For eleven Sickles and four Knuts, one could get a Neapolitan banana split with raspberry sauce and pecans drizzled all over it. For an extra two Knuts, one might also enjoy adding tiny heart shaped candies on top, in theme for Valentine's Day.
When George still attended Hogwarts, this romantic holiday was an excuse to laugh at his classmate's pathetic attempts to woo their love interests, and on some occasions mess around a little behind the scenes (and in the case of second year, it was an excuse to give Mia Walker a box of chocolates, because George thought she had pretty hair, but only Fred and Mia knew about that incident, and the three of them had had a mutual agreement to keep it that way). When George left Hogwarts, it hit him that he was in the real world, and if he wanted to do anything with his life, he had to get a grip on reality and stop fooling around. This notion lasted about three second when George realized he was seventeen; he didn't need to be searching for a wife and settling down already. But seeing couples act all cutesy and couple-y still gave him a small twinge in his gut, though he tried not to show it.
Now, however, George was twenty years old, on the verge of twenty-one. He had a steady income, and a quite nice one at that. He had a place to live, there was food on the table and his underpants were getting washed, no matter how much his mother worried, thank you very much. So as he carried the heaping banana split outside to the small table on the ice-cream parlour's patio, he felt a little… proud of himself as he sat down in front of his girlfriend of six and a half months. He was growing up; he was settling down; he was marking a milestone, whatever you wanted to say.
Angelina's eyes widened as she beheld the enormous mound of ice cream.
"Jesus, George! I doubt your entire family together could down this in one go!" She teased him. George rolled his eyes.
"You obviously haven't met Ron and Charlie. Anyway, here's to Valentine's Day!" George raised his spoon and shoved it into his eager mouth (because even though he was a mature adult, he was still a boy, and boys loved ice cream).
Angelina did the same, but paused before the spoon reached her mouth, "I thought you didn't believe in Valentine's Day?"
George shrugged, "I never really saw any meaning to it before now…" He was hesitant to tell her about his small epiphany. But Angelina just smiled and accepted his answer.
They sat eating the banana split for a few more minutes, exchanging small banter and battling with their spoons over the chocolate chunks and peanuts. There was still three-quarters of the ice cream left when Angelina pushed it away and looked into the street, "Please, no more. I don't want to look at another ice cream for at least a week."
George chuckled and got up to toss the rest out, but he noticed Angelina was still staring at something in the street, almost wistfully. He followed her gaze and saw a couple walking down the road, a small boy swinging in between their hands. They watched the couple until the small family turned a corner.
"You okay?" George asked Angelina, who still looked a little sad.
"Do you ever think about having children, getting married, that sort of thing?" She said softly. George gulped. It was true that they had been dating for just over six months, but they had never talked about anything serious such as this. They hadn't even said those three certain words that 'sealed the deal' yet. George had just thought it was a shared feeling; that it didn't need to be said, because it just was. And then George remembered why he didn't like Valentine's Day, because it brought up all these feelings that just must be declared, because it was what everyone else was doing.
"I… I-never really… I mean-sort of…" George mumbled. He looked down at his feet, not quite sure what to say now.
"I'm sorry, George, I didn't mean to put you on the spot." He felt her warm hand on his own, and he looked up, meeting her eyes.
He took a deep breath, "I used to worry about that stuff, but now that… Now that I have you, I feel like I can relax, that everything will just work out, you know?"
Everything was silent for a minute, the sound of the radio back in the parlour blaring out sappy love songs, and the few shoppers milling about in the street, and the few other costumers on the patio enjoying their own ice creams all seemed muted as he waited for her to answer.
"Yeah, I know." She whispered, and then-
"I love you."
Of course. Because it wouldn't be Valentine's Day without the declaration of love over the half-eaten, melting ice cream. Cupping her cheek in his hand, George leaned down and pressed his lips to her own, kissing her gently.
"I love you, too." He breathed against her mouth. And he really meant it.
A/N: A couple people asked why I don't continue this. I wasn't really prepared for that, but I decided what the hell, it's not like I'm doing anything anyway. So I'm gonna just do snippets, not an actual story. Sorry to those who asked for this, if that's what you were expecting.
Please let me know if I have any spelling or grammar errors (and the extra 'u"s everywhere is NOT a spelling error, it's because I'm Canadian and that's how we do. ;)
Disclaimer: Don't even try......