Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter
Meeting on a Train
AN: So, really the only reason that I'm writing this is because I saw an AU Masterpost on Tumblr listing all the different types of AUs you could do with the OTP of your choice, so obviously I saw this as a chance to indulge in my creativity. This falls under the 'incredibly long cross-country train ride AU' please enjoy, and Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it, Happy Hanukkah to those that celebrate that, and Happy Holidays to all!
Featuring: Dark-haired!Hope and Bi!Hermione (plus Confident!Hermione) as cousins, I don't care if you're not into Hermione's sexuality, it hit me, so it's happening. Also VeryForward!George
Hope Potter scowled out her window, watching as the trees and every sort of wildlife imaginable flitted by.
She hated train rides, especially long ones between the Hogwarts and Beauxbatons cities, but her mother had been very insistent; she'd hardly seen Hope since she'd gotten back from her senior high school semester abroad in Scotland at a school called Durmstrang.
Hope glanced to her phone where it was lying beside her, unmoving and untouched, before glancing glumly out the window again.
"Would you give it a rest?" the girl sitting opposite her complained. "He's not going to text! I'd say be done with him, he's the one who cheated on you, remember?"
Hope smiled at her companion. Hermione Granger, her cousin on her mother's side through her adoptive older sister (thus explaining why Hermione and Hope had zero similarities other than their bookish tendencies), had opted to join her on the trip, simply telling her parents that she wanted to see Aunt Lily and she couldn't bear to allow Hope to travel by herself (the first bit didn't surprise Hope as Hermione and her mother got on famously, however, the second part was met with an eye roll).
Hermione was right, of course, but she was always right.
"Oliver Wood didn't deserve you," Hermione promised, her soft brown eyes flashing with sincerity. "Who knows, maybe you'll find someone of real value at the university Aunt Lily is subbing at."
Hope snorted. "I find that very hard to believe, my opinion towards men has gone quite down the drain." Even the ones in her freshman classes weren't worth her attention.
"Then you should be like me," Hermione said with a wink, "appreciate the delicacies of both genders."
Hope had accepted rather early on in her life that Hermione didn't go towards one gender, she went towards both, and it was an idea the world was slowly wrapping its head around; people being attracted to either their own sex or both (or even none, such as Hope's friend Terry Boot who couldn't have made it plainer that he was asexual). Things in the Granger household were strained for a few months after Hermione came out and she spent a lot of nights over at Hope's place before her parents came around completely.
Hermione, as it were, had just ended a relationship with a girl named Padma Patil, and was thus as single as Hope.
"I don't think that lifestyle's for me," Hope muttered, her cheeks flushing bright pink at the thought.
"Suit yourself," Hermione said with a shrug, her eyes following a college girl as she passed her down the aisle. Her straggly blonde hair flew behind her as she moved and her pale blue eyes appeared to be in a perpetually surprised expression. A pen was tucked behind her ear (were those radish earrings? Strange…) and her fingers were fiddling with a heavy and complicated-looking camera as she passed them, moving at a skip. Hermione eyed her behind in speculation before turning on Hope.
"How about her? She's cute."
"In a pixie sort of way," Hope conceded, much too used to Hermione asking her opinion on either males or females that came into Hermione's close vicinity. "You could always go and talk to her."
Hope pulled out her laptop, its shiny texture had faded since she had been given it for her seventeenth birthday, typing out her password quicker than anyone's eyes would have been able to follow (because she was paranoid like that and her father, being the Chief of Police, had shown rather early on that he wasn't afraid to invade her privacy much to her anger.
"And leave you here all alone? Now, what kind of cousin would I be!" Hermione cried.
Hope didn't roll her eyes this time, but it was a very near thing, so she settled on simply giving Hermione a resolute stare. "Exactly how much trouble do you think I can get up to alone?" she asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Entirely too much," Hermione smirked. "Want to know why?"
"Why?" Hope asked in an all-suffering voice as she pulled up one of the documents for her class on the French Revolution.
"Because," Hermione had lowered her voice with a tone of glee that was not usually heard, "the ginger five seats back on the other side of the aisle can't take his eyes off of you."
Reflexively, Hope glanced in the direction that she was indicating. There was a rather handsome –she tried not to think it, but the word hot sprang to mind– older boy (man) of perhaps twenty years, leaning back in his chair with a worn paperback of The Hobbit in his hands that he clearly wasn't paying any attention to. Freckles were sprinkled across his face and cheeks and the exposed back of his hands, though Hope was sure if he wasn't wearing a thick jacket against the cold October air she would have been able to see even more on his arms. His ginger hair was long, hanging loosely around his face and framing his bright blue eyes.
Which were on her.
Hope blushed and quickly averted her eyes, though she was certain that she saw his lips quirk upwards at the sight of the darkening color of her cheeks.
George Weasley hadn't meant to gave at the newcomer so much, but she had a beauty that was very distracting and entirely refreshing. Rectangular spectacles were perched on the bridge of her nose, framing impossibly green eyes, a green he had quite possibly never seen on someone before, and her cheeks were fair. Dark curls fell down her back with at least two dark purple streaks running through them.
He hadn't realized he was being so blatant when she looked up and met his eyes, only to become quickly flustered and glance away. He smirked.
"Admit it, he's pretty hot," Hermione grinned at her cousin.
"Well, maybe," Hope said out of the corner of her mouth, causing Hermione to pump her fist in the air, happy that Hope had agreed with her.
"Don't get up to too much trouble while I'm gone," Hermione said, standing abruptly, her bushy ponytail swinging in the air, "I've got a blonde to chat up."
Hope tried not to watch her go in exasperation; she had been the one to tell her to go in the first place, but now she was making it all out like it was her idea all along.
She went back to typing out her introductory statement on her essay and was nearly halfway down the page when she had to glance up in surprise as someone approached the seat opposite her that Hermione had barely vacated and sat themselves carelessly down.
It was the mysterious ginger-haired hottie.
He was grinning. "Sorry, I couldn't help but notice you were on your own." His voice had a pleasing almost mischievous lilt that Hope found a bit endearing, though she wasn't going to admit that.
Hope gave him an unimpressed stare, reasserting her laptop on her thighs. "You know, most people would consider what you just did rather rude."
His grin hadn't disappeared. "And do you?"
Hope's eyes narrowed just barely. "Slightly."
He held out a freckled hand. "George Weasley, Engineering Major, Hogwarts University."
Hope shook it. "Hope Potter, History Major, Beauxbatons University."
George replied, "That's too bad."
Her eyebrows furrowed together in confusion and she shut her laptop (she had a feeling this man was going to be taking up all of her time). "What makes you say that?"
"I was just looking forward to seeing you on campus," George said in amusement. "I think there's a professor with the last name Potter…"
"My mum's just filling in for a professor that went out sick," Hope said easily, "Flitwick, I think his name was."
George nodded. "I hear your mum's gorgeous," he said suddenly, "did you inherit it all from her?"
Hope was taken aback by his rather blatant interest in her and the clearly obvious flirting he was doing. Most people weren't nearly so forward and it took Hope a moment for her tongue to function once more.
"Are you flirting with me?" she asked, still a little stunned.
He curled the book in his hands and Hope wanted to cry at the damaging effects he was having on one of J.R.R. Tolkien's great works (as he was a god in Hope's eyes), and then he grinned. "Is it working?"
Hope opened and shut her mouth, looking incredibly flustered. "Well, maybe," she admitted almost as an afterthought and George couldn't help but release a short laugh.
"An honest answer! I'm liking you already, Hope Potter."
Hope couldn't help but like the way her name rolled off his tongue.
"You're very strange," Hope decided, and that only made him laugh more.
"You wouldn't be the first person to think so," he assured her, "my parents think me and my identical twin are completely bonkers."
Hope blinked owlishly and stared at him uncomprehendingly. "There's another one of you? You must be pulling my leg!"
"Nope," George said with a snort, pulling out his phone with difficulty to hold it up to Hope's eyelevel so she could see his background. It was of two boys with, as he had said, identical features, grinning roguishly into the camera.
"How does anyone not screw the pair of you up?" she couldn't help but ask.
"They do, usually," George admitted, shoving the phone back into his pants without further ado. "But Fred's a Science Major and I'm in Engineering, so that helps a lot."
"I'll bet," Hope said in a dry manner.
"What're you doing on Friday night?" he asked her without preamble.
"Could you be any more forward?" Hope demanded, practically feeling as her cheeks dusted a faint pink.
"Is that a challenge?" George inquired, his eyes alight and his lips tugging upwards into a smile that only caused the color splashed across her face to darken.
"Wh-no!" Hope replied, flustered by his attitude but also pleased. She hadn't caught any male attention since Oliver dumped her for that tramp she caught him shagging, and it was pleasing to know that someone else found her worth their time. "Friday's Halloween…"
"It is," George agreed as the train pulled steadily closer towards the station (exactly how long had they been talking?).
"You aren't going to pull something over me, are you?" Hope asked suspiciously.
"I wouldn't dare," George said, raising a hand to his chest as though she had mortally offended him. "Just dinner, promise. Here, give me your phone."
She had barely handed it to him, before he had it in his hands, typing into her contacts before memorizing her number and inserting it into his. "Green-eyed…beauty," he said slowly as he typed out the words and Hope flushed crimson.
He winked and then he moved forward, cupping her cheek, his lips meeting hers in a kiss that was hardly sweet, but suited his personality just fine. Hope's eyelids fluttered slightly from the sudden kiss but he had released her all-too-soon, standing with a smirk as she tried to regain her breath.
"I'll text you tonight," he said swiftly.
"W-We barely know each other," Hope forced out, dazed from his kiss, "and you've already asked me out, kissed me, and promised to text me!"
"What can I say?" George grinned. "You deserve attention and I want to get to know you."
And then he had pulled his bag over his shoulder, disappearing down the aisle as Hermione came to a stop by Hope.
"W-o-w!" Hermione gasped. "Did he seriously kiss you?"
Hope nodded mutely.
"And ask you on a date?"
Another nod.
"And said he'll text you tonight?"
Once more.
Hermione apprised her cousin. "You have been busy."
Hope's phone buzzed and she scrambled for it.
From: The hottie with the great arse (Hope sighed in exasperation; he was such a child, and Hope had barely known him an hour!)
You look adorable when you're all embarrassed.
Her cheeks enflamed and Hermione roared with laughter.
AN: I hope you all enjoyed this AU, it's a break from the ordinary, and there might be more in the future, but for now, its simply my gift to you all! Merry Christmas! The next chapter of Looking Beyond might be up within the next two days, but I'm visiting my aunt, so maybe not…
I've reposted A Different Kind of Gold, check it out if you want.
The Jily Alive AU will be called Seen Through Hazel Eyes, because that'll be the color Hope likes to stick with.
And if you're following Sting of the Blade, Chapter Eleven is up!
REVIEW!