Blue moon ; George Weasley

Twenty-three

I should be asleep, but here I am, writing an entire chapter.

-

The next morning, David forced his daughter out of bed while she simply wanted to stay in and sleep late.

"We're not treating your suspension like a holiday." He had said and then he left her room, leaving her to get dressed.

Once she did, she left the room and walked downstairs. The picture of her mother was back up but she put it down again, then walked into the kitchen where Ethan was eating breakfast at the same time as reading the Daily Prophet.

David handed his daughter a bowl of cereal and a spoon and she sat down, grabbing the milk from the middle of the table.

"You're coming with me to work today, Esme."  He told her as she poured milk onto her cereal.

"What? Why?"

David looked at her while leaning back against the counter, his arms folded over his chest.

"I am not having you sit home for the entire time you're suspended. You'll get depressed."

Esme rolled her eyes and looked down at her cereal.

"I'm not a child."

"No, I know that." David said. "And I know that suspension was unfair and you're upset about it but you did still disrespect a teacher and no matter how terrible she is, that is out of line."

Esme didn't answer. She knew he was right, but she didn't feel sorry. She hated Umbridge more than she ever had before.

"So what? I'm gonna come with you to work and do what exactly? Sort through paperwork? Bring you and your colleagues coffee?"

"No." He shook his head. "You're gonna bring your school books and you're going to study. You're not falling behind because of this."

"I don't care if I fall behind, dad!" Esme raised her voice and looked at David. "I'm done with school! I don't want to do it anymore! I'm dropping out..."

Ethan looked at his little sister, unable to process what she was telling their father. Esme had always loved school. Her worst nightmare had always been being expelled and now she was suspended and saying she wanted to drop out.

He couldn't recognise her.

"What?" David pushed himself off the counter. "You haven't even finished your sixth year and you're saying you want to drop out? That's out of the question."

"Dad—"

"I understand that things have been hard in the last two years, Esme, and I know focusing on school after everything is hard, but dropping out is not going to help anything." David was visibly upset. "What do you want to do with your life, Esme? You have no idea about that and if you drop out, you won't have your exams and then your options will be rather limited."

Esme stood up.

"I'm going to work with Charlie in Romania. He can get me a job without me needing my exams. He can train me and—"

"Charlie?" Dad asked. "Fred and George's brother? You're going to work with dragons? Since when?"

Esme shrugged.

"It's not only dragons. There're other creatures as well." She said as Oreo walked into the kitchen and towards the table to beg Ethan for food. "I love animals and I want to work with them, dad. Charlie can get me a job... he told me once."

"And if that doesn't work out? What will you do then?"

"I don't know. Quidditch?"

David took a deep breath, leaving the room while shaking his head. It's not that he didn't believe in his daughter. He did believe in her, more than anything, but he wanted the options to be there for her so she wouldn't risk being stuck in life.

Without the exams, her options would be limited.

But of course he just wanted her to be happy, and if dropping out would make her happy, then he would have to support her in that.

Back in the kitchen, Esme sat back down, then noticed that her brother was looking at her.

"What?" She asked in annoyance, shovelling a spoonful of cereal into her mouth.

"Dropping out?" He asked. "E, you love school."

Esme scoffed.

He hadn't called her 'E' in years, so it was different hearing it now.

"Do you remember Dolores Umbridge?"

Ethan shrugged.

"The woman dad worked for?" He asked. "Didn't they go to school together as well?"

Esme nodded.

"She's torturing students in detention. She's making them write lines with a special quill that uses the writers own blood."

Ethan frowned and put down his spoon. "What're you saying?"

"I'm saying, that when the students write lines on the paper, it's getting carved into the writers hand." She explained to him and Ethan immediately reached across the table to grab Esme's hand and study it. "She gave me a weeks worth of detention and on the first night she wanted George and Fred to watch me sit there in pain, but I cursed at her and I walked out before she could hurt me in any way. I've never been in her detentions before and I don't plan on it either."

Ethan's eyes flicked up to her face and he let go of her hand, a wave of relief washing over him.

His sister hadn't been hurt.

"Why did you get detention?" He asked softly as their father walked back into the kitchen.

I shrugged.

"I don't know."

"No, you do know." David said, and Esme looked up. "Dolores said you were whoring around? What did you do to make her think that?"

I scoffed.

"No matter what I did, it doesn't give her the right to call me a whore!"

"No, of course not honey." Her dad sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, pinching the bridge of his nose. "But what made her think that of you?"

Esme sighed.

She didn't really want to tell her brother and her father about the kiss with George. It was something so intimate that she didn't want to share it with him, especially because her and George hadn't had a chance to figure their feelings out yet.

"George and I kissed." Esme muttered it so quietly against her hand that neither her brother or father could hear her.

"What was that?" David asked, raising his eyebrows, and Esme sighed before raising her eyebrows slightly.

"George and I kissed!" She let out a breath. "In the great hall. He leaned over the table and he kissed me and it lasted a while and for some reason, Umbridge blamed me. Apparently I'm a whore because he kissed me."

David didn't like the idea of anybody kissing his little girl, but then again, George was better than just some random guy at her school.

"I think dad's gonna puke." Ethan laughed and looked at Esme. "But go you. I knew you and George would be it."

Esme frowned at him, a look in her eyes that made Ethan get up and leave. It was a look that she got whenever she was close at getting angry with him.

Esme definitely got their father's temper and Ethan had always found them both scary when they got to that point.

"But I'm not a whore!" Esme looked up at her dad. "I promise you, I don't... I'm not—"

"Esme. It's alright." He assured her. "One kiss doesn't put you in that box. Even if you—"

He sighed.

"A whore is just a word people use to label something they don't like." He said. "And you're not it. You will never be it."