Malignant ••• George Weasley

Chapter 24 - Man in the Flowery Apron

Waking up, the memories flooded back of that morning. Of Juna's father hitting her, the intense fight with George, firing a curse at him... her face heated up with embarrassment at her over-reaction and borderline crazy outburst. Poor George didn't deserve that.
Juna thought about his explanation of the woman he was so close to on the bench. A recent ex? How recent? And the break up was amicable and mutual? What was the reason they even broke up then? That's not an excuse to be touching an ex like that, but what did she know? She had never even been in a relationship. She didn't know how to deal with these new experiences and feelings. Anger, loneliness and fighting was all Juna knew.

Her eyes fluttered open gently in the darkened room, the curtains were closed but she could see that the sun was going down. She must have been asleep for some time in her... bed?

"What the fuck?" Juna sat up quickly.

"Evening." Came a voice.

Juna panicked slightly, arms flailing for her wand before she realised it was just George. He was sat in the comfy chair in the corner of the room reading the book of poetry she checked out of the library. He had dragged the whole bedside table over to where he sat, using the lamp to see the pages of the book.

"How did I get to my bed? I fell asleep on... the couch."

"You must have been very tired, I carried you and you didn't even stir. Passed out completely." He chuckled.

Juna stared at him through the dim light of the lamp next to him, wondering what he was still doing here. Hadn't she frightened him with her actions earlier today?

"Oh yeah-" He stood and walked toward her dresser and grabbed something, before sitting at the foot of the bed. "I ran down to the chemist and got you the potion I was talking about, it will fix your face up in no time. I also got you a sleeping one too, I figured you slept all day so you're not going to be able to sleep tonight, so it'll help with that."
He handed her two small vials that held the potions.

"Um... thank you. Have you been here all day?"
She said and she pulled the blankets around herself further.

"Yeah, Fred wasn't happy. But sod him. He acts like he doesn't always sneak off with whatever girl he's fucking that week. And he's got this new mate who I find a little creepy but Fred thinks he's great. Weird dude." George rambled on thoughtfully.

Juna smiled half-heartedly as she read the label of the two vials to find which one would fix her face. She probably looked horrific at the moment, her eye was completely swollen shut and her lip felt fat and awkward. The pain wasn't so bad though.
She pulled out the cork on the correct vial and emptied the contents into her mouth. It tasted bitter and had a thick consistency that made her pull a face.

"Thanks again, George." She said quietly as she wiped her mouth and discarded the empty vial.
"I appreciate you staying, you really didn't have to."

"I didn't want you to wake up alone." His face was serious as he gazed at her.

"I don't- um... I'm not sure how to... fuck." Juna stumbled over her words. The words she so badly wanted to say just couldn't seem to form in her head and nothing was coming out of her mouth properly.
"Look, George..."

George held his hands up with a small smile.
"Juna, you don't have to say anything, I promise."

They stared for each other in what was a weird but comfortable silence for a moment before George's face split into a big grin.
"Back to your beautiful, un-bruised self."

She raised a hand to touch her lips to find them returned to normal, she hadn't even notice she could now see out of both eyes.

"Not- not that you weren't beautiful before though!"He said quickly.