An Unknown World || george weasley

Chapter Six - Rule Breakers

As soon as they returned from Diagon Alley, Edwin began one of his books that he had bought that day. But he just could not get past the first page, he had so many thoughts of which he could not control or get out of his head. Was George in love with him too?

The gentle thumps of approaching footsteps snapped Edwin out of his distracting thoughts and he peered towards the door leading to the shop. Fred had finished work for the night and was chatting away to Ron about business. He guessed, anyway.

The door finally swung open to reveal the two brothers in their work uniforms, "Hiya, Eddie!" Fred cheered, after spotting the boy, curled up into the armchair with an enormous book on this lap. "You alright? Where's George?"

Edwin's eyes widened and replied, "Yeah, I'm all good! Think George is still in bed though..."

Fred instantly remembered that George was supposedly ill that day and that's why Ron had to cover his shift. "Better go see how that tosser is! Ron and I were thinking of grabbing a takeaway tonight, maybe a few drinks while we're all here!"

Edwin nodded at the thought of food, his stomach rumbled but only so he could hear it. How on earth did wizards get takeaway anyway?

"Ron, sit down, get chatting, don't be rude!" Fred joked and took him by the shoulders and guided him to a seat. "This is Edwin, he's a year older than you and he'll be staying with us for a while."

Ron nodded in acknowledgement and shuffled awkwardly in his seat. It appeared as though social interaction wasn't a strong point of his. "So..Uh... I haven't seen you at school, have I? What house are you in?" His ears progressively turned red as he started asking Edwin questions.

"House?"

"Oh, he's not in Hogwarts, Ron. He's a Muggle!" Fred said as he was about to leave the room.

"Why the bloody hell have you got a Muggle sitting in your living room?!" said Ron, he looked as though he was in shock.

Maybe this is why George was acting nervous around him this morning. Does his family hate muggles? Surely Fred wouldn't have introduced him to Ron if he hated muggles so much.

"Mum's gonna have a right go at you, they're not supposed to know about us!" said Ron, he now looked like he was in a state of panic as though Edwin was some sort of dangerous creature nesting in the corner of the living room. Edwin didn't really appreciate being talked about as if he wasn't too, sitting in the room.

"Ronnie, you know what we're like with rules... they basically don't exist!" Fred didn't seem to worry at all about Ron's reaction. "You're totally overthinking it, mate."

Ron and Edwin now sat alone in the living room, Edwin was still confused about the conversation between the brothers and wanted to know more.

"What do you mean I'm not supposed to know about you?"

Ron looked up at Edwin and sighed, "Well, there's a law in the Wizarding World which states that Muggles should remain totally oblivious to the Wizarding World, realistically, Fred and George should have casted a spell on you so that you would forget about our existence!"

"Oh..."

"Yeah..."

They remained sat in awkward silence until the twins returned to the living room, just 5 minutes after Edwin's and Ron's brief chat, but it felt like a lifetime.

The three brothers were now rambling away about business, Quidditch and whatever else sprung to mind. Mid-conversation there was a knocking, but it was too light to be at the door. This was a light tapping on a window, a delivery owl had appeared, clinging on to a bag full of food. Fred jumped up from his seat and accepted the delivery from the owl, gave him a treat and returned the owl with money for the food.

"FOOD'S ARRIVED" Fred bellowed from the kitchen. He balanced the food boxes on top of each other and brought them through to the other three starving boys. He conjured plates for the four of them and began opening each box. "Help yourself, Gentlemen."

One box contained pizza, which had already been sliced and divided into smaller boxes. Presumably, for the owl's sake, God knows how it would manage to bring a muggle sized pizza box across the town. One box had a bag of fries inside and another had chicken wings in some sort of brown, sticky sauce. Edwin was relieved to see that the takeaway food was similar to that he would get back in the muggle world.

Once all the food was devoured, along with a few beers each, the conversation became a lot slower. Ron mumbled something about having to get back home before their mother started to worry about him. Edwin wasn't sure if she would be too pleased about Ron returning home tipsy but this didn't seem to be too much of a problem as the boys all waved him goodbye as he stepped into the fireplace.

Not long after Ron's departure, Fred nodded off on the armchair. Edwin felt bad as he was probably knackered from working all day while he got George to take him on a fun day out around Diagon Alley.

"Psst... Edwin" George whispered from across the sofa. "Come with me".

Edwin followed George as they both tiptoed out of the living room and into George's bedroom. "Thought we could talk in private here" George smiled at Edwin before taking a seat on the edge of his bed. He patted the bed next to where he sat and Edwin sat next to him, cross-legged and more to the centre of the bed.

"What did you want to talk about?" Edwin pondered, looking at the slightly more tipsy boy sitting across from him.

"Well, what did you think of Ron?" He said, he looked nervous.

Edwin was unsure how to respond. "Yeah, he seems nice... I'm just worried about his stance on muggles though..." he said slowly as if he was expecting George to react angrily.

"I think he's just being cautious, the rules are quite strict."

"So... why- why am I here?" Edwin couldn't bear the thought of leaving the Wizarding world behind... forgetting all about it, it just could not happen. The thought of this brought a lump to his throat and a stinging to his eyes.

"I'm just gonna have to tell you," George said, he was now looking less nervous and more uncomfortable.

"Please don't make me leav-"

"I like you, Edwin"

"What?" Edwin was no longer begging to stay but was instead now confused about the situation. He seemed to be confused a lot nowadays.

George began to turn a deep shade of red, "I think I like you Edwin" he said bravely. "Like-" he paused. It now looked like George was the one with tears forming. "I don't know, I've never felt like this towards anyone before and I-"

Edwin cut him off with a delicate kiss to his lips.

"I like you too, George," Edwin said reassuringly as he pulled away.

George pulled the smaller boy into an embrace and buried his head into Edwin's shoulder. Edwin could hear light sniffles from the boy and he just rubbed his back to comfort him.

Edwin was less drunk than George was, and decided that it was probably best to get him to bed. He told George to get into his pyjamas as Edwin went to fetch a glass of water from the kitchen for him. He returned to see George already in bed and almost asleep. Edwin placed the glass on the bedside table and George lightly grabbed his leg.

"Stay here tonight" Edwin could only just make this out but agreed to his request.

He too undressed, leaving him in just his boxers and carefully climbed into the bed, by George's side.

"I love you," said a sleepy George as he swung his arm over Edwin and squeezed him in closer.

Edwin could tell that this was just the alcohol talking and replied with, "Get to sleep, George."

Edwin heard an indistinct mumble from George. He felt George's great arms feel heavier across his chest and guessed that he had finally fallen asleep.