Chapter Eleven: Love in the Air

"I think you should hire a new employee," Alessa said one morning as they prepared to open the store. It was the beginning of February, and just barely starting to warm up outside. Not enough to melt any of the copious amounts of snow that had fallen in the last two months, but it was no longer blisteringly cold out. With the slightly warmer weather came a slightly steadier flow of customers.

"I was thinking that too," George said, arranging a pile of paperwork on the counter. "We need to start training someone for the summer season." Then he looked up at her. "Or did you mean that you want to leave so I should hire someone to replace you?"

"Well," Alessa began hesitantly. George had been so much better over that last month, not once falling into a depression again. She didn't want to reverse any of the progress he had made so far. "I'm not leaving per say. I was just thinking about taking some classes at a muggle university next fall. Hermione has been helping me look at curriculums for nearby schools, and I think I found one that I like. It wouldn't be all the time," she said hastily, watching George frown as she talked. "I'd still be here in the evenings and weekends."

"No, I think it's a good idea," George said. Alessa had been continuously regaling him with random physiological and psychological things that she found interesting in her books for the last month and a half. He didn't understand most of it, but anyone could see Alessa's enjoyment of the subject in the way she talked.

"You do?" Alessa asked in surprise, looking up from her inventory lists.

"Of course. As long as you aren't gone too often of course," he added with a grin in her direction. She smiled. She hadn't slept in her own room since Christmas, using it mainly to store her clothes in since there was limited closet space in both rooms.

"Do you have any idea's on who you want to hire?" Alessa asked, finishing with her list and going over to one of the shelves to start reorganizing it. The new line of products George had released shortly after Christmas contained multiple types of powders and small glass vials full of liquids, both of which changed the color of either someones hair or skin temporarily. It was great watching people burst in with abnormally colored hair and skin, demanding an antidote because their child had slipped it into their food without them noticing. With all the small containers, Alessa had a job and a half keeping them in the right areas on the shelf so that people were getting the colors they wanted instead of a different one by mistake.

"Well actually, I might have an idea, but I don't think you will like her," George said, glancing up from the shelf he had been restocking.

"Her?" Alessa asked politely, not looking up.

"Well, Katie has been out of work since the clothing store she used to work at went out of business last month," George explained, watching Alessa arrange the shelf in silence. While it was true that Alessa had been a little jealous of the girl at first, she trusted George, and the few times she had talked to Katie proved that she wasn't the type to try to get together with someone who was with someone else.

"I don't dislike Katie," Alessa said at last. "I don't really know that much about her, but she seems smart. You should ask her if she'd like the job."

"You're okay with that?" George asked, wanting to clarify.

"Of course I am. Unless you are planning on eloping with her or something, then I might have a problem," Alessa said chuckling. George laughed too, then shook his head.

"No way," he said, letting out a breath and returning to his own shelf, shoulders more relaxed.


"Hi, Katie," Alessa said as she approached the tiny girl a week later. Katie was nearly a foot and a half shorter than George, and she was very slim, but George had said she was very fast on a broom, making an excellent chaser when they had been on the quidditch team together.

"Good morning," Katie said cheerfully, letting the shop door fall closed behind her. Alessa had decided to teach Katie the job the same way that Ginny had taught her all those months ago, starting with a tour.

"Follow me. I'll show you the basement and find you an apron," Alessa said, walking to the back of the store. "I'm really glad you decided to help us out. It's going to get busy the second school lets out for the summer."

"Yeah, I remember last summer I tried to stop in but the place was crowded," Katie said, slightly awkward, as though she expected Alessa to shout at her or something. "So, George said you were going to a muggle university?"

"Yeah, maybe. I haven't quite decided yet," Alessa said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. "I've been thinking about it for a while but I haven't made any final decisions yet."

"It sounds interesting," Katie said, letting the conversation die off. Alessa could feel her anxiety at the situation, and decided to do something about it before George arrived, to make it less awkward for them both. She turned around abruptly at the bottom of the stairs making Katie jump in surprise.

"Look, you are acting like you expect me to attack you-" Alessa started, but was cut off by Katie's instant denial. "No, listen," Alessa said, holding her hands up in front of her to quiet the other girl. "I know you are George's ex, but I really don't want there to be any hard feelings between us or anything, okay?" Alessa asked holding her hand out to shake Katie's. Katie looked at her in confusion.

"But… don't you hate me for coming here to work?" She asked, and Alessa dropped her hand, tilting her head in confusion.

"Why should I hate you? We need help here," she asked, forehead creased in thought.

"Well most girls hate their boyfriend's ex's. I know if our situations were flipped, I wouldn't want you here because I would see it as you trying to get him back from me. I just thought…" Katie trailed off, looking away from Alessa.

"Well are you?" Alessa asked, realizing what Katie was trying to say.

"Am I what?" Katie replied, looking back at her in confusion.

"Are you trying to take him back?" Alessa asked, hands on her hips, the corners of her mouth flicking up into an amused half smile.

"No," Katie shook her head wildly. "Of course not. We've barely even spoken in two years, and anyone can see how happy he is with you."

"Well then there's nothing for either of us to worry about," Alessa said, holding her hand out again. Katie shook it this time.

"Well I'm glad that's all cleared up," George's voice called from halfway down the stairs causing both girls to blush in embarrassment at being caught talking about him. "Aren't you supposed to be teaching Katie something, Alessa? Geez, it's like I pay you for nothing." He said smiling to let her know he was joking, then he walked past them and into the potion lab room, shutting the door behind him. Alessa and Katie looked at each other, then burst out laughing.

"Here, this is your apron, it's the smallest size we have, but it might still be a little long," Alessa said, handing her a bright red apron. Katie grimaced at the color, and Alessa laughed again, leading her through the shelves of the basement to explain their system.

The day passed by smoothly, Katie quickly figured out that most of the job was keeping the shelves stocked and arranged properly, and Alessa spent all of lunch regaling her with tales of odd customer's and other shop stories. By the time the day ended, both girls were getting along well. Katie had a sense of humor that was very similar to Hermione's of all people, and she could keep up when Alessa explained what psychology entailed. It turned out that Katie knew quite a bit about how the body worked because as a child she had been in gymnastics, something that shocked Alessa since Katie had grown up in a pureblood home and gymnastics was a thoroughly muggle sport.

Katie explained that once when she was five, her mother caught her swinging from a second story balcony to land in the garden. Katie had rolled when she landed and avoided injury, but after that her mother had enrolled her in gymnastics saying that if she insisted on throwing herself off of buildings, she should at least be able to do it correctly. The gymnastics trainer had been strict, making sure that even the youngest students understood exactly what muscles were used for any routine they were taught, and also what to do to keep their bodies healthy and fit.

"So that's why you're so small then?" Alessa asked, sitting on the couch in the employee room half an hour after close. "Because you spent your childhood flying around on bars like a monkey?"

"Probably. I've always been small, maybe when I jumped off that balcony I hit my head and it stunted my growth. You aren't that much bigger than I am though, only a few inches taller, so what's your excuse?" Katie asked, laughing.

"All the women in my family were small. My mother was just over five feet, I'm five feet exactly, and my great aunt is at least four inches shorter than I am," Alessa said, laughing. "My dad was quite short too, only about five and a half feet tall."

"Well that's okay, being short is more fun because you can still do kid things, like build snow forts and play hide and seek," Katie laughed.

"That's true," Alessa said, nodding, then she yawned.

"I'd better get going. What time do I come in tomorrow?" Katie asked, getting to her feet and searching for her coat.

"Oh, we aren't open on Monday's. Come back on Tuesday, maybe around 9:30 and I can show you what we do on mornings when we need to go to the bank," Alessa said, standing as well.

"Sounds good," Katie said, fastening her coat. "See you Tuesday," she said, walking to the front door and pushing it open, letting in a burst of cold air. Alessa locked the door behind her, then went down to check on George, he hadn't been up to the shop all day, still locked in the potion room. Alessa had checked on his emotions throughout the day, but it seemed as though he was just really focused on whatever he was working on, not hiding from people.

Alessa knocked on the door softly, not wanting to disturb him if he was in the middle of something, but when she pushed the door open, he was just sitting in a chair in the corner, reading a book and muttering to himself. Alessa tried to stifled her laugh, but he heard her and looked up, grimacing.

"I know, it's awful isn't it? It totally clashes with my outfit," he said, lifting up a strand of hair that had been colored bright neon green. Alessa burst out laughing as he stood and walked toward her.

"What did you do?" She asked when he reached her, still chuckling.

"I was trying to tweak the hair color powder in the new line to make it change colors after a set amount of time so someone could have a different color of hair every few minutes, but it got stuck on this for some reason." George said, running a hand through his hair, grinning reproachfully.

"And when did you try this?" Alessa asked, covering her mouth with her hand to suppress further laughter.

"About twenty minutes after I saw you this morning," he said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Isn't it supposed to fade after three hours?" Alessa asked, lifting an eyebrow.

"Well, that's another thing I was trying to change," George admitted.

"So this is permanent?" Alessa asked.

"For now, I don't know when it will fade."

"So now would probably be a bad time to tell you that my aunt invited us both out to lunch tomorrow because she wants to meet you?" Alessa asked smiling inwardly as she watched the amusement drain off of George's face.

"I can't meet her like this!" George exclaimed, beginning to pace around the room, picking up different books, flipping through them for a few seconds, then mumbling to himself and setting them down to look over the note he had laid out on the potions table. Alessa let him be for about five minutes, but finally the chill of the basement started to bother her.

"Come on, let's go upstairs and work on this tomorrow. It's too cold to be down here much longer," Alessa said, seeing her breath start to appear on the air. She knew there were no heating charms in this room because they could upset some of the potions made here, so it was a lot colder than the rest of the building.

"Easy for you to say, my family loves you. I can't meet your family looking like an idiot, what if she hate's me?" He asked, coming to a stop in front of Alessa for a second, then marching back to the table, tugging on his hair.

"She won't hate you. Aunt likes everybody. And besides, even if she did hate you, she wouldn't say anything to you about it, she much too polite," Alessa said, straight faced.

"You aren't helping," George muttered, writing down a list on a fresh sheet of paper. Alessa sighed.

"Can I look at how you made that powder? Do you have a list of what ingredients you added?" She asked, walking over to the table.

"Here, this is the original product list," he said, handing her a piece of parchment that he dug out from under a pile of others. "And this is what I added, and the charms I used the second time around."

"You used a permanent sticking charm?" Alessa asked, looking over the instructions.

"No, I altered it. I put a time lock on it so that it would only be effective for a certain period of time, which should have been about eight hours, but right now it's been nearly eleven, and it's not fading at all," George said, pulling down a chunk of hair to see if it had begun to fade out yet.

"Hm. Well, what colors do you have right now?" She asked, thinking.

"Nothing, this was supposed to change colors periodically and I didn't make anything else, I just used one of the original ones and added to it." George said, pacing again, frowning in thought.

"Why not find one upstairs that is similar to your color and do it the same way, then, even if it doesn't fade before tomorrow, no one will notice," Alessa suggested.

"Can't," George said. I already checked. We don't have anything close to a natural color, only the bright ones." He sighed sadly.

"Well," Alessa said, thinking as she stared at his hair. "Why don't you try washing it and see if that does anything? At least half of these ingredients become useless when they come into contact with water," she said, waving her hand at the list in front of her.

"I'll try it," George said doubtful. "But the other colors don't wash out."

"Well go on then," Alessa said, shooing him away. "I want to read this chapter of this book really quick," she said, lifting one of his experimental charms theory books from the desk. He sighed, leaving the room. Alessa read the pages quickly, then grinned as she came to the end of the part that had caught her eye. She brought the book upstairs with her, coming into the flat as George opened the bathroom door.

"Well?" He asked, holding the towel around his waist and shaking his hair at her.

"Well, it is darker," she said, giggling. "Still green though. But I think I have an idea." She set the book on the table, pulling him over to see. "This part caught my eye, it's about using dye in foods to make it a different color, but at the end here they have a spell you can use if it gets on your clothes or skin, so maybe it will work to get dyes off of hair too."

"Or i'll go bald before my time," George said mournfully, scanning the page with his eyes. "But I guess that's what wigs are for," he sighed, standing up straight. "Do as you will," he said, bowing jokingly.

Alessa memorized the needed words and wand movement quickly, trying the movement a few times to make sure she got it right, then she tried the spell and held her breath, hoping it had worked as she thought it would. They both watched as green powder and flakes began to fall from his hair into piles on the floor. Alessa let out her breath, grinning.

"Back to normal," she said a moment later, waving her wand to move the powder from the floor into the trash. Then she bookmarked the page for future use in case this happened again.

"Thank you," George said, grinning, then he hugged her and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, weaving her fingers into his newly corrected hair.

"I don't think green suits you," she said, pulling back from him, then she frowned, feeling the side of his face. "Did you know that you are missing an ear?" She asked, lifting up the hair on the side of his face to look. He patted the hair back down self consciously, stepping back from her reach.

"Yeah, I was there when it happened," he joked, but his eyes were slightly worried, as though he expected her to be disgusted.

"How have I never noticed that before?" Alessa asked, frowning. "I've shared a bed with you for the last two months and I never noticed that before."

"Well, I usually have a fake one, otherwise my face look uneven and people give me weird looks," George said, still patting down his hair, though he looked a little more relaxed when she didn't say anything bad about it.

"I think your face looks uneven anyway," Alessa said, chuckling.

"I think the words you meant to use were devilishly handsome," George said, smirking at her.

"No, I'm good with words, I meant crooked. Now go put some clothes on," Alessa said laughing.

George disappeared into his room for a few moments, coming back out in sweat pants and a sweatshirt.

"So, what happened?" Alessa asked, walking to the fridge to pull out some food to make dinner.

"I got hit by a curse," George said, joining her in the kitchen to pull out plates and forks to set the table.

"Can you still hear with it at all?" She asked, placing a heating charm on a pot of stew and setting it on the table before taking her chair.

"A little. I didn't used to be able to out of that ear, but after the war there was a healer at St. Mungo's who had spent many years as a muggle healer, and he thought he could replicate their way of restoring hearing to muggles. I can just barely hear out of that ear now, and it throws off my balance if I don't wear the fake one," he pulled back his hair to show her both ears now.

"It looks real." she commented, ladling stew onto her plate.

"It's made of plastic, but its charmed to mold to my face so it stays on, even when I sleep, that's probably why you never noticed before. And I wasn't really anxious to show you anyway," he shrugged, looking down at his plate. "A lot of people say it's gross. Thats why I keep my hair long, to cover it up."

"You can't help having an ear cursed off," Alessa shrugged, spearing a carrot on her fork. "Besides, it makes for an interesting story."

George looked up to grin at her, and the two settled into their normal nightly routine of eating dinner and watching a movie, before heading off to bed.


"George, wake up," Alessa said from the doorway of his room. She was already completely dressed, hair and makeup done, along with a lot of quality reading. George groaned and rolled onto his stomach, shielding his face with his arms. Alessa grabbed her pillow and hit him a few times. With no change, Alessa settled for drastic measures, pushing him onto the freezing cold floor. He yelped and jumped up to glare at her, wrapping the blanket around him. The flat had a tendency to get cold during the night when the fire wasn't lit and even with the warming charms placed around the room, the floor always remained icy cold.

"I just thought you might want to know that it's now ten, and we meet my aunt for lunch in an hour or so," Alessa said, smirking.

"What!" George yelled, voice still scratchy from sleep.

"Go get ready," Alessa said, pulling the blanket away from him. "I'll find some clothes for you to wear while you shower, okay?"

George nodded and was out the door in seconds, knowing that the shower, at least, would be warm. Alessa picked through George's clothes, finding some nice black pants and adding a dark emerald sweater, then she made up the bed to look nice, leaving the clothes on top of it. She would never tell George, but she was just as nervous as he was about the lunch date. She walked around the living room, straightening things as she went while waiting for George to be ready.

Finally, half an hour later, he was dressed, his hair dried and patted down neatly, and shoes on ready to go. They both grabbed their heavy traveling cloaks to keep out the chill as they walked to the apparition point. Fifteen minutes later they were standing in front of a small, slightly fancy restaurant in the wizarding part of Brighton. Both took deep breaths before entering the building. They were a little early, but Alessa knew her aunt to be very punctual most of the time.

The hostess led them through the restaurant to a table near the back, shielded from surrounding tables with a high divider wall. George and Alessa took seats on the same side of the table, draping their cloaks over their chairs before sitting down, neither of them saying a word.

Almost ten minutes later, just as Alessa was starting to get concerned, a hostess walked over, followed by Alessa's aunt and, to her surprise, Blaise. They both sat down, Alessa raising an eyebrow at Blaise, who just shrugged.

"Hello Aunt. This is George Weasley. George, this is my Aunt, and my cousin, Blaise, which I'm sure you remember," Alessa said after a few moments of awkward silence.

"It's nice to meet you Mrs. Zabini," George said politely, his hand squeezing Alessa's under the table though his face looked like he was merely interested in his surroundings.

"So why are you here Blaise?" Alessa asked, sipping her glass of water.

"I had to bring him along," her aunt responded before Blaise could open his mouth. "He was wearing the carpet out, pacing circles in it."

"I wasn't pacing circles in it, grandma. It was already worn out," Blaise retorted, grimacing.

"What's wrong Blaise?" Alessa asked. Blaise groaned.

"Daphne Greengrass invited me to a party in two weeks for valentines day," Blaise said. Alessa had no idea who Daphne Greengrass was, and her confusion must have shown on her face. "I dated her for a little while back in school."

"Oh," Alessa said, nodding in understanding. "So don't go."

"I already said I would," Blaise sighed.

"Okay, well what's the problem with that? Just change your mind," Alessa said, raising an eyebrow.

"I might have told her I had a date. So now if I skip it she will know I was just saying that as an excuses to not go as her date," Blaise said, running a hand through his short hair.

"I see," Alessa said, trying not to laugh at his predicament.

"It's not funny," Blaise said, sinking back into his chair. Alessa was aware of her aunt starting up a quiet conversation with George only because his grip on her hand became almost painful in his nervousness. "Do you know any girls who would be willing to go with me?" Blaise said hopefully, bringing her attention back to him. Alessa thought for a few moments, then shook her head.

"All my female friends are either married or dating someone else," Alessa said. "I'll ask around though," she added, seeing Blaise's face fall.

"Thanks Alessa," Blaise said, sighing. Alessa turned her attention to the other two just in time to hear George excuse himself to use the restroom.

"What's wrong Alessa?" Her aunt asked as soon as George was out of earshot. Alessa looked across the table at her.

"What do you mean?" She asked.

"You are just as nervous as that boy is," her aunt said, her mouth twitching up into a smile.

"Your opinion matters a lot to me Aunt," Alessa said shrugging.

"Well, I approve of your choices, Alessa," he aunt said, causing Alessa to smile with relief.

"Can we not talk about Alessa's love life," Blaise asked moodily, making the two women laugh lightly.

The rest of the meal passed with conversation mostly revolving around George and what he did for a living. Alessa, knew that George relaxed more and more as the conversation continued, his grip on her hand loosened to almost a normal pressure by the time they all stood up to leave. George and Blaise had spent the last ten minutes debating quidditch teams, and the two girls had gotten bored quickly.

They bid each other farewell, then parted ways outside the shop.

"Do you think she liked me?" George asked as they walked back to the shop, leaving fresh footsteps in the snow that had fallen while they ate.

"She did," Alessa said, nodding. "Her exact words were 'I approve of your choices, Alessa' and she talked to you for a while. If she didn't like you she wouldn't have continued a conversation."

"Good. I like her too, she has a witty sense of humor," George said, unlocking the shop door then stopping. "Why are there all these foot prints around the door?" He asked, taking a step back. They could see where someone, quite recently, had walked up to the door, then to the front windows, before heading off down the road.

"Maybe someone was trying to see if we were open?" Alessa asked doubtfully, drawing her wand just in case.

George drew his too as they entered the shop.

"Well, whoever it was shook the door hard enough to make the open sign fall off," he said, picking up the wooden sign and closing the door behind him.

"Homenum revelio" Alessa whispered, waving her wand. Nothing happened. "Well, no one actually came in the building."

"It was probably just some angry parent wanting their hair changed back to normal," George said, putting his wand away. He was still frowning as they walked up the stairs to the flat. Everything was where it should have been, door still locked and windows still closed tight, even Alessa's owl Apollo was still sleeping on his perch. Alessa put her own wand away, then pulled off her cloak and went to light a fire in the mantle to warm the place up.


"So are you and George doing anything for valentine's day?" Katie asked, watching as their lone customer wandered through the shelves.

"I dunno. Maybe going out for dinner or something. Neither one of us are big on holidays. George says his family went overboard for every holiday when he was growing up so he's tired of them now, and my family was small so we usually had quiet little celebrations," Alessa said, glancing up from the book she had been reading. "Are you doing anything special?"

"No," Katie said, shaking her head and sighing. "I don't have anyone to go out with, but I'd like to do something other than sit at home all day." Alessa nodded, returning to her book for a moment, then she looked up, a gleam of excitement in her eye.

"Actually, I know someone who is looking for a date for tomorrow. He's really nice, and last I heard he really needed a date because an ex of his asked him to a party and he panicked and said he already had a date, so she invited them both. And as of yesterday, he still hasn't found a date. I can ask him if you want," Alessa said.

"Well, I dunno," Katie said, looking thoughtful. "I've never been on a blind date before, but I do like parties," she trailed off, thinking about it for a moment, then shrugged. "Okay, you can ask I guess."

"Great," Alessa said, grinning. "But you have to keep an open mind when you meet him. He definitely won't be something you expect."

"That's like a polite way of saying theres something wrong with him," Katie said, narrowing her eyes in suspicion.

"Oh there's plenty wrong with him," Alessa grinned. "But that's not what I meant."

Katie would have continued, but at that moment the customer finally came up to the counter to ask about something, distracting Katie for long enough that she forgot about it.


"So this guy you are setting me up with," Katie said near the end of the day. "What's he like?"

"Uh, he's nice," Alessa said, counting down the till.

"Nice?" Katie said, raising an eyebrow and putting her hand on her hips. "Come on Alessa. What's his name?"

"I'm not telling you or you won't go," Alessa said.

"Oh, so I know him? And I don't like him?" Katie asked, frowning.

"No, I don't know if you know him and I don't want you to judge before meeting him. He's funny though, I think you will get along," Alessa said, smiling at Katie.

"Okay. Did you ask him if he's still looking for a date?" Katie asked, after another few minutes of silence.

"I wrote to him earlier, but he didn't send the owl back yet," Alessa said. Just as she finished talking, a tapping came from the window and Alessa turned around to see her owl. "That's probably from him." She opened the door, letting it in, then unwrapped the letter from its leg and glanced at it quickly.

"He says he still needs a date and he will meet you here tomorrow at five if that's okay," Alessa said, grinning. Katie nodded and Alessa jotted a note back to Blaise, sending it off with her owl.

"What should I wear? Did he say what kind of party this is?" Katie asked, beginning to pace around the open space between the register desk and the front door.

"Well, it's at the Greengrass manor. So I'm assuming it will be upscale," Alessa said, causing Katie to pause in her pacing and look at her.

"Greengrass manor?" She asked, eyebrows raised. "Aren't the Greengrass's part of the 'pureblood elitist' group?"

"Well, you are pureblood aren't you?" Alessa said jokingly. "I heard they calmed down a lot after the war. The Greengrass's never chose a side, they just stayed out of everything. But their daughters were raised with the old fashioned pureblood values, and I don't know how much they still follow it. Both of the parents left the country though, so the two girls manage the property. The party probably won't be as strict as old pureblood parties were." Alessa said, repeating what Blaise had told her three days ago, which was the last time he had come to her to rant about the party.

"Okay. I think I have a dress that would be appropriate," Katie said, thinking out loud.

"Why don't you go home now?" Alessa said, watching her pace the floor.

"Really?" Katie asked, looking up. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, there's only half an hour left and I've already counted down the till. I'll see you tomorrow at five, okay?" Alessa said, smiling as the shorter girl chanted repeated thank you's as she went to grab her coat and purse, then rush out the front door.


"Coming!" Alessa called, leaving her seat behind the checkout desk to answer the banging on the front door.

Even though it was a Monday and the shop was closed, Alessa spent the morning, and most of the afternoon, sitting in the shop reading a muggle anatomy book she had just received. George had disappeared early in the morning, shortly after she had gotten up, claiming he had some chores to run.

She flung open the door, letting in a half frozen looking Blaise. She had conjured up a blue flame in a jar to keep herself warm while she read, and now Alessa pushed Blaise over near it.

"How did you get Katie Bell to agree to go out with me?" Blaise asked, not wasting time with hello's. "She was a Gryffindor right? Why would she agree to go to a party with a bunch of Slytherins?"

"Oh, about that," Alessa said guiltily. "I didn't exactly tell her who she would be going with. I just made her promise to keep an open mind."

"What?!" Blaise cried, running his hands through his hair. "She's going to ditch me as soon as she sees me, and then i won't have an excuse for turning down Daphne."

"She's not going to leave just because you are who you are," Alessa said, not completely sure if she was right. Katie seemed like a reasonable person, but Alessa didn't really know her well enough to predict how she would behave. Blaise didn't listen to her anyway. He paced around the shop muttering to himself until another knock came from the door, then he ducked behind a shelf in fright.

"Hey Katie," Alessa said, pulling open the door. "Wow, you look nice."

"Thanks," Katie said, smoothing down the front of her dress. "You don't think it's too much?"

"Not at all," Alessa said, shutting the door. Blaise was still hiding, making Alessa roll her eyes.

"Katie, this is my cousin Blaise," Alessa said, dragging him out from behind the shelves.

"Blaise? As in Blaise Zabini?" Katie asked, peering at them.

"Yep," Alessa said, still gripping Blaise's arm as he tried to tug it away.

"Hi," Katie said, walking up to him. "I don't know if you remember me, I was a year ahead of you in school, and in Gryffindor." She held out her hand to shake Blaise's.

"Well, you are taking this better than I thought you would," Alessa said, walking away from the two back to her book.

"You said she would be fine with it!" Blaise said accusingly.

"Oh yeah, well, I wasn't sure, I just said that to make you shut up," Alessa said, taking her place in her chair.

"Well, I figured whoever it was must have been in Slytherin, otherwise you would have just told me who it was," Katie said, grinning at them.

"Okay, well now that you get along, go away. I want to finish this book today," Alessa said, waving her hand at them. Katie chuckled.

"Charming as always," Blaise commented, then walked with Katie out to the street. Alessa watched them walk down the street, talking, and smiled at a thought well conceived, then she gathered up her book and went back up to the apartment as she was expecting no other guests that day.

Around seven, George returned, managing to shut the door and walk up to the table before Alessa noticed he was there.

"Would you fancy a stroll, my lady?" George asked, bowing jokingly to her and holding out his hand.

"Yes, because it is such a lovely day out," Alessa said sarcastically but she took his hand anyway and allowed him to pull her up from her chair.

"Grab your cloak," George said as they paused at the door so she could put on her shoes.

George led her behind the Leakey Cauldron, then apparated them to part of London that Alessa wasn't familiar with.

"Where are we?" She asked, looking around them at the empty snow covered park.

"In muggle London," George said, not really answering her question. She let him lead her through the twisting paths of the park until they entered a snow covered wooded area. They walked along the path for a few minutes, then came to a small gazebo type building, which George left the path to walk towards.

As he led her up the stairs to the flat, open room, the air warmed suddenly, until she had to take her cloak off. Finally, they came to a stop, and George turned on the muggle lights, making strings of small fairy lights bring a glow to the area. In the center of the wall-less room, sat a bright blue blanket, topped with a basket.

"You made us a picnic?" Alessa asked, grinning as he sat down and patted the place next to him.

"Happy Valentines Day," he replied as she sat next to him. The sun had set nearly an hour ago, making the white fairy lights blaze in the darkness.

"This is perfect. Thank you," Alessa said, leaning up to kiss him.

"You're welcome. I figured you would want to do something other than dinner and a movie, since we do that almost every night anyways," George said, smiling down at her. He began pulling food out of the basket and placing it in front of them. As George wasn't much of a cook, it was mostly simple things, sandwiches, salad, and little fruit pieces, and small cakes for dessert.

Alessa thoroughly enjoyed the meal anyway, because of the effort George must have put into preparing it and finding the area.

They talked about nothing serious, just enjoying each others company, and though it was the only Valentine's day Alessa had ever spent with someone else, she knew it couldn't get much better than this. An hour later, George packed up the basket and stood.

"There's one more thing we have to do tonight," he said, pulling Alessa up and handing her cloak back.

"What is it?" She asked, following him down the path back out through the park.

"A surprise," he answered. Then walked for almost five more minutes before saying, "I hope you aren't scared of heights."

A bustling part of muggle London appeared before them, brightly lit and quite loud. George held her hand tighter so as not to lose her in the crowd of people milling about shopping and talking.

Alessa followed him toward a giant wheel that was lighting up the sky.

"What is that?" She asked as they came to a stop in front of it.

"It's called the London Eye. Hermione said it's one of the best muggle things in London. You get to sit in these little carriage things and it lifts you up and she said you can see the whole city from the top," George explained quietly as the muggles in front of them took a few steps away. Alessa realized they were standing in a short cue line, and took a few steps forward to fill the open space.

She stared up in wonder at the metal contraption.

"How could muggles build something so large without magic?" She whispered to him, keeping her voice low so the muggles nearby wouldn't hear her.

"I dunno. You could ask Hermione. She tried explaining something like that to me once and I didn't really understand any of it. She said this one is safe though, so we won't go rolling through the city on it," he whispered back, making Alessa giggle as she imagined the giant wheel rolling through the streets.

They got through the cue line in half an hour and were let into a carriage with about ten other muggles. They shuffled to the side of the room to look out the large glass windows and make room for the other people.

"Look," Alessa whispered as they started to lift away from the ground. She was a little nervous to be going so high up in a muggle contraption, and she gripped her wand tightly using George to hide it from the muggles. She pointed to the floor. "The floor is made of glass too. You can see the ground." George nodded and she could tell he was a little nervous too, but got distracted as they were suddenly lifted high enough to see the city and the compartment came to a halt to let them look. Multiple muggles were talking to each other, snapping pictures with cameras and cell phones. Alessa wondered if her phone could take pictures for a split second before being brought back to the sight in front of her.

"It's beautiful," she breathed, gripping George's hand with her free one. He nodded, pulling her against him as the room started to rise again. They stopped several more times before they finally came to the top of the wheel and could see the whole city sprawled out in front of them.

"Stand in front of the window," George said, pulling a camera from inside his long cloak. A muggle glanced at them for a second, probably wondering why they were wearing cloaks, then turned around when Alessa caught his eye. Alessa smiled and leaned in as George held the camera in front of them and snapped a picture. "I hope that I actually got us in the shot," George said quietly, and Alessa chuckled, leaning on his shoulder to stare out the window again. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and they stood like that for the rest of the way down.

Later they agreed that it had been unnerving watching the ground slowly fall away then come up to meet them, but they both thought it was worth it.