Chapter 3:

Understanding

George just couldn't figure it out. It must be him. Did she not want to be seen with a Weasley? That hadn't stopped her at the Yule ball. Fred had bought him a butter beer but he had just sat quietly, racking his brain for a reason why she wouldn't let him even give her a hug. He had walked back to the Hogwarts, feeling completely rejected.

As the brothers were walking up the path back to the castle, George finally said, with the air of someone who had given up, "I don't understand!"

"She told you she didn't do Valentine's Day," said Fred, shaking his head, "Maybe she's had bad Valentine's Day's in the past."

"Are you saying that I brought back bad memories?" George muttered.

Fred smirked, "Yes, and I think you need to talk to her about it." After a moment he added, almost to himself, "I love being the sensible one."

George glared at him and threw a snowball at the back of his head.

Back in the common room, Mel sat before the fire, gazing at it mindlessly, the embers reflected in her hazel eyes. She didn't want George to come bursting into the common room and start asking questions about her antics and she didn't want to have to walk away from him again. Luckily, for the first time in his life, George Weasley didn't act like George Weasley.

George had planned what he was going to say the rest of the walk back to common room, walking slower then normal as he entered the Entrance Hall. He stopped and took a deep breath before he passed through the portrait hole, seeing Mel sitting in front of the fire.

"Please don't get mad" he thought, as he took the seat next to her. "Mel, can we talk?" he asked quietly.

Mel looked up from the fire and stared at him sadly. With some effort, she nodded.

"You know I love you, so..." he stopped short, seeing her biting her lip and looking nervous. She stood quickly and looked him in the eyes.

"I'm sorry George, I really am but..." she shook her head and sighed, "I can't talk about this, not right now, ok?" Without waiting for a reply, she walked briskly towards the stairs.

George wasn't going to just let her walk away again. He bounded after her and ran up the stairs towards the girls' dormitory, which quickly vanished causing him to fall in a heap at the bottom. After a few seconds, Mel appeared over him, wiping tears from her eyes. She sat on the floor, helping him into a sitting position.

"When I was eleven, my parents kicked me out of my house. They didn't want me to come to Hogwarts. You see, my uncle, he's the security guard at the ministry and, well, my parents always thought it was so awful. So when I got my letter, they were appalled. They were just going to throw it away and pretend it never arrived, but I told them that I really wanted to come. We had this huge fight and they told me I could go, but I was never welcome back. I grabbed everything I had and left the house crying. About 10 minutes later, Dumbledore had picked me up and brought me to my uncle's house." Her voice broke off and she began to sob.

George pulled her close to him and began to stroke her hair softly. "I'm sorry," he said quietly. "I'm never gonna leave you like that, I promise."

She looked at him and said, through a sob, "The last thing I heard them say was, 'You know we love you'. I shut the door before they could say but. After that I never allowed myself to get close to anyone because I know I'll end up getting left all alone again."

George took her hands and made her look him in the eyes. "I promise I'm never going to leave."

A/N: Wow that only took me...3 and a half months. Well it was really hard to write and I decided to change the plot a little and it was done in an hour. I hope you enjoyed my breakthrough from a 3 month writer's block.