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I can't bring myself to look away from him.
The atmosphere around the Weasley house is sad all around; this being the first Christmas since Voldemort's downfall. The first Christmas without Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Severus Snape and Fred Weasley.
Everyone has been putting in a good effort for some holiday cheer. It's just two days before Christmas, but George looks so incredibly lost.
"Hermione?"
Even Ginny's voice isn't enough to tear me away from watching George. How his eyes haven't moved from where they were currently staring into the parlor fire for the past half hour, completely ignoring the family members and friends who were in the house with him. George had always been the more quiet of the Weasley twins, but he had always been so happy. I haven't seen even a flicker of a smile on his face in the four hours since I've arrived here, and all the other times that I've seen him in the past seven months.
"He hardly ever talks anymore," Ginny says, joining me at the kitchen table and noticing where I was looking.
I turn to her and she continues. "He's still running the joke shop, but he's seemed to have lost all ambition to do so. I think he uses it to keep busy; to keep his mind off things."
"He still live above the shop?"
Ginny nods. "Charlie says he hasn't stepped foot in Fred's room at all. He had mum go in there to get Fred clothes for the funeral service."
I don't reply at all and continue to look in George's direction.
"So you and Ron decided to call it quits?"
"Yeah," I reply, once more tearing my eyes away from George.
"Finally noticed that you two are nothing alike?" She asks me with a large grin.
"Something like that," I reply, once more looking back into the parlor.
"Why don't you go talk to him?" Ginny asks me with a nudge as Mrs. Weasley walks over to George, trying to get him to have some dessert.
After he refuses and Mrs. Weasley leaves him, I nod at Ginny. "I think I'll go for a walk."
Ginny only smiles at me as I stand and walk over to the cloak rack, grabbing both mine and George's from the hooks, and walk into the parlor where George is sitting off in the corner.
I walk in front of him, blocking his view of the fire and I wait for him to look up at me. When he does, it's with a tired face, void of emotion.
"C'mon," I say, gesturing with a tilt of my head for him to stand. When he doesn't react, I hold out his cloak to him, which he takes and gives me a small nod as he stands, wrapping himself in the cloak. I put my own on and begin towards the door.
When George doesn't follow me, Ginny gives me a sad smile and I turn back to George, clasping my hand in his and leading him outside.
He closes the door behind us, and to my surprise, doesn't let go of my hand and instead, laces his fingers in mine.
We walk along the path from the door and follow it until it meets the main dirt road that leads into the small muggle village. Walking along the road in silence, I breathe in deep the chill winter air.
"I thought you might like to get out of there for a bit," I finally say, still looking at the road before us.
"Thanks," he says softly.
I look up at him quickly in surprise. "So you're not completely mute."
"No," he says, looking down at me with a small smile. His face might be showing a small sign of happiness, but his eyes show his true sadness. We hold each other's gaze for a few moments before he turns away from me, looking towards the village. "So where are we going?" He asks me.
"If I remember correctly, there's a small café in the village," I state. "I thought we could sit for some tea if you have no objection. I've got plenty of Muggle money on me."
"All right," George replies.
We continue into the village, and upon getting to the small café, George lets go of my hand and holds the door open for me. We sit down in a booth in the far corner of the room and are quickly served tea and left alone.
George takes a sip from his cup and looks up at me, studying my face. "So," he states, looking at me intently, his hands clasped before him on the table. "Is this out of pity or friendship?"
"Friendship," I quickly reply, looking at him with a frown. I sigh and place my hands on top his, making his eyes leave mine to look down at our hands. "Pity does no one well, and you certainly don't need it," I respond. "But I cannot deny that I'm concerned for you."
He nods at me. "It's not as if I'm not trying," he states, still watching our hands. "But whenever I run into anyone I know, family or otherwise, I'm smothered by their pity. It's not easy to attempt to move forward when that's the case."
"Certainly understandable," I reply, "but you need to allow yourself to live, George. Those that care for you are not trying to smother you, only voice their concern."
"I know," George replies. "I know. I just…I don't know how to live without him."
When George looks up at me, there are tears in his eyes.
"Do you want to go somewhere more private?" I ask him softly.
He nods at me, so I remove my hands from his and reach into my cloak pocket, pulling out my coin purse hand laying some quid down upon the table. We quickly make our way our of the café and George wipes his eyes on his cloak sleeves. I wait for him to compose himself before firmly grasping his arm.
"Do you trust me?" I ask his softly.
"Completely," he responds, catching me by surprise.
I smile at him before apparating the both of us to the street before my apartment. I have placed anti-apparation walls inside my flat for protection.
"Where are we?" George asks, looking down the road as we cross.
"Kent," I reply. "This is my flat," I state, opening a door at the bottom of a staircase. "I've only been here a couple of months so excuse the clutter." At the top of the stairs, I unlock the door with a Muggle key and then wave my wand before the door before opening it and flipping a light switch inside, gesturing George inside.
"Leave it to you to live in a Muggle environment," George says to me with a slight smile, examining the television and DVD player in the living room as I wave my wand to tidy the place up a bit. I hadn't been expecting company at all so books and old news papers are strewn about the room.
I lean against the wall and watch as George pulls a DVD off the bookshelf beside the television set in curiosity and I cannot help the laugh that escape as he tries to open the case and the disk flies out, making him jump.
He turns to me in mock anger, "You think that's funny do you?" He asks me in the first form of joking I've heard from him since Fred's death.
"Yeah," I reply with a smirk, happy to have gotten him to have some enjoyment as he's gone so long without any.
"What are these anyway?" He asks, gesturing to the two bookshelves that I have entirely filled with DVDs.
"Muggle movies," I reply, walking over to him, picking up the dropped disk and helping him put it back into its case and on the shelf. "Have you ever seen any?"
He shakes his head at me, continuing to read the titles. "Any worth seeing?"
"Would I have any if they weren't?"
He turns to me with a grin. "You never know, knowing you."
"Very funny," I reply, putting the movie back where it belonged on the shelf. "You care to watch one, and see how wrong you are about my taste?"
"I think I can owe you that much."
"Good," I reply. "Go sit on the couch and I'll pick something out that you might like."
George looks at the couch and then back at me. "Where?" He asks, taking his cloak off and throwing it over the back of a chair I have in the corner of the room.
Looking at the couch, I see that it's piled high with clothes and boxes of photographs. "Are you a wizard or not?" I ask him in false annoyance, waving my wand and sending the items off the couch and in a pile against the wall, taking my cloak off as well and draping it over George's.
"So what are you choosing?" He asks me as he sits down upon the couch.
"What's it matter what I say?" I ask him, looking through the movie titles that I had alphabetized on the shelf. "It's not as if you've seen any of them."
"Very true," he replies and when I glance back at him, I notice that he's watching me. I smile at him and pull 'Tommy Boy' off the second bookshelf.
"I think you'll like this one," I state, turning the television on and bending down to put the movie in the player. "It's called Tommy Boy, it's pretty funny."
"What's it about?" He asks as I hit play and go into the kitchen for two Butterbeers. I place them on the coffee table and sit down beside him, leaning back into the couch before turning the lights off with a wave of my wand.
"Just watch it," I reply and he actually laughs at me. When I turn to him in surprise he shakes his head at me and holds his left arm out, gesturing me towards him.
I raise an eyebrow at him and he sighs, leaning towards me and pulling me close to him, leaving his arm around my shoulders, making me use his chest as a pillow. I can feel my breathing quicken and the rising and falling of his chest against me makes it quite difficult for me to concentrate on the movie I put on until he begins laughing and I relax in his embrace. His laughter, after not hearing it for so long, is quite contagious.
At the end of the movie, George has a large smile on his face and when I sit back up he's watching me.
"Thank you," he says simply, "I really needed that."
I smile at him in return. "Believe me, it was no problem. Looking at the clock, my eyes widen. "It's nearly nine, your mother is probably wondering where we are."
He frowns at me. "Could we watch another…I don't want to go back there yet."
"Sure," I say, nodding my head at him. "Do you want to pick one out?"
"Yeah," he says with a smile, standing from the couch. "I think I'll do just that."
As he reads the titles on the shelf, I watch his movements closely. The change in his demeanor in only a few hours is remarkable. With his cloak off, and standing, I can now take in his appearance. He's obviously lost a large bit of weight from the way that his clothes fit on his body, and now that his other side is facing me, where Snape hit his ear with a spell is now visible. He turns around and takes in my frowning face.
"What?" He asks, a frown on his own face.
"I'm cooking for you," I state, standing up. "And you're eating."
He opens his mouth as if to talk and then closes it, shrugging. "I am a bit hungry."
At my laughter, he glares at me and I quickly walk into the kitchen, looking through the fridge for something to make. I pull out a bowl of pizza dough, which I had been leaving to rise and put it on the counter as George walks in.
"What do you like on your pizza?" I ask him, watching as he leans against the pantry door.
"I'm not picky," he replies, making me roll my eyes at him.
"I've got hamburger, sausage and pepperoni for meat and some vegetables if you want them."
"Meat's fine," he states and I hand him a package of hamburger. "What am I doing with this?"
"Cooking it," I reply with a smile, getting the pepperoni, sausage, sauce and cheese out of the fridge, putting them on the counter next to the pizza dough.
"Cooking?" George asks me, aghast at the thought of it.
"What do you order out each night?"
"Yeah," he replies, making me smile. "I do."
I shake my head at him and push him away from the closet, taking a frying pan out of it along with a spatula. "Here," I say, handing him both. "Put the hamburger in the pan, turn the stove on and stir it around until brown."
"You're kidding me, right?"
"No," I reply, getting another frying pan to fry up some of the sausage. He mutters something under his breath, but actually makes his way to the stove. When he stares at it for several moments, I help him by turning the knob to start the fire and he yet again sends a glare at me.
I ignore him and set up the other pan with sausage and move back to the dough, spreading it out inside of a deep-dish pan as I keep my eye on George, making sure that he doesn't set himself on fire. As he backs away from the stove, allowing the hamburger to simmer in the pan, I give him a smile.
"Now was that so difficult?"
He doesn't respond and watches as I spread pizza sauce over the dough and sprinkle mozzarella cheese over the sauce.
"So why aren't you living with your parents?"
I look to him quickly and stir both the sausage and hamburger before answering him. "I had to rid them of their memory of me when I went with Harry and Ron to find the Horocruxes and I sent them to live in Australia. I gave them their memories back when Harry killed Voldemort but our relationship has been rocky at best. I just couldn't stay there anymore."
"I'm sorry," he says awkwardly. "I didn't know."
"Hey," I state, turning away from the food to look at him. "I don't enjoy pity anymore than you do."
He shakes his head at and walks towards me, pulling me into a hug. "You know, you're not bad, Granger."
"Thanks Weasley," I state when he pulls away. "I guess I can say the same."
"You guess?" He asks as I shut the stove off, spooning each pan's contents into the pizza pan and adding the pepperoni before putting the pan in the oven and setting the timer.
"You heard me," I reply with a grin, walking back into my living room and sitting down on the couch. "Did you pick a movie out?" I ask as he follows me into the room.
He nods at me and hands me 'Dracula' from the coffee table.
"Odd choice," I state, walking over to the TV and putting the movie in.
He shrugs at me as I walk back to the couch and before I can sit, he once more stretches his arm out, raising an eyebrow at me.
"Why do you insist on that?" I ask him as I sit down, his arm around my waist this time.
"Because you don't seem to mind."
For some reason, his comment makes me blush, so I stare at the television ignoring that I'm pretty sure that George is laughing at me.
About fifteen minutes into the movie, the oven timer goes off so I stand up to take the pizza out of the oven. As I turn around to get plates out of the cabinet I jump, surprised to see George standing in the doorway.
"You scared me," I state, hitting him with the back of my hand on his chest before getting two plates off a shelf. "Want to get something to drink out of the fridge?"
He opens the fridge and quickly looks back at me as I use a pizza cutter to slice the pizza. "What?" I ask him, not understanding the look he was giving me.
"What the bloody hell is this stuff?" He asks, pulling out a cream soda.
"Muggle soda," I reply, placing three slices of pizza on George's plate and two on my own. "It's good, grab two."
He studies the can as if he thinks I'm insane, but takes two out of the fridge and follows me back to the couch where I hand him his plate and a napkin.
Ignoring how hot the pizza is, he immediately begins to scoff it down. I watch him in amusement and he doesn't realize that I am until he finishes his first piece.
"What?" he asks as I begin to laugh hysterically at the mess he's made of his face. "What?" he asks again, with a smile this time, when I don't answer but continue to laugh at him.
He takes a napkin off the table and wipes his face, beginning to laugh with me, which immediately makes me stop.
"It's nice to hear you laugh again," I say softly.
"It feels nice to laugh again," he replies, opening his soda and taking a large sip.
"How do you like it?"
"Not bad," he replies, leaning back into the couch and beginning his second piece of pizza as I start my first.
When the movie ends, I yawn from George's shoulder and sit up, using my wand to send the dishes into the kitchen where I'll take care of them later and to turn the lights on.
"You ready to go back?" I ask him, using the remote to turn the TV off.
"Yeah," George says, nodding his head. "I am," he adds, looking to me with a smile. He stands and holds out his hands to help me up from the couch. He stands in front of me for a moment with my hands in his before he walks over to the chair where our cloaks are and hands me mine. When we both have our cloaks on, he takes my elbow in his and I can't help rolling my eyes at his false chivalry as he escorts me out of my flat, allowing me to lock the door behind us, and across the street.
"Do you trust me?" He asks when were to the spot where I had apparated us to.
"Completely," I say with a grin and he grabs my hands, apparating us back to the Weasley garden.
I follow George as he opens the door and we both quietly creep inside, being careful not to make noise as it's now past midnight and the house is asleep. When we make it upstairs to the hallway, George stops, looking at his old room with a frown.
"Why don't you take my bed in Ginny's room," I say softly to him, noticing his hesitation.
He bites his bottom lip and shakes his head at me. "No…I'll just sleep on the couch."
"George," I state, turning him around to face me. "From the circles under your eyes it's obvious that you need a good night's sleep. The couch isn't going to get you that…it's fine."
With a small smile, he bends down and kisses my cheek. "Thank you," he says and walks into Ginny's room before I can respond.
I walk into George's room with a sigh as I glance at what used to be Fred's bed. I change into pajamas and am instantly asleep as my head hits George's pillow.
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This is the only chapter that I have so far,
So if you liked it please tell me and I'll write more.
I haven't attempted a post DH before.