Okaaay, another chapter because I am officially done writing for POA (and it's a very slow day at work). This fic will have 30 chapters total (likely could have made it 31, but I was lazy and just crammed it all into one chapter at the end). Then we move to GOF. Unreal.
Bookcozy: Gah, isn't he just the sweetest?! I love him so much right now. Full on teenage girl levels of squealing. Writing her relationship with Fred has actually been one of my favorite things about this year too. She didn't speak to him much in CoS and I just love them as friends now.
readerfaye: Ah, Harry! He has no observational skills. I also have anxiety and people who are forthright truly do just make it easier, don't they? George is such a sweetie for so many reasons. Also, Lee Jordan's commentary is the best! I was typing it all out and just laughing the whole time. He's a character. And I'm grateful JKR put so much in for the match because it is just beautiful.
Chapter Twenty Five
As April came to an end and May washed over the castle, Nessa had still not made a decision on her relationship with George.
She'd felt bad at first, but he didn't seem to mind all that much. And, truthfully, she didn't think it made much difference, regardless. She needed to think it through nine ways to Sunday, but it felt more like they were already dating without calling it dating. Or maybe 'dating' was too strong a word. They hadn't kissed, didn't hold hands in public, didn't tell anyone that they were exclusive.
But they weren't exactly pretending like they were just friends either.
It was a subtle shift; anyone who hadn't known them very well likely wouldn't have noticed much difference. He was still a flirt, but she'd seen him turn down advances at least twice, and he'd done so even before they could finish the request. She'd expected the flirting to bother her personally, and she was surprised to realize it didn't. Although, maybe she shouldn't have been — it was almost like a part of his personality, and it came out more when he was trying to sell or talk about his products than at any other point, so she imagined it was more charismatic than flirtatious. And he was always very careful to maintain distance, resorting to compliments and winks more often than the sort of single-minded focus and casual touching that he bestowed to her when he was flirting.
It was also just the fact that it was him. She'd always been a little self-conscious, a little insecure, but she trusted him so implicitly that she didn't even consider any of it to be more serious. He'd also just outright asked her if it bothered her — it had bothered Alicia, apparently —-as if she already had the privilege of caring about how he spent his time or who he did it with.
She'd extended him the same courtesy, not that she got nearly half as much attention from the opposite sex as he did. The only advances she'd really gotten were from Cedric, who she hadn't spoken with since the disastrous kiss in the library. She was entirely certain that he was avoiding her as much as she was him, though hers was more from irritation and anger, and she imagined his avoidance was due to embarrassment at being turned down again and maybe a little anger at her for having turned him down a second time.
She hadn't told George about it, although he hadn't asked outright about what was going on with Cedric anyway, and it had happened before…whatever subtle exclusive thing she and him were doing at the moment.
The rest of their dynamic was nearly the same — they'd been together most of the time before anyway; George had always been casually physical with her — so most people didn't realize much difference between them, other than Tori and Fred. But she could still see the small things herself because it made butterflies erupt every time he did it. She caught him looking at her more now when he thought she didn't notice, and he was almost always touching her in some manner — brushing her hand with his, running a thumb over the inside of her wrist, kissing one of her cheeks every time she blushed, lacing his fingers with hers whenever no one was looking.
The man was truly a menace — some days the effort with which she had to exert not to swoon was harder than Hagrid's special rock cakes.
So, really, she was entirely certain that it was only the label itself that was missing. Just her debating whether she wanted to take the full leap. At this point, she was entirely sure she was going to do it. But she sort of enjoyed the simplicity and giddiness that they were in now, and he seemed content to let her bask in it, so she made no move to change anything at the moment.
Their relationship was not the only one which had experienced a subtle shift. Although, Fred and Tori's was much more obvious, truth be told.
Nessa had no idea what was going on with the two of them. They weren't bickering at all anymore, but it was almost…unnatural. Fred would make an effort to rile Tori and there would be a moment where she'd open her mouth angrily as if she were going to retort, but then she would pause, smile at him stiffly, and agree with him. The first time it had happened both she and George had nearly fallen out of their chairs in surprise. Nessa was also not unaware of how close Tori stood to George when they were all together now, as if she were avoiding getting close to Fred completely. Or the way they only ever sat in separate armchairs. Or the way they would refuse to make eye contact with each other completely.
Both her and George had attempted to figure out what was going on between them, but they'd had no luck.
Nessa could not even hazard a guess as to what was going on with the two of them. She'd been so focused on her and George that she hadn't bothered following up with Fred to see if he'd talked to Tori after the final match. And neither he or Tori had said anything to her about it, so she sort of assumed that he hadn't. George also didn't seem to have any clue about his twin's feelings for his friend, and she sort of assumed that if he had said anything, he would have told George by now.
But she really couldn't figure out what would make the two of them so awkward with each other unless it was that. Maybe he'd said something and Tori had turned him down? Although, she had completely cut off Oliver Wood, and Nessa distinctly remembered Tori coming back to their dorm alone, and fairly early in the night, so she hadn't spent much time with him to begin with. Which seemed odd, considering the amount of effort she'd put into ensnaring him in the first place.
Nessa had every intention, she told herself, of letting the two of them figure it out with each other, or come to her first if they wanted to talk about it. She told herself she could mind her own business.
She was wrong.
"What the hell is wrong with the two of you?" she snapped suddenly one morning over breakfast. George and Lee snorted and busied themselves with the food in front of them in order to avoid whatever argument was about to ensue between the three of them.
Fred and Tori had been avoiding looking at each other again, which, of course, meant that they hadn't been paying attention to the fact that they were both reaching for the same pitcher of pumpkin juice at the same time, having been overly engrossed in their separate conversations with Nessa and Lee. Their hands had brushed, and they'd both jerked back so suddenly that the entire pitcher had fallen over, soaking everything around them with pumpkin juice.
Fred had snapped at Tori, but Tori, instead of snapping back or giving some witty retort had just apologized.
Victoria Hastings…apologizing…to Fred Weasley…
So, no, she could not mind her own business.
"Nothing," they both responded hastily, momentarily making eye contact and then looking away hastily.
Fred waved his wand and muttered something under his breath and the pumpkin juice vanished from the table.
"There, happy?" he said casually.
Nessa glared at him.
"Do I look happy to you, Fred?" she said dangerously. George, who Nessa had realized in the last several weeks had not been lying about how attractive he found her when she was angry, was grinning and watching the exchange in interest. She tried to keep herself from blushing under the attention. "It's not about the pumpkin juice, dunderhead —"
"Is it about your sparkling attitude so early in the morning?" he quipped.
She pointed at him dangerously.
"Don't start with me, Fred," she said. "I've had it up to here with the two of you. You look about as twitchy around each other as Lee does when he's working himself up to talk to Angelina again —"
"OI!" Lee said indignantly as George laughed uproariously.
" — so one of you had better give me a very good reason as to why because it's incredibly annoying," Nessa finished, ignoring Lee completely.
Fred and Tori stared at each other for a moment in silence, as if conversing silently. She let them come up with whatever excuse they were going to use to get out of the conversation entirely. It was the longest they'd looked at each other in quite some time, and the relief of it was enough for her to ease up at least a little, although it wasn't going to last if it was something horribly stupid.
"Fred got pissy about me and Oliver and we got in a fight about it," said Tori eventually with a shrug and a clearly practiced grin. Fred winced when Nessa's gaze drifted slowly to him. "I don't like being told what to do, Fred doesn't know how to shut his trap, the usual. It's not a big deal — we argue all the time."
Nessa was staring at Fred as he carefully avoided eye contact with her. Tori was making it sound like it had just been a few harsh words that had been thrown around, but they'd argued about far more ridiculous things — and said harsh things to each other on more than one occasion — and it had at no point resulted in this level of awkwardness.
Fred had to have said something to her…
There was no other explanation. Why Tori wouldn't have mentioned it to her, she didn't particularly care, but something else had happened. She had every intention of finding out what it was.
"That's great," she said, her tone forcibly casual. "Fred, can I talk to you for a moment?"
Fred scrunched his face in distaste, shaking his head slowly as if he were trying to think up an excuse not to. He'd definitely done something stupid.
"You know, I think I'm good," he said, brightly, still avoiding her eye. "George and I have got a, uh, a thing —"
"What thing?" said George, grinning at his brother mischievously.
Fred gave him a hard look, widening his eyes once in warning.
"You know, the thing."
George considered him for a half a second, looking between a clearly irritated Nessa and his silently imploring twin, before shrugging and going back to his breakfast. He'd not a clue what Nessa needed to talk to Fred about, but it amused him a great deal to watch his twin fidget at the idea.
"Oh, that thing," he said, grinning across his pumpkin juice. "No, I canceled that thing."
"I'm going to kill you," Fred said seriously. "I hope you sleep with one eye open, George, because —"
"Fred, now!" Nessa snapped loudly.
Fred half-sighed, half-groaned, rolling his eyes to the ceiling. He grabbed his bag, muttering swear words under his breath that made Lee and George snicker at him, and dragged his feet a little as he followed her out of the Great Hall.
"We've got to work on your anger issues," he said when they came to a stop, hidden from sight on the other side of the doors in the Entrance Hall. "Clearly, snogging George is not working."
She whirled on him and put her hands on her hips.
"Don't try to embarrass me to avoid this conversation, Fred," she snapped at him. He sighed heavily. "What did you do?"
"Why do you assume that I did anything?" he said indignantly.
"Well, did you?" she said with a hard look.
He hesitated.
"Well, yes, but —"
"Okay, so what was it? Did you tell her how you felt?"
"Not in so many words."
She narrowed her eyes at the odd way he'd said it, his eyes carefully watching over her shoulder to make sure no one was coming.
"In what words, exactly?" she said, half-afraid to hear the answer.
She'd never seen Fred Weasley fidget nervously. It did not bode well that she was watching him do so now. She could not even begin to guess what he could have possibly done that would make him —
"I kissed her."
"YOU WHAT?" she yelled in shock before she could stop herself.
Fred made a frantic motion with his hands and hissed a "Shhhh!" He grabbed her arm and dragged her quickly into one of the empty classrooms, looking both directions frantically as if he expected someone to follow them in. He closed the door and whirled on her with a glare.
"Are you trying to tell the whole bloody school?"
"What do you mean, you kissed her?" she said, still gaping at him. "Tell me that's just a — a metaphor for something."
"It's not a big deal —"
"Are you joking?" she snapped. "It's a huge deal. What did you — why did you — Just — Just explain, Fred."
He sighed heavily, tapping his finger and thumb together rapidly, and started pacing back and forth in front of the door. He looked severely on edge, angry at himself and more than a little stressed out.
"It just happened, okay," he said, rolling his eyes at the incredulity on her face. "Don't look at me like that, Nessa. We were arguing about Oliver, you know, because I tried to be rational about it and, well, that didn't really work out. I don't know why either of us thought it would —"
"Yes, we're both morons, Fred, get to the point," she interrupted in irritation.
He snorted.
"Yeah, well, we're arguing, and she keeps asking me why I care and I keep trying to – to not just blurt it out at her, but she's — well, she doesn't know how to shut up, does she?" he said in annoyance, running a hand through his hair. "And I don't know, I like arguing with her —"
"You like arguing with her?" Nessa said in confusion.
He rolled his eyes.
"I like getting a reaction out of her," he amended. "You know, as long as we don't say something that makes me hate myself, yes, I like arguing with her. But, you know, she's going on and on about how it's none of my business who she's snogging and that I can't boss her around and she doesn't have to listen to me. So I got pissed off and I kissed her."
Nessa gaped at him.
The entire thing was insane. Did things like this really happen in real life? In a romance novel, sure, but like — real life?
"Fred, that is —"
"Stupid, yes, I know."
"Why are you smiling then?"
He'd stopped pacing now and started staring across the room, a smirk blossoming on his face.
"Well, you know, she didn't exactly stop me immediately," he said with a shrug. "Personally, I'd expected her to slap me. But then we're snogging instead, you know, and then all of a sudden, we realize what's happening and then, of course, she's panicking. But before that it was fine."
"Fine," she snorted, suddenly realizing why Tori would have been irritated for describing her kiss with Cedric that way. As if this wasn't entirely mind-altering. "Did you actually say anything after that or did you just snog her and run off?"
He glared at her.
"Well, of course, I said something to her," he said. "She's not just some random bird to snog in broom cupboards, alright?" Nessa rolled her eyes now and gave him a pointed look. He sighed and started pacing again. "We're just staring at each other stupidly, trying to figure out what the hell just happened, and I just — well, I didn't tell her I was in love with her because she'd just have a stroke right there —"
"Good idea."
" — and I'd already done one stupid thing. Can't go about just adding them on, can I?" he said, starting to sound a little panicky now. "So I just said that I'd been looking at her differently. Seemed the safest option to take at the time. Except then she did panic and said that I couldn't look at her that way and I asked why and she made a run for it."
Nessa almost couldn't remember how to process any thoughts. He was staring at her, all confused and forlorn, and she had not an idea what to say. He'd kissed her. She should have known he'd do something reckless — it was Fred and Tori, for God's sake. If he hadn't done something reckless, Tori certainly would have, and it was a true testament to how startled Tori must have been that she'd just run off instead of doing something equally stupid and causing a larger argument.
She'd never actually seen Tori run from an argument before. Run from her feelings, sure, but she'd never backed down from an argument. Certainly, never an argument with Fred.
"Tell me what I'm supposed to do now, Nessa," he said desperately.
She opened her mouth to respond, but nothing came out. She took a breath and tried again.
"Okay, well, you can't snog her again," she said seriously and he rolled his eyes as if this were obvious. "Just, uh, just don't let it freak you out, alright? It's not like you didn't expect this sort of reaction, right? I mean, it can't be much different than how you felt when you'd first noticed that you were looking at her differently."
He exhaled a large breath and nodded slowly.
"Right, no, right," he said distractedly. "I knew that. So, I just — just what?"
"You just let her have some time to process the entire thing, you know," she said. She could truly not think of anything else he could do. "And don't start avoiding her like your dumbass brother did to me because that'll just be confusing."
He snorted.
"I wasn't planning on it," he said, sighing and sinking into an empty chair.
"And quit trying to pick fights with her," she snapped, pointing a finger at her. "It's not helping." And then she got a thoughtful expression on her face and muttered, "And also it's clearly some sort of weird foreplay for the two of you. Better to not tempt fate."
"I heard that," he said pointedly, smirking at her arrogantly. She rolled her eyes.
"Like I care," she said with a snort. "You're just going to have to fight every urge in your body and behave yourself for once, alright? You're friends first, right? So just…be her friend. Don't let her forget that it doesn't change anything, no matter what she decides to do about it. She won't avoid talking to you about it forever."
He huffed another large breath.
"Yeah, okay, that's easy enough," he said. "Although, I hope it's less awkward by the time we go back home because I'm not ready to explain the whole thing to Mum and George."
Nessa was opening her mouth again to ask him what he planned on telling them if it weren't, but she turned rapidly to look at the door when it opened suddenly. George and Tori were standing on the other side, looking curiously at them.
"What are you guys talking about for so long?" George said.
"And why were you yelling?" Tori added, except she sounded suspicious and was looking between her and Fred warily.
"Nothing," she and Fred said at the same time.
George raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. Tori was still eyeing the two of them suspiciously, but still somehow managing to avoid eye contact with Fred entirely. Nessa almost wanted to groan at the ridiculousness of her life — he'd kissed her. What an idiot.
"Diggory wants to talk to you," George said, trying to keep his voice neutral, despite his irritation (jealousy, he was coming to realize now).
He'd meant what he'd said about allowing her the time to think about them dating, and being an arse about Diggory wasn't likely to convince her to take a shot on them. Even if the stupid prat was interested in her too.
"What? Why?" she said sharply, her eyes meeting his abruptly.
He raised an eyebrow in surprise at the tone, and opened his mouth to respond that he didn't know why, but Tori huffed a laugh and spoke before he could.
"You know why," she said slyly. George did not like the tone at all, but pretended it didn't want to make him ask a thousand different questions. He'd do that later. "He wants to know why you've been avoiding him."
"Why have you been avoiding Diggory?" Fred said in confusion.
"I haven't been —"
"Because he doesn't know how to take no for an answer and snogged her over the Easter holidays. I told him I'd tell you, but he didn't believe me, so he's waiting outside."
George's jaw clenched so hard, he could feel the vein in it throbbing. She hadn't said anything about that to him at all. Although, he hadn't asked. And maybe he didn't have the right to ask at the moment. Or care. It wasn't really his business. They weren't dating, even if they did act as though they were. And it wasn't like he hadn't known that Diggory was interested in her before, but he still couldn't help the anger.
He wanted it to be his business, and they were friends, if nothing else, so it might have been nice to know that she was snogging someone else. Hearing it from Tori — both times — was really starting to piss him off.
Just as he could feel himself spiraling into possibly misplaced jealousy and anger, Fred gave him a hard look, and he took a breath in through his nose, ignoring the sudden urge he had to stick his head out into the hallway and tell Diggory to sod off. Getting upset about it wasn't helpful. If she felt something for Diggory, he'd promised not to let that change anything about their friendship. He had to take a breather, think through what the hell he was feeling at the moment, and talk to her about it later.
"Victoria, for God's sake!" Nessa snapped, stamping her foot. "You know, just because you're having issues in your personal life doesn't mean you have to go blabbing about mine to God and everybody!"
"It's Fred and George! Not 'God and everybody!' And personal problems?" Tori exclaimed. "What personal problems? Do you know something?"
She shot an anxious look over at Fred and Nessa smirked.
"Are you implying there's something to know?"
"I — no, I'm not," she responded hastily, as if realizing she was hinting at just that. "I don't have any personal problems. Rainbows and unicorns over here, thanks for asking." she said, growing irritated by the conversation and only barely managing to mask the sarcasm. "Now, will you go talk to Diggory?"
"No!" she exclaimed. "Go — go tell him I'm not here!"
"What kind of a crock is that? He can hear you shouting!"
"I'm not in the mood for this," Nessa growled, becoming entirely fed up and stomping over to the doorway, throwing it open and snapping, "What?"
Cedric looked surprised by her irritation with him, although she couldn't for the life of her figure out why. She'd handled the situation poorly, sure, she knew that. He had every reason to be upset with her. But she'd told him that she was interested in George, had told him she just wanted to be friends. Maybe she should have said it again. Maybe she should have been more firm. But after she'd talked to Tori, the fact that he hadn't taken the answer the first time had really started to piss her off.
Even more because when she'd said no a second time, he'd still pushed beyond that. And had been talking about George as if he were something he was disgusted by when the two of them weren't exactly close enough to begin with. She didn't know why she cared. She shouldn't care. The both of them had clearly made a mess of their relationship, and were both to blame. And she might just be angry with him because she was angry with herself and projecting it elsewhere. She did that sometimes.
But at the moment, she didn't particularly care.
"Is everything okay?" he asked in concern.
"Yes, it's peachy," she said sarcastically. "Can I help you with something?"
Fred, George, and Tori stepped out of the room to eye the two of them, and she did not like the way George was avoiding looking at her. She knew she should have said something about what had happened with Cedric to him. He'd asked her if him flirting bothered her, for God's sake, and she couldn't even bring herself to tell him that Cedric was still interested in her?
She might kill Tori. Or Cedric. Or both of them.
"I just — can I talk to you?" he said, and then when she opened her mouth to respond, added, "Privately."
"No, I'm fine," she said, feeling a little bad about being so harsh, but all of a sudden, there was just too much going on, and she was getting overstimulated. Since she'd started taking a Calming Draught every day, the occurrence of overstimulation wasn't as frequent, but she had less patience once it finally hit. "You can talk to me on Wednesday in the library."
"Did he tell you not to talk to me?"
Tori whistled low and Fred took a step back, releasing a breath that was half-anxious, half-laugh. George glared at him.
"Sometimes, Diggory, it's like you don't know her at all," Tori said with a grin, watching her best friend clench both of her fists and stand up taller. The fact that Cedric was not at all alarmed told Tori everything she needed to know about how often he'd seen her angry.
"First of all, I told you to stop talking about him as if you know anything about him," Nessa snapped, causing George's gaze to snap to her in surprise. "Second of all, not that it's any of your business, but, no he didn't tell me not to do anything. If you're curious why, it's because I could throw him across this corridor in less than half a second, and I could certainly do the same thing to you. And just so we're entirely clear here, Cedric," she said, trying very hard not to let the anger get the best of her magic because she could feel it bubbling. "I don't like being told to do anything. Least of all by a man. So you have exactly thirty seconds to get over whatever pissing contest you and George are in the middle of, and get the hell away from me. I'll talk to you on Wednesday when, hopefully, I no longer want to shove your head into the wall."
He did look sorry then because it was a low blow to have asked her that, but when he opened his mouth to speak again, George interrupted.
"She said sod off, Diggory," he said firmly. "She shouldn't have to ask more than once."
Nessa repressed a huff that he listened to George without attempting to argue, even if he did glare at him before he nodded at her and walked away. She was sick of everyone at this point.
"Such a gentleman, Georgie," Fred said, clapping him on the shoulder. Nessa looked at George anxiously, but he wasn't looking at her. "Personally, I'd have preferred if you'd let him argue so Nessa could throw him across the room. Teach everyone a lesson in one go," Nessa rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to say something to George, who didn't even attempt to look amused. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we do still have that thing to get to. Munchkin, sunshine."
Nessa was not stupid enough to think he wasn't aware of George's mood. She had every suspicion that he pulled him in the other direction, away from her, because he knew very well whatever his twin was not saying. Tori gaped after the two of them, although Nessa was entirely sure it was because of Fred's moniker for her, and not the fact that they were actually leaving.
"I'll start minding my own business from now on, I swear," she said to Nessa seriously, giving her an apologetic look.
Nessa huffed and shook her head.
"If only I believed that, Victoria."
-o0o-
George didn't reappear until that evening after dinner when she was reading an Ancient Runes text that was due at the end of the month.
It had been a particularly long day. Between her irritation with Tori for having said anything about what had happened between her and Cedric, her irritation with Fred for being so utterly stupid about telling Tori how he felt, and her irritation with Cedric for being so unbearably stupid in general, she'd had to spend the majority of the day avoiding every single one of her friends.
The argument that had ensued with Tori had not particularly made things better, but she had at least apologized outright for being so insensitive about the Cedric thing when her and George were still on relatively new terms. She'd thought he'd known already, but she shouldn't have said anything anyway. It had at least made her less irritated with her, even if she still wasn't in the mood to be around her at the moment.
Hiding herself away in the dormitory outside of classes had helped marginally, but she'd sort of acknowledged that her overstimulation was made worse by her constant overthinking about how upset George was for her not having said anything to him about Cedric's latest advances. So, she'd forced herself to go to the common room and wait for him to appear, so that she could just get the entire conversation over with and avoid the awkwardness.
Fred winked at her and went to sit with Tori in the corner of the room, clearly trying to pretend like he hadn't royally screwed up a few weeks prior. She could tell by the nervous look Tori shot him that she wasn't entirely sure if she wanted to stay or run. She took it as a good sign that she chose to stay and just continue working on her Muggle Studies essay.
George bypassed them both and came to sit on the couch next to Nessa. He looked a little less tense than he had this morning, but he was avoiding her eye and looking horribly awkward. He shifted uncomfortably, sighed heavily, and then looked over at her with an awkward smile.
"Hey," he said softly.
She'd never felt awkward around George before. This was an entirely new experience for her. She wanted to laugh just to break the tension, but it really wasn't that sort of conversation.
"Hi," she said, closing her book softly and sitting up from her reclined position at the end of the couch to move closer to him.
He ran a hand through his hair and laughed to himself.
"I don't know why this is so awkward," he said, smiling a little. "It's — Look, I — I just wanted to say I was sorry, you know, for running off earlier. I — er — I didn't know what to say at the time and —-"
"It's okay, George," she said, placing a hand on his arm consolingly. He blew out a breath and nodded. "You didn't do anything wrong."
"I just didn't want you to think that I was avoiding this conversation or anything —"
"Well, then, you'll be upset to know that I was," she said with a grimace.
He laughed at her and leaned back a little.
"Not upset, love," he said with a grin. "I sort of assumed I'd have to find some way to get up the girls' dormitory stairs to talk to you. I'm pleasantly surprised."
She snorted and gave him an incredulous look.
"So you mean to tell me that the two of you don't know how to get up there?" she said in disbelief. "I would have thought with all the snogging you two have done, that would have been mission critical."
He poked her in the side and grinned when she jumped.
"You can snog elsewhere," he said arrogantly. "But if you're trying to invite me up there, love, I suppose I could give it a go."
She flushed crimson and tried to keep herself from spluttering at him embarrassingly. He was already grinning and then he leaned forward to brush a kiss against one of her cheeks and everything in her brain just fell right out. Every time he did that, she forgot how to function properly.
"Stop doing that," she muttered, hitting him on the leg when he raised a sly eyebrow and smirked in response.
He laughed again, relaxing back into the couch cushions and crossing his feet at the ankles. He sighed and looked serious again for a long moment. She wasn't sure exactly how to bring up the conversation again, truth be told. Maybe she could just blurt it out —
"Nessa, I — I'm sorry for being upset earlier," he said, saving her the trouble of deciding. "I don't exactly like the idea of you snogging Diggory, although I'm sure that's obvious. But I did mean it when I said that I wanted you to think about us, and I don't want to make that harder for you by being a prat. I just — I told you that we'd still be friends no matter what decision you make, and that's the truth. Even if you do end up with some git like Diggory —" she snorted and hit him on the leg again. "And you haven't decided on anything yet, so I suppose it's not really any of my business what's going on with him anyway."
She leaned back into the cushions herself, resting her head on the back next to his and tilted her head back to look at the ceiling. No, she supposed they weren't dating. Not truly, even if their relationship had devolved into something slightly more intimate than mere friendship. And maybe he was right that because of that, it wasn't his business to know. She'd told him that once before when he'd asked about her and Cedric.
But she didn't like the idea of him thinking that there was anything going on between the two of them. And she wasn't even really upset that he was upset about not knowing what had happened in the library with Cedric. Instead, she felt like she needed to tell him, needed to explain that there was nothing for him to be worried about.
And if she were a smarter person, she'd have realized that that need was likely answer enough to the choice he'd given her.
She rolled her head to look at him, and tried to convince herself not to back down from the conversation, despite how vulnerable it made her feel.
"And if I said that I wanted it to be your business?" she queried softly.
He turned to look at her then and she tried not to think about how close he was. He would barely have to crane his neck to close the distance between them. She didn't pull away, though. Just watched as that mischievous sparkle turned into something a little more vulnerable.
"Well, then, I suppose," he said, his voice soft and washing over her like honey. "That I would ask if I have something to be worried about."
"You don't," she admitted. "He was just jealous of you, I think, and trying to prove a point."
He smirked at her.
"I take it you defended my honor?"
She raised an eyebrow at him mockingly.
"Do you even have any honor left to defend?"
He smirked at her.
"Well, I only pranked Snape once this year, so I'm going to say yes," he said, grinning when she rolled her eyes at him. "It could be much worse, considering," he defended before looking at her seriously again. "Are you going to talk to him?"
She sighed and gave him a wary look.
"Yeah, probably, although I don't know what else there is to say," she said. "But if he kisses me again, he'll probably end up with a broken nose, so it's the safest option."
George tried to fight the twitching in his lips at these words. She was certainly a feisty, little thing. He wondered how Diggory had gotten out of their last conversation without being hexed.
"Just so you know," he said, only half-amused. "I don't just avoid telling you what to do because I'm afraid to be thrown across the corridor."
She snorted and raised an eyebrow at him.
"No?"
"No," he said seriously, reaching up to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear.
She stopped breathing then because he was looking at her very intently and there was a softness to his expression that she'd never seen before except for after the Quidditch game. Butterflies erupted in her stomach, and she had to swallow to suppress the squeal she felt bubbling up into her throat.
"Is it because you don't think I could?"
She, truthfully, hated herself. She just had to make a joke.
She had no idea how to act under this sort of attention and he was clearly going to kiss her and — more to the point — she wanted him to, but she was so uncomfortable under this level of scrutiny and he'd always made her so unbelievably nervous when he was this close to her —
He smiled at her softly, and let his knuckles brush against her cheek lightly.
She was entirely certain that her whole stomach was swooping in anticipation and she tried to remind herself to breathe.
"No, I'm well aware that you could throw me across any room you so please," he said, still looking at her as if she were the only person in the room. She took a shuddering breath. "I like that about you, actually —" she'd have laughed, except he looked so serious, she was certain he wasn't kidding. "I just respect you more than that. You can still tell people that you could throw me across the corridors, if you'd like, but I hope you know that anyway."
She opened her mouth to say that of course she knew that, despite the warmth that spread through her chest at the fact that he'd told her so outright, but he took that particular moment to slide his hand across her cheek to cup her face, her ear resting in the cradle between his thumb and forefinger.
She was definitely not breathing anymore, but she wasn't about to stop him, even as the nerves settled in and he ran a finger soothingly over her cheek. God, she was in way too deep and —
They both jumped when someone slammed their books into the coffee table and plopped down on the couch.
George sighed in irritation, but pulled back from her, settling next to her with an arm across the back of the couch behind her, and Nessa tried to get her heart rate to lower back to its normal speed and ignored the heat in her cheeks.
"As usual, you have impeccable timing, mate," George said pointedly to Harry.
Harry looked at him in confusion, as Ron took a seat in the armchair (looking for all the world like he had no idea what they'd interrupted) and Hermione took the other. Nessa tried not to flush deeper at the apologetic look she gave them as she settled. Hermione was so much more perceptive than either of their brothers, so Nessa had no doubt that she recognized exactly what had just happened between her and George.
"What are you talking about?" Harry said, clearly baffled.
Nessa cleared her throat pointedly.
"Nothing, ignore him," she said, her tone as casual as she could muster. George merely grinned at them casually when they looked at him in interest. Truthfully, it was probably a good thing that they hadn't kissed. She hadn't even mentioned the entire thing to her brother to see how he'd feel about the whole thing and she didn't want to just throw it on him out of the blue. "What's the matter?"
Ron huffed and rolled his eyes.
"Malfoy," he said morosely. "He's walking around the school as if Buckbeak's appeal has already been decided. Strutting around the place with that stupid smirk on his face."
Nessa shared a look with George. She had no doubt that Buckbeak would be executed, but she knew that Ron was putting a great deal of effort into his appeal, and she didn't want to upset him further. Hermione, who was becoming misty-eyed, began pulling her textbooks out of her backpack, slamming each one of them on the coffee table harder than was truly necessary.
"Er — Hermione," Nessa said, cautiously, jumping every time she slammed another book down — and she had quite a lot of them. "I know I'm likely not the first person to ask this, but why are you taking Muggle Studies? You're muggle-born."
Hermione looked at her like she'd hit her head, and George coughed to hide his laugh.
"Well, yes, but don't you think it's interesting to learn about them from the Wizard perspective?"
Nessa tried not to laugh at this because she was entirely certain that Hermione was not at all joking.
"Not particularly, no," she said slowly. "Between Malfoy and Mr. Weasley, I get the gist, believe it or not."
George snorted as Hermione paused and looked up at her.
"He asked me what a Pleaz officer was over summer break, you know."
She assumed that she was referring to Mr. Weasley, as she could not imagine any particular situation with which Malfoy would have asked her that.
"I believe that," said Nessa seriously. "I spent an hour over Christmas trying to answer all of his questions about butane lighters."
"He didn't set the Burrow on fire, did he?" said Harry in horror.
"No, fortunately the Muggles made sure the fire went out if he wasn't pushing the button," said George conversationally. "Because otherwise he likely would have."
Nessa snorted at Ron's relief at this statement. As if his mother wouldn't have already written to tell him their house had burned down.
"When is Buckbeak's appeal?" she said, changing the subject back to the reason they'd interrupted her and George in the first place.
"June," Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes. "The last day of exams. They're coming up here to the school. Someone from the Ministry and the executioner."
Nessa gaped at him.
"The executioner?" she said indignantly. "What reason do they have to bring the executioner to the appeal unless they've already decided?"
"Seems like they have," Harry agreed. "Malfoy has been telling everyone that he's certain Buckbeak is going to be killed. He's far too smug."
Nessa couldn't decide if she wanted to cry or vomit. The fact that they'd truly send an executioner to the appeal…
They weren't even giving Buckbeak a fighting chance. It was such a disgusting system. It didn't feel like justice at all, and she hoped that Mr. Malfoy would go to hell and stay there for having no respect for another's life.
"They have to listen!" Ron snapped. "I've spent ages reading up on stuff for him; they can't just ignore it all."
Nessa did not have the heart to tell him that they clearly could. Hermione had done the same for the first trial and it had done little good. Whatever Lucius Malfoy could threaten them with was clearly frightening enough that they had no concern for justice. The fact that it had to be Draco Malfoy that got hurt instead of Harry or Neville was unfair. Any other student would have just left well enough alone. Maybe dropped Hagrid's class and called it good.
"Have you been to see him?" she said instead. "He could probably use some support."
"It's hard to get out there with all of the security measures," Hermione said, scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment.
"Wish they'd catch Sirius Black soon," grumbled Harry. "Once they give him the Kiss, we can go outside again."
Nessa tensed.
"You can go outside now," she said tersely.
Harry looked at her oddly and then it moved to incredulity, as if realizing why she wasn't in the mood to have this conversation. She'd avoided the topic of Sirius Black's final punishment for quite some time because her brother was rash in his anger.
"You don't think he deserves the Dementor's Kiss, do you?"
Ron was looking between the two of them uncomfortably and Hermione paused in her scribbling to look up at Nessa sympathetically.
"Does anyone deserve that, Harry?" was all Nessa could think to say.
"You sound like Lupin," he said with an eye roll.
"That doesn't answer my question."
Harry looked at her and seemed to hesitate, but whatever anger he felt toward the convict seemed to outweigh what he truly felt because she watched his jaw clench and that horror and guilt disappear from his eyes.
"He killed our parents, Vanessa."
"Don't call me that," she said heatedly. "And he did not kill them. Voldemort killed them —"
Harry spoke, ignoring the flinches of George, Hermione, and Ron.
"He's the reason he knew where they were!"
"It changes nothing, Harry," she snapped. "We're talking about sucking the soul from someone. We're — we're talking about leaving someone with a heartbeat and breath, even though they don't know anything that's happening. They can't even tell you their name. They just sit there and stare at nothing. Like an empty vessel. There's not a soul in the world who deserves a fate like that."
"Our parents don't get a heartbeat or breath," said Harry indignantly.
Nessa met his eyes and exhaled, trying to let go of the indignant anger she felt. She truly believed that there was no one in the world who deserved a fate as depressing as that. The thought alone was enough to send her into a spiral. To exist without existing…to live without truly living…
It was a horrifying thought.
"And they won't even if he does get the Dementor's Kiss," she said gently, ignoring his flinch. "Death is a kinder punishment than what's in store for him. But it doesn't matter what I think anyway, does it? He'll get the Kiss whether I believe it's humane or not," she sighed and stood, looking at Tori empathetically. She couldn't imagine what it would be like for her once Sirius Black was caught and punished. "Thinking with your anger will only leave you with regrets, Harry."
"You should tell yourself that, you know," he said petulantly, crossing his arms in irritation.
Ron flinched and looked away from her, as if he expected her to start yelling. George tensed.
"Careful, mate," he warned Harry with a hard look. Nessa just placed a placating hand on his shoulder and smiled sadly at her brother.
"Everything I've ever done solely out of anger, I've regretted Harry," she said unflinchingly. "My mistakes are not excuses for you to make them yourself."
Her last one had ended her in a locked trunk and at risk for dying. Maybe she was a hypocrite, but it didn't make her incorrect. And, unfortunately for her, she suspected that her brother wasn't truly listening. She just hoped that nothing happened for the rest of the year that gave him reason to learn that the hard way.
-o0o-
Up next: Exams and Nessa being a smart cookie
This was really more of a filler chapter because I was having a rough day when I typed this LOL. We are so very close to meeting Sirius! We're in for a wild ride, friends!