(Present day— Minerva's office)
Salem's father stood outside of Hogwarts. Minerva stood on the bridge.
"Come to kill your daughter?" Minerva asked.
Salem's father laughed. "No my dear. I came to collect her. Someone else wants to kill her?"
"Who wants to kill me?"
Salem stood next to Minerva. Blaise next to Salem. The others behind them.
"My dear child you're supposed to be inside!" Minerva cried to Salem.
"Who sent you to collect me?" Salem asked her father to take a step forward. Blaise with his heart pounding he took her hand and pulled her next to him.
"I believe he runs a joke shop."
Without warning anyone, Salem vanished. Her father laughed as the others vanished. Minerva pointed her wand at Salem's father but he was already gone. Only his laugh echoed in her ears.
Salem stood in front of George's desk. The joke shop was the only clue her father gave her. George's back faced her as he got papers from a drawer. Salem glared as she folded her arms.
"Really?" Salem asked George to jump. "You sent my father after me?"
George turned.
"How in the hell did you get here?"
"Magic." Salem hissed. "Why did you hire my father to get me?"
George sighed as he glanced down. Before George could speak a loud bang came from the door.
"WEALSEY!!" Blaise shouted.
Without saying a word, George grabbed Salem's arm. Just as the door opened Salem and George were gone.
"I heard her." Hermione says. "They were here!"
"I swear if Weaselbee kills my wife, I'm going to kill him." Blaise growled.
He grabbed Draco and dragged him down the stairs of the shop. The three Gryffindors followed them.
"Blaise you don't know where he could have taken her." Hermione pointed out.
"I do." Ron says.
Blaise stopped. He let go of Draco and turned to face Ron. Blaise walked up Ron.
"Where?" He asked.
"Mate give me space." Ron says pushing Blaise back. But Blaise didn't move. He stood his ground.
"Tell. Me."
"Shell cottage." Ron says, "My brother Bill and his wife are on vacation. He'll take her there."
George stood on the beach. His eyes looking at the sunset. He didn't mean to take Salem with him. But in his heart he knew that he should. George looked at Salem.
Salem sat on the steps of the cottage. Her arms folded. Her eyes on the ground. He found himself walking towards her. He needed to tell her something from his heart. He wanted to apologize.
"I regret it." He says as he stands in front of her. "My mind replays the memory. It haunts me."
Salem looked up at him. He saw confusion in them.
"What?" She asked.
"That day you told me that you love me. The day you begged me to stay."
"Oh."
Salem looked down at her hands.
"I wished I stayed." George told her. "I wish I had the guts to tell you that I love you too when you told me."
Salem didn't say anything. She couldn't. She wouldn't.
"In my head, I pictured Angelina as you. Having a family with you. Fred loved Angelina. Not me. I married her because...Fred would've wanted me too. I hated myself that day I left. I heard-"
"Stop." Salem says standing up. "Just stop apologizing. Just stop talking."
Salem walked down the steps and moved past George. Once a few feet away she turned to face him.
"I don't care that you regret it, George." Salem tells him. "I'm glad you walked away. Blaise and I are together. Married in fact. He was there when I needed him. You...You weren't. You were only there for me for the good times."
"If you had told my about your family-"
"You would've left me alone from the start." Salem told him. "You would've ignored me."
"How would you have known that?" George asked her. "You couldn't have known that I would leave you because of your family."
"But you did, remember?"
"I left because you had the dark mark! Not because of your family! Those are two different things!"
"No they're not."
"What-"
"Everyone leaves me because of who my parents are. I mean. Just look at Harry, Ron and the rest of Gryffindor. They wouldn't even talk to me when they found out about my dark mark. And who my family was."
"You had just told me, I would've stayed."
"No. No you wouldn't."
"How-"
"Salem!"
Salem turned to see Blaise and the others. Salem looked back at George.
"Every lion left me at some point." She told him. "Only the snakes come to me. After all I should be a snake right?"
Salem turned her back on him and ran toward Blaise. Blaise held out his arms as she crashed into him. Blaise put his arms around his wife. Giving her a tight hug. His eyes glared at George.
Salem kissed Blaise. George's hand turn a fist as he watched them kiss.
"You okay mate?" Harry asked George.
"I wish I could turn back time, you know." George tells Harry. "I would be the one kissing Salem. Not Zabini."
Salem pulls away from Blaise. She went to Draco and hugged him.
"Ready to go home?" Blaise asked Salem.
"Ready."
As they left. Hermione pulls out a time turner from her pocket. She sneakily puts it in George's closed hand. A small smirk slowly showed on George's lips as he waved goodbye. The four Gryffindors watched the Slytherins and Ravenclaw vanish.
