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

MARCH 3RD, 1995

George Weasley and Olivia Danes hadn't spoken in over a week.

It had been an excruciatingly hard seven days for the both of them. Liv never sat at their table anymore, and Juno joined her for most mealtimes. He never saw her outside of then, in the classes they shared he sat as far away from her as he possibly could in order to avoid facing her.

Juno didn't speak to him as often anymore either. Whenever she did sit with them, it was always friendly but George knew she would stick with Liv no matter what.

He missed her terribly. He missed hearing about the book she was reading that morning, he missed seeing her smile at him whenever she saw him, but most of all he missed her laughing.

She missed him too. He was always so interested in what she had to say, he would crack jokes about things just to make her smile. He felt like pure joy as a person.

And they had ruined it.

They were never alone when they saw one another. He was always with Fred and Lee, and she was always with Juno, Cho or Cedric.

Even his name left a bitter taste in his mouth, mostly because he knew he could never be him.

The smell of the potion that sat in front of him in Snape's classroom reminded him of that.

Fred found him that night in the Common Room. He was only going to sneak to the kitchens for a snack, but found his brother sitting alone on the couch where he had held her for the last time before this had all happened. George was staring into the dying fire, not even acknowledging his brother's presence.

"You alright, Georgie? It's three in the morning, you're never up at this time."

Fred saw the hardback on his lap, and the patchwork blanket wrapped around him tightly.

"I love her, Freddie."

His voice cracked slightly as he admitted it, finally looking at Fred when he sat down beside him.

"Oh."

They sat in silence for a while, small sniffles and a crackling log the only sound they could hear.

"It was Potions that brought this on, wasn't it."

Fred thought back to the lesson, Snape's least favourite to deliver. To him, it smelled like fireworks, his Mum's cooking, and the vanilla lip balm Juno loved.

"It smelled like peach."

He remembered how his brother's face had fallen when it was his turn, and how he refused to tell him about what it smelled like to him. Somehow, Fred had figured out what George smelled before he had even processed it himself.

"I love her. And I don't think she loves me back."

"What makes you think that?"

"Cedric."

Fred motioned for his brother to keep talking, his desire for a snack having completely vanished when he saw George's eyes glazing over.

"He tried to kiss her the night before the first task, he calls her his lucky charm. We were both looking for her at the same time after I left breakfast. He told me he had needed to speak to her about something, said we would both be upset if anything happened to her."

He took a deep breath, staring up at the ceiling in an attempt to fight the tears he was holding in.

"I'm not Cedric."

"Don't you think if she wanted Cedric, she would've kissed him? Or gone to the ball with him?"

"She's the person he would miss most in the world. Would I be hers? Or would he be?"