The American. (George Weasley)

Twenty-Five.

When Christmas came, Hermione was avoiding Ron and Lavender like they had the plague. She sat with Gen and I on the way home for Christmas break. My mom was here to take us. I was kind of hoping George would surprise me and tag along with his family but he didn't. I didn't mind though, I'd see them both on Christmas Eve and Christmas.
   
On Christmas Eve night, we all sat around the fire at the Weasley’s while we listened to some music. I am sitting next to George and Harry was by Lupin. Harry tells Lupin and Mr. Weasley all about what he heard Draco and Snape talking about the night of Slughorn's Christmas party. They tell him that Snape is trusted by Dumbledore, so we need to trust Snape. I could tell that Harry didn’t like the thought of that, but they were right.
   
Then Harry asked Lupin if he knew anyone called The Half-Blood Prince, and Lupin said he never heard of a Half-Blood Prince before, and the conversation switched to one about Snape’s interactions with my dad, Lupin, and Sirius during their time at Hogwarts. It wasn’t much of anything we hadn’t already heard, but Lupin assured him that no one he knew called themselves the Half-Blood Prince.
   
When Lupin asked why Harry was so curious to know who this guy was, Harry didn’t hesitate to tell him about the potions book he had with the markings and spells that seemed to be made up by the prince. He told him how advanced he was at potions because of this book and how much it’s helped him. Lupin told him he should check the year the book was made, and then maybe he will figure out when this Prince was at Hogwarts.
   
On Christmas we woke with Weasley Jumpers at the end of our bed. We changed out of our pajamas, into the sweater that Mrs. Weasley had made us, and we made our way back to the Burrow where we were spending the day again. My dad took William down the road to have breakfast with Luna and her dad again. When we got into the kitchen we saw that the only kids that were awake were us and the twins, all of the adults were up though.
   
“Oh, look at you two!” Cried Mrs. Weasley happily. “You both look darling!”
   
“Merry Christmas, M-Mrs. W-Weasley!” says Irina, giving her mum a hug, “T-thanks for the sweater."
   
“Oh, Merry Christmas, dear,” she says as she gives her squeeze.
   
I was next, standing in front of Mrs. Weasley as she grabbed me into one of her amazing hugs, “Merry Christmas, Mrs. Weasley, thank you so much for the sweater.”
   
“Oh, you’re welcome, sweetie, Merry Christmas,” she cups her hands around my face, “I swear you get more and more beautiful every day. I knew that shade of light blue would look great on you.”
   
“Thank you,” I say, not hiding my smile.
   
She lets go of my face then, and tells me to go sit and have some tea while she prepares breakfast. The only open seat is next to George, which was done by Ginny’s doing leaving it open for me. He was also wearing the sweater from his mum. I say Merry Christmas to my Godfather, giving him a hug and thanking them for the gifts before I took the seat next to my boyfriend.
   
“Merry Christmas,” I say, cheerful.
   
“Merry Christmas, Darling,” Replies George. "Happy anniversary."
   
"Happy anniversary," I say, giving him a half hug. He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and kissed my head.
   
We all sat around the fire after breakfast, sharing stories and reminiscing all day, while I helped Mrs. Weasley clean up and get ready for the big dinner. When it was finally time for dinner, it was 6 p.m. and we were all finally hungry from our big breakfast that we ate.
   
Once again, I sat next to George. We were all having a good day. During dinner, the Weasley’s had a visitor that they weren’t expecting. Percy, their third oldest son, showed up with the Minister of Magic. Mrs. Weasley was so happy to see him, and Rufus Scrimgeour had said that Percy wanted to come see his family, but the look on Percy’s face told us that was a lie.
   
He then asked Harry to have a walk with him, and Harry reluctantly obliged. They weren’t gone very long. Harry came back without the Minister and he seemed angry. Said that the minister had asked him to be a kind of spokes boy for the Ministry and asked him to talk good about the Ministry. He went back to his dinner, but he was just playing with his mashed turnips when he said, “So, Umbridge is still working at the Ministry. I figured she would have quit.”
   
"Gross," I say, grimacing. I hated just the sound of her name.
   
After dinner, I helped Mrs. Weasley clean up again. While I was putting away some dishes for her, she told me how happy she was that George and I have made it two years now.
   
"It's been quite an amazing two years," I tell her. "I wouldn't trade it for anything."
   
"I'm so glad to hear that," she coos, placing a hand onto her heart. "I've never seen my son so happy, ever. You've really changed him."
   
"He makes me happy, too," I admit. "The only thing I hate is being away from him all the time."
   
"I know, dear, he hates that too."
   
After I was finished with helping Mrs. Weasley clean up dinner, I went and sat with George in the family room, who draped an arm around me and kissed my cheek and said Happy Anniversary again. He was so sweet, and I couldn't believe it's been two years already with him. He was absolutely perfect, and I just couldn't believe he was mine.
   
When we got back to Hogwarts, Hermione was waiting for us, and we told her all about what Harry heard Draco and Snape arguing about. She still wasn’t talking to Ron, which was sad, but it’s whatever. Harry, Ginny, and I were all used to it at this point. She said that Snape was probably just pretending to help Draco, but we told her that she can no longer deny that Draco is planning something now, to which she agreed was true.
   
Harry has become obsessed with Draco and what he’s doing, he watches him on the Marauder’s Map, and he talks about finding out what he’s up to nonstop and it’s getting on Hermione’s nerves. I’m honestly worried about Draco, curious to know if he is working for the Dark Lord or not. I didn’t want to know what he was doing if he was working for Voldemort, but I did want to warn him he needs to watch his back, because Harry is going to stop at nothing to take him down and find out what he’s doing, because he’s figured out that he is, at least, up to something.
   
I spent all of January and February in a haze. I didn’t care about anything much anymore. Classes, N.E.W.T.’s, Quidditch, and returning George's letters in a timely fashion were all I had time for. I didn't care about anything else. Obviously I was concerned for Harry, but even if Draco was working for Voldemort there was no way Voldemort was going to get anywhere near Hogwarts with all of this new security and Dumbledore around.
   
Then, on Ron’s birthday of March 1st, he got poisoned in an accident. He ate chocolate that had a love potion in it that was meant for Harry that Ron mistook for a birthday present from Harry, and Harry rushed him to professor Slughorn to get an antidote, given that he is the potions master of the school. Then they had a glass of mead to celebrate Ron’s birthday, and Ron became poisoned. He was rushed to the hospital wing just in time.
   
I was headed up to the library while everyone visited Ron. It wasn't that I didn't want to but I just knew that Madam Pomfrey was strict on how many people could visit at a time. So I allowed his family and friends that were closer to him to visit him first.
   
I was looking through the restricted section of the library, looking for a book for an essay for Potions class when I heard some voices from the aisle over from me.
   
"You were very sloppy with Weasley today," said the unmistakable voice of Professor Snape.
   
"I wasn't sloppy," said the voice of Draco Malfoy, "Slughorn wasn't supposed to keep the bottle. Slughorn was sloppy."
   
"Despite your best efforts, you've grown exhausted, Draco. This isn't the first time you've failed this year."
   
"Katie wasn't supposed to touch the necklace," Says Draco, quickly. I didn't know why they were having this conversation here, where anyone could hear them. But I have heard enough. I walked over to the aisle they were in. I wasn't going to let them get away with this.
   
"So Harry was right," I say, getting their attention, "this entire time Harry has been saying that you were the one who cursed Katie, and now you've poisoned Ron. You won't get away with this, Draco. I won't let you."
   
"You stupid girl," says Snape.
   
"I'm not the one who is stupid, here," I say and then I whip around to get out of here to rush off.
   
"Draco, no!" Snape commanded. "Think boy!"
   
"Obliviate!" Draco shouted, and I was blasted onto the ground, and everything went black.

__________________________
Here's part 25!

I said I had an idea for book six.

That was it.

-Emily Winchester.