There were only three steps that were filled with awkward silence. Peach was gifted in conversation with strangers.
"I've never met a George who fit his name." was the first thing she said.
"What?" George asked, confused.
"You know," she said, "People's names sometimes suit them and sometimes they don't, every George I've ever met didn't look like a George."
"What about me?" asked George.
"You're asking a lot of questions," it was a statement. A plain statement, but the way she said it made George smile. She was just naturally funny. "I thought the point of this walk was to find out about you." She continued.
"OK then, shoot."
She paused, a glitter in her eye, "Alright then, tell me something about yourself…where did you go to school."
"Hogwarts."
She laughed, "Pig zits"
"What?"
"What?"
"I said what first."
"You said hog warts. Is that you're word for doesn't matter or something?"
George took in what she said, absorbed it, sorted it in his brain, and concluded that Peach was a muggle. He had never talked to a muggle before, but all of his brothers and Ginny had been given the same advice if they should be asked that question. "I was home schooled."
"Really? I went to a private school. I absolutely hated it. You had to be so well behaved and perfect."
"And now we're back on the subject of you." George secretly hoped they could stay on that subject. He didn't want to lie to someone who he enjoyed talking to so much.
"What can I say, I love talking about myself, I'm a very interesting person."
Relieved, George smiled, "I have to say, I've never met anyone named after a fruit."
Peach smiled, "Peaches are my mum's favorite food, when she was pregnant with me, every time she tried to eat one, she'd puke. So, she was denied them for nine months. After the labor, when the doctors asked what my name was, she was practically asleep from exhaustion, she just mumbled, peach."
George laughed, it wasn't a hilarious story, it was an unusual story. But Peach made it funny.
She went on, "I think I knew what I was doing when I forced the peaches back up her throat. Apparently she was going to name me Janet."
At this George was shaking with laughter. He couldn't help himself; everything she said was just funny. Peach went on to tell the story of her life, the pranks she had pulled at her boarding school, the 2 years she had spent at law school, and the trip she had taken across Europe, the trip that had inspired her to ditch law school and become an artist.
"Why did you ditch law school?" George asked after she had finished.
"It just wasn't for me. It was like; everyone but myself had planned my whole life out for me. And when I was in Europe, and I would look at a piece of art by an unknown artist, or an ancient building that so many unknown people had built, I just realized, it didn't matter that they weren't successful, they fulfilled their own dreams, and they left behind pieces of history. So, I quit school and looked for my passion, that's how I found art." Finished Peach.
"Well…yeah…but…don't lawyers make loads of money? Why didn't you just paint on the side?" asked George.
"I thought about that, but law just bored me out of my wits and it just took up so much of my life." Said Peach.
"You're right, you know, you really are an interesting person." Said George.
Peach smiled shyly, it was the first time George had seen her do something in a shy manner. But in an instant, she overcame it and asked, "So, tell me, what do you do?"
George was about to tell her he ran a joke shop, but then stopped, when was the last time he'd been to the shop? Had something happened to it? Had he been gone from it so long it had been forgotten?
"I own a joke shop, but I've taken a break from it for…" he didn't know how long it had been "…awhile" he finished.
"Oh, why?" asked Peach.
"Uh, my twin brother recently died." George mumbled it.
But Peach heard perfectly and gasped, "I'm so sorry."
"Thanks."
The next few seconds were quiet and awkward. Then Peach spoke up, "I always wanted a twin, or even a sibling. Was it cool?"
George smiled, "It was the coolest. We pulled some of the most terrible pranks on our siblings."
"There's more of you?!"
"Yeah, one little sister, one little brother, and four older brothers, well three now, Fred was two minutes older than me."
"Oh,"
George could tell Peach was interested, but also sad about Fred. The next thing George new, he was telling her every prank he and Fred had ever pulled, every type of trouble they had gotten into. Of course they were altered to fit the muggle world, but every now and then he'd let the word 'wand' or 'extendable ear' slip, Peach would look at him, in this menacing and confused way, George found it completely adorable, he would have uttered every magical word he knew just for that stare, but he knew he couldn't. Peach ended up rolling around on the grass, crying with laughter at the story of when George and Fred snuck a dozen 'cockroaches' (his substitute for garden gnomes) into Ron's pillowcase. George also found himself shaking with laughter. It was the first time he had thought about Fred and not been overcome with sadness.
Beep Beep
Peach glanced at her wristwatch, "Oh crap," she looked up at him, regret filled her eyes, "I've gotta go, my shift at the coffee house starts in five minutes."
"Oh," George had no idea what a coffee house was. All he knew was that it was ending his time with someone who had made him feel awake, something he hadn't felt since Fred's death.
"So…bye, I guess," she smiled sadly and started walking away from him. Leaving his life as quickly as she had entered it. She was getting smaller, smaller, smaller.
'Hey Peach!" It had just escaped his lips involuntarily, and he was happy it had. She whirled around, looking relieved.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Uh, do you want to do this again sometime?"
She smiled widely, "I'd love to. Same place same time this Saturday?"
"Great"
With that the two separated.
------------------------------------------
George felt alive again. He walked around the park with a bounce to his step, a smile on his face for no particular reason. He noticed the shining sun, the bright displays in the stores he passed, the gassy smell of the city. He hadn't felt this good since Fred's death, but there was something else there, something he'd never felt before. It was a type of happiness he'd never felt before.
-------------------------------------------
"Where's George?" asked Ron. The Weasley family was sitting at the dining room table eating dinner.
"Probably on one of his long walks, he'll turn up eventually." Mumbled Ginny, who just sat and played with her food more than anything else. The Burrow had changed drastically since the war. There were no more explosions coming from Fred and George's room. With no explosions, Mrs. Weasley wasn't busy warning Fred and George to end whatever mischief they were brewing up. Bill and Charlie were constantly worrying about their parents, who were slowly recovering from Fred's death. Percy often felt out of place, it was harder to feel accepted without Fred and George teasing him endlessly. Ron and Ginny just moped around the house. Everyone worried for George. It was bad enough loosing Fred; but even worse, they seemed to be loosing George too. His eyes were as lifeless as Fred's, the sound of his laughter was a fading memory, and they hardly saw him anymore. He just left the house in a dreary mood, and would come back hours later looking even worse.
In the silence the family heard the front door open and closed. George, was the first thought that entered the family's heads. But the footsteps that followed didn't match George's. Well, they had, once. Before Fred's death, George's footsteps had been light and cheerful. After Fred, George's footsteps had become slow and heavy. But now they sounded the way they had used to. George walked past the dining room, a wide grin on his face,
"Hey," he said it casually, like he always had. It was the first word they had heard him utter since Fred. And he said with the cheerfulness he had used to possess.
Seven red heads stared at him with eyes twice as big as Luna Lovegood's. He took no notice, just trotted up to his room.
