More Than Heart Could Desire 《 A George Weasley Love Story 》

Chapter#6 A blonde Ranevclaw

NARRATOR'S POV:

George, Fred, and Anna were making their way toward the library, the familiar hush of stone corridors swallowing their footsteps. Anna needed help with her Defence Against the Dark Arts homework. The boys, predictably, needed her help with nearly everything else. It was an unspoken arrangement, one that usually came with laughter and easy banter.

The space between Anna and George was filled with a careful, brittle silence. He hadn’t said anything, hadn’t confessed what lingered so plainly in his smiles and stolen glances and neither had she. Anna had convinced herself that if he spoke first, it would somehow make her own confession less frightening, less like stepping off a moving staircase and hoping it didn’t vanish beneath her feet. So she waited.

They entered the library, the air immediately thick with the scent of parchment and dust, candlelight glowing softly between towering shelves. Madam Pince’s watchful presence seemed to loom from every shadow. Anna was just about to pull out a chair when Fred suddenly nudged her arm. Subtle as a Bludger, that nudge. He tipped his head toward the door.

George was there, kneeling slightly to help a pretty, blonde girl, who had clearly bumped into him, her books scattered across the floor like fallen feathers and George was gathering them up with an apologetic smile. Anna told herself, quite firmly, that this was perfectly reasonable. He was kind. He always helped people. There was nothing wrong with that.

Nothing at all.

Except they didn’t stop at picking up books.

They started talking.

Anna’s fingers tightened around the back of the chair as she watched from afar. She couldn’t hear a word they were saying, but she didn’t need to. George was smiling, that soft, crooked smile that usually felt like it belonged just to her. The girl smiled back. Then, absurdly, they shook hands.

And she didn’t let go.

Anna’s expression perfectly polite while her thoughts were anything but. Her chest tightened with a sharp, unexpected pang, jealousy flaring hot and unwelcome. She hated how quickly it took root, how easily it bloomed.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Now they were surely exchanging names. Introductions. Pleasantries. The sort of small beginnings that led to larger things.

Fred glanced at Anna from the corner of his eye, far too perceptive for his own good, a knowing look playing on his face. Anna didn’t notice. She was still staring at George, willing him to pull his hand away and turn around.

To look for her.

But for the moment, George was still smiling at the stranger, and Anna was left standing in the quiet of the Hogwarts library, learning, rather unwillingly that waiting hurt far more than she’d expected.

Fred had already dropped into a chair, stretching his legs beneath the long oak table, but Anna remained standing, rooted to the spot. Her eyes never left George.
What, honestly, was taking him so long?

At last, George returned, sliding into the seat beside her as though nothing at all were amiss.

Anna rounded on him instantly.

"Who is she?", she burst out, the words leaping free before she could stop them.

Fred nearly choked. "Merlin’s beard, Anna", he hissed, ducking his head and glancing dramatically toward Madam Pince. "Inside voices. Or do you want to be cursed into silence forever?".

Reluctantly, Anna dropped into the chair beside George, though her posture was stiff and her expression anything but calm.

"Well?", she whisper-shouted, brows drawing together sharply. "Who is she, and how long have you known her without bothering to tell me?".