, wondering why he was looking at him when Roxanne was right there.

The Weasley twin had shaken it off, though, and had looked away, chocking it up to a trick of his eyes. After all, Roxanne had been talking about love coming in mysterious forms. Why the hell would Scorpius look at him in any such way after any such comment?

But it'd thrown Freddie, and he hadn't been able to concentrate since. Even now, he only heard half of what his sister said.

"…sit down with us." Roxanne sat back down on the chair, and the cushion on the couch sank beside Freddie.

He froze. The leg touching his was that leg. The hand near his was that hand. And those gray orbs were those gray orbs.

Bugger. Did Scorpius Malfoy have to show up at this precise moment?

The blond Slytherin laughed. "Isn't this a kind of betrayal, inviting a snake into the lions' den?"

Roxanne gave him a look. "Why should it be? Al comes up here all the time. It probably has something to do with that roommate of Rose's. Ugh, what's her name?"

"Calytrix Zabini," Scorpius answered. "It must be weird, having both of her parents teach here. Especially when her mother is Parkinson–Zabini." He leaned on Freddie's arm, teasingly shoving him. "Could you imagine having a pug-face for a mother?"

Freddie laughed, half at what Scorpius had said, half because he was so bloody damn nervous from being so close to the other wizard. He shifted away, breathing better once he was no longer in contact with him. "Yeah, that would suck… I, er, am gonna go to bed early… I'm rather tired. So yeah. See you guys in the morning." He got a kiss on the cheek from Roxanne and headed upstairs. But before the common room was out of sight, he peeked back down.

Scorpius winked back up at him.

Faster than he'd ever before moved, Freddie bolted upstairs and dove under the covers, the cold from his sheets and pillows calming the heat of his cheeks. It was no trick. Scorpius was toying with him…Freddie just didn't know if that was a good thing or not.

- ^-^3

Honestly, it was little instances like that that made it a difficult year for Freddie. Every time he'd look up, there was Scorpius. Every time he felt a chill on the back of his neck, there was Scorpius. Try as he might, Freddie could barely manage to avoid Scorpius. Somehow, the Slytherin Head Boy always found him and always caused him some kind of emotional disturbance.

At first, it was just the furtive glances; they were bad enough. Freddie would walk into something if he didn't pull his eyes away fast enough. Then came all the "accidental" brushings—his arm would touch Scorpius', his leg would be pressed up against his (something that was happening a lot more often since Scorpius started sitting between the twins at meals), their fingers would graze when one reached over the other on some table.

Oh, yes, there was also that instance of a pinch to the arse. Completely harmless. Freddie had only gone rigid when it'd happened at supper. Then he'd let it pass, dismissing it as a gentle, friendly tease.

…

How could he have been so stupid as not to see it as something more than a thing between mates?

Scorpius took to being "buddy-buddy" with Freddie. The others, even Roxanne, saw it as the boyfriend trying to make nice with the brother. Freddie couldn't believe anyone could be so thick. He even pointedly didn't go anywhere alone with Scorpius. Freddie didn't trust himself not to succumb to the obvious flirting.

That was why he snapped.

- ^-^3

At the Quidditch game between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor late in winter, their whole lot sat huddled together, cheering on Rose, the Gryffindor Keeper; Lily, one of the Chasers; and Hugo, though he was a Hufflepuff Beater.

Much to his dismay, Freddie sat squashed between Scorpius and Lorcan. He tried staying closer to Lorcan, but his best mate was of little help. Lorcan was too focused on booing what he thought were bad calls.

Lily scored a few points with the Quaffle, making their part of the stands get up and cheer. That gave the golden opportunity for Scorpius to…"surprise" Freddie again.

The dark-skinned Weasley boy glared at him, despite being berry red in the face. "Will you stop grabbing my arse?" he hissed.

Scorpius raised his eyebrows and smirked. Then he went back to watching the game.

Freddie had had enough. He got Lorcan to switch seats, and there were no further problems afterwards. Gryffindor won, Scorpius wasn't any more of a git, and Freddie's heart could stop pounding a thousand miles an hour.

Yeah. Things were good.

- ^-^3

Scorpius seemed to quiet down after that incident. Freddie wrote it off as Scorpius giving up or biding his time and building up to something big.

"He's gotten the better of you," Lorcan told him in early spring, when the end of the school year was just in sight.

"Lorc!" Freddie scoffed and loosed his tie. "You scared the thestral out of me…" He paused. "Wait—what did you say?"

Lorcan raised his eyebrows and sat down beside his best mate in the library, pushing Freddie's doodled Potions homework out of reach. "Don't think I didn't notice. Scorpius has basically been sexually harassing you."

The brunet pursed his lips. "Isn't that taking it a bit far…?"

"Freddie, it's obvious to me that's why you try and scurry away whenever he's around. And I heard you at the Quidditch game a couple of weeks back."

Freddie's cheeks burned as he glared at the blond Ravenclaw. "So?" he grumbled, looking away.

"It's obvious he likes you. It's obvious you quite fancy him."

"AGH! Stop using 'obvious'!" Freddie spat. He turned back to Lorcan and hit him in the arm with a book. "I do not fancy Scorpius!"

Lorcan quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, really? Then how come you react the way you do?" His face turned serious. "It's all right if you do, Fred."

After several quiet minutes, Freddie finally sighed. "Look, I…might, but don't tell Roxie, okay?"

"Are you kidding? Rox is the first person to tell!"

"No! I don't want to upset her! Besides, he's—"

"—her boyfriend, I know." There was a mischievous glint in Lorcan's eye. "Which is why you should tell her. If he has a hankering for a Weasley twin of the other variety, then she should know. 'Sides… I might…be able to swing in and, y'know, pick up the pieces." He winked, and Freddie groaned.

"How long?"

"Are you kidding? Since the three of us became best mates in second year. Well, your first year, but that doesn't matter." Lorcan gaped at him. "You honestly didn't know? Huh. Maybe you fell for Scorpius ages ago."

Freddie's cheeks flushed. "No! I've always seen him as a mate." He looked towards the ceiling. "Except for the past couple of months…"

Lorcan smirked. "Exactly. So, you take Scor, I take Roxanne, and everyone goes home a happy winner."

"You forget one thing."

"What's that?"

"Roxanne still fancies him. And I—I don't like him so much that I'd take any chances." Freddie took several deep breaths. "I'll just…go find a nice witch and—"

"Freddie, it's not about liking witches or wizards. It's about liking the person."

"Yeah, well, I don't like arrogant bastards."

"Scor's a nice bloke."

"A nice bloke who just happens to grab other blokes' arses."

"He hasn't grabbed anyone who's not you." Lorcan leaned in so only Freddie heard him. "He hasn't even been that familiar with Roxanne."

It was Freddie's turn to quirk an eyebrow. "Paying that much attention to my little sis, are you?"

The blond's cheeks pinked, but he ignored the jab. "Look, all I'm saying is that there's something there. Whether you believe it or not, it's there. Whether you want to act on it or not, well…" He scratched his head. "I dunno what to tell you, mate. But Roxanne deserves someone better."

"Meaning you."

"Hey, if it could be me, then that's fantastic. But she doesn't deserve a liar for a boyfriend." With that final argument, Lorcan left Freddie alone in the library with a lot to think. Needless to say, Freddie never finished his Potions homework.

- ^-^3

"Ah, Merlin, I love free periods!" Roxanne exclaimed the following week as the friends walked down to lunch early.

"You only like it because you get to eat early," Freddie prodded, snickering. "You won't be 'Roxanne Weasley' anymore. Soon enough, you'll be 'Roxanne Waddles-ly.'"

"You git!" She tripped her brother and laughed as he crashed into Scorpius' back. "Ha, serves you right!"

Freddie wanted to kill her not for tripping him but for forcing him to take a tumble with the one wizard he was doing his damnedest to avoid. He hopped up fairly quickly and brushed himself off, not looking at what he knew was an interesting expression on Scorpius' countenance.

They made it to the Great Hall without too many hindrances and joined Rose and Al at the Gryffindor table. Lorcan sat on the other side of Rose as always (putting him across from Roxanne, too), and Scorpius sat between the twins. Freddie suddenly had a hard time not thinking of his discussion with Lorcan from the previous week.

Epic fail.

While Al bitched about what he thought was an unfair Arithmancy mark from Professor Vector, Freddie made a bold move and struck up a conversation with Scorpius. "So, are you prepared to be beaten by Gryffindor in the last Quidditch game?"

Scorpius smiled. "Oh, I doubt my House will lose. However, if Lady Luck is on your side, then I'm sure I'll need a shoulder on which I might cry." He said the last bit with that clever Malfoy smirk.

Freddie's eye twitched in annoyance. "Well, isn't that funny? I'm sure you would've had one if you made a different choice last year." He froze. Shit. Had he really just said that? As his cheeks grew hot, he reached for a plate of chips, purposefully not turning to Scorpius.

The Slytherin waited a minute. "I thought so."

"Thought what?" Freddie hissed lowly.

"You're right," the Head Boy stated sadly, quietly. "I should've made a different choice a long time ago."

The twin's shoulders sagged. He hadn't meant to hurt Scorpius with his words. He'd merely wanted Scorpius… Hell. He could put his full stop there. Lorcan was right. He merely wanted Scorpius.

"Is it possible I used an Erasable Ink quill for that question?" Scorpius pushed. "You know… Giving me the chance to change my answer."

Freddie frowned. "Scor, just drop it."

"Fred."

Saying just his name made Freddie tingle with exhilaration. He had to face Scorpius. And, Merlin, Scor looked at him as though he were the only person in the world. Roxanne, Rose, and Al didn't exist. Lorcan who? Then it happened.

In a world of magic, nothing could've been more sensational than time slowing down. But time never slowed down without the help of a Time-Turner; it just felt as if one were being used now. Because, had Freddie been thinking straight, he never would've let it happen. He never would've faced Scorpius. He never would've leaned forward just a smidge.

He never would've stayed put as Scorpius did the unthinkable and leaned down to kiss him.

Well. That was one thing never expressed through the "twin connection."

Freddie loved every second of it, despite the logical part of him telling him he shouldn't. But his senses were sharp and clear. He heard the reactions around him. He heard Al's and Rose's gasps, Lorcan's groan, and Roxanne's befuddlement. There weren't any reactions from fellow classmates, not yet. Not enough people were in the Great Hall, and the kiss had happened so fast that only those four had seen it.

The proverbial shit hit the proverbial fan following that.

Roxanne hopped up. Lorcan did the same, readying to restrain her with a spell if needed. Rose covered her gaping mouth with her hands. Al had to remove his glasses from his shocked face to wipe off the sudden steam on his lenses.

Everything happened at once.

"What the bloody hell?!" Roxanne screeched once Scorpius had pulled away from her brother. It was a mix of pure fury and utter confusion and betrayal on her face. "What the fucking hell, Scorpius?!"

"Shit," Lorcan cursed. "Scorpius, get out of here. No, don't protest or try to explain, mate. Just save yourself for now."

"He just— Did you see—? Scor and Freddie—" Rose couldn't even form a complete sentence.

"Well… It's suddenly very uncomfortable in here, isn't it?" Al croaked, finding the wood grain of the table very amusing.

Scorpius sighed. "I'm sorry, Roxanne." He glanced at Freddie, who could read in his eyes what he didn't want to say in front of Roxanne: But I'm not sorry for snogging you.

Freddie had no idea how he felt in all of this.

Somehow, he got through lunch. He wasn't sure who remained seated with him, but he was vaguely aware of other bodies. Worst of all, the guilt consumed him, for in the rest of the day's classes, Roxanne pestered him, asking him if he was all right, if she should Hex Scorpius for doing that to him, or if she should just kick him repeatedly between the legs so he'd get the message never to go near her brother again.

Oh, how the guilt set in.

- ^-^3

It was how Roxie dealt with Scorpius' betrayal for the following two weeks. She kept telling herself that she wasn't the only one hurt in this, that Freddie had been mauled, too, though literally, not emotionally. So she made it her main focus to come up with all the best ways to torture that "Slytherin prat-arse."

"'Prat-arse'?" Freddie had chuckled slightly, though he was completely deflated on the inside.

"Yes!" she sniped. "I came up with a new word just for him—prat-arse! It's the only thing he deserves."

Yet, Freddie didn't feel the same way. "It's because you wish he hadn't stopped there," Lorcan told him. Freddie had retorted with, "Oh? And are you with my sister yet?"

Sure enough, Lorcan stopped talking to him. Which he thought funny. Of anyone, Roxanne should be the one not talking to him and Lorcan should be his sympathizer.

"Lady Luck, my foot," Freddie grumbled to himself.

He could only take so much more of Roxanne's planning, though. Not only was his guilt building up to Mount Everest levels, but he was also quickly finding annoyance with Scorpius. And he knew it wasn't just the "twin connection." Some nights, he heard Roxanne go downstairs and cry herself to sleep in the common room; he knew because he'd carried her back upstairs with some help from Rose.

He'd sworn to himself and to their dad ages ago that if a boy ever made her cry, Freddie would Crucio the guy and maybe Avada Kedavra him afterwards. Well, he was about ready to do that now. Forget how he felt about the guy—Scorpius had made Roxanne cry, and that was the final straw. Scorpius was no longer a part of their lives.

- ^-^3

"You. Malfoy. I'd like a word."

It was the weekend, and Freddie had caught Scorpius chatting with Al in the halls. Students milled about, but Scorpius heard Freddie loud and clear. He left Al, who went on ahead, and fell into step with Freddie as they began to circle in the halls around the building.

"Nothing's going to happen," Freddie told him, glancing up at the other boy. He didn't risk looking too long at him, for fear that doing so might incite another one of those godly snogs. …er, yeah. One of those snogs. Bleckk. …heh.

Scorpius glanced upwards at the ceiling. "Sure. Because you never implied that I should've picked the Weasley twin I meant last year."

"…maybe. Something like that."

"Then what?"

Freddie sighed, exasperated with himself for not killing the guy already. "You screwed up. Badly, Scor. You can't get everything you want."

"And you can?" he retorted with a sneer. It was something he rarely showed on his face, so it was evident that he was just as disgruntled at finally reaching this topic.

"Scorpius, you don't get it. You—You snogged me, me, your girlfriend's brother! You broke her heart. You…" Freddie let his anger well up. "You made her cry, Scorpius."

The Head Boy looked at him. "I know… I've…I've seen her eyes red."

Freddie glowered at him. "Then you should understand how I feel. Don't ever come near her—or me—again. Got it?"

Scorpius drew his brow down into a glare. "What about me? I'm not the only one to blame. You like me back!"

"But I didn't ask for anything in return!"

"So I'm just meant to let you go on, hurt? When I'm not in love with your sister but I am with you?"

Fred looked around at the curious eyes starting to take notice of them. "Look, you don't have to be so loud…"

"Why not? Why shouldn't someone be loud and proud of loving someone?"

"Stop saying 'love'!"

Scorpius frowned. "Look, I know three wrongs don't make a right. But if I could, I'd go back and make sure no one was hurt. I'd go back and reinforce that the Weasley I meant during that Hogsmeade outing last year was you. I'd elaborate that I meant 'Freddie' and not 'Roxanne.' But she thought it was her. She thought she could have me, and I didn't even know she'd had a small thing for me. She'd be much better suited to Lorcan."

Freddie rolled his eyes.

"No, I mean it," Scorpius continued, dragging him into an empty classroom. "When she came at me, I told myself that…maybe I shouldn't have tried asking you. You seemed more relaxed hanging out with witches in those circumstances. And I told myself that maybe I'd get over you if I went out with Roxanne."

"Are you that much of an idiot?"

"Yes, I am," the blond answered, utterly surprising him. "I am because I realized I wasn't with Roxanne to get away from you. I was with Roxanne because she had your face and your personality."

The classroom was quiet. Freddie stared at the floor for what seemed like hours but was truly only minutes. When he finally looked up, he saw the sincerity in Scorpius' eyes. "Really?"

"Really."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Scorpius mumbled with a chuckle.

Freddie walked up to him, looking him straight in the eye. He let out a big breath. "Yeah… I was feeling pretty guilty about Roxie. I still can't believe you did that in the Great Hall."

"I know."

"I'll tell Lorcan later that he should make his move."

"Oh? So I was right about them." Scorpius grinned. "I guess I'm a good judge of character."

Freddie smirked. "I'm beginning to think I am, too." He drew Scorpius down to him a little, tentatively kissing him at first, but then catching on with a little more vigor. He melted into Scorpius' embrace, but Fred let his own hand wander south. He smirked again at Scorpius' blush and "eep." "By the way, that is how you snog, and this is how you make out."

"I was, er, wondering where Roxanne got her profane mind…"

Freddie untucked the hem of Scorpius' shirt and touched the pale skin of the blond's exposed abdomen. "Scor, you have no idea."

- ^-^3

Oh, Merlin… I really wanted to keep a T rating for this first Scred, but I think I just set the bar for the next one, if not the next few, at M… Oh, MERLIN! M=Mmmm, yummy… XD But yeah. I think everyone was redeemed (somewhat), I learned the proper use of dashes (finally!), and Freddie got his Scor. Oh, boy. Fred scored Scor.

Thanks for reading, and please review!

-mew-tsubaki :D ;) :3

Thanks as always to Morghen for beta'ing! XD

2017 note: *LOL* Not bad, not bad. I'm a bit sad that, in the 7 yrs since this fic, I've not rly done much with exploring twin connections in HariPo fics despite loving the various twin sets in the series. Still, I liked this fic, and I rly did learn the proper use of em-dashes at this time, *LOL*. XDD (I'm prolly one of the few people who can explain the difference between hyphens -, en-dashes –, and em-dashes —. ;P)