Chapter Twelve: In Which They Talk and Discordia Goes Missing

George had yelled at Ginny for ten minutes before his mother had said enough. If Ginny hadn't been pregnant, then Molly would have let him continue. She couldn't believe her daughter's behavior. It was appalling.

George sat outside Discordia's room in Mungo's every day. He knew that none of the Malfoy men would let him enter, but he wanted to be close to her all the same. Every time he thought about it, he was ashamed of himself for not being quicker and what he said to her.

"She's being released tomorrow. We're going to take her to the manor because the Healers want her close to the hospital," Draco reluctantly informed him.

"Thank you. I won't bother her anymore," George responded.


By the end of the month, Discordia was better. She was walking around the manor as if nothing happened. However, she wasn't perfect. Her thoughts kept drifting to George and how he hadn't even tried to se her after they talked. Discordia had been harsh, but he deserved it. It didn't mean that he shouldn't even try.

"He had been at the hospital to tell me what happened," Discordia muttered to herself.

"What did you say dear?" Vesperus asked her. Her mother and father had joined her in the manor for her recovery.

"Nothing," she answered. She didn't want to have a conversation about how betrayed she felt just now. Now that she felt better, she wanted to yell at George. She couldn't believe that he wouldn't even check on her. With her mind made up, she went upstairs to her suite. Ares greeted her with a hoot as she entered the door.

"You're just the animal I was looking for," she said to him. She quickly penned a note to George. It told him that she would meet him at his flat sometime that evening. Discordia felt he deserved a good verbal lashing for not even caring a little bit, they were pseudo-dating at one point. Didn't she deserve a little feeling? He may not love her like she did him, but she still deserved some emotion.


The tapping at George's window had him bounding off of Fred's bed. He couldn't face his own anymore. Every time he went near it he thought about how he had hurt Discordia. Those demons were worse than facing Fred's death. I'm sure you're pretty upset with me old boy, George thought as he opened the window for a very familiar owl.

"Ares, what have ye got for me?" He asked the bird as he removed the parchment from its foot. He opened it to see a note.

George,

I'm going to meet you at your flat at seven. We need to talk.

DM

George wondered if Malfoy was trying to pull on him what his mother did to Discordia. He once mentioned her signature could be the ferret's as well. It seemed that he wouldn't know until seven that evening. He would not be able to focus if he went down to the shop. Instead he wrote a note to Trish and Verity about not coming into the shop.

The day went by agonizingly slow. George had been staring at his fireplace all day. When seven finally chimed out from his clock, the fireplace turned a familiar green. He waited a few minutes before letting out a sigh of relief at Discordia's arrival.

"I'm so glad it's you," he said to her. She stared, confused, for a moment before responding.

"Yes, who were you expecting?"

"Your cousin," George admitted. Discordia nodded her head. She could see where his thoughts of Draco coming to hex him would come from. She smirked knowing that it was true.

"And suddenly I'm wishing that it was the ferret here," he said in slight fear.

"I'm not here to hex you. I'm here to talk," she responded as her smirk left her face.

"Okay," he hesitated.

She started to yell, "George, how could you not visit me? I was going to have our baby! I was hurt because of your sister! I know I didn't talk to you, but you deserved it after what you said! I mean we slept together, a lot! How could you bloody well not see me when I was recovering?!" When she finally had gotten most of her anger out, Discordia started crying. George got up from where he was sitting, he tried to comfort her. She pulled away quickly.

"I wanted to see you, but I knew none of the males in your family were going to let me through that door," he admitted.

"You didn't even try!" She accused. "If you had wanted to see me, then you would have dealt with them." Discordia was so angry she just left through the Floo.

George stared where she had been for moments. He immediately went to the kitchen and grabbed some Firewhiskey.


Discordia was so angry that she didn't even realize that she had Flooed back to her London home instead of the manor. It was cold. She had never gotten around to selling it. The furniture was still in the house because the only things she had taken with her back to Greece were her personal items. She didn't need furniture in their mansion in Greece.

She made her way up the stairs to her old bedroom. Discordia looked at her lavish bed. At that moment she wanted nothing more than to crawl into it and forget the world around her. Instead, she went to the loo and drew a bath. She was going to wash away the last few months of her life.

Once the bath was full, she lowered herself into it slowly. She let her body get used to the heat of the water inch by inch. Discordia looked around and thought about how this was the perfect place for her to live. Once upon a time, this is where she had wanted to be with her blossoming career. Now, she just wanted to be with George Weasley. She had fallen in love with him. Her job didn't hold the same appeal it once did. She still wanted her career, it's just she wanted to share it with someone now. That someone was George. Blimey, how did things get so messed up? She wondered to herself as she let her eyes close.


"Where could she have gone?" Vesperus Malfoy asked his son. Mithras shrugged his shoulders because he really didn't understand his youngest sister and how her mind worked. She had never come back to the manor after an errand the night before.

"Did she say where she was going?" Lucius inquired. No one could recall her giving an answer. That's when it hit Draco.

"She went to Weasley," he said matter-of-factly.

"How do you know?" Vesperus questioned.

"She didn't tell anyone where she was going. So where do you think she would have gone?" Draco replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"Well then we go to Weasley," Lucius told them. The four men decided to quickly apparate to Diagon Alley to barge in on the joke shop. They reappeared just outside the store front at the same time that Harry, Ron, and Hermione were going to enter.

"What in the bloody hell are you doing here Malfoy?" Ron asked Draco as he made for the front of the shop.

"Looking for my cousin," Draco answered icily.

"Why would she be here?" Hermione asked.

"Because she's daft and thinks that twin Weasel is going to suddenly start being nice to her again."

"Shove off Malfoy! She's the reason they're all messed up to begin with! George was just helping her win a bet against you!" Ron shouted.

Draco took a step back, "What?"

"You're precious cousin used George to beat you in a bet," Ron restated before throwing a punch to Draco's jaw. Draco didn't hesitate and hit back.

It wasn't long before Trish ran out of the shop to see what all the commotion was. She stopped in her tracks when she noticed Draco Malfoy and Ron Weasley having a row. Each man was being yelled at by family members.

"What is going on?" She asked.

"They're arguing over George and Discordia," Hermione stated before returning to glaring at her husband and Malfoy.

"George hasn't come into work since the day before yesterday. So, how about going to find out what's wrong with him instead of beating Malfoy to a pulp?" Trish scolded Ron from the steps.

"Draco, I insist that you stop acting like this," Lucius could be heard saying to his son. Neither man stopped.

"I'll stop when he admits his cousin was the wrong one and a slag," Ron muttered as the two of them fought. Mithras, who had been showing restraint up this point, hurriedly joined the scuffle. He quickly sent a right jab to Ron's jaw. This action led Harry to leap into the fight in his best mate's defense. Draco couldn't resist and his next left hook connected with Harry's face. Finally, not able to stand it anymore, Hermione took out her wand.

"Petrificus Totalus!" She shouted at the four. They froze in a comedic stance. Harry had his hands around Draco's throat, Draco was in a mid-kick meant for Ron, Ron's fist had frozen connected to Mithras's face, and Mithras was trying to hit Harry.

"Very well thought out, Miss?" Vesperus spoke to Hermione.

"It's Mrs. Weasley, not that I'm proud of that at the moment," she replied giving all four men a glance. "Now listen up! Both of them are in the wrong, but that isn't the point. The point is that something is clearly wrong with both missing parties. So I'm going to say the counter-curse, but the lot of you are going to stop fighting." She lifted the jinx and they all fell.

"Merlin's beard! You would think that none of you were adults," Trish added from the store's doorway, "Now come inside."

They entered the store. Ron made his way to the stairs that he knew led to George's upstairs flat. He took them two-at-a-time.

"George?! You here?!" He cried out.

"Aye, I'm in Fred's bedroom watching a pixie paint the walls," he heard George slur.

"Brilliant, he's bloody drunk," Ron muttered as he walked the familiar hallway to his brother's room. He opened the door to find George among a heap of Firewhiskey bottles staring at Fred's old bed. "George, have you seen the she-Malfoy? Her slimy git relatives are here looking for her."

"She was here last night. Told me off she did. Then she just left," he responded fairly lucid.

"Alright, well let's get you back to yourself and sort through this with her family."


Discordia didn't care that she had not gone back to the manor. If she had her way she would never go anywhere again. She would just stay in this house and be a hermit forever. Except she couldn't do that, she needed to go back.

"I'll go back later," she said to no one as she pulled the covers back up over her head. She just wanted to stay in bed. Her thoughts kept drifting to how disappointed her father would be when he found out that she didn't care as much about her job anymore. All she wanted to do is eat ice cream and never leave this bed.

"I'm not going to sell this house," she spoke again; "I'm going to stay here alone. When Daddy's done being mad, he'll pay for it." She shook her head at that. Eventually she would get upset with herself if she let her father provide for her home. The whole reason she had wanted to be a prominent career woman was so that never had to happen. Discordia had never wanted to be a woman that stayed in her home all day doing nothing of value.

"I'll think about this when I wake up," she said as her eyes closed and she returned to sleep.


Hours later, George had finally gotten over his drunk spell and told them all what had happened with Discordia. No one knew where she could be. Even Draco was uneasy. His thoughts were so much like hers that it unnerved him to not know where she was.

"She didn't say where she was going?" Vesperus asked him for the hundredth time that evening.

"No, she just left," George said with impatience. It was just him and her father looking for her now. The other three Malfoys had returned to the manor.

"What's wrong with you anyway boy? I thought we had discussed your intentions with her back at the party? You said you loved her. Was that a lie?" The older man asked. George stopped walking through the Alley.

"It wasn't a lie. It was just that we only started dating to win a bet against your nephew. I didn't think I was more to her than a way to win," George admitted out loud for the first time since this entire fiasco had started.

"I know my daughter, and she has never introduced me to anyone she's dated. Now that I think of it, she doesn't really date. Discordia was more focused on not becoming another upper class trophy wife of a witch. She wanted to do something. It's why she took the job here. Do you really think that you didn't mean something to her if she spent so much time with you? It was more than just winning a bet. I could see it in the way she looked at you."

"But the day of that ball, she asked what we were going to do now."

"Probably because she was afraid that you only saw her as a way to play a prank on an old enemy," Vesperus said wisely. George suddenly felt sick. He thought back to their fight that night.

The party had ended an hour ago at one in the morning. Discordia was slowly removing the dress from her body. George watched as the fabric gently removed its death grip from the fragile woman before him.

"You're absolutely stunning," George said as he lightly kissed the back of her neck.

"George, what do we do now?" She asked as she pulled slightly away from him.

George recoiled from the question. He didn't think that she would want him to leave so soon. She must want him to be gone if she's already asking about what to do.

"I wasn't sure what we were going to bloody do now! I thought that we were going to celebrate a well-deserved night together, but seeing as how you want to get to the part where I leave your life!" George said harshly.

"Me? I was simply asking where we bloody go from here because all you seem to want to do is shag me! What am I? The joke you get to tell your brothers about when you get done! Oh look I know she made a bet on me, but look at what I get to do!"

"I have never told my brothers about that part!"

"Oh, really? That's why Ron and Harry were much nicer to me a couple of days after the first time! Please, I'm not stupid! I've dated other people George, and I thought you were different," she said as she started to sob. She picked up one of her shoes and threw it at him.

"That's bloody rich! You think that you're special because you're a Malfoy princess? Well you're not! So to answer your question, I think I'll be showing myself out. Have a nice life Discordia Malfoy!" He shouted as he exited her bedroom. He threw her door shut and slammed down both sets of stairs. The Floo powder spilled everywhere as he grabbed some from the container. He shouted his destination and was sucked away to the sanctuary of his flat.

As George went through the memory in his head, he noticed that neither of them had actually said that they wanted it to be over. Each was just making the assumption that the other wanted it to end. He shook his head at how daft they both were.

"You're right," he said to her father.

"Well that's all good and well, but I still don't know where she is."

George wanted more than ever to find her now. He wanted to tell her that he had made a mistake and that he really was in love with her. If only he could remember what she shouted when she left his flat last night. He isolated the memory in his mind until he could remember her saying 'home.' Whenever she left by Floo at his flat, she always said home. And home had meant her town home in London.

"I think I know where she is, but I want to go to her alone. I want to apologize and explain everything to her," George said hastily to Vesperus.

He nodded and responded, "If she is wherever you are thinking, have her Floo me at the manor to let me know she is alright." George agreed.


Discordia heard noises downstairs. She quickly reached for her wand. Whatever it was, it was making its way up her stairs. She heard each one creak as it was stepped upon. Her wand was at the ready for an attack when the door opened. The last person she expected to find here was standing in the doorjamb.

"You never gave me a chance to talk last night," George said to her with a smirk.