HOAX | George Weasley

XVIII

After ten minutes of dancing non stop, her feet were killing her and George was carrying his jacket on his hand, the heat of the dance floor plus all the dancing around had affected him. Cassie wasn't as affected since her dress resembled one mostly worn during the summer but could still feel the fabric of the dress sticking to her skin. "Do you want to sit, for a moment?" she shouted over the loud music and George nodded, following her to their table. She practically collapsed on one of the chairs and didn't waste a second to release her feet from her high heels. Her chest was rising and falling rapidly to catch her breath, while George looked perfectly composed. She looked at him thoroughly, he was watching the dance floor so it allowed her to do so without looking like a creep. He was perfectly composed, you wouldn't know that he had done any sort of exercise or movement if you hadn't been there, the only part of his body that somewhat reflected the effort was his face, his cheeks had a slight redness to them and she noticed a few strands of red hair sticking with sweat to his forehead, but nothing more.

"How come we just danced our asses off and you look perfectly fine while I feel, and probably look, like I've been running for my life!" her voice seemed to bring his attention back to her, he looked at her for a moment too long, most likely observing her state.

"You do look rough." his hand came up to fix some of her hair but she pushed it off, making him laugh. "I'm joking!" he screamed while trying to stop Cassie from punching him again. "You could never look bad." she perked up at his last words.

George was special that way, he always had a kind word for her. She couldn't help but compare him to Fred, who would not have hesitated to make fun of her in this situation. She didn't understand how some people —their own mother sometimes— couldn't tell them apart when they were so different to her. She loved both of them dearly, but it was in moments like this that she appreciated so much more being closer to George.

"You're totally lying to make me feel better but, you know what? I'll take it"

He sat up straighter on his chair. "Who said I was lying? C'mon, don't fake modesty, you're one of the prettiest girls in the school." There wasn't even an inch of joking in his voice, he sounded like he totally believed that, which made Cassie very self-conscious all of a sudden.

"Yeah well..." she didn't know how to respond to that, her eyes fell into her lap, where she was twisting her fingers. "You say that because you're my friend." she watched him rub the back of his neck before bending forwards to get closer to her.

"Actually—"

"George!" Fred called to his brother, appearing next to him in a flash, Cassie hadn't even registered his figure coming over. He looked over to her, apologetic. "Sorry, mind if I steal my brother for a bit?" he didn't even let her answer before he was grabbing George by the arm and dragging him somewhere across the dance floor.

"Be my guest..." Cassie murmured, now all alone at the table. She took a look around to see if she spotted any of her friends but there was no luck. Curiosity had sparked inside of her when she heard George's words, she wondered if he intended to say something important or was going to use the situation to make a silly joke, her experience told her that it was most likely the second option.

Taking a glance at the champions table she only found Harry and Ron, no surprises there, the Patil twins were nowhere to be seen, probably bored to be sitting instead of dancing. That alone made her stand up and head to the refreshments table again, she couldn't be the only other person besides those two who were sitting instead of dancing. Once at the large table, she seized the opportunity to search the Hall with her eyes again, seeing as this one was placed in a better position. She found Fred and George, speaking with...what was his name? Magman? Badman? She made an effort to remember the name of the peculiar wizard she had met at the Quidditch World Cup but nothing, it wasn't that essential though, but she did wonder what they were doing talking to him. Probably trying to make another gamble, she realised then that they had never talked about that again, something really strange considering they had been so annoying when they had won it.