(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

10

I had almost made it through the third week! After confessing to Maddie that I regretted what I had done - and that she knew for sure her love potion would work - she had helped me where she could. Although I resented her for bringing Ginny and Katie into it, too. But Katie knew exactly when and where I needed to avoid the Quidditch team, and Ginny could always threaten to tell their mother about the twins' secret business, which gave me plenty of time to get away.

But that morning, I was up before anyone else. On Saturdays, I had often been alone in the common room. I couldn't help it that years of moving around with my parents had accustomed me to their daily rhythm. My body liked to get up at six in the morning. Whether I had had a good night's sleep or not.

An attentive house elf had brought me a cup of tea while I pulled the quilt I'd swiped from the sofa tighter around my shoulders. Outside, a bank of fog drifted across the grounds, so thick that I couldn't see the forest. Fog?

"Damn it!", I hissed softly. When was the last time I had been to Dumbledore's?!

"You can't be serious!" cursed George right behind me. "You couldn't have heard me at all!"

I winced so hard that hot tea sloshed over my hands. "George!", I hissed, setting the cup down on the windowsill in frustration.

"You didn't notice me at all," he noted in amazement. "Crap!" But then he noticed my hands turning red. "Let me try." The burn wasn't bad, and I was about to refuse when he closed his fingers around mine and carefully ran his wand over the wounds. Here among us, I suddenly didn't feel so uncomfortable having him around. Lost in thought, my thumb ran over the calluses on his hand.

George froze in motion. "The antidote is almost ready."

"What?" I could only tear my gaze away from our hands with difficulty. But his brown eyes were just as successful in capturing my attention.

"Against the love potion. You didn't seem like you were going to last just one more day. I can bring it over to you tonight for dinner."

Ashamed, I looked down at the floor. He was still holding my hand in his. I hadn't given a moment's thought to his feelings. How it must have felt for him to have me running away from him all the time, when the whole thing was my fault. "I'm sorry." Wow. How hard it was for me to say those words. To admit it. "It's nothing against you."

"I get it," he sighed, but still neither of us let go of the other's hand.

"Really," I insisted, squeezing his fingers tighter. "It's just," my gaze went back out into the hazy morning. "I don't know how much longer I'm going to be here. When I'm having too much fun, it's always so hard to leave."

For a while we just stood there. George looked at me and I at his reflection in the old window pane. He was so beautiful it hurt. Tall and muscular from hundreds of hours on the Quidditch field. His red hair was never neat, which always gave him something rowdy. But maybe that was because I knew he and his twin were all mischief. I already knew that I would hate to leave Hogwarts, and I had to push back the tears that came from helpless anger, because I didn't have a choice after all.

"Then I guess today is our last day. Will you do me a favor?" Slowly, I turned back to face him, not just his reflection. "Today is the last Quidditch game before fall break. Will you cheer me on?"

My heart tightened, but I couldn't bring myself to turn him away. "If I can do it from my tower?"

"Your tower," George snorted with a laugh. "Shall I call you Rapunzel, too, then?"

"Why not, actually," I giggled back, again unable to look away.

For a moment there was that tingle again. It was different from the last time we were alone. But then again, it wasn't. I took a step toward George. Our laughter died away.

Only the gods weren't on our side.

"Weasley?" Oliver Wood came storming down the stairs from the boys' dormitory, already changed. "You won't be able to impress the ladies if we lose later." Unmoved, Oliver stood waving impatiently at his beater.

"You heard him, Sleeping Beauty. Work calls."

"Rapunzel," I corrected him, but George just winked at me.

"I'll have to think about that."

We didn't let go of each other until George was too far away to keep in touch. I could hear Ginny making vomiting noises again in my mind.

His teammates, who were also all coming out of the dorms, whistled and cheered when they saw us. Katie wiggled her eyebrows as she waved tiredly at me and disappeared out with the others.

Damn. The antidote was more than necessary, because this warm feeling in my chest had to go away as soon as possible.

But I remained standing by the window until I saw the group walking across the lawn. For a moment George looked up at me and I pressed my hand over my mouth. Why exactly had I avoided him again?