George raised his glass and clinked it with his twin's. They tilted their heads and downed their firewhiskey: it had been a long week.
And it was only Thursday.
Business was doing fine, (as usual), but the Weasley twins' personal lives were not flourishing as they should have been for two young, attractive and wealthy men. George had caught Angelina, Fred's on-again, off-again girlfriend in the act with one of her Quidditch teammates, and had told Fred. (Obviously). Fred wasn't completely surprised; he had almost suspected Angelina to be romancing at least one of her teammates, but he was still heartbroken. Although not as heartbroken as George would have expected him to be; he still held some of his humor. And George's love-life? At the moment, it was pretty much nonexistent, but he was okay with it, what with Fred being upset...George knew he had to stick by his brother-
-even if that meant a Firewhiskey during lunch. On a Thursday.
"Well, m'boy, I figure we should go back and make sure Verity hasn't "accidentally" blown up the store."
Fred chuckled, "I think she wants to keep her job, Georgie."
"You never know with that one..." The two men left some galleons on their table, and waved good-bye to Tom, and exited the Leaky Cauldron into the hustle and bustle that was Diagon Alley. They decided to walk back to their store: well George had decided for the both of them since Fred didn't really care. As they passed the Quidditch Supply store, George dragged his brother along, not wanting him to dwell on Quidditch...
which would lead to Angelina...
and then perhaps a rant on how she cheated on him...
or worse, he might actually break down.
Thankfully, Fred had only broken down once, and that was immediately after George had told him, and after he threw some items in their flat against the wall, and after he had "gone to bed". George heard him practically weeping, and went in with a large bottle of Firewhiskey and some chocolate.
Fred had looked at him funny when he produced the chocolate, but George had only shrugged and said, "Works for girls is what I hear."
The men arrived back to their store to find Verity, the only other employee to be reading some Muggle magazine behind the counter, and blowing and popping bubbles with her chewing gum. "Verity dear, we're home!" George said cheerily as he leaned against the counter.
Verity merely rolled her eyes, "Hullo, dear."
George grinned and asked, "Any messages?" while batting his eyelashes.
"No, Mr. Weasley," she replied without any real emotion and continued to flip through her magazine.
"Fred," George cried dramatically, "why doesn't Verity see how much I care about her?"
Verity looked up, ready to play this daily game she and her employers played, "Why, I do know, Mr. Weasley, but it's against company policy!" She put down her magazine and flipped her blond hair behind her shoulder.
Fred rolled his eyes watching this little show and said sullenly, "Verity, dear, why must you encourage the bloke?"
George followed his brother to the back, shrugging to Verity, who went back to flipping through her magazine.
"You all right?"
Fred didn't look up from his desk where he was currently reviewing a flaw with one of their trick wands, "Fine."
George knew better than to press, so let his brother be, as he went to work on making more of their Love Potion Line products.
"We'll need to start hiring more employees if we plan to open in Hogsmeade."
"Yeah, but we'll need to buy property first."
"We need to hop on that."
"Hm."
There was a faint tinkle, but the brothers continued their work. Verity would handle the customers. For whatever reason, Tuesdays and Thursdays were usually slower than the rest of the week.
"Mr. Weasley," Verity's voice filled their office via a loudspeaker, "there's a witch here who wants to see your Defense line."
"You want this one, Fred?" Fred didn't respond. "Fred? FRED?"
"Hm, what? Ah, you go ahead, ol' chap, I'm in the middle of this, and I think I can fix it..."
George nodded, and straightening his robes, walked out into the showroom where Verity pointed him over to a corner where a raven-haired witch was looking at the Canary Creams.
"Miss?"
The young witch turned around, her black robe open to reveal a mid-length denim skirt and a white oxford. "Yes," she replied, grinning, "you must be Mr. Weasley," she extended a small, tanned hand which George shook.
"Oh please, it's George, " he smiled, her grin contagious.
"Mira Dean," she said, "a pleasure to meet you."
"And you, Mira. Now what can I do for you?"
"Ah yes," George noticed her green-grey eyes twinkle, but before he could examine her face any further, she continued, "my father is a Muggle Private Investigator," at George's blank expression she tried again, "a detective, a...Sherlock Holmes or James Bond of sorts."
"Oooh, ok, right." He tried not to look to sheepish when she smiled again.
"Anyway, he saw an advertisement for your Defense Against the Dark Arts line, and he thought that this would help with his tougher cases."
George looked skeptical, "Muggle cases?"
Mira nodded, but added, "We do get a few magical cases, but I usually deal with those."
"Ah," George said, starting to smile again, "I see. So you're like a magical Nancy Drew."
Mira laughed softly, "I'm surprised you know who she is," she shook her head slightly, "but I hope I'm a bit smarter and cooler than Nancy."
George smiled, "I'm sure you are."
Mira noticed he was about to say something, but before he could say another word she put her hand up and pulled a thick envelope out of her robe, "ID for my father and I, his license to practice, his high school and university diploma, my Hogwarts diploma-"
"Hogwarts?"
"Ravenclaw, year behind the infamous Weasley twins."
"Infamous?" George feigned hurt.
"More like famous to the students, infamous to the teachers."
"Ah, much better."
She rolled her eyes playfully and continued, "My Healer-in-Training card, and references from clients for both of us."
"A Healer and a Nancy Drew, eh?"
Mira's light pink lips curved upwards, "Until I become a licensed Healer next week, more Healer than PI."
George nodded, "Ok, well, all this looks sufficient, I'll show you to our stock and just confirm all this with my partner, so follow me." He led her to a closet about the size of a toilet that was off to the side of the main showroom, and excused himself so he could discuss this with Fred.
"Oi! Fred!"
"Oi, what?"
"Just here, look at these and confirm that this Mira Dean can purchase some Defense products."
Fred flipped through the envelope's contents. "Private Investigator for Muggles?"
"She does magical cases."
"Muggles?" Fred seemed skeptical of the entire idea.
"Come on, what harm would an Instant Darkness Powder do?"
"Hmm...all right, you met the girl..."
"Jolly good," George went back to the small room where Mira was holding a checklist of what she needed.
"Ready then?" Mira nodded and he led her to the register. "You want these delivered?"
Mira bit her bottom lip, and George couldn't help but notice this sexy act that was done so innocently. "When would they be delivered?"
George stepped on his own foot to bring him back to reality and disregard Mira's lips for the moment. Thankfully, Mira took no notice of this strange act. "Well, we have a limited supply at the moment, so you can take some right now if you want them as soon as possible, or we can have them all delivered by next Friday."
Mira thought for a moment and said, "I'll take what you have now, and have the rest delivered."
George nodded, and taking her checklist, went back to the closet to take the necessary items. He came back out with a bag full of Instant Darkness Powders and Decoy Detonators. "No Invisible hats?" he asked teasingly.
She smiled. "Nope, not today."
"all right, it's 35 galleons and 5 sickles total for everything, including the stuff that you want delivered."
She handed him the money, "Is there a form I should fill out for the delivery?"
"Ah, yes," he handed her the form and a quill, and as she wrote, George was finally able to admire her beauty. She had shoulder length jet-black hair that wasn't so black it was blue, but was extremely black. She constantly ran her ring-adourned hand through it, George had noticed, and was currently twirling a few strands of it; 'A nervous habit', George thought. Her eyes were slightly large, but still beautiful, a mesmerizing mixture of bright emerald green and a steel grey. George had never seen eyes like hers before, and he was taken aback by the intensity she had shown before while grinning. Her smile was contagious, and as George had realized, she had lovely lips, lips he wouldn't mind kissing...he mentally slapped himself. She was short, but not too short: she came up to about his chin, so he figured she was about 5'5" or 5'6". And she was, well, she wasn't drop-dead gorgeous, (not many girls were, in George's opinion), but she was still beautiful; she didn't wear formfitting clothes the way many witches today had, but wore comfortable clothes that were still sexy. She were minimal make-up from what George could tell, but then again, what with her alluring eyes, there wasn't much make-up could do for her. No matter how cliché he sounded, George could only think of one word for Mira Dean: lovely.
George was ripped from his reverie when Mira sighed loudly and faced him again. "Finished!" She looked at George's own green-hazel eyes, and George noticed hers twinkle again. "And the rest will be delivered..."
"By next Friday."
"Perfect," she extended her hand, "thanks so much, George. It was a pleasure meeting you and doing business with you."
"Oh, the pleasure's all mine, Mira."
She smiled, her eyes still twinkling. "Hope to see you again soon." And before George could reply, she had left, the door twinkling behind her.
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A/N: So what did everyone think so far? This is my first Harry Potter fic, so PLEASE any and all criticism is MUCH appreciated. I've done some Tamora Pierce fics, so, um, I know how to write fanfiction...
I don't know how long this story is going to be, but I'm going to rate it the equivalent of PG-13 for now, but it may end up being M later on, not sure yet...it's going to be George/OC, and I'm basing Mira around a little bit of how I'd like to be, and also Veronica Mars, hence all this detective stuff...so this chapter is only the intro, and I'll try to update ASAP...
-Tate Dean