Chapter 13:

The next morning I woke up feeling reenergized from having gotten a full nights sleep. I yawned sleepily and smiled at the notion that for the first time in months I had not had one nightmare wake me. I sat up in the bed and yawned looking out the window, and just sat in the silence. I noticed I was up pretty early but I didn't care because I had slept! Suddenly I remembered the dream I had last night, or was it a dream? I couldn't remember. I wracked my brain and decided it had to be a dream, because there was no way George could have tried to kiss me! Or was there?

October arrived and everyone was getting colds, keeping Madam Pomfrey awake all night passing out the Pepperup Potion. The potion helped right away but the only problem was that it left the drinker having smoke pour out of there ears for a few hours afterwords. Percy forced Ginny to get it since she was looking a little pale and she looked weird with her bright red hair flying all over from the steam blowing out her ears. I was getting a bit of a cold too and Harry tried to make me go but I just rolled my eyes at him. There was no way he was getting me too take a potion that made smoke come out of my ears.

After one rainy quidditch practice both me and Harry were making our way back to the common room when we ran into Nearly Headless Nick. "Hello." I said breathlessly tired from the hard practice. "Well hello." Nick said gloomily. I could tell that he wanted to talk to us, but I wanted nothing more than to go lay down. "Sorry I have a lot of homework to do. See you later Harry, nice seeing you Nick." I said nodding and smiling at Harry. Harry just shook his head at me, I knew he was too nice just to leave Nick hanging so he stayed behind, and he knew that I knew that. I walked up to the common room, and went and got dressed up in the dormitory. I walked down the stairs and saw George and Fred. I had been avoiding George for a while because of the weird dream I had, or at least I thought it was a dream, I still wasn't sure.

I just gathered up the courage and walked over there, dragging up a chair to the table exactly like last time. "Okay what are you up to now?" I asked curiously. "Well Filch gave us a detention so we were trying to think of a little pay back." Fred said slapping his fists together with a goofy smile on his face. I just laughed and asked, "So what were you thinking?" "I like her, just jumping right in." Fred said elbowing George, who than in turn turned a delicate shade of red.

I just shook my head confused, and asked again, "So what is it?" "Well sorry sweetheart no giving it away this time. George went ahead and messed the last one up and I think that your the jinx." Fred said winking at me. I just laughed nervously, I had been wondering why they never pranked Harry, and it reminded me of the dream. Maybe it was real and not actually dream. "But," George said interrupting my thoughts, "just stay here and watch out the window. It may involve some fireworks." He said winking. I just laughed at him. "Alright time for us to go my darling. Hope you enjoy the show," Fred said standing up with a bow. "And someone else." I could have sworn Fred whispered to me when he straightened up and walked away. I just shook my head still so confused on what everyone was talking about.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione got back, but I didn't notice them at first. Harry called my name a few times, and then I finally realized they were talking to me and I looked up quickly. Then Harry, with a worried look on his face, said after getting my attention. "There you are we were looking for you!" "You couldn't have looked many places I've been here the whole time." I said laughing. Harry's worry slipped off his face seeing I was fine. But I could tell Hermione was suspicious about something and was going to ask me about it later. Maybe she could help actually-

"Arrington!" Hermione said breaking me out of my thoughts again. "What?" I said surprised. "I've been calling your name for a while." She said looking at me weird. I then noticed that Harry was over by the fire talking to Ron while doing his homework. "Oh sorry I'm just distracted." I said pushing the hair out of my face. "I could tell." She said sitting down next to me. "What are you looking for?" She asked me looking out the window. "Oh that? Well George and Fred are going to prank Filch soon down in the courtyard. I'm just waiting to watch. Apparently it involves fireworks."

I said getting a little excited and Hermione just rolled her eyes. I knew she despised pranks since they distracted from learning, but I loved them they brought joy and happiness to a very stressed environment. "So what's on your mind?" Hermione asked looking at me. "Ok so I actually wanted to talk to you about this." I said. "Ok." Hermione said a little surprised but looking happy. I just rolled my eyes at this and continued. "So I had this dream about George, or I thought it was a dream at least. Now I'm not so sure." I continued and told her the dream or what happened I guess now.

"Hmm. Arrington you still can't see it can you?" Hermione said after a minute. "See what?" Ron asked. Both me and Hermione jumped in surprise not having noticed Ron and Harry sneak up on us. "Nothing." I said a little too quickly. Harry was just about to open his mouth to speak, when suddenly fireworks went off interrupting everyone's thoughts. "Wicked." I heard Ron mutter. Suddenly you could see Filch in the distance with a broom chasing after the fireworks trying to hit them down from the sky being very unsuccessful.

"So we have to go to a death day party now." Harry said after everyone was done laughing at the spectacle of the amazing fireworks and Filch jumping like a madman with a broom. "How did that happen?" I asked complaining. "Well you don't have to go, he didn't really invite you." Harry said looking apologetic. I just laughed and said, "That's perfectly fine with me. You guys go enjoy the ghosts, I'm looking forward to the feast." "Can't I go with Arrington?" Ron said complaining loudly.

"Go with Arrington where?" Fred said walking into the room, with George right behind him. "Wonderful fireworks guys." I said with a huge smile on my face. "Why thank you." George said and they both took a bow, causing everyone to laugh again. "We have to go to a death day party." Ron complained when the laughing died down. "And why doesn't Arrington have to go?" Fred asked. "She wasn't invited." Harry said still looking a little sorry. "I wish I wasn't invited." Ron mumbled. "Oh give it a rest Ron, it might actually be cool." Hermione scolded him. "Well Arrington can come with us." Fred said elbowing George who turned bright red and mumbled "Yeah."

"Well I'm off to bed." Fred said yawning. "Me too." Everyone else murmured. We had all stayed up late playing wizards chess, and Ron was elated to have found something he was better at Hermione than. The common room cleared out quickly and soon it was just me and George. I had been worried about this, would he bring it up? Or did it even happen? "Hey what's up with you?" George asked. "What do you mean?" I said a little worried. "Well, it's just that," I looked at him waiting for him to continue even more worried now, "your always the last one to go to sleep. It's almost as if you never sleep." He finished staring at me intently. I sighed instantly inside. He wasn't talking about that night, thank god. Although now I was in a bit of a pickle, I didn't expect anyone to realize my sleeping habits, except perhaps Hermione since she was in my dorm.

"Oh," I said whispering, "well I just have trouble sleeping is all." He looked at me and then said, "It's because of the nightmares isn't it?" I just shook my head and asked stubbornly, "What nightmares?" "Arrington, it's ok, but it's not healthy to not sleep, you should at least try to." George said still looking very serious, and I wasn't used to it and I definitely decided I didn't like it. "I do try too," I said defensively, "and I'm pretty sure that it's my choice and it's not affecting my school work or anything else so I'm fine." George just shook his head at me. I wasn't looking at him anymore because I felt bad for lying to him. I never tried to sleep anymore, in fact I did everything I could to stay up and not have the nightmares. Eventually though I would have to sleep from exhaustion, but I found the longer I went without sleeping the less nightmares I would have till the point where I would have none. Right now I would sleep about every three days, so I didn't sleep for a straight 72 hours.

I didn't realize I was crying until George pulled me into a hug. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to upset you." He said actually sounding sincerely sorry. It made me cry a little more, because I wasn't crying because of him, I was crying because I felt bad for lying to him. I ended up falling asleep eventually to my surprise, and I found that I had no nightmares like the last time I had fallen asleep next to George. I guess it was because I felt so protected by him. I woke up early as normal, but I realized soon people were going to get up and I kinda freaked out. People would definitely take this the wrong way, and there was no way George could like me, even if I liked him. I wasn't good enough for somebody like George, I would only hold him back and bring down his happiness.

That took me by surprise because I had never realized I liked him before. But seeing him sleeping on the couch made me realize that I did, but George only saw me as his little brothers, Ron's, best friend, just like Fred did. I sighed and woke George up, and then walked up the stairs before he fully woke up to talk to me.