A/N: Before the chapter starts; I want to thank everybody who's reviewed

And thank to you, Katy, betaing this for me and leaving nice comments!

Enjoy the chapter!

XXX

December 13th, 1994

Alicia was early for breakfast. She still had homework to do and wanted to get some of it done before her first lesson that day. The Great Hall was still almost empty, but Alicia had just started on her cereal when she heard footsteps behind her.

"Oi! Spinnet!"

She turned around and was surprised to see George Weasley coming her way. He looked as though he had just got up and dressed in a hurry; his hair was unkempt and sticking out wildly and he still had an impression of his pillow on his cheek. He was also wearing his robes inside-out.

"That taken?" asked George when he arrived at the table and pointed at the empty seat next to her.

"No," said Alicia. "Feel free to sit down. But I haven't got much time. I need to finish that essay for Binns."

"You?" said George, sounding surprised. "You haven't finished it yet when it's due in today?"

"Have you?"

"Of course not." He looked almost affronted.

"See?"

"But you usually hand in your assignments in time."

"Yes, and that's why I will have to leave in a minute. So, you'll have to finish your breakfast alone – unless you want to help me with that essay."

A look of horror appeared on George's face. "History Of Magic? No way."

Alicia giggled, "No wonder you and Fred didn't get any more OWLs."

George shrugged. "So? Who needs them? We know where our future lies."

"If you say so – I take my lessons seriously, though," said Alicia and turned her attention back to her food; she needed to hurry if she wanted to make a progress with her essay before her first lesson, Transfiguration. George however seemed to have other plans.

"Er, Alicia?"

"Yes?"

"I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Sure – if it doesn't take too long."

"It won't. I was just wondering if you –"

But he was interrupted by Fred and Lee as they came jogging up towards the Gryffindor table. "Oi George! Are you deaf? We asked you to wait for us!"

When he reached the table Fred sat down on George's other side, nudging his twin. George didn't look happy. He glanced from Alicia to Fred and back again, but didn't say anything.

"So, George, what was it you wanted to ask me, now?" said Alicia half annoyed, half amused.

George's ears went pink. "Never mind," he said and started to pile food onto his plate, "it wasn't that important."

Fred grinned. He certainly looked as though he knew what was up.

Alicia finished her breakfast in three huge bites and made to leave. "I need to finish my essay, see you guys later," she told the twins and Lee before she went off to get into McGonagall's classroom before everybody else arrived.

It was a rainy day and all morning there was no way, you could go outside for longer than five minutes without ending up completely soaked. The weather was bad enough even to have their Care Of Magical Creatures lesson cancelled (Hagrid didn't think much of theoretical lessons) which gave Alicia more time to finish her essay for History Of Magic than she would have needed. In fact, by the time the students were told that the lesson was cancelled, Alicia had already finished her homework.

Alicia and Angelina decided to spend the free lesson in the Gryffindor common room. They were on their way up to Gryffindor Tower when they heard a loud voice shouting from behind them.

It was their friend Katie Bell from the Gryffindore Quidditch Team. She reached them panting, but beaming at them.

"Guess what happened," she burst out.

It was not hard to guess. "You got a date for the ball," said Angelina who seemed rather unimpressed.

Katie nodded fervently. "Yes!" She punched her fist into the air. "And not just any!"

"Who?" asked Alicia, feeling slightly envious.

"Johnathan Stripes," said Katie, "Ravenclaw seventh year."

"Wow – and here I was, thinking you liked Lee Jordan," said Alicia, feeling even more envious now. "But then – Stripes, isn't he that tall dark-haired boy, who played chaser in the Ravenclaw Quidditch team last year?"

"Exactly – and he's gorgeous," said Katie proudly. "What about you two? Have you been asked, yet?"

Alicia shook her head but Angelina answered, "Yeah, yesterday."

That was news to Alicia. "You've been asked, too? Why didn't you tell me?"

"There was nothing to tell. I'm going not going to go with him."

"Who was it?" asked Alicia. She knew she sounded pissed off, but she didn't care. In fact, she was pissed off at Angelina for not telling her.

Angelina shrugged. "Dunno. Some Slytherin seventh year. I didn't ask even for his name. Can you imagine me going out with a Slytherin?"

"No, not really."

"Anyway, I'm going either with Fred Weasley or not at all," said Angelina calmly.

"But he hasn't asked you, yet?"

"No, but he will."

Angelina turned to go and so did Katie, who hurried down the steps to get to her class. But Alicia remained where she was. She suddenly felt angry at her friends, although she knew, of course, that it wasn't their fault, that they were so popular. Alicia had no doubts that Fred was indeed going to ask Angelina out (she was the most popular girl in their year) and then both of her best friends would have a date and she wouldn't.

Alicia felt knot forming in the pit of her stomach and decided that she wanted to be alone. So she called after Angelina that she needed a book from the library and would have to go and get it.

She was halfway down the stairs again, when she ran into George.

"Alicia. Hi."

"Hi."

"Where're you going?" asked George. "It's a free period –"

"Er, yeah, but I need to visit the library today, and I thought I could as well go there now," said Alicia, not wanting to tell him a different lie, just in case George would to talk to Angelina or Katie later.

"Do you have a minute?"

"Sure," said Alicia with a sigh.

"There you are, George!" said Fred's voice behind Alicia.

For the second time that day George didn't look very happy seeing his twin but if Fred noticed it he chose to ignore it.

"Been looking for you everywhere. Listen, I just heard old McG saying something to Flitwick about all the judges coming to the Yule Ball. We might get a chance to talk to Bagman then."

"Why would you two want to talk to Ludo Bagman?" asked Alicia curiously. A thought came to her mind and she giggled, "Are you planning to ask him for job advice? Yeah, maybe he could get you something in the ministry –"

"Rubbish," said Fred, looking at her with a pitiful expression, as if he thought that she was not quite right in the head.

"Well, what else could you two want from the head of a Ministry Of Magic department, huh?"

"Never you mind, Spinnet," said Fred curtly. He grabbed George by the arm and pulled him with him. "C'mon, George, we gotta go."

"Okay, er, I'll see you later, then," mumbled George and reluctantly followed his twin up the stairs.

Alicia looked after them for a while before she turned with a sigh and made her way to the library. The truth was that, of course, she didn't really need anything but at least she could have some time for herself there.

It soon became boring though. Since she had managed to finish her essay before her Transfiguration class Alicia didn't really have anything important to do. She had retreated into the furthest corner to try reading 'Hogsmeade – Interesting Facts On The Oldest Wizarding Village', but she couldn't concentrate.

Something was bothering her. Was it that no-date-thing?

Hell, there's still a lot of time until the ball – you'll get your date!

And then she thought about that strange behaviour of George's all day. Alicia had never seen him look nervous (well, apart from that one time when he had been wondering how to tell his mother that somehow his and Fred's OWL exams hadn't gone too well). She could have sworn that she had seen his ears going slightly pink when he had approached her at breakfast – and they had gone even redder when Fred had appeared with Lee. Something was up with George there was no doubt about that.

Maybe he wants to invite you to the Ball.

No, thought Alicia at once. He would have asked her straight out, not bothering whether Fred or Lee were around.

Or would he?

The more Alicia thought about it, the more it unsettled her. And in the end – when their free period was almost over she decided to corner George and find out what was going on. Very content with her decision, Alicia left the library and went down to the Great Hall for lunch.

It turned out, though, that cornering George was easier said than done. During lunchtime it was impossible to catch him alone (it wasn't just Fred and Lee, there were several fifth year girls around, as well – no doubt hoping to get an invitation to the Yule Ball from any of the boys). Later in their History Of Magic lesson, Alicia found herself sitting in the front row while the twins and Lee were, as always, somewhere in the back. Still she could hear them whispering and sniggering. Professor Binns, however, did not seem to notice.

The lesson was spectacularly boring. When it was half over Alicia suddenly noticed the absence of noise from the back row. When she turned around she saw, that Fred, George and Lee were gone. Obviously they found the lesson as unbearable as she did. She nudged Angelina, who turned around as well and shook her head when she saw that the boys had disappeared. Several minutes later, the girls began to wish they had done the same.

Their last lesson that day was Divination. Alicia didn't expect the twins and Lee to even turn up, but when she climbed the ladder she heard a cheeky voice from below, "Nice view, Spinnet!"

Fred was climbing up the ladder behind her, grinning from ear to ear. He was alone, though – no sign of George or Lee.

Alicia was not happy when Fred plopped down next to her on the seat that usually was Angelina's, forcing Alicia's best friend to find a different partner to work with.

They were supposed to read the future from certain planet constellations. Professor Trelawney handed out several maps that held those constellations for them to read and pass on. Like Alicia had expected working with Fred meant that she could as well have not come at all – it was impossible to get him to work on their assignment properly, and as a consequence Alicia found it hard to concentrate herself. After half an hour of trying Alicia gave it up – something else had come to her mind.

"Fred," she asked while watching him draw faces on the planets, "did you notice something about George today? I think he kinda behaved a bit strange."

"He wants to ask you out to the Yule Ball," said Fred, shrugging his shoulders while giving Mars a thick black moustache.

"He wants to – oh," said Alicia, feeling her cheeks getting hot.

"Don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet, Spinnet," said Fred, looking up from his drawings. He regarded at her thoughtfully. "They always said you were clever." He drew his eyebrows together. "Come to think about it – they used to say that about George, too. Wonder why he still believes that I don't know he fancies you –"

"He does?" asked Alicia, but wished that she hadn't a second later when Fred gave her a look of mock-pity.

"You know," he said, "I really don't know why he doesn't want to tell me – because we used to have no secrets from each other – but honestly, he didn't have to say a word. Couldn't be any more obvious if he wore a sign round his neck. However, I do hope you won't turn him down. Because he's about the best date you could ever get."

Alicia didn't know what to say. Fred was looking at her, as if waiting for an answer, but even if she hadn't been so surprised, she would at least have needed George to ask her himself before she could decide this.

"You're not gonna tell him that I told you, are you?" Fred asked when she remained silent, eyeing her with a suspicious expression. "I don't think he'd take it very well and I don't want to end up with green hair growing out of my nose and ears. Especially not before that Ball thing."

"No, I won't tell him," was all Alicia managed to say. She shook her head to emphasize her words but for the rest of the lesson she stayed quiet, only pretending to be working every now and then, when Professor Trelawney walked past her and Fred's table. She vaguely noticed Angelina watching them from the other side of the room, where she was working on her own map with Cedric Diggory.

The lesson seemed to be lasting even longer than usually, but when they heard the bell ring, Alicia rushed from the room to get down into the Great Hal for dinner before everybody else was there, hoping that George would be there early, too.

On her way down she almost ran into somebody who came from a passage to her right.

"Alicia!"

It was George. Alicia didn't hesitate; she grabbed him by the wrist and pulled him along the way. "I need to talk to you!"

Looking slightly startled George nodded while he followed her, trying not to stumble. "Yeah – er, I wanted to talk to you, too."

"Alone," said Alicia.

Students were passing them by on their way to dinner. There were on the seventh floor. Without thinking Alicia pulled George along down the corridor in the opposite direction of where the others were going. When they passed the tapestry of Barnabas The Barmy George suddenly stopped abruptly, pointing at a door to their left.

"Where's that lead to?"

"Dunno," said Alicia. "Let's see."

It was only a broom cupboard, but it bore enough room for both of them to get into it and close the door behind them. George pulled out his wand. "Lumos!"

For a moment they just stared at each other, both breathing heavily.

George spoke first, rather hesitantly. "So? What do you want to talk to me about?"

"Er – " said Alicia, not sure how to start.

When she didn't say anything George shook his head impatiently. "This is silly. I mean, were standing in a broom cupboard together. A broom cupboard – that alone is –"

"Really pathetic, actually," said Alicia giggling.

George was grinning now. "Horribly embarrassing," he agreed with a nod.

"And all because you didn't want to ask me out when Fred was around."

The grin disappeared from his face, and Alicia realised what she had said. "Oh sorry – I, er, didn't mean to –"

"How do you know?"

"Because –" She hesitated, unable to think of a good explanation that wouldn't make him suspicious.

"Because of what?"

"Because – oh, c'mon, it was obvious," said Alicia emphatically.

George shook his head and rolled his eyes. "Fred told you, didn't he?"

Alicia sighed, "Well – yes." She wasn't good at lying.

"I knew he was going to find out. It's impossible to keep things secret from him."

"Why did you want to keep it secret from him?" asked Alicia. "I thought you two tell each other everything."

"Well – not everything. Obviously."

Alicia gaped at him, disbelievingly. "How come?"

George didn't answer right away. Finally he heaved a deep sigh and started to explain, "He doesn't understand what this means to me. I mean, I know he's gonna ask Angelina out, but not because he likes her. I mean he does like her, but not in that way. He just wants to show off, taking her out because he thinks she's the prettiest girl in our year."

"So you wanted to ask me out because –"

"I really like you."

"You do?" said Alicia.

His ears went scarlet, but he nodded, looking her straight in the eyes. "Yeah, I do. And just so you know; I happen to think that you're the prettiest girl in our year."

Again, Alicia didn't know what to say. Until a couple of hours ago she never would have expected this. George Weasley liked her. Her, of all people. Part of her found that hard to believe. They were so different. She was serious and ambitious – much like his older brother Percy – while he was funny and – well, cool.

But the more she thought about it the more she realised that their differences did not mean it didn't feel good. In fact, there was a strange sensation developing in her stomach, which she had never experienced before. Were those the famous butterflies?

George was getting impatient. "So?" he asked after waiting for a while. "Do you want come to the Ball with me?"

"Yes!" said Alicia, suddenly feeling sure about it. "I do!"

XXX

A/N: Please, do also read "OF Ears, War And Fred Weasley", an outtake from "What Was And What Will Be", centrered around Alicia and Fred, set the morning after the night George's ear was cursed off