Chapter One: Unofficial Meeting

Fred walked down one of the many corridors of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. His sixth year had begun with two big surprises. The first one came in the form of the Triwizard Tournament. The second was a little smaller but just as dramatic and caused more trouble than Fred wanted.

Fred saw the girl standing behind a crowd of people near the Dungeons. His anger flared at her for causing him so much trouble. He admired her work, oh yes, he admired it, but he was still angry with her.

"Who are you?" Fred asked the girl forcefully, which made her jump. She turned around quickly, her golden blond hair swishing with the quick movement.

"I'm sorry, do I know you?" she asked coyly.

"You're the one who has been setting me up to get in trouble!" Fred shouted at the girl. He didn't even know who she was, which also made it even more bizarre that she would get him into trouble.

"I'm sorry. You must have me mistaken for someone else. You see, I don't set people up to get in trouble," she answered keeping herself from saying anything that might be valuable to him.

"Well, it was you, I saw you setting the curse on one of the statues near the marble staircase," Fred accused her.

"How dare you accuse me of something that horrid? I insist you take that accusation back!" The girl began to lose her patience and Fred could tell.

"I won't take it back, because you have gotten me detention every day for the last two weeks!" Fred snapped at her.

"I really have no idea what you are talking about," The girl said. He is smarter than I intended, she thought, I'm going to have to work this well.

"Yes, you do. You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Fred argued. He didn't plan on letting her get away with this.

"If I did, I would have already confessed!" She said as she began shaking and her eyes began to water.

"No one would confess to a prank they pulled! I would know! I get in trouble for enough stuff that I do. If I get caught, I don't confess," Fred shouted. He had lost his temper and was only growing more angry with her as she eluded his questions.

"I don't even know who you are! Why would I want to do something to you when I don't even know who you are?" she asked. Tears began slowly gliding down her cheeks.

Fred stared in horror at her. He had never made someone other than Ginny or Ron cry. The worst part was this girl didn't even know who he was. "I..." He started, but the girl cut him off.

"Please, just leave me alone. I'm sorry that someone is doing this to you, but it wasn't me. I swear it," she choked and walked away.

Fred was left staring after her. He felt horrible for making her cry. Surely anyone in his situation would have felt guilty, too.

"Good going, Fred. Make yet another person cry," Ginny laughed as she walked past him.

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Fred shouted after Ginny. He felt miserable.

The next morning, Fred made it a point to apologize to the girl. He kept an eye out for her at breakfast and between classes, but he didn't find her until lunch.

She was walking by herself toward the court yard. She kept her head down and didn't appear to notice people who kept brushing past her. Fred waited until she was close.

He found his chance and walked up beside her. "Hi," he said.

Her head shot up and looked at him. "What do you want?" she asked coolly.

"I just wanted to say that I was sorry for making you cry yesterday," Fred apologized.

"It was a very awful thing you did yesterday. I mean, I don't even know you!" Fred had to admit, she had a point.

"Well, my name is Fred. I'm a sixth year and I'm in Gryffindor," Fred introduced himself.

"I'm Sam," she said plainly.

"It's nice to meet you, Sam," Fred smiled gently.

"I'd love to say the same, but you haven't done anything very nice to me, with the exception of the apology, which was deserved," Sam claimed. She still hadn't smiled at him, but he knew that he didn't quite deserve her kindness.

"Anyway, what class do you have next?" Fred tried to make small conversation with her as they walked down the corridor.

"I have Ancient Runes next," Sam replied.

"Really? You must be very smart then," he said, trying to be complimentary.

"Not really, I just like Runes and history. That's all," Sam said meekly.

"Oh. I have Potions with Snape." Fred shrugged.

"That is a very interesting class, too. Without it, we wouldn't be able to stop some curses." She stopped and seemed to think about what she just said. "I really don't know what I am trying to say, if you can't already tell," Sam said as she smiled slightly.

"Was that an actual smile?" Fred asked, smiling himself.

"No, that wasn't a smile." Sam's expression fell.

"It looked like it." Fred shrugged again.

"Sorry to disappoint you," Sam stated. "I don't smile."

"Then I guess we'll just have to work on that," Fred said, smiling at her.

"What is with this 'we' stuff? There is no 'we' it's just you and me," she told him.

"I didn't mean it that way," Fred quickly said.

"Well, there isn't more than one way to mean that," Sam looked at him again and began walking away. How could he think that we are friends, Sam wondered, we aren't even in the same vicinity as 'friendship'.

"Sorry, I really didn't mean it that way. Sam!" Fred called after her. She didn't turn back to him.

Fred sulked off to potions where he saw George and his new girlfriend, Alicia Spinnet. They were waiting for Professor Snape to open the door. He went to stand by them.

"What's wrong with you?" George asked.

"Nothing," came Fred's simple reply.

"Something is wrong. I'm not that dense," George argued.

"Could it be the girl who you made cry? Ginny told me about her," Alicia asked.

"I bet it is. Is she your girlfriend or something?" George asked.

"No, she's not my girlfriend. She isn't even my friend," Fred snapped.

"I think you like this girl and she doesn't like you. Is that it?" George asked.

"I don't like her, okay? She's just a girl who I happened to run into. That's all. Can we please drop the subject?" Fred barked.

"Sure, if you're going yell at me then, yes, it's over," George turned to face forward again. Professor Snape opened the dungeon door and let the students into the classroom.

Fred actually half listened to Professor Snape's lecture. He even managed to get his potion right. Fred was shocked, but not nearly as much as Snape was. Professor Snape was forced to give Fred a passing grade.

After Potions was break., Fred went to the library to see if he could talk to Sam. He felt weird being in the library, and for a good reason. He wasn't there to study, and he didn't feel at ease within the space packed so tightly with shelves and books in the first place.

He quickly scanned the library to find Sam. He finally saw that Sam was browsing the shelves in the history section. She apparently found the one that looked interesting and picked it off the shelf. She took it over to a table, sat down, and began reading.

"Hi Sam," Fred said to her. She turned quickly to look at him, then back to her book.

"What do you want Fred?" she asked, not looking up.

"I just wanted to talk with you about. . . um. . . history," Fred quickly covered.

"Why do you want to talk about history?" Sam asked. She was puzzled by him.

"I. . . it just seemed interesting. You know, how you were talking about it earlier," Fred stammered. He had no idea why he had brought up the subject of history. For Fred, it wasn't his favorite subject in the least bit.

"Just when I think I have you all figured out, you go and pull a stunt like this. You really are different from what I previously thought," Sam looked up from her book and into his eyes.

Fred had never gotten a really good look at her soft blue eyes. Her face was usually hidden behind her golden hair, yet at this very moment, he could see her fair skin and clear complexion.

"Fred? Are you listening to me?" Sam asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah, I heard every word," Fred said. He felt heat rise in his face. He was embarrassed that he had been caught looking at her.

"Really? Then what did I say?" She asked the dreaded question.

"You were just said that you didn't fully understand me," Fred guessed, hoping he was right.

"Wow. You're good. You actually listened to me. I'm impressed." Sam was shocked yet again.

"Did I say something wrong again?" Fred asked, mistaking her shock for anger.

"Not at all, you just pulled another one of those stunts that completely baffles me." Sam's eyes lit up. It looked as though she would have smiled, but she didn't.

"You almost smiled again." Fred smiled at her.

Sam rolled her eyes. "You're too funny."

Fred said 'goodbye' to her and walked off. Unfortunately, he didn't make it far enough to escape from Ron.

"Who is that?" Ron asked beaming.

"No one," Fred quickly said and tried to get away from his little brother.

"I highly doubt that. Did you hear when those two schools are coming?" Ron asked.

"Last I heard there was a posting on the bulletin board. Go find out for yourself. " Fred said acidly.

"That is exactly why I don't like my older brothers." Ron muttered to himself and walked away.

Fred rolled his eyes and walked in the opposite direction. He ran into George and Alicia. "Can my day get any worse?" Fred said under his breath.

"What was that?" George asked.

"Nothing. I didn't say anything." Fred smiled.