Falling For

It was late November and I was heartily pulling on a coat, staring at my boyfriend with a tinge of annoyance as he lay lax in bed - wrapped up in his sheets like a lazy teenage boy on a Sunday morning. Which is exactly what he was… a lazy teenage boy with nothing but good-looks and a stunning personality to save himself.

“I thought we were going Christmas shopping.” I shot a filthy look at him, openly scowling as his face brightened.

“I thought you were going Christmas shopping. I thought I was sleeping.” He replied cheekily and I suddenly felt flustered.

“If you aren’t out of that bed in the next 10 minutes, I will buy your mother socks and underwear and say it’s from you.”

“But it’s November!" He bargained with me. "Christmas is so long away!”

“Fine!" I snapped back. "Ron is getting a dress. So is Fred. Maybe even Ginny too. All dresses. All of them. All from you. Go back to bed, I will sort it all out.” I glared at him, throwing my purse in his general direction before ripping my coat off. “I’ll go the day before Christmas like you want to and it will be such a big disaster.”

“You are totally over-reacting.” He deadpanned me, and I suddenly burst into tears.

I was soon sobbing into my hands,now overwhelmed for no reason at all. “I just want it to be p-p-perfect.”

“Whoa, Min! What’s up?” He sprung up, sheet wrapped around his middle as he trudged towards me. He enveloped me in his arms awkwardly. “Why are you crying?”

“I don’t know.” I whined, still sobbing like a mad woman.

“If it helps, I’ll go shopping with you.” He begged. “Just please stop crying.”

“I don’t know how to.” I wailed like a child. “I'm not trying to, I just can't help it.” I sniffed, halting the tears as much as I could. He bit his lip. "You don't have to go with me, I promise we can go tomorrow or something. Or in like three weeks. I don't know."

“I don’t think so. Hang on, just let me shower okay?” He sighed, letting me go before bending down and rubbing my cheeks free of tears. “Stop crying, Merlin, it's just Christmas shopping.”

“I can’t help it.” I sniffed at him like a child, leading him to hold me again. “I just want our first proper Christmas to be good, okay?”

“We’re going to the Burrow. It’s a beautiful house, really, mum makes the greatest dinner and everyone’s happy. It’s going to be good. It’s going to be perfect. Stop worrying, Min. Let us Weasleys take care of everything, because Christmas is always fun at the Burrow.”

He held me a second longer, pulling away only to hold me by the biceps - making sure that the tears had stopped unnecessarily jumping from my tired eyelids. When he was satisfied with his results, he gave me a warming smile.

“We have to go visit my mother beforehand, by the way.” I noted, breaking away to awkwardly pick up my coat. “Well, I have to. You can come if you want.”

“I would like to go see her again.”

“I have to see my dad too.”

“Ah.” He froze. He had never met my dad before, and I knew he was a little nervous about the whole deal.

“Yeah.” I shifted. “Maybe not exactly a good idea but still…”

“No, it’s okay. I’ll be there.” He smiled and I grinned shyly.

“You go have that shower, and I’ll clean up my hormonal self.” I nodded my head, and he sighed, kissing me on the forehead before toddling off to the bathroom. I looked at the mirror out of the corner of my eye and gritted my teeth.



In the middle of Diagon Alley, I was laden with bags and sarcastic comments about how much I hated the cold. George was leaning into Weasley Wizard Wheezes, talking to Verity about mark-downs and staff discounts and other business stuff that I still didn’t understand. And I waited patiently, shifting the bags in my arms until I felt a swoop of air behind me.

“Mignon!”

Craning my neck around to the bags, I saw a very pink-cheeked Noël. On his right was a tall redheaded girl, also extremely pink-cheeked but not in the way I probably thought at the time. It was unfortunate that my jealousy was that apparent, because I instantly glared at her.

“Oh Noël! How’ve you been?” I forced myself to smile warmly at him, shifting the bags out of my face to lean forward and kiss both his cheeks. “It’s been such a long time.”

“Unfortunately, yes. I have been studying healing at Saint Mungo’s.” He shrugged. “Training myself.”

“That’s lovely.” I grinned proudly at him. “I’m glad you’re getting ahead.”

“Yes, it is very fun.” He smiled at me and then blinked, glancing up at his female companion. “Oh, this is Amelie.”

“Nice to meet you.” I bristled and looked back to Noël. “What are you doing here?”

“Christmas shopping.” He beamed at me. “Got to get it done early or else we’ll run out of time.”

“That’s the way to go.” I agreed generously, smiling softly for a moment before sighing. “Well, George is probably going to be back soon. He’s just talking business with his staff.”

“Oh yes!” He perked. “How is it going?”

“Quite good, actually.” I smiled. “Who would have thought people would have a dire need for constipation tablets?”

He grinned, and shifted his weight - taking another quick look at his friend before squinting slightly.

“We should probably be going.” His mouth slid into a weird kind of smile and I nodded, biting my lip as he fixed up a button that had slipped free from its catch.

“Oh! Hey! I'm sorry, Noel is it?”

“No-El.” I blinked at my boyfriend who had just appeared behind me. He wrapped his arms around my waist and I smiled tiredly. “They were actually just about to leave. Want to grab some lunch?” I asked him, looking up at his face. He grinned.

“Sure.” He took some of my bags and held them by his sides. “Nice seeing you, Noël.”

“Good bye.” He nodded and smiled at me one last time before he left. I chewed the walls of my mouth in paranoia and took George’s hand to follow him down through the cold streets. Of course I was jealous. I think I thought I owned Noël in a way – that he was mine because I had him first. Not in a romantic sort but more in a deep-seated ‘please-don’t-steal-my-pillar’ kind of way.

That day I was particularly hormonal. The perks of being a woman I suppose. With the random crying and the sudden jealousy towards Amelie, also with the amount of food I ate that day at lunch… I think poor George thought I was going into self-destruct. Still, it was nice to know he still cared enough to not worry about my little moments.