“You know he really fancies her. I asked Andrea and she thinks it’s true.”
George stopped dead as he walked past the sixth year’s room. The door was ajar and he knew it was Edward Abercrombie talking. He held his breath as Ed continued.
"She says that's why Neal is keen on working so much on the Muggle Studies project they’ve got.”
“You know, I thought he had a thing for her again,” Roderick replied. “Even after what he did, or I guess didn’t do, with the whole situation last year. He’s not a bad guy. Hopefully he learned his lesson and won’t make the same mistake twice.”
George couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He quickly ran the rest of the way down the stairs, a sickening feeling plummeting into the pit of his stomach.
“Guess someone’s in a hurry,” Ed looked towards the doorway at the sound of the quick footsteps.
“Hope whoever it was didn’t hear us,” Roderick said, once George had passed. He gave a laugh. “Neal won’t be too happy with us if rumors start flying around the school about him and Alicia Spinnet before he even asks her out. It’s just really funny to me that he still likes her. With the exception of when he fancied my sister, he’s been pining for Spinnet since-”
“The day he saw her walk into the Great Hall to be sorted and tripped over his own robes.” They both broke into gales of laughter, remembering the incident.
~*~*~
Andrea and Neal were just coming back from the library and it was rather late. Neal had wanted to keep working on the Muggle Studies project with Alicia, but Andrea had insisted that they give it a rest for the night. She wanted to spend the rest of the evening with George. Hopefully, he would bring up the Hogsmeade trip in conversation. He still hadn’t asked her if she wanted to go with him, and she hadn’t brought it up. There’d been opportunities to, but she didn’t want to make him feel as if he had to ask her. She’d enjoy just being with him for the day even if it wasn’t a date.
Neal was still debating whether Alicia Spinnet liked him or not. They’d just reached the portrait hole, but Neal wanted to finish their conversation before they went into the ever busy common room.
Andrea sympathetically said, "I'm sure that if Alicia didn't have Quidditch practice, she would...." At this point, the portrait was swinging open. "…love to go to Hogsmeade with you tomorrow."
“Really?”
“Of course,” she smiled. She turned around, coming face to face with George. “Hey, I was just coming to find you. Are you all right?” she asked; he looked really down about something.
“Fine,” George shrugged.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’ve... I’ve got to go and meet up with Fred.”
“But it’s a Friday night,” Andrea called after George’s retreating figure. She looked at Neal. “He’s upset, isn’t he?”
Neal nodded.
"Yes, I was afraid of that. Should I go after him?”
“You could, but sometimes a bloke just needs some time alone to think. Just let him clear his head. He’ll probably be fine by tomorrow morning.”
“I guess you’re right.” They both climbed through the portrait hole and then went their separate ways for the rest of the evening.
~*~*~
George ran as fast as he could to the Room of Requirement. How could he have been so blind?
At least he was finally opening his eyes to the situation. He’d been fooling himself. Elsie had told him back in November that Neal was still really attached to Andrea. Now he had the evidence in front of him. He’d been ignoring the fact that they’d been spending so much time on that project together. It was probably just an excuse Andrea used so that she wouldn't have to tell him what was really going on. Edward and Roderick thought Neal liked her; they said it was the reason he wanted to spend so much time on the stupid project.
He’d seen them discussing things secretly at the table in the Great Hall or between classes in the corridors. He’d been so stupid. They were probably having intimate little lovers' chats, he thought bitterly. No matter, there were plenty of possibilities. He and Fred had learned numerous hexes and jinxes to use on their brother, Big Head Boy Percy, and there’s no reason he couldn’t revert to one of those. Percy and Neal were both Prefects after all. There was the Self-Odorless Body Odor which would cause Neal to stink from here to next year without him smelling a thing. Forget hexes even! There were about a hundred things he could pull out of the Wheezes inventory that could work wonderfully. First though, he needed to think. He threw open the door to the Room of Requirement and stormed in. Then he looked around. This wasn’t quite the place he’d wanted to retreat to.
There was soft music playing, an intimate fire glowing in the fireplace, a cozy love seat, some chocolates on a small table, and his twin with a girl he knew was in Ravenclaw. “Oh, sorry!” he turned to leave.
“Wait, George.”
George turned back around and saw Fred whisper something into the girl’s ear; she nodded and smiled sweetly, then gave George a supportive look as she left. The moment she closed the door, the room changed into something a bit more suitable for the brothers to lounge in.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt. If I’d known you were in here, I would have gone somewhere else,” George smirked, though he spoke in a bitter tone.
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m glad you came. You need to talk, and my twin is more important than Miss Clearwater. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Hold on, Clearwater as in Penelope’s sister?” George asked, stunned.
“She’s pretty nice,” Fred shrugged, “but the fact that she IS Penelope’s sister - Percy’s once, and maybe still, girlfriend - sort of puts a damper on the whole thing. Sickle for your thoughts now.”
They each sunk into an armchair, and George started sorting through his thoughts. He told Fred about what had been going on between Andrea him during the last few weeks.
“I mean, I thought things were going really well. I should’ve known though, because it's like Neal Thatcher is there every time I turn around! I don’t know. I can’t blame him because Andrea’s absolutely wonderful. She’s a lot of fun to be around, and can always make me smile.” He broke off, noticing the funny grin that Fred had plastered on his face. He looked like he was trying rather hard not to laugh. “Okay, so maybe I've gotten a little carried away. I feel like I'm completely mental.”
“Like you're skipping through a field of daisies whenever you think about her?” Fred said, bursting into the laughter he could contain no longer.
“Well, sort of,” George conceded. “But without all the skipping and daisies,” he argued. This only made Fred laugh even harder. “I told you, I'm completely mental right now!”
George simply folded his arms and shut his mouth so he wouldn't say anything else incriminating while his twin got a hold of himself. Once he'd stopped laughing, Fred was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. I just can’t think she would lead you on like this if she likes Neal. It doesn’t seem like something she would do. Maybe there’s something we’re missing.”
“Fred, I heard her say she’d love to go to Hogsmeade with him. I heard her with my own ears!”
“Our own invented Extendable Ears, or the ears you were born with?”
“The ones Mum can't really confiscate. Well, I suppose she could if she wanted...”
"Maybe Andrea just wanted a date for Valentine's Day, and she leapt at the first chance. You should have asked her sooner, or you could have just asked her, period."
George glared at his twin, knowing he was right. “Who asked you anyway?” he huffed. “Wait, don't answer that.”
“Look, George, I haven’t seen you this wound up about anything since Mum found all of our products and made us destroy them, and that was a year and a half ago. What is so special about Andrea? There are plenty of other girls here at Hogwarts, so why her?”
“She’s very beautiful, she has kind of a casual elegance,” he started, slowly.
“A ‘casual elegance?’” Fred smirked.
“I thought you wanted me to tell you why I like her. I’m just trying to think of ways to put it into words. It’s not like I’ve been rehearsing this. I don’t sit about, thinking of ways to describe to my twin why I fancy a girl.”
“All right, all right. I’ll try not to harass you about it too much.”
“So, yes,” George continued, “a casual elegance. What I mean by that is that she has the looks, but she doesn’t flaunt them like some of the girls do, and that maybe makes her even more beautiful.”
“I agree with that. She’s quite a looker, and she doesn’t even try. She easily beats out most of the other girls at Hogwarts. So what? Looks are just looks.”
“Right, I know. She’s clever. She’s not annoyingly brainy, just smart. Did you know, she’s even got Neville tutoring her in Herbology because she can’t tell a flower from a leaf, basically? Well, not that bad, but close.”
“So, she’s pretty and smart. Is there anything that actually sets her apart from all the rest?”
George smiled, “Her temper. I mean, losing your temper is not a good thing, but she’s like a slingshot. She can take a LOT. You can really push her, but the more you pull, the farther she goes when released. Merlin help you if you’re the target of her anger! She punched Potter, remember, which is something I’ve wanted to do once or twice as well.
“ Just the fact that she feels so much emotion is something else that makes her different. How many girls do we know that are merely concerned with how they look, what people think of them, and that they’ve got some guy on a string? Andrea’s really, really different in that she cares about those around her in addition to caring about herself. She can’t stand it if one of the people that is close to her is hurting. That’s something that I’ve known about her for a long time.
“She’s not afraid to stand up for herself and she’s also blatantly honest. Sometimes too honest for some people, but she always makes me laugh when that happens. She’s very comfortable with herself but she still has insecurities. Perfect people are boring and really, really annoying. She’s not perfect, but she tries to do her best. Can we be done with this conversation now? This is really, really not normal for us.”
“We’re almost done. Then we can get back to our old selves. You’ve proven that she’s not like all the other girls, that you have good reasons for being smitten--”
“Smitten?” George sniggered.
“Yes, smitten with her. Who was skipping through a field of daisies? Smitten is the only word. There’s one more question to ask. Is she worth it?” Fred asked his twin seriously. “Don’t answer though,” he added quickly. “I don’t want to know. This conversation is out of place enough already. I think it had to happen, but it’s really, really mental.”
~*~*~
Andrea really hoped that George was feeling better the next day. Even though he hadn’t asked her to go to Hogsmeade with him as a date, she hoped he’d come along with her, Edward, Neal and a few other Gryffindors who didn’t have dates either. She hoped to at least get a chance to talk to George because she didn’t really know what was bothering him. He’d seemed completely fine the night before at dinner. They’d been laughing so much that her sides were hurting to the point where she could hardly breathe. She loved being with him, even if he didn’t like her as much as she liked him. She’d sensed there were times when he had felt the same way, but maybe she’d just been imagining it.
But she hadn’t imagined the time when he’d kissed her on the cheek. She could still feel a tingle whenever she thought about it. There’d just been so much meaning in that small, simple gesture.
She saw George walk into the Great Hall and smiled at him. She wished there was a seat open next to her, but she was sitting between Dean and Sophie. She smiled at George, and he gave her a half-smile back.
George took a seat not too far from where Andrea and Ginny were sitting, but it wasn’t close enough for them to talk. George was at least glad to see to see that she wasn’t sitting next to Neal. George pulled some pancakes towards himself and wolfed them down. He was just finishing his meal when Professor McGonagall made an announcement. “All students planning on going to Hogsmeade, please assemble at the Main Entrance.” He let himself get swept up in the crowd. He stood on tiptoe to get a clear view over everyone to try to spot Andrea.
Spot her he did.
There she was, with some of the fifth and sixth year Gryffindors, laughing at something Neal Thatcher had just whispered in her ear. He scowled and turned to go back up to Gryffindor Tower. He didn’t much feel like going to Hogsmeade anymore.
Andrea spotted him as he started going up the stairs. “George! Hey George!” she yelled, making her way through the sea of students. “George!” He finally stopped and turned around at the top of the stairs; she’d just reached the bottom and started coming up. “Aren’t you coming?”
“Why don’t you just go and have a jolly good time with Thatcher, okay? I’ve got other things to do,” he said coolly and then turned on his heel, leaving a confused and hurt Andrea in his wake.
Fred noticed the look on Andrea’s face after the exchange between her and his twin. He couldn’t get away, and there was no telling where George would go, but he looked around for someone who could help. Thankfully, he saw Angelina Johnson. He grabbed her arm.
“Angelina, I need a favor.”
She raised an eyebrow.
“Please?”
“Okay, I’m listening,” she said, seeing the look on Fred’s face.
“Find George and get him to come to Hogsmeade. I'm desperate here.”
“I’ve got Quidditch practice in an hour, but I’ll try.”
“I owe you big time, Angie, and so will George,” he called over his shoulder as Penelope’s sister tugged on his sleeve to get going.