Here's your challenge, searching4romeo, hope you like it.
Title: A Beautiful Relationship
Summary: Mandy Brocklehurst has been invited to the bash of the year; The Weasley Twins' Birthday Bash. Needless to say, she's a little suspicious, since she never met the Weasley Twins, except in passing. Why do they want her to come? Her loneliness increases when she arrives, knowing few people. So instead of hanging around, she slips into the courtyard to have a good cry. Who finds her there?
Disclaimer: I own nothing except Mandy's boss.
Pairing: George Weasley/Mandy Brocklehurst
Author's Notes: This was a challenge set up for me by my dear, dear friend searching4romeo.
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Mandy stared at the letter in her hand, unable to believe the contents.
"Dear AMANDA BROCKLEHURST, You are cordially invited to THE WEALSEY TWINS' BIRTHDAY BASH on the FIRST OF
APRIL. They will be TWENTY-FIVE. It is to be held at the POTTER MANSION. Please
send an RSVP by the TWENTIETH OF MARCH so we know if you plan to attend. Yours Sincerely, Harry Potter
Ginny Potter
Ron Weasley
Hermione Weasley."
She read aloud, as if hearing the words would make them seem real. Why on earth would she be invited to the Weasley Twin's party? She barely knew them beyond knowing they were the ones who'd turned her hair green at one point in time.
She didn't even know Ron Weasley or Hermione (Granger) Weasley and Harry Potter very well, even though she'd been in the same year as them. Their paths just hadn't crossed much.
"Hey, Susan," she called out to her room-mate, a former Hufflepuff, "did you get an invite to the big Weasley 'do'?"
Susan came out of her studio, purple paint streaking her nut-brown hair. "I did, yes. Why?"
"Are you planning to go?"
"I was considering it...but only if you went." Susan was painfully shy, even after all these years, and stuck to Mandy like glue. Like a good cousin, Mandy tried to take care of Susan, but she sometimes grew irriated by the other girl's clinginess, especially since Susan reminded her so much of her little sister...
"Why not. Could be fun. Perhaps some of your Hufflepuff friends will be there."
"Maybe. I think they must have invited everyone from Hogwarts that Fred and George ever met, because we certainly didn't know them very well." Susan said. "I'll go write the RSVPs."
Mandy nodded. 'Or maybe it's an April Fools joke, and we're going to be the fools.' She thought darkly, going back to her book.
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The day of the party dawned, and unfortunately Mandy was as healthy as ever. She glared at her thermometer. "Everything abandons me in my hour of need." She said grumpily, walking into the bathroom and turning on the shower. Before the party she had to pop into work to drop off some papers, and wouldn't that be fun. Hopefully her boss would be in and would demand that she work tonight. She'd much rather write accident reports than go to this party.
Unfortunately, luck was not on her side. Not only was her boss in the best mood ever, but he encouraged Mandy to go to the party. This, Mandy felt, was adding insult to injury.
So it was understandable that she wasn't in the best of moods when she arrived home that afternoon on the first of April.
"Susan! I'm back!" She called, walking in. Susan didn't answer, and Mandy felt her heart plummet to her boots. She ran into Susan's studio, finding it empty. "SUSAN?!" She yelled. "SUSAN!!!"
Walking into the kitchen and sitting down at the breakfast bar, Mandy tried to slow down her breathing. "I will not panic." She coached herself. "If I panic I'm going to hyperventilate. If I hyperventilte I'm going to faint. If I faint, I'm not going to be able to help Susan."
'Oh, this is just like what happened to little Emily!' Her mind wailed. "No it's not," Mandy said firmly. "Because this time I'm going to find her."
Her faze fell on a piece of paper and she picked it up, brown eyes running over the words written in Susan's unmistakeable scrawl.
'Mandy,
Gone with some friends to pick up a dress for tonight. See you at the party.
-Susan'
Very carefully, Mandy placed the note back down on the bench. So, Susan was alright. Everything was ok, then. She hadn't been kidnapped. Mandy had not lost another family member because she hadn't been there.
Automatically, Mandy went into her bedroom and changed out of her jeans and into a silky crimson party dress. She curled her red-brown hair, put fire engine red polish on her nails, and did her makeup. Her lips were painted a dark purple-red, and she was ready to go. Walking unsteadily over to the bedside table on slinky black heels and picking up the presents and her wand (cherry wood, 14 1/4 inches, flexible, with a core of unicorn hair, good for Charms) she disapparated with a CRACK!
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The party was nothing more than a bore for Mandy. Susan was having fun, at least, talking to her friends from school. She was planning a holiday with one of them right now. Mandy simply sat in a chair, wanting nothing more than to go home and go to bed. She still felt numb, Susan's disappearance earlier had opened up wounds she thought healed long ago.
To her horror, Mandy felt a burning behind her eyes which signified tears were on their way.
Quickly she got up and slipped out the door into the rain-filled courtyard. She sat by the fountain and dropped her head forward, tears falling down her cheeks and mixing with the melting makeup and rain. She was so involved in her torment that she didn't even notice someone was sitting beside her until they spoke.
"You ok?"
Those words, as kind as they were, nearly made Mandy laugh. Such an absurd thing to ask a girl sitting in the middle of a courtyard in the rain, soaked to the skin, her makeup running down her face and her expensive dress and shoes ruined. "Do I look like I'm ok?" She asked rather calmly.
"Well, no." The man said. Mandy hadn't even looked up yet, so she had no idea who it was, but the voice was male. "But I thought it was polite to ask that."
"Sorry, I'm not much in the mood for politeness tonight. I just want to be left alone." Mandy said, wiping her eyes and smearing her mascara even more.
"Here." Uninvited, the man placed a hand under Mandy's chin and wiped the tears, rain, and makeup from her face. His white handkerchief became a myriad of grey, black and red, the new battlefield of Mandy's pain.
"Thanks." Mandy said, looking at her companion for the first time. She blinked. It was none other than one of the Weasley twins. She made a quick guess, based on the colour of his shirt and the fact that he had a freckle right next to his left eye...which she was pretty sure only one twin had. "George? Why are you out here?"
The redhead's blue eyes widened. "How'd you know it was me, not Fred?" He asked.
Mandy laughed nervously. "You have a freckle next to your left eye. Fred doesn't."
"But how'd you know that? I mean, you hardly knew me. Or Fred. Heck, I don't even know your name!"
Mandy flinched. "Well, I notice things." She muttered. "And my name's Mandy. But why are you out here? Why aren't you inside?"
"I saw you slip out and you looked really upset, so I decided to find out why." George shrugged.
"Stuff happened during the war that I was reminded of today. No big." Mandy said briskly. "Now that you know I'm ok, you can leave. Shoo. Go have fun. It's your birthday after all. You shouldn't spend it hanging out with someone you don't even know."
"But you're upset." George protested.
"Yes, I'm upset. But why should that bother you? As you said, you never knew my name until I told it to you just then. So go away. I just want to be left alone."
"Then why did you come tonight?"
"Because Susan wanted to." Mandy looked up at George. "She said she was too shy to come by herself, though I don't see any problems now she's with her friends again. But I'm not going to make the same mistake of letting a member of my family go to a big party by themself after they asked me to come with them again. That's how my sister-" Her voice broke after that and she began crying again.
George surprisd her again by putting an arm around her, allowing her to cry into his garishly-bright fluro yellow and orange shirt, making soft, soothing noises.
"Why are you doing this?" She gasped between sobs.
"Because I know what it's like to lose a sibling, even if mine wasn't lost forever. And you need to cry. Besides, it's not every day that a pretty young thing like yourself sits in my lap." He smirked down at her, and Mandy blushed.
"It's not every day that a nice guy like you lets me." She murmured in return.
"I think, my dear Mandy, that this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship." George said as he rocked her.
"It could indeed." Mandy said, nuzzling her face into his chest.
End Ficlet
There...challenge done. Care to set me another one, punk? Lol.