A/N- So sorry for the delay, as usual. I didn't mean this chapter to take so long, but there's a twist here that I think will make it worth the wait. Well what are ya waiting for? Go read it!
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Chapter 29: Muggle Addictions
The next morning I woke up without Fred, got dressed without Fred, and went to breakfast without Fred. Honestly, I didn't really care. I was still incredibly angry, and I knew that he was with me at the moment, I would probably end up doing something impulsive, leading to a month or two of detention. Hey, if he wanted to drink himself to the brink of death, fine, but I wasn't going to stick around to watch the after effects. Ginny and Ron looked… unsettled, I s'pose you could say. Fred and I blow ourselves up all the time, so I'm sure they've forgotten how to properly worry. Hermione was flipping through a book feverishly, and I was horking down a ham and cheese omelet (hey, starving wasn't gonna run the alcohol out of Fred's system… or the stupid, for that matter). I yawned groggily and cracked my knuckles. No one was speaking. It was rather boring without Fred, actually. I rolled my eyes. No, no, no. Just because Fred was in the hospital wing, most likely hamming it up with Pomfrey didn't mean the entertainment went with him. My time to shine!
"Hermione, class doesn't start for fifteen minutes, what are you reading?" I asked the brunette mockingly. Damn… That wasn't even funny. Does that mean I get my funny from Fred? Wow, now I'm just being ridiculous.
"I'm just looking something up," she replied. I couldn't see, but I'm pretty sure she rolled her eyes. When is she not rolling her eyes? Probably when she's with Finn. No, I take that back, she probably rolls her eyes at him too.
"You've been 'looking something up' for the past forty-five minutes," I said, pursing my lips.
"This particular thing is, unfortunately, difficult to find," Hermione sighed. I peeked at the cover of her book. Muggle Addictions: A-Z. Muggle addictions? Why the bloody hell would Little-Miss-Perfect Hermione Granger need a book on Muggle addictions? Was she addicted to something? Nah, it was probably for Muggle studies.
Surprisingly, no one asked about Fred's whereabouts. I was slightly disappointed. I had planned to tell anyone who asked that Fred had been trying out a new (non-existent) hovering potion, and due to a series of unfortunate events, wound up at the bottom of the Astronomy tower, and was currently in the hospital wing picking grass blades out of his ears. Whether or not they believed me was unimportant.
The first class of the day was Arithmancy. Merlin, I don't know how Hermione managed this class last year as a third year (smart or not) when I could hardly handle it this year as a sixth year. I was sixteen, I trumped her by two years at least, and yet, she managed to walk out of that class with an Outstanding. I will never understand her. Merlin, these numbers were insane! This was the only class that ever forced me to legitimately think. And by think, I mean try. This was, of course, on only one occasion. It was a day when I thought to myself, 'George Weasley, today you should try'! This led to an utter brain meltdown to the point where I could feel my IQ points slowly melting and oozing out of my ears. If Fred and I ever open our own joke shop, I'm sure we'll only need to know the mathematical basics. If not, we can always hire an accountant. Hell, we could even hire Hermione. Therefore, I have given up on Arithmancy and its obscene difficulty.
I wasn't the only one to stop trying, though. I mean, in a class of nearly forty students who were as dedicated as me, if not less, it was to be expected. Most of the class had given up, which led to Professor Vector giving up on us. As soon as everyone was seated and settled, he assigned us five pages from the book and sat down at his desk, presumably dying inside with every passing minute. I could do a fair amount of the problems, but the rest I just randomly filled in. To be honest, I'm not sure if half the random fill-ins actually ended up being numbers… But I digress. Math is hard. Don't ever become an architect.
Next class was DADA with Moody. He told and performed the effects of the three unforgivable curses on a magically engorged spider. I heard that this was the fourth years' first less on this year. I feel cheated.
Lunch finally came, but I didn't go to eat. Instead, I dropped by the hospital wing to see Fred. Yeah, I was still angry at him, but I didn't want him to think I didn't love him.
I walked into the pristine white room, dragging my feet slightly. Fred was the only one occupying a bed. He was lying with his arms resting behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He grinned when he spotted me.
"Finally, someone I want to see!" he said, sighing contentedly. "You know, I've been chatting up Pomfrey all day, but she still won't let me out early…" So he has been hamming it up.
"Honestly, I wouldn't let you out either," I laughed.
"Merlin, one little scare and suddenly I'm under school-arrest," he smirked.
My smile disappeared. "It was not just one scare," I reminded him with a hard voice. "Don't forget last year." Fred suddenly looked guilty, as he should. "You said you would never do anything like this again, but then you go drinking two full sized bottles of firewhiskey after twelve shots of the stuff? I can't even fathom what was going on in your head, and DON'T tell me you didn't know what you were thinking because you were 'so drunk', because you knew what you were doing at the time, and if I was smart enough not to do something so stupid, you should have been too." Fred stared at me blankly after I finished my rant. I felt kind of bad for yelling at him, but I knew he needed some sense knocked into him. I looked at him. Pale skin, matted hair, dull eyes, guilty expression; he didn't look like me at all. I collapsed into the chair next to his bed.
"George, I-"
"Do you remember when we were seven, and I fell out of Ginny's bedroom window after we pulled a prank on her, and I ended up breaking my arm? You never left my side. You said you'd be right there with me until Mum and Dad woke up to come fix it." Fred shook his head. "What about when we were ten, and you caught the Spanish Influenza, and I was freaking out because you'd been sick for two weeks straight and I thought it would kill you? You told me you would fight that flu with all of your strength so there would be no question of whether or not you would leave me." Again, he shook his head slowly. "Or when we were thirteen and during the third Quidditch match of the season, Derrick 'missed' the bludger and hit me in the face? You never left my bedside."
Fred looked at me like I was crazy. "How the bloody hell do you remember all that?" he asked incredulously.
"Because they're important times, in my mind. The point is, you've promised me since before I can even remember that you would never leave me, and now you're kinda fucking it up," I said, chuckling.
"I wouldn't be me if I wasn't fucking something up," he said softly. I laughed at this.
"Yeah, yeah…" I leaned forward in the chair and placed a soft kiss on Fred's lips. I could feel him smiling as he kissed me back.
"Ahem…" I quickly pulled away at the sound of Pomfrey clearing her throat. "Mr. Weasley, perhaps you should spend the rest of your lunch eating. You can come back after lessons have finished."
"Alright, if you insist," Fred smirked, sitting up.
"Not you," Pomfrey clarified, chuckling nonetheless. He sighed and laid back down.
"I'll see you later then, I s'pose."
"Yeah, later."
I exited the hospital wing and headed to the Great Hall. I st across from Hermione and Harry and next to Ron.
"What took you so long George?" Hermione asked. "You're the last person I would expect to be late to a meal. Well, besides Ron." Ron narrowed his eyes, and Harry laughed.
"Har har, I was with Fred," I told her. "And what on earth are you still doing with that book?" I asked.
"Looking something up," she repeated. "How's Fred?"
"Fine, I guess. He's alive, and trying to get out early, so he must be ok," I reported.
"Did you beat the crap out of him?" Ron asked.
"I didn't, tempting as it was," I said. "I'm not as mad as I was yesterday though," I added, because I wasn't. I still thought he was a dumbass, but that was to be expected from him.
I didn't think about Fred much after that conversation. I just ate and talked with the other three. When I brought up Moody's lesson, Hermione turned red with rage, and went into a rand about he was supposed to be a responsible adult authority figure and was completely mad to have performed those spells in a classroom. Last time I ever talk about my day with her, Merlin.
When it came time to return to lessons, I found myself parked in the greenhouse, learning how to care for tentacula plants. I'll be honest; those things really freak me out. They look like they'll just up and strangle you at any moment. I'll have to mention that in the obscenely long essay I have to write about them. I'm sure I can stretch that into a few paragraphs. Hell, I could probably base the whole thing off of that.
Charms was next, and for the first time that day, someone noticed that Fred was missing. Unfortunately for me, that someone was Jilani. Fuck my life.
"Hey George!" Jilani greeted me once we were set off to review disillusionment charms. Oh Merlin, kill me now.
"Hey, Jilani," I muttered.
"Where's Fred? I haven't seen him all day."
"He was testing a hovering potion this morning. One thing led to another and he ended up falling from the astronomy tower. He's in the hospital wing picking grass blades out of his ears as we speak," I tried my darndest to look sad. Finally, I was able to tell my story!
"Really?" Jilani asked, wide-eyed.
"No. He got alcohol poisoning," I confessed. He looked unsure of which story to believe. I accidentally let slip an amused smile, and Jilani took that as a cue to chat me up.
"So how's life?" he asked. "I haven't seen you in a while, we should hang out. Maybe we can study this weekend?" Yeah, 'cause that's gonna happen. Was he seriously going there? After all the shit we went through? Hell no, I wasn't gonna study with him, now that I know "study" really means "fuck you over", both literally and figuratively.
"I don't thinks that's a good idea," I said. Jilani sighed.
"Well it was worth a try." Not really. "I just sort of miss you I guess." I don't really care. "If you change your mind, just let me know." Yeah, I'll be sure to do that. "I guess even though you're mad at me… I still like you." Dually noted. "I'll see you later." Fool…
An hour and a half later, lessons were over, and I dragged myself into the common room, my energy wearing away, and dropped onto the sofa, scaring the living daylights out of Hermione. I laughed at her high-pitched scream and laid my head in her lap. She looked down at me with raised eyebrows. She shoved her head off my lap, leading to me falling head-first to the ground.
"You women are so cruel," I teased, as I stood up and dusted myself off.
"Only to you men," she said, smiling. "You're lucky I didn't drop my book on your face."
"I'm starting to wish you did, just so you would take a break from it," I laughed. Eye roll. Of course. I parted from Hermione and went upstairs. I took off my robes and sweater, leaving only my white shirt and a tie. It was getting hot, so I figured I should rid myself of the extra layers.
When dinner rolled around, Hermione didn't so; she stayed behind to read her book. Merlin, I've never seen her so wrapped up in a book before. Whatever she needed out of that Muggle Addictions book must be pretty important. Why does she need to know anything about that anyway? Was she planning to start smoking weed or something, but wanted to study up on it first so she could do so 'safely'? I snorted at the thought. I know about most of the Muggle drugs since Dad has delt with them in several cases at work. The idea of it all sounds so stupid. A few hours of euphoria in return for days of depression, and a long-term addiction? I'll never understand Muggles.
I began my assent of the stairs after dinner, intending to sleep for the next forty years. I was so exhausted. I ooched through the common room, up to the dorm, and collapsed on my bed. Not a second later, someone noisily burst into the room. Hermione. Hermione?
"Hermione, how the bloody hell did you get up here?"
"Petrificus…Totalis…On the stairs…" she panted. "I have to tell you something. It's important!"
"Well go on then!" I said, still in shock.
"You know how Madame Pomfrey said that Fred's symptoms matched up to Alcohol poisoning?"
"Yes…"
"It couldn't have been alcohol poisoning," Hermione said. Um… What? "I was just talking to Ginny and she said that both bottles of firewhiskey that Fred drank were duplications of the original bottle!" she said, looking at me as though she expected me to have an epiphany.
"So?" I motioned for her to go on.
"So, duplications don't have the effect of the original. They have NO effect. He could have drank ten of those duplications and he would be fine!" she explained.
"So then… It's not alcohol poisoning," I concluded. "Then what is it?"
"Well that's why I had the book. When I was little my parents explained that I was never to fall into the temptation of doing drugs, because when I got to school I might-"
"Hermione! Get to the point!" I shouted.
"Ok, I'm sorry! Well in the book, I found out that all the symptoms for alcohol poisoning… well they're the same as… As an overdose of heroine," Hermione said quietly.
An overdose of heroine. The sentence reverberated viciously through my head.
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A/N- Oh my GOD. I used a lot of hyphenated words In this chapter. XD Well, was it worth it? HEROINE? WTF? WHY FRED? Haha, sorry, I'm so hyper… I'll go now. Don't forget to review!
