First Choice • George Weasley

6. Tension

The rest of the day was quiet, and there was a lingering tension in the house with Fred still being upset with George. They avoided each other most of the day, Fred staying up in their room and George downstairs with the rest of us. Anytime questions were raised about what was wrong, George and I just acted like we didn't know to the best of our ability.

I had managed to sneak up to Ginny's room alone for a few minutes to write Lee. He was always so kind and understanding, and I knew he'd be able to keep George and I's situation a secret until we had time to figure out what it really was. I told him the story we were going with for now, and requested that he play along about him and George having an argument for the time being. I felt awful asking such a thing, Lee being such a kind soul, but I knew George wouldn't be able to carry the weight of his brother being angry with him for much longer. And I knew he wasn't ready to tell him about us yet, whatever that was. Lee is the only the person who would really understand.

I slipped the letter in my back pocket and stepped outside where I gave it to Errol, the Weasley's owl, to deliver to Lee. I took a deep breath and pressed my hand to my forehead before heading back inside. At least we had some kind of a story for now in case anyone started getting suspicious about George and I. No one seemed to suspect anything was going on aside from Fred, but that was concern enough. 

Molly and Arthur had decided to go on a date night in a muggle city, so we would all be unsupervised for the night. They were going to dinner and then to a play, so they would be gone for quite a while. Molly had made dinner before she left and everyone ate around seven o'clock. We decided to eat in the living room and all watched a muggle movie together. It was some cheesy romantic comedy I'd seen hundreds of times. Fred eventually came downstairs and joined us, though he sat on the opposite side of the room from George, which I could tell bothered him. 

Ron and Harry were sitting on the floor, Ginny, Hermione, and I were on the couch, and Fred and George were each on one of the arm chairs that flanked either side of the couch. I was on the end, closest to where George was sitting. I could feel him looking at me throughout the movie, and every now and then I would glance back, catching him with a slight smile on his face. The girls were enthralled by the film, and the rest of the boys had become disinterested and were having their own side conversations. 

I had my arm hanging off the side of the couch, and I felt something brush my hand. I looked over to see George had slipped his arm under his blanket and reached down to hold my hand. I tried to hide my smile as I intertwined my fingers with his under the cover, and looked up at him. His eyes were warm, and his cheeks slightly flushed as I gently squeezed his hand. Thankfully no one could see due to the positioning of the furniture, and we were able to enjoy the small interaction for the remainder of the movie. 

---

The movie ended around 9 o'clock, and since no one was really tired yet we decided to play a game. 

"So what do you guys want to play?" Ginny asked, looking back and forth between everyone. 

"Doesn't matter to me, whatever you guys want to do." I added. 

"How 'bout truth or dare?" Fred said leaning forward from the arm chair, making eye contact with George. I looked over to him and he tensed up almost immediately at his brother's suggestion. 

"Oi yeah- haven't played that one in a while. Let's do it." Ron said excitedly. Everyone else agreed, and we all moved to sit in a circle on the floor. 

I sat with Ginny on my left and George on my right, Fred sitting directly across from him. The look on his face was making me nervous, this would be the perfect opportunity to try and peck at George about yesterday. Hermione, Ron, and Harry grabbed some firewhiskey they had hidden, and filled the gaps in the circle. Everyone passed around the bottle, taking a few shots to prepare for whatever we were about to do to each other.