"Hi," I said in reply, leaning into him. He moved his arm and wrapped it around my shoulder, securing me in a warm hold.
"You seemed distracted during dinner, is everything alright?" he asked carefully.
I sighed softly, not wanting to voice what was on my mind. It made me upset to even think about, but I really did need to know the answer. No, I finally decided. I wouldn't ask him tonight. Call me chicken, but I just couldn't deal with it yet.
"Nothing, George, just some female stuff," I finally answered him. He didn't look convinced but let the subject drop. "How's the store going?" I asked, leaning into his hold. He was so deliciously warm, I loved snuggling with him.
He took a deep breath before going off about how well the store was going. His voice got lighter, and happier as he spoke, clearly he loved the joke shop a lot. His light attitude, funny jokes, and general happiness got my mind off my troubles. He got me laughing in short. We ended up talking for an hour, so long that it was getting really dark and slightly chilly.
"I can't believe it's just a few more weeks until you have to go back to Hogwarts," George said suddenly, taking his eyes off the brilliant stars and looking down at me.
I sighed, turning my gaze from the sky to his blue eyes. I honestly didn't want to go back to Hogwarts, I didn't want to have to face the questions we were sure to get about the DA and Department of Mysteries. I didn't want to leave George either.
"Yeah, I can hardly believe I'm already a sixth year." I took a breath before turning my gaze from him. "I'm going to miss seeing you every other night."
"Hermione," George said. He put his finger under my chin and gently turned it towards him, tilting his head slightly as he stared at me with warm eyes. "Fred and I know more ways to get in and out of that school than anyone but Dumbledore. I will be sneaking into see you, and I'll write to you on our Galleon's every night." He got a mischievous smile before continuing. "Plus, Fred and I've come up with a product to help our separation."
"Really?" I asked, my curiosity peaked. He smiled maddeningly and shook his head.
"Uh-uh, Granger, you're not making me say anything more." I looked up at him and actually found myself smiling. How did he make me do that so easily? I was ready to jump off the astronomy tower during dinner, and it only took him a few words to make me smile.
"There's that beautiful smile," he said softly. A smiled twitched his lips before he started leaning towards me. I leaned up towards him and our lips met in a soft, tender kiss. I'd lost track of the number of times I'd kissed him, but it still left me breathless and dizzy. Still made me want more, made me feel like I'd burst if I couldn't touch him, hold him, kiss him. Things got rather heated rather quickly, and before I knew it I was laying in the grass with George on top of me. I had my hands up his shirt, running my fingers along his firm chest, and he was gripping my leg, pulling it around his waist. I'd never ever taken things so far with George, and I was losing myself to the feelings he was evoking. I didn't know how to handle the warm rush that had filled my belly, or why it was that I needed to touch him everywhere.
"Oi!" A voice called from the other side of the tree.
I pulled back from George grudgingly and shot a glare at the intruder. "What do you want Ronald?" I asked, trying to look like I hadn't just been caught in such a compromising situation.
"Mom wanted to tell you that it's getting late and if she catches you," he said, pointing at George. "doing anything with her," he pointed at me, "she'll see to it that Fred will be the only twin to have grandbabies." He smiled widely as George cringed. He rolled off of me, sitting up and helping me to sit up with him.
"Said something about Ginny and the bedroom," Ron explained.
"Merlin!' I exclaimed standing and brushing my clothes off. "Nothing happened, I was tickling him!" George was laughing now as he re-buttoned his shirt. Strange, I didn't recall undoing it, hmm, must have been more distracted than I thought.
Ron raised his hands to his ears, closing his eyes and grimacing. "I don't want to hear it, whatever it was," he said grimacing. "I just was sent to fetch you. Did you guys not realize it was eleven?"
"Eleven?" I asked, disbelief evident in my voice.
"Blimey!" George exclaimed. "Fred's gonna kill me, we were supposed to be home by nine. We have a project to work on!" He started running towards the house before he stopped and turned around, running back to me instead. He pulled up to me and pulled me to him.
"Turn around Ron," he said, smiling at me with his cocky, lopsided grin. Ron obliged and George swooped down, claiming my lips in a searing kiss that was over far too quickly.
"See you soon, Hermione," he said, breaking the kiss. I mumbled something, my mind was still hazy from the kiss, and he ran back to the house.
I turned towards Ron, who was fighting not to grin. "Don't even start Ron," I warned, walking towards the house with what dignity I could muster.
"'Mione," he called, running up to me. "You might want to button your shirt up all the way, if you want to see George tomorrow. I think Mum would kill him if she saw you looking so snogged." I blushed brilliantly and fixed my shirt, embarrassed to discover it had come nearly undone in our umm, tussle.
He smiled at me, clearly still trying not to laugh. "I really was just tickling him earlier," I said.
He laughed and rolled his eyes. "Sure."
I woke up to the sound of Ron banging on my door the next morning. When did Ron get up before me? I got up out of bed and opened the door to see an extremely excited red head bouncing up and down in the doorway.
"What's up?" I asked, only a little worried.
"Harry arrived last night!" he exclaimed, his goofy grin lighting up his face. An equally silly grin lit my face up and I grabbed his arm, pulling him with me towards George and Fred's old room. Mrs. Weasley had decided to stick him in there, even though he usually shared with Ron. I doubted he'd stay in there long: he loved sharing a room with Ron. He loved feeling like he had a brother, even though he'd never actually admit it.
We ran into the room, practically breaking the door down in our excitement. Ron ran for the bed, and I went for the window. I drew the curtains back as Harry sat up, a dazed look on his face.
'Wuzz goin on?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes as he plopped his glasses on.
"We didn't know you were here already!" Ron said loudly, practically glowing with excitement. He popped Harry on the head in what was surely meant to be a manly show of affection, but it came out rather hard.
"Don't hit him!" I said, smiling despite myself.
"How you doing?" Ron asked as he pulled a cardboard box up to the bed. I sat on the edge of the bed, wondering momentarily whether or not it was George's bed that Harry was sleeping in.
"Good, little tired. I got here at about one o'clock this morning."
"How'd the muggles treat you?" Ron asked eagerly, clearly wondering whether or not our threats at the beginning of the holiday had done any good.
"Same as usual. They didn't talk to me much but I like it better that way." I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. I was studying him, making sure he was okay. He didn't look bad. He looked well rested. Underfed, but not severely so.
"Did I miss breakfast?" Harry asked, looking hungry. Ron smiled widely and nodded his head.
"Yep, Mum's bringing you up a tray of food. She reckons you look underfed." He rolled his eyes at the end, smiling in spite of himself. I leaned forward in my seat and smiled at Harry, letting my excitement show through.
"So, what have you been up to?" I asked.
"Not much. I've been with the muggles haven't I?" Harry answered, looking clueless. Ron raised his hands indignantly and gave Harry a friendly shove.
"Come off it!" he exclaimed. "You've been of with Dumbledore!"
"It wasn't that exciting. He just wanted me to help him persuade this old teacher to come out of retirement. His names Horace Slughorn," Harry answered, looking curious. Ron's face fell and he spoke before I could stop him. I shot him a glare and he abruptly shut his mouth before he said anything else.
Harry smiled and opened his mouth to speak, but didn't get a chance.
"Hi, Harry," Ginny said, flouncing in the room in annoyance. She plunked herself down next to me and rolled her eyes.
"What's up with you?" Ron asked, as though he didn't know.
"It's her," she answered, rolling her eyes. "She's driving me mad!" I patted her arm sympathetically.
"What's she done now?" I asked.
"It's the way she talks to me, it's like I was three!" she exclaimed, indignation flaring her up. I nodded my head in understanding, annoyance flooding me as well.
"I know, she's so full of herself!" I exclaimed, rolling my eyes and huffing.
I'd no sooner finished saying the words than the door to the bedroom burst open. Fleur came gliding into the room, her Veela charm turned all the way on. Harry jerked the bedcover up to his chin so hard that it pulled the blanket out from under Ginny and me, flipping us off the bed and onto the floor.
"'Arry," Fleur said, in her throaty, obnoxious voice. I straightened myself on the floor, helping Ginny sit up as we both glared daggers at the Veela. "Eet 'as been too long!" she finished. I snorted at that, while Ginny also bit back a laugh. She'd just greeted him exactly like we'd predicted. We looked over just in time to see Fleur give Harry a kiss. I didn't like Harry romantically at all, not even a little bit. But seeing her kiss him sent a wave of anger through my stomach that just made me want to hex her. I shouldn't have disliked her so much… I wondered if it was another affect of Veela: they repelled women as much as they attracted men… Hmm, that might bear some looking into. Either way, I needed to get a grip on myself. She had yet to actually do anything to me.
Mrs. Weasley came bursting into the room moments later, a look of murderous rage on her normally caring face.
"I was about to bring that tray up!" she declared, glaring at Fleur. Harry and Fleur were still talking, but I had long ago drowned them out. She said something else but I was still not listening. I'd just caught Ginny's eye out of the corner of mine and reached out to grab her, stopping her from charging the Veela.
We'd get her later. George had left some color changing potion in one of these boxes. I foresaw it ending up in the Veela's shampoo. That made me laugh. I could just see how horrified the poor girl would be about her hair changing colors. Probably would just make her prettier, but it would be fun nonetheless.
"Enjoy your breakfast, 'Arry!" Fleur said, before sauntering out of the room. Mrs. Weasley made a strangled moan of frustration, one Ginny completely agreed with.
"Mum hates her," Ginny explained to Harry, seething just as much as her mum.
"I do not hate her!" Mrs. Weasley said in cross whisper. "They've just hurried into this engagement, that's all," she explained, glaring at the door.
"They've known each other a year," Ron said, shaking his head like he was trying to clear water out of it.
I couldn't even find it in myself to be mad at him. It wasn't his fault; she boggled boys' minds. It wasn't fair to them. They couldn't protect themselves against her magic unless they were deeply in love with another woman. That's what made it so infuriating. You couldn't even get mad at the guys for ogling her. They actually had no control over it! If I was to be completely fair, though, it wasn't really Fleur's fault either. She couldn't help it that she was born that way, she just attracted men. The whole thing was infuriating, I mean, who the heck could I get mad at?
It wasn't that I disliked Fleur, it was honestly that I was jealous of her. My first night here George had showed up to eat dinner with us, and Fleur had been here as well. Bill had just gotten back from sort of Order mission, and Fleur was literally glowing with happiness at seeing him again. Her beauty intensified when she was happy, and it had distracted all the guys, even the ones who were in love or married.
We'd ended up having to have Fleur and Bill leave the room until she could get her powers under control, but it was easier to be mad at her than to actually try and be her friend. Plus, I was worried about making Ginny and Mrs. Weasley mad at me… Maybe I should try and talk to her on her own time, away from Ginny and Mrs. Weasley. I could try speaking in French, that may help. It would make Fleur feel more comfortable. That was the real reason for my irrational dislike though: she'd had George drooling after her, and I knew that if she'd have batted her eyes at him I would never have had a prayer of competing with her. She was so pretty it made me want to kiss her. I knew she was smart as well - she'd been picked for the TriWizard tournament.
"Well, that's not very long!" I sighed as Mrs. Weasley continued to rant and closed my eyes. Impossibly, I actually agreed with Ron on this front. They'd known each other for a year and really did love each other, so why not go ahead and get married? It wasn't like we all exactly had a hopeful future.
Urgh, I need to get out of this overcrowded house. Maybe I could sneak off to Diagon Alley later todayto see George. Ooh, I could stop by and see Angelina too.
"It's happened, of course. Its all this uncertainty with You-Know-Who coming back. People think they might be dead tomorrow, so they're rushing all sorts of decisions they'd normally take time over. It was the same last time he was powerful, people eloping left, right, and center..." Mrs. Weasley trailed off, a sad look on her face.
"Including you and Dad," Ginny said, grinning at her mother. She loved to banter with her mum, and the two could really go at it. None of the guys in this house ever dared fight either of them.
"Yes, well, your father and I were made for each other, what was the point in waiting?" Mrs. Weasley said with a fond smile. "Whereas Bill and Fleur . . . well. . . what have they really got in common? He's a hardworking, down-to-earth sort of person, whereas she's …"
"A cow," Ginny offered, grinning wider."But Bill's not that down-to-earth. He's a Curse-Breaker, isn't he? He likes a bit of adventure, a bit of glamour. ... I expect that's why he's gone for Phlegm."
"Stop calling her that, Ginny," Mrs. Weasley said sharply but her grin diminished the intimidating affect somewhat and both Harry and I laughed. "Well, I'd better get on. ... Eat your eggs while they're warm, Harry," Mrs. Weasley said lovingly before leaving the room.
A/N: Thanks to Ninja goldfish for betaing this!