Chapter 8

She had heard a lot about Cedric Diggory's romantic history in the three months she had been attending Hogwarts and, despite not believing it to be possible, she had somehow managed to hear even more about the guy since agreeing to a date with him - but not from him of course.

After being told of her upcoming date with Cedric, Alicia seemed to take it upon herself to ensure that Vivian learned every bit of information she could dig up on the Hufflepuff. All thanks to Alicia's proclivity for gossip, Vivian suddenly knew (against her will, she might add) that his last serious relationship was with a Hufflepuff girl a year older than him, that his go to first date spot was the Three Broomsticks, that he always kissed on the first date if there was going to be a second - among countless other useless fun facts that Alicia would spout off to her every time they'd had an excuse to discuss the seeker, which had been steadily increasing as the week drew closer to Saturday.

Apparently Cedric was more of a celebrity crush to Alicia than Vivian had realized. She'd made the mistake of jokingly asking Alicia if she would be quizzed on it all only to have to quickly talk down her friend, who had jumped at the idea and quite nearly did create a quiz for her to take.

Despite Alicia's CIA level of detective work, she had somehow failed to find out perhaps the most confounding detail there was to know about Cedric Diggory. Apparently, in all the time she had spent gathering gossip on him, she had never once heard that he was incredibly and undeniably boring.

For all the excitement Vivian had built up, all the anxiety about making the perfect first impression, all the obsessing she had done over the perfect outfit, she was finding her date to be vastly uninteresting - a possibility she hadn't even considered in all her days of overthinking.

He truly seemed to have very few things on his conversational rolodex, largely dominating the conversation with quidditch talk and telling a lot of "funny" stories that all had a real you had to be there vibe. Try as she might to steer the conversation in any other direction, he was always a little too keen to turn it into another anecdote that seemed to be told more so for the purpose of braggadocio than getting to know each other as one normally does on first dates. After he somehow managed to turn her talking about her childhood pets into a discussion of his greatest primary school accomplishments, she gave up any hope of a real conversation with Cedric.

She had no idea how his personality had seemed to do such a one-eighty in the days since he had asked her on this date. It was understandably a big shock that the guy she'd had such a good time talking to just earlier that week suddenly had very little to say about anything other than himself. Apparently the extent of his interest in her only went as far as that one conversation. She'd had to put a great deal of effort into keeping a smile on her face as he droned on and on, asking her a grand total of three questions since they sat down, one of which being what she wanted to drink.

She was halfway through her second drink and painfully early in yet another one of Cedric's stories about he and his childhood friends playing quidditch when her eyes began to wander around the pub absentmindedly, envying the bar's patrons who appeared to be actually enjoying their time there. Her attention was quickly drawn towards the establishment's front door as it opened with a chime from the bell, signifying someone's entry. The corners of her mouth twitched up as the twins and Lee shoved their way into the crowded bar, avidly discussing something among themselves. She watched as Fred caught her eye, nodding his head towards her to get the other two to look to where she sat. Her blue eyes locked with amber as George's head turned and met her gaze.

She gave the boys a halfhearted wave (was it wrong that she would much rather be sitting with them right now?), feeling her cheeks heat up as George's eyes narrowed, darting between her and Cedric.

She quickly looked away, locking her eyes back on her date, not oblivious to the fact that the trio had chosen a table directly in her line of sight. If she moved her eyes just past Cedric's left ear, she would be able to meet George's stare.

"-so we basically had to find a new beater with less than an hour's notice," Cedric was saying when she finally forced herself to tune back into whatever he had been presently rambling about.

"Something like that happened to me once," she said, doing her best to participate in the conversation, despite having paid very little attention to the majority of his story. "My school was doing Romeo and Juliet when our Mercutio and his understudy both came down with mono the night of the show."

"Romeo and Juliet is a play right? Did you have a part?" he asked, giving her a politely interested smile, though she doubted his interest was sincere as his voice had that I'm only waiting for you to finish speaking so I can say my next thing quality to it.

"Mmhmm," she nodded. "Actually it was a pretty big deal for me. I got the role of Juliet. I'm normally kind of shy but-"

"Hold that thought, I'll be right back," Cedric interrupted her as he hopped up from his seat and headed towards the pub's restrooms, completely disregarding the fact that she had literally been mid-sentence.

Vivian scoffed as her shoulders hit the back of her seat. It seemed like Cedric's one true love was talking about him and him alone. Any attempts at telling him anything about herself were obviously not going to be appreciated. Rolling her eyes, she knocked back the rest of her drink, hoping that at the very least she might be in a better mood with an increased blood alcohol content.

A thump into the seat across from her pulled her out of the dregs of her pint glass, expecting to see Cedric's self-absorbed face smiling back at her. Instead of the Hufflepuff's cool gray eyes however, she was met with fiery amber, as George stared back at her, his mouth in a flat line. Glancing over his shoulder, Vivian could see Fred and Lee doing their very best to seem like they weren't trying to spy on the conversation. And by very best she meant they at least had the decency to pretend to look in another direction every few minutes.

"Hi," she finally croaked after recovering from her initial shock.

"You have been avoiding me," it wasn't a question.

She sighed, making a big show of rolling her eyes to the ceiling.

Dramatics aside, he wasn't necessarily wrong. He had quickly apologized for his outburst the day following, but she still felt incredibly awkward with a big side of guilty about the entire situation. Of course now that she knew what a bad date Diggory actually was, she could confidently say she felt awkward, guilty, and stupid for the whole pointless fight between her and George - a solid trifecta of emotions that she feared were one hundred percent her fault.

Sticking to her usual method of handling uncomfortable situations, initially after assuring George that things were "totally fine between them" she decided her best course of action would be to steer clear of him altogether. The ever not-so-reliable strategy consisted of ducking into bathrooms when she saw him in the halls and showing up to her classes and meals late to ensure she wouldn't have to sit next to him. To be perfectly honest, she had thought she was being a lot more subtle about the whole thing, but it seems that the only thing she had managed to avoid was emotional maturity. So let's add that to the multitude of reasons she now felt like a colossal fool sitting in front of George.

"Maybe a little," she conceded, steadily meeting his eyes.

His shoulders slumped as the corners of his mouth turned down into a deep frown.

"Vivian, I really am sorry. I don't know why I-"

"You don't need to apologize again," she rushed quickly to interrupt him. "I'm, like, kind of terrible at talking to people sometimes. I just didn't know how to act." Not to mention the fact that, considering how horribly her date was going so far, their entire fight had been a huge waste of time - angry at each other over a guy that she didn't even end up having any interest in. So asinine.

Yes, it had been completely immature of her to avoid him, dragging the whole thing out to an unnecessary length, she knew that now. Regret filled her veins at the thought that he believed she was still angry with him. Despite the fact that he had definitely pissed her off earlier that week, it was really not anything worth fighting over anymore.

He paused, relief flooding his face only briefly before it was replaced by the concern he had been looking at her with earlier.

"I'd rather have you still mad at me than ignore me," he murmured, his fingers scratching against the wood grain on the table.

"Noted. I'm sorry," she conceded and meant it as they exchanged their first genuine smile in days.

"So…on your date with Diggory I see. Is he sweeping you off your feet?" he asked in a forcibly casual voice as he swirled the ice around in his glass.

Vivian opened her mouth to respond to this, when she was (yet again) interrupted.

"Weasley," Cedric's voice was friendly as he came to stand at the head of their table. "Good to see ya, are you joining us?"

"Oh uh, no. Just came over to say hi," George stood up quickly, the tips of his ears reddening slightly as he glanced between the two of them.

"Good, no offense, Weasley, but I'd rather have her all to myself," Cedric winked down at Vivian who was working to fight the icky feeling she suddenly had for the seeker. There was nothing more she wanted in that moment than to stand up, follow George back to his table, and spend the rest of the night laughing at all the cringey things the Hufflepuff had said to her that day. There had been so many.

George's features immediately darkened as a scowl took over his face. Without another word he turned, made his way back to his table, and angrily took his seat, as Fred and Lee curiously glanced over at Vivian, who remained shifting uncomfortably at her table with Cedric.

"Since this place has gotten so crowded, what do you say we grab some food somewhere else?" Cedric asked, continuing to stand instead of taking his seat across from her.

"Oh um actually-" she began, preparing to make a quick and efficient exit when Cedric cut her off again.

"There's a great place I want to show you. You'll love the shepherd's pie," he declared. Presumptuous of him, considering he had no idea whether she liked shepherd's pie or not. She did, but he didn't know that. And it certainly didn't mean she appreciated his overfamiliarity or his bossing her around. Unfortunately, it didn't seem that he was giving her much of a choice in the matter as he held up her coat for her to slip into.

"...Okay," she eyed him warily, aware of the increasing amount of annoyance coursing through her. Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, she turned to the twins and Lee's table to say goodbye. Before she could, however, Cedric was ushering her out of the pub with his arm over her shoulders, blocking her view of the trio entirely.

He was definitely turning out to be more than a bit much for her. As excited as she had been for this date, she was now only looking forward to it ending. She feared that the Three Broomsticks had been her last opportunity to extract herself from his company and end the date in a polite manner, but that plan was quickly foiled when he all but forced her to agree to eat with him. She was stuck for another hour at least.

As they walked along the chilly cobblestone streets of Hogsmeade, she allowed her mind to wander, confident her date would not be bothered to check if she was listening to him or not, seeing as he'd barely taken a breath the entire day.

At that moment she wished that she had been able to ditch Cedric and was sitting with the twins and Lee in the warmth of the Three Broomsticks. She wished she had been able to talk to George for a longer time before Cedric came back. Above all, she wished she had not agreed to this date with Cedric in the first place. What she thought would be a good way to get her mind off almost kissing George ended up being yet another catalyst for her to spiral into overthinking. She sighed - she never had this much boy drama back in America. She most definitely had never found her thoughts so pathetically wrapped up in one guy before, that was for sure.

It seemed that no matter what she did, she was not able to get the redhead out of her mind. Even while on a date with another guy, she couldn't help but compare him to George. She had never been on a date with George of course but it wasn't hard to imagine that he, unlike Cedric, would have made the smallest bit of effort to get to know her. He at least would have asked her if she wanted to eat with him rather than stuffing her coat in her hands and walking her out the building. And she was sure he would have had an endless supply of stories to tell her that weren't shared solely for the purpose of stroking his own ego. George was considerate that way.

One thing was clear: Cedric Diggory could not hold a candle to George Weasley.

But…now what?

Did that mean she should set aside her no dating friends rule? Was George Weasley the one that would break the precedent of ruined friendships thanks to romantic feelings? Did he even feel the same for her?

Too many questions, too many self-obsessed Hufflepuffs nearby to really think things through like she needed to.

0-0

"Oh she's back, she's back!"

Vivian didn't have to look up to know Alicia would be jumping out of her seat, anxiously awaiting details from her date with Cedric as she climbed through the portrait hole. She'd had the misfortune of spending two more excruciating hours listening to the Hufflepuff talk endlessly about himself while she picked at her meal and contributed mostly half-hearted agreements to statements she was barely listening to and feigned noises of interest in whatever self-indulgent story he had been telling. Now, finally back in Gryffindor Tower, she wanted nothing more than to lay in bed, wallow in her woes of the heart, and maybe scream into her pillow for good measure.

"Soooooo how'd it go, are we looking at the future Mrs. Diggory or what?" Fred asked with a cheeky grin as she joined her friends at their usual position by the fireplace, the desire to flee to her dorm rather than endure their inevitable gloating tugging her heavily in the opposite direction as she did so.

"It was…fine," she answered shortly, stealing a glance at George who had yet to look up from the parchment he was focused on, before going back to picking at the polish on her nails.

"Well don't go overboard on details now," Angelina said sarcastically as she exchanged a disbelieving look with Alicia.

Vivian continued to glower into the fire. She had unfortunately been talking about her date nonstop since her detention with Cedric. She knew the two of them had been expecting her to be jumping to give them a play-by-play once she returned and she was not looking forward to their disappointment when she told them what a disaster it turned out to be.

"He definitely is attractive," she finally said in an apprehensive voice, "And the perfect gentleman - opening doors, paid for everything, whole nine."

"...But?"

"But nothing. It was a good date. No complaints." she crossed her arms over her chest as she glared into the fire. The truth of the matter was that her date with Cedric Diggory had been a massive let down, as the twins and Lee had been assuring her it would be since he had asked her out. Perhaps it was childish, but her pride didn't want to let her admit they were right just yet. Especially not with Fred giving her that shit eating grin, like he somehow knew it had been a disaster and was just waiting for her to give him the opportunity to say I told you so.

"She didn't like him," Lee said suddenly with a triumphant look to the rest of the group. Fred and George's eyebrows shot up, gleeful expressions growing on both of their faces as George in particular suddenly seemed to take a greater interest in the conversation. Angelina and Alicia, on the other hand, both looked a combination of confused with the unexpected outcome and disappointed at the lack of drama Vivian was presenting them with.

"You don't know what I do and don't like, Lee," she shot back, holding on to the last shreds of pride she had left as she desperately tried to fight the flush that was spreading up her neck.

"Oh come on," he looked at her like she was being willfully obtuse - which to be fair, she was but the arrogant look on his face was still sending a strong flash of irritation through her. "I've seen more enthusiasm from Fred and George after detention with Snape."

The twins shared a snort as Vivian scowled at them.

"It was a first date! Am I supposed to be in love after one date?" she threw her hands up before running them through her hair in annoyance. Frankly, whether or not one date was enough to ascertain feelings for someone, there was not going to be a second date between her and Cedric. The thought of having to listen to Cedric talk about himself for even one singular second more was enough to make her skin crawl.

But she still had at least a few minutes left before she had to tell them that.

"Well ideally you'd at least seem like you didn't just walk here from the gallows, love," George chimed in for the first time since she entered the common room, a cocky grin now plastered on his face.

She rolled her eyes at him, her patience with the three boys' obvious smugness wearing dangerously thin.

"It was just so…I dunno," she threw her head back onto the headrest of the couch, unsure which of the many things she disliked about Cedric to begin with. "He just talked about himself nonstop. And he was really touchy, like right away." she groaned, shifting her eyes towards Angelina and Alicia, waiting for their reactions.

"Oh," Angelina said, her tone sympathetically grossed out.

"And he barely asked me any questions! I'm interesting! We could have had a real conversation if he let me get a single word in."

"Damn right you are!" Alicia agreed, clapping her on the shoulder. "He's probably so used to girls throwing themselves at him that he's never even had to consider getting to know any of them."

"Plus he seems like the kind of guy that would introduce you to his grandmother, ya know?"

"What?" Angelina laughed, her tone clearly implying she did not understand this new train of thought.

"He just has a very…white picket fence with a dog in the suburbs kind of vibe."

"And that's a bad thing?" George asked, looking at her strangely.

"No! I mean…not necessarily. The thought of that being my life right now just sort of makes me want to chuck myself off the Astronomy Tower," she shrugged, pursing her lips as she turned back towards the fire.

She didn't exactly know what she wanted her life to be like, but she did feel quite certain that the cookie cutter lifestyle Cedric was after was not for her. He had already seemed so set on who he was supposed to be and how his life would turn out, telling her he wanted to work for the Ministry of Magic, just like his father who already had an internship lined up for him in the summer. He also let it (not so) subtly slip that he definitely wanted marriage and kids by his mid-twenties. Casual first date conversation between teenagers. Totally.

Vivian could not wrap her head around it. Besides the fact that she thought it was ludicrously early for any of them to even be thinking of starting their own families, she hated just the thought of how orchestrated and planned out Cedric's life already seemed to be, by his own volition no less. No uncertainty, no spur of the moment decisions; he was going to work for the Ministry and then be a husband and father. She supposed that that kind of life could be desirable, if you were the kind of person that didn't enjoy taking risks, that is.

But she couldn't lie; risk thrilled her, uncertainty excited her. Try as she may to date "safe" boys like Cedric, she always found herself drawn to the kind of person who wasn't afraid to break the rules, and didn't fear the consequences that might come with it. Like her ex. Like George.

It was one of the first things she had found attractive in her ex-boyfriend, Evander. She had known him all her life - raised in the same family, obviously. But it wasn't until a house party, thrown by one of their non-magic classmates that she felt her first burn of desire for him.

They all knew the rules of socializing with nomajs. The most important one of course being to preserve the secrets of the wizarding world at all costs. That being the case, the young witches and wizards of the area all tended to stick to each other, most of them forming cliques within their families, despite being (secretly) integrated within the local public schools.

That of course rarely stopped them from also attending the non-magical social events, particularly the ones that provided alcohol and weed - even they couldn't turn down a good party after all. It was at one such event that Evander, apparently throwing family secrecy to the wind, took it upon himself to refill every drink and joint at the party via spell. This of course caused quite the stir when the nomaj attendees started questioning how the beer can they had just shotgunned was suddenly full again or how the spliff they had smoked to the filter was sitting whole in the ashtray.

It was stupid of him, dangerous in more ways than one. If the non-magical community they were intertwined with found out about the witches and wizards that secretly walked among them, there would have been pandemonium, undoubtedly endangering the Chicago wizarding community's way of life. If the Elders had found out, they would have been furious, maybe even refuse to continue mentoring him, accuse him of parading everything they taught him in the public eye. If his father had found out, Evander would have been dead.

But despite the risks, his air held nothing but confidence and amusement as he watched the commotion unfold, only shrugging when another family member at the party demanded to know if he had completely lost his mind.

And that is what attracted her so severely. This guy didn't give a fuck and for her edgy and rebellious younger self who had spent a lifetime being surrounded by people who seemed to only give a fuck, it was a breath of fresh air. An arousing, heart-pounding, teenager breaking the rules breath of fresh air.

"I know what it is, she likes bad boys!" Lee proudly informed the twins, who seemed to find his annoyingly accurate theory incredibly funny. "Don't think Diggory would make the cut," Lee smirked at her, as her scowl at the fire deepened into her face.

"That is a sweeping generalization, Lee," she sent him a cutting look. "It's not that," it was maybe a little bit that "I just didn't find him to be overly interesting."

"So you were bored with him? Hmm, I wonder who could have seen that coming?" Fred said, his voice laced in sarcasm as he repeatedly elbowed George in the ribcage.

The younger twin's mood seemed to be lifting greatly with a small smile making its way to his face as he digested the conversation.

She rolled her eyes again. She had clearly lost. Whatever pride she had left would certainly be gone in the next few minutes, whether she dragged this charade on or not. It was going to come down to this eventually, might as well get it over with.

"Yes, I was very, very bored with him."

"WE TOLD-"

"You told me I would be, okay I get it you were right, don't kick a girl while she's down," Vivian groaned, earning a sympathetic pat on the back from Alicia.

"So what are you gonna do if Golden Boy asks you on another date?" George asked, perhaps a bit too eagerly as Fred sent him an amused look in response.

"Ugh. I don't know. I don't even want to think about that right now." she rubbed her eyes, a headache beginning to throb in her temples. "Maybe I'll stick to my usual approach of avoiding. That always seems to work."

"No it doesn't," the exasperation in George's voice was enough to make her laugh for what felt like the first time all day.

"I know it doesn't," she sighed. "I suppose I will just have to be honest with him."

"Sickening!" Fred shouted in a mockingly disgusted voice.

She ignored him, drumming her fingers on her thigh as she stared off into space. As much as she would have liked to avoid Cedric for the rest of her life, she knew she needed to nip this one in the bud quickly. She had absolutely no idea if Cedric even wanted a second date with her, but if the rejected kiss he attempted to give her as they (finally) parted ways, was any indication, she was going to have to prepare herself for yet another uncomfortable conversation. She seemed to be having so many of those lately.

Somehow, despite the fact that she really ought to deal with the most pressing boy drama first, her mind kept returning to George. As the group moved away from discussing her nightmare date, she couldn't help watching him. The way his toned muscles moved under his shirt as he scratched his quill into his parchment. The way his smile always overtook his entire face crinkling his eyes in a way that allured her more each time she saw it. The way he ran his hands through his hair, his slender fingers cascading through his orange locks.

The butterfly feeling in her stomach that was present whenever she was in George's company overtook her once again, making her grateful for the dim lighting of the common room to hide the heat that had quickly moved to her cheeks.

There was no denying it anymore. She liked George Weasley.