The Secrets We Leave Behind | George Weasley

Chapter 14

School had been back in session for two weeks, which was just long enough for every single professor at Hogwarts to assign a mountain of homework and upcoming exams that Vivian was struggling to stay on top of.

Okay, admittedly she wasn't trying that hard to stay on top of anything. Though she was doing her best to hide it, her motivation had yet to return to her and most of her "study sessions" in the library consisted of her staring into space for an hour or two then returning to Gryffindor with the hopes that Alicia or Angelina had already completed the assignment and would let her copy. Lucky for her, her friends still felt bad enough for her that they always handed it over with no complaints–silver linings right?

She was leaning back in her chair, gazing out the darkening library window and twirling her quill between her fingers when someone sliding into the chair across from her pulled her from her reverie with a jump.

"I thought you guys had quidditch tonight," she blinked in surprise at George who grinned at her from across the table.

"Wood let us out early. Think he's got a date or something," he answered with an unconcerned shrug as he eyed the nearly empty paper in front of her. "Ready to give up on homework and come join the party that Fred is putting on in the common room to celebrate?"

Vivian groaned, glancing at the clock and down to her unfinished Transfiguration homework.

"I have to at least pretend to try to get this done tonight..." she started, scowling down at her parchment.

"Oh please," George rolled his eyes as he stood up, shuffling her books and papers back into her bag, despite her halfhearted protests before slinging her bag over his shoulder and offering his hand for her to take.

She rolled her eyes at him but couldn't fight the smile that tugged on the corners of her mouth as she laced her fingers with his and allowed herself to be walked out of the library and pulled through the sparsely populated halls. Truthfully, she had been practically looking for an excuse to give up on her homework for the night, so it wasn't going to take much convincing to get her out of there.

They were rounding the corner that would have led them to the Gryffindor stairs when she suddenly felt herself being tugged in the opposite direction and pulled into a nearby broom closet.

"Kind of an odd place for a Gryffindor party no?" she joked aloud as she waited for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, allowing her to see the tall ginger in front of her.

"You're so funny," George deadpanned, pressing their lips together before Vivian could come up with an equally sarcastic retort. She responded by wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down closer to her while he tilted her head back to deepen the kiss, a silent request she happily obliged.

Wrapped in George's arms and shuttered away from the rest of the world, her brain finally turned off, shuttling all her anxious, ugly thoughts out of the picture, if only temporarily. He had a real knack for completely derailing her brain–whenever he was around, the only thoughts she seemed to be capable of having revolved around him.

They had naturally been spending an increasing amount of time together since returning to Hogwarts several weeks ago and while she had been worried that adding a romantic element to their relationship would make things awkward, the two of them just clicked in a way that threw all her fears out the window. And though they had yet to put an official label on anything, or even discuss the matter really, it was clear to Vivian that George had already managed to root himself in her heart. There was no going back to being Just Friends now.

By the time they made it out of the broom closet and back to Gryffindor, the party that Fred had put together in an hour was already in full swing and absolutely packed. Music blared while students from all houses were crammed into the common room, many of them clearly having already taken full advantage of the well stocked drink table in the corner of the room.