Disclaimer: Who owns Harry Potter? Not I!
Notes: This is a birthday present for PerfectMisfit, who wanted a George/Katie fic. Happy birthday, Allie! I hope you have a great day, and that you like this. :)
It's also a response to 10th June's Hogwarts Online prompt, "In my dreams I've kissed your lips a thousand times."
Enjoy, and please review~
"In my dreams, I've kissed your lips a thousand times..."
She so wants to say that to him, because it's so true she wants to scream - or maybe it's not true, she thinks, because surely she's done it more than a thousand times?
Katie can imagine herself saying it, too, in the innocuous setting of George and Angelina's living room. Just saying it. Just blurting it out. They'll be sitting there, sipping their tea and talking about how the shop's going and what's happening with the child situation, or lack thereof (because they actually trust Katie to understand what a hard time they're going through - when at least they have someone real there at night), and then she'll just... say it. Just look George in the eye and say "In my dreams, I've kissed your lips a thousand times."
In her daydreams, she's also imagined the awkward silence that comes after, or the wisecracks that do a bad job of covering up the truth because what use are cracks when everything is falling apart? Oh, she can imagine it, and in fact she rarely does anything but.
It's what stops her from telling him... but it's also what's pushing her closer to doing it. Maybe if he rejects her, once and for all, she'll be able to get over him, despite how it's been years of shy glances and unfulfilled wishes.
"Why did you join this team, Katie?" asks Angelina curiously, months after her triumph at the try-outs. "I mean, you deserve to be on it, but you never seem to really enjoy it..."
Katie glances up at her, then looks back down at her shoes, carefully untying the laces, changing into her school ones, and storing all of her Quidditch gear in her locker. Everything's eventual, though, and eventually she has to answer. It makes her blush, but in a tiny voice she admits, "...There's someone I like..."
"Ohhh," says Angelina knowingly. "I thought you and Oliver... well... it's Oliver, right? You're sweet together!"
Embarrassed, Katie doesn't bother to contradict her. Besides, Angelina sort of has this... thing with Fred, and wouldn't it just be a bit weird to tell her she likes his twin brother, not Oliver (who in any case likes broomsticks a bit too much for it to be entirely normal)?
They sit on the sofas in George and Angelina's living room, sipping their tea and talking of their old Quidditch days, reminiscing about all the high points, all the low points, and Katie can remember it all so vividly, can remember watching George in the air and the beginning of it all.
She thinks of her dreams - her horrible, happy dreams - and she thinks back to those heady days when nothing was so complicated and her hands weren't tied, and she thinks of the here and the now and the what there is to lose.
There's a lull in the conversation, and she opens her mouth to speak.