Blue moon ; George Weasley

Eleven

The next morning while Elliott was trying to wake up Esme, Fred refused to get off his brothers back about the way he had spoken to Esme.

"Leave me alone, Fred." George groaned and threw a pillow at him before pulling on his jumper. "It's none of your business."

"None of my business? As far as I'm concerned, it is my business when you hurt our Essie to the point where she was bawling her eyes out on my chest!" Fred raised his voice.

The two were alone in the dormitory after Fred had kicked both Lee and Kenneth Towler out so he could speak to his brother alone.

"When are you gonna realise that you are pushing her away?" Fred asked. "I know you fucking love her and seeing her with someone is difficult, but that doesn't give you the right to talk to her in that way. You're only pushing her further and further away and in the end, you won't even be friends anymore!"

George didn't answer. He knew his brother was right and he knew he had been acting like an idiot.

"And when are we gonna talk about the fact that you are dating Angelina while being completely and madly in love with Esme?" Fred continued. "That's not fair on Angie! You don't love her!"

"Why does it matter? Esme will never want me back. I'll have to move on eventually, don't I?"

"Yes but without hurting people on the way. You're gonna hurt Angie."

"I'm not gonna hurt Angie."

Fred nodded, placing a hand on the dresser. It was rare to see Fred this serious, but he hated what his brother was doing. It didn't seem anything like him.

"She likes you, and she thinks you like her back. You're already too far in to not hurt her. If you break up with her, you'll hurt her, and if she finds out you love Esme, she's still gonna get hurt, and all because you're a fucking coward."

George turned towards his brother, his jaw clenched and his fists closed in anger.

"Do not call me a coward."

"You are. Maybe if you had just come clean to Ess about your feelings, you wouldn't be standing in this situation."

"No, we wouldn't... instead, our relationship would've shattered. She doesn't like me like that, Fred!"

"No, she doesn't like you at all right now." Fred said, his eyebrows raised as he nodded. "But that girl loves you. She doesn't know it yet, but she does. She loves Elliott too, but she has a soft spot for you, George. Why else do you think you were the person she didn't want to know?"

He didn't answer, just shook his head and went back to putting on his uniform.

"You are such a big idiot." Fred laughed and shook his head. "She's been through much. She lost her grandmother, her mother, then Cedric and still you can get yourself to slut-shame her and try and make her feel guilty for being happy with Elliott?"

Still, George didn't answer. He knew Fred was right and he hated himself for having treated Esme like that. The guilt was eating him up and he needed to apologise and make it right between them.

Fred left the dormitory, not wanting to spend another second talking to George about it. It just upset him and the more seconds they spent talking about it, the bigger became the urge to punch George's nose out of place.

Back in the Slytherin dungeons, Esme was groaning against the pillow as Elliott tried to shake her awake, laughing softly.

"C'mon, love. You don't wanna go to class without breakfast, do you?"