Read My Mind

Where's Your Date?

Ria said yes to the second guy who asked her. At least he's tall enough for her to wear heels, she thought. He's also a Slytherin, and thank god his way of asking was more polite, as a proper gentleman, instead of some idiotic clown who shouted out the invite all the way across the Great Hall.

Ahh...She's hopeless as well.

"You are not dancing." George sat down next to her.

Ria was mildly startled, he made no sound when approaching her.

She gave him a small smile, she had long ditched her date, probably right after the first song had finished. She moved to the left to give George more space on the stairs, it's not like it's crowded anyway. Everyone else was far away from them on the dance floor. They looked so...happy. They were happy for a few songs, for a couple of minutes, for nothing...

"This feels so weird." Ria said.

"What feels weird?" George asked.

"This. This whole thing. I don't understand the point."

"You don't understand the point of having fun?" George asked, but he didn't sound judging at all.

"Well...yeah, yes actually."

Ria sighed. Everyone looked colorful and she was monochromatic.

"Fun is not my...thing. The Lectus's family motto is to be cautious, which as you could probably imagine, does not go along with fun very well. And my Shifu, when I was in China for the first two years, said that there is this philosophy that if you are having fun, you are not working hard enough."

"Hmm...That sounds...not fun."

"Yeah, there is a saying that if the sacred heaven is going to give you a holy task, it must first tortue your mind, inflict harm on your body, solder your spirit, before trusting you as a competent person."

"Wow. That's intense."

"Yeah," Ria sighed again, "I'm sorry, for all this negative energy."

"No need to apologize," George said, "I mean, I get it, sometimes it's just really hard."

Ria looked at him and realized that he too was not dancing.

"Something's bothering you George?" Ria felt bad for not being as observant as she was supposed to be.

"Yeah...well...I was talking to Ludo Bagman." And he told her the whole thing about the bet at the Quidditch Cup and how Ludo Bagman tricked them, making them lose everything, including the money they originally had.

"So long story short, we don't know what to do with this anymore. The whole thing, and our shop."

Ria gave him a small pat on the back, and they sat in silence for a while.

Then George regained his usual positive spirit.

"You know Ria, perhaps this is some sort of Asian magic that you probably know better than I do, but I seriously doubt staring at him is going to work." George grinned as Ria realized she was staring at Fred and Angelina again. Okay, fine, just Fred.

"I...was not."

"Sure, you were just admiring Angelina's dress, I know."

Ria retrieved her gaze and buried her head in her hands. For a while, none of them said anything. Then eventually, Ria turned to look at George, "You know, people always think you guys are the inseparable duo. They are wrong."