Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a figment of my imagination
Chapter nineteen: Jealousy is Never PrettyGeorge brought his hand up to his mouth slowly. He grabbed a spoon and tried to see himself in it.
'Damn.'
He had red stains around his mouth. He jumped over his chair towards the sink and quickly washed the lipstick away with some water.
"Shit...shit, shit!" he muttered to himself.
He dried his face with a towel and leaned against the kitchen cupboards. He threw the towel onto the table and headed towards Fred's room. There he knocked on the door hesitantly.
"Fred...Listen..."
"I'm not interested. Why should I care? It's not me you're cheating on." Fred's muffled voice sounded from within.
"But I want to explain." George said confused. "I didn't cheat on her, not really. It was just a kiss! Nothing else happened!"
"Yeah sure." Fred muttered to himself, suddenly feeling the vindictive urge to tell the truth. "So if I told you Hermione and I had kissed, it wouldn't have been cheating on you either?" he yelled.
George said nothing at first, but then he started to laugh.
"Like that's ever going to happen," he said merrily. "But nothing wrong happened between me and Viv."
Fred shook his head. He felt so angry George would never believe him and saying the truth had no meaning here.
"Whatever. But shouldn't you be looking after Hermione? She needs you more than Vivian does." Fred said, feeling satisfied that he had at least guilt-tripped George with those last words.
George turned around, running a hand through his hair. He turned around and went to his own room.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"No mail, mrs. Medlycott?" Hermione asked hopefully.
"Oh, why yes dear. Two cards for you, actually."
Eagerly Hermione accepted the two envelopes. One was from Ginny and Ron, the other came from Tess. With a light smile she set them on either side of the vase on her bedside table, which was now void of the radio.
With an even more satisfied smile she looked at the flowers in the vase. They were so beautiful. Every time she looked at them she felt warm and happy inside.
Her vision had grown slightly better, but still she didn't see everything in focus. She stretched out on the bed and closed her eyes, remembering the day before. Her daydream came to an abrupt end when someone knocked on the door.
"Yes?"
"I've got a delivery for you, miss Granger." said a short young kid with a red baseball cap. "Can you sign?"
She nodded and sat up. After signing the clipboard he had handed her, he walked in again with a large basket of all sorts of exotic fruit, surrounded by even more exotic flowers. Her eyes lit up.
"Is that for me?" she asked surprised.
"If you are miss H. J. Granger, then yes!" the youth said.
He placed the basket on a cupboard on the left of her bed. When he had left, she slid off her bed and skipped over to it. There was a small card attatched to the stem of one of the flowers.
'Get well soon. I miss you. All my love, George.' It read.
"George..."
He was really spoiling her. This somewhat overwhelming basket of fruit today and that lovely bouquet the day before... With a big grin she sat down on her bed again, clasping the card to her chest.
'All this for me...' she though happily. 'He must really love me.'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Fred walked through the door, more anxious than he had ever been. He stared around tentively as if he had never been there before. Slowly he made his way over to the desks at the side of the office doors. Where he had seen Hermione the time before, now sat a girl with dark hair. He coughed and looked around.
"Excuse me..." he said.
The girl looked up. "Yes?"
"I'm...looking for a girl named Tess."
The girl giggled and flicked her hair over her shoulder before turning around. "Tess! There's a redhead here to see you!"
"Is it Ron? I'll just be a sec!" sounded a very hasty voice from the depths of a filecabinet.
Fred grinned. Ron going out with a cute girl like Tess wasn't really what he had expected...or suspected, for that matter. He walked up behind her and said, very softly: "No, not Ronald."
She jumped, nearly hitting her head on an open draw. She turned around, one hand clasped to her chest.
"Don't ever do that again. You scared the living daylight out of me."
He grinned apologetically. "Sorry...I just wanted...Can I...I would like to talk to you. Somewhere private."
She nodded slowly, noticing the pair of eyes that was burning in her back.
"You know this bloke, then?" the black haired girl asked between to chews on her gum.
"Never you mind, Cindy." Tess said impatiently.
She turned back around to face him.
"Come on. We'll grab some coffee in the café."
Fred followed her down the stairs and into the coffeeshop at the entrance of the building. She sat down and watched him carefully as he sat down too.
"How is she?" Tess asked.
"She's fine." Fred muttered.
"But that's not why you're here." Tess stated. "You're Fred, right?"
He nodded. "...Yeah...How did you know? But...now you do know, you must also know why I am here."
"I suppose I do." she said. "Have you told her?"
"Told her what?" he asked alarmed.
"That you love her."
Fred blushed.
"I can't." he said quietly. "She's happy with George. He's romantic and sweet to her...I don't want to make her unhappy."
"The way George does, you mean. I've seen that hag at the office lure him in...I know she's bewitching him with that so called 'charm' of hers. But does Hermione know?"
Fred shook his head. "I haven't told her anything. I don't believe he's done something really wrong...I don't want to believe that. What if I said something and then it turns out I was completly wrong!"
Tess leaned her chin on her hand. "But...what about George? Is he...strong enough? To withstand Vivian, I mean."
"...I don't know."
"You know, I went to visit her the other day...she was in cloud nine because of the little bouquet he had given her...She suddenly started describing his kisses as magical...mindblowing, even. You should tell her it was you before she finds out on her own. If I can figure it out, than she can definitely."
Fred's head snapped up. "You...you know? And you didn't tell her?"
"It's not my place. This is between you, your brother and her. If you don't tell her the truth soon, someone's going to find out in the end and that will do more damage than outing the truth ever could."
"But-"
"You go and tell her it was you who kissed her, you owe her that." Tess said slowly.
"...And what happens after that?"
"That's up to her." Tess said. "Only she can decide what will happen then."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"I'll see you later then?" she asked hopefully.
He nodded. "Of course. I'll come pick you up when you can go home again."
"But that's going to be another couple of days!" she said disappointedly.
"Hermione, you know we're really busy with the shop at the moment. The new products, searching for more employees...Fred's been distand lately as well, so he hasn't been much help to me and Viv."
She raised her eyebrow. "Viv?"
"Vivian, our lawyer."
"Yes, I know who she is." she said agrivated. "But why the nickname! Why do you always insist on calling her by that stupid nickname."
He was a little taken aback by her grumbling tone of voice. "It's just something that grew between us during school. I've gotten used to it and it's a hard habit to break. Nothing else, okay?"
"Does she call you Georgie?" she asked with a hint of a sneer.
George looked at her strangely.
"Are you jealous?" he asked suddenly.
"No I'm not." she answered back fiercely. "It's just...Oh, never mind. You don't understand."
She turned around on her other side and stared at the wall. George, with a confused look on his face, tried to make her turn back by touching her shoulder. She grunted and remained as she was.
"I'll see you later then." George said, feeling hugely mistreated.
"Bye then." she said curtly.
She listened to the sound of his footsteps moving away. She closed her eyes as the door fell shut. Once she was certain she was alone, she turned back and stared at the closed door. She hadn't meant to be this harsh, but she felt so insecure every time Vivian bloody Kramer was mentioned.
It already felt awkward knowing she had been George's old girlfriend...but hearing him talk with so much praise about someone who made her life quite miserable just made her mad.
"He doesn't know it hurts you..." she said out loud, trying to reason with herself. "He doesn't know because you don't really talk to him."
"Talk with who?" said someone, peering through the gao of the door.
Hermione beamed. "Ginny! Come in, come in!"
Ginny slipped through the door and pulled up a chair close to the bed.
"How are you feeling?" she asked.
"Oh, not that bad. Just a few more days and I can go home. They want to keep me here a bit longer to be on the safeside."
Ginny smiled. "I read in the paper they hade discovered the antidote for this disease. And they said they also know the source and everything. Something about birds..."
Hermione nodded. "That's right. They used the antidote on me right after it was tested. I feel loads better now."
"Good." said Ginny. "And...how's everything else? George..."
Hermione's smile faded slightly.
"To be honest I don't really know...I don't know if you've heard something from Tess or Ron...but my boss is George's ex girlfriend."
Ginny's head snapped up. "What, Vivian? You mean that cow? Oh, I remember her, alright."
Hermione raised her eyebrow. "You know her?"
"Yeah I do. Never realised it's the same Vivian as your boss was, but it does make sense now. Fred told me that George was-"
Suddenly she snapped shut,
"...That George was?" Hermione asked hesitantly.
"He...he seems very keen on him being the one who handles the things that include her, lately...Fred said that he hardly had any attention for the shop itself...I- I didn't want to tell you this, I thought it would make you worry..."
"Oh..."
"He even said something about having very little time to visit you, just now. I met him down the hallway on my way up. Said he was thinking of buying you something to make up for it, for a change...He just couldn't think of anything and flowers or fruit seemed awkward, he said."
"Oh..."
Ginny bit her lip. "Don't worry, okay? Vivian has nothing on you. She's a cow and you are a sweet and caring person."
Hermione looked at the bunch of flowers she had been given a few days before.
"Did...did he say how many times he had visited me?" she asked slowly.
"I- I think so." Ginny said confused. "I yelled at him, calling him all sorts of names when he told me he had only been here once before when you had just been brought here. I was so mad!"
Hermione's face slowly grew into a mystified expression. "Once...you say?"
Ginny nodded.
"Yeah, I was so angry, I cursed him into hell and back, with words, I mean. Even though I was tempted to throw a Bat Bogey Hex his way. He was in the hospital already so it wouldn't have been that bad..." she grinned. "Why, don't you remember him coming by?"
"No, that's not it...I just remember him visiting more often...I guess, I guess that I must have been dreaming."
Ginny shook her head, trying to remember whether she had heard George wrong. Hermione turned her head towards the vase on the bedside table. George had brought them along, hadn't he?
They were real, so the visit had been real too. She hadn't been dreaming, then. But if it couldn't have been George, then it could only have been-
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