Just Friends

quidditch pitch

"We are going on an adventure, darling, and I promise you'll have fun." He held his hand out for me, and I took it. The moment I did, he pulled it, running down the empty corridor. Fred did the same with Pansy, and soon all four of us were running, but only two knew where we were going. 

I tried to get them to spit it out, but neither of them budged or let a single word slip. We kept going, a mix of walking and running, and dodging professors and prefects.

"George, where on Earth are we going?" I asked again as we neared the training grounds.

"You'll see, now pipe down before you get us caught." We all laughed to ourselves a little. We felt alive, running through the night, the cool air hitting our faces and the stars beaming up above us. I started to think how the last time I felt like this was when I brought Draco to the Black Lake, but I stopped myself, not letting my thoughts go there. I didn't want to think about him right now, I didn't want to think at all. I just wanted to feel free. 

We ran down the hill and through the open archway leading to the quidditch pitch.

"We're here, our Slytherin darlings, the quidditch pitch." George held his arms out in the air and spun around, showing the enormous vacant grounds that I was so used to seeing filled with crowds, cheers, players, and injuries. It seemed so beautiful now, with the moonlight hitting it and the dark sky covering it like a blanket.

Fred grabbed Pansy's hand and the two of them ran to the middle of the field, laying down and absorbing the moment in its entirety. I watched them laugh and smile, and enjoy each other's presence.

"Hey love," George said as he walked over to me, his hands in his pockets.

"Hey Georgie," I smiled.

"Pansy told us about you and Malfoy, how you're in a fight of some sort. Is everything okay?" He looked worried for me and I didn't know exactly what Pansy told them.

"Yeah, we're good, everything's okay," I lied, looking down at my feet. I heard George sigh and the grass beneath his feet moved as he shifted his weight.

"Did you want to talk about it?" I looked up at him and he had his head tilted, a concerned look on his face. I ran my hand over my face.

"I don't know. I don't even know how to explain it. I just-I don't know." I sat down crisscross on the field and pulled little bits of grass out of the ground. George walked over to me and sat on the ground in front of me.

"Well, you don't have to say anything if you don't want." I looked up at him and he was playing with the grass in front of him like I was.

"We fought, earlier today, and it was as though he was mad at me but I didn't know why. I didn't do anything, I don't know what he was thinking. Last night he was saying how he wanted a future with me, and how he wanted to marry me, and I thought it meant something, but now I'm not so sure. He was being mean, in a way, and I guess I kind of understand why he was angry but it still made no sense. But then I went to leave his room because he was angry, he was practically begging me to stay. What does any of that mean?"

George sighed when I was finished speaking and he was looking down at his hands. "Well Y/n, I have mixed feelings about Malfoy, which is different from you because you love him. I, on the other hand, love to play tricks on him." I laughed a little at his words and he did too. "From what you're saying, I think something's going on with him and he's got mixed feelings. He loves you and he needs you but he's trying to push you away for some reason." My eyes widened slightly and I looked down at my ring. "Is...there something that would make him want to push you away?"