Firecracker | George Weasley

Chapter 26

It had a been a few weeks of school and Umbridge was working extremely hard at befriending Scarlett. She had asked for Scarlett to come visit her office every Friday after classes. Scarlett went out of curiosity and because she had heard that people who disobeyed Umbridge regretted it immediately since her punishments were medieval. She knew that she didn't have the strength to fight the professor or to withstand any punishment. A lot of her rebellious spirit had died with Cedric. Her meetings with Umbridge had been pleasant, mostly Umbridge talking at her about how the ministry was on her side and that anything Scarlett needed would be given to her. The only suspicious thing Umbridge did during the meetings was hint at the fact Scarlett was vulnerable and needed protection. Scarlett knew that Umbridge didn't mean you-know-who since she was part of the ministry who would never admit to him being back so the only thing she could think of was that Umbridge didn't like her hanging out with George.

The first time she had gone to her office Harry was waiting outside when she left, they had both looked at each other confused but since then he had completely avoided her which left Scarlett even more confused until now.

"Harry has a scar on the back of his hand from writing with a blood quill." George informed her

"How could I have been so stupid, of course he was going in her office for punishment." Scarlett exclaimed feeling the guilt of her ignorance grow. She got up and started to pace trying to walk the guilt off before it manifested the illusion of Cedric but it was too late, she saw him on one of the benches in the courtyard staring at her and shaking his head at her.

"Everything makes sense now. Of course he is avoiding me. He probably thinks I'm on Umbridge's side. Oh no, he probably thinks I agree with him being punished. Oh Helga Hufflepuff, it must look like I agree with the ministry and therefore the prophet." Scarlett babbled as the guilt grew more and more and Cedric started walking closer and closer to her looking more and more disappointed.

George grabbed her and stopped her from walking "Letty listen to me. Yes, maybe it does look like you support the ministry to people who don't know you but to anyone with a brain it looks like you are avoiding angering a member of the ministry because you are not in a position where you can take any negativity. I don't want you to take this the wrong way because you are beautiful in every way but it's very obvious just by looking at you that you aren't sleeping well and aren't drinking or eating enough. Anytime anyone who you aren't close with talks to you, you avoid eye contact and bite your lip till you've ripped the skin off. No one is blaming you. Harry is probably avoiding you because he doesn't want to add to your pain. If you want you can talk to him but if you don't I can tell him you are only seeing Umbridge because she asks you to." He said calming her down

Scarlett looked to where Cedric was standing, he smiled at her and whispered "You should talk to Harry."

She sighed and hugged George tightly "What did I do to deserve you Georgie. I love you so much, I don't know how I would have survived everything without you. You're right I should talk to Harry." She said into his chest as he hugged her back and stroked her hair, smiling to himself that he had successfully calmed her down.

"Want to go talk to him now?" he asked when she eventually pulled away

"Yeah I want to set the record straight as soon as possible and maybe it will stop people from bullying him. I used to find Harry really irritating for always having attention but now I look back, apart from his first year, the only attention he's gotten is negative and he always ends up isolated." Scarlett noted

"Yeah, the one good thing about Ron, he's a good friend to Harry." George nodded

"You don't give Ron enough credit."