Protégée (George Weasley)

Chapter Twenty-Four

Days after the talk she had with George Weasley, it was as if Lisa couldn't stop smiling. Mainly because George was always hanging around her one way or another. Though not as frequent as George would have wanted, trying his best to not make Lisa feel like he was smothering her with his affections. He would walk her to her class sometimes when they crossed paths in the hallway, and would sit right beside her during lunch time. Sometimes he would drop by the library during his free period and just watch her study.

Lisa liked his presence, admittedly. She saw no point in suppressing the way she felt for him, but wasn't really sure how she could show him. She wasn't exactly the love expert. Liking someone was a field she had very minimum expertise in, but having that someone like you back was a whole different realm. So she just decided to go wherever the circumstances took her, not really stressing too much about George and the possibility that they might end up dating.

"The heart eyes he has around you is unreal," Katie Bell remarked as soon as George had bade Lisa goodbye after spending a couple hours hanging around her as she studied in the common room. Lisa felt a smile grow on her lips at her friend's words, "What do you mean?"

"He's smitten with you. Clearly. What does it feel to have such power? To be able to charm a Weasley?"

She blushed, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't," Katie snorted, before flipping a page in her book. They had been studying for an upcoming Herbology quiz and had the luxury of going over the material together. She would have wanted to study with Noel. As much as she loved Katie, she was easily distracted and was a problem sometimes.

She hadn't seen him at all for the whole day, and scarcely throughout the days before. No one seemed to know where he was, and so she decided to leave it alone. However it was somewhat weird. She and Noel were almost always inseparable, but now she feels as though some mystical force was trying to wedge them apart.

Just as she had been thinking about him, his older sister had popped in through the portrait hole, books in hand as she crossed the common room on her way up to the dorms, Katie Bell calling her before she could get away.

"Captain, o captain!" She hollered, "Join us for a bit, why don't you? You seem stressed out."

Angelina looked hesitant. However, after a few seconds of contemplation, she strode over to where they were and plopped herself down on the vacant couch. "I want to be one with this couch."

"Everything alright, Ange?" Lisa asked, concerned. Angelina was almost always too swamped for her own good, but something about her state at the moment made her think that it was something entirely different.

"No, not at all. I might be flunking Potions. I thought I could improve by studying more but... Looks like there isn't a way at all," she let another heavy sigh out, "And this thing with Noel—"

Katie's eyes went wide as galleons, shooting Angelina a knowing look, which made her pause almost immediately. Lisa frowned, looking between the two girls who looked as if they were communicating telepathically.

"Ange, what about Noel?" Lisa prompted her to continue her sentence, however she had diverted it completely to their Quidditch practice schedules, but did not get away with it for long, as Lisa insisted that they went back to their original topic.

"What's wrong with Noel?" She repeated, this time with a frown, the look of determination to get the answers etched on her face. Angelina looked nervous at this point, feeling trapped between betraying Lisa and completely spilling Noel's secret crush on her.

Her brother had been moping severely ever since George Weasley had started seeing Lisa, feeling physically sick at the sight of the two together, not being able to bear his jealousy. Of course, as much as she thought George and Lisa looked good together, supporting her brother always came first in her line of priorities. She had been doing her best trying to comfort Noel, but nothing has been able to put him out of his grudgey mood so far.