Chapter 9

Eli Mento stood on the sidewalk in front of their brownstone, once again attempting to reason with his parents. The June heat wave the greater Chicagoland area had been experiencing the last several days continued to beat down on their Lincoln Park neighborhood, the combination of humidity and the annoyance he was feeling making his throat tight and the air hard to breathe. He had a deep frown etched into his face as he argued back and forth with them for what felt like the hundredth time that week.

They were leaving again. Where? Couldn't say. For how long? Who knows. All Eli knew was that, after less than two weeks of being home from their most recent four month trip, their parents were once again jetting off to some mystery location for another undisclosed reason.

And Eli was pissed.

"You have a 13 year old daughter! When are you both going to start acting like actual parents instead of forcing me to?!" This was a frequently recurring argument between the Mento parents and their oldest child. He loved Vivian, would have sacrificed anything for her, put aside his own life entirely for the sister that needed him, but that didn't change the fact that he shouldn't have had to. He shouldn't have to be a parent to his 13 year old sister at only 20 years old himself. He shouldn't have to tell his parents that their daughter needed them just as much as she needed him.

Despite the fact that his anger levels were skyrocketing, he worked hard to keep his voice low - his attempt at shielding Vivian from the realization of just how much of a letdown their parents had truly become to him. His childhood had been taken from him, but she still had at least a few years left of blissful ignorance. She didn't yet need to know that their parents would never put them first, would never risk disappointing their beloved Evander Canmore II, even for the sake of their own children.

He of course had no way of knowing that Vivian was already well aware of their parents shortcomings. That she had spent nights crouched at the top of their stairs listening to Eli plead with their parents to stay with them for once. That she knew exactly where the two Mento children lay within their parent's hierarchy of importance. And in the heat of their continued argument, neither Eli nor their parents noticed when Vivian stepped onto the porch after Eli, overhearing the entirety of their discussion once again.

"Eli, we understand your frustration-" their father began, his voice riddled with irritation to be having this conversation again.

"No I don't think you do!" Eli cut him off, his anger growing more palatable by the second. "And I don't think you realize what all these "trips" of yours are doing to her! Or to me!"

"We don't have a choice son. You know that," their mother tried to soothe him with a gentle pat to his cheek that was quickly brushed off by a furious Eli, who was in no mood for her weak attempts at nurturing.

"You do have a choice! We all have a choice and we are choosing wrong!"

"Eli," the warning for his son evident in their father's tone.

"You think Canmore gives a single shit if one of us lives or dies? We're nothing to him! Instantly replaceable! As long as he can use us as pawns in his game, he's going to keep sending us out on his suicide missions-" Eli's words were cut off by a hard slap from their father. Heat rose to his face as Eli lifted a hand to soothe the burning sting his father's strike had left. Their parents didn't use physical punishment often, certainly not as often as some of their peer's parents, but neither of them were strangers to good old fashioned corporal punishment.

"Never, ever let another person hear you say that, Eli. Do not be a fool," their father's low voice was angry but his eyes betrayed him - he was afraid.

"We were told the risks when we chose to be initiated. Just as you were told the risks when you chose to be initiated. Do not act as though you were forced into this unwillingly, Eli," their mother did not make eye contact, focusing on some unknown point just above her son's head. Where their father got angry, their mother only closed herself off, her normally icy demeanor unchanged. She so rarely displayed any emotion other than indifference. Eli had always wondered if this was a front she put on for the sake of appearances or if she simply had no more feelings left to give.

"I was a child," Eli could only look at his parents in disgust. They had done nothing but disappoint him more and more in the past several years. He could hardly stand to be in their presence without the frustration and anger he felt at their spinelessness making him feel like a balloon about to pop.

"You were told the risks and you accepted. Just as everyone else in the family did. Just as your sister will do when she decides to be initiated."

"She won't be. She won't live this life. Not while I'm around," Eli insisted, a note of panic entering his voice. This was a sore subject between the two siblings. Vivian wanted to be initiated, that was no question. She didn't care what the risks were, only wanting to be able to prove herself as a worthy member of the family, root herself deeper into the community that she had been taught to love - for that, he could understand. Who wouldn't want that?

But Eli was adamant that she didn't go through with it, practically getting on his knees and begging her to hold off, at least for a little while. And since he had sacrificed everything for her, she agreed for the time being.

"That is not your decision to make Eli. And we need to be going. We can continue this discussion when we get back," their father brushed him off once more, barely paying him a second glance as he got into the driver's seat of their Lexus, their mother slipping into the passenger seat without another word to her son.

Eli stepped back from the curb as the car pulled away, shaking his head slightly and balling his hands into fists by his side. He was so angry. At their parents for never being around, at this increasingly sinister life they had been born into, and at himself for being too young to understand the consequences when he chose to be initiated at just 13 and being unable to prevent his little sister from wanting the same fate.

And he was terrified. He had no idea how to keep Vivian out of it all while their closest friends were made up entirely of family members. And it wasn't like he could just pack up their belongings and leave with her now - he was in far too deep, had seen way too much for Canmore to ever let him go without a fight.

He braced himself to return to their house, working to put a more casual expression on his face that would hide the fear, anger, and disappointment that all threatened to burst out of him. It was a skill he had grown quite good at in the last few years, trying to keep his sister as in the dark as possible. If he couldn't be happy in his life, then at the very least he would make sure she was happy in hers. He'd had no one to save him from Canmore's influence, but he swore he would do everything in his power to prevent the bastard from sinking his hooks into Vivian. No matter what it took from him.

After what felt like hours staring at the distance their parent's car had disappeared into, he finally turned, readying himself to face his sister and break the news that he hadn't been able to convince them to stay.

Much to his surprise, he was faced with blue eyes identical to his own staring down at him from their elevated porch. They both took after their mother, appearance wise. Both got her intense blue eyes, her high cheekbones, her slightly hooked nose. But where Vivian also got their mothers straight, honey-blonde hair, he had their father's mop of curly black on his head. Everyone always said they could have looked like twins if not for this one feature where they differed.

"So they left I guess," his heart broke at the acceptance in her voice, his fury at their parents somehow managing to increase even further. It just was not fair. No 13 year old girl should grow so used to her parents being absent that another departure from them barely registers as something for her to be upset about.

"I'm so sorry Vivie. They had something important to take care of," the guilt he felt under her gaze was almost unbearable. As much as he hated defending their parents in any way, he didn't want to transfer his rage onto her. She was still young, her childhood still tangible - he didn't want to poison her last few years of normalcy with his upset over their parents' actions.

To his great surprise, she only chuckled and rolled her eyes slightly, hopping down the last few brick steps to stand in front of him.

"They always do. Can Lizette come over tonight? The season finale of Twin Peaks is on and I told her we'd watch it together," Eli was taken aback. Of course they had both grown more than accustomed to being without their parents, but he had, perhaps ignorantly, expected his sister to still be sad when they left, like she had always been when they were young. He had been so worried about preserving her idea of the perfect mom and dad that he had failed to notice she had experienced her own disillusionment with their behavior long ago.

"Oh um, yeah of course she can," he stuttered, searching his sister's eyes for even a hint of disappointment that he wouldn't find. "But Vivie, you know Mom and Dad still care about us right? If you think that-"

"What I think, Eli, is that if we counted up all the days in the last five years that they've actually been home, we'd be lucky if it even added up to a year."

Eli's face fell, of course he had had more or less the same thought, many times in fact, but it pained him more than anything to know that his sister had already experienced the heartbreak of learning that parents can disappoint their kids too, at an age where she still should have been able to depend on them.

"Look," she sighed, staring into the distance past his right ear rather than into his eyes, another trait she seemed to have inherited from their mother. "I know you try to protect me or whatever but I don't have any…misconceptions about the type of people they are. Or the type of people we are."

"What are you talking about?"

She brought her hands out in front of her, shrugging her shoulders in an unconcerned manner.

"Evander's dad has them do stuff for him. Like he has you do stuff for him. And like how he'll have me do stuff for him once I'm initiated."

Eli felt his mouth grow dry as a cold sweat began to make its way down his back, despite the oppressing summer heat. They had never had such a frank conversation before about their family, he had never heard her speak so frankly about them.

"You aren't going to be doing anything for him. Ever," he stated firmly. In his worst nightmares, the ones that kept him up entire nights, chilled his blood and made his hands shake, he was always unable to save Vivian, unable to keep her from living his life, unable to stop her from turning into him.

"You can't stop me from joining the family. You've been in it since you were my age!" her voice heated as the distress he had been expecting to see over their parent's departure finally became evident on her face.

He suddenly moved forward, grabbing her by the shoulders and giving her a shake. He could feel his eyes get wild, bulging from their sockets as the anxiety that was always bubbling below his surface forced its way up.

"Vivian you do. not. want. this," he almost screamed, not caring about who could be listening. Her eyes got wide as she seemed to shrink back down to the baby sister she would always be in his mind. She was not at all used to him acting this way, like he was scared. He always went to great lengths to appear the confident, brave older brother she had grown up with, even at the times he was falling apart inside.

"But…I want to be like you," she squeaked, in a quiet voice that sounded so crestfallen, it shattered his already broken heart further into dust.

He closed his eyes, willing the tears not to fall. He knew every adult in their lives had let them down immensely when he was his sister's biggest role model.

"I want you to be better than me, Vivie. I want you to have the chance that I didn't have to be better," he said, finally opening his eyes and fixing the blonde girl with a grave stare.

"What am I supposed to do then?" she cried, letting her tears fall freely despite Eli's work to keep his contained. "You and the family, that's all I have! That's all I know!"

"You can do anything!" Eli pleaded, crouching down to force his sister to look him in the eyes. "That's the point. You can go anywhere, you can be anything. But if you get tangled in his mess, you can only be what Canmore wants you to be."

Vivian gave a bitter laugh that sounded more like a bark than anything else.

"That's easy for you to say! You're already in. You're already a part of the club. But I'm still an outsider. And if I go somewhere else I'm just going to be an outsider surrounded by strangers!"

"You're not an outsider. You have me," his voice softened as he pulled her into a hug.

"Yeah but for how long?" she asked, jerking out of his grasp and pushing him away. "You said it yourself, Canmore doesn't care about any of us. You're just a pawn to send on suicide missions! So what am I supposed to do if something happens to you? Or mom and dad? What am I supposed to do when you leave me all alone?"

"That is never, ever going to happen Vivian. Okay? I promise," he grabbed her to shake her once more, trying to hammer in his point.

"Okay." she sniffed, and he was relieved to see a small smile returning to her face.

"And I need you to promise me, okay? I need you to promise me to stay out of it, at least for now. Promise me if Canmore or anybody tries to get you to do anything for the family you'll tell me right away. Anybody. Even Mom or Dad, okay?" he could feel the tension headache begin to press against his eyes as he waited for his sister's response.

He was getting a bit frantic, he knew. And he knew it was a big ask, one she was not keen on granting him in the slightest. And he understood that she felt left out - some of her peers had already started the initiation process, Canmore's son of course being the first of them to make his bones - a little too enthusiastically he might add. Another reason he wanted her to stay uninvolved. The kid gave Eli the creeps just as much as his dad did and, despite his sister unfortunately being friends with the little bastard, Eli was determined to keep them as far apart as possible.

Vivian bit her lip, tears threatening to start spilling once more. She took a deep breath.

"Okay," she said finally, nodding as though trying to convince herself as well as him. "I promise I won't get involved."

0-0

Vivian jolted awake, the sound of their dorm room door closing as one of her roommates exited pulling her from her dream. She sat up, struggling to recall the details of the scene her unconscious mind had her in just seconds ago.

Her brother had been there, she was certain of that. She couldn't exactly recall why he was there, the particulars of the dream fading from her mind as quickly as water running through her fingertips, but she was certain of his presence in that inexplicable way that one can only feel in their gut.

A looming feeling of dread had been weighing on her chest when she awoke and she wasn't sure why. With no evidence to actually support it, she was certain that something in her dream had gone wrong, something had gotten so messed up that there was no fixing it. What was it?

The question remained on her mind, bouncing inside her skull as she did her morning routine. Even as she joined her friends at the Gryffindor table for breakfast, her mind worked overtime to conjure any more details of the dream, but it was like trying to catch smoke in her hands. As soon as she thought she had it, it disappeared once more.

She vaguely remembered feeling angry, or was it sad? The emotions had jumbled together in her mind, the causes of which becoming unrecognizable as soon as she woke up from the dream. Had there been an argument of some kind? Why would she have been arguing with her brother? Had her parents been there? Yes, she was pretty sure now that they had been there.

Her parents. She tried not to think of them too often if she could help it, lest she begin to feel guilty. She hadn't seen them in two years, give or take. About one year before Eli died, two years before she came to Hogwarts, they walked out of the door for the last time - though of course none of them knew at the time that this trip would ultimately be their last. She missed them, but probably not as much as she should have. Considering their presence in her life had been sporadic at best in the years leading up to their final disappearance, this didn't feel all that different from the norm.

Was she angry at her parents in her dream? That didn't make any sense. She had long since decided that being angry at her parents was pointless. Nothing she said or did would have ever been enough to turn them into the mom and dad she wanted them to be. After years of their empty promises and extended absences, she had given up her fight with them. The last time she had seen them, a random June afternoon as they departed for what ended up being the final time, they had barely spoken, exchanging only a brief goodbye, her attention more so focused on her brother's increasing agitation.

While she had more or less accepted the limits of what her parents were able to provide them, Eli was a different story. Despite the fact that they consistently let their children down again and again, and despite knowing that he took every opportunity to argue with them about said fact, he never seemed to lose hope of the idea that their parents could change. It was a strange juxtaposition. In Vivian's memory of the few times her family was all together, though he defended them to her, her parents and brother were constantly fighting behind closed doors or when they thought she couldn't hear. Not that that prevented her from hearing a single word. Brilliant wizards as they all were, none of them ever seemed to remember the Muffiliato charm in the heat of the moment.

Even though Eli worked hard to conceal his feelings on the matter, it was clear to Vivian that her brother hated their parents. Yet, somehow, he never wanted to give up on them. Even after they had been gone a year, their longest absence to date, he insisted that they would be back.

Though she had her doubts, she never questioned his insistence. He was 21 and seemed all knowing to her, his words carrying more weight to her than anyone else's. When he told her something, she could only believe it to be true, whether she wanted to or not.

"Vivian?" a hand snapped in her face. Apparently she had been spacing out for much longer than she realized.

"Hmm?" she lifted her head up, the voice of course belonged to George, who had noticed her not take her eyes off an empty spot on the table since she sat down five minutes earlier.

"You okay?" he asked her with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh yeah. Just trying to remember the dream I had last night," her gaze moved to a far off point beyond his shoulder as her mind returned to attempting to retrieve the memory.

She didn't know why this particular dream was bothering her so much. She rarely remembered her dreams as it was, and usually only bits and pieces when she did recall one. It had never bothered her before today. But this time, there was an itching part of her that needed to know what the dream was. It had felt oddly real, like she had been there before. Despite being unable to recall the actual events of the dream, her body seemed to sense the familiarity, an almost nostalgic feeling washing over her as she racked her mind for any clues that would bring the dream into clarity for her.

"What was it about?" George's words once again interrupted her reverie, never one to let silence settle for too long.

"I'm not sure. But it's giving me major déjà vu and it's bugging me that I can't remember," she frowned at her untouched eggs. "My parents and brother were there I think." she sighed, defeated. The longer she was awake the fuzzier the memory became. Were her parents really there or had she just thought about them because of her brother? Had someone actually been sad or was that just the emotion she felt when she woke up and remembered he was still gone?

"Ugh I don't know," she finally said, shaking her head to clear the final remnants of the dream from her mind. "Anyways, what are we talking about?" she asked, finally joining in on the conversation her friends had been having for the last several minutes.

"The Hufflepuff party tonight," Alicia answered through a bite of toast. "Should be fun even if they lose the match against Ravenclaw today."

"Cool. What time?" Vivian asked, picking up her fork to finally dive into her own plate.

"You want to go?" George asked, the surprise evident in his voice as he looked at her with both eyebrows raised.

"Why wouldn't I?" she raised an eyebrow back at him, unsure why he would think otherwise.

"Oh uh, I guess I just thought with the stuff with Cedric you wouldn't want to be there," Vivian noticed the tips of his ears redden as Lee and Fred started snickering between themselves.

"I told him I wasn't interested so we're good," Vivian shrugged, rolling her eyes at Angelina's knowing smile. "Is the party BYOB?"

"'BYOB'?" Fred asked at the same time that George said,

"Seems like he still didn't get the memo."

"Bring your own beverage. And what are you talking about George?" her eyes darted between the twins, attempting to keep track of both conversations at once.

"Why do muggles need an acronym for that?" Fred wondered aloud.

"Acronyms are fun?" she shrugged again, eyeing George who had yet to respond to her earlier question.

"He's staring at you," George said suddenly through a gulp of pumpkin juice, glaring at something just past Vivian's ear.

Vivian glanced over her shoulder towards the Hufflepuff table and saw that, sure enough, the seeker's gray eyes were on her. Rather than embarrassment at being caught, when Cedric noticed Vivian looking back at him, his grin simply grew wider, nodding his head in the group's direction.

Vivian's brow furrowed in confusion as she gave him a half-hearted wave with her fingertips before turning back to the Gryffindor table. She could only assume that Cedric was really, really good at handling rejection.

"Anyway, A-Squared, what are you two going to wear to the party then?" she asked Angelina and Alicia, brushing off Cedric's odd behavior.

"Don't even ask, I'm going to be stealing something from you," Alicia hummed, tapping her quill against the textbook in front of her.

"Hmm, okay I'm gonna steal something from you then Angelina," Vivian said matter-of-factly as she stood up from her seat and pulled her bag over her shoulder.

"Fine," Angelina rolled her eyes, joining the other two girls as they walked out of the Great Hall, leaving the boys at the table to wonder if that's how all female friendships worked or if it was just theirs.

0-0

Apparently the Hufflepuffs threw one hell of a party - who would have thought? Certainly not Vivian who had come to find a brand new appreciation for the yellow and black house as she knocked back her third glass of the fruity punch the Hufflepuffs were serving in the large barrels that lined their common room. What was in it? She had no freaking idea, but whatever combination of juices were mixed into the beverage covered the burn of the alcohol completely. Dangerous perhaps, but the time to worry about that had long since passed as she jumped with the thrum of the music, surrounded by dancing students from all houses.

The evening was passing in colors and sounds, her friend's laughter mixing with the music in her ears. She wasn't sure how long she had been dancing in one spot when she suddenly found herself pressed up against George, his hand caressing her hip as they both screamed the lyrics to some rock song she only half knew.

He was staring at her, every time she glanced up, she found his eyes locked on her. She suddenly felt shy under his gaze, looking away quickly each time their eyes met. If she was sober, she would have told herself she was being silly - there was really no reason to be timid around George, was there?

Pushing her nerves aside, she forced herself to meet his gaze and refused to look away as his eyes continued to bore into her. She felt her heartbeat quicken when his smile dropped slightly, and something new came over his face. His eyes searched her face hungrily, as he pulled her closer to him with the hand that rested on her hip, his other hand traveling upwards to her bicep, resting gently on the spot just above her elbow.

This was their redo, the thought suddenly popped into her head, sending her heartbeat into overdrive. This was their chance to finally do what they had wanted to do in the Astronomy Tower. They had both been dancing around it for the last few weeks, but now here they stood, in front of each other in the Hufflepuff common room, the desire as plain on George's face as it must have been on her's.

Maybe trying to fight it had been stupid of her. As George moved to close the gap between them for the second time, she couldn't recall a single reason she had wanted to avoid this. Who in their right mind would consider George Weasley leaning in to kiss them a bad thing? In fact-

"Vivian!" the two jerked apart as her name was called over the loud music, Angelina and Alicia appearing in front of them, neither of them anything close to sober or in the slightest bit aware of the moment they had just interrupted. "Come get another drink with us!" they chorused, each looping their arms with hers and pulling her backwards towards the drink table. Vivian watched the disappointment on George's face mirror her own as she lost sight of him the closer they got to the drink table on the other side of the room.

Alicia immediately got to work, picking up and pouring half a bottle of liquor onto the surface before slamming it back down on the table and rushing towards the bathroom with a hand over her mouth. Apparently Alicia would not be getting another drink after all.

"Ah I should go help her," Angelina giggled, following her friend into the girl's lavatory leaving Vivian standing alone by the sticky table watching the party. As she made to turn back to the dancefloor, back to George, a slurring voice stopped her and she felt a sweaty hand grab onto her wrist.

"Well, well what do we h-have here," Cedric was completely trashed, swaying slightly on his feet as he leered down at her in a way that made her skin crawl.

Wrenching her arm from the seeker's grip, she backed away from him slightly, his current state and the energy he was displaying making her a tad nervous. Nothing like a scary, drunk man to spoil a good mood.

"Hello Cedric, nice to see you. Sorry about the quidditch match," she said, for the sake of being polite - she was at a party in his common room after all.

"Ahhhh don't worry about that we'll get 'em next time won't we Vivie?" he drunkenly slung his arm over her shoulder, pushing his body further into her personal space.

"Don't call me that," she shrugged his arm off her as she tried to back away from him, balking at the overly familiar nickname. No one called her that other than-

I want you to be better than me, Vivie. I want you to have the chance that I didn't have to be better.

She blinked in surprise, the memory of her brother's words catching her completely off guard. Why was she thinking of that conversation, of all things, right now?

"Okay Vivian," Cedric emphasized her full name, his eyes darkening slightly as he took another step towards her. "Ready to stop playing hard to get or are you still gonna be a tease?"

"Excuse me?" her face flushed in indignation, pausing her attempts to get away to fix him with an icy stare. Just who exactly did this guy think he was?

"T-telling me you weren't interested was cute but be real. Every b-bird at this school wants me," he slurred, gesturing wildly to the crowded party in front of them. It was clear that it was more than time for Cedric to go lie down. His face was drooping and he seemed to be growing increasingly unsteady on his feet as he lurched towards her.

She eyed him warily, unsure if responding to his drunken ramblings or staying silent would get her out of this situation the quickest. She glanced around the party, trying to catch someone's, anyone's eye to come rescue her from this unpleasant encounter. Much to her dismay, it appeared the entirety of the common room was too wrapped up in their own conversations to pay much attention to the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor in the corner.

"I was being real, Cedric. I'm not interested in you and you're making me very uncomfortable right now," as she moved to step around him, he grabbed her by the shoulders and slammed his lips onto hers, tangling his fingers into her hair.

"What the fuck! Get off me!" she yelled, pushing him away from her with her fists on his chest. The commotion had begun to draw the attention of a few surrounding party goers who were now looking curiously between Vivian's furious face and Cedric's drunken state.

"What's going on?" George was suddenly at her side with a protective hand on her back as he scowled at Cedric. Whether his anger was because he had surmised what had happened or simply because of his already present dislike for the guy, Vivian was just grateful that the ginger had intercepted when he did.

"I want to leave," Vivian turned towards the barrel that served as the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room and exited without another glance in the seeker's direction. Her shoulders sagged with relief as she heard the barrel snap shut behind her, grateful to put a door between her and Cedric.

"Viv what did he do?" she flinched at George's voice, not having realized that he had followed her out of the party and was now walking with her through the silent halls.

"He was just being a creepy drunk asshole," she replied, instinctively wiping her mouth off again at the memory of Cedric's boozy breath. How he managed to be the guy that so many girls at this school wanted was completely beyond her.

"I'm gonna kill him," George growled, turning back towards the Hufflepuff common room with an outraged expression on his face.

"No no no!" she grabbed his wrist before he could get too far, pulling him back on their path to Gryffindor Tower. "He's not even going to remember this tomorrow. Don't waste your energy."

"But he-"

"Is an egomaniac loser who isn't worth the detention you'd get for beating him up," she rolled her eyes and smiled up at him, searching his face for the laughter that always permeated his features.

"Can't believe you went out with him," George grumbled under his breath, giving her a sideways glance as he finally turned his attention from the party behind them.

"One date. And it was a severe lapse in judgment clearly," she scoffed, continuing to pull him forward through the halls.

"Well I'm just saying you can do way better than him."

She turned to look at him, an eyebrow raised.

"Oh yeah, like who?"

"Oh, uh um I-I don't know. I- anybody would be better than him," George sputtered, his face turning scarlet as he suddenly took great interest in the paintings they were passing.

"Yeah? Because I was thinking about asking that Draco Malfoy out - would he be much better?" she joked, giggling at George's horrified expression

"Absolutely not," he stated, giving her a stern look as they approached the Fat Lady that quickly morphed into a lopsided grin when she started laughing.

"He's a little young for me anyway," she conceded, after they had been granted access to their common room.

"Good because you could do better than him too," he stood in front of her awkwardly fiddling with his wand to avoid her eyes as he said this.

"Like who, George?" she asked him more seriously this time, moving her head to catch his eye. She knew the answer, or she knew what she wanted him to say, praying that he wasn't just being nice to her as a friend.

Vivian watched his eyes change as he looked at her, the same hunger from the dance floor seeming to have returned tenfold. He opened his mouth to respond, to tell her who exactly she would be better with and she felt her heart drop down to her stomach. Before he could get a word out however, they were interrupted by the portrait door swinging open as Alicia and Angelina nearly fell into the common room.

"Are you kidding me?" she thought she heard George mumble under his breath as they once again separated, though she couldn't be sure as her attention was drawn to her friends who appeared in much greater need of her focus at that moment.

"You both just left us there!" Angelina cried, struggling to get her and a barely conscious Alicia to their feet.

"Oh jesus christ," Vivian muttered, rushing over to lift Alicia up with an arm around her waist. Angelina, who seemed just slightly better off than Alicia, helped Vivian get their friend into an almost standing position as the three made their way to the girl's staircase. She shot an apologetic look back to George who smiled at her knowingly before climbing up the opposite stairs to the boy's dormitories.

Once they had safely put Alicia to bed - on her side with a backpack full of textbooks over her shoulders to ensure she wouldn't roll over and choke on her own vomit in her sleep (what are friends for right?), Vivian couldn't help but feel a tad annoyed that her conversation with George had been interrupted. They were maybe, maybe about to get somewhere interesting and of course their friends just had to get back to the common room at that exact moment.

She sighed as she slid between the covers of her own bed, her mind swirling with guesses as to what he had been about to say to her before they were interrupted. You should be with me, Vivian would have been the perfectly romantic thing for him to say in that moment. She wondered what kissing George might be like, how being held by him in a way beyond friendship would make her feel. Was he a passion guy or a wait until the perfect moment guy? She felt her face flush in the dark, fantasies of George Weasley's romantic side stirring something in her much more powerfully than she would have cared to admit.

She was definitely not going to be getting any sleep any time soon. Certainly not with thoughts of red hair and amber colored eyes occupying her mind.

Fun fact: the season 2 finale of Twin Peaks premiered on June 10, 1991 and had 10.4 million viewers :)