stardust ⋮ george weasley

sixty-two :

S I X T Y - T W O

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Breakfast in the Great Hall was normally a quieter affair, especially in comparison to dinner. A lot of students were just barely waking up and were too tired to carry on big conversations. Most of the time, the kids spent their time completing their homework last minutes or reading letters from their families.

That morning, however, was much more eventful than usual for a certain group of Gryffindors.

At a first glance, George seemed to be acting the same as usual. However, Ron was sitting across the table from George, which was how he became first to figure out what was slightly different about George that day. Although, even then, he didn't entirely figure out what had changed about George since the night before.

"Hold on, George," Ron began in a loud voice, earning the attention of most of their friends sitting in the near vicinity. "Why are you wearing a Ravenclaw tie?"

Fred choked on his porridge. Going wide-eyed, George immediately went to stand up and escape the situation, but Fred grabbed him by the arm and forced him to sit back down on the table again.

"Yeah, George, what's with the new tie choice today?" Fred questioned in a loud voice, pretending to play dumb. "Another totally unrelated question – why did you never come back after Quidditch practice last night?"

George's face went an even darker shade of red. "None of your business," He managed to say through gritted teeth.

His embarrassment only seemed to make Fred persist even more than before. "As your beloved twin brother, I feel like I have the right to know exactly where you disappeared off to last night."

"Do you have something you'd like to share with the table today, Georgie?" Lee added with a practically maniacal grin.

Harry leaned over to his two best friends and asked, "What's George getting so embarrassed about?"

Shrugging, a confused Ron answered, "Don't know, but it must be pretty bad if George is getting so embarrassed about it."

"I'm not explaining it," Hermione muttered. She flipped to the next page in her Ancient Runes textbook, however, she wasn't entirely paying attention because she kept finding herself listening in on the conversation playing out in front of her.

"I'm not sure why Georgie is so hesitant about telling me his whereabouts last night," Fred insisted, earning a dark glare out of his twin brother. "What do you have to hide?"

"Oh, I'm sure George has a lot to hide," Lee teased, tugging at the collar of George's uniform sweater. George smacked his hand away, which only seemed to egg the two boys on even more.

In comparison, the Ravenclaw table was much more subdued. Maybe it was because many of her housemates had been ignoring Adeline for most of the school year or they were usually less upfront and loud than most the Gryffindors, but it took much longer for Adeline to realize her mistake.

Estelle, however, had noticed the moment Adeline had sat down that morning next to her at breakfast. But, she waited for a few minutes before commenting, "Nice new tie you've got on there."

Adeline was confused at first. Then, she looked down and felt her face heat up when she saw the red and gold instead of her usual blue and silver. "Made a mistake this morning," Adeline mumbled, ducking her head down in an attempt to cover up the tie. "Do you think anyone else has noticed?"

Estelle turned her head around and part of the Gryffindor table practically erupting. "Maybe not in Ravenclaw, but I'd stay away from the Gryffindors if I were you."