"This is ridiculous." George muttered, staring at the ceiling, as though it hadn't been his compromising idea to put them in this position. Chessie had been too exhausted to disagree.
"At least it's comfy." Chessie wriggled her way further under the covers between him and the wall in George's spare fleece pajamas, reveling in the clean sheets on an actual mattress. "It could be worse."
"How so, you crazy wiggling werewolf?"
She giggled, slightly uncharacteristically, at the next thought she had. "I could be a man."
"And it could be daylight," George added, warming up to the thought.
"And we could be locked in."
On the other side of the door, Fred froze with the key before slowly creeping back to his own room, guilty.
"You could have at least shaved. Get those hairy legs away from me." George pretended to kick her away.
"What, does my little furry problem freak you out?" Chessie froze as soon as the words left her mouth. She was mortified that those stupid words had come out of her mouth and withdrew to her side of the bed and stared at the bit of the ceiling above her head.
"No." George said softly after awhile. He sounded tired.
"Huh?" said Chessie deceptively calmly. Inside her mind was a whirlwind of inner voices yelling at her for being so careless with her words. The little critical voices were being dulled very rapidly by the allure of a warm, soft bed with a decent if not odd guy in it.
"You could be a were-grim or something and I still wouldn't mind."
She blushed a little in the darkness despite her skepticism. "Why?"
Chessie heard him sigh with mild frustration.
"You're a bit scary, sure, but also very impressive."
A few minutes elapsed before she could speak again.
"No I'm not," she turned onto her right side so she could see George's face. "Impressive people don't live their life like I have mine. I'm bloody homeless. Rose is homeless."
George could see the moonlight through the window- a few days from full- highlighting Chessie's crazy dark brown mess of hair, and he could just see her golden eyes in the dim silvery light. "That's a matter of opinion, of course. What makes you such a horrible person?"
"Well, I ran away when I was fourteen," she started, holding a finger up to count in the darkness.
"Why?" George propped himself up as well so he could see her face better. He has kind eyes.
"My mother and father…they argued a lot. And drank when no one was around. And whenever they got mad enough, they'd fight. But in public they were the epitome of model wizarding citizens. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore, so when I left to my fourth year at Hogwarts, I didn't go home afterwards."
"Hogwarts? I don't remember you there either."
"I was in Slytherin. Not nice enough for Gryffindor, too tough for Hufflepuff, not smart enough for Ravenclaw. The leftover."
"You don't think very positively, do you?" George asked mildly, smiling to himself. "Don't answer that. What else have you seen and/or done that makes you less than fierce?"
"I never stand up for anyone, let alone myself. One time this girl I work- worked with- at the diner, Dove, was getting some grief from an old ex-boyfriend, and I just watched. Didn't bother standing up for her or anything. It wasn't my problem."
He pursed his lips. "You weren't in the kitchen or something?"
"Well, yes, but-."
"Doesn't count then. Next?"
Chessie laid back against her pillow and exhaled loudly.
"I couldn't save Rose."
George paused at the heartbreak in her voice. "I doubt there was anything you could have done anyway. Even if you hadn't gotten in the way. You're intimidating but skinny."
Apparently, the twins had been informed of the situation by Lupin or Tonks after they took in the girls. Chessie had likely been in the shower at the time. She spent most of the afternoon there being a stressed-out but clean and wet werewolf. At one point, sitting in the tub and napping while the water flowed over her.
"Ouch." Chessie retorted. Please let it just be the night that's making it so easy to talk.
"I'm waiting for solid proof that you're not impressive. Still."
Chessie groaned. "You're impossible."
"And you're impressive. Learn to cope. And go to sleep, I've got to open the shop in the morning."
Chessie rolled over on her other side, facing the wall, and she heard George do the same. It was soothing and scary how well they'd connected, and as bad as Chessie wanted to run, she wanted to stick around and see what happened just as much. Plus, Rose was still sick. She couldn't leave Rose.
I'd go crazy without her.