AN: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews so far! Keep them coming - tell me what you like! Hope you enjoyed the last chapter - it was one of my favorites to write!

Chapter 14

"You've got that glow," Alicia said as she sat down across from Angelina and Katie. It was late in the afternoon Tuesday. They were meeting for tea in a café at the end of Diagon Alley four days after Angelina's tension with George had come to a head. Angelina sipped her tea and looked at Alicia with a clueless expression. Katie elbowed her gently in the side.

"Don't be coy, miss," she teased. "You've got a secret, and you know we can tell."

"That glow when something good happens… I haven't seen that in quite some time, not from you. Come on now, what is it?" Alicia leaned across the table, putting her ear close enough to hear. Angelina laughed into her ear. She felt like she was back at Hogwarts in the girls' dorm, when they would sit and gossip and giggle well after everyone else was asleep.

Angelina didn't know where to start. They already knew that George had become her best friend, really the best friend she could have hoped for. Did she tell them about the kissing first? Or her confusion? Or the fact that she had spent the entire weekend in his shirt, canoodling with him and ordering dinner in? She smiled as she lifted her tea to her mouth again. She remembered the feeling she'd had as they had talked in his bed Saturday morning. It was that feeling of lightness, the same lightness she'd felt after he'd comforted her outside the Burrow. He had held her in his arms and told her that she was the best thing to ever happen to him. They had talked about how things might change if they became romantically involved, but both decided that there was no need to put any pressure on them. They would let themselves be how they wanted to be and see where the chips fell.

"Well, I suppose I can tell you that George and I won't be the same as before," she said with a grin. The girls squealed with excitement.

"Well it's about bloody time!" Katie shouted. A few other patrons turned, but she ignored their reproachful glares. "Give us the juicy details now, what happened?"

"Well," she said, taking a deep breath, "you know I went over to the Burrow for dinner with his family Sunday, and after his parents went to bed, we all started drinking. I thought maybe it was because we were drunk, but when we got back to his flat, there was something there. I could just feel that he was looking at me differently, you know? I tried to put it out of my head all week, but come Friday, I realized I wanted him to look at me that way, so differently. I hadn't been able to stop thinking about the look in his eyes Sunday night. Anyhow, we walked home, and I held his hand, and I said I didn't know when things had changed, and he kissed me."

Her friends stared at her with gaping mouths. She felt her cheeks flush from the embarrassment. After what felt like an endless silence, Katie closed her mouth, reached over and punched her in the arm. It wasn't a hard punch, but a playful one.

"Took you long enough to get it over with! We've been waiting for it since New Year's. I knew something was up between you two. Really it was only a matter of time."

Now Angelina playfully threw a sugar cube at Katie.

"Don't get your knickers in a twist, Katie. There hasn't always been something going on, it just sort of came up. I can't really explain it, but I am glad. He's pretty good at snogging, you know," she joked. She loved this exchange, this girly sharing of the juicy details. It was something she hadn't done in quite some time. She thought about the last time she'd had anything to tell them gossipy. For a moment she frowned—the last time had been their seventh year, when she'd first slept with Fred. They still didn't know about how she'd started to sleep around with Muggles after the war.

"Alright, so what's it all mean? Are you two going to be an item?" Alicia asked, breaking her away from the memory of Fred. She hadn't noticed Angelina's mood turn; she was sitting eagerly waiting for more details.

"We're just going to take our time, see how everything pans out. We're both in unfamiliar territory, you know? It's a bit scary, actually."

"Do you love him?" Katie asked. Angelina set her tea down as she looked up at her friend, her eyes filled with mirth.

"I think I really do."

"Then it will pan out just fine," Katie said. "Look, we both know that you haven't had the easiest time and that it might be a bit awkward what with George being the twin brother of the last bloke you loved, but given the circumstances of how our lives have turned out, I'd say that you two are meant for each other. Whenever we go out, you two are in your own little world half the time, filled with your jokes and your secrets. It's really cute, actually. I wouldn't worry about a thing."

Angelina smiled and thanked her. It was what she needed to hear right then. Because it really was an awkward thing to fall in love with your dead lover's brother, and she felt better about it knowing that she and George really needed each other.

"So come here, what's he like in bed?" Katie asked, only half joking.

"Ha, like I'm going to tell you that if we ever shag," Angelina laughed.

"You mean you haven't?" Alicia asked. "I thought that's what you do when you realize you're both into each other!" She laughed to herself, thinking about the night Lee had finally admitted to fancying her.

"No, actually we haven't!" Angelina replied, feigning indignity before a more serious note. "I'm not too comfortable with the idea of jumping into bed with him just yet. We're both a bit…fragile, I suppose. Shagging so soon would just mess our heads up even more than they already are, y'know?"

Katie nodded just as Alicia shook her head.

"Oliver and I waited a while, actually. It was pretty new, and we were both still healing, and it just didn't feel right to rush it. I'm pretty glad we waited. It made it for one hell of a night when we finally let it happen," she giggled.

"Lee and I were just too damn frisky for our own goods, I suppose. We didn't put much thought into whether it'd mess us up or not. Too late to worry now!" Alicia chimed in.

"I'm really happy for you, Ange," Katie said, taking her hand across the table.