the painter // george weasley //

27

The Nightmare, Henry Fuseli, 1781

Olive was engrossed in the comic section of a no-maj newspaper, while George was trying to decide if he wanted strawberry or raspberry jam on his toast when he looked up at Olive.

"Olive." He stated, cutting the toast in half, putting strawberry on one piece and raspberry on the other.

She peered over her newspaper, "Mhmm?" She saw the seriousness in his expression and put the paper down, "Whats up?" She asked with furrowed brows

"Can I ask you something personal? I understand if it's hard to talk about.."

She chuckled, "Of course you can, you can ask me anything Gee."

"What were you doing leading up to the battle?"

"Oh.." She thought, "Well, um. My family and I, went into hiding.. besides Otto obviously." She sighed, "The Originals," she rolled her eyes, "That's what they call us over there; I remember taking a History of Magic class back in school and read that you guys have the same kind of thing called the Sacred Twenty-.." She squinted trying to remember.

"Sacred Twenty-Eight?" George finished for her.

"Yeah!" She clapped, pointing at him, "That, well they call us the Originals. Most of the families date back to the Salem Witch Trials, and the Goods are one of them. So the Magical Congress put all the remaining Originals into hiding.." She shrugged, "I really never understood why my family was labeled this, like were better than other magical families.. It's very classist if you ask me.." She rolled her eyes. George just had to laugh because he felt the same way,

"There is this family," he could tell already she wasn't a fan of them because her hair was turning a tint of red, "There were five notable women who were punished in the Trials. One of them was my ancestor Sarah Good, well there was another family during this time that were upset with Sarah at the time, so they told officials who she was and what she could do.. " Her eyes darkened, "So we don't get along with them, they are also just these rich snobs who think money is more important than anything else."

George laughed

"Salem is very divided sometimes; but anyways back to what we were talking about.. We all went into hiding. Max was able to stay in school, which made us feel better. We knew he was safer there, especially with Clay teaching." He could start sensing uncertainty in her voice, "Congress figured it would be safer if families split up, in case death eaters were to kill any of us. We would be apart.." She shrugged, "So they put me up in this protected apartment in Boston. Only a few knew of my real location, like Otto. But my parents didn't know where I was, in case someone used Veritaserum on them. And since I am the last female descendant of the Goods, they didn't want to risk it."

"So you were alone?" He asked, "For how long?"

"Uh.." She looked up, trying to think, "5 months? Give or take... Theo was with me in my safe house just before he left, and this Auror Phil. He was this old wizard, super cool; came around once in awhile to keep me company and then I was set free on May 3rd.." She swallowed

"Wait, you were set free?" He asked with furrowed brows, "What do you mean?"

"I was," she chuckled, "like on house arrest for those months. Couldn't leave, couldn't really write to anyone. It was just me and Phil most of the time."

"Oh.." George was on the run with the Trio, Fred and Maeve during those months and he felt alone, but now as he listens on, he was lucky. Because he got an extra few months with them while Olive was secluded from the world.