Chapter 6
'Ash,' George whispered, 'Ashley, love, you need to wake up.'
'Why?' she groaned, quietly,
'Because you need to wake up Ronniekins, they're back.' he said, causing her to groan and roll over, pulling the covers over her head, 'Do you want to take care of Teddy for a whole day?' as soon as he said it, she had gotten up at the speed of light and was halfway out the door. He smirked, before following after her,
'Ronald! Wake-up-now!' she yelled through the door, banging her palms against the wood, and a few moments later the door was opened to a very tired looking Ron with dishevelled hair.
'They back?' he muttered,
'No, I dragged myself out of bed for the sheer pleasure of waking you up for fun.' she muttered darkly, then turned on her heel and walked down the stairs,
'Morning.' Ashley said to both Ginny and Harry, the latter of whom was holding a baby with currently bright turquoise hair.
'Good afternoon,' Ginny corrected, 'Sleep well?' she asked, a smirk on her face,
'I know you know.' Ashley replied, narrowing her eyes slightly,
'Sleeping with George? Noo, I definitely didn't know that.' the red head said, shaking her head from side to side.
'We're friends, Gin! I'm allowed to sleep in the same place as my friend, aren't I?'
'Hmm.' she murmured, skeptically, 'Anyway, as you're the closest, you can take this little thing.' Ginny said, taking Teddy off Harry, then handing him to Ashley.
'Thanks.' she said, taking Teddy as the couple disappeared, 'Unbelievable.' she sat on the sofa and let Teddy sit on her knee. He held out his hands and she took them, resulting in him trying to stand up, before falling back down again. Suddenly, he pointed his finger at something behind Ashley, and she bent her head back to see George had been attempting to sneak up on her.
'George.' Ashley said, 'Teddy kind of gave you away there.'
'I noticed, little git.' George said, smirking as he jumped over the back of the sofa and landed next to Ashley, at which point Teddy reached out his arms towards the male, who took him,
'You can't call a child a git.'
'Not like he knows what it means.' George defended, laughing slightly. He looked down at Teddy to see he was messing around with the buttons on his shirt; flapping his arms around when he wasn't capable of undoing them and refastening them. 'This kid's a bloody muppet.'
'Must be hanging around you too much.' she joked, causing George to feign hurt.
'Aw. Look at you two.' Ginny gushed, as she entered the room, 'You'd make great parents.'
'Shut up.' George said, narrowing his eyes towards his younger sister,
'What? I never said you'd have the same child, did I? I just said you'd be good parents. You two just took it in that way because everyone knows you secretly love each other.' she winked, and George glared, 'Well you're both good with kids! Merlin, calm down.'
'Ginny, just say nothing. Much easier for all involved.' Ashley joked, 'Are you here to take this thing back?' she motioned towards Teddy.
'For a few minutes. Then the two of you can play parents some more and have the little bundle of happiness back.'
'Great. That's exactly what I want.' George drawled, handing Teddy back to Ginny, who rolled her eyes before leaving the room once again.
'I think I'm going to go out for a while.' Ashley said,
'Where?'
'Not anywhere I can trip over tree branches and die.'
'Good.' he said, 'Try not to be long, please?'
'I won't be, don't worry about me.' she said, smiling, 'I need to get changed first, anyway.' and with that, she walked upstairs and into George's room. She had a pair of jeans left, but as far as tops went, she didn't have a varied choice. She searched around for a few minutes before she found one of George's old Quidditch jumpers, which was a bit too big for her, the sleeves covering half her hands. She walked back out and ran into George when she was walking down the stairs,
'Why hello there, I see you have stolen my jumper?' he smiled,
'I have indeed, because I don't have any with me, and, in good old English fashion, it's freezing outside.'
'I forgive you.' George sighed dramatically, 'But, you do owe me for the jumper.'
'I'm sure we can figure something out.' she smirked, as he moved to the side to let her past,
'Should I be worried?'
'Perhaps. Who knows. We'll figure it out.' she winked, 'See you later.'
'Yeah, yeah.' he smirked, as she skipped down the rest of the stairs, leaving the house.
Truthfully, she had no idea where she even wanted to go. She just knew she needed to leave for a while, to have a break from the rest of the world. At Hogwarts, she'd always had somewhere to hide - but she'd never been able to hide for long, because Fred and George had always found her.
Fred and George.
It was going to be strange to just go to calling him George.
George lay down on his bed, staring at the ceiling. This was the best he'd felt in a while, and yet he still felt empty. Like something – or someone, was missing. He obviously knew what it was, he was just more concerned with how long it was going to last.
Then, on top of it all, there was Ashley. He was worried about her. But, he'd always been worried about her, so it wasn't a drastic change. But she'd been worrying him more lately, especially when it came to Fred, and the circumstances in which he'd died.
'What're you thinking about?' his sister walked in, sitting on the end of his bed,
'Important things,' he smiled, sitting up,
'Such as?'
'Things that would go over your young person head.'
'Young person? I'm almost eighteen.'
'I'm twenty-one, I have a lot more to think about. And worry about.'
'Like what? "ugh the girl I like might not like me back I'm so complicated and broody".'
'Yes, exactly like that.'
'Well, I bet she does like you back.'
'I know she doesn't.'
'You can't know that,' Ginny said, 'You just have to hope.'
'When did you get so mature and old.' George smirked,
'About the time you started to regress,'
'...Regress? So you think at one point we were actually maturing?'
'...Partly. When you were around girls you acted a bit less like children.'
'I strongly disagree.'
'Only because you only ever paid attention to Ashley.' Ginny grinned,
'Piss off, at least I spoke to Ashley, you couldn't even say "hello" to Harry without turning into a tomato.'
'I was eleven.'
'Irrelevant.'
'If you'd met Ashley when you were...how old were you when you started fancying her? Thirteen, fourteen?'
'Thirteen,' he confirmed,
'Well, if you'd met Ashley when you were thirteen, what exactly would you have said to her?'
'I don't know, but I'm sure we would have had some classes together.'
'I feel like if she hadn't met you two she'd be a Ravenclaw.'
'To be honest, I thought that too. We corrupted her.'
'I mean, you could have still had classes with her though, right?'
'Probably, we had Potions, Transfiguration, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts with Ravenclaws.'
'When did you realise you fancied her?' Ginny frowned, 'Is it the same as when girls fancy someone?'
'...I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm not a girl. How the hell do I know what girls are like when they fancy someone?'
'How does Ashley act around you?' she smirked, and her brother glared, 'Relax,'
'I don't know when I realised I fancied her, to answer your question. It just happened. Like, I realised I wanted to be with her all the time, and I got jealous
whenever she spoke to Diggory.'
'Let's not keep it PG rated, I am seventeen now.'
'What kind of boy do you take me for,' George smirked, 'I was thirteen!'
'...yes?'
'Fine, yes I thought about making out with her – but NOT anything else,'
'I know you're lying, but for the sake of sibling privacy I'll accept it.'
'Your opinion of me is so low it's worrying.'
'Just because it's worrying doesn't mean I'm wrong.'
'Well, whatever, there's a line. And you don't talk about things across the line with your little sister.'
'Ashley would tell me.'
'Ashley isn't your older brother.'
'That's true. I'm glad you've noticed. Back to the topic, I wanna hear more about it.' she moved so she was sitting with her legs crossed, grinning in what she believed to be a convincing way,
'Really?'
'Yes. It's not like Ron thinks like this.'
'Surely your best bet is Bill? He's married.'
'Exactly, I never see him. Percy's a prat, Ron's so unromantic it actually pains me to be in the same room with him and Hermione. Charlie's in love with dragons-'
'I'm sure dragons are to him what girls are to me.'
'Stop changing the subject. You're the only one left. And although you act like you're this … emotionally uninvested person, I know you're not.'
'How can you possibly know that?'
'Because I know everything.'
'Arguable.'
'Just tell meeeee,' Ginny whined, pouting like a child,
'What do you wanna know?' George sighed,
'What was it like.'
'What was what like?'
'Realising. And don't spin the whole "it just happened" crap to me.'
'Fine. It was terrifying. I didn't know what it was, I didn't know why I felt that way and I didn't know what to do about it. I thought it was just...a thing, like how most people would feel if they were friends with someone of whatever gender they liked. I asked Fred about it, and he said something like "Ashley?...nah. I mean, she's pretty...but for some reason, nothing. Make it easier if there was something, it's way easier to date people you're already friends with", and obviously after that he liked Angelina.'
'That's cute.'
'...Cute?' he questioned, 'Me being absolutely terrified is cute?'
'Yes. It isn't very often you're scared of something, so the fact that it's liking someone is just...aw.'
'Shove off,'
'Okay, next. Kissing her.'
'...Any specific time?'
'The best.'
'Okay. I think...when we made out.'
'Gross.'
'I don't have to tell you this stuff.'
'Nooo! Come on,'
'Fine. Erm. You know when you're really thirsty, and you haven't drank in hours?'
'...Yeah?'
'And then you drink and it kind of feels like the best thing ever?'
'Yes.'
'That's what it was like. It was like I'd been waiting for it for so long, and then it happened and it was better than I thought it'd be.'
'Don't you miss it now?'
'Well...yeah, I guess so. But I still have her, you know? She's still here, as a presence. There's always the possibility that it's going to happen, and it could
happen at any point.'
'Isn't that better?' Ginny questioned, 'The wondering and the ...excitement, I guess? Not knowing when or how it's going to happen next.'
'Or "if" it's going to,'
'Come on, even you know it will. It could be today, next week, next year, but you know it will.'
'I don't think it'll happen again.'
'You're wrong, George.'
'Whatever.'
'Anyway, that was the worst analogy I've ever heard.'
'I didn't claim to not be shit at story telling.'
'True.'
'Any other questions you want to fire at me before she gets back?'
'Do you love her?'
'I don't know.'
They both knew that was a lie, George even felt guilty saying it, but the second he said it out loud...that was when it got real. And that was when it got even scarier.