The next morning, George awoke to the sun streaming into his bedroom. He tossed aside his covers and stood, looking out the window at Diagon Alley. The street was quiet in the early hours of the morning, and for a moment, George just enjoyed the silence. He never would have thought that a quiet morning would be something he would enjoy-he and Fred had preferred the loud and flashy, although that had been Fred slightly more than him. Even his room was more subdued, using black and grey against the bright orange.
Fred had hated it-said that the colours were too dull, but George had thought they struck a good balance. Fred had always liked the orange, and while George had never disliked it, he wanted something more subtle for his bedroom.
He wished that Fred was here. There was so much that he wanted to tell him...to talk about. Thea for one-and this whole business with Liam and the Unspeakables for another.
While he didn't necessarily think that Liam's experiments were connected to what had happened eight years ago, he did think it would help to know the whole story. He also knew that Thea wasn't about to share. Her breakdown the night before made that very clear. He didn't know if it was just too painful for her to talk about or if there was some other reason she was keeping the details of what happened after her parents' murder a secret.
Shrugging that off, George moved over to his closet to get ready for the day. Once he was ready, he headed out to the kitchen to begin searching for potion ingredients that Thea might need. Granted, he had no idea what she might need for something like this, so he packed a little bit of everything, along with a cauldron, ladle, and a set of scales. With that, he headed outside and disapparated, reappearing just outside 12 Grimmauld Place. He opened the door and made his way inside.
Thea and Ginny were easy to find-they were in the kitchen cooking breakfast, but they stopped talking as soon as he came into the room.
"I'll just take my breakfast upstairs," said Ginny, with a knowing grin, heading out with her plate to leave Thea and George alone in the kitchen.
George could only shake his head. His sister wasn't exactly subtle. "I brought a cauldron and potion supplies," he told Thea, setting the bag on the counter before turning to face her. For a moment, he just took in her features—she really was beautiful—he didn't know how he hadn't noticed that before. She looked tired and a bit sad—not that that was unexpected given the circumstances. "How are you holding up?" he asked her.
"Okay," said Thea. "Ginny and I were just making breakfast." She gestured toward plates of eggs, toast, and bacon. "You can help yourself," she told him, taking a plate for herself.
"Thanks." George grabbed a plate. "But that isn't what I meant." He added some of each-eggs, toast, and bacon-to his plate before following her over to the table. "How are you doing with everything that's been going on?"
Thea sighed, picking at her eggs. "Well, let's see...Liam is killing house-elves, and I'm out of a job because I don't want to date him again. I'm great; thanks for asking."
George couldn't help himself—he laughed, and about a second later, Thea joined him in his laughter. "Sorry," he said, "it's not really funny, but..."
Thea shook her head. "I know." She let out a sigh. "It's just either we laugh about it, or...or I don't know. Scream?"
"I wouldn't blame you if you did scream." George wasn't really sure if he was serious or joking so kept his tone light either way. "Go ahead—let one out right now."
Thea chuckled but shook her head. "I'm okay, really, but thank you for this. I needed a laugh."
"Well, that is something I'm always happy to provide," said George with a grin.
For a few minutes, they sat there in comfortable silence eating eggs and bacon before George decided to broach the subject of Liam. "I know it's hard to talk about, but I think it would make it easier to help you if we knew why you dropped your case against Liam-why you let him get away with it."
For a moment, Thea just sat there, taking a few deep breaths, but then she got up and took her plate over to the counter. "I should get started on that potion."
George followed her, leaving his plate at the table, and came to stand behind her. "You barely ate anything." He paused. He was standing close to her, but he didn't touch her-he wasn't sure if she would welcome his touch or if it would cause her to freak out even more. "I don't know what happened back then," he said quietly. "I don't know who threatened you," because it was clear that someone had threatened her by the way she was acting, "but there's only so much we can do if we don't know the whole story."
Thea turned to face him, her expression more wary than afraid.
George didn't move, deciding to just wait her out.
"I can't tell you," she whispered.
"We aren't going to let anything happen to you," George assured her. "No one can hurt you here."
Thea shook her head. "Not me," she murmured.
It was like a lightbulb going off. Of course, they hadn't threatened her. He remembered her story back then that she had received threats for speaking the truth about what had happened, so naturally, if threatening her hadn't worked, they must have threatened someone else—and George had a pretty good idea who. "They threatened Jax, didn't they?" It was funny considering how protective Jax seemed to be of her. How would he react to find out that Thea had been the one protecting him all along?
Thea sucked in a breath. "For starters. And they can back up the threats. Please, I can't tell you anymore."
"We're gonna to fix this," he told her, his tone gentle. "I need to tell Harry."
Thea was silent for a moment, but then she nodded. "Just let me be the one to tell Jax."
George nodded. "That's fair. I'll tell Harry but ask him to keep it to himself, so you can tell everyone else." He glanced past her to her still nearly full plate. "Try to relax, maybe finish your breakfast. I'll be back with the others."
Thea rolled her eyes. "You know the only reason I let Jax get away with his protective crap is because it makes him feel better. He had a hard time watching me go through everything—this makes him feel less helpless. I put up with it from him, but I don't want or need another protector."
"Noted," said George. "You don't need to be protected, and you're not fragile."
Thea narrowed her eyes. "That's what I just..."
Before she had a chance to finish her sentence though, George closed the small distance between them and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her as he did. He didn't hold her there for long, just long enough to make his point before releasing her. "I've wanted to do that since I saw you that dress last night, but I figured that wasn't the best time. But you're right-you're not fragile, and I'm not going to treat you like you are."
For a moment, she just watched him, taking that in, and then: "I suppose I had that coming."
He looked over at her before starting to laugh. "You know, you tend to know the exact right thing to say."
Thea chuckled at that.
"I should go," said George, reaching out to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, "but I'll be back with Harry and Jax at the very least." He leaned in to kiss her again, briefly, before heading out.
George went straight to the Burrow. He would've gone to the ministry, but somehow, he wasn't so sure he should be seen there, especially not with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. If he was followed (and he had taken precautions to ensure he wasn't), then it would be simple enough to remind them of Ginny's visit a few days earlier, when he had promised her he would come to Burrow for dinner. He would just say that he was keeping a promise. Of course, the only wrinkle with that was that Ginny wasn't there—she was at 12 Grimmauld Place with Thea, but he could just say he didn't know.
Mum was out feeding the chickens when George arrived. "Mum!" he called out to her.
"Oh, hello, George." She turned toward him as he closed the distance between them. She wrapped her arms around him. "I've been worried about you," she murmured.
"Mum!" George sighed. Everyone had been worried about him, and he was getting tired of it.
She released him. "I was happy to hear that you spent time with Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Hermione the other day though. You've been spending way too much time alone."
"Mum," he said again. "Look, I know you're just trying to look out for me, but it really doesn't help." Now he understood why Thea objected to everyone's protective behaviour. "Sometimes I need to be alone, and I need to heal in my own way and in my own time."
Mum offered him a small smile and reached out to tuck a strand of his hair behind his ear. "You do, don't you? Something's changed since I last saw you, hasn't it?"
"I'm working on a project with Ginny, Ron, Harry, and Hermione," he told her, feeling it was best if he didn't mention Thea. "Anyway, I need to get in touch with Harry, but I can't go to the ministry. Do you think you can reach out to either him or Ron...or maybe Hermione?" Hermione was the one with her own office after all. "Get one or all of them here?"
"Of course," she told him. "Come inside. I'll make some sandwiches and some tea."
It didn't take long for Ron, Harry, and Hermione to arrive, and soon, they all sat around the table with sandwiches and tea. Ron had already eaten a sandwich, while Harry and Hermione each had one in front of them. George stuck with tea since he had just eaten breakfast with Thea.
"I'll just leave you four alone," Mum told them, and she headed out of the room.
"So, what did you find out?" Harry asked.
"I found out why Thea dropped the whole thing with Liam back at Hogwarts," George told them.
The other three went silent at this.
"But I thought even Jax couldn't get her to tell him why that was," Ron asked, his mouth stuffed full of sandwich, so it sounded more like this: "Buh I thogh iffin Jax connin geher to tell 'im why atwas."
"That's because the people who wanted her to stay quiet threatened Jax—not her," said George.
"Well, it makes sense," said Hermione. "We know they threatened her, but that it didn't work." Leave it to Hermione to have done the research. "It only makes sense that they would have tried something else after that."
"Well, the thing is," said George, "that Jax doesn't know. I'm going to go find him after this and bring him to Grimmauld Place, but Thea's asked to be the one to tell him, so none of you can say anything."
Shortly after that, George returned back to Diagon Alley to where Jax was staying in one of the rooms above the Leaky Cauldron. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had gone back to the ministry, but they would all be meeting back at Grimmauld Place in an hour.
It was easy enough to gain entry to the rooms upstairs, and George knocked on Jax's door.
Jax opened it, his eyes slightly glazed over. He looked more bored than anything else, and when his eyes lit up at seeing another human being, George took that to mean that his guess was right: Jax wasn't used to being holed up in a hotel room by himself.
"Can I come in?" George asked.
"Of course," said Jax, stepping aside to let George in. "Has there been a break in the case?" he asked, closing the door behind them.
"You could say that," said George. "I know why Thea dropped her original case against Liam."
Jax looked at him expectantly, but George didn't say anything. "Well?"
George shook his head. "I can't tell you."
"Well, then why tell me that you even know?"
"I can't tell you because I'm supposed to bring you to Grimmauld Place, so Thea can tell you. It was her one condition in all of this."
"Okay, well, then, let's go," said Jax, and they both headed out.