Secrets Only Trouble Knows - George Weasley

46 - Goodbye, Year Four

Ron and I obeyed, standing from our seats and following after Lockhart as he ambled out of the office.

"I'll catch you at the feast, Nov," Ron said, jerking his head towards Lockhart. I nodded and waved goodbye.

Once they'd rounded the corner, I turned to George and Jasper who were leaned up against the wall, waiting for me. George had his arms across his chest, his eyes staring down at his feet, while Jasper was giving me a soft smile.

"All good in there?" Jasper asked, referring to Dumbledore holding me back.

"Yeah, nothing to worry about." I shrugged and he nodded. "Dumbledore was just congratulating us."

There was a brief, awkward pause as he glanced back and forth between George and I. Clearly he could sense the tension because he then said, "Alright, well, in that case— um— I'll leave you and George to... talk, I guess."

"Yeah... great," I mumbled unenthusiastically as he pushed off the wall.

"I'll see you downstairs," Jasper said, pulling me into a quick hug. "But get your head checked out before you come to the feast, though, yeah? It looks like it was bleeding pretty hard. Don't want you to have a concussion or anything."

"Alright, I will." I promised, nodding. Jasper gave me a smile before he headed off down the hall.

Taking a deep breath to mentally prepare myself for this conversation, I went over to the wall beside George and sat against it on the floor, criss-crossing my legs. George eventually followed suit, plopping down next to me.

"I know you're mad at me," I mumbled, staring down at my hands in my lap, "And I understand that. I was expecting you to be angry, honestly, because if you'd done something as insane as I did tonight I'd probably be mad at you for it too."

George sighed and I continued to keep my gaze down, now focusing on fiddling with my ring to avoid looking at him.

"We just had that conversation about doing dumb and reckless shit together, Nova, and yet you go and do this." he replied lowly. "You promised me that night we went into the Forbidden Forest that you wouldn't do anything stupid without me from that point on."

"I know..." I said quietly, turning to face him. "But I didn't intend to go through with everything tonight. Honestly. We originally just went down to Lockhart's only to tell him the information we had about the Chamber, but then he was trying to run away and one then led to another and we were in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom going through with everything ourselves. And I thought about coming back to get you, I really did, but that would have wasted valuable time that Ginny might not have had. I had to make a decision fast and I decided to go down there without you."

George only sighed again.

"Look, I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses." I then said, grabbing one of his hands in mine and making him look up at me. "You just have to understand it was just a really tricky situation tonight where I didn't feel like I had much of a choice but to do what I did."

"But you did have a choice, Nova." he mumbled, rolling his eyes a little bit. "You could've decided not to do it, to have stayed safe—"

"What, and let Harry and your little brother go down there on their own instead?" I scoffed. "George, you know more than anyone that I couldn't have done that. That's not how I am. What kind of older friend—practically older sister—to them would I have been if I let them go without me? I'm supposed to protect them. Plus, don't even try and act like you wouldn't have had the same mentality as me, like you wouldn't have insisted on going with them if you'd been there in the moment too because I know you would have."