Disclaimer: I´m not JK Rowling. What a surprise.

A/n: Hope you like this chapter! It´s longer than the first, and better too. Thanks to Angel de la Luna, Jagged Epiphany and Gaelic Lover for being my first reviewers.

I want you to want me

I need you to need me

I'd love you to love me

I'm begging you to beg me

-Letters To Cleo

George´s PoV:

I have to admit that I sometimes admire Fred. I would never have dared to ask the girl I like to the ball while everybody was listening. Then again, it´s different for Fred. He knows that he is good-looking and that all the girls want him. Me, I´m not that self-confident. I´ve liked Alicia Spinnet since third year and I still haven´t dared to ask her out. Talk about pathetic, eh? Fred´s liked Angelina for about as long, though, and he hasn´t dared to ask her out before recently. Perhaps he isn´t as self-confident as he seems.

Anyway, when Fred asked Angelina to the ball I decided I had to ask Alicia. After all, it couldn´t be too bad, could it? I figured I´d simply walk over to her and ask her, just like that. Turned out it wasn´t that easy, of course. I´d never fully realised the fact that Alicia´s always surrounded by friends. Usually it´s Angelina and Katie, who are all right since they´re my friends too, but sometimes there are also other girls, giggling and gossiping all the time. Seriously, she´s never alone!

Finally, more than one week after I decided I´d ask her, I came upon her doing homework in the Library. Thankfully, she was by herself. By that time, I´d almost given up getting to talk to her alone, but now I saw my chance. I sat down beside her, tried my best to look casual, and sent her a grin full of Weasley charm. That´s what I thought, anyway.

"Why are you grinning that way? It makes you look stupid," Alicia snickered.

I glared at her, but stopped grinning just in case. "I´m grinning in a charming and dashing, yet modest way," I explained.

"Yeah, whatever you say. Why are you here anyway? I never thought I´d see a Weasley twin visit the library when he didn´t have to."

"Hey, that´s not fair! Why are you here all alone, anyway?" I asked

"I´m just finishing my History of Magic essay. Katie and Angie are done with theirs, and they couldn´t be quiet, so I told them to leave me alone while I finished mine."

"History of Magic essay? When is that due?"

"It´s due tomorrow." She smiled innocently at me. "But of course you´ve done it already."

"Tomorrow?" I swore under my breath. I´d completely forgotten about the stupid essay. "What´s it about?"

"Three feet on the Centaurs´ stance on the difference between beasts and persons."

I groaned. There was no way in hell I´d manage to write three feet on something I didn´t have a clue about by tomorrow.

"Judging from your expression, you haven´t done it yet. What a surprise." She looked at me and smiled again. My stomach flipped. "Are you here to write it? No, obviously not, since you apparently had forgotten it. Then why are you here?"

I straightened up. This was probably the only opportunity I´d have of asking her without being surrounded by people and I knew I had to take it. Still, I was beginning to feel really nervous and talking suddenly seemed a lot more difficult.

"Er... I actually came here to look for you," I finally managed to say. She gave me a questioning look, which almost made me lose my courage. I hurried on before I could change my mind.

"I was wondering... Would you like to... Um, you know, go to the ball with me? As a friend, of course, I know you don´t think of me that way..." I was rambling, and I knew it. Still, I had said it, and I felt a bit proud of myself.

Alicia, on the other hand, looked rather surprised.

"Are you asking me to the ball? I thought you were going with one of your giggling admirers!" she said.

I was offended. It was true that there were some girls at school who had fallen for my Weasley charm, but how could she think I would rather go with one of them than with my best friend?

"Oh, them... No, I´d rather go with a girl who has brains," I replied.

"But they´re much prettier than me."

"They´re also boring, and most of them are too stupid for their own good. Anyway, is that a yes or a no?"

She shrugged, seemed to hesitate a little, but then smiled at me. "Sure. Why not? I still think they´re a lot prettier than me, though."

"Oh, no, Leesh! You know you´ll always be my beauty." I winked at her and left quickly to keep her from noticing my blush.

On my way back to the Gryffindor Tower I ran into Fred and Lee. I could tell from their stupid grins that they had been hanging out with Angelina and Katie. I suddenly I felt a jolt of envy because they both were able to express their feelings to the girls they were in love with. Why couldn´t it be that easy for me? But I had asked her to the ball. And she did say yes.

"Where have you been?" Fred asked. "We went looking for you, but we couldn´t find you anywhere."

"Oh, you know, just hanging around. Sneaking food from the kitchen, scaring first years, asking Alicia to the ball, that kind of stuff." Good job, George, I thought to myself. Just sneak it into the conversation, don´t make a big deal out of it.

Fred and Lee seemed to think it was a big deal, though.

"You finally asked her? About time!" Fred exclaimed.

"Yeah, we never thought you´d dare to ask her!" Lee joined in. "Where did this happen? And how?"

"Hey, it´s nothing to make a fuss about," I assured them. "We´re just going as friends. How did you know I wanted to ask her anyway?"

"Well, it´s pretty obvious, isn´t it? You´ve been head over heels for her since third year, so it´s about time you did something about it," Fred explained. "Angie was even taking bets on you asking her. Everybody knows it! Except Alicia, of course."

"She´s been taking bets?" I said. "I can´t believe this. I thought nobody knew!"

We reached the common room and sat down in front of the fireplace. I was eager to continue the discussion, but then Alicia entered. She was really looking pretty today, I noticed. She had let her hair hang loose, and her curls were shining. Her cheeks were slightly flushed, which made her big grey eyes look even brighter than they usually did.

"And that, my friend," Lee said, "is how we know. You´re staring."

"I´m not!" I protested. "I´m just looking at her in passing..."

"Yeah, right. You looked like your eyes were about to pop out!" They both snorted with laughter.

"Well, it´s not like you two aren´t drooling over Angie and Katie everytime you set eyes on them," I countered, knowing that it was a lame reply. It certainly made no impression on Fred and Lee, they just laughed harder. I scowled at them.

"It´s none of your business anyway!" I growled, throwing away all the dignity I had left. Fred looked like he was going to say more, but he was interrupted when Angelina, Katie and Norah, a girl who´s in fifth year with Katie, came in. They joined us in front of the fireplace.

"Hey, guess what!" Fred said with an evil grin. "George asked Leesh to the ball!"

"He did?"Angelina turned and smiled sweetly to Fred. "I guess that means you owe me three sickles then."

"Oh, yeah... I´d forgotten about that. Can it wait till tomorrow?"

"Sure. But you owe me, don´t forget that!"

I glared at them. "Hey! Can we please not forget what´s the topic here is?" I looked at Norah, who´s not a part of our group, and therefore wouldn´t be influenced by Fred.

"Did you know I had a crush on Alicia too?"

"Of course I knew. Anyone can see that!" she said matter-of-factly. "You´re too obvious. You´re always staring at her."

"Told you so!" Lee cried out triumphantly.

"Face it, brother. You´re busted." Fred grinned at me and then turned to the others. "So, who´s up for a round of Exploding Snap?"

A couple of days later I was sitting at dinner, complaining to Alicia about Snape giving me an unfair detention (again). I mean, it´s not my fault that potions explode when you throw a Filibuster´s Firework in them, is it? Besides, I think the Slytherins who were hit actually looked better with big glowing, orange spots everywhere. Too bad Snape didn´t agree. He didn´t believe that it was an accident, either.

Alicia had just pointed out that it had looked very much like I was aiming at the Slytherins´ potion when I heard a voice behind me, saying my name. I turned around and saw that it was Felicity, a sixth year Hufflepuff I had been dating for a while. She was a very pretty girl with long dark brown hair and big brown eyes. Unfortunately she also had a brain about the size of a pea.

"Hi, Georgie," she said and came over to me.

I winced. I really, really hate being called Georgie.

"Hey Felicity," I answered. "What´s up?"

She smiled her beautiful, but oh-so-stupid smile, and sat down next to me. "I was just thinking about our dates. We had a great time, didn´t we?"

Actually I had been bored almost out of my wits, but I decided it wouldn´t be a very good idea to tell her that.

"Yeah, sure." I wondered what she was up to. Considering that the last time we spoke she was furious with me for flirting with one of her friends, I was a bit surprised that she was talking to me at all.

"You know, we really should try going out again."

"Um... We should?"

"Yeah, we should. Why don´t we go to the ball together?" She looked at me expectantly.

I almost started laughing. Felicity was asking me to the ball? Felicity, the girl who had told me she never wanted to speak to me again? Must´ve been the Weasley charm working.

"That would have been great, of course, but I´m going with Alicia here, so I can´t. Sorry." I grinned at her apologetically and then turned back to my food, thinking that the conversation was over. But to Felicity, it obviously wasn´t.

"You´d rather go with her than with me? But I´m so pretty!" she yelled. Everybody at the table turned to look at her, but she didn´t seem to notice.

I tried to calm her down. "Of course you´re pretty, but so is Alicia, and I´m going with her. I´ve already asked her."

She didn´t look any calmer. Instead of admitting defeat and leaving, like I thought she would, she turned to Alicia.

"You´re behind this, Alicia Spinnet. Don´t think you´re so great just because you´re on the Quidditch team, because you aren´t! I´ll get you for this, I promise!" Then she ran off, leaving everybody in shocked silence.

Oooh, don´t we just love drama? Scary girl, that Felicity.

I almost forgot this: Thanks again to Alicia for beta reading my story!