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

I guess you could say Farrah and I became what you would consider friends within the next few days. She began spending almost as much time with the twins as I’d been, and although many would expect someone like myself to be upset by this, I really wasn’t. She was a fun person to be around, and we got along quite swimmingly.
I found it miraculous that within the span of a week, she could tell them apart without failure. Took me nearly all of my second year to perfect the art of telling the twins apart.
She and Fred weren’t actually together, though. They were…well, I don’t think any of us knew what they were, exactly. George and I had seen them cuddle a few times, along with the occasional snog, but they swore up and down that they weren’t dating. If that was the case, I doubted they’d be able to restrain themselves much longer.
Today was Halloween. The feast had just ended, so everyone was headed back to their common rooms for the rest of the evening. The previous day, I’d received a letter from my mum, saying that my muggle father was going to be sending me something within the week. She didn’t say what it was, which concerned me slightly and got me rather curious, but it had arrived this evening in a large square cardboard box. It took about six owls to get the ruddy thing from my house to Hogwarts. The sight attracted a lot of attention in the Great Hall, so right after we’d finished eating, the four of us hurried off to the Gryffindor common room to open the mysterious package.
We placed the heavy parcel on the floor near the fireplace. I took a few minutes to catch my breath before I pulled my wand out of my robes, aiming it at the box.
‘’Diffindo.’’ The box cut open. Fred, George and Farrah inched closer, looking over my shoulders at the square object the box had concealed. There was a moment of silence. I looked at the twins; their expressions seemed almost exactly the same, eyebrows furrowed and their mouths set in straight lines, like they were concentrating. Farrah looked at it with a raised eyebrow. I knew exactly what the object was, but why the hell did my dad sent it to me?
‘’…Well, that was rather anticlimactic,’’ Fred and George said together. There they go again. I’ll never understand the connection twins have.
‘’We thought it’d be enough Stink Pellets to last the rest of the year-‘’
‘’-Or a giant, man eating Fire Slug-’
Actually, either of those things would be pretty damn epic.
‘’But,’’ Fred continued, ‘’it’s actually a…thingymabobber…thingamajig…thing.’’
Farrah and I both looked at the twins oddly. I worry about their sanity sometimes.
‘’This,’’ I said, placing my hand on top of the hard, plastic cube, ‘’is a telly.’’
If possible, Fred and George looked even more confused. ‘’What-‘’
‘’I have one at my house,’’ Farrah piped up. Both of her parents were muggles. ‘’But why’d you get it?’’
I just shrugged in response. ‘’No idea, I reckon my dad must’ve thought I was bored here or something.’’
‘’But what does it do?’’ George asked incredulously. Being from a pureblood family, I’m pretty sure none of the Weasleys have ever seen a television.
‘’Um…well it’s sort of hard to explain. It’s what muggles use for entertainment. There’s all these different shows…’’ I had one at my house too, but since I was usually at the Weasley’s during the summer, I wasn’t entirely sure how the telly worked. There was no outlet to stick the plug in, since wizards don’t use appliances. Fantastic.
I tapped the screen with my wand, not really expecting a successful result, but suddenly it turned on, which scared the living daylights out of all of us. The rest of the people in the common room hurried over to see what we were doing.
‘’What the bloody hell is that?!’’
‘’I’ve never seen anything like that in my entire life.’’
‘’Where did you guys get it?’’
‘’Is it dangerous?’’
There was so much chatter that I couldn’t even hear what was on the telly.
‘’Everybody shut up!’’ I finally yelled. The talking ceased, so I turned my attention back to the screen. I think it was playing a music channel. Four guys dressed in these black and white muggle outfits were singing, playing guitar and drumming. It was some catchy rock song I’d never heard before, but I liked it. Everyone was still staring at the screen.
‘’They’re pretty damn good,’’ the twins commented offhandedly. Fred grabbed Farrah’s hand and pulled her out of the crowd. They started jumping around and dancing like lunatics, soon joined by about six or seven others. I looked up at George and smirked, pulling him out of the crowd by his arm. He held both of my hands as we danced, nothing in particular, just some twists and twirls. The goofball even dipped me a few times, nearly dropping me on purpose. It didn’t take long before the entire common room was dancing to the songs on the telly, not really caring when the song changed. It was probably the most fun I’d had in awhile. At one point, George and Fred started waltzing together dramatically. I couldn’t breathe; I thought I was going to die from laughter. Farrah had to lean on me for support.
Soon everyone went their separate ways and headed to bed, everyone but the four of us. The twins were still pretty fascinated by the new toy. They’d changed it to some channel that was playing old movies. They’d been watching the Wizard of Oz for the past hour, refusing to budge from their spot on the floor directly in front of the telly. Farrah and I sat on the couch behind them, sucking quietly on some sugar quills as we watched the black and white movie.
‘’Is there actually a place named Oz? I’ve never heard of it,’’ Fred commented offhandedly. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Farrah hitting her fist against her head rather violently.
Eventually, without even realizing it, I had passed out for a good half hour. By that time the movie had already ended. George was shaking me awake.
‘’Naomi, wake up.’’ I didn’t budge. I was trying to recapture the dream I’d just had about the twins as unicorns. I have to say, George would look rather attractive with a horn attached to his head. No, I am not a raging, deranged horn dog.
‘’Rictusempra,’’ he whispered, and before I could get up and run, I was being tickled by an invisible force. My eyes shot open and I started laughing uncontrollably, clutching my sides and curling into a ball. At that moment, I tried to be mad at him, I really did, but when I saw those bright brown eyes and amused smirk on his face, I nearly melted into a nervous puddle.
I struggled to search for my wand, yanking it out of my robes and trying to aim it at him without laughing.
‘’F-Furnunculus!’’ George’s face was quickly covered in these nasty, painful looking boils. Fred and George looked at each other in astonishment. Farrah just stared in horror, mouth slightly agape.
‘’That…was…brilliant!’’ they both exclaimed, high-fiving and turning to me with identical grins.
Well, that wasn’t exactly the reaction I was expecting. ‘’Um…pardon?’’
‘’We’ve just gotten a new idea-‘’
‘’-For the Skiving Snackboxes-‘’
‘’-We’ve been looking for one for awhile-‘’
‘’-And you just helped us a ton!’’ they finished together. Fred countered the curse I’d put on George, and both of them attacked me while I stared, confused on the couch.
‘’Oh…you’re welcome?’’ I choked out under their combined weight. ‘’Merlin’s beard, you two aren’t as light as you let on to be.’’
‘’Hey!’’ they pouted. I could hear Farrah laughing a few feet away.
‘’I will have you know, this is all pure muscle,’’ George said promptly, grinning cockily and making his arms look semi-muscular. He had no idea that that little gesture was making my brain turn to pumpkin juice.
‘’Yeah,’’ Fred agreed, crossing his arms, ‘’although, I still think I’m better looking.’’
‘’Hey, I know a head-expansion curse to go along with that comment,’’ I threatened. He stuck his tongue out and the two of them hopped off of me.
‘’Well, I think it’s time we tucked in,’’ they announced.
‘’Ah, alright, suit yourselves,’’ I shrugged, getting up as well, ‘’guess you’ll miss the sleepover Farrah and I are having.’’
That seemed to make them stop and think. I laughed before give Fred a hug, pushing him in his non-girlfriend’s direction. ‘’Go to sleep, you numbskulls.’’
Fred and Farrah went off to the side to say their goodnights to each other, which left George and I to stand in front of each other awkwardly in the middle of the common room.
His deep brown eyes seemed to almost bore into mine. I was pretty sure he wanted to say something, but instead he embraced me in a tight hug, pulling me close to his tall, skinny frame. I returned it, burying my face in his shoulder and secretly taking in his scent; cinnamon and chocolate. I could hear his steady heart beat through the blue and green sweater he wore, and I closed my eyes, listening to its steady rhythm. I felt George pull away slightly and I opened my eyes abruptly, feeling my cheeks burn a reddish hue. He gently brushed a strand of my dark red hair out of my face, and then, to my complete surprise, he placed a kiss on my forehead.
My face turned even redder if possible, and I took a small step backwards, looking at him to make sure he wasn’t going batty. He seemed to be wondering the same thing, because a look of realization dawned across his face, and he started blushing like mad. He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
‘’Well, um…I’ll see you in the morning then,’’ he said quietly, giving me a small smile before he followed Fred up the stairs to the boys dormitories.
I stood there for a good few minutes, trying to find some reasoning for his actions, but I found none. I think I might’ve been the one going batty, or maybe it was the sugar quills. Either way, I had a nagging feeling that from here on, things would be rather awkward.
‘’You two would be absolutely adorable, you know,’’ Farrah said happily, dragging me out of my thoughts. I sat down on the couch next to her and tapped the telly with my wand, shutting it off. ‘’I have no idea what you are talking about.’’
‘’Oh, don’t pull that with me,’’ she said, shaking her head and crossing her legs, ‘’what Fred and I just witnessed definitely wasn’t nothing.’’
‘’So you were watching us,’’ I stated rather than asked, ‘’what if I said I’ve been watching you and Fred?’’
She raised an eyebrow. ‘’Well, I think I’d have to be a bit more careful of where I decided to snog him, wouldn’t want you creeping up around corners and ruining the moment now, would I?’’
‘’I could see how that would be a bit of a cock block.’’
She laughed, nodding her head slowly and staring at the burning flames in the fireplace. ‘’Anyway, don’t change the subject.’’ Time to pitch myself off the top of the Astronomy Tower; I already knew where this conversation is going. ‘’If you guys don’t go out, I swear I’ll curse him into putting a love potion into your drink.’’ Scary thing is I know for a fact she would do that. I glared at the side of her blonde head before letting out a sigh, rubbing my face and pursing my lips slightly.
‘’How did you feel when you realized you liked Fred?’’ I said quietly, looking behind us at the balcony to make sure no one was listening. It was empty.
‘’Well,’’ she began, biting her lip slightly, ‘’I was nervous, which is to be expected, but I know our situations are different. I only just started talking to Fred recently, you’ve known both of them for years.’’ I nodded silently, taking a second to flashback on the moment George and I had just experienced. Even though it was just a kiss on the forehead, it had sent this burning sensation throughout my entire body, as if there was this raging fire inside of me that wanted freedom.
It didn’t help my situation at all.
‘’If you ask me,’’ she continued, crossing her arms, ‘’you’re not going to know what will happen if you don’t act on your feelings.’’ I opened my mouth to tell her that I couldn’t do that, but she beat me to it. ‘’I know that you’re afraid of losing your friendship with him over this, and I know I would be too…but I think, in the end, you and George will end up happy, together or not. I think it’s at least worth trying.’’ She paused for a second. ‘’I feel like a shrink.’’
I laughed for a minute, letting her words of wisdom sit with me. Was it worth risking six years of close friendship and insanity for what might be just a silly, pointless crush? Maybe, at the moment I still couldn’t be sure, but I was thankful that Farrah was at least trying to help me get out of this dilemma.
‘’Thanks,’’ I said sincerely, giving her a quick hug. She hugged back. ‘’I think I’d be going absolutely mental if I didn’t talk to someone about this, there’s no way in hell I could tell Fred about it, never mind George. Besides,’’ I yawned, stretching my arms a bit, ‘’seeing as you’ll be hanging around us more, I might as well try to like you.’’
She sensed the sarcasm in my voice and rolled her eyes. ‘’You’re welcome, you cabbage-brained harlot, come to me whenever you need to talk, alright?’’ I nodded, ignoring the wonderful compliment. I sensed a great friendship in the making.
We both headed off to bed, saying goodnight and going into our separate four poster beds. I changed into my pajamas, put my wand on the nightstand next to me, and pulled the covers around my body with a sigh.
The feeling that things would get odd from here on stayed with me the entire night, nagging and biting at my brain. Little did I know, more shit than any normal person could possibly handle would soon hit the fan, and things as I knew them to be were about to change drastically.
I wish I knew then what was to come, because then I could have prepared myself so much better for it.
Hell was slowly making an appearance in my life, and at this point in time, there was no stopping it.