Chapter 10

As the fall term neared to a close, while she should have been focused on preparing for her mid-year exams, Vivian found herself daydreaming about a certain redhead far too often to be considered healthy. At moments she should have been focused on her schoolwork or paying attention in class, she couldn't seem to stop her eyes from finding George. And though she tried to hide it, she was certain her subtlety could use some work. She had on more than one occasion been caught staring by Angelina, Alicia, or Fred. Even Lee was catching on that something was up which meant she was really being too obvious.

But she couldn't help it! For god's sake the guy was dreamy! Could she really be blamed for staring? Even now as the group sat in the Great Hall for dinner, she was having trouble fighting the big stupid grin that had grown on her face as she watched George animatedly bounce ideas for the twin's future shop off the rest of them.

There was no denying now that her feelings for the redhead had very much passed the friendship territory. She was constantly a giggling mess around him, simply being in his presence gave her butterflies, and hearing his laugh improved her mood even on her worst days. His passion for their work and his enthusiasm for expanding and improving drew her in like a magnet. George was so alive, so ready to face the world and all its challenges.

He was so remarkably different from her ex, it was almost surprising she had any interest in him at all. Where George Weasley was an unshakeable optimist, Evander Canmore always took a nihilistic route, believing that nothing he could do mattered so why bother trying. His enthusiasm and desires rested solely in the tangible, what he could see and feel in that moment was the only thing that had any real meaning to him. In the entire time she had known Evander, she had never witnessed him entertain a single hope or, god forbid, a dream. He was constantly spouting off cynicisms, unwilling to allow himself the zeal that seemed to come so naturally to the Weasley twins. False hopes are more dangerous than fears Evander would always say - he wasn't even a big Lord of the Rings guy, he just ate up any pessimistic quotes like that.

Now, listening to George speak about his future with such fervor, she couldn't fathom how she had ever even had the slightest bit of interest in Evander. He was so bleak - resigning himself to his father's life before he even had a chance to live his own. George would make his dreams come true, even if he had to struggle every step of the way to get there.

An elbow to the ribs knocked her out of her daydream. Turning her head to her right, she was faced with Fred's cheshire grin as his eyes darted between his brother and her. A red blush swam up her face as he started wiggling his eyebrows at her suggestively, confirming her fear that he had in fact been watching her make googly eyes at his twin for who knows how long.

"Whatcha staring at V?" he asked, the infuriating grin not slipping in the slightest when she flung her napkin at him in a desperate attempt to silence him before George caught on.

"Professor Snape," she lied, quickly blurting out the first name that popped into her head as she tried, unsuccessfully, to stop the embarrassment from flooding her features.

"Oh? You must really fancy him then seeing as you've been staring at…him since we sat down," Fred's face was punchably smug.

"Who does Vivian fancy?" Alicia jumped in much too loudly, clearly having been paying attention to their side conversation based on her equally aggravating smirk.

"Oh my god," Vivian said in a long-suffering voice as she closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose, silently begging whatever deities may be listening to mercifully strike her down with lightning, freeing her from this conversation. It was just her luck that Alicia's voice had gathered the attention of the rest of their group as well.

"Snape apparently! No wonder she always does so well in potions," Vivian decided then that if she had to hex any of her friends into oblivion, it would most definitely be Fred.

"He's not even the hottest professor here," Lee frowned at her as he turned towards the faculty table at the front of the room, the girls at the table nodding in agreement.

"Okay then who is the hottest?" Fred asked.

"Lupin," the girls and Lee all said at once, as though this was an indisputable fact.

"He's got all those scars on his face though," George said hesitantly as he looked between Professor Lupin and Vivian.

"Scars are sexy," Vivian informed the twins as the rest of their friends nodded in agreement.

"Well they're both too old for you anyway," George suddenly blurted out indignantly, the tips of his ears turning red as the rest of the group turned their attention from the professors back to him.

"So true George, Vivian should be with someone her age. Someone brave and…dare I say mischievous? But who in this school meets all those conditions" Alicia tapped her chin with her index finger, her brows furrowing in mock consideration.

"Okay let's move on from this," Vivian demanded a bit too frantically, waving her hands in front of her face to try to dispel the topic from the table as the rest of their friends dissolved into childish giggles, much to her displeasure.

It truly is a humiliating thing, to have a crush.

"My parents just wrote to tell me we're going on a cruise for Christmas break," Angelina offered after the few beats of silence that followed the prior conversation.

"Ooooh you're lucky, all I'm doing for Christmas is going to Swindon to visit my Nan," Lee pouted, launching into his complaints about the woman.

While her friends dove into excited talk about their winter break plans, Vivian took this as her cue to tune out and run through her mental to-do list. Her Christmas plans entailed staying at Hogwarts and sleeping until noon for an entire two weeks while her early-bird friends weren't around to force her out of bed at a decent hour. Extremely thrilling stuff, she knew.

Though she had briefly toyed with the idea of going back home for the holiday, she ultimately decided against it. For one thing, getting a port key was a pain in the ass she didn't particularly feel like dealing with and for another (probably more important) thing, there wasn't anyone worth going home for. Lizette would be gone on her annual holiday trip to Bora Bora with her parents and Vivian didn't feel particularly inclined towards traveling countries just to see any of her other former classmates or elders.

And, since Eli died, Christmas had been a bleak holiday to endure rather than enjoy. The intact, happy families celebrating the season always seemed to mock her loneliness, screaming in her face that they had something she never would again. Therefore, it was much easier to ride out the holiday quietly, hoping that if she acknowledged it as little as possible, she could avoid the uncomfortable feelings that always seemed to come along with the festive cheer.

Part of her wondered if she should feel sad about the prospect of yet another cheerless Christmas, but a larger, much more vocal part of her couldn't help but look forward to a few quiet, pressure-free weeks in the castle.

"What about you Viv?" George asked her, noticing that she hadn't said a word since the group began discussing their plans for the break.

"Oh, I'm just gonna stay here. Not worth the portkey trip home for just two weeks," she replied, absentmindedly stirring her soup as she tried to recall if she had completed all her due assignments that week. She was almost positive there was something she was forgetting. With her luck it was bound to be a potions essay or something else that would be a huge blow to her grade if missed.

"No you're not," George rolled his eyes at her as if it was idiotic of her to think otherwise.

"What? I thought that was allowed? Harry told me he's stayed the past two years," her brow furrowed as she whipped her head around towards the younger Gryffindor who looked up in confusion at the sound of his name.

"He doesn't mean you can't he means you're not going to," Fred clarified as George nodded his head in agreement. "You can't spend Christmas alone."

"But I won't be alone! I'll have Harry!" she insisted, gesturing towards the raven haired boy.

"And me!" Ron chimed in from further down the table.

"And Ron," Vivian said pointedly to the twins.

"I'll probably stay too," Hermoine added as she buttered her dinner roll.

"See! It might even be too much socialization for me," she said, smugly crossing her arms to smirk at the twins.

"No one should be subjected to Christmas with Ron," Fred shook his head disdainfully, catching the roll that Ron threw at him just before it bounced off his face.

"You should come to The Burrow with us!" George exclaimed suddenly, his eyes growing wide as he turned to look at Vivian for her answer.

"The hell's The Burrow?" she raised an eyebrow at him, thinking with a name like that it must be some kind of wizard nightclub they frequented.

"It's just what their family calls their house," Lee answered, having also been confused by the quirky name when he was introduced to the Weasley's in his first year at Hogwarts.

"Oh. Cute! Thanks for the offer but I don't want to intrude."

"You wouldn't be intruding!" Fred said now equally as enthusiastic about the idea as his twin. "Come on it would be fun, you'd get to meet Bill and Charlie-"

"You'd get to see where your favorite people in the entire world grew up-" George continued grinning at her hopefully.

"You'd get to try our Mum's cooking-"

"Okay, okay I get it!" Vivian laughed.

"So is that a yes?" the twins asked together, hopeful eyebrows raising in sync.

Vivian gave an exaggerated shudder at their eerie twin connection earning an eye roll from Fred and a smirk from George.

"I don't know," she said finally, turning her attention back to her plate. "I'll think about it." Christmas with the Weasley's would be fun - anything was fun with Fred and George involved. But how could she justify invading this close family's Christmas? Sure she had gotten rather close with the twins and she was friendly enough with Ron, Ginny, and sometimes Percy, but she was still a stranger to the rest of them, right? There was no way they'd be happy about having to house some random girl from their kid's school for two whole weeks let alone on a major holiday like Christmas.

"I'm taking that as a yes," Fred said, turning to George all business-like.

"I'll write to Mum tonight to let her know," George nodded, just as serious and ignoring Vivian when she tried to point out that she had not, in fact, said yes yet. Jumping up from their seats, the twins began whispering conspiratorially between themselves as they exited the Great Hall, and paying no attention to Vivian's exasperation or her worries about being a burden.

"Looks like it'll just be the three of us then," Ron said, turning back to the other two 3rd years.

"I didn't say yes!" Vivian reiterated, glaring at the younger redhead as she stabbed at what was left of her dinner.

"Oh please," she heard Ron mumble under his breath followed by a quiet snicker from Harry.

Her face flushed in embarrassment and annoyance as she hastily leapt up and stomped out of the Great Hall. What an aggravating family.

Wandering the halls, she decided that she needed a break from Gryffindors. As much as she loved them (and was undeniably one of them), a girl can only deal with a house full of cocky redheads for so long before she needs a respite. Quickly turning on her heel, she made her way down towards the dungeons and into her secret room, needing the secluded place to decompress without an audience.

Collapsing onto one of the many ancient cushions that littered the room, she dug through her apothecary kit for her cigarettes and the novel she was reading, settling herself in for a quiet, solitary evening.

0-0

She managed to slip back into the common room with just three minutes to spare before curfew, panting slightly from the near sprint she had done to get back on time. Glancing around the nearly empty space, she was surprised to see Fred at a table in the corner of the room hunched over a textbook as he messily scribbled something illegible into the twins' recipe book.

"Hey," she called, making her way over to his table and sliding into the chair across from him as she curiously eyed the page he was reading from.

"Hey V," he looked up to smile cheerily at her when she sat down. "What have you been up to all night?"

"Library," she fibbed, gently tugging the book out of his hands so she could see what he was researching so intently.

"What?" he asked, staring at her as if she had said she had just been on Mars for a quick shopping trip.

"Had some stuff to catch up on," she responded as she flipped through Fred's book, not noticing the baffled look on his face. "Why are you reading about food charms?"

"We're working on a new product," he answered shortly, pulling the book back to his side of the table as he raised a confused eyebrow at her. "Funny thing is, Georgie and I spent the better part of this evening in the library and you were nowhere to be found."

"Hmm that is funny," she remarked, fixing him with an easy smile and pointedly ignoring the question on his face. Luckily she was saved from further interrogation when George came bounding down the stairs with a large bag of tan colored toffee pieces in his hand.

"I managed to bribe Lee into giving me these," he was saying as he made his way around the table, playfully squeezing Vivian's cheek when he passed her. "But I have to write his next three potions essays."

"High price to pay for candy," Vivian commented while she watched George set a piece onto the table and aim his wand at it carefully.

"We wanted to test the charm right away," Fred said, his voice pulsing with excitement as George cast a complicated mix of charms she had never heard of onto the candy.

"Okay," George said once the spell was cast, clapping his hands once in front of him for effect. "Who's testing it? Vivian?"

"Absolutely not," she laughed at him. She had way too many things to do tomorrow to risk getting trapped in the Hospital Wing while Madame Pomfrey reversed whatever horrendous consequences eating the toffee would have.

"Ugh, fine," George rolled his eyes and attempted to look irritated at her, though the effect was diminished slightly by the affectionate grin that tugged on his lips. "You then Freddie? Since I'm the one doing double work for the next three potions essays?"

"Yeah, yeah hand it over," Fred held his hand out impatiently, not hesitating to toss the candy into his mouth once George handed him the piece. Vivian and George stared at him expectantly, the anticipation mounting as nothing seemed to happen to the ginger. Just when it was about to look like the charms had had no effect, Fred's right arm shot out from his side, the flesh bulging with red streaks as the limb began to grow, stopping only when it had reached three times the length, falling to the floor and practically taking Fred down with it.

"Holy shit!" Vivian exclaimed, clapping both hands over her mouth in horror at the grotesque development.

"Well. That was unexpected," George said casually as his focus moved between rereading Fred's notes and his brother struggling to get to his feet.

"What was supposed to happen?" Vivian asked, the shock fading slightly as she stared at Fred's deformed arm, now lying limply on the ground.

"It was supposed to make your hair grow," Fred said hotly, glaring down at his useless appendage.

"Hospital Wing then?" George asked, making to stand from his seat to walk with his brother.

"No no no, I'll go. You two stay here and try to figure out where we went wrong," he shot Vivian a wink that she ignored before he wrapped his lengthy arm around his neck twice like a feather boa, struck a dramatic pose, and strutted out the portrait door before either of them had a chance to argue.

Vivian blinked once at the sound of the portrait slamming shut before turning and smiling shyly up at George, who she was only a little surprised to find was already looking at her.

"I'm just okay at charms," she admitted, after a beat of awkward silence.

"Well I believe in us," he chuckled quietly as he started scratching out some of Fred's notes in their recipe book and adding his own. Vivian took the initiative to start flipping through the book Fred had been reading from, hoping to find something more hair focused. The two worked in comfortable silence for several minutes before George broke it with a question.

"Have you given any more thought to Christmas yet?" his eyes gleamed at her in a hopeful sort of way that begged her to say yes.

"I don't want to trouble your parents! I'm sure they would rather not have a guest to worry about."

"What?" he practically yelled. "Don't be ridiculous. We take in strays all the time."

She smiled at the thought. It would be so like George to offer his home to anyone who needed it. She wasn't surprised that the apple didn't fall far from the tree.

"I don't know…" she hedged, slumping back into her chair and glaring at the book in front of her to avoid George's eye.

"Okay how about this," George said after a minute, with a new determination lacing his voice. "You coming home with us is my Christmas gift from you."

She couldn't stop the tugging at the corners of her mouth from blooming into a wide grin. The warm earnestness in his eyes had to be enough to make the coldest heart melt, she was certain.

"But I already bought you a diamond ring!" she joked in faux dismay, feeling her cheeks warm at the sight of the twinkling in George's eyes.

"Well return it!" he declared with a laugh, grabbing her hand from the table as he did so. "I only want this."

She studied his eyes, looking for even a hint of a lie, anything that would tell her he didn't actually want her there as much as he said he did. There was absolutely nothing to be found.

"Okay yes," she said finally, her smile widening further at the look of triumph that washed over his face.

"Yes!" he shouted, punching his other fist into the air in victory.

"It'll probably be more fun than hanging out with your little brother and his friends anyway," she conceded, giggling softly at his theatrics.

"It will be, I promise," he said, holding their eye contact to an intense degree, before he lifted her hand to his lips and placed a soft kiss on her knuckles. He seemed to realize what he had done only when her eyes widened slightly in surprise. Blushing to the roots of his hair, he cleared his throat and fixed her with a timid smile before turning them both back towards the task at hand. "Now come on, let's figure out what went wrong with our hair toffee."

She nodded, smiling slightly to herself as the pair got back to work. She had never known that her heart could beat so fast and her stomach could flutter so greatly all while just sitting researching charms. For the first time in what felt like years, she was looking forward to Christmas.

Thank you so much Kazaqui for the kind reviews!