Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

59 - Good Luck

{ A/N: for the next few weeks it might take me a little longer to update :( unfortunately I'm hitting my exam season. But I promise I'm still writing whenever I can throughout the day and will always work on getting you chapters ASAP <3 }

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The coming days after the party and the night I'd officially become George's girlfriend, I truly felt like the happiest girl in the world. Things were so much better in my life now in almost every way than they'd been in a very long time.

People still had something to say about me, but it was like I was a whole new person now and I was relatively unfazed by such negative comments. I felt strong again. I felt safe and secure in who I was and no longer felt as much shame for being the daughter of Sebastian Pierce.

I knew I was nothing like him, George knew I was nothing like him, and so did my friends. That was all that mattered, not what random people around the school I barely knew thought of me, and I wish I could have realized that sooner.

So, the moral of the story is that I was so much better now. Mentally, emotionally— everything. And because of that I was so excited to see where things went with George. I didn't know what my future would hold exactly, but I now knew with certainty that I wanted it to at least encompass being by George's side.

—

One evening towards the end of February, Harry, Jasper, and I were in the History of Magic classroom with Professor Lupin at another one of our anti-dementor lessons.

The three of us have had several sessions by now, yet unfortunately none of us had managed to produce what Lupin called a "corporeal Patronus" yet. These were fully formed Patronuses that take on the shape of an animal that most resembles you and provides the most defense against dementors. Instead, the boys and I had only been able to conjure incorporeal Patronuses, large silver wisps that offer very limited protection.

Lupin encouraged us not to feel disappointed in ourselves over this considering even just incorporeal Patronuses can be very hard for witches and wizards to produce. I knew this and I was proud of myself for managing to do even just that. However, I really hoped I'd be lucky tonight and would be able to successfully cast the full charm. I wanted to prove I could handle myself against dementors if necessary, but also childishly wanted to discover what form my Patronus took on.

"Alright, Nova," Lupin smiled when it was my turn, "You ready?"

I nodded as I stepped into the middle of the classroom, giving myself some space. I took a deep breath and raised my wand up in front of me.

"You've got this, Nov." I heard Jasper call out to me as I closed my eyes. "Make tonight the night!"

"Remember to concentrate, Nova," Lupin continued, his calm and helpful voice echoing around me. "Really feel that happy memory. Dive into it like you're living it again. Focus hard. You've been practicing a lot and I know you can do this."

Last week I'd tried to use my memory of Valentine's Day, the night George had saved me from Conor. I figured it would be happy enough since we'd confessed we were in love with each other, however, it didn't seem to be strong enough to produce my corporeal Patronus. I think it was still too tainted with other negative memories from that same night. So, I decided I'd try out my memory of mine and George's date out on the Quidditch pitch at this session instead.

Focusing, I remembered how my heart had skipped a beat the first time I saw the little picnic George had set up for me. How we laughed and laughed as we filled our stomachs with candy and pumpkin fizz. How we laid out together under the stars cuddled up and he'd officially asked me to be his girlfriend. How unbelievably happy and excited I'd been to say yes and to pull him down to my lips.