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

Later that night after dinner, I was taking a nap with Alec on the sofa chair in the common room. The twins had gone off to find Lucinda and give her the love potion. I told them I’d see them after my nap, Merlin knows I needed it after the day I was having. No one had seen Farrah during dinner, which got me even more worried about her whereabouts. Maybe she’d been kidnapped by a rampaging herd of centaurs, or splattered to death by the infamous Whomping Willow.
Okay, scratch those last thoughts. They were pretty horrible now that I think about it. She probably just got caught up in doing…arts and crafts or something. I was pretty blank on ideas, although you really couldn’t blame me. I nearly impaled my hand earlier, plus the numerous other wonderful events that’d taken place earlier in the day had worn me out. I wanted to sleep, and anyone who fought me on it better prepare themselves for my oncoming wrath.
Please ignore my mindless babbling.
I was rudely awoken by Alec jumping excitedly on my shoulder. Alright, so Alec was the only exception to my oncoming wrath. My Pygmy Puff was just too cute to hurt. I rubbed my eyes lazily and sat up straight, letting myself adjust to the light.
That was when I realized Farrah was standing in front of me, her hair a knotted mess and her face scratched and bruised. Her robes were torn pretty badly too, but she was smiling smugly, like she’d accomplished some great feat. I furrowed my brows in confusion, taking in her disheveled appearance. Shit, I thought she’d be smart enough to stay away from that wild tree. Or maybe…
‘’Fred was that rough, eh?’’
‘’I got into a fight, you pea brain!’’ she laughed, smoothing out her robes and trying to tame her outrageous hair. ‘’See you’ve made yourself cozy. Where are the crackpot twins?’’
I shrugged, putting Alec in my lap and letting out a long yawn. ‘’Search me, I haven’t seen them since dinner.’’ I paused for a second, looking around at the abandoned common room. ‘’Who’d you get into a fight with?’’
‘’Millicent Bulstrode,’’ she grumbled, shaking her head, ‘’Slytherin, Fourth year. Started going on about how Muggle-borns shouldn’t be allowed in Hogwarts, bloody gargoyle. I turned her face green, seeing as she’s so proud to be a Slytherin, she should take pride in her new look.’’ I think Fred has some competition. I freaking love this girl. ‘’And then we just started pounding the crap out of each other. Mind you, I nearly suffocated in the process, but in the end, she got sent to the infirmary with a badly broken nose. I think I did some damage to her arm, too. Oh, and we both got detention with Filch for the next three days.’’
‘’Give me a hug, you crazy bitch,’’ I laughed, stretching my arms up and giving her a squeeze.
‘’Ow, watch the arm,’’ she winced, ‘’she sat on it.’’
Farrah headed up to our dormitory to get changed and fix herself up. The ancient-looking clock that hung on the wall read a quarter after nine. I was no longer worrying about Farrah’s whereabouts, but Fred and George’s. Then again, they were usually off nicking food from the kitchens, or setting off Dungbombs in Filch’s office, so they were probably just fine.
I love how I say that like they’re doing a good deed or something.
Another hour dragged by. Farrah was on the couch next to me, attempting to do her Potion’s homework. Everyone else had gone off to bed. I refused to sleep until the twins finally made an appearance, and I’m pretty sure Farrah felt the same way. I was struggling to stay awake, my eyes opening and closing in almost a routine fashion. Alec had long since fallen asleep on me, making these cute little squeaky sounds every time he exhaled. Under the bandage, the gash in my hand started to itch again, worse than before. I scratched at it, looking back and forth between the common room entrance and Farrah’s Potion’s textbook. It was as if my head was on repeat; scratch, textbook, entrance, scratch, textbook, entrance.
Anyone who happened to be watching would probably assume I had some sort of serious twitch.
After about five minutes of this, Farrah had enough. She stood up, putting her things in her rucksack on the floor and storming toward the entrance with distinct determination. I had a feeling I knew where she was going, but I felt the need to ask anyway.
‘’You’re going to try and find them?’’
‘’Yes,’’ she yawned, pausing to yank open the round portal, ‘’I’m exhausted, and I’m getting tired of waiting for those two dimwits to-‘’ She paused in mid-sentence, and when I looked at what she was looking at, I knew why.
Fred and George stood on the other side of the opening, looking rather amused at the expressions on our faces. From the sofa chair, I could see George looking in my general direction, almost observing me. I quickly averted my eyes to a spot on the carpet.
‘’Where the hell have you two been?!’’ Farrah hissed, crossing her arms. I knew from their taken aback faces that she was glaring pretty fiercely.
They stepped inside, closing the door that the Fat Lady portrait concealed.
‘’You see,’’ Fred began, sitting on the arm of my chair, ‘’we were Dungbombing Filch’s office again-‘’
I swear I know them too well.
‘’ -And the ruddy old bleeder decides to show up, trying to ruin our fun-‘’ George piped in, shaking his head disapprovingly.
‘’-So we made a run for it-‘’
‘’-Somehow ending up on the fifth floor-‘’
‘’-We think Filch came across Peeves, he’d been taking apart suits of armor, bless him-‘’
‘’-So we come across this abandoned classroom that probably hasn’t been used in ages-‘’
‘’-Cobwebs and dust on everything, disgusting sight, really-’’
‘’-But we got this idea that, if gone about cautiously, just might work-‘’
I didn’t even know that twins knew what the word ‘cautiously’ meant.
‘’And so,’’ Fred continued, turning to Farrah, ‘’we cleaned it up a bit-‘’
‘’-Moved a few things around-‘’
‘’-Turning it into the perfect place to create new things and try them out.’’
They were both smiling pretty proudly. Fred got up from the arm of my chair, walking up to Farrah and giving her a quick kiss. I looked over at George, who seemed to be focusing intently on the wall opposite us. He probably felt my eyes on him, because he looked over at me with slightly wide eyes, like I’d woken him out of a trance or something.
‘’What?’’
‘’Nothing,’’ I said quickly, feeling my face flush. Stupid emotions.
‘’You what?!’’ I heard Fred exclaim. He was checking over the bruises on Farrah’s face she’d tried hiding. ‘’Did you kick her arse? Did she hurt you? Are you dying? George, grab a Skiving Snackbox, there’s no way in hell I’m letting that bulbous bitch-‘
Farrah, before Fred could finish his rant, slapped him sharply across his face. He blinked in surprise.
‘’You know, it sort of offends me that you’d think I’m DYING, Fred.’’ Oh shit. ‘’You think I can’t hold my own in a fight? It’s because I’m a female, isn’t it?’’
‘’What? No, I was just asking if you were okay-‘’
‘’I’m perfectly fine,’’ she seethed, crossing her arms across her chest, ‘’insulted for being a muggle-born, almost got squashed by a green-faced lard, but I’m not a pussy.’’
George and I looked at each other. This wasn’t looking very good.
‘’My apologies for not being with you every second of the day,’’ he retorted, meeting her glare with one of his own, ‘’but you know I would’ve done something if I’d been there.’’
‘’I don’t need you to be my…my…protector or whatever! I’m perfectly capable of handling things on my own!’’
‘’You can’t handle everything by yourself, I would’ve gladly-‘’
‘’Oh just shut it already!’’
‘’No!’’
‘’Upstairs we go!’’ George hissed, grabbing my arm and pulling me with him up one of the staircases.
‘’Aw, but I wanted to watch,’’ I pouted. He didn’t seem to hear me, because I found myself in the twin’s dormitory. Fred and Farrah’s yells could still be heard, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying very clearly. The rest of the boys in the room were all asleep, most of them snoring.
I won’t lie; I’d been in there quite a few times previously. Numerous sleepovers and pranks on the other boys had brought me into the messy sleeping area more times than I could count. It’s a wonder I hadn’t moved in yet.
George and I sat cross-legged on his bed. I knew he was probably thinking the same thing as me; they’d work it out eventually, maybe losing a limb or two in the process, but Farrah and Fred had both better stop being so headstrong. I’d be kicking both their arses if they didn’t.
Neither of us said anything for quite some time. I didn’t know exactly what time the fighting downstairs ceased; my brain had been wandering off in too many directions. I didn’t even realize I was lying down until I felt the bed shift. George lay down next to me, both of us looking up at the ceiling.
‘’You think they made up?’’ he finally asked. His voice startled me at first.
I turned my head toward his slightly. ‘’Probably.’’ I shifted my eyes back to the cracked, white ceiling. ‘’Want to go check and make sure they haven’t strangled each other?’’
He shook his head. A lazy grin spread across his face. ‘’No, I’m much too comfortable. With any luck, they’ll conk out in the common room or something. I don’t think I want to fall asleep to the sounds of their relentless snogging.’’ I nodded my head silently. I completely agreed.
‘’Naomi?’’
‘’Hm?’’
‘’I love you.’’
It was as if my entire body paralyzed itself at that very moment. My heartbeat felt nearly thunderous against my ribcage. I couldn’t even open my mouth to ask if he was off his rocker.
‘’You’re one of my best friends,’’ he continued, not realizing I’d gone into a state of shock, ‘’and I don’t want anything to change that, ever. Not even when we’re ninety nine years young with drool running down our chins and our hair falling out. Promise me that.’’
Oh…he meant he loved me as a friend. I really needed to stop getting my hopes up.
‘’I-I promise.’’ If I haven’t already jumped out the window in Dumbledore’s office or something.
He smiled his crooked smile and pulled me closer to his warm body. Any previous thoughts of jumping from high places were forgotten once my head lay in the crook of his neck, my arms folded to my chest and pressed against his side. His chin rested on top of my head, while his right arm wound around my shoulders. I felt cozy, and with the covers pulled over us, I knew I wasn’t going back to my own bed that night.
‘’So, um…’’ I waited for him to finish his sentence. ‘’There’s been talk that Hogwarts is going to be hosting some sort of winter dance type thing.’’
‘’Hm,’’ I said thoughtfully, ‘’that’s news to me.’’
‘’Not a lot of people know about it yet, the teachers are still debating whether or not it’s going to happen.’’
‘’I’ll probably be going alone if it does.’’
George looked down at me with a frown. It looked as if he were observing a mental patient.
‘’What do you mean, ‘I’ll probably be going alone if it does’?’’
I just shrugged. ‘’I doubt anyone will ask me. Do you remember what you and Fred did the last time I tried going out with someone? You scared all the good ones away.’’
George laughed quietly, trying not to wake his fellow roommates. ‘’Oh, how could I forget that one? Fourth year, Trevor Bennett, double Bat Bogey Jinx…’’ He took a second to reminisce.
I smacked him on the chest. ‘’It wasn’t funny! You made the boy’s own bogies attack him viciously, and since Fred used the same jinx, he got it twice as bad!’’
‘’Oh come off it, he just wanted in your knickers.’’
‘’Yeah, well even if that was true, I haven’t been on a date in about two years because of that.’’
‘’How do you know it’s because of our heroic actions? There could be other contributing factors.’’
I blinked. ‘’Are you suggesting there’s something wrong with me?’’
‘’Well, obviously if you’re still hanging out with us,’’ he laughed.
‘’That is something I can’t disagree with.’’
We settled into silence. It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, but a content one. Outside the window I could hear an owl hooting, probably calling for a mate. George buried his handsome face in my hair, letting out a soft sigh. I felt my face flush.
He wanted to stay friends forever, but I knew then and there I was going to have a hard time keeping my feelings a secret.