George was walking through the portrait hole into the Common Room and he was not happy.
Bloody Snape. One more lesson like that and I'll willingly drink every potion, that will lead to my death…
He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't hear someone behind yell:
"Catch me, stud!"
He did however turn around and was knocked to the floor, all air gone from his lungs.
Someone was sitting on his chest, which made it even harder to try and breathe.
He looked up and couldn't help grinning.
"You know, when I say that, you should catch me."
"Sorry, Alicia. I was … a thousand miles away in my head."
Alicia snorted and raised an eyebrow at him, with no intention of getting up.
"You could just speak normal English. It's not like anyone is going to believe, that you are some intelligent being, who likes to speak in medieval tongues." She said.
"Oh really? Shall I compare thee to a summer's day? Thou art more-" he began.
Alicia threw her head back and laughed.
"Okay fine. Maybe you are intelligent. But please, no more Shakespeare. You just can't pull it off."
George looked at her with a hurt expression on his face.
"Alicia, that hurt. Take it back this instant." He demanded.
Alicia raised her eyebrow and grinned at him, leaning forward.
"Never." She whispered, chuckling slightly.
"Alright. You asked for it." George growled and with one swift move, he'd pushed her off his chest and got up. He reached out to grab her arm, but she was already gone.
"Ha! Looks like you're getting old, Weasley!" she yelled from behind an armchair.
"You wait!" George yelled and ran at her. She squeaked and quickly shot out from behind the chair, hiding behind a group of second years, who looked at her with a mixture of interest and fear.
"I can see you! There is no way out. Surrender and the punishment will be … fairly harmless." George said, standing in front of the second years.
"I will never surrender, Weasley. I am not that weak." It came from behind the group.
"Then you have just signed your own death warrant!" George said gravely and even though he realized it might be a bit mean, he shoved the second years apart to find that Alicia was no longer there. He looked around, but he couldn't see her anywhere.
He spun around and looked at the second years, who shrieked and shrank back.
"Where did she go? Did you see?" he asked. They all shook their heads.
"Damn it!" George muttered.
"Why hello, mirror-me!" a voice came from the portrait hole.
George turned to see his brother Fred getting in, his arm around Angelina, who was grinning at George.
"Where's Alicia?" she asked looking around.
"I dunno. She was here a second ago, but then she hid and now I can't-" the rest of his sentence turned into a grunt, as he was, again, knocked to the ground.
"HA! I win yet again! I am indestructible and invincible!" Alicia cried and jumped around.
"Shame on you, twin! Letting yourself get beaten by a girl." Fred said.
Everyone, including the second years started sniggering. George's ears turned red.
"You should talk." Angelina snorted at Fred. George grinned.
"What do you mean by that?" Fred asked, looking appalled.
"Well, you never win against me. And I'd say I'm a girl as well. Wouldn't you agree?" she asked. Fred grinned at her and said brightly:
"Why, I think I most certainly do." And then he kissed her.
George turned around in disgust to find Alicia having a rather sick expression on her face.
"Okay. That officially ruined my appetite, like, forever." She announced, wrinkling her nose.
"Hear, hear." George said and winked at her.
"Oh please!" Angelina said, when she had unglued herself from Fred.
"You're just jealous." She added. George stared at her.
"Excuse me? As much as I love my brother, there is not a sum of galleons in the whole world, which would make me stick my tongue in his mouth." He said, shuddering at the thought.
Alicia laughed, while Angelina raised an eyebrow and placed her hands on her hips.
"I bet you'd like to stick your tongue down Alicia's throat." She retorted.
George acted as though he needed to think for a moment then said:
"Well, seeing as I'm a bloke and Alicia's a pretty hot chick, I think I agree with you."
He heard a sharp intake of breath behind him and turned around to find Alicia glaring at him.
"A pretty hot chick?" she asked. "What is this? Mc Donald's farm?"
George grinned. He loved getting her worked up like this. He couldn't think of anything that satisfied him more.
"Well, let's face it: You have a pretty face, gorgeous legs, a very nice behind and a good set of-" Alicia had slapped both her hands over his mouth.
"Would you stop it? There are children around, for God's sake!" she hissed, eyeing the second years. George pulled her hands away and grinned. Her huge grey eyes glittered with anger and her cheeks flushed a little.
"Alright, alright. Not another word about your chest." He agreed.
Alicia glared at him for nearly a minute. Then she eyed him and said:
"You need to find yourself a girlfriend."
"Nonsense! Why would I want to do that, when I have you?" he exclaimed, grabbed her around the waist and easily threw her over his shoulder. She shrieked and started hitting him.
"Let me down, George! This instant! I mean it!" she yelled, amusing the onlookers.
"You forgot the magic word!" George said. He knew she would never ever go for that.
"Never! I will not beg! That is beneath me!" Alicia said and continued to work on his back with her fists, having no effect whatsoever.
"Alicia, we've been through this. You can't hurt me, you're simply too weak to- OW!" he yelled and let go off her. She quickly slid from his shoulder, grinning at him.
"Too weak? Oh, I don't think so!" she snorted, her face gleaming.
George was rubbing his earlobe. She had bit him! What a sneak!
"Well, I'm going to bed." Alicia announced and ran towards the girl's staircase.
"Oh no, you're not!" George yelled, sprinting after her. She squealed and raced up the stairs. George didn't even bother trying to get up the stairs. He'd given that up long ago.
"You know," Fred said behind him "it really is time you two got together."
George whirled around and scowled at his brother.
"What in God's name are you talking about? We're just friends!"
"Mhm, sure. So were we." Angelina said, taking Fred's hand. George grimaced.
"That's very nice and all, Angelina, but please: No public display of affection. At least not in front of me. To say it makes me sick would be an understatement."
Angelina rolled her eyes at him and after giving Fred a quick peck she, too left for the girl's dormitories. George looked at his brother.
"I never thought you'd ever get that mushy." He said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Oh bugger off!" Fred snapped, turning red. George suppressed a grin.
"Well, well, well, who would have thought it? Fred Weasley at the mercy of a girl! Pathetic, really."
"Look who's talking! The only person you ever hang around is Alicia! Well, apart from my brilliant self and the dashing Angelina of course. Oh, and Lee and Katie. And-"
"Stop babbling, twin. We're just friends." George interrupted.
"Ah, but you see that is the first sign of more than friendship." Fred said, raising a finger.
"The next thing you'll know, you'll get jealous every time she speaks to another bloke, you'll have to restrain yourself from kissing her and checking her out constantly."
"Whatever you say, Fred." George mumbled, yawning.
"I'm going to bed."
"To dream about Alicia?"
"No, to sleep you imbecile!"
"Aha. And dream about Alicia."
"Would you STOP already?"
"Alright. Still, it's amazing how the two of you got to be so good friends, isn't it? I mean you practically hated each other in first year. Well, how things change…"
"Stop the dramatizing, Fred." George said.
But Fred was right. In their first year Alicia and George couldn't stand each other. They were always glaring at each other, bickering, throwing food around and jinxing the other one as good as one can when in their first year.
He couldn't even really remember, what had happened, that had made them become so close.
It had had something to do with Quidditch… that was all he could remember.
About them both being on the team and-
"George? Are you going to stand there day dreaming all night or are you going to bed?" Fred asked.
"Wha-? Oh yeah, I'm coming." Still trying to figure out what it had been about Quidditch. He'd have to ask Alicia in the morning.
George couldn't sleep.
Which was that more strange, seeing as he had been so tired before.
As soon as his head had hit the pillow, his thoughts had began to race, not leaving him alone.
He had tried to sleep, rolling around in his bed, but after two hours he gave up and yanked the curtains apart. He knew all the other boys in his dormitory were asleep, not least because Lee was snoring like a troll and Fred kept mumbling something that sounded faintly like "Angelina."
He walked around the dormitory for a few minutes, wondering what on earth he was supposed to do, when everyone else was fast asleep. He stopped in front of the large mirror, which was hanging on one side of the wall.
His red hair was streaked with bits of blonde, seeing as he had been outside for most of the summer, de-gnoming the garden at home and playing Quidditch. It had grown quite long and was now hanging into his eyes. Freckles were spattered across his face and his hazel eyes looked back at him sceptically. He knew he wasn't exactly ugly, but he'd never reach Bill. That pretty boy. George sniggered, then looked at himself in disgust.
Dear god, what am I doing, staring at myself in the mirror like that! I'm not a girl!
He snorted and turned away. Then he decided to read "Quidditch through the Ages" one more time and looked on the floor, in his trunk and under his bed. It wasn't there.
"Great." He muttered. He didn't really fancy going to the Common Room and looking there, but he had nothing else to do so he opened the door, making as less noise as possible and descended the stairs.
No one was down there anymore and the fire was crackling faintly, not illuminating the room very much anymore.
He found his book on one of the tables and decided to stay in the Common Room.
He lit the fire again and sat down in one of the arm chairs, the book on his knees.
Then he heard a sound. He froze in place, not daring to move. He couldn't quite identify the sound. It sounded like steps, but something cracked, every time the person or whatever it was took a second step.
George swallowed, not daring to breathe.
Then the person moved in front of the fire, not aware, that someone was sitting a few inches away.
It was Alicia. And as George noticed with a pang, a very undressed Alicia. It was summer and the nights were warm, but still he thought, that her pyjamas should be forbidden. If one could even call that a pyjama. It was a white silk dress, that ended way too high above her knees, the thin straps sliding dangerously near to her shoulders.
He couldn't help noticing, that Alicia indeed had very nice, very long legs and her shoulders were very tan.
Where did she get so tan? It's not like she's been sunbathing anywhere here…
A rather lovely picture starting to form itself in front of his eyes, when Alicia coughed and George snapped out of it.
Dear Lord, help me! Was I just thinking about Alicia in a bikini? What the hell is wrong with me?
Alicia was standing in front of the fire, wringing her hands as if she was nervous. George noticed her glancing at the watch to her left a couple of times and wondered.
What is she doing down here? It looks like she's waiting for someone…
George was just about to say something, when he heard muffled voices from the portrait hole.
Alicia whirled around and dashed out of sight.
George simply couldn't imagine what was going on. He slowly slid out of the arm chair and looked around it.
Alicia was climbing through the portrait hole, swinging the portrait open.
She started to talk to someone, and George noticed, that it was not the Fat Lady's voice.
Who on earth is she talking to at this hour of the night?
He tried to see past her, but he couldn't make out anything.
Then suddenly, the portrait hole swung shut again and Alicia turned around.
George crouched behind the arm chair, praying that she wouldn't sit down.
Luckily she didn't. She walked up the girl's staircase again and soon after he heard her shut the door to her dormitory.
He allowed himself to breathe normally again and sat back down onto the chair.
Who was that? Why were they talking now? And what on earth were they talking about, that it could only be now?
George chewed on his lip.
Alicia had never seemed like someone, who had a lot of secrets. Why didn't he know, that she was meeting people at night?
And then another thought crossed his mind.
Maybe it was a boy.
George took a sharp breath and clenched his fists. He felt a stab if jealousy.
Yeah, I bet that's it. She's got a boyfriend and she doesn't want any of us to know.
But why? Is he that ugly?
George snorted and shook his head.
Why would it matter if she had a boyfriend? They were friends! He should be happy for her and help her, if there were any … problems .. or something.
Yeah, and if he so much as touches Alicia, I'll beat him to a pulp!
Woah! Where did that come from? Easy, George.
He sighed. This was no good. He would never be able to concentrate on the book now. He would just have to go t bed and hope that sleep would come sooner rather than later.
He slowly walked up the stairs when something occurred to him.
It didn't look, like that was the first time they met. Maybe they meet every night.
Next time, I'll just have to find a better place to hide, so I can make something out. Like, what they talk about, or who that bloke is, so I can break his fingers…
What is wrong with me?
Blaming it on his lack of sleep, George crawled back into bed, after he'd placed the book on his night table. He stared up at the ceiling.
He couldn't deny, that Alicia was very pretty. Especially when she wasn't wearing boring school robes and showing a lot of herself. But it was normal that he found that…intoxicating. He was just a bloke after all.
Exactly. It has nothing to do with her being sweet and kind and funny and-
Ugh! This is ridiculous! Puberty sucks!
And with that he turned around and fell asleep.