Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

49 - All Eyes On Me

George and I slipped out of the compartment we'd been sitting with the trio in and made it out into the long corridor.

We headed down the train in search of our friends, but as we passed compartment after compartment, I couldn't help but notice all of the eyes on me as I walked by. People would look over at me and then immediately lean in towards their friends, mumbling something that could only obviously be about me and who my father was. I scowled at them back, feeling myself getting riled up, but tried to keep my temper at bay.

I was just in the process of thinking about how all of these people were such cold-hearted pricks and how I wasn't some sort of zoo animal made to be ogled at when a compartment door a little ways in front of us slid open.

Out popped three Slytherin girls I knew to be a year older than me. They were giggling to themselves, but the minute they saw me walking towards them they immediately stopped and gave me a look of disgust. They turned around abruptly, slipped back into their compartment, and closed the door like they didn't even want to have to brush past my shoulder in the corridor.

"Are you kidding me?!" I said a bit loudly, throwing my hands up in exasperation. "I don't have the plague, you know! I mean, seriously—"

"Hey, easy, Nov." George said from behind me as we moved passed the compartment the girls had retreated into. "Giving them a reaction like that will only make things worse. Don't pay attention to them. You know they're just a bunch of—"

"Rude bitches." I finished for him, cutting him off.

"Well, that wasn't the term I was thinking of saying but I suppose that works just as well." he chuckled.

With me grumbling to myself along the way, George and I continued on until we spotted our friends all sitting together in a compartment. Fred and Jasper weren't there, though, so I assumed they were sitting wherever Lee was. I slid the door open and everyone instantly smiled.

"Nova! George!" Callie beamed at us. "Glad you guys caught up with us."

Everyone was looking at me with cheery faces, excited to see George and I, so I quickly took a deep breath to compose myself, pushing away all of the anger and annoyance I was feeling from the interaction I'd just had with those girls. It was the first time I was seeing my friends in a long time and because of that it would be rude of me to greet them with an attitude.

"Hey!" I said, forcing a happy smile, "Sorry it took us a bit to get here. We were talking to Harry, Ron, and Hermione for a little."

I entered the compartment and plopped down into the empty seat next to Adrian, George filling the space on my other side. I was so glad the two of them had reconciled towards the end of last year and were doing a lot better recently— it meant being around the both of them at the same time was a lot more relaxing for me than it used to be.

I definitely still wouldn't consider Adrian and George to be the bestest of friends though, but they were at least acquaintances now instead of enemies. But I think it would only go up from there, especially since Adrian had told me over the summer that he was thinking of going after a nice Ravenclaw girl that he'd gotten to know more while sitting next to her in one of his classes last year. That was news to my ears— it meant his romantic feelings for me were dwindling and that George didn't have much of a reason to despise him anymore.

"Not to worry," Isla smiled. "How are you two?"

Her features softened a little bit when she asked the last question, obviously directing it at me, and I knew she was referring to how I was really doing, but I didn't want to talk about that.