Hope - George Potter

23 - Flying lessons

The first week of school was quite exhausting for all of the first years. Getting used to the new environment was very tiring. George was only slowly getting used to the idea of being surrounded by magic – something he had not even thought real a month ago.

Whether it was the portraits moving and talking, the secret passageways (they had found three so far) or the teachers showing them little pieces of magic in their lessons; it was just a lot to take in for a boy who had lived in the muggle world for most of his life.

Each day, he was so exhausted after all the new things he had learned, that he just fell asleep immediately as soon as his head touched his pillow. The next morning, Henry would have difficulties waking him which had already resulted in them being late to classes twice already. Henry's method of waking him with a bucket of water seemed to work quite well, though. He just didn't want to risk too many angry stares and threats from George, so that method was only used in extreme cases. 

On Sunday, thankfully, they were all allowed to sleep in. Henry had left the dorm early and joined Cho and the other girls for breakfast, while George only showed up in time for lunch.

"Did I miss anything today?" he asked as he got seated with the other Ravenclaw first years.

"Nope. We thought, we'd wait for you before we went to the lake, so we just made our homework. I thought you probably wouldn't exactly care about missing that," Henry answered with a slight grin.

Marietta looked up from her food when she heard them talking. She stared at George and her cheeks became red. Trixie – as they called Bellatrix now – and her exchanged a look and started grinning. George stared at them questioningly.

After a pause, Marietta said a bit embarrassed, "Why is your hair always wet in the mornings?"

George was taken aback by that question. He could see Henry across from him looking completely confused, not only by the girls but probably also by the fact that he was spending time with them.

"Er... you know, there is something called a shower. It's supposed to make you clean. While taking a shower, it can occasionally happen that you get wet – sometimes even your hair. But apart from that horrible side effect, taking a shower really isn't that bad. You should try it sometime," George said in a baby voice.

The effect this statement had on the people around him were extremely amusing to watch. While Henry stifled a laugher, Marietta's face colour was becoming extremely similar to a tomato. The other three girls just looked at him wide eyed. He could see a small smile forming at the corner of Cho's and Rosabelle's lip, though, which they tried to hold back so as to not laugh at their friend.

The rest of lunch, Henry and George just talked to each other, and after a little pause the girls were talking amongst each other. Marietta however, much to George's amusement, didn't say a single word throughout lunch. She left the table as soon as possible under the pretense that she needed to go to the bathroom. The other three girls followed her and so it was just the two boys left.

"I think we really need to work on your social skills, mate," Henry said laughing as soon as the girls were out of their hearing distance.

"Come on, you can't just ask a question like that without expecting an answer like this. I mean, what the heck?! Who asks a question like that? Why is your hair always wet in the mornings? Well, I don't know, maybe it's some kind of chemical reaction to waking up or something," George said while rolling his eyes.

Henry, who had been laughing in the beginning, looked at him confusedly near the end, "What is a chemcally reaction?"

George sighed, "Never mind, forget it. It's a muggle thing."