Waldosia/// George Weasley

Chapter 28

Clover knew anger. She knew it with her eyes closed, her hands blindly reaching out towards it, her body engulfing it in a warm embrace. She knew how it tortured someone's soul, she knew how it danced under dim lights in glazed-over eyes, she knew how it felt burning under skin. It was sickening, haunting, consuming. An old friend. And the second George had apparated into his flat, she begged it to come and visit. But her emotions remained dormant.

He stormed over to her, and she hated herself for the way her heart called out to him. A silent plead, longing, desire. He never heard it, but Clover felt it thrum through her entire body. He only stopped when he was merely a breath away from her, his jaw clenched and eyebrows pinched close together. George looked angry, but Clover knew better. His eyes were raw, scared, sad.

"Lie to me,  Clover," he whispered like a secret slipping from his tongue, his breath warm on her cheek.

Pure and utter desire struck Clover in a way that she had never even thought possible. He was so vulnerable, so soft, so real that wanted nothing more than to make up a lie, to tell him a lie, to be a lie. She wanted to be a shooting star begging for pointless wishes to be made, breaking promises one by one. She wanted to be just like George, she wanted to be a liar.

His hand rose to her face and gripped her chin gently, "Tell me you didn't sleep with Charlie."

His lips were close to hers now, brushing down her jawline and over her ear. He was speaking so quietly, as if talking any louder would've made it real. But then his grip tightened and he pulled back abruptly, his eyes locking on Clovers. And just for a moment, it looked like everything good in the world had come crashing down. It looked like rain and wind and thunder were storming around in his eyes. It looked like George wanted to crawl into the earth and cry because all light had been drained from the world.

"Clover?" He said, a desperate plea. A shiver shuttered down her spine as he tilted her head to the side and trailed a finger down the darkened spots on her neck, the ones she knew Charlie had done, "You really fucking did it. You slept with Charlie."

He pulled his hand away from her and stared at her as if she betrayed him, as if she had left him when he needed her the most. And that's when it hit her. All at once, anger burnt through her entire body. He had no right to feel hurt; he did this to himself. This wasn't love, Clover convinced herself, but it sure did feel like it to her. Cruel and mocking and taunting, something Clover could never touch.

"What's it to you," she snapped, glaring at George with all the coldness in her body. With all the resent she was now feeling in waves rippling down her spine.

His hand twitched to move back towards her face, to cup her cheeks and pull her in. But his motions stilled. Instead, he matched her tone of voice and spoke right back to her, "He's my fucking brother, Clover."

"That means nothing to me," she spat at him, taking an impossible step closer to him so he could feel the pure intensity bouncing off of her, "Why should it?"

"Because," he seethed, his heart beating against her chest.

Clover's anger rolled out as laughter. Spiteful and mocking she rose her hand to fist his shirt and pull his face closer to her.

"Tell me why it should mean anything to me," she spoke, clearly and stern, "Why should you mean anything to me?"

George was looking at her, his eyes dark and blaring with shock. And Clover laughed again. Because she felt that she was meeting George for the very first time all over again. He's seen her closed off, he's seen her vulnerable, he's seen the rare moments when little sparks of happiness jolted through her. But now here's a part of her that he had never seen, the part of her she knows better than anything else. This was who she was growing up. This was what kept her alive throughout her childhood, throughout the war. This was her mind, body, and soul working together for once in her life. This was the angry, chaotic, stormy symphony that took over her entire being so that all and any emotion besides pure madness couldn't be heard. This was survival mode.