The Healer | Part 1: The Hogwarts Years

The Second Task

George

'Got a minute, George?'

I groaned inwardly. It was Alicia. It been trying to avoid her, but it was hard to do with us being in the same house and year. I did have the advantage of having an identical twin brother, and it was helping. When I looked up at her from my tart that I'd nicked from the Great Hall, she was staring straight at Fred.

'Over here, Alicia,' I waved at her.

'Oh, right,' I saw her cheeks flush and quickly turned back to my treacle tart while she sat down beside me.

The common room wasn't exactly the place to have a private discussion, but at least there would be witnesses if something went sour. Fred had been telling me ever since Edith started going with the Krajnc bloke that I was going to have to do something about Alicia.

'What's up?' I looked back up at her, popping the rest of the tart in my mouth.

'The next Hogsmeade weekend's just been announced,' she nodded to the poster that had indeed been put up the day before on the noticeboard.

'Yeah, two weeks,' I told her. I saw Fred smirking out of the corner of my eye. He was enjoying watching me squirm.

'I figured I'd ask if you'd go with me before you get yourself another detention,' she said with a little grin.

'Er... did you?' I looked over at Fred for help. He had none, he looked like he was trying hard to contain himself. The bastard.

'So, what do you say?' She asked.

'Er... Alicia,' I didn't know what to say. Something. I hadn't prepared myself for this tonight. 'What about Burke, from the Hufflepuff team?'

'Oh, him,' she waved a hand dismissively. 'We didn't really get on that well. He's seeing someone else now.'

'Oh,' I said stupidly.

'So you'll come with me?' She pressed.

'Er...' I looked back over at Fred who Alicia conveniently had her back to. He was waving both hands in front of him as if telling me to abort. I knew that! I just didn't know how. She had accosted me. 'Look Alicia, I don't really have time for girls at the moment.'

'Don't you?' She raised an eyebrow.

'No, Fred and I have all sorts of ideas for inventions, we need to use our time wisely while we're at school.'

'Wisely?' She repeated, her voice rising. 'Inventing stupid joke products and getting into trouble is wiser than girls?'

Damn it, I was in trouble right now.

'It's not stupid joke products,' I told her. 'It's going to be a respectable business.'

'Is it now?' She rolled her eyes and turned around to face Fred, who was still flapping his hands wildly at me but stopped as she turned on him.

'And what about you?' She asked him, hands on her hips. 'Are joke products more important to you than girls?'

'At the moment, yes,' he answered without hesitation.

'There's something wrong with the two of you,' she pointed her fingers between us before stamping away.

Fred and I only looked at each other in stunned silence while those close enough to hear the exchange laughed for a moment before returning to our Transfiguration homework that we had only been halfheartedly doing before Alicia arrived.

'Girls are mad,' I shook my head. 'At least that's dealt with.'

I nodded in the direction of the girls' staircase where she'd disappeared.