Over the last years George Weasley had developed a few new individualities, he was finally being seen as an individual by other people, no more like the other half of Fred Weasley, but as his brother. Someone else.
He must admit that being part of something, belonging to something was, in fact, a comfortable feeling, but this feeling could be easily fulfilled by being part of the Weasley family as a whole, of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, of Gryffindor itself, and also, as it came to his knowledge just a while ago, part of the hottest guys in Hogwarts list. He didn't need to be always seen as Fred's twin anymore, he was his own person. Angelina had told them about the list that was circulating over the girls from their year, the list was supposed to rank the hottest boys of all houses, and sharing position number 7, were George and Fred Weasley. Way to go for being an individual. She had brought this up over dinner one night when the girls were talking about boys, and since they hit a certain age, it seemed like the only thing girls wanted to talk about was boys, and vice versa. Nothing new about this.
It was also nothing new that his twin fancied the shit out of Angelina Johnson's pants, but there was definitely something new about it when Fred came to the dorm the other night, with that terrible smirk on his face and told George he and Angelina were together now. Together he thought, what exactly was together?
"Oi mate, don't be stupid" Fred told him in a slightly annoyed tone, but still smirking "We are like... dating"
"What do you mean" George was still pretty sleepy, considering his brother just woke him up in the middle of the night to share the news "You asked her to be your girlfriend?"
"No" Fred now was sitting on the bed and leaning closer to his brother "but it was implied"
"Implied to what?"
"To the snogging"
That for sure caught George's attention. That night they never slept, Fred just spent the rest of it filling George with all the details, more details than George could ask for, and way more details he would like to know. After a while, his mind just wandered off. How could he was 15 already, soon to be 16 and he hasn't even kissed a girl yet? Well, he had kissed a girl already, but it was Alicia, does it even count? Just some innocent training kisses over last year, as they would tell themselves when they would kiss, no not kiss, train.
The thing was, Alicia and George shared a special bond since they've met, that was, since ever. He heard Alicia's mom explain to his parents about something called the dominant twin? He wasn't sure what it meant, but according to Alicia's horrible mom, that was Fred. That's why Fred would always come up with the crazy dangerous ideas, start the mess, the fights, the occasional fires… And George, well George would just go with it. She said it was the reason why George seemed to be more interested in Alicia than Fred was, 'cause the least dominant twin tended to share more characteristics with the girly, innocent, sweet girl that Alicia was.
But George knew it was bullshit, first because if there was something about Alicia Spinnet, it sure had nothing to do with innocence, in fact, if George had to rank the most innocent to the least, it would be George, then Alicia and then Fred. Sometimes he would even switch Fred's and Alicia's position. He wasn't proud of it, but he wasn't self-conscious about it neither. He was even glad things turned out this way. If there was something the teenage years had taught him, was that his twin and his best friend could be straight up mean. They were never mean to him, obviously, but they could ruin the mental health of anyone who crossed their path, that was for sure, and George liked to be on the kinder side.
Maybe that was why Fred was there, sniffing his own fingers and telling him everything about his sordid night with Angelina Johnson, while George was pretending he was listening thinking about something his friend's mom had said almost ten years ago.
"With all that said ma'friend" Fred started, his voice was so happy it almost sounded like he was singing. "We are going to arrange you a snogging section with her tomorrow night"
He must have missed a lot of the conversation. Of course, it was the nineties, things were modern now, but he sure didn't want to share a girlfriend with Fred.
"I don't want to shag Angelina" he said almost shouting.
Fred slapped his brother's left ear and said angrily "Of course you're not shagging Angelina you thick git! Weren't you listening to nothing I've said? You are shagging Katie Bell!"
It made a lot more sense now, but the idea was still completely scary.
"I'm not shagging her either! In fact, I'm not shagging anyone until I feel like it and find myself my own shag. Now, good night"
He tried to avoid the conversation by lying on the bed, but the light coming through the window indicated that it was already time to get up.
"Oh, don't be such a pussy" Fred said pulling the blanket off his bother face. "All you have to do is to meet Katie and kiss her a bit and see where it takes you"
George was so tired already of all this conversation he didn't even bother to answer anymore. Since Fred's first kiss back in the third year, he was trying to get George a girl to kiss as well, maybe because he didn't want to be associated with a kissless loser. Fred didn't know about the training with Alicia, 'cause he would found that super weird. Alicia was, in fact, raised with them, was always around their house and wasn't exactly what he considered to be a girl, she was what he considered to be Alicia. The training must have worked out pretty well for her though, considering after they started it she had already kissed Oliver Wood, Lee Jordan, Justino finch-fletchley and Emilia Bulstrode, among others. It seemed like every guy in the school and some girls were really into Alicia Spinnet, she would always be invited for Hogsmead dates and she would always have gifts and love letters slipped under the 5th year girls' dorm's door, but even so, she would always go back for some training with George Weasley.
When the boys got to the breakfast table, Angelina, Alicia and Katie Bell were already there. Back in their first year, Angelina and Alicia had hit it off right away, but they didn't have Katie in their little club yet. It had happened only in their third year, when Katie tried out for chaser to the Gryffindor team and the three girls seemed like they could read each other minds during the games, since then, they were always seen together, giggling, gossiping, whispering things over each other's ears… But not today. Today Alicia was sitting a little away from her best friends, while the other two would worriedly obsess about the reason Alicia was so upset with them.
"Morning" George greeted the three of them with absolutely no enthusiasm, while his brother automatically sat beside Angelina and started kissing her. Geez, it was just seven a.m.
For George's surprise, Alicia seemed to be upset with him as well, considering she didn't raise her eyes from the book she was reading to greet him with a cheesy "Good morning, sunshine" as she would normally do, joking with the fact he was definitely not a morning person. Since he was not happy himself as well, he just ate his breakfast quietly.
When they were all finished, Katie got up and said "So, see you in Hogsmeade, Georgie?" George shivered over the nickname, what was he? Six?
"Actually, Katie," he said, instantly seeing her smile die out "I'm not quite feeling well today, I have the worst stomach ache, maybe I ate too much honey ducks chocolate…. Explosive diarrhea you see" He could listen Alicia giggling on the back while Angelina mumbled gross "I think I'll skip Hoagsmead this weekend"
"Oh" the girl said with a plain tone "Good, you can just make Alicia's company then, she's not feeling well neither, right Leesh?" and walked away angrily.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" said a wide-eyed Fred "It took me forever to convince her you wanted to go on a date with her but was too shy to ask"
"Well, dear brother, maybe next time you should try to convince a girl something that's actually true" he said cooly.
After that Fred got up and dragged Angelina out of the room, stepping every step a little too strongly just to show how irritated he was.
"Gosh" Alicia started, finally looking up from her book "So early in the morning"
"And what's the matter with you, Ali?" George said a little worried "Katie said you are not feeling well"
"It's nothing, I'm fine." she said closing her book "I just wanted a reason to skip going to Hogsmeade today"
"Why would you do that?"
"Why would you not want to go on a date with Katie?"
George rolled his eyes, not being able to believe that even Alicia was involved in this absurd scheme, but before he could snap at her, she spoke
"I wanted to skip Hogsmead because I'm not exactly fond of the idea of seeing you kissing Katie and Fred kissing Angelina while I just seat around and watch"
George was now looking straight into her eyes and trying to understand why it would even bother her. It's not like she couldn't find a boyfriend or a girlfriend herself, and it definitely wasn't Alicia-like to be uncomfortable with shows of public affection.
"Well, considering I taught everything you know about kissing and touching, I didn't know if I was ready to see you actually putting it to practice," She said in a hushed voice, almost whispering.
Could it be Alicia was jealous of him? That she would miss the opportunity of having a fun day out with her friends just to avoid seeing George kissing another girl? Well, George was for sure pleased with this thought, but he couldn't help but think about the hypocrisy it had to it. He would always see Alicia kissing people, holding hands, flirting… He always tried to keep it cool, she wasn't his girlfriend or anything, not that he wouldn't like that, but she seemed so comfortable with her own liberty that George knew that if he asked her to commit to him, she would probably say no, and that would shake their friendship a bit, even make them end up like Charlie and Fi, not talking and doing anything in their power to avoid being in the same room as the other. Not to mention that if Alicia turned down his dating proposition, their training sections would be long gone, and he didn't feel like training with any other girl besides her.
Something else also caught his attention in her line, so she taught him everything? As long as George could remember, when they started the training she was just as inexperienced as he was. So if she taught him everything, he taught her everything as well. It was mutual teaching. That thought made George feel a tingling sensation he would always feel whenever Alicia wanted to share a secret and spoke too close to his ear and her breath would warm his neck. If he was the one who taught her everything, he must be really good, because the whole school seemed to want a taste of her skills.
"You know" he said, trying to keep it cool, putting one arm around her shoulders "I actually think I'm not ready to put it to practice. I think I need a little more training"
"Is that so?" She said smiling. Once more her voice turned into a whisper "I have some new things to show you actually, you know, for learning sake."
With that said, the two training friends left the great hall, his arm still around her shoulders, and her hands holding to the fabric of his shirt around his waist. The best thing of knowing each other since birth and being broadly known best friends was being able to walk around the school, go back to the Gryffindor tower, get into the boys' dorm without people thinking it was suspicious. "Just best friends heading for a best friendy time" people would probably think. And they weren't wrong, it was indeed, one of the best times of their lives.
Fred was so pissed while going back to the castle that was imagining himself decapitating his twin brother. Thanks for his little scene towards Katie, Angelina was being cold and aggressive to him all day long. She somehow blamed him for the humiliation her friend went through this morning during breakfast, as if he could have guessed his moron brother would turn down a snogging section with one of the hottest girls in Gryffindor. He was going to find him and kill him!
When he got to his dorm, he saw his brother's bed with closed blinders. "typical", he thought, "he turned down smoking hot Katie Bell and went for a nap!" He walked towards his bed ready to snap the crap out of him, but when he pulled the blinders, though, he didn't find a sleeping George, as he thought he would, no, he found a pretty awake George. He never thought he would witness something so atrocious like the scene happening in front of him.
He looked in horror to the bed, where he could see his brother and their best friend in what he could only wish was a bad joke. Thank Merlin they had all their clothes on, but somehow this didn't make up for the fact that George's hand was under Alicia's shirt and his face were buried on her neck, while her hands were tangled to his hair. The thing that terrified Fred the most was that George looked exactly like him, so he couldn't help but imagine himself doing that with Alicia was. Sure they would part their hair in different angles to try to find something to differ them, but now, George's hair parting was long gone. Along with Fred's all hopes and dreams to have a long, traumaless life.
George and Alicia were so caught up in whatever they were doing, that it took them some long 5 seconds to notice the spectator. Alicia was the first that did. The horror look at her face was almost as bad at the horror look at Fred's, and it seemed like she had completely lost her voice. She quickly lost the grip to George's head and tried to sit straight, but it was a hard maneuver with George Weasley being on top of her. As if it was God's plan to prolong Fred's suffering, a really breathless George looked up from Alicia's neck into her eyes and said, not realizing they had just got caught
"What is it? Is there something wrong? Oh are you ready to show that new thing you were talking about huh…"
George's moment of bliss ended when he looked up to see his brother was now a spectator and was definitely not happy with the show. He quickly got off from Alicia, but then realized he was a little more excited than he thought he was, and swiftly got a pillow that was lying around and covered his crotch area. They now were the three of them, looking at each other as they were expecting something magical to happen and get them out of their misery. Gladly it was Hogwarts, so indeed something magical happened.
A loud explosion happened at one of the beds in the room, which was rapidly filled with a stinky smoke and the three friends ran out of the room.
When they got to the common room all the second and first years students were complaining about the smell and the smoke was starting to get there. They started to open the windows while all the younger kids mimicked their actions. An angry Ron Weasley came to their encounter
"What the hell did you three do?" He asked screaming
"Nothing we were just there and something exploded!" Alicia explained while she was struggling to open one of the windows.
"So you expect me to believe you three skipped Hogsmead and were alone in the dorms and have nothing to do with the explosion?"
"Yeah" answered Alicia. "And why aren't you in Hogsmeade, you're in the third year now, why aren't you there, how do I know you weren't the one who planted the dungbomb?"
"Oh please, you know I didn't do anything" he answered "Harry doesn't have permission to go to Hogsmeade so Hermione and I are making him company"
Hermione, Alicia thought, that girls could be a pain in the ass, but she knew her shit. She found her in the middle of the room and said "Do you know any spell to get rid of smoke?"
Hermione seemed to think a little and then said something Alicia couldn't hear and the smoke started to slowly clear.
Somehow, Alicia was more comfortable with all the smoke around her, because now it was cleared, all the younger Gryffindors were sharing confused looks, trying to understand:
Where did the smoke come from
How did it clean up all of the sudden
Why three 5th years were just hanging around the Gryffindor tower during a Hoagsmead weekend
And why were George and Alicia looking like they were just out a war zone.
"Alicia, George" Fred said trying to keep his cool "could I talk to both of you in private?"
After he said that, Alicia and George just nodded and started to make their way to the dorm.
"No!" screamed Fred in a squicky voice "not in there. Actually I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to the dorms again"