𝐄𝐏𝐇𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 | g. w

8. one moody twin

"Wait—so you're telling me Sirius Black was framed by your brothers, pet rat?!".

"Yes."

"—And the Ministry still refuses to accept that he's innocent so he's been holding up in London this entire time?".

"Yup."

"And both Lupin and Snape, our old professors, are a part of the Order, as are you?".

"Pretty much, yeah."

I'm sat in the Gryffindor common room again with the twins and Alfie. Lee is nowhere to be seen, neither are the other Gryffindor students. I suppose they want to keep it all hush hush, and there isn't really any other place to go where they can share this with me.

"Merlin", I breathe out deeply, perplexed by all this new found information that's being thrown at me. I didn't really take into consideration how baffled I could get by finding stuff like this out, and now that I do know, well, I'm not sure exactly what to do with the information. "What about Harry? Have you told him any of this?", I ask, wanting to know if I'm the only one within a close radius to them who wasn't told about any of this beforehand. Perhaps finding out I'm not, would give me some sense of comfort.

"No, Dumbledore and the others kept us from saying anything", Fred comments, noticeably annoyed by having had to keep this all a secret from both me and the Chosen One.

"Yeah, they thought it best not to tell him anything before it's absolutely necessary." Alfie continues, whereas George seems awfully quiet.

I take notice of his unusually put-off demeanour and how he refuses to meet my eye.

"George?", I ask worryingly. "Is everything okay?".

Fred nudges his side after he doesn't seem to hear me the first time.

"Oh yeah. I'm fine, just tired is all. I'm off to bed", he mutters, but I'm far from convinced. I look to the others as he leaves for the boys dorms, and they seem just as surprised by his behaviour as I do.

I raise a suspicious brow, whereupon they try and give me any possible explanation as to why he's acting like this.

"He's been like this all day", Fred complains. "I think it's because he's afraid you're in danger not that you know. He thinks they'll try and indict you into the Order as quickly as you turn of age. He doesn't want anything bad to happen to you, Mia."

I frown, my gaze on the stairwell he just disappeared around.

"But why? Why act this way? I don't see you shutting me out like this."

Alfie clears his throat knowingly, and Fred continues.

"It's because he loves you. He's afraid of losing you, as are we, but he doesn't know how to show it."

Thinking about it, I realise that some of it makes senses. George has always been one of my closest friends, and he's always shown me that he cares a great amount about me. Of course, I feel the exact same way about him.

But why are they telling me this? Surely, they can't be insinuating what I'm suspecting they are. George can't love me that way. It's impossible. We're friends.

Al though I love him far more than any friend should, I can't help but think that he could never feel the same. Perhaps it's my delusional mind or my lack of confidence in myself controlling me when I think that way, but it just can't be true. There's no way.

I let out a small and nervous chuckle under my breath. "No—no. There's no way."

"Mia—", Alfie starts.

"—No, h-he can't. George is not in love with me, Alf."

(...)

When I go to bed that night, I can't help but replay the conversation I had with Alfie and Fred. My mind goes a hundred miles an hour, my thoughts swirling around in my head, making me all dizzy from the confusion.

George. In love with me.

No, it can't be true.

I tell myself it's nothing but hog wash, that the boys have got it all wrong, and that his weird behaviour recently had all to do with something else. There has to be a perfectly good reason for him to be so distant all of a sudden.

After having tossed and turned for what feels like a million times in bed, I realise I'm probably not getting any sleep tonight and get out of bed before making my way down to the common room. I place myself lazily in front of the fire that's still blazing, keeping myself warm by inching closer and throwing a blanket over my body.

Before I have a chance to fall asleep, I hear someone sneaking up behind me. It isn't until I see his ginger hair sticking out in all directions that I realise it's George.

"Couldn't sleep?", he asks, sitting down next to me and I let my head fall back into his lap while he brushed the hair from my face. We were always quite physical with each other, and I was always so comfortable with sitting in his lap or him carrying me around whenever I've had to much Fire Whiskey. Nowadays, however, it seems we've become more distant with each other. Perhaps it's due to my uncontrollable feelings towards him and how I become a flustered mess whenever he so much as accidentally touches my hand.

Still, it feels nice to be this close to him again.

"No", I shrug. "You?", I keep my eyes closed as he continues to massage my scalp. I love the feeling of his hand in my hair, it reminds me of how my mum used to do the same when I was little.

"Same", he states, and we're left in complete silence for what feels like forever. That is before we both speak at the same time.

"Hey are you—"

"I'm sorry about—"

We both let out small chuckled, and I can see a hint of a blush on his face. It puts a smile on my face, and I feel how I'm just as—if not more—flushed as before.

"You go first.", I say.

"I'm sorry I've been acting weird lately. It's nothing you did, I've just been going through something recently, I guess.", he smiles gently, pulling a small strand of hair from my face. I look up at him, admiring his handsome face and the way his eyes seem to glisten in the fire light.

"I'm sorry too. For not listening to you when you tried to explain everything before, I shouldn't have ignored you like that. It was mean and I was being inconsiderate." I smile.

"You don't have to say you're sorry", he whispers, placing a wet kiss between my brows. It's not long before I fall into a deep and comfortable sleep within the warmth of his arms.