The next morning at breakfast, Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Alex compared their schedules.
"So we all have Defense Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, Astronomy, Care of Magical Creatures, Transfiguration, and Charms together. Alex, you and I have Ancient Runes," said Hermione.
Defense Against the Dark Arts was very weird, they had an Auror named Mad-Eye Moody as our teacher. He had a magical eye on his eye patch that zoomed around in its socket, and I could swear it could see through the back of his head. I was skeptic at first, I mean, that was me. I don't jump headfirst into things without thinking them through first. But then I realized that he was a good teacher, and knew his stuff.
"He's an Auror! The best! My dad mentioned him at home," said Ron.
Other than almost being eaten alive by Hagrid's Blast-Ended Skrewts, the day was considerably boring.
"Won't be boring for long though, we'll have plenty of homework soon, 5th year is O.W.L year, isn't it?" said Hermione cheerfully. As much as I loved school and learning, tests weren't exactly my thing.
We all groaned.
"Go, go! Put up your hair, look nice, I'll make sure the common room is empty!" whispered Hermione is the girl's dormitory stairwell.
I climbed the stairwell and entered the dormitory. I changed into jeans and a t-shirt, and started to braid my stick-straight brown shoulder length hair. I realized I was being fussy, and just tapped my hair with my wand to give it a slightly curly wave. I looked at myself in the mirror. Suddenly, all my flaws just popped out at me. My small number of freckles freckles and my slightly problematic skin all screamed, "UGLY!" I looked into my deep brown eyes in the mirror and studied my tall height. Well, at least I liked those two things about myself. Alexandra Pinac, you are being way to hard on yourself.
At 11 o'clock sharp, I made my way down the stairwell and into the common room, but I paused halfway down the staircase. This was so unlike you, Alex. You never jump into things. You never take risks like this. What if things went wrong? Things would get akward between you two. I thought back to the summer, when I did magic. A letter came to the house, and George knew it was me, but told his father to put a word into the ministry that it was actually his of-age son. It was nice, but I didn't deserve it. What did I ever do for him. I checked my watch. It was five past. I realized I would have to show up and tell him.
George was waiting for me there, sitting in front of the fire, holding Harry's invisibility cloak. All my past thoughts slipped from my mind.
I noticed Collin Creevey sitting at a table doing homework. George slipped him a Sickle, and he promptly left the room. I laughed.
"You look…"
"Oh, God, don't remind me," I said, looking at the ground.
"You didn't let me finish. Why should I not remind you how beautiful you look?" George said, his neck slowly turning red, then slowly his cheeks followed suit too.
Oh, great. I was probably turning red too.
"Thank you, gentleman," I said.
"Anyway, you like stars, right?" he asked.
"Yes, a lot. But if you want me to chart and predict their locations for the next 3 months, then I am going right back up to the dormitory-" I started.
"Aw, then that's too bad! That was my idea of the perfect date!" George interrupted. I laughed. He grabbed my hand and threw the Invisibility Cloak over us. We slipped through the portrait hole. George pulled out the Maurader's Map.
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," he whispered.
We chose a teacher free route, and started our journey. Soon, we reached the staircase that led up to the forbidden Astronomy tower.
"George…"
"Oh, come on, no one will catch us!"
"Look, my best friend is a prefect! I don't want to get detention! Or expelled, for that matter," I added.
"When was the last time I got caught doing something like this?" George whispered.
I paused, then whispered in return, "Oh, fine,"
"Yes!" I heard him quietly whisper.
Hand in hand, we made our way up to the rooftop. The moonlight shone in the staircase, and we took off the cloak to see each other. I saw that George's face was lit up, and not just from the moonlight.
Finally, after what seemed like a hundred thousand stairs, and a few trick stairs along the way, we reached the observatory rooftop.
George conjured a large blanket to put on the floor. The moment I sat down, I noticed the ground wasn't as hard as it should have been. He must have enchanted it. Why couldn't I think of things like this?
"A butterbeer for m'lady?" George asked with a deep bow.
I giggled. Since when did I giggle!?
"Um, uh, sure!" I took it from his hand, "thanks,"
We sat against a wall that we placed many cushions against. We talked about anything that made us laugh. Soon, we lay flat on our backs, tired.
"There is the Big Dipper, and there is Ursa Major, and Minor, and Orion," I pointed out. I continued pointing out constellations, until George interrupted me.
"You really have a talent for this thing," he said, squeezing my hand that he had been holding.
Thank goodness it was dark outside. I was blushing. We looked at each other and just sat there, absorbing the sky and the sounds and the moonlight, and the laughter that came from George's many jokes.
After a long while just laying, we got up and vanished everything away.
"That was nice," I said.
"Brilliant, that's what I was hoping!" George replied with a laugh.
We grabbed hands, pulled the Invisibility Cloak over our heads, and made our way to the common room.
"Pumpernickel," I whispered to the fat lady. The door swung open and we made our way inside.
"Bye, George," I said.
"Wait," he replied. With wand wave (with great flourish) he produced a bouquet of gorgeous fresh roses.
"Wow," I whispered, "Thanks," I dodged to the left quickly and placed a kiss on his cheek.
"Bye," we both said. Again, a bright blush was creeping up his neck and mine.