Dusk - A George Weasley fanfic

CHAPTER 3

Draco and I hadn't spoken since the morning after the funeral. He was busy doing Merlin knows what and I didn't have time to think about it.

Grandpa wasn't doing much better, he still sat on his usual chair in the kitchen, staring out of the window as if he expected someone to come through it any moment. He clutched his cup of tea but never drank, he stared but never saw.

I tried to talk to him and help him out with his problems but he had shut himself from the world. This wasn't the Gerald Hyde I knew. The Gerald Hyde I knew was strong and always fought whatever problem he face. But he was ageing now and I didn't blame him if he wanted to sit emotionless, sealing himself from me.

I had always been grandpas favourite even though he shared a very special connection with his grandson, James Hyde, my brother. I was very ashamed of the fact that when I was little, I would take advantage of this and make him answer my questions, knowing he'd give in. But he always dodged them, telling me that I was too young to know. Over time I forgot to ask those questions.

"Grandpa?"

"Yes darling?" he smiled as I sat on his lap.

"I wanted to ask you a question"

"Anything"

"Did you ever meet my father?"

At this, his smile faltered.

At that age, I was too young to perceive changes in emotion. I merely passed of his hesitation without giving it a second thought.

"Did you?" I asked again.

"I did, charming young man he was" he said, looking behind me as if my father was standing right there. I turned around to see nothing but the tree, swaying gently in the wind.

"Tell me more about him!" I pleaded. No one ever spoke of my father, ever. My granddad was my only hope to find out more about the man who had disappeared from my life a very very long time ago.

"Another time, grandpa has to go meet a friend now" he said, hoisting me up with his hands and placing me on the ground. He got up from his seat and walked over to the tree in our backyard. Suddenly there was a loud crack.

A tall, old man with a long white beard appeared under the tree, a man who I would later come to know as Albus Dumbledore.

They spoke a few words to each other and then, with another loud crack, they disapparated.

After that day I had again tried asking my grandpa about my father but he always managed to dodge the question. My mother never ever spoke of him either and my brother was too busy playing Quidditch to even pay attention to the fact that he had never heard of his dad before.

All I knew was that my mother had never married him and James, my brother, was adopted.

I seemed to be the only one itching to find out more about him.

I bade goodbye to granddad and made my way to Diagon Alley and into the joke shop. Today was my first day and I was determined to make a good impression.

"Hello Evelyn!" said Ron from behind the counter,

"Hi!" I greeted him.

"The customers are going to start arriving any minute now so what you have to do first before we open is to make rounds and ensure that everything's in place and there are no cardboard boxes lying around" he said,

"Then, you need to be able to guide customers to the product they need and give them a good description of it, persuasively. You did read the description list didn't you?" he asked.

I nodded, I had been pouring over it last night, memorising the appearance and description of each product.

"Good, apart from that, if I need you at the counter I'll call you, is that okay?" he asked.

"Perfect" I smiled.

I started making rounds of the shop. I emptied all the boxes that needed to be emptied and put them away in the storage. There really were an impressive array of products, George and Fred had done a wonderful job.

But one question still nagged me. From what I remembered, it was Fred and George who worked at the joke shop, not Ron. What had happened about that?

I pushed the thought away and welcomed the first pair of customers to enter the shop. A mother and her overexcited kid.

"Mummy! I want the firecrackers!"

"You can't burst firecrackers in the house Ben!"

"Not in the house, I want to burst them at Hogwarts!" he said.

"Excellent idea, I've done that myself in my third year. Steer clear of filthy Filch though" I turned around to see George, a large smile on his face and a box of firecrackers in his hand. He handed it to the little boy who jumped in excitement, pleading with his mum to let him buy it.

I remembered that day so well, I was only in my second year at the time. Someone had set off firecrackers under the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, much to the annoyance of all the Slytherins. As always, the Weasley twins had gotten away from it.

I started describing the product to the boy and his eyes widened when I said the words 'extremely explosive'.

Finally, after a lot of begging, his mother gave in and bought the fireworks for him.

I spent the rest of the day helping out customers with whatever they needed. At times, I felt as if a certain pair of eyes were watching me but every time I turned to look, no one was there.

At around 3 PM a very familiar looking girl walked in. She went behind the counter and gave Ron a hug. That must be Hermione Granger. I decided to introduce myself since there weren't many customers around me at the moment.

"Hello, you must be Hermione Granger" I smiled, holding my hand out. She shook it,

"I'm sorry, I'm not very sure I know you" she said, trying to place me.

"Yea we haven't really met before, I'm Evelyn Hyde"

"Oh I remember you, you were in my advanced potions class" she said.

Potions. The only subject I was ever good at.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash from upstairs and I jumped in my place.

"Should I go check on him, is George with him?" Hermione said worriedly to Ron.

"No he isn't, he went out to get some stuff, I'll go" said Ron, running up the stairs.

I didn't want to intrude in whatever problems they were facing but something was fishy.

After a few minutes, George walked in through the doors, a paper bag in his hands. I hadn't noticed that he had prominent dark circles under his eyes. The cheery expression that he always had whenever I saw him in Hogwarts had long disappeared.

He glanced at me for a split second, or had I imagined it?

George took Hermione to a corner and they started having a serious conversation. I awkwardly backed away, not really sure what was going on.

.

When I went home from work, I couldn't get it out of my head. Something was amiss.

George looked tired. Ron, who wasn't really an owner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was working there, there were always loud crashes coming from upstairs and Fred, George's twin brother was missing.

I knew that it wasn't my place to get involved, but like always, I felt as if I was inevitably going to be swept into something I wasn't meant to be swept into.