“George,” Angelina paused as she passed the solitary figure in the corner of the common room, who was sorting through his chocolate frog cards. “What are you doing here? I thought you were going to Hogsmeade.”
“Well, I was, but the girl I like has a history with another guy and probably always will. So I came here instead, the fat lady doesn’t have a date at the moment.”
Angelina rolled her eyes. After seven years, Weasley Twin comments were old hat. “Well, that’s usually the case with history; it doesn’t just go away. But you can’t change the past, George. You know, I would never have guessed your Achilles' Heel to be a girl.”
“There’s a first for everything,” George replied.
“And let me guess, right now your girl is in Hogsmeade with the other guy, and you’re here?” George gave a solemn nod. “Well,” Angelina continued, “if she didn’t like you before, then this display of courage and dedication should definitely do the trick.”
“I’m sensing a low level of sarcasm here.”
Angelina shrugged, yet quirked an eyebrow as if to say, “look who's talking.”
“Well, what am I supposed to do?”
“Be a man. Put down your chocolate frog cards and fight for her.”
“I’m not really much of a fighter. I know Fred and I have this image, but it’s just all pranks and disregard of specific teacher’s authority. I think it’s also because I have broad shoulders-” he tried to explain.
“No,” Angelina interrupted him. “What I mean is, she can’t fall for you if you’re not there to catch her.”
He just gazed at her for a moment while this information sunk in. “That is very fairy-tale of you to say, but you’re right. What was I thinking?” He stood and gathered up his cloak, which he’d tossed aside earlier.
“It’s not your fault. You’re a boy, and so you usually don’t think.”
“Thanks!” he said, running out of the portrait hole, not at all hearing her last comment and nearly knocking over Euan Abercrombie, Edward's first year brother.
~*~*~
Wandering around Zonko’s was not what Andrea intended on doing that afternoon. It was bad enough that George hadn’t come to Hogsmeade, but now she had to be in Zonko’s Joke shop, the place that reminded her most of George. While Neal, Ed and the others scouted around, finding their favorite things and making purchases, Andrea waited near the front of the store. She was looking out the window morosely, her mood growing darker every time she saw a couple holding hands pass by. However, she wouldn't let it ruin her entire day. She looked at her watch and decided that she would only think of George for five more minutes. After that she would not think of George anymore. If only she hadn’t allowed Lavender and Parvati to make Valentine's Day seem like such a big deal.
Ten minutes later, as their entourage was leaving Zonko’s, Andrea was still thinking of George. Blast him! She just couldn’t get him out of her head. She wanted to be able to have fun, but there was a dark cloud over her whenever he wasn’t there. She followed everyone else, toward the Three Broomsticks, still trying not to think about George and failing miserably.
All of a sudden, someone grabbed her arm and pulled her into a tiny alleyway just off the bustling main road. She was too shocked to make any attempt of resistance, nor did she make any noise to alert those around her. Suddenly, she was face to face with George. Her jaw dropped. He had a different look on his face, not the jovial expression that was usually present, and it wasn’t the cold look he’d given her in the Entrance Hall either.
“George, you came!” she exclaimed, her spirits lifting significantly. “What’s the matter? Why wouldn’t you come earlier?”
He shifted uncomfortably under her gaze, moving his weight from one leg to the other. He felt nervous and a little childish.
“I feel I owe you an apology,” George said. “I’m sorry. I mean, I really like you Andrea. It’s just every time I turn around, it's you and Neal Thatcher.”
“I know,” she sighed, finally understanding. “I’m sorry, but he’s not my boyfriend. He’s not, he’s just Thatcher,” she explained, taking his hand in hers to reassure him.
“So last night when you said you’d love to go to Hogsmeade with him?”
Andrea laughed. “That’s not exactly what I told him. I was telling him that if Alicia didn’t have practice today, she would love to go with him.”
“So when I heard Ed and Rick talking about who Neal liked, it wasn’t you?”
“No,” she laughed. “It was Alicia. Eavesdropping isn’t exactly the best way to get information.”
“So,” he pulled up his courage, “Thatcher's just Thatcher, but what am I?”
“Well,” she shrugged, a shy smile on her face, “I’d like you to be my boyfriend, but you didn’t ask me to go to Hogsmeade for Valentine’s Day. Lavender and Parvati told me that the Valentine’s Day trip to Hogsmeade totally defines a prospective couple’s relationship. They would definitely know.”
“Oh, I see. So, can I ask you a question?” he smiled. “Will you go to Hogsmeade with me, today, which, if I’m not mistaken, is Valentine’s Day?”
Her smile grew wide, making George’s heart melt. Then she took a step closer to him, tilted up her head as she put a hand behind his neck, and kissed him. It was a short kiss, but very sweet.
When she pulled back, she had a sly smile on her face, and, answering his previous question, said, “Let me think about it.” They both laughed and she linked her arm with his. They went off down the street to enjoy the rest of their afternoon together.
~*~*~
“We’ve been making a lot of progress on the Daydream Charm I told you about. Well, Fred is making brilliant progress on it, I should say. He’s the one who’s been taking strides in working out the incantation. I don’t know how he does it, because we don’t actually work on it all that much in the lab. But just last night he was showing me what he’s come up with, and it’s about a hundred times better than the last time we gave it a go.”
“You said it’s an incantation right?”
“Yeah, a simple charm.”
“You say simple, but some people aren’t all that good at charms,” she’d explained that the other reason she spent a lot of time with Neal was that he was helping her with Charms while she helped with his compositions.
“The more complex the daydream is, the harder the charm will be, but right now we’ve only got three really simple ones.”
Andrea and George were walking hand in hand back to the castle for an early dinner. They’d talked about a lot of things that day, including the latest developments in the Quidditch league and some of the new product ideas that the boys had been thinking about. It had been really fun, one of the best times either of them had ever had in Hogsmeade.
“D'you remember when Fred and I bumped into you on the first day of school last September?”
“Yes,” Andrea laughed.
He loved it when she laughed; it made her eyes sparkle.
“Well, I wanted to ask you something. You said that nothing was better than riding a Firebolt. However, I was wondering if it topped this?” He put a hand on her cheek and brought her face towards his. They shared another kiss, this one longer than their first; Andrea’s stomach did flips.
Pulling away, she smiled. “You just wanted a reason to do that, but yes, I think it was better than flying a broom.”
“I didn’t really need a reason to do that; a boyfriend has the privilege of kissing his girlfriend, doesn’t he?”
“True enough, but I think you’d better kiss me again so that I can make sure it’s better than a Firebolt,” she smiled, and they kissed again.
Someone cleared their throat behind them, and George and Andrea jumped apart, blushing. Fred smiled broadly at them. “Well, well, well, it’s good to see that you two have finally gotten your acts together.” Fred slung an arm around each of their shoulders, walking in-between the couple and steering them out towards the Quidditch pitch instead of towards the castle. “So, is she a good kisser George?” giving his brother an exaggerated wink and a nudge.
Andrea laughed, blushing harder, and George flushed a deep red. “A gentlemen never tells when he’s asked by his brother if his girlfriend’s a good kisser.”
“So then it’s official?”
“Yes,” Andrea answered, “so if you don’t mind, I’d like to stand next to my boyfriend.” She smiled, pushing him Fred out of the way. George put his arm around her waist.
“All right, just don’t punch me,” Fred pretended to look scared. They all laughed. “I thought we ought to go take a look at the team practice, see how they’re faring.”
Andrea and George agreed and the three of them went to the Quidditch stadium, even though it was wet and rainy, but seeing as they’d already made their way through the rain, it didn’t bother them much.
“What’s this that Umbridge has posted now?” Sophie stopped to look at yet another new Educational Decree. Number twenty-seven. “‘Any student found with a copy of The Quibbler will be expelled,’” she read aloud.
“If Snape asks where I am, tell him I wasn’t feeling well and went to the Hospital Wing,” she told Sophie as she started walking the opposite way of the dungeons.
“What are you talking about? Where are you going?”
“To get the latest edition of The Quibbler.” Andrea hurried along the corridors. When she was finally outside of the Transfiguration classroom, Andrea hid behind a statue of Claudette Merkel the Mystical, waiting and watching for the people she needed to come this way from their Charms class. She didn’t have to wait long.
Fred, George, and Lee were in a heated discussion about Quidditch.
“Hey!” Andrea called in a loud whisper as they were about to pass her. They looked over and all smiled at her as they joined her behind the statue in the little alcove. Over the past few weeks, Fred and Lee had made it no secret that they wholeheartedly supported George and Andrea’s relationship.
“I want a copy of The Quibbler” she got right down to the point before they could even ask. “You know how to get to Hogsmeade don’t you?”
“Well, yeah, of course we do,” Fred stated as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.
“Let’s go then.”
“Great, I’m always up for Hogsmeade,” Lee smiled.
“Too bad you can’t go,” Fred said.
“Why not?”
“If all three of us miss Transfiguration, McGonagall will know something is up,” George explained. “You’ve got to go to class and tell her that Filch is making us clean up our latest explosion.”
“But why me?” he whined. “Why not you, Fred?”
Fred answered him as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. “It wouldn’t make sense that George would make mischief without me. Besides, it’s the girlfriend of MY brother, not yours. Sorry mate,” he slapped Lee on the back.
“Fine.”
“It’ll be a lot easier to get some quality time in with Angelina without these two around bugging you,” Andrea pointed out with a hearty wink.
“You’re quite right. I hadn't thought of that,” Lee smiled and laughed. “Off with you then.”
“Hey, meet us in the Lab after class though,” she told him.
“What’s in your head anyway, Benning?”
“Come round and you’ll see for yourself, Jordan.”
“You know about the Secret Lab?” Fred hissed as they slipped into the nearest secret passage.
“Um, yeah...” She bit her lip, looking to George.
“Oh come off it. She IS my girlfriend, after all” George said.
“Oh yeah, forgot that bit for a moment. I just get a little overprotective when it comes to the Secret Lab.”
They used the One-Eyed Witch passageway and found themselves in the basement of Honeyduke's in no time. Fred was to find a copy of The Quibbler and then meet the other two in the Three Broomsticks. In the meantime George and Andrea went into the nearest writing supply store. Andrea bought two dozen Quick Copy Quills and a thick stack of parchment. After the wizard behind the counter handed Andrea’s sack of purchases to her, she and George made their way to the Three Broomsticks.
Madam Rosmerta gave George a questioning look, knowing full well he wasn’t supposed to be anywhere other than Hogwarts Castle at the moment, but she had a rather soft spot for the Weasley twins and let it slide. He ordered a couple of Butterbeers and then went over to a small table in the corner with Andrea. He hadn’t spoken much since they’d left the castle. He knew what was in The Quibbler. Did Andrea know? If she did know it was an article about Harry, then what was she doing?
After watching the Gryffindor team practice on Valentine’s Day, he and Fred had spoken about it with Harry and Hermione. Andrea had been there as well, but you wouldn’t have known it from the conversation. She didn’t say one word while they were around Harry. George had been watching Andrea ever since. She hardly even looked at Harry. She shared a room with Hermione, and George could see that they were good friends. Even so, Andrea rarely spoke to Hermione when Harry was near. Now and then he saw Andrea and Ron exchange a few pleasantries, but nothing more.
“What?” Andrea broke into his thoughts. He’d been staring at her without realizing it. “Is something wrong?”
“I don’t know. You tell me.”
“Um, nothing that I can think of. Should there be?”
Their conversation was interrupted by the appearance of Fred, who brought some sandwiches over for the three of them from the bar. He tossed The Quibbler to Andrea. “One of the last copies in Hogsmeade. I had to fight off some loony who tried to grab it out of my hands.”
“Thanks,” she smiled and then the three quickly ate their lunch in relative silence. Andrea flipped through the magazine’s pages, found the article, read it and then closed it. They paid the bill, and then dashed back into Honeyduke's.
~*~*~
When they’d reached the Secret Lab, Andrea scattered the parchment around and started bewitching the Quick Copy Quills to write Rita’s article on Harry.
“Do you two know how to bewitch parchment so that certain people can’t read it? Umbridge and the Inquisitorial Squad, for example.”
“Sure we do,” Fred answered. “Couldn’t let Mum find any of our product notes. Two summers ago she found the lot and burned it all. We had to start over from scratch.”
“Excellent, get cracking then.”
Lee showed up then and started on the task of bewitching parchment with Fred as different quills came to an end of their task. George helped Andrea to reset the quills with new bits of parchment. By the time lunch was almost over there were almost two hundred copies of Rita Skeeter’s interview with Harry. Andrea gathered up the lot, thanked the boys for helping her, gave George a kiss on the cheek, and then left.
The next time George saw Andrea was at dinner. Practically the whole school had read the article, and Andrea was approaching Luna Lovegood. George followed her, coming to a halt behind her. Andrea pulled a sack out of her school bag and handed it to Luna explaining that she’d made copies of the article, and distributed them around, collecting a bit of money. “Tell your dad I’m sorry about copying all of them, but this should compensate.”
“I don’t think he’ll mind terribly,” Luna said in her dreamy voice, as the sack jingled in her hand. “Daddy says this is the best selling issue he’s ever printed.”
“That’s really great,” Andrea smiled. “Have a good night, Luna.”
Andrea turned around and smirked at George.
“Why’d you do it?” he asked.
“Well, I think that Mr. Lovegood would want compensation for so many copies of his article being distributed.”
“Not that. Why did you distribute the copies in the first place?”
“Harry has enough bad press, it’s high time everyone read the truth, even if some of them still don’t believe it.”
“I know, and that’s great that you did it, but you hate Harry.”
“I don’t hate Harry,” she scoffed. Before George could pursue his inquiry any further, Andrea turned and walked towards the Gryffindor table and took a seat next to Sophie, Roderick, Edward, and Katie. George was determined not to simply let this drop, but as he took a seat on Andrea’s other side, he realized the conversation was about Quidditch. He was powerless not to talk about it. He also knew that if Andrea was going to tell him anything about her issues with Harry, it would be when they were alone. He did at least admire that about her; she refused to gossip about others. It would also make it that much more difficult to get her to tell him what exactly the deal was.