Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

41 - Black and Purple

Nova's POV

I returned to my bed in Gryffindor Tower that night with a lingering sense of elation. When I'd left it in the morning, I hadn't the slightest clue I'd be ending my day on good terms with George. But I was so glad I was.

As upset as I'd been, I had missed him terribly. Now I didn't have to miss him anymore. And now I knew he'd learned and grown over the last month. It was clear he was genuinely sorry for everything, and was telling the truth about continuing to better himself. There was nothing left to be said about it.

But despite resolving things with George, that didn't mean it was all over yet. He'd only been half of the problem— I still had Adrian to deal with. But I determined it was time to try and resolve those issues too.

I wasn't necessarily looking forward to it though. It was going to be infinitely more uncomfortable to discuss things with Adrian than it had been with George because I had to address the elephant in the room— the fact that he fancied me and I couldn't return those same feelings for him. Nevertheless, I decided I'd rip the bandaid off and speak with him tomorrow.

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I walked into the Great Hall the following morning with the intention of speaking with Adrian, but quickly discovered he wasn't sitting at the Slytherin table. Neither were Graham Montague and Marcus Flint, or some of the other boys I knew to be on the Quidditch team. There must have been a practice session holding them up, so I decided I'd eat something first before trekking to the pitch to catch Adrian there.

At the Gryffindor table, I plopped down in the empty space beside George, offering a smile in greeting. I hadn't thought much of my actions until the scraping of silverware ceased and the conversation that had been occurring amongst my friends suddenly stopped. I looked up to find all pairs of eyes in our group staring, flabbergasted, at me. It was then I remembered none of them knew about the progress I'd made with George last night.

"Right," I announced casually. "So George and I may have made up yesterday."

"What?!"

"When?!"

"How?!"

"It's a long story," I answered bashfully, busying myself with placing some food onto my plate.

"Finally," muttered Hermione.

"Thank Merlin," Callie sighed. "I was getting tired of pretending to hate George."

"Pretending?" the boy in question chuckled. "Seemed like you weren't pretending when you hit me with a book and shooed me away from you and Nova like I was a rat that one time in the library."

I snorted, remembering the rather comical incident between the pair from a couple weeks ago.

"And I missed that?!" Ron groaned.

"Yeah, where was I when that happened?" chuckled Harry.

"Listen, it was nothing personal," Callie defended. "If one of your best friends hates a guy, you've got to hate him too."

"It's basic girl code, George," Isla agreed like it was obvious.

"Nova was cross with you so I had to be as well," the former continued with a shrug. "But at the same time, deep down, I was really just wishing you both would stop fighting because I missed how cute you are when together," her lips cracked into an uncontrollable grin.

"Speaking of being together..." Kol piped up.

"Are you two...?" Jasper added suggestively.

"It's... complicated, really," I answered awkwardly. Our situation made sense to George and me, but probably wouldn't to our friends. "We're not official, per se, but we're kind of... not single, I guess?"