Yours, truly : A Fred and George fanfic

12. Jealousy

The pair of them made there way back up to Eleanors shop, hand in hand where they found Fred busily stocking the shelves.
He had his wand pointed out towards the boxes as he quickly levitated them up, speeding up the process.

"Hey Freddie, how are you getting on?" Eleanor said as she stepped inside.

"Not too bad I-" Fred began as he span around, landing his eyes on his brother and Eleanor holding hands. "Oh, I see you two have made up then."

George smiled reassuringly as he looked down at Eleanor. "Yeah I think we're good"
And she nodded back.

"For now." She giggled, allowing him to put his arm around her.

Fred's face dropped slightly as the watched the two of them stand their happily with one another. His smile faint and his eyes seemingly deep with disappointment.

"Well I'm happy for you." Fred chuckled painfully "there's only one box left, so I'll let you both handle it as I probably should be getting back to the shop."

"Oh you don't have to leave, we could finish it off all together? Eleanor insisted, softening her expression at him.

Why was he acting like this?

"No it's okay." Fred replied, grabbing his coat from off the counter. "I have a delivery to deal with anyway and I'm pretty sure there is loads of paperwork. I'll see you both later."

George and Eleanor looked at eachother strangely as they focused on Fred's behaviour.
What had gotten into him all of a sudden?

"I better go and talk to him." George said softly "he is my brother after all. I'll see you tomorrow."

"That's fine. Let me know how it goes." Eleanor replied, getting a kiss on the forehead from George.

And with that, he hurried out of the shop, chasing after his brother down the street.

By this point Eleanors head was absolutely spinning with thoughts.
She had caught George down the side of the alley acting strangely with Alicia even though she had invited him to her wedding, she admitted her feelings to George openly and now after the lovely moment she shared with Fred earlier, he was now acting strange with her.

Trying to take her mind off of things, she began unloading the rest of the remaining box onto the shelves, using her wand to levitate them as she went.

She couldn't finally believe that her shop was opening tomorrow, the week had absolutely flown by and if she was being totally honest with herself, the shop was the least of her priorities.
She had gone for 5 years without any fun or social activity so to go from that back to drinking, having fun and socialising, she didn't want it to stop.

Once she had finished unloading her wands onto the shelves she decided to sneak a peak at one of the designs.
The box was a pastel yellow colour with white tissue paper on the inside.
She unfolded it out and saw a perfectly carved wooden wand with a moonstone incrusted in the bottom.

"Wow" Eleanor gasped to herself.
It was so amazing to see one of her designs come alive, to be able to have it in hand and see it in person.
She placed it back into the shelf, putting it back with all the other wands before sitting down at her counter to sort out the money and the paperwork ready for tomorrow.

~~~~~~~~~

She worked tirelessly for a few hours when the jingle of the shop door sounded out.

"Sorry the shop isn't open yet-" Eleanor started, looking up to see Ginny and Hermione stood there.
"Hey guys! What are you doing here?"

She made her way over to them, hugging them tightly as they giggled with one another.

"Fred sent us an owl earlier saying you could use some girl time. So of course we dropped everything and came as quick as we could" Ginny explained as they let go of one another.

"Wait, Fred did that?" Eleanor replied,raising a brow "that's actually really sweet."

"Yeah, he said briefly in the letter what had happened between you and George and insisted you needed some company. We wish you would of told us you were hooking up with George" Hermione giggled causing the three of them to burst out laughing.

"Yeah well, I didn't really know what was happening between us so I didn't wanna say something and be completely wrong about it." Eleanor explained, rubbing her arm awkwardly "anyway, wanna come up and order some takeout by owl? I'll fill you in on everything."

The group nodded and followed Eleanor up to her apartment where they sat down in the living room, making their selves comfortable whilst Eleanor made them a drink.

"Honestly el, I adore your place. If I could move in then I would." Ginny laughed, placing a blanket over her lap.

Eleanor giggled as she brought the drinks over, placing them onto the coffee table.

"I thought we could use something a little stronger tonight" Eleanor said, placing some chocolate liqueur in front of them.

"Well, it would be rude to say no." Hermione replied as she took the cup, taking a large sip.

Eleanor plonked down between them both, also taking a large sip of her drink. Grimacing slightly as she swallowed.

"Everytime it gets you." Ginny teased, nudging Eleanor and she shook her head as the alcohol slid down her throat.

The girls spent the rest of the night settling in for some late night gossip as Eleanor caught them up on everything they had missed.
She explained to them how after all this time she still felt about George and about everything she saw between him and Alicia, not to mention the fact of how Fred was so nice to her earlier and how he had reacted when her and George came back to the shop.

"That's so strange" Hermione said curiously "Alicia hated Justin in school. So why would she get engaged to him let alone married?"

"I was just thinking the same thing thing." Ginny replied, stroking her chin as she thought. "It just doesn't make sense and about the Fred thing, that I really don't have an answer for."

Eleanor sighed to herself as she slumped back into the sofa "I still can't get over what happened earlier, even if it wasn't intended to come across the way it did. I just can't shake it."

"I don't blame you" Hermione stated, stroking her friends arm "I would of reacted the same way. Especially after loving him for so long."

"Well she was always a bit obsessed with George, wasn't she?" Ginny responded "no matter where he was, she was never far behind."

"Yeah well, I think George equally felt the same way about it." Eleanor remarked as she poured herself another drink. Almost downing it this time. "Do you guys think I'm a fool?"

Hermione and Ginny both wrapped their arms around Eleanor as she said this, pulling her in tightly to comfort her.

"Don't be stupid. We all do silly things for love" Hermione replied "it's just making sure you've found the right person to do them for."

"But after everything, do you think I'm wasting my time? Do you think George is still in love with Alicia?" Eleanor questioned, looking to Ginny and Hermione for both their reactions.

"I think-" Ginny started, swallowing hard before continuing "that George is in love with you but you might be in love with him more."

Eleanor pressed her lips together as she took a deep breath "so what do you think I should do?"

"Just give it time." Hermione stated "that's the best thing you can do. even if it's imperfectly perfect"

Ginny nodded in agreement, giving Eleanors hand a little reassuring squeeze.
"They may be my brothers but I'll always have your back El. I won't judge you no matter what you do."

Eleanor smiled gladly at her friends as they did their best to advise her. "Thankyou guys. I don't know what I would do without you."

And with that, they spent the rest of their night talking amongst themselves, playing games and drinking the liquor.
Eleanor was so glad for her friends and was grateful to have them back together once again.