Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

31 - Detective Work

The next few days, the school could talk of little else but two things.

Most conversations centered around the attack against Mrs. Norris on Halloween night. Absolutely everyone wanted to get to the bottom of this whole "Chamber of Secrets" business —what it was and who identified as the alleged 'heir' the message had referenced. Some students even began taking trips to the library in hopes of finding information. All copies of "Hogwarts, a History" had been checked out and there was even a waitlist for those still wishing to get their hands on it.

Nothing of true importance seemed to have been learned yet by anyone, though. I could tell the majority of all the talk was full of baseless rumors about the entire ordeal. But others seemed to have a hard time discerning what was clearly just drama, especially the younger kids. First-years appeared quite frightened by what had happened to Mrs. Norris and struggled overhearing the gossip going around.

Ginny Weasley had become particularly upset and on-edge. She was a passionate young girl with a big heart, so this was really bothering her. Her older brothers tried to cheer her up by reminding her Mrs. Norris was known to be quite the menace, but it didn't help. Like some others, I think she was worried about more than simply the old cat, like the implications of the message written on that wall in the corridor. At the end of the day, none of us knew for sure one way or another if this was a giant prank or something horrible.

When the Chamber of Secrets wasn't being discussed, the subject of myself and George took its place. As I had rightfully predicted, word had indeed gotten around about us on the sofa together in the Gryffindor Common Room. Anytime there was news about a potential new couple in the school, people took it and ran with it. For some reason I never could quite understand, other peoples' business was fascinating to my fellow students.

It was annoying, certainly, but typically George and I just had to put up with some lighthearted teasing here and there. However, occasionally it was worse. Some people like Graham Montague and other brainless, rude individuals liked to take it several steps too far and insinuate we'd gotten up to other crude activities. Once again, as I'd imagined. But even though I'd been prepared for it, I still didn't enjoy it when they painted me in a bad light. And for them to suggest the things they were saying inherently meant they had pictured me doing them, which was an even grosser thought. I really hated boys.

Speaking of that one fateful day, having a conversation with Adrian about it afterward wasn't exactly fun. He'd quickly gotten wind of it— or, rather, the vulgar side of the story due to living with guys like Graham. So I'd had to immediately pull him aside and explain everything to ease his worries, assuring him none of what he'd heard had taken place and it was all completely innocent. Which it was... except for the fact that I had feelings for George that made it slightly more complicated. But I smartly decided to leave that part out. Adrian was still coming around to me having befriended George. I wanted to give him a little more time to feel comfortable with that before I dropped an even bigger bomb on him.

Of course Adrian trusted me and believed me when I corrected all the rumors to him, but he was still quite sensitive toward the matter after the fact. I figured it was partly because he, like myself, did not enjoy the idea of the school holding the impression that George and I were horny teenagers. I was sure that was something he did not want to think about. In another way, I think some of the irritability came from still feeling insecure and jealous deep down about me becoming close with another guy that wasn't him. I couldn't blame him for it— I'd certainly felt jealous of my friends' relationships with other people before as well, so I tried to be understanding and just provide him with the reassurance that he was still my best friend. As the days went by, he slowly returned to normal.