Disclaimer: It's all Jo's.

Author's Notes: Ah, the last piece of the puzzle. This was sort of sweet, wasn't it? I have no idea where I got the idea from... but anyway, please drop a review and let me know what you think.

Alisa

Instigator

Normally Fred Weasley wouldn't give a flying niffler's snout about romance, but not today. For today was the day he would finally get revenge on one Miss Katie Bell for all the countless hours of teasing him about Angelina Johnson. Today he would get his vengeance.

Of course, at the present time he had no idea that in half an hour and a bit he would be writing two simple words that would take vengeance for all the playful mocking Katie had ever done. And he would be quite proud of it, to boot.

At the current moment, though, Fred Weasley was doing one of the things that he did best: pestering Angelina Johnson. She and Alicia Spinnet were trying to finish up their Charms together and were doing an awful job. It may have merely been for the fact that he and his brother George were disturbing them, but he didn't want too much credit on his brother and himself and instead entertained the idea that some of the blame lay with the girls' inability to concentrate on the task at hand. But really, how could they, when they had the Weasley twins instead to entertain them?

It was just as he had levitated Angelina's Charms book across the classroom when he noticed it. It, as this time, being Oliver Wood—but not just Oliver Wood—this was Oliver Wood, staring at Katie Bell, again. For the fourth time this week, in fact, and Fred had caught him at it each time.

It was sort of a funny thought. Not untouched, but not prodded at enough to be considered familiar to him. Just sort of funny, the idea of Oliver Wood (his Quidditch Captain and—though he jestingly denied it—friend) fancying Katie Bell (like little sister lost unruffled attitude, and a ruddy excellent Chaser if he ever saw one). It was one of those thoughts that gets pushed to the back of the mind until you should be thinking anything but it, then pops up like a not-really-a-friend friend who consumes your time in unjust amounts.

It gave him a sort of funny feeling he wasn't very sure about. He couldn't tell if he was happy at the thought, or upset. It was, he noticed, the same feeling he had for Ginny's crush on Harry Potter. He was over-protective of his little sister and wanted only the best for her, but he also knew that Harry considered the Weasleys a surrogate family and would never do something to hurt one of their numbers. Oliver was a Harry to Fred, and he didn't want Katie hurt any more than he did Ginny. It left him with a sort of queasiness in the pit of his stomach that didn't go unnoticed by Fred.

Nor, apparently, by George, who inquired what was wrong. Just a bit of a stomach ache, Fred passed it off as, and the flirty mood among the four teenagers evaporated, though Fred really hadn't hoped for any less. He pulled his own Charms homework to himself and his twin did the same.

Once the other three had settled themselves behind reference books and stacks of parchment, Fred turned his gaze over to wide-eyed, skinny-legged, long-fingered Katie Bell, who was hunched over her own roll of parchment, books scattered around her. His eyes shifted over to Oliver Wood (Quaffle-blocking, Quidditch-obsessed, five-foot-short-inches Oliver Wood), who was staring openly at Katie, seemingly unnoticed by the girl. Wood hadn't even bothered to take a textbook out of his bag and had his arms folded across his chest, making no sign of movement.

For the fourth time, Fred reminded himself, the fourth time he'd caught Oliver watching Katie work in the common room. If he didn't fancy her, what other explanation could there be? That Oliver just liked to watch Katie scribble away at her parchment? Of course, sure, Oliver could fancy Katie. Why not? Knows more than she ought to about Quidditch, isn't that bad to look at (for all her wide-eyed-skinny-legged-long-fingered-ness, he reckoned), funny in a not-so-sarcastic way… sure, why not then? Oliver could fancy Katie if he wanted to. Fred certainly wasn't going to stop him.

What about Katie, though?

The friend-who's-not-a-friend thought popped into his mind, and Fred shook his head, as if trying to dislodge it. But of course, now that the thought was planted there, little to none could remove it. So he decided to entertain it, and began to draw a crude Beater's bat on the corner of his Charms essay.

So, did Katie fancy Oliver? Sure as he knew how to Transfigure into an elephant, she did (for all that he knew, of course). And really, how was he supposed to know? He didn't spend hours at a time evaluating other people's emotions like girls did. (And Merlin knows why they do that in the first place.) He could always ask her, he supposed, and risk her blowing up in his face or bursting into tears or storming off in a towering rage. None of those options sounded particularly good at the moment, so he decided to hold back on such a direct approach.

Perhaps he should hint at it, see if she could pick up the clues? But that didn't sound very promising, as she would most likely end up thinking he fancied her, and then he would have a situation on his hands.

It was during this time that he noticed that Katie was no longer at her table, though her bag and books still were. Giving it no more than a single thought (hope no one notices I've gone), Fred got up and marched over to Katie's table (George, Angelina, and Alicia all watched him go with nonplussed expressions). Once there, he picked up a parchment that ended up not being an assignment, but Katie playing matchmaker.

As Fred's eyes scanned the beginning (and spotted his name with Angelina's), he made a small face of surprise. Even unconsciously she was able to mock him! Sitting down, he dipped her quill in the ink bottle and spotted Oliver's name at the bottom of the list, (thankfully) with no one's name next to it.

Fred quickly scribbled Katie's name next to Oliver's, thought about adding a heart, and decided that it would be too much. Instead, he headed back to his unfinished Charms, smirking.

Only a few minutes later (and Fred knew Oliver had watched him since he had scribbled those two words out), Katie returned to the common room with a roll of parchment and a tired expression. She dropped into her chair, opened her textbook (History of Magic, Fred had noticed with disgust), and loaded her quill before she noticed his alterations.

Her head shot up, she spotted Oliver, and smiled faintly at him. He smiled back, unaware of what was soon to come.

Fred—and now George, Angelina, and Alicia too—watched with mild interest as Katie strode over to Oliver, grinned broadly at him, and placed a little kiss on his mouth, which Fred noted was opened rather stupidly. She pulled back and grinned uncertainly.

After what seemed like the longest five seconds of his life, Fred watched with a lick of satisfaction as Oliver gave Katie a tentative kiss back. Turning back to his three table-mates, Fred grinned along with them as they (Angelina and Alicia, more specifically) alternatively watched the two kissing and giggled about it.

Fred, though this wasn't exactly the revenge he had planned, was sure enough teasing was in order to make up for it. And besides, this made him feel sort of proud, to boot.

FIN.