Hope - George Potter

19 - Letter to Remus

On the way to the Great Hall they didn't speak. Henry stole worried glances in his direction, which George decided to ignore. He didn't know what had possessed him to tell Henry, a person he had only known for one day, so much about his life, his secrets. Things, he never wanted to tell anyone about. About himself, but also about Harry. What was going on with him lately? First, crying in front of a person, he had never seen before, on the train (He hadn't seen him enter, but still, that didn't change the facts). Then completely breaking down and showing his weakest side to a boy he had only known for one day. Sure, if someone were to ask, he would say that Henry was his friend, but did he see it the same way?

Henry didn't know what to do. The only thing he could think of when he had seen the crying boy was what his mother always did when he was crying: hugging him. But that was surely not enough comfort. Hugging didn't automatically solve every problem. He just didn't know how he could talk to him, what he could say, what he couldn't say to him. Or should he just act like nothing had happened?

It had been so scary. One moment, George had been happy and excited, and then he had become so angry at Henry, at everyone, at life itself. It was scary to Henry as he had never experienced any of the things George spoke about. He had never experienced such anger, such desperation. He had had such a happy childhood. A loving father, a loving mother, loving siblings (who nonetheless enjoyed teasing him). But now he thought that they were all just trying to protect him from the real world. What was a little teasing in comparison to losing your father and your mother? What were his little problems in the grand scheme of things? Nothing.

He would never feel confident enough to tell George about any of his problems, not like friends were supposed to do. What should he say in return to George's speech? 'Yeah, I totally understand your feelings, happens to me all the time. There was this one time that my brother, who by the way loves me very much, made fun of my favourite book so that I consequently only read in secret. My childhood was stolen from me that moment. I would definitely classify my life as a ruin.'? That sentence certainly wouldn't do.

As he couldn't think of a solution, he decided he would just tackle this situation in Gryffindor-style: not thinking but just stupidly doing whatever comes to your mind.

He turned to George. "So what's up with your aunt and uncle? Why did you say you didn't have a happy childhood? Are they hurting you?" He needed to know. How was he going to solve a problem if he didn't even exactly know what it was?

"No. They are not beating me or anything. Really, it's alright. My life isn't too bad. I got a bit carried away there. I have my little brother, after all. And I see my godfather every once in a while."

Henry, sensing that this was a positive subject, asked, "So who is your godfather?"

"His name is Remus. He's great. Introduced me to the wizarding world. He went to Diagon Alley with Harry and me to buy my school supplies. We often played a watered-down version of Quidditch with him, only using the quaffle and no brooms. Oh shit, that reminds me, I wanted to write him a letter right when I arrived. Oops."

Henry was happy that they were back to normal conversation. At least he now knew what to say. Talking about emotions was not exactly his strongsuit.

"Typical," Henry said while shaking his head in mock-disapproval. He imitated McGonagall's voice, "Such an irresponsible boy, that George Potter. He actually came late to my first lesson, did you hear? He did not even bring his books," he tutted, "And now he forgot to write to his godfather. Such a naughty boy."

George shoved him, laughing. "Oh shut up."

They sat down at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall. It was still half an hour until dinner, so the hall was nearly empty. They crafted the letter for Remus together until the other pupils came. Or rather, George wrote the letter and Henry added notes here and there. Johnny joined them later on and decided to comment on everything that had something to do with chocolate.

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Dear Remus,

I didn't have much time, so I'm only writing to you now (Such a liar! He just completely forgot), while sitting in the Great Hall at one of the house tables. I won't tell you which one it is just yet, that would spoil the surprise (don't worry, I wrote it in the letter, just not in the beginning because that would be too boring for my liking) (And don't scan the letter for the house and only then start reading, that would spoil the surprise - Yes, Henry, that was basically what I was just saying before).

I guess I'll just start with the beginning (I thought you just said you didn't want the letter to be boring?). The train ride was quite eventful. I first met an extremely arrogant girl who has become my new favourite enemy (Seriously, George? An extremely arrogant girl? Just say 'a bitch'. You are definitely too nice for this world.). She was sorted into Slytherin, but I won't tell you whether I'm in the same house. Most of the train ride, I talked to Johnny, who is now a Hufflepuff (Am I already annoying you by not telling you which house I was sorted into?). He reminds me a lot of you, mostly because of his huge obsession with chocolate. He's maybe even worse than you in those respects.

I bought lots of sweets on the train and I have to tell you: those magical sweets are amazing. I did find chocolate frogs a bit disgusting though, but you probably feel different, as it is still chocolate after all. (What the hell?! You don't think chocolate frogs are amazing, George? What kind of person are you? This is definitely the end of our friendship.- That was Johnny, by the way, who just joined us at the table and who definitely only wants to get into your good graces by saying that. He already knew before that I hated chocolate frogs.)

So then we went to the school over the lake on a boat. It was amazing. Did you do that, too, when you went to Hogwarts? (Of course he did. Everyone does that in their first year.) Anyway, we are nearing the Sorting Ceremony in this story. Are you already excited? So, I walk up to the stool, get seated and that hat is put on my head (By the way, you could have just told me we only had to put on a hat in the Sorting Ceremony. You are so evil. I thought we would have to do some sort of test.) so then I sat there, and sat there, and sat there. I am apparently a hatstall, that means it took over five minutes for the hat to decide my house.

And in the end I became a .... Slytherin.

No, I'm only joking. I thought that that might be funny in case you scanned the letter first for the house and only then started reading it (despite my warnings). I'm actually a proud Ravenclaw. No, not a Gryffindor, but the hat had to decide between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw in the end. Henry suspects the hat just did a counting rhyme, as it was so desperate and that was my proposal as to how to solve the problem. But I guess we will never know.

So, Ravenclaw is great. The common room is amazing and Henry (an incredibly funny and amazing guy and, not to forget, extremely handsome) and I share a room. Apart from us there are four girls in my year in Ravenclaw, but I haven't really talked to them yet. (aww what a cute boy, he is so shy. - Shut it, Johnny.) We have an old storage room next to us. Don't ask me how we managed to open the door, it's a secret. We have to disover all of the magical artefats in there sometime. This castle is amazing! We unintentionally found a seret passageway - or rather a seret slide in a wall- this morning and another one this afternoon with the help of a portrait. By the way, do you have any tips as to where there might be other seret passageways in the shool? I'm sure you do, after all you went to Hogwarts for seven years. If you do know something, please let me know. I love those seret passages.

Classes were alright so far, but pretty boring, as we didn't really do any magic, except for transfiguration. I accidentally told Professor Binns he was a ghost which resulted in him flying out of the classroom in panic. I don't know whether he will continue teaching now but I guess we'll see on thursday. Our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher is really nice, he offered to give me piano lessons.

I hope to hear from you soon. And in your next letter there had better be lots of information about secret passageways in Hogwarts (I know you're not as innocent as you want everyone to believe, I'm sure you know lots about Hogwart's secrets). If you see Harry before my letter reaches him, you can tell him the basics, but please not everything. As lazy as he is, he probably wouldn't read the letter then. Many greetings to Mrs Figg. 

Love,

George

(and Henry, but for now, let's just skip the loving part, okay? I still have to get to know you better, my dear Remus! - lots of love from Johnny. Whoever loves chocolate can't be a bad person, so I automatically love them - No flirting with my godfather, please, Johnny!)