stardust ⋮ george weasley

fifty-nine :

F I F T Y - N I N E

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Between Adeline's course load and Head Girl duties, and George's Quidditch practices and product testing for WWW, it had been difficult for them to find the time to spend with each other. As a result, most of their "dates" had been them finding some place to cuddle with each other and study for their classes.

Well, Adeline would study. Most of the time, George would end up messing around or product development for WWW. But it still meant that they could spend time together, and that was all that really mattered to them.

That night, the couple found themselves in a small window nook towards the end of a quiet corridor. George had his back pressed against the stone wall and Adeline was practically on his lap with her back resting against his chest, with one arm wrapped around her waist and the other holding a piece of parchment containing some sort of recipe him and Fred were perfecting.

Adeline happened to catch a glance of the parchment and narrowed her eyes to get a better look at it. "Boils..." She read aloud before turning to stare at George, slightly horrified. "Merlin, please don't tell me you're putting this in Professor Umbridge's already-disgusting tea."

"Well, Addie, we both know your rules. As long as you don't explicitly know..."

She let out a loud sigh of exasperation and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Promise me that won't cause too much lasting damage? Or get caught? I'd rather you not end up in detention with Professor Umbridge."

George reached over and hooked his pinkie with hers. "Pinkie promise," He assured with a grin as he leaned his head down to kiss her knuckle. "Plus, I don't care if I end up in detention, especially not now. The only thing that sucked about landing in detention in the past was that Percy the prat was around to snitch to Mum and Dad – which he always."

He let out a small laugh, but it wasn't the bright laugh that Adeline had become so used to over the years of knowing him. This laugh was strained and had an almost underlying feeling of anger that worried her, especially when she remembered that George had mentioned Percy.

"You never really told me what happened with Percy," Adeline said carefully, not wanting to get him upset but also wanting to know what was wrong. "You mentioned some sort of really bad fight with your dad and how he's working with Fudge right now, but I don't know exactly what happened. All I knew was to not bring up Percy's name around your family, and so much happening at Grimmauld Place and since then that I completely forgot to ask you what happened."

George fiddled with his hands in an effort to distract himself until Adeline interlaced her fingers with his. "Percy's a git," He eventually grumbled. "A selfish git who couldn't give a damn about his family."

"Well I could've already told you that first part. But what'd he do for you to say the second part about your family?"

"Him and Dad got in this huge argument when he got the promotion," George explained. "Dad said that Fudge gave Percy the job so he could spy on us and the Order. Percy blew up and said all these awful things about Dad. About how he had to 'struggle' because of Dad's terrible reputation and how we always struggled with money because he had no ambition. Percy even called Dad an idiot for following Dumbledore and both Mum and Dad traitors because they were going against the Ministry. He told us that if we kept believing You-Know-Who's back, he would make sure that everyone at the Ministry knew that he didn't consider himself a 'Weasley' anymore."

Adeline was horrified, but George hadn't finished. Crossing his arms over his chest, his anger seemed to turn to sadness as he told her, "While Percy was packing up, we happened to run into him, and he said some things to us that made it very clear that he thought mine and Fred's joke shop was ridiculous and a complete waste of time because it's just some 'stupid childish dream'. Percy thinks we have even less ambition that Dad, and we're never going to be anything notable outside of our Hogwarts pranks."

Adeline was already fuming when he told her about Percy did to his family, but seeing the way that George's face fell and how quiet he had gotten after telling her what Percy had said about him made her furious.

"Your brother is absolutely ridiculous, you know?" She spoke up after a few seconds. "I understand that he might not get this whole situation with You-Know-Who and how the Ministry might be trying to spy on your family and how he probably wants a super stable job, but to say the things he did about your family – especially your incredible dad? Your dad did everything for your family, and he loves you guys more than anything in the world! No family is perfect, but Percy doesn't seem to understand how incredibly lucky he is to have a family to love him so much!"

Adeline barely even paused to take a breath. "And don't even get me started on the way he talked about you and Fred! Getting good grades and all these big titles like prefect and Head Boy don't mean a damn if you just want them for the praise and the glory or whatever the hell Percy wants. All he knows is how to play things 'by the book' and doesn't know how to handle anything that goes outside of his plan or the norm."

"And not making a name for yourself outside of Hogwarts? Are you joking me? Just because you don't want some stupid, stuffy career in the Ministry like him doesn't mean you'll be any less successful! If he even paid attention to have the stuff you created all on your own, he would realize that he's got an incredibly brilliant brother who's going to have this crazy successful business because you're the smartest person I know and–"

George cut her off by cupping her cheek and kissing her hard. Even though George had kissed Adeline probably a million times before, he had never kissed her like this. The kiss only lasted for a few short moments, but her head still spinning for a few moments after he pulled apart and she was admittedly almost breathless. "What was that for?" Adeline finally managed to ask with a small giggle.

"I love you," George blurted out.

Adeline blinked before her eye went as wide as a saucer. It took her a split-second to even process what he had just told her, but then suddenly the three small words were the only thing running through Adeline's mind.

I love you.

George had never said that to Adeline before. Well, had never said that and had her hear it. But now George was sitting in front of her, terrified that he had said the wrong thing and had ruined everything because Adeline hadn't even responded to his admittance.

"You don't have to say it back yet," George said quickly when the silence became too unbearable for him and Adeline's facial expression had yet to change. "I know hearing that probably freaks you out, especially since we haven't even been dating for a year yet, but I've been in love with you for a really long time. I've just been trying to work up the courage to tell you, and when I heard what you were saying just then, it all just kind of spilled out of me and–"

"I love you too."

Adeline hadn't realized she had said those words until she until she saw George's mouth gape open. But it wasn't as if she regretted admitting it – not in the slightest.

It had taken Adeline a while to realize it, but she was so completely in love with George Weasley. The thing was, however, she was terrified of telling him she loved him out of fear of George turning around and rejecting her.

But George's confession finally gave Adeline the strength to say those words out loud. That she was in love with him. It was one of the few times in Adeline's in life where someone she loved actually loved her just as much in return.

George beamed, his eyes shining brightly as he stared down at her and wondered how on Earth he had gotten so lucky.

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a/n:

going to keep this short and sweet so i can get ready for college classes but,,,i know it's been a while since i updated but i hope this chapter makes up for it 😌✨

i hope you all have a lovely day, and i'll see you at the next chapter!!

- g ♡