raison d'être (george weasley x reader)

5.5

It had been weeks since Professor Lupin's lesson on boggarts and Y/N had mostly wiped the memory from her mind, however, there were still times when thoughts of her deceased friends would haunt her. They mostly occurred during the dead of night when the palace was deep in sleep. By then, Filch usually had already retired to his own chambers, meaning there was no one out patrolling the halls.

Tonight was another one of those nights. Y/N had awoken from a nightmare regarding her friends and sat up with a frustrated groan. She blinked the sleep from her eyes and glanced at the old clock sitting on her bedside table - 4:38am. She'd have to be awake in 3 hours to get ready for class anyways, so she figured she'd walk around the castle to clear her mind.

She grabbed the first sweater she could get her hands on, not batting an eye at the worn out, printed letters on it. She gave a half-hearted attempt at running her fingers through her hair as she dragged herself out of the room, carefully shutting the door behind her to avoid waking the others.

The castle, of course, was dark. The torches that hung from sconces on the wall were all put out, meaning that her only source of light was the faint glow illuminating from the tip of her wand.

She roamed her usual nighttime path - down the tower, towards the library, past McGonagall's office, and back. It had been her safest and most travelled route, especially since she had previously convinced a prefect that she was returning from an accidentally long evening study session. It helped that the prefects knew who she was.

She had gotten halfway through her route when she heard footsteps headed her way. Her heart pounded as she quickly pressed her back against a back wall.

The footsteps had paused at her brief shuffle and within moments, they were headed her way. She cursed silently to herself and stepped out, figuring it would be better to confront the individual rather than possible scaring them.

"Y/N?"

Her grip, which had unknowingly tightened, on her wand loosened as she let out a breath of relief. "Adrian, you scared the bloody daylights out of me."

The boy chuckled and shook his head in amusement. He was dressed in his robes and had a large book cradled in his arm.

"What are you doing up?" she asked, trying to read the title of the book, though her promptly held it against his chest.

"I could ask you the same thing," he replied, giving her a once over. "Nice sweater..."

She looked down, only now registering that she had grabbed George's old quidditch sweater. She had taken it from his room the previous year and hadn't bothered to return it; she also saw no point considering how much he had grown during that time.

"Wasn't aware that you and Weasley were-"

"We're not," she cut him off, ignoring the blush that had crept up her neck at the thought. "Anyways, are you coming from the library?"

Adrian gave her sweater another glance before nodding. "Couldn't sleep."

"Yeah, me neither," she said with a quiet sigh.

"Want to talk about it?" Adrian asked, giving her a curious look.

She shook her head. "I'd rather forget about it."

He let out a quiet hum in understanding before smiling to himself. "We really should stop meeting like this."

Y/N's racing thoughts silenced at that and she let out a quiet laugh. "Yeah," she responded. "People might talk."

"Not that I mind, of course," Adrian said, giving her a more than friendly look. "I rather enjoy seeing you out of your robes."

She gave him an exasperated look and shook her head. "Well, I should get back. You know, before someone notices."