Disclaimer: I own nothing except my characters.

Note: I like this chapter, hope you guys do too! Happy reading! PS: Any Americans or well versed pop culture people will quickly get my references in this chapter. If you don't, don't be afraid to ask! Happy reading! Last chapter until I get some rest.

Some One on One Time with George Weasley

I had only made it halfway down the driveway when I realized there was a much quicker way to get to Diagon Alley. I turned around and headed back inside, and went to the kitchen, ignoring the sounds from upstairs. I stepped into the empty fireplace and threw in some floo power "Diagon Alley!" I shouted, closing my eyes as I felt a wind around me. When I opened my eyes I was in Diagon Alley. I took in as much air as possible, though, most of it made me make a face. I stepped outside, there was less hustle on the streets today, not many people were buying presents it seemed. I looked around cautiously; I didn't exactly want Mrs. Weasley to know I was here. I wrapped my cloak around myself and continued toward the twins's ideal location for the joke shop.

The musty smell hit me first, making me a step back, though I tried not to cough, it wouldn't be polite. I looked around; it was dark, even though most of the shades were pulled up. At the far wall was a picture of a bakery, little wizards and witches walking inside and out, talking merrily, as if they hadn't noticed the drastic change around them. I looked at the rows of boxes, most of labels were in French, long cursive swirls for the letters. The floor was wooden, though, it was quite obvious it needed a good cleaning, as did the walls and ceiling, no wonder why the place was going out of business, it wasn't up to standards at all.

"Hello," a voice behind me said, making me jump a good few inches into the air. I spun around, almost dropping the money bag.

"Um, hi, I was just looking," I replied nervously. The old witch, who had a long brown cane, which I'm sure she used for walking, unlike Mr. Malfoy, tapped the rack behind me. "No thanks, I don't want anything." I said, feeling a bit shy. She tapped the rack again, this time I did turn around. Between the two pink frilly boxes was a ring. It was large and expensive looking diamond ring.

"Someone lost that, would you mind bringing it up to the front for me? And also, the carrot truffle scones?" the old women asked she hobbled back toward the front. I looked around again, I had no idea what carrot truffle scones looked like, I barely knew what scones looked like. Not to mention I had little desire to actually stay in the place if neither twin were around. Sighing, I grabbed the ring and looked at the boxes, what was the French word for carrots? I asked myself as I carefully opened the lids and continued down the rows.

I peeked into one of the boxes, though, I wasn't sure if it was carrot truffle, my sense of smell was seriously lacking. There were clumps of orange peeking through the circular mass of a treat and the designed looked wavy. I shrugged, I wasn't an employee, it wasn't like I knew, or had to help. I made my way back up to the front, surprised to see one lady already there. She was looking around frantically, her wheat colored hair sticking out from under her sky blue hat, which perfectly matched her cloak. I moved closer, she wasn't speaking to any in particular, just shouting in a panicked voice.

"Miss, is everything alright?" I asked without thinking. For all I knew she could've ate a bad scone and might turn around and start blaming me, thinking I may have worked there. She looked at me, her hazel eyes big with worry. She started speaking quickly, but I could barely understand her. Not because she was speaking so fast but because she wasn't speaking English. "Um…" I looked at the old lady but she appeared to be focusing on something completely different, a far off smile on her face and her eyes were glazed. I looked back at the women talking to me. "Sorry, I don't understand anything you're saying…do you need help?" I asked. The lady, who may have either understood some English or figured by my hand movements that I had no idea what she was going on about. She sighed, taking a deep breath in and started talking again.

"Lost…must find" she said, her words sharp with a French accent. Well, at least that explained why she was here.

"Okay, what did you lose?" I asked looking back at the less than helpful owner but she was now only swaying. I thought for a moment she might collapse but she seemed perfectly stable on her feet. I looked back at the woman, she had been speaking but my mind must have tuned her out. I shook my head, urging her to stop. "I don't know French, why don't you ask her?" I said pointing to the owner. The woman looked over, said something and then quickly turned back to me shaking her head in frustration as she did.

Finally, as if giving up she resorted to hand gestures; at least that was something I would be able to understand a lot better. She pointed to herself, then her hand, the floor, the counter, an isle and then the door. I stared at her, not having a clue as to what she was saying. "Again, slower, specific…" I told her. She looked at me in slight confusion.

"Specsick?" she repeated.

"Specific, more detail" I said. I wanted to laugh, I felt like I was back home playing a muggle game. She pointed to herself again, this time motioning up and down. Okay, her, I got that part. She pointed to hand again, but this time she moved her pointer finger to only one finger, her ring finger.

"Oh!" I exclaimed. "You lost your ring, yeah, here you go!" I said feeling excited that I could actually help her. She seemed so overjoyed to see her prized possession again that she nearly ripped her purse off her shoulder. "No, it's okay, I didn't really find it…" I said, pushing the purse back toward her. She frowned but took the ring anyway. Her eyes went back to their normal size and her faced eased into a smile as she stared down at the ring.

"Very special" she said, still looking happily at the ring. She moved her hand closer to my face, as if I couldn't see the shiny diamond from where I stood, only a few feet away from her.

"It's very nice—" I started but then she touched the ring and suddenly it lit up and opened, like a screen and suddenly there were pictures, like a slideshow, moving across the little diamond. "That's beautiful…" I finally managed to stumble out. I looked back up at her, her cheeks were flushed, shy, embarrassed, happy, all of it showed on her face.

"Wee" she said sniffling a little. "Merce" she added giving me a hug before running out of the store. I shook my head as I turned to look back at the owner, my happiness almost allowing me to forget she didn't help at all. "Here," I flatly said to her, tossing the box of treats on the counter. She had stopped rocking and seemed to look completely focused on her surroundings. I turned around, not expecting a thank you or really, any comments.

"It's nice to see people act from the heart instead of the mind, nothing, no one should be able to change how we feel, don't you agree?" I turned back; she was now munching on one of the scones.

"Yeah, sure…" I said, suddenly feeling awkward in front of her.

"Tammie?" I whipped my head around, Fred-no George—was standing there. "What are you doing in here?" he sounded hoarse, he looked tired.

"Oh, hey, I was looking for you and Fred, I figured you'd come here first." I explained, waving a hand around.

"We would, when the owner is here…but since she's on vacation in the tropics it doesn't really make sense to come in. Didn't you see the 'closed' sign?" he asked pointing toward the window. I looked over too, a bright red sign saying 'CLOSED' was in clear view, but I could've sworn it wasn't there before.

"No, I guess not" I replied looking back George.

"Well, it was locked, so, how did you get in?" I looked at him for a long time, maybe he was just messing with me because I was a Malfoy.

"It wasn't locked. Hang on, how did you get in?"

"I have a key, Fred and I were cleaning it up during the summer, she gave us keys so we could come clean whenever we felt like it." He explained with a shrug of the shoulders. I looked back at the door, it certainly wasn't locked.

"Well, I guess the other employee unlocked it," I said thumbing behind me.

"Who?" George asked, this time looking a bit concerned. I turned around to point at the old lady but she was no longer there, only a box of empty scones.

"I—I was just…" I looked around, nothing, no one. She couldn't have moved that quickly, she barely made it to the counter before I did. "Well, it must be unlocked, some lady came in all frantic—"

"Did she have wheat colored hair? Spoke French, hazel eyes?" George asked. I nodded. "That's the owner's daughter, though, I forgot which one she is." I was hardly listening; my mind was still on old crackpot who asked me to get the food.

"Er, how are you holding up?" I finally asked, pushing my thoughts of the old woman aside as George throw away the empty box on the counter and then led me out.

"Wonderful, terrific, fantastic" he said sarcastically, waving his arms. "I'm doing—what's that?" he asked pointing to the money bag I was trying to stuff back into my already full pockets.

"Oh, you know, a heap of money I don't need from the Malfoys, you want it?" I asked still trying to shove the bag into my pocket.

"I hate the Malfoys right now, so no, I don't want any of their money," he said coldly. I shifted, careful not to say anything. He's just mad. I remembered myself as started out.

"George, I know it's hard right now…" I started but he waved a hand at me.

"Save it. It's not like I didn't know it was coming" he said sadly as we continued down, pass a bookstore.

"So what is it a big deal?" I asked boldly.

"Because I care about her, I like her, she's better than you…" he mumbled. I frowned, even though I deserved it, it still hurt.

"I'm know I'm awful to Fred, I hurt him a lot, but, he means everything to me. Just like Melinda means everything to Draco…"

"How do you know?" he asked, still annoyed. I sighed, secretly I wished I was banging my head against the nearest wall, this wasn't a conversation I wanted to have with George, especially not now, but I couldn't very well lie.

"I saw it; those visions, he tells her he loves her" I explain quietly.

"When?" George asked, making a weird face. "When does it happen I mean? I can still change it, I can make her see I'm perfect for her—"

"You can't go around doing stuff like that. Leave things as they are. Besides, it's one thing to mess with the future but another to mess with a person's emotions." I looked at him again, his face was a bit relaxed again, but he seemed to be concentrating very hard on something in front of him. "I don't know when George, but it happens at school, she doesn't look much older than now…and, um, she still has her badge, the prefect one" I told him.

"So, between this year and next year…see, plenty of time" he said trying to smile but just shook his head. "I don't get it, why don't you two see that you can't go back and forth with people. People that honestly care. I mean, no offense, but if were me dating you, the moment I saw you looking at Matt too long I would've been done. But take Cedric; he's a nice bloke, but when he realized he was just being used, c'mon, it's a not a conscience they broke up shortly after." George stated. I shrugged, he made good points.

"Well, why do you keep taking us back?" I asked, giving a little smile. He sighed, feeling slightly defeated. "George, you know you don't love her, that's not you…your strings are being pulled" I explained as we headed inside a store which sold Quidditch supplies.

"But what if it isn't?" he asked excitedly, looking around at the different robes supporting different teams. "Have you ever seen them play?" he asked, completely distracted by a red, white and blue robe. I looked at the crest, America.

"I wasn't even aware Quidditch existed before I was thirteen" I admitted. "But, look, this is nice!" I said holding up a poster of the American Quidditch Team. "Oh, and this too!" I said picking a book which listed past and present members of the American Team. I thumbed through the book, stopping at a familiar picture. "What?" I asked, giggling aloud.

"Hmm?" George asked moving over to take a look.

"It says: A famous Olympic swimmer tried out at the age of 15 for the smaller league, hoping to someday make it to the actual American Team, but he lost to Hector Ranch and since then gave up his dream of Quidditch to pursue his second dream, swimming, and boy was that a good decision" I said with a laugh as flipped to another page. "William Smitt was one of the first African Americans to try out and actually make the team, but quit after a run in with several incidents with men who all used racial terms against him…" George started but I started into another fit of giggles.

"This is wonderful…" I said.

"You know those people?" George asked in surprise.

"Heavens no, but the first guy, the swimmer, he's really popular in America. And the second guy, he's a well-known actor in movies, one of my favorites actually." I explained.

"Like in those pictures you told us about?" he asked. I nodded, hoping he wouldn't ask about them again. Both Melinda and I tried explaining several times but it never seems to get through. "So, does that mean they're wizards?" I asked curiously, looking back down at the picture of Will Smith waving before adjusting his collar and then nodding.

"Probably, or they're half-blood" George explained. I nodded, gave a sigh and closed the book, looking at it longingly and finally setting it back its place. "American Quidditch: Past, Present and Hopeful, a History." I'd have to make sure to keep a mental note for when I came back in the summer. "Does Ron still like the Irish?" I asked George as we approached the abnormally large sized hats.

"Yep, though, he's still in love with Victor Krum of course…" George teased. I gave him a friendly nudge and looked at the Bulgarian and Irish hats, debating which one he might like more. "I think I'll get this one then…" I said finally taking off the largest green and white hat I could see. "Hmm, I know they have it somewhere…" I passed the hat to George and hurried along the aisle, finally stopping when I found the "winter's kit," full of flying necessities when flying in the winter. "This is for Harry" I started to tell George but he wasn't where I left him. "George?" I called, looking back the down the isle I came from and then started for the door so I could get a better look.

It didn't help, he wasn't the tallest wizard in here, and also, he wasn't the only one carrying a large hat. "Tammie, what are you doing way over there? C'mon, hurry up" George shouted from a few feet away. "You got more? I just paid for your hat" he said holding a bag.

"You didn't have to do that…" I told him but he shrugged, said he'd be outside and I made my way toward the register.