Magic
By
Jess
Chapter 2:
Just before George hit the
ground, he threw out his arm, saving his rear, but as soon as he hit the ground
pain shot through his hand. "Argh! Ouch!"
"I am so sorry!" came a
soothing, casual voice next to him.
Before looking up, he undoubtedly knew this voice belonged to a woman,
not any woman but a foreigner, and changed his demeanor instantaneously.
He began to brush off his
cloak. "No, no, it's alright, I-" his
voice caught in his throat as he finally glanced up at the possessor of the
voice. On the ground beside him sat a young
woman around his age wearing dark navy robes under a dark cloak. Long wavy brown hair fell from under her
hat and down past her shoulders. He
looked into her deep blue eyes that were covered by small wire rimmed
glasses. He cleared his throat. "I'm fine.
I'm sorry this is all my fault."
He got up off the ground, and reached his good hand down to the
woman. "Here let me help you."
"Thank you. Are you all right? I saw you land pretty hard on that hand of yours." A chill went down his spine as she wiped a
lock of hair off of her oval face.
"Actually, I…I… I'll be
alright…"
"Well that's good." She began picking her things up off of the
ground. "By the way, I'm Deirdre
Cerulean. I don't believe that we have
met."
"Oh, uh," George stuck out
his hand, "Fred, er," he mentally slapped himself, "I mean George Weasley."
She shook his hand. "Glad to make your acquaintance, George,
even if in the most peculiar of ways."
"Yes, quite. Nice to meet you, Deirdre. Oh, here, you dropped this." George leaned down and grabbed a book off
the ground and handed it to her.
"Thanks…" she said rather
whimsically.
"Er, so, where were you
off to in such a hurray?"
"Shouldn't I be asking you
the same thing?" She raised an eyebrow
playfully, and he smiled back at her.
"Actually, I was off to
find myself some dinner." As a second
thought he added, "By any chance, would you care to join me?"
She seemed to look him
over for a moment, and then answered, "Actually I… well… screw that. Where would you like to go?"
****************
Fifteen minutes later they had finally found a
restaurant that wasn't packed full with wizard tourists, and they sat down at a
table in the far corner. Each ordered
their separate meals, and George took the initiative to begin a conversation.
"So…" he said.
Soon after he regretted it, however, for she gave him a puzzled look.
"So…"
"So… what are you doing in London? I can tell by your accent that you are
obviously not a native."
She laughed at his unusual curiosity. "No, not a native. I moved here from Boston about three weeks ago hoping to get a
job at the ministry…" her voice trailed off.
George sipped his water. 'The ministry?' he thought. 'Impressive.'
"What field?"
"Transnational Studies of Muggle Behavior. I was a part of the American Ministry of
Magic and was promised a job here, but when I arrived it was a big let
down. Jackasses…" she mumbled, but
caught herself when George choked on the piece of ice he was chewing. "Not to say that the entire Ministry of
Magic is made up of jackasses," she added quickly, "but that was a major
disappointment."
He laughed out loud for a few moments and then
leaned back in his chair. "I can
imagine."
"So what do you do?" she said, leaning forward in
her chair.
"I run a shop.
With my twin brother…"
"Really?
That's lovely! I'd love to have
done something with one of my sisters, but we don't exactly share interests, so
to speak."
"Well I wouldn't really call it an interest…" he
gave her a teasing smile. "We, er, run
a joke shop." George watched with an
amused grin on his face as she laughed very hard in enjoyment. He reached into his pocket and grabbed a
small white handkerchief. "Here, do you
need this?" She gave him an annoyed
grin, but to humor her new friend she mockingly used it to wipe under her
eyes. Much to her surprise, as soon as
the handkerchief reached her face, large tears began falling from her deep blue
eyes. The more tears that fell the more
she used the handkerchief. Now it was
his turn to laugh.
"What's," sob, "so," sob, "funny?"
"You just used our newest invention. The 'cranky hanky.' It's still being manufactured, it's not yet
in the store." She threw the cloth back
at him and her tears soon subsided, and they both broke out in laughter.
****************
Later that night, as soon as he reached his
apartment George ran over to his owl.
"Hello Shirley, baby. Want to
take a little trip to see Fred?" The
small tawny gray owl hooted in delight.
"Hold on, just let me get a piece of parchment." In several long strides he reached his
bedside table and grabbed a quill and parchment.
Fred-
I've
found the perfect candidate for the job.
She's great, I met her this evening.
I'll explain more in the morning.
George
P.S. Give Georgia a kiss for me
A few minutes later, the owl had left the apartment
and George sat down on his large incredibly hideous overstuffed armchair. He ran his fingers through his red hair
which he now wore short and sleek, a more mature cut than the old bowl that he
had had in school, and contemplated the events of the evening, overall at peace
with himself.
To be continued…
