Chapter 7

George Weasley's day started out pretty great.

It was Saturday morning so he got out of bed at his own pace and headed off to have a shower. He got dressed (casually…he stuck with blue jeans and a black t-shirt) and headed off to breakfast. Though he thought it was a bit weird that Fred had gone down without him, he brushed it off, he was too happy to think about trivial things.

The bigger picture is what mattered. Alicia wanted him back. Alicia said that she would do anything to be with him again.

Grinning at the thought of Alicia pursuing him as he had chased her all these years, he fairly bounced into the great hall and sat down at the Gryffindor table.

Alicia came and sat down next to him. For awhile they were in their own world, giggling and talking and smiling at eachother. Though that was extremely pleasant, George was harshly brought down to earth by his own twin.

"YOU'RE JOKING !" yelled Fred, right into George's ear (Fred had been trying to get his attention for half an hour and had finally resorted to underhand methods).

"Joking about what?" asked George, vaguely.

Katie (relishing her role as the bearer of THE NEWS) leaned over and in a loud stage whisper said "Shiara and Draco got together!"

"WHAT!" erupted George.

"Its all over school, apparently yesterday he broke down and told her that he'd been in love with her for ages and that he hadn't said anything 'cause he thought that she'd never date him but he couldn't hold it in anymore…"

All the girls at the table all aw-ed but George failed to see anything adorable about the situation and his expression said as much.

He looked over at the Ravenclaw table and saw Blaise and Draco sitting with Shiara and her friends. As he watched, Shiara laughed at something Draco said and he was smiling at her affectionately. For some reason George found that his head was pounding and that his stomach felt uneasy. He knew he should be happy. This way he could date Alicia and not have to worry about Shiara. This way maybe they could both move on.

"George, are you alright?"

George glared at Alicia who looked bewildered and stormed out of the great hall.

Or maybe not.

Shiara was tired. She had tried her best to appear unconcerned and unaffected by George's taking up with Alicia again but she didn't think that she had done too good a job. However, Fred had told her that George had stormed off and though she felt a tiny pinge of guilt, she knew that George really deserved it. She still couldn't believe that he was trying to date both Alicia and her together!

George was looking for Shiara. He had to talk to her about everything. He had been moping in his dorm until Fred had kicked him out and told him to go straighten things out with her.

He borrowed Harry's map and easily located Shiara sitting by herself near the lake.

Shiara was miserable. Stretching lazily, she watched the giant squid play with some rocks and mentally kicked herself for starting the entire charade with Draco. The next time I see George, she vowed to herself, ill tell him exactly what I feel.

However, two seconds later, when George sat down next to her, as always, she had nothing to say.

She listened to him while he explained his relationship with Alicia. She listened to him while he apologized over and over again. And when he asked if they could still be friends, she nodded and smiled and let him hug her. And when he wished her luck with her relationship with Draco, she had responded appropriately and that was that. George Weasley had walked out of her life as suddenly as he had walked into it.

She told herself that she didn't really care and that he had just been a rebound guy, she had been in love with Cedric for years – she couldn't fall in love with someone completely new in a week!

Still assuring herself about this, she went back to her dorm and went to sleep.

She still didn't know why the world felt wrong.