stardust ⋮ george weasley

sixty-seven :

S I X T Y - S E V E N

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No one could entirely focus in DA that cold, winter evening. With winter holidays in a few short days, all anyone could think about was Christmas celebrations or traveling home to spend with their families.

Adeline wasn't an exception to this. For the first time in seven years, she was not celebrating Christmas at Hogwarts. Instead, she'd be travelling back on the Hogwarts Express and spending it with the Weasley family, which both terrified and excited Adeline at the same time.

While Adeline gotten along well with them over the summer holidays, spending Christmas with them was something entirely different. Christmas was such a family-centric holiday, and – especially considering how important family was to George – Adeline worried that she would do something wrong and ruin everything with them, despite George's reassurances that the Weasley family loved her enough as it was.

The DA meeting was spent reviewing a bunch of the spells they had been working on for the past few meetings, considering nobody really had the mental energy to learn a new spell. Harry, however, seemed to like it when everyone switched up partners, giving them the chance to practice against new people and not get comfortable fighting a specific person, which was how Adeline ended up practicing defensive spells with Colin Creevey for most of the evening. 

"Well, we won't be seeing each other until after Christmas break," Harry announced to the room with a smile once the meeting had come to a close and everyone had gathered in front of him. "But really great work everyone, seriously."

As people began thanking him and filing out of the room, Fred and George stuck behind with their Skiving Snackboxes in hand. Before heading out, Adeline gave George a quick kiss on the cheek as a goodbye and then walked out of the Room of Requirement with Melanie.

As they made their way out, Melanie complained, "I really don't want to go back home and spend time with my crazy family. I'm practically going to be lockdown for all of Christmas holidays."

"Can't you convince them to spend Christmas at Hogwarts?" Adeline questioned. "Try and hide here?"

"I wish," She sighed. "But my parents are insistent on me coming home, and my little brother is practically acting like a carbon copy of them and they're telling him to make sure I get on the train, so it's not like I can hide away in Hogwarts and wait until the train leaves."

Melanie looked like she wanted to kick a wall, and Adeline couldn't blame her. "At least it's only for two weeks," Adeline responded, trying to bring up Melanie's mood. "It's not going to be as long as summer holidays, and you can stick up in your room. Plus, now that you have your apparition license, you can maybe sneak out at night when your parents fall asleep."

A hopeful smile appeared on Melanie's face. "You're totally right," She responded eagerly. "Maybe this won't be as bad after all."

"Hey, Addie!"

Adeline turned around at the sound of her name being called, but immediately narrowed her eyes upon seeing George, who had that signature cheeky smile on his face that made her think he was up to no good. The fact he wasn't showing her his hands certainly wasn't helping matters. "What are you hiding from me?"

George removed his hand from behind his back and raised it above his hand, and, to her amusement, she saw that his boxes of prank sweets were gone and a sprig of mistletoe was instead dangling from his outstretched hand. "Mistletoe, huh?" Adeline questioned with a small smile on her face. "Where'd you even get it?"

"Picked some off from this sprig that came up Room of Requirement," He answered with a shrug, still holding the mistletoe. "Not sure why it did, but it felt fitting considering Christmas is just around the corner."

"You know, just because you're holding some plant in your hand doesn't mean I'm going kiss you."

"You have to kiss me," George insisted, wiggling the mistletoe even more as he stepped towards Adeline with a teasing grin on his face. "It's the rule, and we both know how much you love the rules, Addie."

"If you two are going to kiss, can you hurry it up?" Melanie called out from nearby, although with an amused expression on her face. "I'd like to get back to the Hufflepuff basement before midnight, please."

Adeline – albeit reluctantly – managed to snatch the sprig of mistletoe back out of George's hand and turned back to look at Melanie, who was staring back at her with a raised brow. "Unfortunately, I'm going to have to agree with Melanie on this one," She admitted with a sigh. "I've got patrol from one to four this morning, so I would like at least a small bit of rest before I'm back out again."

"Normally, I'd protest this, but considering your current state, I think I might have to agree with you," George muttered before sending her an expectant look. "Please tell me you'll try and get some sleep tonight."

Admittedly, her nightmares weren't as bad as they were over the summer. Obviously, they hadn't disappeared entirely. But Adeline had actually gotten more sleep since coming back to Hogwarts than she did over the summer at Grimmauld Place, despite her busy schedule.

Adeline also couldn't help but notice but the nights she got the most sleep and was awoken the least were the ones where she was wrapped up in George's arms. Of course, those nights weren't perfect. She still woke up at times in the middle of the night in screams, and it took George ages to help calm her back down again. But they had decreased in frequency, and that was all that mattered to Adeline.

"I will, at the very least, try," She reassured. "I promise."

To make up for the mistletoe, Adeline went up on her tiptoes to give George a quick kiss as she placed the mistletoe back in his hands. Smiling, George couldn't help but press one more kiss to the top of her head before heading off in the other direction with Fred.

"Bye, George!" Melanie yelled over her shoulder as she tugged Adeline down the corridor by her hand. Further down the corridor, the duo found Cedric, who was waiting by a large tapestry for the two girls to arrive so he could walk back with them to their dorms.

Upon seeing them, Cedric grinned brightly and jogged over to the girls. "Hey, guys!" He greeted, giving Adeline a quick wave before wrapping an arm around Melanie's shoulder and pressing a kiss to her cheek. "Sorry I couldn't make the meeting tonight – got stuck on patrol. What'd I miss?"

"Just Adeline and George being their normal, adorably disgusting selves, and Harry teaching some more defensive spells like the 'Impediment Jinx and the 'Stunning Spell'."

"Oh, so the usual," Cedric commented, earning a snort of laughter from Melanie and a smack in the arm from Adeline. "What! Am I wrong?"

"You both are," Adeline shot back. "George and I aren't 'adorably disgusting' on a regular basis. Well...not in front of any of you, anyways."

Melanie raised an eyebrow. "That's a lie, and we all know it. But, because I want to get back to my common room as soon as possible, I'm going to ignore it."

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a/n:

hi guys !!

this was more of a filler chapter, but i decided to publish it anyways bc I think it's Pretty Fun and i loved it !!

also, if you celebrate christmas, i hope the holiday celebrations go well for you and everyone stays safe and healthy !! <33

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

- g ♡