Helloooo, here's the latest chapter. It's a bit short so sorry about that but yeh :D

Sleeping with Granger wasn't exactly a new thing for George. After 5 years of friendship it was only fair that they'd have shared a bed a few times, the same way he'd shared a bed with Lee at times, just plus some hand holding and cuddling, not that he, Lee and Fred didn't sometimes cuddle when they crashed on a single bed after a prank, waking up curled around each other, with elbows jabbing in uncomfortable places. The thing was, whenever he shared a bed with people he generally woke up first. Whether it was with Fred and Lee waking up grimacing at the feeling of Fred slowly soaking his shoulder in drool and Lee's snoring, or with Hermione, when he'd wake up early as if he knew that yes, he was sharing a bed with the girl he liked and could spend a few minutes being a creeper and watching her sleep and enjoying the fact she was curled into his side like she belonged there.

So his first clue that something was wrong was that he was woken up, not by his own volition but by the shifting on the bed next to him. He came to groggy, brain thrumming painfully in his skull reminding him of the fact he drank far too much. George blinked the sleep out of his eyes, peering around blearily at Hermione who had sat up on the bed. Her legs curled up to her chest, head resting on her knees, tilted to the side where her eyes rested on George.

People always seemed to make the wrong assumption about George that he wasn't all that bright. Especially lately knowing his dream job was running a joke shop, like creating a multitude of new products didn't take not only a tremendous amount of work, effort and smarts to know exactly how to create something but also the imagination to figure out what they wanted to create. But the thing was, George was smart, maybe not Hermione smart, but despite the cheerful appearance and somewhat uncaring attitude towards school he was smart. One of his many talents included a pretty good attention to detail and the ability to read people. You needed to know who you were pranking, how they would take it, what would push them too far. So even if the girl weren't basically in the foetal position George would know that something was wrong.

"Granger." George said gently, sitting up slightly, the fog whipped from his head at the thought of something upsetting her. Hermione's eyes met his. Her mouth opening and closing a few times, eyes skimming over him.

"Oh Merlin." Hermione groaned, cradling her head in her hands. George shifted awkwardly on the bed beside her, looking at her back unsure of what to say. "God no, what is wrong with-" He reached out, grasping her shoulder meaning to comfort her. She quickly darted out from beneath his hand, standing and swaying for a moment, hair a mess on her head, sticking out every which way, a tangle of knots and curls. George's hand stayed in the air for a moment, grasping at nothing before he dropped it uselessly back onto the bed. Unease curling in his stomach.

"Granger-"

"I'm sorry!" Hermione blurted quickly turning to face him, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. "Merlin i'm so sorry, this was so stupid I feel like such an idiot I-"

"It's okay." George said placatingly. "Really, 100% okay, if it was okay with you. That is-" He stuttered, trying to find the words. He could admit it now, have the big declaration, she'd calm down, they could go on a date once they were back at Hogwarts. Sure it wasn't how he pictured their relationship starting, a drunken kiss that led to them awkwardly confessing feelings but it could work.

"Last night was a mistake." Hermione's words cut his thoughts off. His brain freezing for a moment, blood running cold.

"What?" George asked quietly.

"A really stupid mistake. I'm sorry, I know we're not like that and that we never would be and I didn't mean to do something that could ruin our friendship."

"A mistake." George said, testing the words, ignoring the fact he felt like he was going to throw up again. Hermione nodded at it enthusiastically.

"Things won't be awkward between us now will they? We're still friends? I never meant for-"

"Of course we're still friends. We'll always be friends." George said, trying to keep the bitter ring out of his voice. He loved being her friend, but for a moment he'd believed that the awkward crush he'd been harbouring or far too long was actually going to turn into something. That maybe he'd been lucky enough for her to feel the same way.

"Really?" She said hopefully, tired face lighting up. "So you agree, it was a mistake. Just a silly thing that meant nothing and-"

"Yes." George gritted out, trying to look like he agreed, like her words weren't stabbing him in the chest making it hard to breath.

"Good, okay, I should. I'm going to go, um..happy new year." Hermione mumbled before she was rushing towards the door.

A thousand words circled through his mind, different phrases, plea's for her to not walk out, I love you's and don't leaves me. Instead his mouth snapped closed, bile rising in his throat, anything he could say she must already know, she was the brightest witch of her age, if she didn't know he was in love with her then he was a hippogriff, it was practically one of his main character traits by now, - Loyal, charming, prankster, totally besotted with Hermione Jean Granger.

A mistake, a lapse in judgement. Meant nothing.

George remembered the pain when she'd rejected his offer to attend the yule ball together. He honestly wished for that back rather than the icy grip that seemed to have his heart at the moment, or for how he felt yesterday to return, the painful longing, hopeful thoughts that maybe Fred and the others were right when they said that the feelings would be mutual, the idyllic dreams that maybe he actually had a chance. Anything would be better than this, the crushing weight of rejection on his shoulders, the pain, shame and sickening guilt, she'd been drunk, he shouldn't have kissed her. He let out a small groan, flopping back down against the bed and curling up beneath the duvet, tugging it over his head, trying to block out the world. The hangover would have been bad enough, this, well this was torture.

"Hey buddy." Fred greeted cheerfully. He'd heard them come back a few minutes before, the cheerful voices floating quietly though the house. He should have went down straight away but he didn't, curling further in on himself and promising that once someone came to get him he'd go greet his dad and act like everything was fine. George peeked out his blanket raccoon, looking to his twin. "Dad's home why don't you come down and say he-oly crap you look awful. Merlin, what happened? I thought you were faking being sick."

"Dad's home?" George mumbled, like this was news to him. "Alright yeah, let's go say hi." George slipped off the bed, moving towards the door only to be stopped with Fred's hands on his chest.

"George, What's wrong?"

"Oi lazy, time to greet the family-oh. You already got him." Sirius said pausing in the doorway. "Well, you look awful. Hangover getting to you?"

"Sure." George said, trying again to leave the room, this time Sirius closed the door roughly the sound grating against George's ears. Sirius ducked his head into George's view, peering at him forgetting everything about personal space.

"What's up with him? Looks like someone kicked his hippogriff." Sirius said, looking to Fred.

"What happened Georgie?"

"Nothing, i'm fine."

"It doesn't look like nothing." Fred said. "Come on man, you look terrible."

"Like Sirius said, hangovers getting to me. Too much fire whiskey you know what that's like."

"You forget dear brother, I've seen you with hangovers and this isn't that, well it is a bit, but you also have a distinct bitch face, last time I saw one like this Krum was walking Granger into the yule ball- What happened between you and Mione."

"Fred drop it, please." George begged. For once Fred did which was probably a testament to how awful George must have looked.

"You need a shower before you greet your parents." Sirius said, shepherding George out of the bedroom and to the bathroom. George made no complaints, happy to lock himself away for another twenty minutes while he tried to let the hot water pouring from the shower wash away the memories from the previous night.

The shower didn't help, apart from washing away the stale smell of alcohol from his skin and all too soon he found himself trudging down the stairs, wrapped in his latest Christmas jumper, sleeves pulled down over his fisted hands. Anxiety swirled in his stomach at the thought of seeing Granger. He had never been happier to have been faking sick, it gave him a good excuse to greet his dad and then return back to his room. They'd be on there way back to school in two days and George could throw himself back into life at Hogwarts. The room fell quiet when George walked into the kitchen, he twitched backwards, preparing to make a run for it back upstairs.

"You look terrible." Ginny said bluntly. George kept his eyes firmly on the floor.

"Thanks Gin." George grumbled, with a deep breath he chanced looking up, he spotted the head of bushy hair out of the corner of his eye, sitting between Ron and Harry in the corner of the room. He fought the urge to look over at her instead searching out his dad.

"Hey." George said, forcing a smile. "You feeling better?"

` "Better than you apparently." Mrs Weasley said with a frown. "come sit down dear. I'll make you something to eat. Would you like a pepper up potion? Perhaps-"

"I'm fine mum." George said, following her order and sliding into the seat opposite his dad. "I'm glad you're back." He said earnestly, looking down and busying himself with picking at the chipped wood off the table to keep him from looking over to the other side of the room.

"I'd love something to eat mum." Fed said

"You're not the ill one." Mrs Weasley huffed.

"Well you know they say, twins can feel each others pain. It's the same with sickness. I feel awful, honestly, a nice hot pot of soup would-"

"Shush Fred." Mrs Weasley scolded calmly, pressing a hand to George's forehead. George let her do her check, trying to smile to keep her from looking to worried.

"It's nothing mum." George said once again. "I've barely thrown up at all-"

"You're throwing up?" she gasped. "Have you eaten anything since? Oh you must be starving, i'll make you something. Don't worry it'll be light, just a snack, something to keep you going. Ronald get your brother some water. Fred stop looking at me like that you ate on the way back you don't need more food. Harry dear, would you like anything to eat?"

"What! Harry ate on the way back too that's not-"

"No thank you Mrs Weasley."

"I'll just throw together a sandwich, just if you get hungry." Mrs Weasley decided, moving to march to the kitchen. Fred shot a glare at Harry who was no doubt grinning back sheepishly.

"Mum." George called. "I'm really not hungry. I just want to go to sleep to be honest, if that's okay with you dad?"

"Of course. Feel better." Arthur said happily. George nodded, holding in his sigh of relief and looking to Mrs Weasley doing his best to look pathetic, which really wasn't that hard.

"If you're sure. But I'm bring you up some soup in a few hours and you'll eat all of it."

"Yes mum." George said with a small nod. He stood quickly, ignoring the way the world spun for a moment and his head pounded, hangovers really were wretched things. "It's good to have you back dad." George scurried back out of the room. Ignoring the pat of footsteps behind him telling him someone was following. The follower was silent until George reached his room.

"George." Sirius called. George turned to look at the older man with a weak grin. "Can I talk to you for a minute?

"I wanted to sleep-"

"You can tend your hangover in a few minutes. Come on." Sirius said, marching up the stairs expecting George to follow. He let out a sigh, eyeing his door with longing before following Sirius up the stairs. The man led him into his room, motioning for George to sit down, George did so gratefully. Hands coming up to massage his throbbing temples.

"How are you not feeling this?" George whined.

"I've had years more experience, and I made sure to drink plenty of water before I fell asleep."

"Lucky bugger." George mumbled. "So what did you want?" Sirius sat on the bed next to George, eyeing him curiously, he opened his mouth, going to say something before he closed it again, shifting for a moment before he seemed to decide to just come out with it.

"What happened between you and Hermione last night?"

"What?" George asked, trying and failing to hit on innocent befuddlement.

"I saw her leaving your room this morning." Sirius said bluntly.

"Oh." George breathed. Sirius sat waiting patiently for an explanation, watching him calmly. He knew Hermione wouldn't want him to tell anyone about the kiss, but it was Sirius, George knew that if he asked Sirius not to tell anyone he would keep his word.

A mistake, a lapse in judgement.

George hissed out a pained breath as the words circled in his head, pulling his legs up to his chest, resting his head on the crook between his knees.

"Merlin Sirius, I screwed up." George said quietly, tears pricking in his eyes.

"What happened?" And so George told him, mumbling the words quietly, telling the story with his stomach churning uncomfortably he finished quickly, having rushed through it barely stopping for breath. He kept his eyes closed, ignoring the burn in them.

"Well that's not so bad." Sirius said after a moment, sounding relieved. George head shot up instantly, his eyes snapping open.

"Not so bad?! I took advantage of her!" He hissed.

"You were both drunk, you'd had more than her. Much more considering you threw up and she didn't and you're suffering from a terrible hangover while she just looks a little peaky. She made the first move, she kissed you first. At no point did she ask you to stop. Now i'm not saying it was a good idea on either of your parts and don't get me wrong I'm glad it didn't go any further than it did, but you didn't do anything wrong and neither did she. Drunk people make mistakes, especially teenagers who have the hots for one another-"

"She doesn't." George snapped.

"What?"

"She doesn't like me. She made that perfectly clear this morning when she said it was a mistake." Sirius frowned at him but didn't reply, instead he sighed, running a hand through his long hair.

"Lay back, get some sleep. You'll feel better once the hangovers warn off." Sirius said, pressing gently at George's shoulder, forcing him to flop back against the bed. Sirius quickly stood up, grabbing Georges legs and twisting them until they were on the bed. George didn't have the energy to even think about going back down to his room, instead he just pressed his face into the pillow and let Sirius drape the comforter over him. Sirius clasped his shoulder, squeezing gently before he was moving for the door. George heard him pause once he'd opened it. "I've never seen her turn down your pathetic excuse for flirting, she's either smiled and blushed or flirted back. She kissed you when you were younger, she was the first one of you to agree to the kissing dare and she was the one to kiss you last night. I can't say for sure that she likes you but from what I've seen it seems like she does. I wouldn't give up on her just yet, not until you've actually told her how you feel and a drunken kiss doesn't count." With that he was gone, the door closing with a click behind him.

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