Choices

Valerie couldn’t help giggling softly when she spotted Fred across the hall throwing a piece of paper in Angelina’s face to get her attention. He did a little dance in his seat that clearly indicated that he wanted to take her to the Yule Ball. When she nodded her head, Fred winked at Ron as if to prove some point. George was next to his twin and during Fred’s exchange with Angelina he hadn’t looked away from her.

Valerie fidgeted in her seat and finished up the writing on the page before standing up and handing her journal to Snape to be dismissed from the hall. Valerie picked up her pace when she neared George’s table and looked down at her feet. It was getting harder and harder to fight her feelings for George. She had hoped that her infatuation with him would end over the summer, especially when she started dating Marcus Flint but it hadn’t. Since being back at Hogwarts every day of the semester had been torture. She had thought that with a boyfriend she would be distracted from George but Marcus and his attitude only brought forth the stark differences between the two boys and how much the few moments that had passed between George and her meant so much more than the hours with Marcus.

She wandered down the hall but backtracked when she saw Marcus and Draco walking towards her. Valerie was in no mood to be near Marcus’s grasping hands or her brother who wanted her happy but was clueless as to what she really wanted. She threw a look over her shoulder to find the boys deep in conversation just when she felt a hand take hers and pull her to the left into a shadowed alcove. Backed up against a wall Valerie sucked back the scream she was about to let out when she saw it was George.

“What the hell are you doing?” she asked irritably when Marcus and Draco had turned the corner.

“Will you go to the Yule Ball with me?” he said without warning.

“You’re joking!”

“I have never been more serious in my life.” George wasn’t kidding; his brown eyes spoke of the dead seriousness of his question.

“I already have a date,” Valerie told him unable to meet his gaze.

“Flint? From the way you were dodging him I don’t think you want to go with him,” George had the daring to point out.

“Marcus is my boyfriend!”

“He can just as soon become your ex-boyfriend.” George moved closer, pressing her against the coldness of the wall and the warmth of his body. She couldn’t think, the erotic feel of different temperatures were doing things to her mind.

“I am going to the Yule Ball with Marcus,” Valerie repeated as much to herself as him.

“Come on! Admit it, you like me ten times better than that bucktooth fool,” George growled taking hold of the side of her neck so that she would have to look up at him. His other sneaky hand curled at her side. His posture indicated possessiveness and my goodness Valerie had never been so close to letting her temptation get the best of her.

Valerie pushed his hands away from her, “I can’t George. I just can’t.”

George rolled his eyes at her and lowered his head closer to hers, “Of course you can. It’s as simple as saying yes.”

“Our families hate each other, it would never work…and I hate you too,” Valerie lied letting her grey eyes turn to steal.

For once in his life George looked livid, “You can tell that bloody lie to yourself all you want Valerie but it won’t work on me.”

“How the hell would this work George?” she spat right back. “We go to the ball and then everyone will magically be alright with us being together? No! Life doesn’t work like that.”

“It is still our lives! Do you want to live yours with Marcus or me?”

You, she wanted to scream but swallowed back the words.

“We don’t really like each other, I mean you tried to kill me with a bludger our fourth year and I tried to knock you off a broom! That doesn’t scream healthy, loving relationship to me,” Valerie poked him in the chest.

“Valerie it’s what we do! We act pissed at each other, get mad, and tease!” George grabbed her hand and his eyes narrowed as he jerked her forward so that she could feel his heartbeat against her chest. “I hit the bludger at you because I knew you would dodge it and it would get your attention. But listen to me when I say this…you will never be able to dodge me. Never.”
George stepped away from her without breaking eye contact and she trembled at the sudden cold that pierced her skin without the heat of his body there. Lifting her hand to his lips George placed a kiss on her sensitive wrist, branding her as his forever. Letting her limp hand go he spun around and left.

Valerie watched George’s retreating back with wide eyes, still frozen in her spot by his promise.