Good Girl || George Weasley

42

"Welcome to your first Apparition lesson!"

I cast a sidelong glance in Fred's direction, who I can see moving out of the corner of my eye, shifting from foot to foot. He catches my eye and winks at me, and I just roll my eyes at him in return before looking to my other side, at Roger, who's listening our Apparition teacher attentively.

With everything else, I had completely forgotten that Apparition lessons were beginning this month, and Roger had to wake me up the Saturday after Valentine's Day to remind me that today is our first lesson of the twelve-week class.

Which also means that the Second Task is officially less than a week away. Six days, to be exact.

I glance behind me at George, who smiles at me reassuringly, as he stands between Alicia and Angelina, and Lee, who's positioned on the other side of Alicia. Fred still hasn't figured out his situation with them, and he still doesn't know about George and I.

Even though George and I have snuck off to our secret room to mess around more than a few times since Valentine's Day. My excuse to allow myself to spend so much time with him as opposed to working on homework has been that since the Second Task is so close, I "need to relieve stress." To which, of course, he just laughed and told me I clearly just can't get enough of him.

Which is also true.

"Now," the instructor — a tall, enthusiastic lady with dark hair — says, "I don't expect any of you to Apparate today, and that's fine! We're going to start very, very basic, but after these next twelve weeks, all of you should be able to pass the exam with ease. Now-"

"Roger," I hiss, and he raises an eyebrow at me.

"Bet you I'll be the first in our class to Apparate into the hoop."

Roger smirks at me, turning to look back at the instructor, but as he does, he murmurs, "You're on, Goldie."

"K," Fred whispers from the other side of me. I turn to look at him, and he grins at me. "Can I get in on this?"

"Depends on if you're betting for or against me."

"Guys," comes George's voice from behind me, "I feel so left out back here. I want in on whatever it is."

I giggle at that, earning all of us a shhhh from none other than my lovely roommate, Marietta, who's standing a few people away from Fred, even though I know damn well she's not listening and just shushing us because she thinks it's fun.

When she looks away, I roll my eyes dramatically at Fred, who stifles a laugh. I smile back at him, a pang of guilt hitting me when I realize that I've been pulling away from him over these last few months, even though it's been unintentional. I'll have to make it up to him, somehow.

After going on and on about splinching, our instructor finally announces that we're allowed to try to Apparate finally, our goal being to get into the hoops that are in front of each of us. I smirk and raise my eyebrows at Roger, before closing my eyes to focus.

Destination, determination, and deliberation. The three D's of Apparition, as described by our instructor. I picture the hoop in my mind, trying to focus on what it would feel like to move my body across the floor to be standing in the hoop.

I hear a crack, like thunder, and when I open my eyes, I see the Slytherin boy prefect who clearly was able to move, seeing as he's a step or two out of the row, but he's on his arse, causing a few people to laugh when they see him.

So I close my eyes and focus again, only to be interrupted again; this time, the culprit being Cedric, who was able to move, but he stayed on his feet.