Title: A Lid For Every Pot, George Weasley
Author: BooksVCigarettes
Summary: Set a couple of years post-war. Still struggling with the absence of his twin, George Weasley needs some time away from the world he grew up in to heal. Alice Clark wants a flat mate who doesn't want to kill and eat her. It was perfect... Except not really. George/OC Ron/Hermione Harry/Ginny
Chapter Twenty-One - Decimate
The party was being held at a lavish hotel in central London. As they stepped out of the cab and hurried in from the cold December night, George noticed the way that both doormen gave Alice a more than appreciative glance and allowed himself to smile inwardly as they caught him watching them, swiftly averting their gazes.
The hotel was more luxurious and decadent than any place his family had ever set foot in. Gleaming chandeliers hung from the high ceilings and the flowers looked as though they may die but didn't dare wilt. As they walked into the ballroom that had been booked exclusively for the party, George watched out of the corner of his eye as Alice seemed to mentally steel herself for the ordeal she was about to endure.
He reached out and gently touched her arm "Are you absolutely sure you want to do this?" On the ride over, something had occurred to George – what if the stress of the evening triggered Alice's Obscurial like it had earlier in the day when she had destroyed the living room? She had been so cagey about what had caused the magic to explode out of her like that, insisting that nothing out of the ordinary had happened while he was out of the flat. George hadn't believed her for a minute.
Alice gave him a smile that he didn't quite believe "I'm always a bit nervous before I see them…" She looked sad when she said that, and George was suddenly reminded of his own huge and boisterous family. He wondered what it must feel like to have spent a lifetime feeling as though you didn't belong anywhere. He reached out and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze as they wound their way through the crowds to where Evelyn Clark was standing, glaring darkly at the waiter as he nervously topped up her champagne glass. George had thought that the thoroughly unimpressed expression on her face the last time they had met had been more to do with the fact that she had just discovered that her daughter was living with a strange man, but now he could see that she simply looked that way all the time.
"Hello, Mother." Alice said with false cheerfulness as she smiled a bright unconvincing smile "You remember George?" She reached behind her to where George was standing nervously and made a grab for his hand, pulling him closer to her in much the same way a drowning person reaches for a raft. He smiled politely and proffered a deferential hand to Alice's mother.
Evelyn Clark eyed him balefully, her gaze travelling from his outstretched hand to his face and back again. She sniffed derisively "Yes, I remember." She turned away to greet other guests, leaving the extended hand in mid-air.
Alice turned back to him "I'm afraid that's the best you're going to get from her or my stepfather." She gave him an apologetic look "I'm sorry."
"Don't be," George smiled warmly at her "I'm here strictly as a means for you to show your family how much better off you are without Pete. I'd say that a lack of a handshake paired with how stunning you are is a good start." Alice blushed at his words and George felt the same crackle of electricity between them that he had felt when she had stepped into the living room earlier that evening. They were standing close enough together that their voices stayed low and George found himself staring at the tiny constellation of freckles just beneath Alice's left eye. He fought the urge to reach up and brush the pad of his thumb across the softness of her cheek and forced himself to cast his gaze down at his shoes.
Alice grinned "Come on. Let's go and find the bar before I expose you to the rest of my family."
X
"Alice."
George felt Alice freeze next to him at the sound of her name, the glass of champagne halfway to her mouth, her face a mask of mortification and despair. He watched as slowly, so slowly, she lowered her drink and turned to face the man standing behind her.
"Hello, Pete."
Ah, George understood. So this was the ex-boyfriend. He gave him a swift appraisal from behind his own glass as Alice stepped forward to give Pete a clumsy and underwhelmed congratulatory kiss on the cheek. He looked like a bit of a git, George thought to himself sourly. He was shorter than average and showed too many teeth when he smiled, like a shark. He was also thinning on top, which George deduced he was less than happy about by the way he had meticulously combed his hair forward from the back of his head. He had the expression of a man who had fallen in Hippogriff muck and come up smelling of roses, and whilst he couldn't quite believe his luck, he was damn sure going to take advantage of it. Had she been present, Molly Weasley might remark that his eyes were too close together. All his life, George had failed to understand the negative connotations of such a damning criticism until he had come to be standing in the presence of the man who had treated Alice - his Alice - so very badly.
'Your Alice, eh?' George almost gave a start as Fred's fond but teasing voice whispered at the back of his mind 'You've really gone off the deep end on this one, haven't you Forge?'
George stopped himself before he could reply out of habit and grimaced as the familiar sound of his twin's laughing timbre reverberated around his brain. He waited, bracing himself for the wave of sadness, the realisation that once again he had caught himself trying to talk to a memory. He barely had time to register that it didn't come before he found himself being introduced to Pete.
"George, this is Pete - my sister's fiancé." Alice's voice was a little strained and George noticed that the fingers curled around her evening bag were white at the knuckles. Behind her, Pete was looking at him with the same critical and unimpressed gaze he had received from Alice's mother.
"I take it you haven't been seeing each other very long?" He drawled, offering Alice a smile which was half insincere pity and half delighted sneer "Really Alice, you needn't have brought a plus-one just for the sake of it."
Some instinct inside George, one he had long thought buried, suddenly roared into life. Making a snap decision, he stepped forward and wrapped an arm around Alice's waist, pulling her against him and placing an affectionate kiss on her cheek. With his free hand, he reached out to Pete.
"Actually, we've been living together since the Autumn," Pete took George's outstretched hand and George made a point of squeezing just a little bit too hard as he shook it. Pete winced and pulled his hand back quickly as though he'd been burnt. He shot Alice a peevish glance.
"You should have told your mother that you were living with someone, Alice. I mean, it would have been nice if you'd introduced him to your family before today."
Alice raised an eyebrow "Actually, Mother already knew as it happens. Anyway, I rather think you're the last person who should have an opinion on what people should be telling other people in a timely fashion, don't you Pete?"
George placed his hand on Alice's lower back in a gesture of support. She was warm and soft against his palm and without fully thinking about what he was doing, he began to move his fingers in lazy circles, drawing random patterns on her bare skin.
Pete held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. His expression was sincere, but his eyes seemed to twinkle with malice "Come on now; I thought you'd promised Evelyn that you wouldn't spoil this evening for your sister..."
"Which is a shame really," said George before he could stop himself "Seeing as I have a plethora of experience in ruining family gatherings for the sake of a cheap laugh. But you see Alice here is a much kinder person than I am, so she's unlikely to do anything that will leave a mark on this evening. I, on the other hand," George continued airily, buoyed by the fact that Alice was leaning into his touch as he continued his gentle ministrations on her lower back "Made no such promise to anyone." He gave Pete a hard smile "So I suppose you'll just have to watch your back."
Pete stared at George, the muscle in his jaw ticking as he weighed up whether to reply to him. In the end, he shot them both a final poisonous glare and stormed off.
Alice exhaled heavily and turned to face George "Well, that was as hideous as I expected it to be." She tossed back her champagne and signalled to the bartender for two more.
George tried to ignore his disappointment at Alice no longer being so close to him "Sorry if I overstepped the mark. By telling him to watch his back, I mean." He felt shy and awkward, suddenly concerned that she might think he was apologising for the way he had touched her. Although perhaps he probably should do that anyway… but she had leaned into his touch, hadn't she? He hadn't imagined her shivering as he had gotten braver, exploring the silky skin of her lower back, had he?
Alice shook her head "I thought it was sweet. Even if we do pay for it later. Pete has a nasty habit of telling tales like a child so chances are he's off finding Mother or Sarah to tell on us even as we speak." She leaned back against the bar "So how long has it been since you last ruined a family gathering?" She smiled impishly and George found himself grinning back at her.
"Well, at my brother Bill's wedding, Fred and I had planned to charm several guests to stand up and speak when they were asked if anyone objected to the marriage but Mum found out about it and threatened us with actual bodily harm if we did anything to ruin the day." George felt the familiar tug at his heartstrings the way he always did when he spoke about Fred, but couldn't help laughing as he remembered his twin's declaration that there would be no such nonsense at his own wedding, even if he had to put Molly in a full body-bind curse until it was over.
Alice smiled "It sounds like you two were a piece of work growing up."
George nodded "I think we still hold the record for the highest number of detentions in Hogwarts history." He sipped his champagne, the bubbles stinging his lips "But it was a cross we were willing to bear in the name of fun."
Alice reached out and clinked her glass against his "In the name of fun…" she toasted softly.
X
Alice leaned closer to the mirror in the ladies' in order to check her lipstick. She was pleased with how she looked tonight, even more so when her entrance to the living room had stopped George in his tracks. Something about the way he had smiled at her across the kitchen table the night before had lit a fire within her - different to the effects of the love potion. That had caused her to feel heady and impulsive. George made her feel… stronger, somehow. Brighter.
Alice shivered as she remembered the feeling of George's fingers tracing delicate patterns on her skin as they had stood talking to Pete earlier. In spite of her anger, her stinging discomfort at being made to attend such an event, she had to admit that George's chivalrous masquerade as her boyfriend had given her some strength. her pulse had quickened at his touch, and she had been unable to resist leaning closer to him. After Pete had left, Alice had assumed that the flirtatious affection would dissipate from between them, but as they had clinked glasses in a toast, their eyes had met and all of a sudden Alice became acutely aware that the energy between them had been irrevocably altered. There was now a tension simmering beneath the surface of all their interactions - a kind of electricity that she knew both of them could sense. It was delicious and nerve-wracking all at the same time.
Alice shook her head and went back to fixing her hair. It felt good to be dressed up and out doing something glamorous, even if she was stuck having to put up with her chilly family for the evening in circumstances that were inauspicious to say the least. That morning and Fred's revelation to her that she was a witch felt like a million years ago. Alice knew that her reluctance to talk about what had caused the magical explosion had made George suspicious. Every time she considered the fact that she was concealing his twin brother's ghost from him, the guilty feeling in her stomach increased. For some reason, it made her feel sick to lie to him like that.
There was soft music piping into the ladies' through concealed speakers. It was classical and very calming and Alice smiled as swirls of soothing lavender and turquoise framed the mirror. Glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was alone she reached out a hand, her fingers mingling with them, the texture cool and silky against her skin.
"So this is real," she murmured to herself "It's not just in my head…"
The shock of learning that the images that came to her when she heard music or sang were in fact very real and not a product of misfiring neurons hadn't fully settled in yet. Alice thought of all the times people like Mother had told her to keep quiet, to stop looking for attention. She wondered if her family had any idea that she was a witch. What was it Fred had said? Someone would have come to the house to explain everything to them. Did that mean that Mother had known all along that she was different and just not told her, instead preferring to let her believe that she was somehow...abnormal? Alice felt a spark of bitterness ignite inside of her at the thought, her eyes filling with angry tears.
"Nice of you to turn up." Alice whirled around and came face to face with her half sister, resplendent in an evening dress that undoubtedly cost more than the entire bar bill but did nothing to detract from the cruel curve of her sneer, the vicious gleam in her eye. Out of the two of them, Sarah looked more like their mother - yet another reason Alice imagined she herself had failed Evelyn in some way. Sarah eyed her critically, somehow managing to look down her nose at Alice despite being almost a full head shorter.
"You've been crying," She finally announced meanly, jutting out her chin and placing a well-manicured hand on a bony hip "You're not moping around in here to get attention, are you? Mummy said she'd warned you about that already!"
Alice felt her face flush and she turned back to the mirror, sniffing a little and cursing herself for letting Sarah make her feel so small "I'm not crying," she tried not to sound as defensive as she felt "I just… Poked myself in the eye with my mascara brush, is all." Alice could feel Sarah's eyes on her back and kept here gaze firmly down as she rooted through her evening bag looking for lipstick that she had only applied a moment ago. She heard the click of Sarah's heels on the tiled floor as she moved to stand next to her at the mirror. The flush of a toilet and movement from inside one of the cubicles made her pause. The two of them stood in tense silence as a tall, pinched looking waitress hurried out and gave only a cursory wash of her hands before making a swift exit.
Sarah looked disgusted "I thought waitstaff weren't allowed to use guest restrooms. and she barely washed her filthy little hands. I'll demand that they sack her tomorrow."
Alice wrinkled her nose "Probably best not to take any canapes she offers you, Sarah. You wouldn't want to catch food poisoning - not with all of the bile you already spew everywhere."
Sarah ignored that, turning her vicious gaze back to Alice once more "It won't work, you know."
Alice turned to face Sarah with a confused frown "What won't work?"
Sarah leaned in so closely that she was almost nose to nose with Alice "I know you're just trying to make Pete jealous by bringing that ginger weirdo tonight," her voice was low and dangerous "I know you want to try and steal him back from me."
Alice couldn't help the bitter bark of laughter that rose from her throat unbidden "I don't think you need to worry about that, Sarah."
Sarah reeled back at Alice's laugh, blinking rapidly in surprise before narrowing her eyes "You've always been jealous of me," she hissed "You've always hated the fact that I'm normal and you're a, a-" she flapped a skinny arm around in Alice's direction as though searching for the right word "-freak." The word, drenched in bile, slid from Sarah's lips and hung in the air between them. Alice watched as it slowly disintegrated before her eyes, like floating ash from a bonfire. She had heard it all before, been subject to Sarah's vicious tormenting for years. But tonight, knowing what she now knew of herself, having had that final piece of the puzzle clicked into place for her, she could only feel the white hot outrage that accompanied the realisation that at some point in her life, there must have been a moment, a turning point wherein everything should have changed for her and she would've no longer had to put up with this shit.
And like everything else in her life - the love and approval of her family, the respect she should have received from Pete, the loyalty of her bandmates - like everything else, that beautiful shining moment had been denied to her. Alice felt her whole perspective shifting, stretching, changing in her mind's eye. A deep and primal feeling arose within her - one that she knew she had never felt before but at the same time was intimately familiar with. She levelled her gaze at Sarah.
"You're right, Sarah. I am a freak. Would you like to see what a freak like me can do?"