Sketchbook ~ George Weasley

Chapter 14 - Dear David

It's been all of 5 minutes and I have already realized that Gryffindor parties are no force to be reckoned with. They really go hard at Hogwarts. At my old school there was a punch bowl and adult supervision, but it's as if all the adults purposely turn a blind eye to everything that's happening.

"What are you doing alone?" George asks. He walks over to where I'm sitting in the corner of the common room quietly observing the chaos. I'd really hate to see them after a quidditch match. They must go crazy.

"Not much of a party person," I say. The cheering from the arena to the common room never actually stopped and Harry Potter himself stood in the middle of it all. Everyone around him was so consumed with the boy who lived, they didn't even give him the chance to take a shower since the task ended. He looked like he was in desperate need of one as well as he was left beaten and cut from being thrown around.

"No matter," he says, grabbing my arm to pull me from the seat. "We're going to force Harry to open the egg thing he got."

"That requires movement, though," I say as I'm pulled up from my spot.

George stops for a second and thinks before turning around and squatting down.

"What are you doing?" I laugh.

"Hop on," he says, patting his back.

"What?"

"Get on my back," he says again. "Little to no movement required."

"You're crazy," I shake my head, but he doesn't move. I move onto his back and place my arms around his neck and he slips his arms under the crook of my knees, standing straight up in the process.

"Wow," I say, taking in the view of the tops of heads, the likes of which I've never seen before. "I feel like a giraffe."

George laughs, "How's the weather up there?"

"It's oddly warmer, I swear."

George slowly made his way closer to the center of the common room to where Harry was and the group of kids surrounding him. I could still feel the eyes on him and I. Something about being around the Weasley twins I'd never gotten used to was all the attention that comes with it, but it was something that I learned to stop caring about.

I slipped off George's back once he stopped walking and he turned to face me.

"See that?" he asked. "Little to no movement."

"We are going everywhere like that now. You do realize that, right?" I ask.

"What have I done?" he smiled.

"Unleashed Hell upon yourself," I say.

Fred walked over to where we were standing and pulled George away from me. They both move towards Harry to hoist him up into the air, the boy sitting on both their shoulders.

"Knew you wouldn't die, Harry," Fred says.

"Loose a leg," George continues.

"Or an arm."

"Pack it in all together."

"Never," they finally shout in unison which in turn erupts more cheering from the rowdy crowd of Gryffindors. If someone wasn't paying attention before, they were now as it seemed every ounce of attention was placed on the center of the room and Harry who was holding the golden egg.

"Shut up," the boy standing next to me called out, prompting everyone to go silent for the first time since the task ended. "Go on, Harry, what's the clue?"

"Who wants me to open it?" Harry asks, holding up the egg in all it's glory. Another round of cheers followed and even I joined in.

Harry flipped open the top of the egg and as soon as he did, the worst screeching I'd ever heard in my life came from the egg. I dropped down and covered my ears from the noise, along with everyone else in the room. Harry fell from the twins shoulders as they both moved to cover their ears. Harry quickly moved to clamp the egg shut to stop the tremendous pain all our ears were feeling.

"The bloody hell was that?" All of our eyes turned towards the corner of the room to see Ron who had just walked into the common room. It was the most quiet it had been that night until Fred finally spoke up.

"Alright, everyone go back to your knitting," he starts. "This is going to be uncomfortable enough without all you nosey sods listening in."

I walked off with the twins to the other side of the common room to a couple of chairs that so happen to be empty. The twins sit together on a couch and I sit on a chair right next to them.

"Well, that was a rubbish clue," Fred says.

"I don't think screaming is exactly what the clue is," I say. I unsling my bag from around my shoulder and move to shove my scarf into it. When I pulled my hand back out a piece of paper slipped from my bag and fell to the ground.

"What's this?" Fred says, picking the paper up from the ground and unfolding it. "Who's David?"

My eyes went wide, "Nobody." I moved to grab the paper from Fred's hands, but he pulled it away from me and out of my reach. "Come on, that's a personal letter."

"Apparently, he misses you," Fred says. I get up from my seat to grab the paper from Fred's hand, but he passes it over to George who only holds it out of my reach even more. Fred holds me back so I can't move to grab the letter from him.

"Come on," I say, struggling to be let go. "He's just a friend from my old school."

"A friend who misses you a lot," George says. "You carry every letter your friends send you around in your bag?" He was looking at me now, probably done reading the letter. Fred's arms unwrapped from around me and I finally moved to rip the letter from George's hands.

"It's none of your business," I say. I grab my bag and shove the letter back in it.

"You have a secret boyfriend you never told us about?" Fred asks.

"He's not my boyfriend," I say.

"Well, he certainly seems like he wants to be a little bit more than friends by that," George says. Something about his tone didn't sit right and I could feel that tightness in my throat again.

"What? What do you want me to say?" I ask. "I got dumped at the airport the day before I got to Hogwarts and two months later got a note about how he wants to 'make things work.'" I could feel all the built up sadness and anger come out in me that I hadn't wanted to deal with before. "How I just felt like I was getting over it and then I was sent that?"

"Paige," George said. There was a shift in his eyes that I couldn't quite read, but I couldn't stop that anger that I felt.

"You know, I wasn't really planning on responding," I say, "but now I think I might." I storm off towards the dorm rooms, pushing my way through the crowd of people.

"Paige."

"Wait."

I heard them call out, but I was gone, slamming the door to my room.