This is for TheLineIsMeantToBeCrossed's Odd Couples challenge.

And my challenge was as follows:

Couple; George Weasley/Demelza Robins.

Place; The Great Hall.

Items; Broom, Enchanted Clock, Foe Glass, Self-correcting ink, two-way mirrors.

Going to be tricky, but please read. x

Oddity

She first took note of him in her first year – his fourth year. She is sitting in Professor Moody's office – terrified. The blank eyes of the foe-glass glance at her, the dark detectors humming from every corner, his eye spinning in his head. And she is furious; furious that she had detention for nothing more than passing notes to Jimmy Peakes and Ritchie Coote. And then a miracle happens; the door flies open and the old caretaker dashes into the room and cries, "One of the Weasley Twins has set fire to my cat!" and Moody, followed by Filch, dash from the room and she slips out the door, silently thanking Ginny Weasley's brothers.

And like that, she is entranced.

He first took note of her in his sixth year – her third year. They are in the Great Hall and they hear that this year's Quidditch is cancelled; she shares his cries of defiance and outrage. And he leans over to her and mutters, 'Maybe they'd reconsider if we started our own league; get out my broom and use their text-books as bats.' And she had smirked and said, 'And Filch's cat as the Bludger.'

And like that, he was entranced.

They first needed each other was in her sixth year – he was a grown man. He was hiding away from his family, and she was hiding away from her friends. And she asked him if he was alright, and he told her his brother was gone. And he asked if she was alright, and she told him Jimmy was gone. He told her it wasn't right that Percy and Ron were there when it happened and he wasn't; she tells him it wasn't right that Jimmy stayed back to fight at sixteen. He told her of his mother's enchanted clock; Fred's arm pointing at dead. She told him of Ritchie; how she'd have to be the one to tell him.

And like that, they wanted each other.

They first started telling people at Christmas. Everyone was happy; Bill was having a baby, Charlie was coming home, Percy had begun to smile again, Ron had been accepted into Auror training, Ginny was getting married and now…. Now George had something more, and he didn't think even that would antagonize his family at such a peaceful time.

And like that, they were official.

His parents didn't know what to say; Bill told him he was in denial; Ginny (who Demelza had always tried to keep at a distance) made snide remarks. Angelina stopped speaking to him; she told him they were supposed to be in it together. Ritchie stopped looking at her; he told her he thought she would always be there for him.

And like that, they realized that with the other at their side, no one else had to be acknowledged.

It worked for perhaps a year; a year of laughter and sex and forgetting. Letters every day, two-way mirrors in each home, peaceful smiles sent in the other's direction. But that was before Angelina started turning up on his doorstep in tears; it was before Ritchie slept outside her window all night begging her to talk to him. It was before he needed someone who had known his brother like he had; it was before she needed someone who shared the same memories of Jimmy as she did.

And like that, they didn't want to forget anymore.

And perhaps it was them, or perhaps it was his shop and her schooling, and perhaps it was that she bought self-correcting ink by the carton while he avoided writing at any cost. But their netting untangled and they lost their grip on each other; and he needed Angelina like she needed Ritchie.

And like that, they were over.

And perhaps they were an oddity, and perhaps it would never have lasted, but for those short months they had forgotten; and forgetting was the sweetest relief either of them had ever prayed for.

Review please. X

I squeezed in self-correcting ink and the Great Hall.