“You do know that George is only asking you out because he wants me, right?”
Dawn groaned. Why-oh-why did her cousin have to be in her dormitory? Dawn was currently lying on her bed talking to her friend Ethel. Her cousin, Natalie, was friends with one of the Ravenclaws in Dawn’s year, and since Natalie wanted help getting ready for a date, she was in the Ravenclaw dormitory as Dawn told Ethel about George asking her out - yet again. She didn’t know why Natalie chose the Ravenclaw dormitory, seeing as her clothes were in the Hufflepuff dorm.
The moment Natalie had seen George flirting with Dawn, which, unfortunately, the whole school could see, she had felt it was her ‘obligation’ as a great cousin to tell Dawn that George had asked her out before he had started pursuing Dawn. She also told her how she had rejected him, leaving him heartbroken. Natalie's theory was that George was after Dawn because she was an ugly version of her and because he couldn’t have Natalie, he’d gone for relatively second best. Her words not Dawn’s! It wasn’t like Dawn didn’t already have an inferiority complex in regards to her cousin, what with her constantly reminding Dawn how she was in Natalie’s shadow. The only thing Dawn had over Natalie were her grades, but Natalie just kept retorting how she was beautiful enough to marry into a rich, respectable family.
“I’m only telling you because I’m a nice cousin,” Natalie reassured her as she checked herself in the full-length mirror. Natalie had curly blonde hair, caramel brown eyes, a fair complexion and full, red lips. She was the pretty version of Dawn; she just didn’t have the brains. She may have been a Hufflepuff, but the only loyalty she had was to being a bitch and putting Dawns self-esteem at an all time low, which she had done since they were little with the help of their aunts. Always hearing things like, “Your cousin is so much prettier then you” and “Your cousin is so much more social then you, get your head out of the book” would do that to anyone if said by people that supposedly love them.
“Why don’t you just piss off back to your dormitory, Clark?” Ethel spat at Dawn’s cousin. She had noticed the effect Natalie had her cousin. She had been Dawn’s best and only friend for six years, after all. They were the same age but Natalie had power over Dawn. She made her think bad things about herself; made her think she wasn’t any good. Ethel looked at her friend and noticed how her eyes were misted over with tears.
As much as Dawn said she didn’t like George, Ethel knew he had helped Dawn gain confidence and that Dawn did find him to be very charming. It wasn’t often that George Weasley pursued someone and a Ravenclaw at that so to be the receiver of his attention made any girl feel good about themselves. Although, Dawn did hate the gossip vine of Hogwarts that followed the attention! Some girls had seen George leaning against a wall in a random corridor, chatting up a shy Ravenclaw, who, even with him running his fingers through his infamous ginger hair, rejected him. There was also the fact that most of the Weasley boys could make almost all of the girls at Hogwarts melt with their alluring smile; for one to want a girl so badly that they would withstand multiple rejections meant they really wanted the girl. Dawn however had found a simple way to avoid George making her ‘melt’ with his smile “ she just didn’t look at him!
“What? I didn’t do anything!” Natalie looked shocked as she turned to the two girls sitting on the royal blue bedspread.
Ethel looked at her scathingly. Both she and Dawn knew why Natalie was getting ready in the Ravenclaw dormitory instead of the Hufflepuff dormitory. It was so Natalie could make Dawn feel inferior. Natalie looked stunning in her flowery sundress that showed off her perfect figure. Her make-up and hair were also done spectacularly, reaching a level of perfection that Dawn could never reach.
“Bull! Now leave, this is the Ravenclaw dormitory. Brains are a requirement.” Ethel smirked at a rather angry Natalie as she and her friend left to go to the Hufflepuff dormitories.
“Thanks,” Dawn muttered. Her chin was resting on her folded arms and she looked truly sad.
“Dawn, don’t listen to her!” Ethel instructed, lying down next to Dawn. “Now tell me why you’re so sad. I know it’s not just because of Clark, you look depressed, so spill!”
“He looked really hurt,” Dawn mumbled, not meeting her friend’s eye. “Every time I reject him he looks like someone just knocked him in the stomach with a bludger… kind of like when Fred hit a bludger at him in their first ever game and got George on the head by accident. You know that sickly look he had right before he passed out?”
Ethel snorted at the memory. She and Dawn hated seeing people in pain and the look on George's face that day had been pure agony, which caused the image to be implanted in their brains forever. Four years down the line, Ethel found it funny, but Dawn didn’t. “Yeah, I remember. So it was like that was it? That’s pretty bad.”
“No,” Dawn shook her head, “It was worse. I thought he might cry at first. He just sat there staring at me like I had just shot him and he was slowly bleeding to death, all the while in shock.”
“Shot?”
“You learnt about Muggle weaponry in Muggle studies. A gun, remember?”
“Right, right. Fourteen calibre?”
Dawn rolled her eyes at her friend’s unnecessary question. “Ethel, it doesn’t matter what type of gun.”
“Right, sorry, go on then. What did he do?” Ethel questioned, having the decency to look apologetic about her interruption.
“He just stared for ages and then he got up with none of his usual confidence and apologized for wasting my time and then he walked off to the castle looking really defeated. I wish he wasn’t such a good actor, he makes me believe him then feel guilty for hurting him.”
“Do you really believe that? Do you really believe he asked Natalie out? She can’t even tell the twins apart. How do we know it was George?” Ethel asked Dawn, trying to boost her friend’s confidence and make her see what Ethel saw when George was around the blonde girl. When Dawn was around George, it was as though he didn’t pay attention to anything else, didn’t want to. At one point, Fred had become frustrated at his brother’s lack of attention to the planning of their next prank so he stomped on his foot. That got his attention.
“Because it fits! Why else would he be interested in me? I’m the Bookworm and he’s the Prankster. We have nothing in common.” Dawn turned her head away from Ethel and looked at the far wall, not wanting her friend to see the pain on her face.
“But he asked for your book,” Ethel reminded her. “He wanted to read it. I bet he would never have read a book to get closer to Natalie. I don’t think he’d even read one if Fred dared him! He’d take a photo of Filch naked in a broom cupboard with Madam Prince if Fred asked but George wouldn’t read a book for Fred. I think you should let him borrow it.”
Dawn shifted her arms under her head as she thought about the book. Her stomach turned as she thought about where it was at that moment and who had it in their possession. She had given it to a first year Gryffindor just outside the portrait of a Fat Lady in a pink dress. She had been able to watch the kid silently place it in front of George, who was writing. Seeing as there was a rather large stream of younger students walking out of the Common Room, Dawn could see over their heads into the circular room. It had taken him a moment to notice it sitting there as the student that had dropped it off had already scurried away, probably fearing a prank from the infamous rule breaker. When he did notice it, he picked it up and looked at the piece of paper Dawn used as a bookmark. He smiled as he read, ‘Property of Dawn Hollows’. He had immediately abandoned his work and started reading the novel. That was when the portrait was finally able to close.
“I already have,” Dawn confessed before thinking, but I’m never going to believe he likes me!
Never ever!
Never Ever by Black-Sand
Chapter Notes: Only one after this.
Chapter Endnotes: Reviews are always welcome.