A/N: Oh my word, you came! This is my favorite chapter! Thanks for sticking with me! Two more chapters to go: the end and the epilogue.

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The next night at five o'clock, Lee took Jessica out to dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. It made its money from muggle seafood cuisine. Jessica ordered crab cakes and Lee ordered salmon. The food was delicious, but Jessica's mind was elsewhere.

"Today was great!" Lee said, trying to bring Jessica out of her shell.

"Yeah," came the absentminded reply.

Lee reached over and touched her hand. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Today was great. I loved the surfboarding and those kids are really fun to help on the surfboard," she said, trying to convince Lee that she was all right.

They finished their food and Lee took the check. The sun was just setting. "Let's go for a walk on the beach, all right?"

He took her hand and led her to the shore. Jessica looked away from lee to the setting sun.

"Jessica, I know that you aren't fine. Now, because you're my friend, I'm going to find out what's wrong."

Jessica whirled on Lee. "You know what's wrong, Lee! I can't take this anymore. The look on George's face to the fact that he ate nothing for breakfast or lunch today is what's wrong. I can't stand it. I can't torture him any longer. I know we said that we would hold out until halfway through the week, but I am breaking his heart and I know it."

"Come on, it isn't that bad. Don't you think you're being a bit melodramatic?"

"I wish I was, but I know that he isn't himself. I know that he will at least feel better if he knows that we aren't together. Let me break it off, please! I don't care what Fred or you will do, I just want it to end. It's breaking my heart as well as his!"

"All right, Jess, all right, but we have to finish tonight. After all, I have a date with you."

Jessica's finger was an inch from Lee's face, her eyes flaming. "If you carry this on any longer—"

"Jess, I promise that it'll be over tonight," Lee said, now looking scared.

"All right." She relaxed and took his hand again. "The sunset is beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah."

George was fighting with himself. He lay on his bed, forcing himself to forget about Jessica, but he knew that the only way to do that was to leave. He looked over at his window. The sun was creating red and gold streaks across the sky. The silhouette of a happy couple passed, blocking his view of the sun. Whether it was Jessica or not, it tortured him. With a decisive motion, he reached for his money bag and counted out twenty galleons.

In the kitchen area of the hut, Fred was sitting at the table imagining the completion of his plan. He wanted more freedom so badly. He thought of Jessica and George together and smiled. Behind him a door opened forcefully.

"You win." A bag of gold hit the table with surprising force as Fred's face jerked up to see George standing in the doorway.

"What?"

"You win the bet. Who am I fooling? Jessica is happy with Lee. I'm going to customs now to head back to the store and relieve Ron and Ginny."

"George, George, slow down," Fred said, trying to calm his brother down.

"No, I won't. I've finally figured it out. I love Jessica, but she loves Lee. I'm doing her a favor by leaving." George picked his trunk up and heaved it to the door. Fred ran and tried to block George's way.

"Don't do this, George."

"Get out of my way."

"No."

George reached for his wand. "Don't make me do this."

Fred stepped aside slowly. "George, wait!"

"No, I've had my heart torn to shreds," George said as he leapt for the door, dragging his trunk with him. He slid the trunk into the sand and began moving away from the hut.

"George, there's something you don't know!" Fred yelled after his brother's retreating figure.

George stopped in its tracks. "What don't I know, Fred?"

"Come back inside, George, and I'll tell you."

Grudgingly, George pulled his trunk back into the hut and sat down at the table. "Tell me."

Fred became nervous. "I never thought I'd be telling you this, but she's not in love with Lee, it's a setup."

"WHAT?" George nearly screamed, ready to kill his brother.

"How else would you have realized that you were in love with her?"

"How else would my heart have been torn to pieces, you mean."

Fred rubbed the back of his neck uneasily. "George, if I had told you that you were in love, would you have believed me?"

"No, but—"

"But what? You know it."

"There's something else behind this. When did you come up with this plot?"

"About the end of November."

"Thought so. That's when I noticed you stopped wanting more freedom. If you had wanted to get out on your own, you could have just told me."

"But it was so much more fun this way," Fred could not help adding.

George was adamant. "What? Tearing all that I knew to pieces? You forced me to question my very being!"

"Well, how often do men do that?"

George looked close to the point of strangling his brother.

"Look, George, I am sorry."

"We really are coconut heads, aren't we?"

"What?"

"Jessica's right. We are so hard headed and stupid."

Fred looked at his brother before breaking out in laughter. "You are so right, bro, so right."

They laughed for a minute before George looked at the waning sunset. "I'd better go."

He sprinted out into the evening. Fred looked after him, reveling in the fact that his evil plot had finally worked.