I Can't Stop Digging the Way You Make Me Feel

News of Emilie and George's new relationship status quickly reached the ears of their fellow students when they returned from break and classes resumed. Nobody was really surprised, as they all saw it coming eventually. Nevertheless, everybody who knew them were happy for them, especially Ron and Ginny. But while there were those who were happy that they were finally dating, there were those who weren't.

"Word around the castle is that you and Weasley are still dating."

Emilie, who was headed towards the Charms classroom, turned and saw the slimiest Slytherin that ever existed, Marcus Flint, catching up with her. She groaned and looked forward, continuing to walk.

"What's your point, Flint?" She asked

"Well, now that you're dating him, for whatever reason, you should stop looking at me the way you do. Unless you want to start something in secret. I'm completely open to that."

Emilie stopped and turned to look at Flint in disbelief.

"You honestly think I look at you in any way other than disgust? You've obviously got a lot to learn."

"I know that you have some kind of invisible attraction towards me that you don't want to admit, but someday you will want to come to me. Especially when your precious Weasley can no longer please you in ways that I can..." Flint smirked widely as he traced his hand down Emilie's arm. She slapped it away and started walking away, anger building up inside of her.

"Just you wait, Arden. Someday you will be mine. Just you wait."

"Piss off, git!"

Emilie could hear Flint chuckle far behind her. She kept walking towards the Charms classroom and when she got there, she slammed her bag down in her spot.

"Someone's happy today."

Emilie jumped and looked to her right, noticing that Alyssa, Fred, and George were in the room. She took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair.

"I'm sorry. I'm just frustrated. Flint's harassing me again."

Knowing that it was about their relationship, George looked up and made eye contact with Emilie, who looked bothered. He stood up and switched places with Alyssa, who engaged in a conversation with Fred on the other side of the room, and leaned back against the table.

"I'm just getting really, really sick of Flint telling me that someday I'll be 'all his' and that you'll never be good enough for me. I know it'll never be true, but it still makes me want to punch the living daylights out of him." Emilie confessed

"You'd officially be my hero if you did that." George said

Emilie cracked a small smile and George grabbed her hand, pulling her towards him.

"I especially hate hearing him talk about you the way he does. All he does is trash talk you and he doesn't realize just how lovely and wonderful and amazing you really are." Emilie continued, moving the red hair that was falling into his eyes

"Personally, I hope he doesn't think about me in that way, but I don't think we should care too much about what he says. He can say all he wants to about us but I promise you I will never let Flint take you away from me. You are all mine."

Emilie smiled fully since her encounter with Flint and placed a quick peck on George's lips.

"I have something that'll cheer you up." George said

"Oh yeah?"

"Well, as you know, there's a Hogsmeade trip tomorrow and I thought we could finally go out on our first date."

"But we're going with everybody else tomorrow." Emilie pointed out

"That's why we'll eventually ditch them to have some alone time for ourselves." George smirked, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb

"When you put it that way, what's more romantic than ditching our friends? It sounds great."

The bell rang and George kissed Emilie's cheek before heading back to his seat. Emilie, feeling a lot better, sat in her seat and took out her book.

"I don't think I've ever seen a cuter couple than you and George." Alyssa said as she sat back down in her seat

"Not even you and Alex?" Emilie asked. Alex and taken Emilie's advice and asked Alyssa out. However, they weren't going a date right away because Alex was taking his thirteen year old sister to Hogsmeade the next day. Instead, they had just started hanging out a lot and getting to know each other.

"But we're not technically a couple, so yes."

Emilie laughed as Flitwick began teaching class. While he began talking about an upcoming exam they would be having, Emilie couldn't help but glance at George every now and then. At one point, he made eye contact with her and she mouthed the words 'thank you' to him. He nodded and winked, making Emilie smile.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Emilie woke up the next morning around eleven incredibly excited for the day ahead of her. After ten minutes of figuring out what to wear, she quickly took a shower, put on a bit of makeup, and got dressed in the outfit she chose. When Katie and Alyssa were ready, they went down to the Great Hall to grab some lunch.

"Lis, how'd you do on the Charms exam? I forgot to ask you yesterday." Emilie asked

"I only got four off, which wasn't bad seeing as how everything we learned for that exam before Christmas break. How about you?"

"Same thing, but I crammed the Thursday night."

"I thought you and George were hanging out down there canoodling each other or something." Katie said

Emilie blushed. "We weren't canoodling each other, although he was distracting me while I was trying to study."

"You liked it, I know you did."

Fred and George suddenly appeared at the table, George sitting down next to Emilie.

"Well, I didn't bomb my exam, so I won't lie to you and say I didn't."

"Really, you two? At breakfast?" Fred asked

Emilie rolled her eyes and finished eating her lunch. When they were all done eating, they left the school, went down to the courtyard, and hopped in a carriage due for Hogsmeade.

"Why is nobody here?" Emilie asked when they started walking down the snow-covered road

"I dunno. Maybe people got stuck with a ton of homework." Alyssa answered

Emilie suddenly felt a snowball make contact with her back. She turned around and saw Fred and George attempting to look innocent, a talent they haven't been able to do since they were six years old.

"Alright, which one of you did it?" Emilie asked, looking between the two of them. They both shook their identical heads, but Emilie had a gut feeling of who it was. She picked some snow up from the ground and tossed it straight at Fred. George laughed out loud as Fred wiped the snow off of his face and Fred looked at Emilie in disbelief.

"I didn't throw it at you that hard!" He complained

"Sorry, Fred. Chaser's arm." Emilie said

Before Fred could make another snowball, another one hit him, this time his arm. He looked over at Katie, who was wiping snow off of her glove onto her jeans.

"Chaser's arm. We are a brutal lot." She smirked and glanced at Emilie, who was also smirking.

"Oh, it's on."

The five teenagers all picked up some snow and started throwing it at each other, boys against girls. A large snowball that came from Fred, once again, landed right on Emilie's revealed feet, making her gasp. She picked up one of her own and threw it back at Fred, but instead it hit George. She gasped again as she laughed, watching him wipe the snow off of his face.

"Sorry, George!" She shouted as she laughed

"Come here, I want to show you something." George said as he grabbed a handful of snow and started advancing towards her.

"No, I'm good." Emilie began to back up as George neared her. George smirked widely and before Emilie could turn and run, he restrained her with one arm around her waist while the other crushed the snowball over her head, causing the snow to go into her face and down the back of her coat.

"Oh my goodness! That's so cold!" Emilie squirmed and shook her head, getting the snow out of her dark hair

"I officially surrender. No more snow down my back." Alyssa said

"Yeah, I do too. Can we just go to The Three Broomsticks already?" Katie asked

Fred and George, fresh from their mini-snowball fight victory, dropped the remaining snow and joined the girls in walking towards The Three Broomsticks.

"I hate you guys." Emilie said, still shaking snow out of the back of her coat. George smirked as he wrapped his arm around Emilie's shoulder, pulling her close to him.

"That's a lie." He muttered

"No, I really do."

George chuckled as they entered the warm atmosphere of the Three Broomsticks. They grabbed a booth and Madam Rosmerta came over to take their butterbeer orders. She came back momentarily with them and the warmth from the drinks replaced the coldness that had spread from the prior snowball fight.

"Did you hear the teachers announce the day of the second task? It's the second weekend of February." Alyssa said

"What's that, like a month away?" Katie asked

"About that. Any ideas what it could be?"

"Well, if I had to guess, I'd say they're going to do something that will test their knowledge and challenge them mentally and physically." Fred smirked confidently

"Gee Fred, thank you for sprinkling us with your brilliant ideas." Emilie said

"He's right, though." George said

"I bet they'll have to fight off creatures from the Forbidden Forest." Katie said

"Or the Black Lake." Emilie also speculated

"What lives in the Black Lake besides the giant squid?" Alyssa asked

"Merpeople." Fred and George said at the same time

"Bull. Merpeople don't live in the Black Lake...do they?" Katie said

Fred and George nodded.

"There's supposedly a colony that lives way down towards the bottom of the lake. They're like veela: dangerous and mysterious." Fred explained

"Except they're ugly looking things." Emilie added, finishing her glass of butterbeer. George placed his empty glass of butterbeer in front of him and Emilie glanced at him before grabbing her scarf and gloves.

"Well, I think George and I are going to get going." She said, wrapping her scarf around her neck and placing it inside her coat.

"Where are you two going this time?" Alyssa asked

"We have a first official date to start. We'll meet up with you three later." George said, grabbing Emilie's hand

"Bye, kids! Have fun!" Katie yelled after them

"Use protection!" Fred also shouted after them

Both Emilie and George flipped Fred the bird and they left the pub. They chose to walk to the right, the opposite direction in which they came from, and strolled along the road, passing many more witches and wizards as they did.

"So, where are we going?" Emilie asked as they wandered off of the normal road and into a small section of the woods

"I dunno. We've been to all the shops a million times. How about the Shrieking Shack?" George asked

"Um, pass. I refuse to go anywhere near that place." Emilie said

"Since when?"

"Since you and Fred dared me to spend the night in there and said you would put frog guts in my soup if I didn't! I got my hair tugged and my blankets pulled off me periodically throughout the whole night. Scared me half to death."

George smirked at the memory and they kept walking until they reached the gates that surrounded the infamous Shrieking Shack.

"I can just feel the creepy ghosts and ghouls and whatever else is in there waiting for me. It's like they know I've returned." Emilie shuddered at the memory

"Don't worry Emmy, I won't let anything ghost or ghouls or anything else scare you." George wrapped his arms around his girlfriend from behind and placed his head on her shoulder

"But you did, when we were twelve and you made me sleep in there." Emilie smiled, knowing George couldn't see her, and leaned back in his embrace

"Okay, I promise I won't let them scare you anymore."

"Well I doubt it, but how kind of you."

Emilie felt George chuckle behind her. She then turned around in George's arm and placed her own around his neck, smiling up at him.

"What?" He asked

"Nothing. I just don't like not seeing you."

Emilie had never seen George blush before, but when she finally did, it made her giggle and she kissed him. George caressed her sides and pulled her closer, kissing her deeper. All of a sudden, snow made contact with George's head. He pulled back and saw Emilie's snow covered glove on the side of his head, squishing the snow further into his hair.

"That's for earlier." Emilie laughed

She then wriggled out of his grasp and started running up the hill which, in deep snow, didn't really work. George easily caught up with her and tackled her to the ground, both of them out of breath and laughing. When they calmed down, George stood up and then helped Emilie up. He then took his hand and wiped the snow off of Emilie's nose.

"You are beautiful," He said quietly, making Emilie blush for the millionth time. "Come on, let's go wander somewhere else."

Emilie gladly took his hand and the two of them left the area of the Shrieking Shack, not knowing nor caring where they were headed next.