Finding Neverland | George Weasley ✓

Chapter Thirty-Eight

George Weasley found himself without his brother that late Sunday evening. He walked through the corridors whistling to himself peacefully, earning several suspicious looks from passersby.

What was so suspicious about walking down the corridor? Oh, that's right. He was without his brother, which of course raised suspicion. George let out a slight chuckle before returning to the original point of this whole walk that he had decided to take alone.

To find Thea.

He couldn't help feeling a little responsible for her outburst at Fred and him the other day, both of them had pushed her when she had made it clear that she didn't want to talk.

He honestly didn't know why he was so determined to find her, maybe to apologize, ask her about where she had been the entire weekend?

Although Thea was almost always hidden, she could always be spotted in the hallways a least once each day however he hadn't seen her the entire weekend which led him to become quite concerned. He just hoped that nothing had happened to her and it was simply circumstance which was the cause of them not running into each other.

George turned the corner into a slightly emptier corridor where he immediately saw Professor Sprout and Thea towards the end of the corridor. Despite the distance, George could clearly see that Thea certainly seemed a great deal happier than the last time he had seen her. That satisfied him so he went back down the corridor whistling more happily now looking for either his brother or Lee.

In the next few months as Christmas drew near, George set out to do anything he could to make her smile again even if that meant having to pull a prank on his brother, he was prepared to do it.

George's mission to make Thea smile wasn't the only thing that had changed recently. Although Thea wasn't exactly ready to talk to people very much, it seemed like she wasn't hiding as much. She appeared at mealtimes and in the corridors between classes she was there, in the corner reading a book but there.

Of course with Thea now reappearing it only added to the number of people who approached her offering condolences and offering their help if she ever needed anything. Thea just scowled and after a while, the number of people began to dwindle.

Even with these people annoy Thea and making her upset, George was kind of glad because he could observe and take notes that would help him with his plan to make her smile.

He knew that he was going to have to start off small. Maybe tripping over his own feet or doing small pranks when she was around. He had a reputation to uphold anyway.

George was always searching for the perfect opportunity. However, he knew that he and Fred had to be particularly careful these days with Umbridge around and all. Harry had already got in terrible trouble with her several times because of his outspoken nature in her classes as well as the fact that they all knew stuff that most of their classmates wouldn't even have a clue.

George's first plan hadn't gone down too well. He, Fred and Lee had been walking down the corridor when they walked pass Thea sitting in a window seat, her book open, her eyes flickering as they read each word. However, after a few moments of complete regret, George threw himself to the floor tripping over his own feet on purpose, causing as much commotion as possible in order to get Thea's attention however it didn't work. Her eyes didn't rise from the page, although a lot of other people around began laughing including his own brother.

"What on earth was that, Georgie?"

"I tripped."

"Clearly. I thought being clumsy was Ron's thing." Fred replied almost rolling around the floor in his laughter.

George looked to Lee for support however he was laughing just as hard as Fred.

"Merlin, help me."

The second attempt went slightly better. Fred was in the mood to cause some trouble and so was Lee as it turned out, so after a quick planning session, the three of them settled into a seat in the corridor, picking out their target. When Alexander Browne walked down the corridor all three of them zeroed in on him for different reasons.

Fred still held a bit of a grudge against him because of the whole him dating Max thing and although it had begun to dwindle, he did still like her.

Lee was still quite close with Sadie, well their relationship was complicated but Sadie and Alexander had recently fought so he was the perfect person in Lee's mind.

As for George, he knew that Thea had fallen out with all her friends but seeing one of her former friends being pranked much make her smile? It was a rough guess but all he had at this point.

As for the prank, let's just say that Alexander had blue hair for about a week afterward and Thea grimaced slightly when the prank happened. George wasn't sure if this was simply a reaction to something that had happened in her book or a result of the actual prank but it was a reaction and George was going to take what he could get.

After the last attempt, George was left a little disheartened, he didn't know what he was going to do. He wanted the girl to smile more than anything, her mischevious smile had always cheered him up when he saw around the corridors and now it was non-existent.

However, he couldn't let all that worry him today. It was the last Hogsmeade trip before the Christmas holidays arrived. That meant that a lot of people were going to get their Christmas shopping done and of course the twins couldn't pass up an opportunity to get all the good sales at Zonko's Joke Shop and anyway a butterbeer didn't sound too bad either.

Even though he was determined not to think about Thea and what to do, George couldn't help but notice Thea also heading down to Hogsmeade that day.

Fred and George had just left Zonko's, bags laden with all types of pranking material, some of which they couldn't wait to try out. They were heading to the Three Broomsticks to get a butterbeer before they would head back up to the castle to decide on the unlucky victims of their new batch of products.

The twins were too busy discussing ideas for their store to notice the large patch of ice that lay before them, just inviting someone to slip over. George reached the patch of ice first and it didn't take long for his feet to fly off the ground, reaching out and grabbing the closest item that was near that just happened to be his brother. George landed with a large thud with a similar thud from Fred straight after. Both boys felt like they had simultaneously done about five flips in the air before landing. They both needed a few moments to catch their breath and that was they first heard the laughter.

It was completely reasonable for someone to laugh at them because they had just fallen over on the ice and they laughed at others all the time.

However the laughter came from an unusual source, it didn't come from a large group of people, it came from a lonely girl sitting alone on a bench, her book long forgotten beside her, laughing her head off.

Thea.

George couldn't process it for a second, too preoccupied with the pain from his arse and the slight shock but when he did realize he was glad he did.

Thea was smiling, happy and tears rolled down her cheeks from the laughter.

After realizing she had definitely been spotted, Thea gathered her things together before heading over to the two boys who were too busy nursing their buttocks.

"Well, people who try to walk on ice, generally wear ice skates but I can't blame you for trying. But I do know that they generally don't fall down like a herd of elephants, it's more graceful. Anyway, that's just my advice." Thea offered before leaving, still laughing heavily and George simply couldn't help but smile too.