Airplanes

“For the last time Ron, I do not have a thing for your brother!” I yelled causing most of the library to turn and look at me while Professor Pince glared at me very distinctly, “Oh get on with your lives already.”
The cluster of Gryffindor first years that had assembled a few tables away quickly turned their attention back to their homework, they knew all too well not to annoy me when I was already annoyed, but the rest of the lot reluctantly turned their backs again. They were no doubt wondering if they should keep one eye on us in case I tried to murder Harry and/or Ron.
“Alright alright, you don’t have a thing for my brother,” Ron replied in a tone that gave away the fact that he didn’t believe me, “But you have to admit that you did.”
“I don’t have to admit anything,” I nearly growled.
“Come on Mollie, you barely took your eyes off of him all summer,” Harry chimed in and I rolled my eyes.
I’d like to see any other sixteen year-old-girl in the world take their eyes off of that boy when he was shirtless, sweaty, and showing off his Quidditch skills.
“Plus, you moaned his name while you slept in Professor Binns class yesterday,” Hermione spoke up as she took her eyes off of her homework for the first time in an hour.
“I did not moan his name,” I lied.
“Yeah, you kind of did,” Ron scratched his neck awkwardly and I guessed that he was trying to erase the memory.
“In a way that makes us all question how much you really stick that ring around your finger,” Harry teased and nodded down to the purity ring that was bound tightly to my ring finger.
“What I dream doesn’t go against my pure lifestyle,” I hissed in an undertone.
“So you’re calling yourself pure now are you?” a crude voice from behind me scoffed and I felt my eyes narrow into slits as I turned in my chair to see Malfoy smirking at me with Crabbe and Goyle flanking him, “Cause last time I checked you were still a filthy little-“
“Shove off Malfoy,” Ron grumbled impatiently and his eyes flickered to the red head that was sitting across the table before they refocused on me.
“No, I’m quite enjoying myself right now actually,” he replied as we glared daggers at each other.
“May I remind you my dear boy that you are currently dating my best friend so anything you call me can and will be repeated to her,” his dark scowl turned into a smirk at my comment.
“Clever little bugger aren’t you?” he was partly laughing but I knew that he had no doubt that I would tell Cat if he ever called me a mud-blood again.
He stalked off with his minions and I turned back around again so I could see the shocked faces on Hermione, Ron, and Harry’s faces.
“What?” I asked.
“Now I see what George sees in you,” Ron was nodding lightly to himself before he turned back to the Divination homework he had been avoiding for the past hour.
“What do you mean you see what George sees in me?” my eyes narrowed again and I leaned across the table towards me.
“Doesn’t matter, you don’t have feelings for him remember,” Ron’s voice was a mixture of teasing, amusement, and annoyance.
I let my shoulders hit the back of the chair again before I peered over his head absentmindedly and out the window. The snow had started to pick up in the last hour and I knew the halls would be too cold to bear if we didn’t leave now.
“We should head back to the tower,” Hermione yawned as if she read my mind and the guys agreed quietly before returning their books to the bags they had beside them and standing up.
“It’s Christmas Eve anyway, I don’t know why we even thought we would focus enough to get any work done,” I fumbled around with my books before they were all finally in my bag and then heaved the bag over my shoulder lazily.
“It’s not like you can focus enough to work on a normal day anyway,” Harry teased and I stuck my tongue out at him as the four of us walked out of the library and down the hall.
“So…what’d you guys get Miss Mollie for Christmas?” I asked trying to break the silence once we were about half way to Gryffindor tower.
“Why would we tell you?” Hermione laughed.
“Cause you love me,” I partly sang as I draped my arm around her shoulders.
“You’re going to find out in the morning anyway,” Harry replied.
“But that’s no fun, that’s when I’m supposed to find out what you got me,” I explained.
“You American’s make no sense at all,” Ron shook his head amused and I draped my other arm over his shoulder, “I don’t see why George would…”
“Why George would what?” I probed after he has trailed off.
“Sorry, what?” Ron played dumb and I could see the other two give him a worried look.
“My God you’re annoying,” I groaned and he smiled before turning his attention back to the hallway in front of us and walking ahead.
“Imagine how his brothers feel,” Harry muttered in my ear and I stifled a laugh by coughing.

“Wake up!” Hermione shook me violently and I groaned before pulling my pillow over my head and trying to block her out, “Fine Mollie, if you don’t want to see what we got you for Christmas then I suppose-“
“Presents!” I yelled and clambered out of bed impatiently before grabbing the first one I saw.
“Mollie, that one’s mine!” Hermione laughed and grabbed it out of my hands before I could rip the paper off.
“Oh fine, be that way then,” I scoffed and turned onto my other side so I could grab one of my presents.
I ripped the paper off of the first one I came into contact with and I started back at the hand knitted sweater.
“Yay! I got a Weasley sweater!” I sat up and pulled the sweater over my head before looking at Hermione, “Do I look sexy?”
“If you that’s what you want to call it,” she chuckled before sitting down on the edge of her bed and peeling back the paper on one of her presents.
“Are you implying that I’m not sexy?” I gasped over dramatically as I clutched my chest and she merely rolled her eyes, “Yeah, I thought so.”
“So what did you get?” Hermione asked after a few minutes.
“Weasley sweater and some homemade toffee from Mrs. And Mr. Weasley, some skittles and other muggle candies from my parents, you know what you got me, I got some chocolate frogs from Ron, and Harry,” I searched through all of the wrappings and suddenly realized that I hadn’t opened anything from Harry, “Well…”
“Must have forgotten,” Hermione suggested kindly.
“I haven’t known you guys that long Hermione,” I laughed lightly, “Plus I’ve never quite been Harry’s favorite person.”
“He forgave you long ago that the Quidditch accident last year.”
I couldn’t say that I blamed him for being ticked off at me after that game. I had run into him and caused him to lose sight of the snitch allowing Slytherin to win the match. The whole school, minus the Slytherin’s of course, were ticked off at me for that and not even close to everyone had let it go yet.
“Doesn’t matter anyway, it’s just a Christmas present,” I said as I started picking up the wrappings from my presents and using the banishing charm to make them zoom across the room and into the wastebasket.
“Whatever you say.”
“Mollie, Harry’s waiting down stairs for you,” Ginny’s voice called from somewhere within the spiral staircase and I felt my eyebrow pull together curiously, “He’s being an impatient git so I suggest hurrying up!”
“Coming!” I called back before walking out of the sixth year girls’ dormitory and down the stairs.
“Nice PJ’s,” Harry laughed as he spotted my red short shorts and Weasley sweater.
“Well seeing as that you were being an impatient git, I didn’t have time to change,” I teased and Ginny laughed from within the staircase, “So what do you want?”
“To give you your Christmas present of course.”
“Couldn’t have just sent it to be in the pile?” I asked and he smiled.
“Too big,” he answered.
“Oh, well then, lead the way,” I said and he opened up the portrait of the fat lady before holding it open for me and then exiting himself.
“Good lord child! What are you wearing?” The Fat Lady screamed as she caught a sigh of my PJ bottoms.
“Oh fine then,” I grumbled and summoned a pair of sweatpants and sneakers before Harry closed the portrait, “Is this better?”
“Not by much,” The Fat Lady grumbled as Harry and I started down the hallway.
“She really irks me sometimes, you know that,” I whispered to Harry and he let out a small laugh.
“She’s probably as old as this castle is, so I’m assuming that she’s sort of old fashioned,” he pointed out and I shrugged.
“So where are you taking me anyway?” I asked as he led me down a drafty hallway.
“I told you, to your Christmas Present,” he answered and stopped suddenly, “Stand right here.”
“Why?” I looked around the hallway irritated before it finally dawned on me, “Harry why are you taking me to the Room of Requirement?”
“Christmas present,” he repeated as he walked past the wall the third time and a door started to appear out of the wall.
“My Christmas present is the Room Requirement?” I knew how stupid the question sounded but it was the only thing coming to my mind.
“No Mollie,” he laughed before grabbing my hand and pulling me through the door.
“Then tell me what the hell you’re up to,” I murmured slightly irritated.
“Now who’s being the impatient git,” he teased throwing a smile my way and I felt the corner of my lips tug upward, “That Mollie, is your Christmas Present.”
“A gigantic mirror?” I asked, still quite confused.
“It’s the mirror of Erised,” he explained.
“Okay?”
“It’s most likely not the real thing but it works just the same. I tested it last week.”
“It’s a mirror Harry, don’t they all work the same?”
“Oh right, forgot that you didn’t know about the mirror,” he seemed slightly embarrassed, “When you look into the mirror you’ll see what your heart wants most out of anything.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah, give it a try,” he pushed me forward a few feet and then stepped back.
“How did you know about the mirror?” I looked over my shoulder at him and he smiled again.
“I found it my first year while they were storing it here. Dumbledore explained it to me,” he answered the question quickly and his eyes flashed to mirror again.
“Right, sorry,” I apologized before taking a few steps forward.
I felt like an idiot. It was a mirror, all I was going to see was my-
“What do you see?” Harry asked anxiously as my eyes nearly bulged out of head and I stared into the mirror
“N-nothing,” I stuttered as my gaze bore into the mirror.
“Oh come on Mollie, I was nice enough to go through the trouble and making sure that the room could produce the mirror and then making sure it worked right and everything. The least you could do is tell me what you-“
“I see George,” I admitted as the George in the mirror wrapped his arms around my reflections waist and mouthed the words ‘I love you’, “I see George.”

“Come on Mollie, you have to come down eventually,” Hermione pleaded with me through the curtains around my bed.
“I need time to think,” I whispered and hugged my pillow tighter, “I need time to wrap my head around this.”
“Has she come out of denial yet?” Ron’s agitated voice asked and I sprang up before ripping open the curtains.
Ron and Harry were just placing their feet on the floor on the dormitory as they both climbed off of Harry’s Firebolt.
“Nice thinking,” I laughed, “Trick the staircase.”
“It was either that or climb up the slide,” Harry joked.
“Can we please worry about the topic on hand,” Hermione muttered as she walked past them.
“So what are you going to do about my brother?” Ron asked, suddenly turning serious.
“I don’t know,” I sighed and sunk down into my mattress again.
“Well…why don’t you play that song that you says helps you think? Like you always did over the summer,” Harry suggested.
“I thought you guys hated it when I did that.”
“It’s only the fact that you belt out the lyrics that bothers us,” Ron explained and I chuckled lightly and half heartedly.
“Oh for heaven’s sake,” Hermione scoffed and then pointed her wand lazily at my iPod, causing the song we had been talking about to start blasting throughout the room.
“Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now. Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now,” I softly sang along to the first verse and immediately felt my head start to clear out.
“Yeah I could use a dream or a genie or a wish to go back to a place much simpler than this. Cause after all the partyin’ and smashin’ and crashin’ and all the glitz and the glam and the fashion and all the pandemonium and all the madness there comes a time where you fade to the blackness and when you’re staring at that phone in your lap and you hoping but them people never call you back. But that’s just how the story unfolds. You get another hand soon after you fold and when your plans unravel and they sayin’ what would you wish for. If you had one chance so airplane airplane sorry I’m late. I’m on my way so don’t close that gate. If I don’t make that then I’ll switch my flight and I’ll be right back at it by the end of the night,” Ron attempted to rap out the next verse and Hermione burst out laughing before following over onto my bed. Never, I repeat, never let a wizard who has only known that rap existed for the past two years attempt it, even if it is along to the music.
“Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now. Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky Are like shooting stars. I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now,” I picked up with the chorus for the next verse and Ron looked uneasily at Hermione before looking at Harry.
“Somebody take me back to the days. Before this was a job, before I got paid, before it ever mattered what I had in my bank. Yeah back when I was tryin’ to get a tip at subway and back when I was rappin’ for the hell of it but now a days we rappin’ to stay relevant. I’m guessin that if we can make some wishes outta airplanes. Then maybe yo maybe I’ll go back to the days. Before the politics that we call the rap game and back when ain’t nobody listened to my mix tape and back before I tried to cover up my slang but this is for the decatur, what’s up Bobby Ray. So can I get a wish to end the politics and get back to the music that started this shit? So here I stand and then again I say I’m hopin’ we can make some wishes outta airplanes?” Harry picked up the rapping for Ron but that just caused Hermione to laugh even harder, at least Harry had a more general idea for the music genre and was able to pull it off a bit better.
“Can we pretend that Airplanes in the midnight sky are like shooting stars. I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now. Can we pretend that Airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars. I could really use a wish right now, wish right now, wish right now,” I sang my last verse loudly and the guys looked at each other as if they were silently arguing about who should finish the song.
“I could really use a wish right now. I could really use a wish right now, wish right now,” Ron unwilling rapped out the first half of the last verse and I smiled appreciative at him.
“Like shooting stars i can really use a wish right now, a wish right now, a wish a wish, a wish right now,” Harry finished up the song and we all turned to stare at Hermione as she continued to have a laughing fit on my bed and Green Day started blasting throughout the dormitory.
“Your brothers haven’t invented something to bring on extreme laughing have they?” I asked Ron.
“Not that I know of but I’ll go write them a letter now and send it off with Pig tomorrow morning,” he replied and started heading for the staircase.
“No Ron-“ Hermione yelled out but it was too late, the staircase had turned to a slide and Ron was quickly making his way back down to the dormitory.
“Oh my gosh, he just, he fails,” I started laughing out loud with Hermione as Harry rolled his eyes climbed back onto his Firebolt and flying off down the way Ron had gone.
“Maybe you should make sure your boyfriends okay,” I said to Hermione and she shot the usual he’s-not-my-boyfriend look before she headed out of the dorm and down the stairs.
I let out a huff of air before collapsing against my pillows again. The song had helped, as it always did, but not to the extent that I needed. I had been lying to myself since I first met the boy at the beginning of my fifth year. I told myself I didn’t want him because he would never want me but in reality I had always wanted him no matter how much I knew he wouldn’t want me in return.
“Oi! Mollie,” a familiar echoed through the room and I nearly fell off my bed as I sat up and looked around the room, “Open the window will you.”
I looked over to the window that was between mine and Hermione’s beds and saw the one person I had thought I said goodbye too at the end of the summer.
“What are you doing here?” I asked immediately after opening the window so that George could climb in with his broomstick right behind him.
“Ron sent me an owl yesterday, said you that you weren’t acting like yourself and that he was worried,” he explained and I almost screamed at the amount of appreciation I felt toward that boy, “So what’s up?”
“I don’t know what your brother was talking about but I’m not nor have I been not acting like myself,” I replied leaning against the wall.
“Well…he didn’t make it seem that way,” he looked at me curiously and I shrugged, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
No.
“Positive,” I lied as he continued to eye me curiously, “Whoa, wait a minute! How did you even get here? Dumbledore added so much extra security this year that not even a fly could get in.”
“I know my secret passage ways,” he chuckled and I rolled my eyes.
“I should have guessed that one. Did you take the one from the shrieking shack or from Honeydukes?”
“Honeydukes of course, I’m not quite in the mood to be bludgeoned by the Whomping Willow.”
“No one usual is,” I whispered and looked around the room so that I didn’t have to make eye contact with him.
“So…you’re all right then?” he asked after a few minutes and I nodded, “Well, I’ll just go then. It was nice seeing you again Mollie.”
“Wait,” I said and he stopped as he placed his broomstick outside the window.
“Yes?”
“Why did-er-why did you come all this way just because your brother said he was worried about me?” I asked scratching the back of my neck and he turned a light shade of pink, “You could have just sent an owl.”
“I suppose that I could have,” he mumbled and then bit his lip for a moment, “Do you want to go for a ride?”
“Sure,” I replied almost instantaneously and he smiled.
“Hop on,” he instructed me and I scribbled a note to Hermione on a spare piece of parchment before tucking it under her pillow and then following him out the window and onto his broom.
“So where are we going?” I asked as I wrapped my arms around his waist, it was the only way to stay on the broom mind you.
“Don’t know. Where do you want to go?”He started circling Gryffindor tower.
“Don’t know. You pick,” I whispered in his ear; I just had the biggest realization of my life here, I am entitled to flirting!
“Alright then,” he looped around the tower one more time before he started flying toward the Quidditch field.
“So how’s the Joke Shop?”
“Busy,” he answered simply.
“And Fred?”
“Busy.”
I blew a lose strand of hair out of my face and watched as the Quidditch field drew nearer. Was he going to keep this one word answer thing up or would he actually open up and tell me something?
“So how has your sixth year been going?” he asked awkwardly.
What was up with him tonight?
“Down right weird. Snape took over the Defense against the Dark Arts post and he’s being a bigger git to me then he was last year. Not to mention that new Potions professor actually likes me.”
“A teacher actually like you?” he laughed aloud at the thought.
“For once in my life yes,” I replied as I jumped off his broom and landed about six of seven feet below on the ground.
“Are you insane? That could have caused you to break a leg or something!” George pulled up beside me on his broomstick looking completely furious and dumbfounded, though still impressed.
“When did you become Percy?” I spat in return and he glowered at me for a moment. I knew his least favorite older brother was a bit below the belt, I had the misfortune of meeting him on my last trip to the ministry, but I…well…I was mad at him for some reason.
“I’m not Percy,” he jumped off his broomstick, still towering over me by a few inches, and ground his teeth together.
“I never said you were. Just said you were becoming less fun and more Percy-like,” I said and hooked my thumbs into my back pockets.
“Well excuse me for not wanting you to get hurt.”
“I can take care of myself thank you very much,” I whirled around and started walking towards the exit to the field. I don’t care if I had finally admitted that I cared about this boy, he was irritating me.
“Why do you always have to walk away when we start arguing?” he shouted after me and I stopped in midstride before turning around sharply.
“I do not walk away every time we-“
“Oh yeah? At the beginning of term last year when you teamed up with Hermione to try and get to Fred and I to stop testing our products on first years, the two of us were duking it out and you stormed off to your dormitory right in the middle of it-“
“I really don’t think that’s a fair-“
“Last Christmas when Fred and I put a Dungbomb in your present from Ron, you took it all out on me and then left for the feast before I had a chance to defend myself-“
“You were irritating-“
“End of last year, you screamed at me for twiddling my thumbs while you were trying to study and then stormed off-“
“I actually do owe you an apology for that one-“
“During the summer, I accidently hit you with an apple when we were playing Quidditch and you pushed my into the pond before storming off to the house and locking yourself in Ginny’s room for the night-“
“I was having a bad day-“
“End of the summer,” I immediately fell silent and knew where he was going this time, “I kissed you on a dare and for the rest of the week you blew me off entirely.”
“I didn’t actually run away or storm off that time,” I protested and he smiled half heartedly, “George, what are you doing here?”
“I dunno,” he shrugged and started closing the gap between us slowly, “Guess I just needed an excuse to come and see you.”
“Why?” I managed to croak out as he stood less than an inch away from me.
“Because I’ve been thinking about that kiss a lot lately,” he replied.
“It was stupid dare, it’s not like it meant anything,” I mumbled and looked down at my feet.
“Is that really how you feel?”
“No,” the words were out of my mouth before I could stop them.
“I didn’t think so,” he chuckled before lifting my chin up again and gently pressing his lips to mine.