Disclaimer: not mine, but the plot is.

A/N: It was nice to work my own story into the actual storyline for once. I'm one of those people who tend to wonder what happens to the supporting characters once they leave the story, so I've attempted to come up with a bit of an answer here. This is the first oneshot of mine that I've worked more than a day on, so enjoy!

Please R&R

The Poison

When he got her into the room to tell her, he was nervous. He knew she wouldn't like it, that she would probably hit him. But it did not matter. This way she would know and not feel abandoned; or so he thought.

Angelina watched Fred carefully. He had never seemed to actively seek her out before, and had especially never asked to see her alone. True, they had been friends for years, and it shouldn't have seemed such a strange thing to do; but she had a fear. Angelina feared that once Hogwarts was over, she wouldn't have that bond with Fred. She knew that it would be too much for her to bear all at once. So, to counteract such an imminent sadness, she had begun to distance herself already.

It was not so much that their friendship would suffer, although in part, it would. It was more that she thought she might possibly love him that made it so hard to bear.

Fred was uncomfortable; he couldn't force himself to look into her eyes when he said it. "George and I, we're leaving today. We thought about doing it before, but now someone needs this diversion".

Angelina sat in stony silence, knowing it was nothing but the truth, from his point of view. She was going to force herself not to get upset this time, not to make it a big deal. After all, it would be useless to do so. It was unavoidable that he would long to leave now.

"There's nothing left for me here, Dumbledore's gone, and I can't even play Quidditch anymore."

So that's it, she thought bitterly, what about me, Fred? What about our friendship? Does that mean nothing to you?

Angelina was not so much bewildered as she was slow in thinking of something to say or do that wouldn't give everything away. She understood perfectly that he did not feel the same way, had known for some time, all of his silly secret crushes. They weren't, after all, so secret; Fred was uncontainable and quite obvious even when he did not mean to be.

Angelina was moved into action when she noticed Fred getting up to leave. She walked up to him and looked him directly in the eyes. Fred visibly winced, braced for the slap that was sure to come. Instead came something so soft and so quickly that he was sure he was imagining things. Curiously, he watched her walk to the door.

Angelina sighed and touched the door frame, gently leaning her cheek against the hard surface. Her inner turmoil was making her ill. She wanted to look back and see his reaction to such a fleeting kiss. However, there was no way she could handle the shock and disgusted disbelief that she knew were etched onto his glorious features. Without looking back, she purposefully left the room.

As he watched her braids swing out of sight, he realized with regret that she would remember this as the last time they met, with him not even responding to what she had done, and the memory would stay at least until the school year was over. Fred found himself wanting to go after her and clear up the confusion. He cursed softly as he looked at his watch and realized time was up.

- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

She watched Umbridge yelling at the twins, and them talking back. Like everyone else, she admired their daring. However, contrary to everyone else, she was not surprised at how far they were willing to go to make a point. Her eyes scoured Fred's face, searching for anything that gave away confusion of any sort. She saw none.

Fred, however, was more practiced at hiding his feelings than Angelina could possibly guess. In order to fool his twin, he was becoming an expert at hiding things, even if he could only keep it hidden for a short period of time. Sometimes, a short period of time is all one needs to come to grips with a situation.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

As time passed and brought her closer to graduation, the unexpected was occurring. Instead of ebbing, this poison, as Angelina thought of it, was growing stronger, impeding her thoughts. She had thought that once she made a move and he did nothing that this desire for what she couldn't have would leave. Contrarily, the lust for his presence only grew stronger within her heart.

Her friend Alicia held a party at her manor, and Angelina had to fight back feelings of betrayal when she found out the twins had been invited. Alicia knew what previously occurred. She knew Angelina felt abandoned. But she also knew the remedy, had seen the signs as only an observer could see them, not as a participant inevitably misread them.

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

Angelina saw him crossing the room in her direction. Her heart leapt with hope, then grew suddenly weary as she realized the drink table was directly behind her. Of course, she thought, who would not like a beverage, it has nothing to do with me. Despite this new knowledge, she strengthened her resolve and decided to meet him halfway.

Coming up to one foot apart, both stopped abruptly. She began to raise her gaze to meet his, when he suddenly pulled her into a deep, all embracing hug. She stood there stiffly not believing-perhaps not ready to believe-that this was happening.

It unnerved Fred that she was not responding. Then suddenly, finally, he realized that he had to keep holding on, no matter how noisy the room would become, no matter if the state of the country-the world-was steadily going downhill, because he had finally, finally come to realize just what she had weeks ago. It didn't have to perfect, it just had to work, and this worked. They worked. And slowly, she realized that this poison was more of a vitamin really, or an antibiotic.

They belonged.