George had always been able to read people.
It started when he was little. He and Fred decided that they would use the fact that they were identical to prank people. They would finish each other's sentences. React in the same way with no time to communicate between themselves. To do this, George had to be able to figure out what Fred wanted to do, which often depended on how Fred was feeling.
Fred had to have the same ability to some extent, but he didn't need it to the same level George did. Fred was more vocal. Fred followed his instinct first, thought about the consequences later. Fred always started their joint sentences. So, to keep up with him, George had to know what he was going to do.
In learning Fred's tells, he began to learn those of the rest of his family too. He picked up on obvious ones like Ron's ears turning red when he was angry and not so obvious ones like how Bill would fiddle with his earring when he was nervous.
That was the launching point of George's ability to read others. It got to the point where it all became natural to him. Em told him that this would make him great at a muggle card game called… well, he didn't quite remember. It was something like Poking though. Or maybe Prodding?
In some ways Em was both harder and easier to figure out than normal. She had no obvious tell like most people: no looking down, no twiddling her thumbs, no itching the back of her head. George was so busy looking for those tells, that he completely missed the most obvious one: Em's eyes. Once he recognised that Em's eyes showed exactly how she was feeling, he could easily tell her mood at all times.
Everyone shows emotions through their eyes in some way. They're called the 'window to the soul' after all. But George couldn't put into words just how emotive Em's eyes were.
It took him a while, but after a few months of friendship George could tell nearly everything about Em's emotions just by looking at her eyes. Of course, this meant that he did have to look at them rather a lot. It helped that they were rather pretty, a light brown that resembled the colour of honey. He wasn't going to tell anyone he thought that though, as it would make them think he liked her. And no Fred, he did not have a crush on Em. Not even a small one. Em was one of his best friends, so he couldn't like her.
It wasn't always like that though. In fact, Fred and George had a negative reaction to Em at first. Looking back at it, George supposed that he let stereotypes cloud his judgment. Here was a pureblood heiress, who had access to millions of galleons and numerous properties. Her family held the same status, if not higher, than the Malfoys. Yet, he had never heard of the Shafiqs doing anything positive with their power or money. Her hair was the longest he had ever seen, yet it was obviously in good condition. It was like a princess' hair, so she must have spent a lot of money to get it that way, pointing even more to the fact she was able to throw money about but didn't do anything to help.
At the time, they had no idea that she was the last of her main line. It wasn't really something that came up in conversation: "Hey, did you know this random girl that we've never met before has no biological parents?". Nor did he read the books about Harry Potter that Ginny was so obsessed with when she was little. So, with no knowledge of her other than what they could tell from her appearance and name, Fred and George decided that they didn't like her.
This was why they told her they would call her Ally after her sorting. She had told Ron and Harry that she liked the name Em. Not Emerald, not Emma, not Emmie. She wanted to be called Em. So, just to annoy her, they decided that they would find a loophole to this rule. They would call her a name she hadn't listed. This name was Ally. So that's what they did. But they didn't get the reaction they were expecting. They thought that she, as an entitled heiress, would stamp her foot and shout. Maybe flick her hair and give them a snooty comment. Instead she almost looked startled, her eyes widened as if they had shocked her by speaking up. Her demeanour instantly changed and looked down while meekly asking them where they got the name Ally from.
It was a massive attitude change from the girl who, just seconds beforehand, had teased their brother Ron. She didn't speak up much for the rest of the feast, and George wondered if it had been because of his and Fred's comment. Not that he cared much at the time, he was still determined to dislike her.
But he couldn't help from watching her over the next few days. She tried to keep to herself most of the time, trying to avoid everyone in her year. Not that Harry and Ron made this easy for her, they sat next to her at every meal and apparently in lessons to. She only spoke when spoken to, but the comments that she made were often witty and opinionated. It was obvious, to George at least, that she was hiding a much more extroverted personality.
This turned out to be true as, about a week and a half into the school year, Em suddenly became far more bubbly and extroverted than she had been, much to the delight of Harry and Ron. George didn't really know why she had suddenly let down her guard but she had become far more open and friendly over-night. It was at that point that he was finally able to see her tell, the reason (or so he told himself) that he was watching her.
Over this week and a half, Fred and George's dislike weathered down into more of an indifference, such as they had for other first years. They still called her Ally when they spoke to her though: they had started a joke and Fred intended to see it through. It helped that she didn't seem to mind the nickname. Or rather, she didn't really respond to it, not realising it was her who was being called, so it did little in the way of bothering her.
It took another month until George's view of Em changed again. He and Fred had just performed a prank (don't ask him what, they did so many and Fred was the one who kept track religiously) and Em came bounding over. He expected her to ask one of the usual comments someone gave after a prank. These tended to consist one (or more) of three things:
1) A request (Mostly said by those in lower years): "Can you prank this person?", "Can you do this specific prank next?"
2) A lecture (Hermione and certain prefects' favourite. Also said by the victim of a prank or their friends): "How dare you!" "You will pay for this!"
3) An appreciation (The most common): "Merlin, you guys are funny!"
But Em didn't say any of those. No, she told them how clever she thought it was. She saw that it must have been hard work to come up with the charm and that she wanted to know how they did it.
Now, the last part of her comment wasn't unusual to hear. Many people wanted to know how they performed their pranks. But Em was the first to recognise how much work they had to put in to pull them off.
The comment didn't hit Fred as hard as it did George. While they both performed each job, Fred came up with most of the ideas and George took the lead in figuring out how they would work. This meant that he would often spend hours trying to figure out how to perform a single charm. Having this recognised by someone who wasn't his brother or a close friend was massive for him.
Suddenly, Em became a much more important figure in his life. He would call her over to talk to him and his friends. He would actively seek her out to spend time with her. Over many months (and just as many of their quiet sessions), he began to enjoy her company above everyone but Fred's.
Through that period, he would always check her eyes to see how she was feeling. It's how he knew that she wanted support over the Yule period. He wasn't as close to her at the time, meaning he had no idea what to say. So he decided to just sit with her, which was how their quiet sessions were born.
He'd come to cherish those times between the two of them, just as much as he knew Em did. Em would write in that precious journal of hers and George would work on prank ideas. At some point, when the time felt right, they would launch into a discussion on everything and anything. There were some things that he told Em that he hadn't even told Fred yet, only because a conversation with Em had taken such a random turn that they were discussing a topic neither of them had really spoken about before.
It was after their first few quiet sessions when Em was in hospital wing that George managed to convince Fred to drop the name Ally. It had become a conscious effort to call her that name (which she didn't respond to anyway) and he felt uncomfortable over calling her something that was originally used to mock her, not that she knew that. It was probably a mixture of Fred's growing fondness for Em, his worry over seeing her in the hospital wing and him seeing how stressed George was over the situation that finally got him to stop. Although, they did have to spend time coming up with an excuse for their sudden change in nickname.
All in all, seeing and speaking to Em had become an important part of his daily routine.
That's why he was so shaken when she had gone missing.
It was during her not-detention-but-actually-a-detention that her and the Malfoy kid had run into a weird creature, or so Malfoy had said. He had ran off quickly, so he had no clue what had happened to her. All that could be discovered was that the centaurs knew where she was and that she was apparently safe.
George found out about the disappearance the morning after the detention. It was breakfast and he and Fred had come down to see a sullen Harry, Hermione and Ron. Now, it wasn't unusual for Em not to be with the three of them at breakfast as she would often sleep in late. What was unusual was that her three friends weren't talking. So Fred decided to tease them about it. That's how they found out that Em was missing.
It was obvious that Harry blamed himself. He kept mumbling things about how he 'should have been there' and that it 'should have been him'. Hermione, ever the practical one, tried telling him that it was no-one's fault and that it was an accident. It didn't work to ease anyone's worry, even her own.
George blamed Draco and Hagrid, although he felt bad for the latter. Like Harry, Hagrid seemed to be blaming himself. But George thought this was for a good reason. Who would send two eleven year olds out on their own into the Forbidden Forest? Only Hagrid. If she had been with an adult she wouldn't be missing by herself. But the guilt Hagrid showed made it so that he escaped being pranked. Draco, on the other hand, had his bag charmed so that anything he put inside of it would turn into a cabbage for the rest of the month.
It took four days for Em to return to Hogwarts. When she did, it was during the middle of dinner. The doors slammed open and Fred whispered to George that it was Em. Not that he could bring himself to look at her. He was too scared to do that. He didn't want to see her in a bad condition. Maybe her skin would be as white as a sheet. Maybe her clothes would be torn up. Worst of all, he didn't want to see the haunted look in her eyes. The look of someone who had just gone through trauma.
It took a little while before he built up the courage to look at her.
'Come on,' he told himself 'You're a Gryffindor. Be brave!'
So he looked up. But he wished he didn't. Her eyes were far worse than he could have imagined. Not because he could see her fear. Nor her trauma. Nor her pain. No, he saw nothing. For her eyes were glowing silver.
Gone were her warm, golden tones and in its place a pulsing silver that gave away nothing.
"Why are your eyes silver?" The words dropped out of his mouth before he could stop them. He saw her eyebrows raise, signifying her shock at the comment but nothing showed in her eyes.
Her silver eyes.
As she was dragged away from the table by Madam Pomfrey, the phrase kept on repeating itself in his mind over and over.
Her eyes were silver.
Her eyes were silver.
Her eyes were silver.
Her eyes were silver.
Her eyes were silver.
It took Fred placing a hand on his shoulder to make him realise that he was saying it out loud. But he couldn't stop.
"Her eyes were silver, Fred. Her eyes aren't supposed to be silver. They're brown. Brown. Not silver."
If her eyes were silver, he couldn't read her. He couldn't read one of the people who brought him the most comfort. He couldn't see the eyes that calmed him, excited him, debated with him on their own, without the need for words.
Silver. Silver. Silver.
He felt arms pulling him out of his seat and leading him out of the Great Hall. He didn't know where they were walking. He was pretty sure he bumped into a few things (maybe people) during the journey but he couldn't be sure. All that he thought of were her eyes.
Silver. Silver. Silver.
He registered Fred talking to him, but he couldn't make out what he was saying. He couldn't hear anything but the thoughts circling his head.
Silver. Silver. Silver.
Huh, he's laying down. They must be in the common room. Or their dorm. George didn't know. He didn't care.
Silver. Silver. Silver.
Why was he this worked up over a pair of eyes anyway? Em was still his best friend, even without her beautiful warm eyes.
Silver. Silver. Silver.
But he was. He was worked up over the colour of her eyes. He hated it. He hated how much he had come to rely on seeing those eyes.
Silver. Silver. Silver.