"I thought we agreed to not go!"
"What was I supposed to do? 'Sorry Ron, I'm not going, I'd rather sit back in the room with George'?"
"I don't see why not. No one would suspect anything."
"Are you really that blind? People already wonder why we haven't had girlfriends. If we'd both refused to go, gossip would have spread."
"Since when have you cared about that? Nevermind--Go to the ball, have a blast." George slipped from the four-post bed and back into his own, his cheeks fuming.
Pulling the covers over his body, he pounded his pillow a few times for good measure. It's not like I have anything against Angelina. But we'd promised not to. Because we didn't want to have this conflict. Dammit Fred.
He pressed his face into his pillow, trying to pretend he didn't care.
George kept himself out of the room, in fact out of the tower, while Fred dressed in his fancy robes. He headed back to the room when he thought that they'd all be gone, but Fred had been running late and they met in the staircase.
George bit his cheek to ignore how handsome Fred looked and the thought that followed of him dancing with Angelina. George ignored him when he called his name, and instead just skulked up to the room. He noted that Fred didn't follow and heard the faint words of, "Ready Angelina?"
Is this how it would be from now on? Them going off with girls, pretending that they were just normal twins? Eventually would they marry off, ignoring the past few years and moving apart as siblings did? George lied down in his bed, staring at the burn mark on the top of the curtain. He remembered how he and Fred were trying to capture an ever-burning flame in a glass orb when they bed had caught fire.
He didn't want it to end here. He didn't care how many people were curious about them not having girlfriends. But it wouldn't matter if Fred didn't want to continue. After all, it was a very difficult thing to do alone.
Angelina was looking very nice. And he made sure to compliment her robes. And for a moment he wished he were straight. And not involved. That too. Both would make life so much easier.
And Angelina was nice enough. The dancing and talking was nice enough. Overall it had been a nice time. But thinking about the hurt he'd seen in George's eyes, that made him unhappy.
"Is something wrong?" They were heading back to the tower, and Fred had been trying to think of the best way to make it up to George.
"Oh? No. Was I spacing?"
"Yes. I asked you three questions and you haven't answered a single one. It's about George, isn't it? You two haven't been talking. What happened?"
"We had a disagreement."
"On you taking me to the ball?"
"Uh, well, yeah, I little."
"Don't worry. I only said 'yes' because you asked. I would never come between what you two have." With that she kissed him on the cheek and headed up the staircase to her room.
Fred stood amazed on the stairs. He wasn't sure if she had said what he thought she said. But it didn't matter. Because she just helped him realize that it didn't matter what was easy. What mattered what made him happy. And as he slipped into his pajamas, he knew exactly what that was. And he was glad to find him in his bed.