Everybody Party Till the Gasman Comes

I don't have many memories of my mother and father. Almost everything I know about them comes from what I've seen in photos and what Molly and Arthur have told me over the years. My mum was unemployed. She stayed at home, cooking and redecorating. She liked to knit and read. After I was born, she would read to me every night before putting me to bed. My dad worked in a bookshop in Diagon Alley. He would sometimes bring home books for my mum. He taught me to read a few weeks after my fourth birthday, only months before he and Mum died.

Mum had dark brown hair and brown eyes, just like me. Dad was brunette also, but his eyes were blue. When they smiled, the corners of their eyes crinkled. Molly told me that when they looked at one another, you could almost feel how much love they had for each other. In the photos that I have of the two of them together, before I was born, they never once look towards the camera. They're eyes are always on each other. In the photos after I was born, they're looking at me.

Sometimes I miss my parents, though I never really knew them. When I look at photos of us all together, I wish that I could feel my mother's hand holding my own, and the stubble on my father's chin scratching my face when he kisses me goodbye. I don't remember the day they died, but I do have this one, distinct memory of something that happened shortly after I moved in with the Weasleys.

Being four, I didn't really understand what was going on. I woke up early one morning and forgot where I was, though I'd stayed at the Weasleys in Ginny's room multiple times before, and began screaming for my parents. Ginny immediately woke up and started screaming and crying along with me.

When the door opened, I thought that Molly or Arthur, or both of them, would be standing in the doorway, ready to come over and comfort me. Instead, George was there. I later found out that Arthur had been called into work early and Molly had been outside in the garden. George walked over and sat next to me on the bed, this tiny red-haired boy next to an even tinier girl. He wrapped his thin arms around me and hugged me to himself. He whispered into my hair that everything was going to be okay, he said that he would never let anything bad happen to me.

I looked up at him and he said, "I will never leave you alone."

I never once questioned whether or not I had someone there for me after that. I was never afraid of being left behind ever again. I think that was the moment I fell in love with George Weasley.

***

George took hold of my hand and tried to pull me up. All night I had been trying to avoid slow songs, much to his chagrin, and he was determined to get me up for one. The moment the ball started George had dragged me onto the dancefloor, even though I was in the middle of a conversation with Lavender Brown about how jealous we were of the beauty radiating off of the Beauxbatons girls. He spun me and twirled me around to the upbeat tune of the music that was being played. The moment a slow song came on, however, I would make up an excuse to get off the floor.

"Come on, Sammy! This is what balls are about, right?" He leaned down and kissed me on the cheek when I didn't reply. He pressed his hand, which was still holding onto mine, to his chest. "You're breaking my heart, love."

I stared up at him, trying not to throw up while also contemplating whether or not to get out of my chair. I supposed he was right. Dancing was the point of balls. And not just normal, fast dancing, though I could plainly see that many other girls were only dancing to the fast-paced songs and there were even some, like Parvati and Padma Patil, who weren't dancing at all. I sighed and stood up, taking the initiative and leading him to the dancefloor.

He placed his hands on my waist and I immediately felt my face flare again. As I wrapped my arms around his neck, I hid my face in the front of his robes. I felt him put his chin on the top of my head and we stayed like that, for the longest time. We weren't dancing, just standing still, not even swaying slightly. I think we both preferred it that way, though.

As the song came to an end, I peeked up through George's robes and the bits of hair that had come loose from Ginny's masterpiece. He was smiling down at me. He moved a few strands from my face and kissed my forehead. "That wasn't so bad, was it?"

I rolled my eyes, removing my face completely from his chest and unraveling my arms from around his neck. I put my hands on his forearms. "Actually," I said quietly, "it was the most dreadful thing I've ever had to go through and I was hoping you wouldn't make me do it again."

"Always the joker, you are." He grinned.

I grinned back at him. "I learned from the best."

George led me back off the dancefloor and over to the table where, only minutes previously, Parvati and Padma Patil had been sitting with sour looks on their faces as Harry and Ron ignored them completely. I sat beside Ron, George sitting on my other side and keeping hold of my hand. Neither of them acknowledged our arrival.

"Hello, boys," I said. "Having a good time are we?"

They both stared at me with blank, almost incredulous, faces. "Do we look like we're having fun to you, Sam?" Ron asked.

"Oh, hush, Ronald. You're only in a bad mood because Hermione's here with Viktor Krum."

The color drained from his face. "Oh, is that who her date is? I hadn't noticed."

I shook my finger at him. "Tsk, tsk, Ron Weasley. Jealousy does not suit you, my dear."

At that moment, Ginny ran over to me, Neville, who was her date, trailing close behind her, and sat on my lap. "Hello, Sammy!" she yelled. "Neville and I were just saying that maybe we should share. I suggested that I dance with you and he dance with George. What do you think about that?"

Neville's entire face turned red and he started to deny everything, but George let go of my hand and stood up, quickly grabbing hold of Neville and waltzing him back to the dancefloor. Ginny and I laughed, and the two of us followed after them. We danced around each other for the whole song, Neville's face growing redder and redder from embarrassment as the seconds ticked away.

The song ended and Ginny and I bowed to one another as George grabbed hold of Neville's hand and kissed his knuckles. "I hope to see you later," he said.

Neville nodded awkwardly, then pulled his hand free and ran off the dancefloor. Ginny followed him, yelling back at me, "You are a lovely dancer, Sam Foster."

George came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist as I watched Ginny and Neville sit at a table. He rested his chin on my shoulder and we swayed slightly to the music. It was announced that there would be only a few more songs before we were all to go up to bed. "So you're having a good night then?" he whispered into my ear.

I turned around in his grasp and looked up at him. "I never have a bad time when I'm with you, George," I said, smiling.

For a second we only stood there, smiling stupidly at each other as other couples danced around us. But then George leaned down and pressed his lips to mine.

Thousands of thoughts raced through my head in the short seconds before I pulled away from him. As I watched his face, he watched mine. Slowly, very slowly, the light in his eyes dimmed. "Sam?"

"I have to go," I said, just barely a whisper. And then I ran.