Finally, y'all get some romance. I don't know why I'm such a huge fan of the slow burn romances, seriously, I have a problem.
Polly, Fred and George were walking down the hallway on Wednesday night looking for something interesting to do. It was weird. Usually they were on top of something. The twins were pulling a prank, or Polly was in the library doing her homework. But there were no pranks planned, and no homework to be done.
"We would've gotten something together if we knew this week was going to be so boring," George said dramatically, flailing his arms around. Fred groaned in agreement. Polly just snuck her hand into George's and continued walking. This already put him in a better mood. He had been planning a date to surprise her, but everything that he knew she liked – they already did all the time. He had to get creative.
"Well, we've got candy here, we could feed them to first years' and see what effects they have," Fred said, holding up a handful of blue candy. Polly nearly whacked them out of his hand.
"No, you will not." Polly hated those things. And she especially hated it when they pranked the first years'. They're shy, scared, nervous. They're to be left alone. Second year and up however, fair game. She couldn't stop their jokes entirely.
"But I'm bored," Fred said. "We're all bored."
"Let's just go watch the stars. Curfew is pretty soon anyway." Polly led them towards the courtyard. Fred groaned at her plan, but followed still.
Polly laid on the grass, pointing out constellations to Fred and George. Both had never really cared for Astronomy. Class was just class to them. Polly found it fun. The different patterns the sky, telling different stories and having different meanings.
"You know, you and Hermione should probably be better friends then you are." Fred picked at his nails. He was still very bored. This was no better then aimlessly roaming the halls to him.
"We're too similar. We both need a couple of boys to break us out of the library to have a little fun now and then," Polly joked, smiling over at George. He smiled back.
"Yeah, well, at least in the library distracting you is funny, I seriously think I'm dying of boredom over here." Fred flopped his hands on the ground and grabbed a fistful of grass.
"Behave or I'll tell Wood that you hate his new training plan," Polly said, closing her eyes. She was tired of the complaining.
"No, no. Stars are good, beautiful, really." Fred lay quietly beside her. Looking at the stars. What he didn't need was Oliver Wood already jumping down his throat about Quidditch. They all reckoned this would be the toughest year for Quidditch, because Oliver would be super determined to win. This was Gryffindor's last chance to win him a cup as captain. And they all wanted that for him. He'd worked so hard. They all knew his future would be in Quidditch. It was his passion.
"What do you think he really has up his sleeve for training?" George asked.
"I have no idea, but what he has written down can't be right. He's tricking us. Practice won't be twice a week, it'll likely be everyday."
Sometimes, Quidditch got on Polly's nerves. During the week, Polly had about two hours of free time. Aside from a class on Monday and one of Thursday, Polly could only see Fred and George during those two hours and food breaks. Then on the weekends there was either games, practices or homework to do. And the older they got, the more work the professors wanted them to do. But all Polly wanted to do sometimes was go down to the water and sit there with George. But that was never an option and it was kind of annoying.
Fred and George had to leave to go to a Quidditch meeting in the common room to talk about the upcoming schedule. Polly stayed back to stare at the stars some more.
"Beautiful, aren't they?" someone said.
Polly looked over and Luna Lovegood was lying beside Polly. Hands tucked together on her stomach and ankles crossed. Her long blonde hair laid out like a perfect fan underneath her. Polly hadn't heard anyone walk up let alone lie down.
"Uhm, yeah. I like looking at the constellations," Polly said, looking back at the stars. She glanced down at Luna's legs and noticed she had no shoes on.
"Lost them again," Luna said, before Polly could even ask. Polly giggled.
"D'you want some help looking?" Polly asked, smiling at her.
"No thank you, I've lost them in the common room, and you can't go there." Luna closed her eyes. "I should go." But she made no movement to leave.
"Would you like to stay here with me for a bit?" Polly asked.
"Yes, I would." Luna stayed completely still. Polly smiled, and looked back up at the stars. Luna was a little odd, but Polly liked her. What a first impression. Polly continued looking at constellations, and made mental notes of the ones whose histories she needed to re-study. This gave her something to do in place of homework for the rest of the week.
George sat at a library table with Fred, tapping his fingers as he looked through a herbology book. He was looking for a page on roses, but found nothing. It was Thursday night, and he needed the information before curfew, because he wouldn't have time tomorrow because of Quidditch practise, and he needed the information by Saturday.
"Are you even sure you're looking in the right book? I think you just need a book on flowers," Fred said, leaning back on his chair. "Why are we even here?"
George just rolled his eyes. He was tired of listening to Fred complain. George had been up all night long planning the perfect date for him and Polly. He had mostly everything planned, with help from Fred, Angelina and Cedric. Everything was set up, but he couldn't find the right bloody page.
"They're used in potions, Fred. They'll be in this book."
"Then look in the index!"
George stopped looking at the book, and looked at his brother. That wasn't a bad idea – clearly George needed to do more research for his homework. His research skills alone were sub-par. He flipped to the back of the book and found the page number for roses, and then flipped to page thirty-two. All the information he needed was laid out for him, he quickly scribbled what he needed down and jammed the paper into the pocket of his robe.
"Are we done here then?" Fred asked, standing without waiting for an answer.
"Yes," George said, grinning. "We're done here."
Polly had been excited for her date with George for days and now, on Saturday morning, she was shaking in her boots out of nerves. She was going around the common room checking the soil in each of the potted plants for the third time. Cedric watched her move around him again and finally put his book down to watch. She saw him look at her and raise his eyebrows, but she just ignored his questioning stare. When she settled on the fact that everything was fine and there was no work for her to do, she sat next to Cedric on the couch.
"You okay? You seem a little jittery." Cedric grinned when she rolled her eyes. "You have hung out with George everyday for over three years. What makes a date so different? The label? You're gunna be fine, and eventually you're gunna be dating your best mate. Things are good for you, stop being nervous and get excited."
"You're right," she said, "I'm excited!" Polly then went to go check the soil of the plants again. Cedric rolled his eyes and returned to his book.
After a few hours, she could no longer avoid the situation. She had to meet George. She was walking to the great hall, trying to take even breaths. Everything was fine. Everything was good. She had no reason to be upset or nervous. She was just hanging out with her best friend. Alone. On a date.
They were finally going on date! Luckily, with every step she going back to being excited. What did he have planned? When she saw him sitting at the end of the Gryffindor, she noticed his leg bouncing up and down, and his fingers tapping on the table. Lately, he'd been doing that when he was nervous. She smiled knowing that he was nervous too, it made her feel a little less dorky. She noticed the brown bag he was clutching in his other hand.
George noticed her right away, standing up and brushing off his clothes, he walked over to her. When he got there, he suddenly had no idea what to say. He'd never been speechless with her before. She'd always been the same beautiful, goofy best friend that he was in love with. But now, she was the beautiful goofy best friend he was in love with who could be his girlfriend if today went well. No pressure.
She just smiled, almost instantly making his nerves melt away. Her smile made the butterflies go wild in his stomach.
"C'mon," he said, grabbing a hold of her smaller hand. "Let's go."
George led her outside to a tree by the lake. Without saying anything, he sat down and opened the small brown bag. He pulled out half a sandwich and handed it up to here. She hadn't sat down yet. After she took the snack, he reached in and pulled the other half out for himself. He smiled up at her and then looked out to the lake. He didn't look over but he saw her sit down out of the corner of his eye. It was planned, it was perfect.
"You know, I've known you a really long." George took a bite of the sandwich.
"Yeah, I know, George." Polly said, taking a bite as well. She didn't know if this was it, but she was excited to see.
"And I've liked you just as long," he said. She looked surprise that he was so casual admitting that. They'd been dancing around the topic for years. "Everyone always told me to just tell you, but I figured that I should really know that I wanted to be with you, so that way a friendship wasn't ruined. Well, that and I was nervous."
"And the verdict?"
George chuckled. "I really want to be with you."
Polly smiled, blushing at the sound of him finally saying it. "So what does this mean?"
"It means, that if you want to, I want to take you on a couple dates. I want to make sure that we get along just as good as a couple as we do just as friends – which is seriously just a formality – but I can't risk our friendship by diving right in. I won't risk it, it means too much."
"Are you concerned we won't work out?"
"I trust Fred with my life. I believe in him over a hundred per cent. I have complete and utter faith in him. But I still wouldn't throw mum's favourite vase to him, because even though I trust and love him, he still might drop it and it might break. Sometimes things just don't work out the way you want them to. So to avoid that, I would just hand him the vase. Slowly, and cautiously. That way, we won't break it." George finished his sandwich and wiped the crumbs off of his hands, and then wiped them off his jeans. "That's what I want to do here. I want to be slow and cautious for a little bit, just to make sure nothing breaks. D'you understand?"
"Yes, and I agree. Just hand me the vase," Polly said, taking a hold of his hand. She took the last bite or her sandwich and set her free hand down.
"Good," he said, smiling at her. She smiled back. He leaned towards her, and kissed her lips, pulling away slowly.
"That's not very slow, George. It's not even the end of the date."
"I know, but it's not like we haven't kissed before and you just looked so beautiful I had to," he said, grinning. "Now, let's get to the best part." He let go of her hand, and twisted around to grab something from the other side of the tree. He came back around with a small bush. Polly could tell it was a rose bush by the stem, and the leaves.
"What's this?"
"A rose bush."
"Uh, I know that. Why are you holding one?"
"We're going to plant it."
"Why?"
"Because if this works out, we'll be able to visit this rose bush, in this spot, at this school. And remember where it all started."
"That's so romantic!" Polly jumped forward and wrapped her arms around him, almost knocking the plant over. "I thought for sure you were just gunna plan some elaborate prank that we were going to pull but this is so much better! I love it!"
George chuckled, putting one arm around her: the other was securing the rose bush in place on his lap, and nuzzled into her neck. She couldn't see the flash of a panicked look on his face. A prank was his original idea, thank god he scraped that...