Changes: {George Weasley}

XXVIII: Together

    Why did I do these things? Why did I agree to spend Valentine's Day with George? I don't know either.

"I'll just lock up early." George said. I nodded.

"I'll just drop by Andromeda's. She was expecting me." I said.

"Sorry." He said. "We can cancel.."

"No, I'm here for you." I said. "She'll understand." I felt bad bailing on her but George looked rather sad.

"I'll go with you." He said. "I can at least explain." I nodded. "Let me just change."

"Hey. George." I said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." He said. "I'm thankful for you being here." He smiled at me and walked upstairs while I waited for some customers to leave. He returned downstairs a few minutes later with a dress shirt.

"Don't you look posh!" I said.

"I must live up to your standards." He said.

"Oh, I don't have many." I said.

"Should I be offended?" He asked. I chuckled.

"Yes, you should." I said. With that we apparated to Andromeda's.

"Andromeda! Teddy!" I shouted as I entered.

"Finally, we were thinking you weren't able to make it." Andromeda said from the kitchen. "Teddy's sleeping but he'll wake soon." George smiled awkwardly.

"Actually..." He said. "I might want to steal her away for the evening.."

"Does this mean you two are-" I cut her off.

"Nope. We're not." I said. "I'm just keeping him company." I went over to my room and changed.

"Sorry,  Andromeda." I heard George say from the kitchen. "I just feel so alone all the time without Ron or Fred or Angelina."

"All I'm saying is that you better not be using her." She said. "She's a great girl. I love her very much."

"I know she is. Trust me, I'm not using her." He said. "I..um.. kind of rejected her yesterday." Way to keep that a secret.

"What?!" Andromeda raised her voice. "And she's still going out today with you?! Tell me how you did it because that girl is extremely prideful." I decided to go out.

"George, not every aspect of my life is for the public." I said. "I'll see you later, Andromeda. I told Mrs. Weasley to expect you. She's watching Victoire today. Don't wait up." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Take care." She said, I nodded and we went out the door.

"So, where exactly are we going?" I asked.

"Before that, I really want you to know that I had no idea that you liked me before Angelina told me." He said. "And I'm sorry for everything."

"Look, George. I'm not used to tell people how I feel. Naturally, I hate when people reject me but I'm doing an exception for you so can you please not bring it up." I said. He nodded.

"Sorry." He mumbled. "We're going to a park close to Ottery St. Catchpole." I nodded. "It's close, we can walk if you want." I almost tripped on my own two feet and George grabbed my arm.

"Walking isn't my strong suit." I said. He chuckled.

"I better hold on to you then." He said. He gave me his arm and I grabbed it. We quietly walked there. Neither of us had much to say, I think George felt guilty from what I said earlier.

"Hey." I said. "Look at me." He did. "Are you okay?" He nodded but I could feel that he wasn't. "Are you going to tell me or do I have to hex you?" He sighed.

"I just feel like everyone is leaving me." He said. "Since Fred died, I just feel alone all the time. Angelina helped a lot. She really did but without her I'm back to where I was. Gianna, I miss him so much." What do I do?! I hugged him. Whilst me hugging him, he spoke up. "And you're leaving me too.. I dunno, I just felt like you understood me."

"Oh, George.." I said. "I really like you so much. I don't want you to be sad. I don't. So I'm going to make you an offer." He pulled away. "Come live with me. For a while. Until I leave. You won't have to be alone and you'll have Teddy too. We'll move to my old house." Yep, I've officially lost all of my remaining marbles.

"Won't that be incredibly strange?"

"I don't care." I said. "I care about you and I think this'll help you so please consider this. It'll help me too. I want to spend my last days here with you." He hugged me.

"I like you, Gianna." He said.

"You're just alone." I said.

"At first, I thought I was." He said. "But you're so... nice." I smiled.

"Thanks, Weasley." I said. "You've had too many drinks so let's pause this until later. I don't want to mess it up." He kissed my forehead.

"I'm the one who messes this up." George said. "Let's sit here and pretend we're a couple. And tomorrow we'll go back to usual George and Gianna." I nodded. I didn't know where he was going with this but I sat down beside him. He put my head on his shoulder and grabbed my hand. "When I was younger, I didn't really know how to appreciate these things." I looked up at him and studied his face, he looked sad. "I dunno.. I never had time to do things like this. We were so invested in the shop that I kind of lost track of being in the moment."

"I've always liked this." I said and smiled at him.

"You know, people say I've become boring." He said. I chuckled.

"I think that's impossible." I said.

"That's easy for you to say." He said, I chuckled.

"You'll always be funny, George." I said. "To me, at least." He looked at me and smiled and he leaned in but I didn't. I buried my head on his chest instead. He put an arm around me.

"I got too into my character." He said and chuckled.

"Yeah, you did." I said. "Let's go. I'll spend the night at yours and tomorrow you can start packing." We apparated back to the joke shop.

"You can take the bed." He said.

"Don't be silly." I said. "I'll just transfigure this cushion into one." And I did. But we didn't really sleep. We just laid on our separate beds and talked until I moved over to his and fell asleep.