Chapter V - Diagon Alley
The rest of the summer passed slowly, for some, and quickly for others. It was rather uneventful though there were a few incidents, to be kept for another time.
The last week in August, the Weasley family, Harry and Hermione visited Diagon Alley to buy Hermione and Ginny's school books. They arrived outside the Leaky Cauldron in ministry cars. Here they split up; Mr. and Mrs. Weasley went to Flourish and Blotts, Harry and Ron accompanied the girls to the apothecary and George made his way to Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. He had been meaning to reopen the shop soon enough, but he found it hard without Fred.
George's mind was so preoccupied, it was no wonder he crashed into the girl carrying a large parcel.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" George stood up and offered his hand to the girl on the ground.
"George!"
"Angelina!?"
Angelina Johnson took his hand and pulled herself up.
"George, how are you? I haven't seen you in ages! Where are you off to? Have you reopened the shop? Well, why don't we meet for lunch later? Florean and Fortescue's? Yes, it's been reopened! They've even brought out several new flavours!" Angelina said in a rush and then, waving goodbye, walked off towards Gingotts. Her long hair, which had been pulled into a pony tail, swished merrily behind her.
George smiled slightly. This chance encounter with an old friend and promise of another meeting had left him feeling, for the first time in several weeks, almost happy.
The ice-cream parlour certainly had been reopened. George sat down outside looking out onto the street. Angelina turned up not long after, carrying the same parcel he had knocked over earlier. She sat next to George and placed the parcel on the ground beside her.
After ordering, they both relaxed and began to converse.
George was surprised how freely he could talk with Angelina, he hadn't been able to o that with anyone since Fred had passed.
"So what brings you to Diagon Alley?"
"Well, Ginny and Hermione had to buy new things for Hogwarts, they're both returning this year and then I needed to set up the shop again,"
"You mean Hermione Granger? She's staying with you? She was on the run with
Harry and Ron last year, wasn't she?"
George nodded.
"Yeah, Harry's staying with us too, actually, until September."
"Really? I haven't seen any of them since the-" Angelina stopped mid sentence when she saw George's face fall.
"Hey," she said quietly, taking his hand, "I miss him too, you know." George looked up in surprise and then seemed to brighten a little. He hadn't considered that, other people feeling his pain.
"So what are you up to here?" George asked her and she released his hand.
"I was picking up some quidditch supplies, me and Alicia have decided to set up our own little club, just as a hobby."
George looked interested and encouraged Angelina to continue.
"Yeah, actually we've got Katie to join and Oliver pops down from time to time, of course he's pretty busy with Puddlemere and all,"
"Sounds great!"
"Yeah, actually I was wondering, funny I should have run into you, but whether you might, you know, consider taking up you old place as beater? Only if you're free of course and-" She stopped, seeing the wide grin spread across George's face.
"I take that as a yes, then." She grinned too. "Now, all we need is a seeker..."
As if on cue, Harry appeared out from Potage's Culdron shop with Ginny across the street.
"Angelina!" Both Harry and Ginny were delighted to see their old quidditch captain and friend. They immediately sat down to talk to her. George was slightly annoyed by this but soon the couple rose again saying something about Madam Malkin's and left. Once they had finished their ice cream, George invited Angelina to walk down Diagon Alley. Soon the time had flown away on them and George looked at his watch, exclaiming that he had to leave.
"Well I'll see you at the quidditch pitch on Monday, 10am SHARP!"
George just laughed and they parted rather reluctantly. George made his way towards the Leaky Cauldron, with a joyful expression on his face.
Author's Note: This chapter has been editing since it was first posted- mainly just the interaction between George and Angelina.
