Slip Me That Love Potion, I Dare You, George Arthur Weasley

I was in study hall the next day, only…well I wasn’t actually studying, you see. I wasn’t in the Gryffindor common room either, which is where I should’ve been. Instead, I was sitting by the Black Lake, watching Alec hop around as I stared off beyond the large mass of water. I knew, from my years of sneaking around with the twins, that underneath it was where the Slytherin common room was located, hidden away in the dungeons. The mountains that hugged the opposite end of the lake were beautiful, especially during the winter, which was nearing closer with every passing week. But before that was Halloween, a holiday that the boys and I particularly loved, mainly because of the vast amounts of food that was passed around during the feast Hogwarts celebrated every year.
I knew Fred and George were probably busy selling stuff, as they have been all morning, so for the meantime it’d probably be just me and my Pygmy Puff, at least until the twins finally appeared.
I didn’t have to be lonely for long, though, because about twenty minutes later, I heard leaves crunching from behind me. I looked back from the tree I was leaning against to find George coming this way, huddled in a black jacket, a Gryffindor scarf, and a hat I was pretty sure Mrs. Weasley had sent him. He smiled a crooked smile and gave me a quick wave, hugging me when he was close enough, which I gladly returned.
The only thing odd about this was the fact that he was alone. In the six years I’ve known the twins, I’ve hardly ever seen him and Fred separated. George pulled away, and for a split second, I thought something was wrong. He must’ve seen the concern written into my face, because he laughed lightly before saying, ‘’don’t worry, he’s asking out Farrah Jenks. I kind of didn’t want to be a third wheel…well, that, and I didn’t feel like losing my breakfast once the snogging fest started.’’
I laughed, resting my head on George’s shoulder, who was significantly taller than me.
‘’I see you still like to come out here,’’ he mentioned casually, wrapping his left arm around my shoulders, ‘’remember when those merpeople grabbed Ron’s leg last year? I tried that on him once while he was sleeping, ruddy git nearly blasted my head off.’’
I definitely remembered that day; the youngest Weasley brother, who was afraid of nearly everything it seemed, particularly spiders, was almost dragged into the Black Lake by a vicious merperson. I remember Fred telling me how, when the boys were younger (Ron three and the twins five at the time), Ron had broken his toy broomstick. Fred, upset and unable to control his magic, turned Ron’s teddy bear he’d been holding and into a large, hairy spider. Needless to say, this probably did not go over well with their mother.
‘’Ah, well that wouldn’t have been good,’’ I laughed, picking up Alec and putting him in my coat pocket for warmth. I’m pretty sure he appreciated it. ‘’I’d hate to see anything happen to that face of yours. Plus I’d be forced to do something harmful, and possibly illegal to Ron, and I-‘’ I paused for a second to yawn, ‘’am too lazy to do that.’’
George just rolled his eyes. ‘’Nice to know I can count on you, Naomi,’’ he said sarcastically, ‘’because obviously, if someone blew your head off, I’d just sit and watch, congratulating them when the task was done, maybe even have a cup of tea.’’
I smacked his arm. ‘’You’d better not. I’d come back here as a ghost and haunt the living hell out of you.’’
‘’Oh, I’m just trembling in fear at the prospect of a wee little girl coming back to haunt me, ME! Truthfully, I’d feel honored,’’ he grinned cheekily.
Did he just insult my size?
‘’Wee little girl?!’’ I yelled wildly, glaring at him the best I could. His eyes widened slightly and he put his hands up in defense, backing away slowly.
‘’Calm down,’’ he said cautiously. Apparently he still hadn’t realized I’d been cramping for the past two days, and let me tell you, it was like having someone drive a dagger into your side and twist it around for fun.
I scoffed and crossed my arms. ‘’Telling me to calm down,’’ I grumbled to myself, ‘’bloody pumpkin head…’’
We were both silent for a minute, glaring at each other semi-seriously, until George’s mouth twitched into a smile, which caused my smile to waver as I started laughing. Both of us were laughing so hard I was pretty sure we had scared a few forest animals into an early hibernation, but we didn’t care. We laughed at nothing in particular, but it felt damn good. By the time we’d stopped, I was wiping laughing tears from my eyes and gasping for breath.
‘’We’d better get back inside,’’ I wheezed, ‘’we don’t need Professor Trelawney giving us detention again.’’
George walked alongside me as we made our way back to the castle. ‘’Don’t remind me,’’ he groaned, ‘’she’s definitely cracked. Anyone who thinks a glass sphere will help them see the future was probably dropped off the Astronomy tower as a child. If someone could prove to me that she is clairvoyant, I’ll eat my right sock.’’
Divination proved to be just as odd as it’s always been, the room smelling strongly of incense and something else I couldn’t identify. I looked across the round table to George; his nose was scrunched up and it looked like he was having problems breathing. He whispered something to Fred, who sat in between us, and the twins chuckled quietly to themselves.
Professor Trelawney hadn’t arrived yet, and a number of our fellow Gryffindors around us were starting to drift off, myself included. That was when I remembered Fred was going to ask out Farrah Jenks, who also happened to be in our class.
‘’So did you ask her?’’ I asked him quietly. Fred blushed a bit, yes, BLUSHED, and George sniggered to himself.
‘’I uh…I chickened out,’’ he said awkwardly, his normally pale face turning redder by the second. George was laughing so hard he had his face buried in his arms on the table, his body shaking with every laugh. I giggled a bit and patted Fred on the head.
‘’Aw, Fred don’t be nervous, I’m sure she’d love to go out with you,’’ I said sincerely, feeling a little shocked. Rarely have I ever seen either of the twins act nervous; they normally carried themselves confidently and ultimately fearless, especially when it came to the female species. I’d only ever talked to Farrah a few times, but she was nice and had a good sense of humor. I think her and Fred would look positively delightful together.
He took a quick look at the blonde a few tables behind us and turned back around, about to say something else when Trelawney entered the room. She was in her usual forest green dress, tasseled headband, and large coke bottle glasses that magnified her eyes almost alarmingly. She strode to the center of the room to a small table, her foggy crystal ball perched in the middle of it. She inspected it for a minute, her finger tracing something she must’ve seen inside, before she looked up at us, her wild curly red hair looking particularly poofy that day. She reminded me of a cat that’d been struck by lightning.
‘’Good afternoon, children,’’ she addressed us, her voice airy as she went to a wooden cabinet in the corner. She waved her wand, and a bunch of ceramic bowls came shooting out, landing on the tables we were seated at. The twins and I looked down at ours cautiously; each one had some shredded tea leaves at the bottom.
‘’Today, we shall dive into the wonders of tea leaf reading,’’ she announced, strolling in front of us and looking into each of our bowls, ‘’if you will take out Unfogging the Future and turn to the back of the book, you shall find a list of pictures and what each one means.’’ She turned to George, who was looking into his bowl with a frown, probably trying to figure out what in the name of Merlin’s saggy left butt cheek his tea leaves were supposed to form. I went into my rucksack and pulled out the book, passing it to George.
‘’What do you see, Mr. Weasley?’’ she whispered, looking into his bowl.
‘’Um…’’ He turned to the back of the book. ‘’I think I see a club, which means ‘an attack’, and…the other one looks sort of like an acorn…that one means ‘windfall, or unexpected gold’.’’ He was quiet for a second. ‘’So in other words, I’m going to be pelted by some random bloke’s loose change?’’ he turned to Fred and they high-fived. ‘’Wicked.’’

We were all thankful when Divination had finally ended. The three of us headed to lunch, and as always, the twins dove right in, stuffing their mouths to the point where you’d think their mother never fed them. Obviously, if you were to think that, you haven’t met Mrs. Weasley.
‘’Where does it all go?’’ I asked them, staring at their skinny figures in awe.
‘’Where does what go?’’ They both struggled to say, their mouths full of who knows what.
‘’The food,’’ I replied, pointing to their stomachs, ‘’you both eat like animals, yet all the weight just goes…poof!’’ I exclaimed, waving my arms around wildly. People were probably assuming I’d finally lost the last of whatever sanity I may have left and was doing…an interpretive dance of something.
The twins just stared at me, clearly amused at the mini spasm attack I’d just experienced.
‘’Well you see-
‘’-Us being Quidditch players, and all-‘’
‘’-We happen to be quite muscular, as you can obviously tell-‘’
‘’-And all the while we have herds of women chasing after us-‘’
‘’-Which makes for good exercise-‘’
‘’-So we never gain any weight,’’ Fred finished with a grin, finishing a sandwich he’d been eating.

I was quiet for a second. ‘’You know, I’ve known you two for years, and I still find that whole twins-finishing-each-other’s-sentences thing really disturbing,’’ I laughed, poking at my treacle tart with a fork.
‘’Get used to it, sweetheart,’’ George smirked, laying his long legs across my lap and eating a Cauldron Cake.
‘’Hi Fred,’’ a cheery voice came from behind us. The pumpkin juice Fred had been drinking dribbled down his chin as he turned around. Farrah Jenks smiled at him from over her shoulder as she walked to different part of our table. He waved back sheepishly, wiping his mouth and quickly returning his attention to the food on his dish.
I kicked him from under the table. ‘’Ask her out, you twit, she obviously likes you!’’ I hissed.
‘’Oi!’’ he yelled, rubbing his shin, ‘’I’ll do it when I feel like it, you ruddy cunt.’’ That earned him another kick. ‘’Sorry, kidding!’’ he said painfully, shifting over so he was out of kicking range.
I turned to George, who’d been staring off in space the past few minutes, his legs still in my lap. He looked pretty deep into thought; I was about to change that.
‘’George?’’ I asked, poking his leg a few times. No response. ‘’George?’’ I asked a little louder, waving my hand in front his face. He still stared off blankly. ‘’OI!’’ I finally yelled. He snapped out his daze with a start.
‘’WHA-oh, sorry,’’ he grumbled, yawning and putting his feet back on the floor, resting his head on my shoulder, ‘’just trying to come up with new Wheezes.’’
‘’Oh, speaking of which,’’ Fred piped up, still keeping his distance from me in fear of losing some important body parts, ‘’I came up with this idea during Divination-hats that make your entire head invisible! Pretty brilliant, eh?’’
The twins started discussing how’d they’d do it, and I went back to eating my treacle tart, aware of the fact that George’s head was still resting on my shoulder. He started laughing at something Fred said, and I felt this odd chilling sensation run down my spine, followed by the blood rushing to my already rosy cheeks-
-Wait, WHAT?! I internally started slapping myself, over and over again.
I loved both of the twins to death, hell they were practically brothers to me, but for some unfathomable reason, I felt a little closer to George than I did to Fred.
I had to have been poisoned or something, I just felt so…weird. It was if numerous colonies of Blast-Ended Skrewts were having a rave party in my stomach and were doing their damn best to escape.
To be completely honest, I didn’t quite know what to make of this new discovery, and it scared me.
Oh, it scared me much more than it should have.