stardust ⋮ george weasley

thirty-five :

T H I R T Y - F I V E

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With a little over a week to go until the Yule Ball, it seemed as if everyone at Hogwarts was scrambling to find dates for the dance. Adeline had been asked by many different guys, and she had politely rejected them all, secretly holding out hope a certain prankster would ask her to be his date.

Meanwhile, George was still working up the courage to make that final leap and ask Adeline to be his date. Even though Ophelia – and later Melanie and Estelle – had insisted that Adeline would happily say yes if he just asked, there were these lingering feelings of doubts and fears of rejection that kept George from saying those few simple words.

Fred, however, wasn't having any of those problems. He asked Angelina with ease, and George was hoping at least a little bit of Fred's confidence with asking Angelina to the dance would rub off on him.

Meanwhile, Hermione was becoming angrier by the second with her two best friends sitting beside her. Ron's horrible way of asking her to the Yule Ball had been the final straw, and Hermione furiously stood up, proclaiming that despite Ron thinking otherwise, she had already been asked to the dance.

Before she could leave the Great Hall, however, Hermione had one final thing to say. But this time, it was to a different Weasley entirely.

"And if you don't pluck up the courage to ask Adeline anytime soon," She hissed, leaning down to stare George directly in the eye. "Someone else will!"

With that, Hermione stormed off and out of the Great Hall. While George was still wide-eyed with shock that Hermione had just called him out like that, Fred and Lee were laughing so loudly at George's embarrassment that Professor Snape had to come over to the pair and shush them by hitting them on the back of their heads with a notebook.

"Hang on," Ron began, staring back and forth in confusion between George and the door Hermione had just exited out of. "What was that all about?"

"Hermione was just giving little Georgie over here a little push to ask Adeline to the Yule Ball," Fred explained, causing George to smack him in the shoulder, as he hadn't wanted Ron and Harry of all people to know about who he was going to ask to be his date.

"Adeline Reyes?" Harry questioned, grinning when Fred nodded. "Brilliant! She's really nice."

Ron scoffed. "Yeah, and out of your league."

"You better sleep with one eye open tonight," George threatened, and Ron couldn't help but flinch back because he knew that George would likely follow through on this.

"There's only a week until the Ball, and I'm pretty sure Georgie here will have to learn how to waltz on his own," Lee teased.

"Why are you making fun of me?" George shot back. "Last I heard, you don't have a date either."

Lee shook his head and smirked before gesturing to Ophelia nearby, who had been listening in on the whole conversation and sent a wink in George's direction before turning back to her work.

"You'd have a date if you just grew a pair and asked her," Melanie interrupted. "We wouldn't all tell you to ask her out if we didn't think she'd say yes."

"Well, Fred might," Ophelia pointed out. "But even then, I don't think Fred would do a prank that cruel."

As Fred did a little nod of agreement, George couldn't help but be confused as he looked back and forth between Melanie and the Hufflepuff table on the other side of the Great Hall. "Wait, how the hell are you here?" George asked, pointing to Melanie's black and yellow tie. "You're not even a Gryffindor."