raison d'être (george weasley x reader)

4.3

Quills scratched against parchment as Y/N and Hermione quietly did their work in the library. The two had quickly fallen back into their routine of meeting in the large, dim, book-filled space. Given their familiarity with each other, they no longer had to keep their conversations behind shelves since they now regularly spent time together outside of their school work. Still, it was comforting to whisper out a few sidelong comments here and there.

"Did you know that Ron's afraid of spiders?" Hermione asked, keeping her eyes trained on her parchment. "Horribly afraid, actually. He'll start crying."

Y/N bit back a laugh at the information as she wrote out another sentence for her Potions essay. "He's silly."

Hermione nodded as she dotted the end of her paragraph and leaned back with a sigh. "There have been a couple in the common room."

Y/N hummed as she also finished up her essay. "That's funny. I don't think I've ever seen a spider in the common room."

The girls shrugged the peculiarity off, not too bothered by a few spiders finding their way into the castle. After all, Hogwarts was an old and large building. There were bound to be a few insects crawling around.

Y/N waited for Hermione to put away the rest of her items before standing up to head out for dinner. Weeks had passed since their return to Hogwarts and everyone's routines had re-solidified. This meant that Fred, George, and Lee were rarely seen in the evenings, aside from a brief visit during dinner, since they were busy setting the castle in disarray. However, their pranks had remained tame up until this point, which could be a result of the slow start to the school year.

The Great Hall was already bustling with students by the time the two girls arrived. Hermione waved to Y/N, promising to reconvene with her in the common room later that night for their usual short conversation - short because they were nearly always interrupted by one of the Weasleys. Y/N waited a moment to watch Hermione sit down before joining Angelina and Alicia.

"How was the essay?" Alicia asked, pushing her fork into a pile of chicken. "Should we be worried?"

Y/N shook her head as she set her bag down beside her and sat down. "No. It's basically a review of last year's lesson on poisons, so it's not too difficult."

The girls quickly fell into a different conversation, sharing everything they'd heard throughout the day, including the brief whispers passed along behind hidden corridors and the loud proclamations made during the bustling of students in between lessons. However, the trio was notorious for getting sidetracked, which brought them to a deep discussion on the boys in their year.

"Sullivan's gotten a new haircut. Have you seen?" Angelina asked, resulting in Alicia and Y/N turned towards the Hufflepuff table, where a sweet-faced brunette boy sat with his friends.

"It's doing him wonders," Alicia commented. "Much better than the mop he was sporting last year."

Y/N nodded in agreement. "Definitely."

A hand suddenly skimmed her shoulders, causing her to jolt and whip her head around. A familiar dark-haired boy smirked down at her as he gave a small wave.

"Pucey?" she asked, tilting her head questioningly at the boy.

"L/N," he nodded. "Haven't seen you around this year. How was your summer?"

"Good...quiet," she replied honestly. Adrian Pucey, the boy who had only recently caught her attention, had grown over the summer. His shoulders had broadened and his jaw was sharper than before. "How was yours?"

"It was fine," he shrugged, sticking his hands in his pockets. "Spent most of it with my grandma."

"That's nice," Y/N said, still trying to figure out where the two stood. They'd only had one interaction at the end of the previous year, so she was surprised that he had even stopped by the Gryffindor table, especially considering he was a Slytherin.