A Light in the Dark

Sirius then looked down, for once not staring at me. Fred and George looked at each other.

“Where is she?” I asked again, trying not to let my voice shake. Based off the way they were acting, I assumed the worst.

“We don’t know Jess,” Sirius replied.

“Well, why did she leave me at home? Why am I here for protection? Why were there death eaters at my house? Why are we at this house? Why are so many other people here?” The questions began flying out of my mouth, and I didn’t bother to stop for answers. I hated not knowing what was going on.

“Jesse.” Sirius looked up again and said my name sternly and loudly. I stopped. “I cannot give you the answers you want, only one person can.” He sounded annoyed as he avoided my gaze.

“Well I didn’t really expect you to know the answers,” I kind of laughed. “You hardly know me! I hardly know you! Why would I expect you to know where my mom was?”
Now I started to laugh at myself. Asking a mass murderer for answers about my family, he wouldn’t know. I guess I was desperate for any information at the moment.

Sirius looked down for a moment.

“I’m sorry to have bothered you Mr. Black,” I stood up, and in my mind I snorted at how I addressed him.

“Just call me Sirius. Your making me feel like an old man.” He kind of smiled.

“Okay, well I think I’m going to go upstairs.”

“We’ll come too,” Fred spoke for the first time in the last ten minutes, which was surprising since Fred usually was always talking.

“Okay, go on then.” Sirius nodded towards the door and Fred, George and I ran out.

When we reached the stairs I turned on Fred and George.

“Jess we can’t answer your questions either,” George laughed.

“Dang!” I groaned as I leaned against the railing.

“We’re sorry Jess, but later we can tell you some of the main information, but I think you need to rest.” Fred tried to smile. “Besides we have more important things to tell you about!”

At that, George’s face brightened as he nodded at me and I looked at them suspiciously.

“What are you guys planning?” I smiled sheepishly.

“Oh we can’t talk here!” Fred grinned.

“Come on Jess, you know us better than that!” George laughed as he ran up the stairs shortly followed by Fred, and of course, I ran up after them.

After a couple staircases and turns, we got to their room.

“You know, this is what apperation is for, right?” I gasped for air. I felt so out of shape, I hadn’t trained for Quidditch in forever.

“Well yeah, but mom would murder us if we kept apperating,” Fred shrugged before opening the door.

“Since when did you care if your mom murdered you or not?” I laughed.

“Oh come on Jess,” George shoved me into their room and I ran across it to jump on one of the beds.

George shut the door behind him and Fred.

“Okay boys, what do you have for me?” I crossed my legs and looked at both of them.

“Well we hid our stuff somewhere else, so I will go get it in a few,” Fred looked towards the door.

“What stuff?”

“Well, we have come up with some… products.” George sat down on the bed beside me. Fred sat down on the other side of me.

“Yeah, it’s for a joke store we are wanting to open up,” Fred’s face shined proudly.

“Seriously?” I grinned. “You guys had been talking about doing that, and you’re really going to?”

They both nodded.

“But how will you pay for it?”

“Oh it’s already figured out, don’t worry about it!” George answered.

“Yeah there’s a place in Diagon Alley that we can use.” Fred casually pulled out his wand and twirled it in his fingers.

“Awesome!” I jumped in the bed getting excited, actually forgetting about my confusion of my current circumstance. We were opening a joke shop!

“Yeah it is!” George agreed and laughed.

“Can I see some of what you have come up with?” I looked at Fred and he shrugged.

“Sure as long as you can wait a moment with George while I go get it.” He stood up.

“It’ll be hard, but I think I can survive,” I acted courageously and sat up straight.

“Alright,” Fred laughed. “I’ll be right back!” At that, he apperated with a ‘pop’.

I sat for a moment in silence before looking at George. He was looking at me too, but then he looked down and pulled out his wand, acting curious about it. I rolled my eyes and smiled. Since last year, I started to form, feelings, towards George. I had danced with him at the Yule Ball, even though I wasn’t his date. I had actually gone by myself. But for months I replayed those moments in my mind, and even in my dreams.

”Jesse? Is that you?”

I turned around from talking to Hermione, and grinned. George looked absolutely gorgeous in his tux.

George stared at me, apparently speechless. I actually couldn’t blame him; I thought I looked pretty good in my new gown. Angelina had done a great job on my hair and make up too.

“Yeah, it’s me,” I couldn’t stop smiling. “Amazing huh? I have a figure!” I spun around to show off how the dress twirled softly against my newly found curves. George didn’t say anything, he couldn’t say anything. He smiled at me and turned a slight pink color. I had only seen that happen to him when he laughed really hard or had actually got embarrassed every once in a while. This made me curious as to why he was, blushing.

“And I must say George, you clean up nice too!” I reached out and grabbed his tux sleeve and looked him up and down. At that he seemed to regain his dignity as he shook his head and relaxed a little and grinned.

“Thanks,” he replied simply and then looked around. As he looked around, I noticed a new song was starting, and I turned to finish something I was telling Hermione. Which I actually had forgotten at the sight of George, but luckily Hermione had disappeared to dance with Victor. So I turned back to George and he was standing closer to me, looking down at me. I was only a few inches shorter than him which seemed perfect to me, and oddly I felt the warmth of George’s body next to mine. I could even smell his cologne, and I felt a slight jolt in my chest of good sensation.

“Um, you want to dance Jess?” he asked and stuck his hand up.

“Um, why not?” I shrugged and gave him my hand. It was like my hand was a feather in his, and I suddenly felt lighter. George then guided me to the dance floor.

I looked around the room at that moment, to make sure I wasn’t daydreaming while George was trying to talk to me or while Fred came back. Then I let my gaze fall on George and he smiled at me.

“Haven’t really gotten to talk to you since you got here, so much to ask and tell,” George pocketed his wand and relaxed. I nodded.

“Yeah, well I have a whole lot to ask, but nothing to tell. Summer was the usual.” I turned towards him to be more comfortable while we talked. I even braved to try and make eye contact with George, which usually had made my heart quiver excitedly.

“Oh, your brother ran off again then didn’t he?” George avoided my eye contact, and I looked towards the window by the bed.

“Well yeah,” I sighed. “He’s with the Malfoys, honestly I wish they would just adopt him. Thank goodness he won’t notice the disappearance of me or mom though, I was afraid I may have to worry about telling him the truth.”

“And that wouldn’t be very good,” George kind of laughed and moved his gaze up towards my face. I then seized that opportunity to look him in the eye. I had missed his happy green eyes, and my heart jumped at the suddenness of looking him in the eye.

We both sat there for a moment, just looking at each other. George seemed to move a little closer towards me, but I didn’t notice. I was actually growing of tired of just sitting there, so I looked away, breaking the eye contact.

“Yeah, but he probably wouldn’t even care enough to ask why we weren’t home.” I folded my hands in my lap and looked down at them. “But honestly, I just want to know why my mom left me at home to face a group of death eaters alone. I also want to know where she is.”

“And I want to know where Fred is,” George laughed, and I couldn’t help but smile as I looked back up towards George’s grinning face. He could always keep my mind off things that worried me.