Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

28 - My Treat

Nova's POV

After being ambushed by the girls about my nighttime escapade with George, I went straight to bed but couldn't fall asleep. There was this giddy, tingly feeling rapturing every inch of my body that I couldn't seem to shake for the life of me. The thrill and excitement that had come with trapeezing about the castle with the redheaded boy was still lingering in me, keeping me awake. Though I knew I shouldn't, everything in me was telling me to do something like it again. It was a high I'd gotten a little taste of and now craved more than anything.

But being so hung up on the idea of doing something else reckless with George caused me to begin feeling a bit guilt for barely having spent much time with Adrian recently. He was my best friend— he and I would always see each other as often as we could every day. But over the last week or so, things had been slightly off. I'd still seen him when we were together with our friends, but we'd hardly been alone just the two of us. I'd been so caught up in my head about George and all of the really, really nice moments we'd shared that I'd almost been pushing Adrian away.

It was hard balancing the both of them. Neither liked the other, and therefore being in the same room as them was never easy. "Favoring" George one minute meant frustrating Adrian, and vice versa. But I had no choice but to try the best I could to please them both, otherwise face the consequence of losing one of them.

I realized I was due to give some attention to Adrian, so I decided the next morning I would ask him if he'd like to hangout one-on-one. I was bit nervous for what it would be like, though. There was no reason for me to ever feel uncomfortable around him, but it was a fact nonetheless that there'd been some tension between us, obviously having to do with George.

He'd, of course, learned of my tutoring arrangement with him, which ticked him off. He was undoubtedly still bothered by the new friendship I'd been nurturing, and likely always would be. He'd promised he'd try to be supportive of it, or at least understanding, but it was clearly still a challenge for him.

I hated that it inevitably caused a certain amount of awkwardness between us. Until this year, I'd never experienced anything of the like with him. Things had always been easy. Now it wasn't entirely smooth sailing.

It almost seemed as though there was more to the story about what he was thinking and feeling than he was letting on, too, and it was beginning to eat away at me. I felt like he and and I were drifting apart because of it. I wondered if there was anything I could do to improve the situation. Ease his worries some more. I wanted to keep my new friendship with George, but I certainly didn't want to jeopardize my current one with Adrian, either.

When the morning rolled around, I figured I'd hit two birds with one stone. Spend some time with him just the two of us and perhaps get a little more information out of him. Thankfully the clear sky from the night before had carried over and things were bright and sunny for once, making it a perfect opportunity for a stroll outside. He was sure to agree to accompany me on one.

When my first two classes came to an end, I trekked to the Great Hall for lunch, knowing I was bound to find Adrian in there. I noticed upon entering that he'd chosen to sit with his Slytherin friends today, so I waved to our other group as I passed them by and maneuvered to the other side of the room.

Per usual, like any time I neared the Slytherin table, I was greeted with staring and an uproar of either people whispering to each other or snide jeers and snickers. Typically it had to do with my father, but given my recent entanglement with Graham Montague, I definitely overheard a few things being said about that entire fiasco too.

"'Morning, sweetheart," Graham called as I walked down the aisle near where he was crowded by a bunch of his goons. "Finally realize what you're missing?"