LOVE ISN'T EASY (but it sure is hard enough)

DECEMBER 4TH, 1994

Fred eyed Lee suspiciously throughout the entire morning, watching him like a hawk with every single movement he took. George picked up on this almost instantly, waiting until Lee headed for the shower to comment on it.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, throwing a jumper from the floor at his brother's face. Fred didn't even register that it had happened, glaring at the bathroom door, his jaw clenched.

"He's hiding something from us."

"So?"

"So I wanna figure out what it is."

George rolled his eyes, pulling on his shoes and walking out of the dorm. Fred sat still for a while, before pulling on his clothes and acting as if he wasn't staring at the door the entire time Lee was in the shower. He tried to drown out the noise of Lee's loud, terrible singing to some random muggle song he had never heard. Scoffing, he pulled on the jumper George had thrown at him and left before Lee got out of the bathroom.

He smirked to himself, having heard everything that his best friends had been saying. The first part of his plan had worked, now all he had to do was ask Juno to the ball in front of him.

George smiled to himself when he saw Liv sat alone at the Hufflepuff table, engrossed in the pages of some old worn book he had never seen before. The hand that usually held her full mug of tea now held a piece of his mum's gingerbread, the sight of which only made him smile wider. She smiled up at him when she realised that he was standing there, motioning for him to sit down across from her. She snapped a piece of gingerbread in half, pressing the larger piece in his hand. Her fingers lingered on his palm for a moment too long, before they brushed back over the next page. George studied every inch of her face, the strands of hair that were tucked behind her ears so they wouldn't get in the way of her reading. The pale freckles sprinkled across her cheeks and nose like constellations in the sky, and the concentration in her eyes as she skimmed the page. It was a Sunday morning, meaning that she was up at a normal time for once instead of the crack of dawn, yet George could see the tiredness in her eyes.

"What?" She asked, putting the book down and fiddling with the straps of her brown overalls, pulling down the sleeves of a thick black jumper as she did so.

"Oh, it's nothing."

She nodded slightly, snapping another biscuit in half and handing it to him. They relished the quiet, with their other three friends absent. It was just the two of them for the very first time. Not that they were complaining, not at all! If anything they were both silently ecstatic.

Without warning, Liv felt a hand cup her face. A thumb brushed softly against her cheek, staying there for seconds more than it would be if the gesture was friendly. A dark eyelash sat on his thumb, hot breath fanning over it as he held it up towards her lips. She blew on it gently, feeling his intense gaze on her. She looked up into his eyes, watching as he opened his mouth to say something before-

"Why are you dressed like a child?" Juno asked, plopping herself down beside Olivia. Fred and Lee arrived mere seconds later, breaking the quiet tension between the not-quite-a-couple. George sighed, sitting further back than he originally was and shoving Fred, who was in the process of stealing his glass of pumpkin juice.

"I like these overalls. Plus, they have giant pockets- I fit a whole book AND a snack in there this morning!"

George tried to hide his smile by raising the glass of pumpkin juice to his lips, but everyone except Olivia saw it.

Conversation carried on as usual for a while, trailing off slightly as Fred watched Angelina walk into the room. Liv noticed this, kicking Lee rather aggressively on the leg underneath the table. He choked on his drink, glaring at her before she sent him a look that screamed 'do it now'.