I'm certainly glad that you guys seem to like this story. I must admit, I'm having quite some fun writing it.
Special thanks to my reviewers; TheDutchCourage, slytherinqueen23, carolina4800, sweetkiss53, medfanofreading, HPFanFictionFan, remuslives, Albi1, Readerforlife, babiijorx0 and WeasleyWeakness!
Now to chapter three.
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"Wow," I say, looking at the stacks of products yet to be sold.
George shrugs at me from the back room that he uses for storage in the shop. There were shelves upon shelves of boxes yet to be released to the public. "I haven't had much to do since Fred-"
"Anything worthwhile?" I ask him quickly, trying to avoid an awkward silence at his mention of Fred.
"Everything," he says with a grateful smile, walking over to a shelf to his left. "I think you'll like these," he states, gesturing me over.
I study the colorful boxes on the shelf in surprise. "Muggle games?"
"Only in theory," he says with a grin, taking a "Chutes and Ladders" game off the shelf and placing it on the ground to take the lid off and pull the board out.
"Where are the pieces?" I ask.
He smirks and kneels down, waving me to do the same. "Tap on the board three times with your wand."
I look at him skeptically and he rolls his eyes at me.
"Do you trust me?" He asks.
Breathing in deeply, I take my wand out of my pocket and tentatively tap it three times against the board. With a rush, a feeling quite like apparition, I find myself in the game board, the chutes and ladders suddenly very real and towering above me.
Within seconds, George is standing by me. "So what do you think?"
I look around the board in amazement. "You did this all yourself?" I ask turning to him quickly.
He shakes his head at me. "The Muggle games were Fred's idea," he states, looking around at the colorful ladder near us. "I thought I'd finish them."
"It's brilliant," I tell him, earnestly.
"You've only seen the half of it," he states, grabbing my hand and pulling me to the start of the game where two softball-sized dice lay. "Go ahead."
At his obvious excitement, and current ability to talk about Fred, I do just as he tells me without even a slight hesitation. Rolling the dice in front of me, they come to a stop at a four and a three. I look at George and he nods enthusiastically, so I take seven steps forward and the dice magically move to in front of George's feet as a sort of hologram appears before me catching me off guard and causing me to jump in surprise.
"Very nice work, Ms. Granger," the woman sates. She looks remarkably like a younger version of McGonagall and she's holding a paper with a large 'O' printed on it. "You may climb ahead on the ladder."
The ladder before be begins to glow and when I step on the bottom rung it moves me to the next side like a Muggle escalator.
"So what do you think?" George calls to me from where he's still standing at the starting spot.
"It's amazing! How do we get out?" I ask him in return.
He takes his wand out of his pocket and taps the bored once and he instantly disappears. Taking my wand out of my pocket, I do the same, and find myself back in the storage room. At the sudden contact of my feet against the hard floor, I stumble backwards, only to have George support me from behind.
"Thanks," I say as he turns me around to face him. He studies me for a few moments and opens his mouth as if to say something but then closes it. "What?" I ask him.
"Ron's room," he states and I can feel my heart beat faster along with my cheeks redden. "Did you mean what you said?"
"Yeah," I reply sheepishly.
He nods at me and looks down towards our feet.
"George?" I ask.
When he looks back up at me, he's biting his bottom lip, thinking carefully. "I like you, Hermione," he finally says. "A lot. Ever since D.A. I used to watch you and admire your skill and the patience you had with Neville and the others. And how bloody scary you could be when upset."
I give a small laugh at that comment, but I can hardly believe what he's telling me right now.
"And then how you were there for Harry after Sirius died. The first time you came into the shop I was so nervous about what you would think of it, I could hardly talk to you. You and Ginny were looking at the products and Fred had to talk to you because I just couldn't."
I smile again, not only because I find his statement to be incredibly adorable, (who would have know George Weasley could be bashful?) but also because he yet again was able to mention Fred.
"I don't want to hurt you though," he states, taking my hands in his. "I'm not myself right now, and with Fred gone, I'm not sure that I will ever be that person again."
"I want to help you," I reply. "If you want me to, that is. I just hate seeing you so miserable."
"These past two days," George starts. "You've made me feel…alive…again. When Fred died, I didn't think I could ever be happy again, not even for a moment. I shut people out. I drowned in my work. I haven't been eating. I haven't been sleeping….Last night- well last night I went to bed with a smile on my face."
"Fred and I talked," George says quietly, his expression changing once more to sadness. "Before the battle. We talked about if something was to happen to one of us. He told me, whatever I did, to not cry over him, to be happy…to live on. I told him the same thing. If it were me looking down on him as he could very well be on me right now, it'd tear me apart…I know he wouldn't want me like this. I had promised him that I wouldn't be this way. That I'd be there for mum…"
I pull George into my arms as he begins to cry and run my hands through his long ginger hair. "He'd understand, George," I whisper to him and he nods into my shoulder.
After a few minutes, when he's calmed himself down enough to be able to talk to me, he pulls away and looks at me in determination.
"I want to start working on that promise now."
I smile at him and give him a slow kiss on his cheek. "Then I think we have a Christmas Eve party to be getting to," I reply.
"I think you're right," he says with a slight forced smile. Taking his wand back out of his pocket he stores the game back inside its box and on the shelf and summons the store's sales book to his hands; what he had originally come here for. "You ready?" He asks me, holding out his hand.
"Yup," I reply and he leads me out of the shop and into the alley where he apparates us both back to the Weasley's house.
"Well here goes," George states, pushing the door open and walking into the kitchen. We're instantly met with the smell of pie and soft playing of Christmas music.
"I'm going to go talk to Ginny," I state, looking up at George. "If you need me at all just come get me."
"I might call you on that," he replies as I walk into the living room where Ginny and Harry were currently talking.
Ginny looks at me with a grin as I watch George make his way over to Bill and Charlie. They look surprised for a moment but then include him in their conversation like nothing was out of the ordinary.
"So what'd you do?"
"We actually played Chutes and Ladders," I reply with a smile. "He's got a line of magically supported Muggle games that he's developing for release."
"Sounds fun," Harry replies as Ron comes down the stairs.
"I'm going to get a drink," I state, noticing the awkward look that Harry was now giving me, looking towards Ron.
Making my way into the kitchen, I pour myself a butter beer and sit down at the table where I can watch everyone. Molly and a very pregnant Fleur are off in a corner excitedly talking about her upcoming child, Arthur and Percy are standing in the middle of the parlor on about work. It's nice to see Percy embrace his family once more. Harry, Ginny and Ron seem to be in a tense discussion, but my eyes linger on the opposite side of the room where Charlie, Bill and George are sitting in a circle, each one laughing boisterously.
I jump at the hand on my shoulder and look up to see Molly, who was only moments ago with Fleur. "Can we talk?"
"Of course," I reply and she sits down beside me, my gaze returning back to George with a smile on my face.
"I wasn't sure I'd ever see him smile again," she says to me, my attention turning back to her and her moist eyes. "When I lost Fred, I lost him too…I don't know what you've done," she states looking down at me in appreciation. "But it was certainly a remarkable and unbelievable Christmas gift. I may not be able to get Fred back…But I've got some of George back, and that gives me hope."
She gives me a hug and then pulls away, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Thank you, Hermione," she says before getting up from the table and walking over to George. The conversation in the room stops as she stares at George for a few moments before breaking down in tears and throwing herself around him.
"Aww, Mum," he says loudly in a whine that makes Bill and Charlie grin. "Come on," he states with a smile. "You're getting my shirt all wet."
"I've missed you," she says in a muffled voice.
"I know," George replies softly, bending down to kiss her head. "And I'm going to fix that."
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