the gentle moon / george weasley

one last mission

August looked up from her steaming coffee, smiling at her old friend. The pair were ending their evening after a nice dinner together with dessert. They hadn't seen each other in over a year.

"You have new hair." He laughed, "I like it."

"Where'd you go?" August asked. "When I came back, Ang said you went away."

"It was after graduation." Cedric admitted, "I saw how you were treated by Umbridge, and then I heard about your mother and it scared me. So I moved my parents to Germany..."

"Oh?" August's eyes went wide, "Why are you back?"

"I saw how you were treated..." He said sadly, "And I regretted leaving you to deal with it on your own."

"I'm fine," August said. Looking away from him.

"I don't think you are, August." Cedric sighed, "George wrote to me every day you were gone, and I figured he'd stop when you came back. But he didn't. He's still scared."

August looked up at him, her eyes softened, "What?"

Cedric scoffed.

"George is scared?" August asked, "No he's not. He's fine."

Cedric looked at August knowingly.

"No..." August sighed, "He's not scared-"

August rolled over in bed, her eyes fluttering open. The street lamp outside their window left a golden hue over George's face. He smiled softly at her, pushing the hair from her eyes.

"You're awake." August yawned.

"Oh, yeah. Just woke up too." He lied. August nestled her head into his chest.

"You're always awake at this time," She yawned again, hugging him tightly, "Why aren't you-" she yawned again, "-sleeping well..."

She fell back asleep before she could give him a chance to answer her. He still wouldn't tell her the truth.

"Because I'm scared you'll be gone when I wake up." He whispered to her.

"He's...." August's face fell, "not... No..."

They were coming home from a date one night, walking down Diagon Alley. There were still a few people wandering the street, but it was mostly a ghost town at the hour. Three men were walking toward them, and George's hand tightened around August's waist. He pulled her to the other side of him when the men walked by. They were completely harmless, but it was always like this with him. If anyone came near her he pulled her away and held her.

"George is scared." August sighed, placing her mug down. "I think I should go home."

She looked up at Cedric, and he was already smiling.

"He's not home." Cedric laughed. August's face contorted in confusion, "He's been sitting outside the restaurant this whole time." He nodded sideways toward the window. And there he was, sitting on a bench across the street with sunglasses and a hat on. August can see him hiding his wand in his sleeve. He almost looked like he was ready for a battle to break out at any moment.

"I have a feeling he does this a lot when you two are away from each other," Cedric told her.

"I don't want to scare people," August said. Cedric's smile fell. "Not in this sense," She scoffed, "I used to fear people were afraid of me. Afraid of who I was... I kind of miss that now, I don't like how people are scared for me."