Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

16 - Explain Yourselves

Over the next few days, Ron, the twins, and Jasper had eventually found the chance to look into the Mirror of Erised too and were completely fascinated by it. But unfortunately our time with it was short-lived.

One morning at breakfast, Harry told us that Professor Dumbledore had recently caught him in the room with the mirror. He informed Harry that our suspicions about what it showed in its reflection were true, and didn't scold him for having discovered it there in the first place, but did tell him it was going to be moved to a different location and that we shouldn't go looking for it. He said one could easily lose themselves by spending so much time with the mirror, longing after the things it showed with which they may never have.

I understood Dumbledore's point that it could accidentally drive someone mad and, for that reason, didn't go searching for the mirror again for the rest of the holidays. However, I couldn't forget what I'd seen in it, and neither could Harry. On one occasion he told me he'd kept having nightmares about his parents disappearing in a flash of green light, and I'd told him I had been dreaming about my father as well.

Hermione came back for the new term a day early and was sorely disappointed in us when we told her that none of us who'd stayed at Hogwarts had found anything out about Nicholas Flamel. But I promised her we'd keep searching, and when classes started up again, she, Ron, and I did just that. Harry, however, couldn't seem to find any free time to join us in the library. He kept being stolen away from us by Oliver Wood once the snow had eventually melted and the intense Quidditch practices began once more. I barely caught more than a glimpse of him or the other boys when we weren't in class together or eating breakfast in the mornings because they were so busy with their trainings.

That being said, as weeks slipped by, I didn't have much interaction with George. But I did notice during the fleeting moments we would have together and the brief conversations we'd share that we were both surprisingly on our best behavior towards one another. This confused many in our group who hadn't stayed for the holidays, but we explained to them that over the break we'd discovered the other "wasn't so bad."

But rest assured, that didn't mean our bantering stopped. I didn't think that'd ever cease entirely. But, all things considered, I was no longer wishing to give him a slow, agonizing death every time I was around him. Weirdly enough, he'd even made me laugh a couple of times. And on numerous occasions I actually hadn't minded it too terribly when he and Fred had bounded up to me in the halls demanding that I join them on whatever pranking mission they were looking to go off on. I'd learned that a lot of their mischief was actually just harmless fun and even gave me a sort of thrill whenever I partook in it.

I know— weird. I was starting to be unable to recognize myself. But I didn't necessarily hate this change...

When it came to Adrian, I still had that feeling that something different was going on in our relationship, yet I hadn't figured out what it was. He was ecstatic when he found out that I loved his necklace he'd gifted me for Christmas as much as I did and wore it everyday. But when I wore the sweater Molly Weasley made for me, he seemed slightly bothered. I found this to be a little strange, but ultimately decided to just brush it off, for everything else between us was largely normal.

He still made lots of effort to hangout with me any chance he could, whether that be studying or researching Flamel together in the library, helping me with my Potions homework, playing card games with me in the common room, or joining me wherever I ventured off during our free periods. I quite enjoyed it, but sometimes being with him so much was a little overwhelming since I couldn't seem to place what was changing. Maybe I was being blatantly naive, or maybe whatever it was that was happening was just not apparent, but regardless, I was often struck by waves of confusion once I was away from him and happened to think back on our time spent together.