It's Better If You Do

“So…you’re sure you don’t remember anything that happened last night,” Bellamy asked as she scooped a fair amount of eggs, bacon, and sausages onto four plates. George was still sitting at the table, slowly drinking the remedy that she had so kindly made for him.

“I’m sure,” he said firmly, “I don’t remember anything and you don’t remember anything. I’m sure the only ones that do know what we did are the people at the Leaky Cauldron and Rose and Fred.” Bellamy let out a heavy sigh and shook her head before she lifted two of the plates to the table, setting one of them in front of George and another plate just beside him. She retreated back to the kitchen area and fetched the two other plates, placing them down carefully before taking her seat in front of him.

“Well…let’s hope that we didn’t do anything outrageous,” she said in a soft voice, looking down at her plate before glancing up to George. She looked over to the staircase with a furrowed brow, wondering why her sister and Fred hadn’t come down to eat breakfast. She let out a short sigh and shook her head before tucking into her food. If they smell from breakfast wasn’t enough to pull them from each other, she wouldn’t be the one to pull them apart. They’d just have to settle with cold breakfast if they were that desperate to snog each other.

The rest of their breakfast passed by quietly, spare the sounds from Diagon Alley, which sounded as though it had flooded quickly with witches and wizards. Bellamy finished eating first and placed her cutlery down, shooting the full plates that Rose and Fred should have been eating a scowl, before gathering her plate and empty goblet and standing. She placed her dishes aside and pulled two, flowery tea cups and saucers from a cupboard and began to fill a kettle with a stream of water from her wand.

“Would you like any tea, George?” She asked softly as she lit a burner on the stove and placed the kettle atop of it. George stared at her back for a moment, wondering why, when their morning had started out so dreadfully, that she was being so nice now.

“You aren’t trying to poison me, right?” George said hesitantly. Bellamy continued to pull out all the odds and ends to make tea, including a few jars of sugar cubes and tea leaves. He could see the ghost of a smirk on her profile for a moment.

“You shouldn’t accuse people of such terrible things, George,” she said softly, shaking her head a bit. “It may give the wrong people the right idea.” She shot a look over her shoulder and paused for a moment, giving George a taunting smile. He was merely staring back at her, too tired to think of something witty or genius to say in return. “No…I’m not going to poison you,” she added with a roll of her eyes. “Now, how do you take your tea?”

“Three sugars and a spot of milk,” George said simply, causing Bellamy to give him a humored look before sighing heavily.

“So you tea like a grandmother does then?” She asked teasingly as she plopped the three required sugar cubes into the bottom of his teacup and the one that she took. George let out a short bark of a laugh and shook his head.

“I like things sweet,” he said with a shrug. Bellamy gave him a scrutinizing look that made him stare up at her with wide eyes. That one comment had her thinking. If he liked things sweet, then why did he like her? Sure, she had a rare sweet side that showed, but definitely not around him. Bellamy merely hummed lowly as the kettle whistled. She quickly took it off the heat and placed the strainer full of tea leaves over each of the cups and poured the scalding water over them. Once they had been filled, she took the small milk pitcher and poured a drop into George’s sweet tea. Carefully, she placed the tea cups onto the saucers, balanced small tea spoons on the side, and took slow steps toward the table.

“What was that hum for?” George asked as she placed his tea in front of him and sat down, slowly stirring her tea. She merely looked up at him and gave him a small shrug.

“Nothing…just humming,” she said before lifting the tea cup to her lips and silencing their conversation.

An hour or two had passed and George and Bellamy found themselves up to their necks with trying to help customers and children around the store. Fred and Rose still hadn’t come down from the flat and it was beginning to worry Bellamy a bit. Not because of Fred compromising Rose’s innocence, but because she did not want to have to deal with cleaning up at the Skiving Snackboxes table. George was doing well enough by himself, but they weren’t nearly as busy as she had seen the store before. However, children were steadily coming through the doors and that’s what really worried her.

Finally, she had worked herself into a big enough tizzy and gotten nearly trampled by rampant kids. Something had to be done so she didn’t have to dart around the store and stop the shelves of products from toppling over and stop a few of the children from sticking the fake wands up their noses, yet again. Bellamy quickly darted her way down from the second floor, wound her way down the staircase, and stopped near George a bit breathless.

“George,” she gasped, “where is your brother and my sister?” He merely shot her a look and shrugged a bit, levitating a cauldron into a child’s hands before he retched all over the floor.

“You were the one who told them to get their daily dose of snogging,” George replied above the noise of the happy children that surrounded them before they shot each other a look, one that summed up clearly what they were both thinking. Bellamy pursed her lips together and drew in a deep breath of air through her nose. George merely stared down at her, fearful of her reaction.

“Well…” She started in a small voice. “Would you kindly go break up whatever they’re doing? We’re swamped and I’m about to go insane.” George stared at her for a moment with wide eyes and she gave him a look where she raised her brows slightly and her eyes pierced through his and he knew not to mess with her or even complain. Letting out a heavy sigh, he turned and left the shop, confident that Bellamy wouldn’t kill any of the children until he got back.

Working his way around the throngs of children, he finally pushed aside the curtain to the back room and shot the flat a very hesitant look. He did not want to interrupt anything between Rose and Fred and he hoped they were just snogging and nothing more. George let out a heavy sigh and steeled himself, before he began to quietly step toward the stair case. He worked his way up the staircase silently, knowing which ones would creak and which ones wouldn’t. He stopped just outside the door and pressed his ear against it, his brow furrowed with thought as he plugged his other ear with his finger to hear better. Suddenly, a snore rattled through the wooden door and he pulled away from the door. George, stifling a laugh behind his hand as he realized what was happening, reached out and pulled open the door.

He crept into the room, around Mavise, who was sleeping rather adorably on a pile of blankets, and stopped just in front of Fred’s bed, smirking at the sleeping couple. This was all too easy and they were just asking to be woken up in a rude way. Now all George had to do would be to think of a particularly rude way to wake them up. He glanced around the room, hoping a certain item or idea would come to him. He then let out a breathy chuckle as his eyes fixed on something and his rubbed his hands together, his smirk only growing in size.