Mischief not so Managed

18: The Future

George:

"walk with me" I said a couple of days after Lia had explained what had happened. It was her first day back in class. She had stopped all of us from telling her to take a few more days. She was going and didn't care what anyone else said.

"we have class" she said. The circles under her violet eyes almost the same shade of purple as the eyes above. She looked sickly. Life the life had been drained out of her.

"you think we're going to that class?" I said grabbing her hand and dragging her through the corridors. Students started disappearing from the halls as the class began.

"we'll get in trouble"

"no, we won't" I said "I've told McGonagall that we won't be attending that class due to Quidditch preparations this week"

"George" she stopped "I don't play Quidditch and you're banned remember?"

"yeah, well" I shrugged "she thinks we're helping, we're just not helping with Quidditch". The corridor was empty, and I turned around. I closed my eyes and a door appeared.

"abusing DA privileges?" she chuckled. I grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door. I had asked the room to show me somewhere she would be comfortable. I was shocked to find a room that resembled the room Fred and I had stayed in while at the Order. We had spent so many days over the holidays hiding up there, sometimes she'd read to me, sometimes we'd talk and sometimes we'd say nothing at all. "George, you don't need to hide me"

"I'm not hiding you" I said, "I'm helping". She did something I hadn't expected her to do. She stood up on her tip toes and kissed me. She hadn't made much physical contact with anyone since the incident, except hugging me once and letting me hold her hand. But this kiss was something different. Something deeper. "what was that for?"

"nothing" a small smile danced on her lips. She looked around the room. "why here?"

"I asked it to show me somewhere you would be comfortable" we sat on one of the beds. "it showed me this". Her thin face smiled slightly. She lay back looking up at the ceiling.

"do you ever think about after?" she asked as I lay down beside her, tucking my arm under her head.

"after?"

"like after school? When we're meant to be grown ups?"

"running the shop with Fred, joining the Order, fighting so that my future is possible, being happy" I felt her looking at me, but I didn't look down. We had never talked about the future before. "what about you?"

"I've never let myself think about it before" she said quietly "ever since Dad, I just never thought about what tomorrow would be just in case it wasn't there. But now I am"

"why?"

"because I guess now, I want one" she nestled in closer to me, putting her head on my chest.

"and what does it look like?" I asked playing with her hair. She stopped to think for a minute.

"it looks like working for the Daily Prophet on behalf of the Order and fighting so that Mum doesn't have and getting married and waking up beside someone I love and being happy and giving my kids the life that I wanted". She sat up and trailed her eye line with her finger.

"hey Lee" I said, she turned and looked down at me. "I promise never to go for a walk on Christmas Morning". There was so much love in her eyes and my heart was happy because I knew it was all for me.

Lia:

Had we been there minutes? Maybe it was hours? But I don't remember the last time I was this happy. We had been laughing and talking and just lying there. "we should go" I said after a long while of silence.