Chapter 14

Draco Abraxas Malfoy

We arrive in George's room. I set down my trunk and look around. It's small, but I already knew it would be. This whole house is small. It's painted a royal blue and is chocked full of a random assortment of items. In the middle of it all are two beds, not even spared from the chaos of the room, because they're also covered in stuff.

I start toward the seemingly unused bed, but George stops me. "Sorry, you have to sleep on the floor."

"What?" That doesn't make- oh. I did it again. That would probably be Fred's bed. Merlin, these people are really clingy.

George just raises his eyebrows at me like, "Are you really that stupid?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I, um, well, sorry. I-I will sleep on the floor then. Should I move some of the . . . stuff around or do you not want anything to be disturbed?" I say hesitantly. I don't want to cause some unwanted feelings to arise anew.

"You can move stuff. Just don't break anything."

Ok. I find a space near the door that isn't overly cluttered. I don't want to have to move a lot of things, in case he wants them in a certain spot. I move an Extendable Ear, a Boxing Telescope, a Fanged Frisbee, and a Nose Biting Teacup out of the way. The sight of them brings back lots of old memories. Of Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, of the twins last day at Hogwarts, pranking Umbridge, and of course, of the regular jokes and pranks around Hogwarts by the infamous Weasley twins.

I clear enough stuff away to have a proper enough place to sleep. A rolled-up blanket hits me in the back and I topple over. I look behind me and see George turned away but I imagine he has a grin on his face.

"Thanks," I mutter.

I roll out the blanket to see an image of the Chudley Cannons. "What the heck?"

George turns to look at me and the blanket. "Oh, yeah. That's Ron's old blanket. He has a rather obsessive obsession with them. I think if he could, he would marry the whole team, including staff and managers. Bloody crazy."

I feel something weird when I hear that it's Ron's blanket. It's just, I love the Chudley Cannons, too. But I suppose it's not horrible for Ron to like it. I mean, anyone can. I wouldn't mind Harry Potter liking it, but I just never really liked Ron. I smirk as I remember hearing something Granger said. "He has the emotional range of a teaspoon." Hm. His ranges are scared and angry. Not much to go on, there.

George and I get ready for bed, ignoring the awkwardness of changing in front of each other. I settle down to sleep when George starts rambling, "Wow. It's been a long time since I've had someone to talk to at night. It never occurred to me that it would be Draco Malfoy, of all people. Guess that expression, 'expect the unexpected' is right. Well, I don't know if it actually can be right but you get what I'm saying."

Surprised by this sudden burst of talkativeness all I manage to say is, "Yeah."

"It feels like I'm an only child now. What with Fred gone and all. You must know what that's like," he says, turning to me. "I mean, you've been an only child all of your life."

I turn to him too. "Yeah, except that you know what it's like to have someone else be with you and I don't. It's just like you said. I've been an only child all my life. I have never been as close to someone as you have to Fred." I turn back onto my back. "Maybe that's part of the reason I wasn't exactly nice when I was younger. Well, that and my father. Nasty bastard, really."

George laughs and I join in, too. We mellow down and some "yeah"s are exchanged. George starts talking again. "It's really quite amusing, you sleeping here in our room. I can just imagine what Fred's saying." George laughs sadly. "He probably hasn't shut up since you got here. Never could stop talking, that one." George gives a sad smile.

A sudden feeling of pity sweeps over me. Wow, George has really lost a lot. I mean, everyone lost a lot in the war and George only mainly lost one person but when you see him afterwards, he's acting like his whole family died. Which it might seem like to him if the rest of his family weren't really there by his side. Fred was his life. There always was the rest of the Weasley family and their friends, but without Fred, George . . . just wasn't . . . George.

There is silence for a little while after that. Then I hear a small whimper from the silence. There is silence once more before it happens again. The whimpers keep becoming more and more frequent, louder and louder. Eventually, they break out into sobs. Horrible, heart-wrenching sobs.

I don't know if I should say anything to comfort George. I ponder this for what doesn't feel like that long, but I am nervous so it probably is more like 10 minutes. As I finally make up my mind to say something, the sobs turn into words. Or, well, sort of words.

"I-I'm. . .sorry, Dr-Draco." George's words are interrupted by hiccups as a repercussion of the crying. It doesn't feel right to say that the great George Weasley is crying. But, I guess I could assume that he did (maybe still does) a lot of, what with Fred gone.

He continues sob-speaking. "I-I know, yo-you think that i-it's sort of out of th-the blue, me ap-apolo-gizing to you a-after a-all of th-this time, b-but I-I just don't w-want to-to have my li-life cut short an-and not have made amends con-considering you have changed. F-for the better."

"Really? I've barely said anything to you, and you've already deduced that I changed? And for the better?"

"One, I can trust that what Quinn says is true, and two, you haven't told me to shut up yet. So yeah, you didn't say much, but what you have said did not include those words." He says matter-of-factly.

"I guess so. But I never really talked to you much. I told your brother to shut up more than I did you." I pause. "In fact, I kind of admired you and Fred. I thought your pranks were hilarious."

"Really? Cause you acted really stiff."

I laugh. "Influence of my father." Merlin, the more I think back on the years before the war, the more I realize how much of a git I was.

He laughs too. "Ah yes, Lucius Malfoy. I'm surprised you're not as bad as him, considering he raised you."

"No. My mother raised me. I'm more like her. But I knew how I was supposed to act in school, and I mean, I grew up around that kind of thing. It wasn't till the war that I realized how wrong my opinions were."

"Haha. Oh, man, dude. You have a lot to learn." George laughs.

"Hey! What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean?"

"It just means that you have no idea just how much of a git you were." He laughs some more.

I just grumble, "Whatever." I start to get defensive. "Well, you know, you weren't exactly the nicest person either."

"Really? Worse than you?"

"No, I didn't say that you were worse than me, I just said that you weren't exactly the nicest person either." He raises an eyebrow at me. "What? I mean, you constantly played pranks on people, and you definitely made Filch's life hell."

"Hahahaha. Oh, wow. You can't actually be serious."

"I am. All of the things that Filch had to clean up. I guess Peeves didn't make it any easier, either, but that's besides the point."

"Yeah, well, just for your information, Fred and I only pranked people who deserved it. Or if it was absolutely just too hilarious to pass up the chance."

We laugh some more. George really isn't that bad. I guess I never really thought he was, but I always sort of slightly disliked him for the sole reason that he disliked me. Well, I guess that's another reason why I was such a git. I returned people's feelings. Though they didn't do a very good job of following the rule "Treat others how you wish to be treated". Hm. I probably didn't either.

Quinn Rose Shephard

Ginny and I spend a lot of time catching up. Not about regular stuff, (we've seen each other at Hogwarts) but boyfriends. And other boys in general. Just boys. What can we say? This is basically a girl's sleepover.

"So, you and Draco, eh, Quinn?" Ginny says, and I can hear in her voice that she is wiggling her eyebrows.

I laugh. "Yep. But you already knew that."

"Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean we can't talk about it." She gets excited. "We can do a boyfriend information exchange! I can tell you about Harry and you can tell me about Draco."

"Oh, yeah? And what information would be exchanging, exactly?"

"Oh, you know. How good of a kisser they are, how they treat us, their personalities, how you met Draco and fell in love, and the same for me and Harry. You know. Girl stuff."

I laugh, "Oh, alright. But it seems like you are getting more information out of this than me. I already know about Harry."

"Oh, but you don't know how good of a kisser he is, do you?" I don't say anything. She gets nervous. "You don't know how good of a kisser he is, do you?"

"No, Ginny! I'm just joking with you!" I say, starting to laugh. She sighs, relieved.

"Good. You really had me scared there! Now, let's get started, shall we?"

"Let's go!" I continue to laugh. "Though I warn you, you may want Draco and not Harry by the time this conversation is over!"

"Yeah right! You will probably be the one wanting the other's boyfriend!" She says, joining in with my laughing. We might never get a word out, just laughter!