Emma climbed through the portrait hole unaccompanied by George, who had gone down to the kitchen first to return the picnic basket. When she entered she saw Harry and Ron sitting in the corner playing Wizard's Chess and Hermione and Ginny sitting by the fire. The second they saw her they sprang up.
"How was your date?" they exclaimed together as they dragged her over to where they had been sitting.
"Shhhh!" Emma hushed, seeing Seamus across the room with Dean out of the corner of her eye.
"Sorry," Hermione said, also noticing Seamus, "But really, how was it? What did you do?"
"It was fine," Emma replied casually.
"Fine?" Ginny probed, "You're positively glowing!"
Just then Fred walked into the common room, accompanied by George. He walked over to the girls, "And what are we gossiping about over here," Fred asked as both he and George sat down.
"Emma was telling us about her date," Ginny said casually, "Not that it's any of your business, nosy," she said sticking out her tongue.
Emma glanced over at George, whose face remained neutral.
"Ohhhhhh a date. Who's the lucky guy Emma?" Fred asked.
Based on his tone, there was no doubt that Fred knew exactly who her date was with.
"One of the 6th year Hufflepuffs," Emma said, hoping she wouldn't have to provide more detail.
"What's his name?" Fred asked, trying to catch her in a lie.
Emma glanced over at George, who was giving Fred some nasty side eye. She smirked, "Malcolm Preece," she said flatly.
Clearly, Fred hadn't expected her to have an answer that quickly. "Oy, the Hufflepuff chaser, you traitor!" he said feigning outrage, "Come on George, let's not associate ourselves with this traitor anymore."
"Hold on, Freddie. Maybe she didn't have a very good time on her date, or maybe it was a recon date. Tell us, Emma, how do our chances look this year?" George asked leaning forward, acting interested.
Two can play this game, Emma thought to herself, "Eh it was alright. Kind of a lame date overall, I probably won't see him again," she said dismissively. "And he's not a very good kisser either," she added quickly.
George scowled and got up, "Come on Fred, we don't wanna hear this little girl gossip, do we?"
"Not at all, Georgie," Fred said, also standing up. The girls all laughed as they walked off.
"Ok, now that they're gone, how was your date, really? Tell us everything," Ginny said.
Emma told them all about the date, sparing the more obvious details that would let them know it was actually George, like the secret passageway.
"Oh, that's so romantic!" Hermione gushed.
"And was he actually a bad kisser or were you just saying that to get Fred and George to go away?" Ginny asked.
Emma blushed. "No he was a very good kisser," she said quietly. The girls giggled and Emma continued, "But I don't think I'm going to see him again."
"Why not? He sounds perfect!" Hermione said with some surprise.
Emma didn't answer right away. Because I didn't see him in the first place and if I keep outright lying things might get out of hand, she thought to herself. She glanced over to where George was currently sitting, which also happened to be close to where Seamus was.
Ginny noticed where Emma was looking, or where she thought Emma was looking, and asked cautiously, "It's because of Seamus isn't it?"
"What?" Emma said confused but realized what Ginny thought she had seen and decided to go with it, "Oh, ummm… Yea. It's not that I'm still hung up on him or anything, I just think it'll be better to be by myself for awhile," she said looking down at her hands. She hated lying to them like this, but things were going well so far with George and she didn't want to jinx it.
Over the next week, Emma and Hermione had been quietly spreading the word about the DADA club. They had decided to set the first interest meeting for the first trip to Hogsmeade, which was the next saturday, which based on the general response, they weren't expecting many people to show up. To their surprise, when the day came there were around 25 people waiting in the Hog's Head Tavern for Harry, Emma, Hermione, and Ron when they had arrived. Included in that number were Ginny, Fred, George, Neville, Luna Lovegood, Dean and to Emma's severe surprise, Seamus. Harry walked, well more was pushed by Hermione, to the front of the crowd, who all looked at him in silence.
Hermione spoke first, "Thank you all for coming, it means a lot that you all want to learn as much as we do," she looked nervously at Harry then continued, "I'm sure you all have loads of questions about what we're gonna learn, so maybe we can open it up?"
Seamus piped up first, "Wouldn't the first question be 'who's going to teach us'?"
"Harry is," Emma said sharply.
There were hushed whispers throughout the crowd.
Harry stood up, "Look, if you all just came here to whisper about me behind my back you can shove off," he said cooly.
Emma tugged on his shirt sleeve to get his attention. He looked down at her and saw the familiar "calm down" look that she often gave him.
Hermione stood and spoke next, "Maybe it would be helpful if Harry shared a little bit about what he knows, and how he's gone up against," she paused and gritted her teeth before saying, "Voldemort before." It was the first time Emma had heard anyone but Harry or Dumbledore You Know Who's name before.
Harry looked around the crowd, then back at Hermione who gave him a reassuring nod before he started to speak. Even though he hated talking about it, he told everyone about the night that Voldemort came back to life and how he killed Cedric. He also told them about the other two encounters he had had at school before then, "I don't care what the Ministry is saying, but Voldemort is back, and he's dangerous, "he said firmly, "And so are his followers. We need to be able to protect ourselves, and clearly, Hogwarts isn't doing that anymore, so we need to take it into our own hands," he finished.
At this point, Hermione passed around a sheet of paper on which everyone signed their names. Everyone slowly exited the pub in pairs or groups of three, Emma deciding to leave with Fred and George, leaving Harry, Ron, and Hermione behind.
They started walking towards the main stretch of shops. They had just reached Honeydukes when they notice Lee Jordan through the shop window.
"Oh, there's Lee. I'll see you two later," Fred said, strolling into the sweets shop.
"So Fred definitely knows about us, right?" Emma said the second he had walked away.
"Yea. Sorry. I can't really lie to him; he sees right through it," George said as they turned around to walk towards the Shrieking Shack, which was the most private place in Hogsmeade. Everyone believes that it's the most haunted place in Britain, but Emma knows that's only because Professor Lupin had his transformations there during his years at Hogwarts.
"It's ok," she said pausing, "So what does he think?" She was curious to see how one of their friends would react to the news of them being… whatever they were.
They had reached the fence that laid on the boundary to the Shack's property.
George faced Emma, leaning on the fence. "You mean what does he think of us?" he asked. Emma nodded. "Actually, if I'm telling the truth, the entire thing was his idea."
Emma straightened up, now more curious about what George was saying.
"Remember that night I found you in the common room?" he continued. Emma nodded. "Well, Fred and I were originally sneaking out to play a prank on ol' Filch and Umbridge, but then we saw you sitting there and… well, he convinced me to check up on you. Apparently, I hadn't been as good at hiding the fact that I like you as I thought I had," he said as he looked at his feet and kicked at the ground nervously.
Emma smiled and took a step forward, resting her hand on top of his on the fence.
He looked up and smiled. "So, if I'm not mistaken, someone's birthday is coming up," he said. Emma's birthday, which was in 6 days, was the day before Halloween, so it usually went by without any fuss.
"You remembered?" she asked astonished.
"Of course I remembered. What kind of-" he stopped short. They hadn't put a label on anything yet, on purpose. He continued, choosing his words carefully, "What kind of friend do you think I am?"
"Well to be fair, you never made any point to acknowledge it before now," she said teasingly. "Oh, please don't make a fuss," she said, noticing the smirk on his face that usually meant he was up to something.
"Me? Make a fuss? That's not at all in my character," he replied with a smirk. "Anyway, do you want your present now or on your birthday?"
"George!" she exclaimed. "You didn't have to get me anything," she said blushing.
He pulled a small box out of his coat pocket, not waiting for her decision.
She took the box from him, "You shouldn't have…" she said pulling the ribbon and taking the top off of the box, "Oh you really shouldn't have. George…" she was at a loss for words. In the box was a small silver hair comb. It was really simple, with just a few pearl beads glued to the base, and she could tell it was definitely vintage based on the slight tarnish, but it was just beautiful.
"Do you like it?" he asked tentatively.
"I love it," she whispered smiling, "But you really shouldn't have. You should save your mon-" She had started to say that he should save his money for his joke shop, but she was cut off. George had pulled her close and given her a very light kiss.
"Don't worry about it," he said softly, "I'm just glad you like it. And now you can keep your hair out of your face." He stepped away from her before someone could happen upon them and see their close embrace.
She smiled and tucked the box in her coat pocket before they strolled back to the main part of town.