The next morning, Alicia woke up to find that her dorm was empty. She glanced at her watch.
One o'clock already? I've missed lunch and breakfast . . . again! She thought, rolling out of her bed. Maybe somebody had saves her leftovers? She decided to worry about it later and made up her mind to make herself look extra good today.
She stumbled into the bathroom, and looked at her messy reflection. What was that hair-straightening charm Angelina taught me? She grabbed her wand and tried a number a different incantations until she finally remembered the right one.
Alicia then picked up her expensive mouse, which was charmed to make her hair sparkle and shine, and smoothed it through her long brown hair. Once she had gotten her hair the way she wanted it, she moved on to her make-up.
Browns, blues, pinks, and purples were scattered throughout her make up bag. After changing her mind several times, she finally settled on a soft lilac eye shadow. Once she had smoothed it on she then took out her eyeliner. Usually she only wore a bit of mascara, but eyeliner gave her a mysterious look and it made her eyes stand out more. She applied some light pink lip gloss to her full lips and a touch of blush to her cheeks and she was finished.
Alicia groaned as she walked back into her room looking at the big mound of clothes that was hers. Now what am I going to wear? She thought, beginning to short through her clothes.
She looked outside. The sun was shining brightly but she guessed it would probably a bit chilly because it wasn't quite spring yet.
For pants she chose her favourite pair of jeans, which had little rips and snags all over the front making them look like they had been worn a lot. The shirt she picked out was a lavender tank top that had purple stitches and designs along the side of it. She didn't feel like wearing her cloak so instead she grabbed she white sweater and headed out the door. When she got down to the common room, Katie and Angelina were waiting for her.
"Alicia! You finally woke up. Wow, you look amazing! Angelina and I were starting to think you were sick or something," Katie exclaimed jumping up from her chair and running to give Alicia a hug, with Angelina on her heels.
"Yeah, and where were you last night? By the time we had gone to bed you still weren't there and I hadn't seen you since Quidditch practice. We told George and Fred to wait for you but we didn't see Fred until almost an hour later and he said that you were with George..."
"Yeah," Katie interrupted Angelina, "so what were you and George doing?" Katie asked trying to sound nonchalant about it.
"We were talking, and we lost track of time," Alicia told them, not wanting them to know about her fainting and going to the hospital wing. She loved her friends, but sometimes they tended to worry about her too much.
Angelina and Katie looked like they were about to start arguing with her but at that moment, Fred, George, and Lee came through the portrait hole.
"Oh, hey ladies," Fred said when he saw them, "we were just looking for you! Whoa, Lish, you look really nice today!"
George looked at Alicia and gasped loudly when he saw her. She looked astounding. Well she was always gorgeous, but today she looked especially good. All of a sudden he had the incredible urge to run is fingers through her hair. It looked like velvet. He realised Fred was looking at him strangely so he quickly averted his gaze away from Alicia.
"We're going outside, care to join us?" George questioned, putting his arms around Katie and Alicia, careful not to look at Alicia's face for fear of doing something embarrassing.
Lee faked a scowl. "Hey, that's not fair, George. You only get one girl," he said grabbing Katie out from under George's arm.
Angelina laughed. "Sure, it's really nice out. Are you coming girls?" She asked, turning to Alicia and Katie.
"Yeah, of course!" Katie replied brightly. Alicia only nodded, distracted by Georges arm that was still resting on her shoulder.
George finally dropped his arm as the group started to make their way towards the portrait hole. Alicia let out a sigh of relief but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel disappointed.
As they made their way down to the Great Hall, Alicia let the group go a little bit ahead of her and George.
"George, you didn't say anything to anyone about what happened last night did you? I mean about me fainting?" Alicia whispered out of the side of her mouth.
"Of course not, I wasn't sure if you wanted me to or not," George replied, trying to keep his eyes away from her. Luckily, she hadn't noticed.
Alicia breathed a sigh of relief. "Well that's good. The last thing I need is people thinking I'm weak."
"What do you me--," George began.
"Race you outside!" Alicia said taking off before George got a chance to finish his sentence. She burst through the group off Fred, Lee, Angelina, and Katie with George not far behind her.
"You cheated!" George yelled after her as she reached the doors to go outside and stepped out into the fresh air.
By the time the two of them had finished catching their breath, the rest of their friends were outside with them.
"Bloody hell, it's windy out here!" Fred said rubbing his hands up and down his shoulders.
"Let's go sit over there, I don't think we'll be able to feel the wind as much over there," Katie suggested heading around the corner.
They followed Katie and sat against a stone wall.
"Why did we come out here again?" Angelina asked through her chattering teeth. Fred scooted slightly closer to her.
"Here girls, eat these," Lee said, handing them all a red piece of candy.
Alicia looked at the suspicious red capsule doubtfully. "Nice try, but we know better than to eat anything you guys give us."
"Hey now! Have some trust will you Ali? Even Fred and I are having it. They're called 'Weasleys Warmers'. It's only to make you warmer," George said, giving her his puppy look and trying not to stare at her too much.
"Yeah, I've tried it already, it works really well, I swear!" Lee said popping the red candy into his mouth.
The girls still looked slightly apprehensive. George looked to Alicia. "What's a matter Ali, you're not too scared are you?"
Alicia's eyes snapped up and looked George straight in the eyes. "I most certainly am not scared," George smiled as she popped the piece of red candy into her mouth.
Alicia gasped and grabbed George's arm. "Oh gosh . . . this is r-really spicy!"
Lee chuckled. "Yeah I suppose we should've warned you about that, it's always like that the first time.
"Alicia I cannot believe you just ate something that the Fred and George gave you!" Katie said sounding slightly concerned.
"Wow, it actually works! Katie, Angie, you both should really try it, I'm not even cold anymore!" Alicia told her two friends.
Angelina and Katie still wouldn't take them so Fred and Lee gave them their cloaks.
Fred and Lee began explaining how the 'Weasleys Warmers' worked to Katie, Alicia, and Angelina but George couldn't concentrate on what they were saying. He was staring at Alicia, and he knew it, but he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from her. Alicia noticed George was looking at her and smiled.
"It there something wrong George?" Alicia whispered so only George could hear.
"You are so beautiful," George whispered back surprising Alicia and himself. Bloody hell, I did not just say that! George thought.
"Um, thank you," Alicia said, beginning to feel her cheeks go red. She knew how to deal with funny, flirty, sarcastic George, but just then he was being totally serious.
Fred cleared his throat. Alicia and George looked up and found the rest of their friends looking at them. "Well?" Fred asked.
"Uh, sure," Alicia replied, hoping that her answer would fit whatever they had been talking about before her stomach started flipping around inside her.
Fred looked slightly puzzled. "You really think so?" he asked, completely oblivious to the fact that she hadn't been listening. Angelina however seemed to sense this and immediately began to distract him by snuggling into his shoulder because she was "cold".
Alicia mouthed thanks to Angelina and tried to pay closer attention to the conversation and a little less attention to George's knee that was touching hers. She shivered and knew it had nothing to do with the wind.
"Cold already?" George asked, putting his arm around her so that his cloak was covering the both of them and pulling her close.
Alicia fought hard not to squeal. Oh…my gosh…his arm is around me. Oh no, I do like him! Oh no, this has never happened before, he's going to know…now what do I say! Alicia thought franticly. She took a deep breath which only made things worse. She couldn't help it and she started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. I mean, it was George for goodness sake.
Everyone turned from whatever they were doing and looked at her like she was crazy and then looked at George who she was cuddled into.
"What's so funny?" George asked as Alicia shook in his arms with silent laughter.
"Uh, you guys are doing anything inappropriate underneath that cloak are you?" Lee asked causing Fred to snicker.
George chose to ignore this comment and stood up pulling Alicia with him. "Sheesh Ali, calm down!" Alicia only laughed harder, if that was possible.
Katie looked amused and said, "I knew you shouldn't have taken those 'Warm Weasels' or whatever they're called!" George scoffed at her mistake.
Alicia finally started to get a hold of herself and started to speak but George reached out and squeezed her stomach causing to dissolve right back into her fit of giggles.
"What? Were you saying something Alicia?" George asked as he began poking her in the stomach.
Fred groaned audibly. "Oh no, not this again," he exclaimed slapping his forehead.
The group watched as Alicia wiggled out of George grasp and stumbled down the hill screaming as George ran after her. She managed to dodge him a couple of times but George was faster and grabbed her in a couple of strides.
"We have got to do something those two," Angelina said as George grabbed Alicia around her waist, tickling her to the ground.
"Tell me about it. Neither of them even realise how obvious they're being about it," Fred said shaking his head.
"You know what we should do right?" Katie asked as Alicia jumped onto Georges back in a feeble attempt to keep his hands off her stomach.
Angelina's eyes brightened up. "We're going to set them up!"
"Yes, exactly! This is going to be so fun. The only problem is, I have no idea how we're going to do this," Katie said looking at Fred and Lee suggestively.
Fred sighed dramatically. "I'm guessing you want help from our dashing good looks and cunning ways, yes?"
"Maybe . . ."
"What good looks?" Angelina said looking at Fred.
"Pardon me?" Fred said pretending to be hurt.
Lee rolled his eyes as Angelina and Fred started bickering. "I suppose we could give you a couple of ideas. What do you think Fred?"
"What? Oh, right. Uh, we could lock them in an empty classroom for a couple of hours."
"Or days," added Lee.
"Better yet, we could lock them in a broom cupboard and let nature take its course!"
Katie sighed in exasperation. "How about some good ideas?"
"Yes, something that absolutely has to get them together," Angelina told them.
Fred scoffed. "Like you have any bright ideas, Angel."
Lee interrupted before Angelina could say anything back. "We'll have to make George jealous somehow. You guys know how he gets sometimes. But how can we make him jealous without telling Alicia?"
The group pondered this for a moment and watched as George and Alicia rolled around in the grass. Angelina perked up. "You know that boy in her potions class, Brad or something? We could somehow make it seem as if Alicia and him were going out!"
"Angelina, were trying to set George and Alicia up remember? If we go setting Alicia with other people it might not turn out in George's favour. What if she actually likes Brady?" Katie questioned.
"Brady is a Gryffindor, he knows about George and Alicia…if we tell him our plan in advance, I'm sure that wouldn't be a problem," Fred told them.
"Brady is so cute," Angelina said to no one in particular.
Fred huffed and ignored Angelina. "But it might actually work. If it doesn't we always have the broom--"
"If what doesn't work?" George interrupted walking over to them with Alicia. His hair was ruffled and had a few leaves in it and Alicia had some grass stains on her jeans. They both looked out of breath.
They all looked at Fred waiting for his excuse. "Uh…I just remembered, me and Alingja-I mean Angelina-were just…I, well, see Katie said, uh, you know."
Angelina groaned inwardly and hoped George and Alicia wouldn't keep asking. "Yeah…" Alicia looked at Fred strangely but chose not to press the matter. "We're going to go inside now so I'll see you all back in the common room!"
Angelina, Katie, Fred, and Lee nodded there farewells as Alicia and George turned to walk away. To everybody's surprise, George grabbed Alicia's hand and linked it with his on their way back inside.