Author: Sunnycouger (sunnycouger@lineone.net)
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, JKR owns all and makes the billions from it :( I just borrow them on occasion to ahve my wicked way with them ;)
Category: Fred and Angelina. With some minor George and Hermione/Ron and Hermione, Lee and Alicia...plus others that will be revealed in later parts :)
Authors Note: This was going to be a G/H fic as well, but I can't seem to kurb my inner sidekick so it is now going to be R/Hr: I'm sorry to all you G/Hr'ers, I love the ship but I can't seem to write it :(
All feedback is greatly appreciated! :)
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"You are doing what?!?! With Hermione???!!!???!"
George looked around desperately unable to escape the furious face of his younger brother as he glared at him. He opened his mouth to respond but all that would come out was a small squeak as Ron looked at him and pulled his wand out. This was going to hurt...but wait? Ron dropped the wand to the floor and George looked up.
"I don't want to hex you, George...I want to kill you with my bare hands..." In that instant Ron pounced and wrapped his hands around George's throat and began choking him while repeating "with Hermione?" Over and over...
George Weasley opened his eyes abruptly and immediately put his hand to his throat as he took a deep breath. Nope, Ron was definitely not still choking him. Damn his vivid imagination. Sure it came in handy when creating jokes and pranks but now? He took a deep breath and stood up purposefully as he looked at his tall brother. This was simple. All he had to do was walk over there, say his piece: that he had kissed Hermione a few days ago and they were going to the Yule Ball together. Ron would take it like a man and they would shake on it and then things would be back to normal. That was the plan, besides...Ron was a reasonable man. He would understand.
"Hey, George. C'mere a sec...I have to talk to you." George jumped slightly as the unbelievably tall figure of his younger brother looked directly at him. When had he got so tall? Or when had George got so small? Ron couldn't know already...Hermione had said George should tell.
George took a deep breath as he walked over. It was a good day to die... "Ron, hi. How's it going? How's the work going? You know if Snape is still giving you a hard time I know..."
Ron looked at George like he had come from another planet as he shook his head. "What are you talking about? No, it's nothing to do with that...it's just..." Ron pulled George away from the group of Harry, Seamus and Dean and whispered to him. "You know the Yule Ball?"
George felt his throat constrict, was it getting hot in here? "Um, I heard...some people mention it..."
"Like the whole school?"
"Well, not the *whole* school..."
Ron shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Whatever, the big ball that's coming up. I think there's something weird going on...with all the girls. Ginny turned down Harry...HARRY..." he shook his head like he was still trying to take the shock of it in. "Hermione is going with some...guy...apparently. Bloody Krum I bet..."
George gulped self consciously as he pulled at his robes at his neck while trying to concentrate on his brother. "Lavender is going with Neville of all people and apparently Angelina isn't going with Fred. She's...even considering going with a Hufflepuff..."
"Um...well, I think Fred is going to ask her. He just hasn't had the guts to do it yet."
"Well, according to Parvati and Lavender she's already accepted."
George's eyes went wide. "She's what?! Why'd she go and do a stupid thing like that? She knew he would have asked her eventually."
"Yeah well...what about Hermione?"
"Her...Hermione? Were...were you going to ask her?"
Ron looked at his brother like he was the stupidest person on the planet. "Well, I wouldn't know she was going with someone if I wasn't going to ask her. I was even going to ask her first..." He looked down and kicked his shoe absently, "she said she didn't want asked as a last resort and now she doesn't even give me a chance to ask her. Bloody Krum I bet, stupid Bulgarian twit can't even say her name right. Herm-own-ninny? If me or Harry called her Herm-own-ninny we would be strung up."
"To be fair, he is Viktor Krum, he could call me whatever he wanted to..."
"You're not helping!" Ron said impatiently as he looked at George irritably. "What should I do?"
George looked at his younger brother and felt a twang of guilt. "Um...you could ask her? Did you actually ask her?"
"Well, no...but...it's just..." Ron looked down as the tips of his ears began to flush. "You know, it's Hermione. Hermione. She should have known I would ask her after last year..."
The twang of guilt now had turned into full waves of gut-wrenching guilt.
"Well, Ron...you know, I think you should let me handle this..." He put his hand on his brother's shoulder. Did he really want to go to the ball with Hermione anyway? Not anymore... "Just...don't ask anyone else to the dance until I've spoken to her. But you have to deal with whatever is going on with Ginny. Because I can't sort out your love life, listen to Fred moan about Angelina, stop Lee from betting all his galleons away and worry about Harry's bruised ego. She's probably just going with Colin..."
"Ha, I thought about that but Colin is going with a Slitherin. A Slytherin!"
"He's not!" George said aghast as he looked over towards the tiny 4th year who was sitting alone. "Someone has to have a word with him."
Ron nodded his head as he looked over at Colin and spoke loudly so that the whole common room could hear. "We have. We had a long conversation about house loyalty!"
Colin shifted uncomfortably as the rest of the Gryffindors looked at him accusingly before scutteling away to the portrait hole. George shook his head and let out a sigh, why was nothing simple?
"You all have to stop being so hard on him," a voice said from behind them. George span around to see a furious looking Ginny and an unamused looking Hermione. He took a deep breath as he felt himself suffocate with Ron on one side of him and Hermione on the other.
He just had to focus on something else, anything else...hmm, was that new robes that Hermione was wearing? New lip gloss? He quickly turned away and choked. Okay, he just had to relax.
You're a good actor, George. Just relax. It's Hermione. Just Hermione. Your younger brothers date to the Yule Ball once your done. Just forget about yourself and torment Ginny, that'll relax you.
"So, Ginny. Why did you turn Harry down?"
Ginny looked at him open mouthed as she blushed slightly. "I...had a date."
"With who? Is he in your year?" George asked as him and Ron stood side by side and folded their arms in the stereotypical older brother pose. George looked around to see if he could find Fred, this conversation always went better when there was more than 2 of them looking threatening.
"Is he a Gryffindor?" Ron added.
Ginny shook her head as she composed herself and folded her own arms. "No, and no."
"Have you been out with him before?"
Hermione looked at Ron and shook her head. "I don't think Ginny..."
Ron raised his hand to silence her as he looked at Ginny. "When did you get over Harry?"
Ginny looked unimpressed. "Yeah, I've been out with him before. And as for Harry, was I supposed to save myself until he decided to notice him? I've been over him for ages, not that any of you noticed!"
"Yeah, to be fair if you spoke more than 3 words to him we might have been able to guess that," George said worriedly. "Okay, tell us who you are going with. And please tell me it's at least a Hufflepuff...they seem a good sort."
"Apart from Ernie MacMillan and Justin Finch Fletchley, they are irritating gits..."
"Yeah, apart from Ernie, I don't mind Justin because if you marry him it will be like having another Percy around..."
Ron looked at George and shook his head. "You say that like it's a good thing?"
"It's not a Hufflepuff..." Ginny said as she barged her way past her brothers with a strange smile as she walked towards the portrait hole.
Ron turned around and looked at George gravely as he let out a breath. "Ravenclaw..."
"Oh, I forgot to mention as well," Ginny stopped as she opened the door and smirked at her brothers, "it's not Ravenclaw either..."
Before either brother had a chance to respond she had disappeared as Ron and George looked at each other in shock as the revelation dawned on them.
"She's...she wouldn't..." Ron said quietly as George shook his head. "Not with a..."
"No way...no, she's pulling our leg. Definitely, she wouldn't..." George said as he punched Ron's shoulder hard. "This is because you mentioned the damn Harry thing! You wound her up!"
"I didn't wind her up! I just wanted to know!"
"Oh, bloody good job then!"
"Excuse me?" Hermione said irritably as she looked at both of them. "Maybe if you hadn't went in brothers from hell mode she would have been able to tell you who she was going with?"
George shook his head and looked at Ron. Time to face the music, Ron could deal with talking Ginny out of whatever madness she was involved in and he would fix this twisted melodrama that was the Yule Ball.
"You should go and see where she is away to, Ron." He leant in close to Ron and whispered inaudibly to Hermione. "That will let me talk to Hermione."
Ron looked at Hermione and then to George. "Good idea. I'll see you later."
He began walking away but before he got to the door he stopped and looked at Hermione. "So, when is Kr...Vikky getting here?"
Hermione groaned and tossed her hair as she spoke through clenched teeth. "It's Viktor and he is not coming! For the 50th time, I'm not going with Viktor!"
Ron rolled his eyes and turned away as he muttered, "Sure you're not, and the Chudley Canons will win the inter European cup next year...who else would you be going with?"
As he disappeared Hermione clenched her fists and looked at George. "He is the most infuriating, dense, slow, sorry excuse for a man...ever!"
George looked at her and sighed. His brother was dense, lots of guys would probably go for a girl like Hermione. "Hermione...we have to talk. It's important."
Hermione sighed and nodded her head. "Fine, I think I know what's coming but come on..." She began walking to the portrait hole, "we'll talk in the library."
George stopped as he shook his head. "No, no, no, no, no...I have successfully avoided voluntary visits to the library for seven years so it's not going to happen."
"George!" Hermione said as she looked at him disapprovingly.
"Hermione!" George echoed back at her in a whiny voice. "I know where we can talk..."
He walked over to her and took her arm and gently pulled her along. Ron owed him big time for this. They walked out the portrait hole and down the corridor as Fred stormed past them, lips pursed aggressively with mud covering his robes and hair.
"Hey Fred, spoke to Angeli..." Hermione began cheerily.
"Sod off, all women suck! You all need flipping therapy from birth to control your tempers!" Fred said as he disappeared behind them still muttering.
George stopped as Hermione let out a shocked gasp. "I think he might have heard about Angelina's date. It's a bit harsh tarnishing us all with the same brush..."
George shrugged his shoulders as he walked to a bathroom and pushed the door open. Sometimes it was better not to ask when it was in relation to his twin. "In here."
Hermione looked at him unimpressed. "George! This is the prefects bathroom. You aren't a prefect, you shouldn't have a key to this."
George rolled his eyes and walked in without her. "If they didn't want us to use it they shouldn't have put a lock on it that could be tampered with."
"That's not the point."
George shook his head as he paced up and down. Why couldn't she shut up? Oh well, best to be blunt, George. "Okay, Hermione. I am not taking you to the Yule Ball."
Hermione looked at him and he winced. His intention was to stop her talking, not to strike her mute entirely. "It's...it's not that I don't want to go with you it's just...you...you don't really want to go with me. I mean, be honest..."
Hermione looked at him and sighed as she sat down. "That's....that's not true..."
"Oh sure it's not. I mean come on, it's Ron. You want to go with Ron and he wants to go with you and if you don't go with him, you'll both regret it." And I'll die a slow and painful death, or I'll feel so guilty I'll do the damn Avada Kedavra on myself.
Hermione shook her head as she looked at him with a smile. "He doesn't want to go with me. He sees me like Harry, you know? I could dye my hair purple and he wouldn't notice anything was different. I'm just...you know...there."
George walked over to her and sighed, "You know, for such an insufferable smarty pants you are pretty dense. Ronniekins is crazy about you. He was going to ask you, he told me so."
Hermione smiled as she looked at him, big brown eyes shining. "Really? He did?"
George nodded his head. "Yup, that he did, he's crazy about you, I mean...he's crazy at the best of times but he seemed pretty sane when he was talking to me." He let out a deep breath as he continued, "Maybe a little too sane, good job I didn't tell him..."
Hermione bit her lip as she shook her head. "I don't know..."
"Hermione."
"It's just...I...what if he doesn't?" She asked in a small voice which belittled her usual confident exterior. "I don't want to be his last resort again. I want him to ask me because he wants to go with me."
George shook his head: how could she not see it? "He will. Seriously, he's smitten, and the only reason he's freaking over the Ginny date, which I am seriously going to find out about, is because he thinks you are going with someone!"
"Well, technically I am..." Hermione said glumly.
George sank back surly: way to make a guy feel good about himself. "No, that was a mistake. I mean, come on, we would both die."
Hermione let out a laugh as she looked at him. "I don't think it was a mistake: good idea..."
"Wrong Weasley." George said as he looked at her with a warm smile. "Listen, I'm not going to pretend I don't think you're pretty, or that we would have fun but the brutal truth is that we would drive each other crazy before we even got to the ball. Plus, I like breathing: oxygen does wonders for my quidditch game."
"You really think I'm...you know? Pretty?"
"Yeah, in a brain box kinda way," he said with a smirk as he stood and walked to the door. "Listen, I'll speak to Ron and I bet you he asks right away, and if he doesn't then I'll take you and he will be stuck moping in a corner like last year."
"Oh, how chauvinistic of you, who says I would want to go with you?" she asked with an amused smile.
George grinned as he opened the door. "Who says Ron will want my cast-off?"
Hermione glared at him and walked out. "If you put it like that I'll kill you myself."
"If I put it like that I think Ron will do it for me..." George said as he closed the door. Now all he had to do was have a discussion with his brother: man to man.
TBC
Coming Next: What happened to Fred? Did he talk to Angelina? Did he find out about her date? Will he get over his women issues? Will we find out how he got covered with mud? Check out part 3 to find out!