Options

"A mission of love." He stated with a grin. Hermione opened her mouth and then closed it again, momentarily baffled.

"A mission of love, is it? What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Well, I'm kind of here to play cupid. Ron would be so mad at me if he knew I was here…but little brothers need looking after sometimes. He's been down in the dumps ever since you two split." Hermione held up a hand and George looked at her curiously.

"I see where this is headed, and no. I'm not getting back together with Ron, it wasn't working and we both accepted that. I know everyone thought we were perfect together, and I think we wanted to be, but sometimes things just don't work out."

"Well will you at least owl him? Please? Even if you don't want to be in a relationship with him you guys could at least hang out, right?" Hermione nodded her head slowly.

"I suppose. That is really what you came over here to talk to me about? You couldn't owl me?" Hermione crossed her arms and looked at George suspiciously.

"Well that and Ginny came to me in a huff the other day. I imagine you can guess what she told me. So being that I think of you as a younger sibling I came to big brother check on you." Hermione rolled her eyes but smiled a bit.

"You might as well sit down, can I get you anything?" Hermione gestured to the couch and George flopped onto it.

"Well I never say no to a nice cup of tea." He shot a smile in Hermione's direction. She nodded and went into the kitchen to make some tea.

"What exactly did Ginny tell you?" Hermione asked upon re-entering the sitting room and setting the tea service down on the coffee table.

"That you received a notebook from a stranger and were silly enough to write in it."

"I am not a silly person George, and I think anyone who knows me would agree." Hermione leveled a stare at George.

"No, you aren't silly. But please, tell me what possessed you to write in a notebook that can write back to you."

"Well I obviously performed a few spells on it after writing in it the first time, to check for curses and the like. I found nothing. I am highly trained in to keep people out of my mind, so I would know if this notebook was trying to overtake my senses. I explained all of this to Ginny. I don't understand what the big deal is."

"Ginny also told me that she suspected a death eater might be on the other end of that notebook." George's face lost its smile and he looked seriously over at Hermione. "You have gotten to the bottom of who's been writing to you I assume?"

"Yes." Hermione confirmed. She wasn't going to elaborate much more if she could help it.

"Well go on then, who is it?" George asked. Hermione knew she was rubbish at lying and looked away from George briefly.

"I'm not sure that's your concern George."

"That bad then?" George asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm sure some people might view it that way." Hermione answered.

"But you don't?"

"Not yet. Perhaps not ever, and it doesn't mean you should get involved." George leaned forward with a gleam in his eye.

"Like it or not, you are part of my family, and family looks out for one another. You didn't have siblings, but we take care of each other. So things didn't work out with Ron, I might hold out some small hope that they still will, you are still someone I feel compelled to look after. So spill it! Who am I beating up?" Hermione had looked down during George's talk and smiled slightly to herself.

"You really are sweet George. To say those things, it makes me happy that you consider me part of your family. But you are not beating anyone up; I believe I am far more skilled in defensive and combative magic than you are. I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. Or do you disagree?" George sat back and glared at Hermione.

"Okay so you have a point. But I don't see what harm there is in letting your admirer know that you have a vicious brother. One who I dunno…maybe owns a joke shop and likes to wreak absolute havoc. You'd be surprised at how uttering the name George Weasley will scare the crap out of a lot of people." Both George and Hermione had a chuckle. Hermione looked at George with obvious thought.

"If I tell you, you have to agree to two conditions." She paused and George nodded. "One is that you will not freak out too much and do something stupid, upon hearing who it is, you will let me explain before anything else. And my second condition is that you can't tell anybody, our secret. Agreed?" She asked crossing her arms over her chest.

"Agreed." George confirmed.

"Okay." Hermione took a deep breath and steeled herself. "It's Draco…Draco Malfoy." George's face instantly scrunched up and turned red. Hermione held up a hand. "You promised to let me explain." George visibly took a couple of deep breaths. "I don't think he's remotely the same person we knew at Hogwarts. The war took a toll on everyone George, and brought some of the toplofty purists to new realizations. What could he possibly gain from pretending to like me?"

"Okay, you're right. But Malfoy?! That makes me a little queasy. He was always kind of a plotting, sneaky little git. Suppose I was to, I dunno, bump into you and the little Malfoy next time you were out. It would make me feel better." Hermione gave George a searching look.

"Would you be horribly unpleasant?"

"I would try hard not to be."

"Then I guess." Hermione sighed. "But I won't make it easy for you. Wednesday is all I'll give you to go off of." George rolled his eyes.

"Well okay then. Wednesday I will find you and Malfoy, and I will crash your date. But don't forget Malfoy is never your only option." Hermione shook her head with a small smile on her face. George stood and reached a hand out to Hermione. She raised an eyebrow in question but took the hand anyway. George pulled her to her feet and pulled her into a brief hug. "I've missed you Hermione, when the group gets together it isn't the same without you." He drew back. "I have to go, but I promise I'll see you on Wednesday!" He shot a wink at Hermione and let himself out of her flat.

Hermione sat back down and eyed the notebook. It was glowing, so she opened to book to where their conversation had ended.

So when you say don't wear anything fancy what exactly do you mean?

Hermione laughed and shook her head. She thought it bizarre that she was going to have to teach Draco Malfoy what casual dress was.


AN: So another chapter out for all you lovely readers. First of all to A fan: Thanks for your review! I was debating what I should have George's role in the story be and your review helped me make a decision. And another thank you to everyone else who has reviewed, and alerted, or added this story to their favorites list. I can't really say when the next chapter will be out. Everything is kind of a huge mess for me right now, but I'll try to update within the week. Thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)