ingenious | george weasley (slow updates)

chapter one

octavia was an early riser. that much was very true. no matter what time she went to bed, she always had an issue with sleeping through the night. it was insomnia. pretty bad, insomnia, actually. the only problem was that her family denied issues when the arose. 

that was majorly her abuelita's fault, however. she was so stuck in her ways, and to her mental illness was 'all in your head' and not in the way it actually was. 

so, octavia suffered, and moved on. after all she wasn't her sister. she couldn't get away with a lot, and she couldn't ask for help the same way. her mum would mention it to her abuelita and the only thing she would be hearing is about how it's some sort of divine power telling her that she needs to stop messing around and getting into trouble and that she should be more like her sister because all of her problems would be solved if she was

and she hated when people said that. she really fucking hated it. it made her want to scream until her lungs burnt and her throat was raw. she was not liliana and she never would be. 

she found herself in an unfamiliar bed in the leaky cauldron. unfamiliar settings made her insomnia worse. so, she was awake at six and five and four and three and every hour since she tried to sleep. 

exhausted, she threw the covers off of herself and began getting ready.

it hit about seven when there was a knock on the door. hermione came waltzing into her room, cat in her arms. she knew octavia's sleeping habits as well as the other girl did and knew she would have been up at that time. 

"hey, 'mione," octavia mumbled, toothbrush in her mouth still.

hermione huffed, rolling her eyes, "morning, 'tavia. sleep well?"

octavia paused mid-brush, staring at hermione. 

"right, course not. new bed."

octavia nodded, spitting in her sink, "yeah, i'm fucking tired."

"i'm going to set up that swear jar, i promise," hermione responded.

octavia flopped onto her bed next to her, "you keep saying that but here we are."

"now that you're settled, will you please tell me about your summer?" hermione requested, lying back as well, letting crookshanks lie between them.

octavia turned to face her, "nothing to tell. mum was working and abuelita got on me about everything. i swear, i was so happy neither of us were sons and then she starts treating lili like the sun shines out of her ass. i thought we'd be in the same boat, neither of us ever- whatever. i'm used to it." she absent-mindedly pet crookshanks before she smiled brightly. "now tell me absolutely everything about yours. i want the mind-numbing, painstakingly boring details of everything you did. you took a shit, i wanna know."

hermione laughed, shoving octavia lightly, "gross!"

---

in the few days octavia had been at the leaky cauldron, she had witnessed an argument between ron and hermione ever single day and it was always about scabbers and crookshanks.

today was no different.

"i'm warning you, hermione, keep that beast away from scabbers or i'll turn it into a tea cozy," ron exclaimed. 

octavia had taken her seat, knowing the argument was going to take a while. she'd grabbed her newspaper, reading it as she tuned out the arguing as best she could. it was always the same. scabbers got too close to crookshanks and the pair had a fight about it. 

it was not as if cat's chased rats. had he never seen tom and jerry? it was basically the same thing, just a rat instead of a mouse. 

"it's a cat, ronald. what do you expect? it's in his nature," hermione retorted. 

ron took a step back, "a cat? is that what they told you? looks like a pig with hair."

"that's rich... coming from the owner of that smelly old shoe brush." hermione turned her attention back to the cat. "crookshanks, just ignore the mean little boy."

octavia sensed that the argument was going to start winding down when both of them realised there was no making the other see it the way they did. so, she glanced up to make sure. she noticed a figure lurking on the stairway as she did. 

"harry," she called, shooting from her seat. she rushed over, pulling him into a hug. "how are you?"

---

they'd finally settled for breakfast, hermione and octavia on one side of the table as harry asked question after question about the weasley trip to egypt. 

octavia didn't blame him, from what she had heard about his aunt, uncle and cousin, he wasn't ever going on holiday with them. plus, the weasley's wouldn't be going on another holiday like that any time soon, they got extremely lucky with the competition their dad won. it was no secret that with seven children and one set of income, the family wasn't the richest. 

"not flashing that clipping again?" george spoke as he reached the table for breakfast. he grabbed it from ron. 

"i haven't shown anyone," ron argued.

fred followed closely behind george, "no, not a soul. not unless you count tom."

"the day maid."

"the night maid."

"the cook."

fred sat down, "the bloke who fixed the toilet."

george nudged octavia over so he could sit next to her, "and the wizards from belgium."

octavia huffed, "lay off him, he's excited, you went to egypt, for god sake. there's so much interesting history there. the gods and goddesses, the pyramids, and..."

george rolled his eyes, grabbing the newspaper from her hands, "okay, nerd. what you reading?"

"the news, give it back," she deadpanned, snatching the newspaper back. 

"boring."

"more like depressing."

"then why do you read it?"

octavia shrugged, "i like to know what's going on. is that a crime?"

"you're such an old lady," george teased.

"sod off. just cause you're a pea brain."

"yeah and proud of it," he quipped. 

octavia shook her head, laughing slightly, she knew it was a lie. george and fred were some of the smartest people she knew. it just didn't translate academically, and not because they weren't academically intelligent, but because it didn't interest them. it wasn't for everyone and it definitely was not for the weasley twins. 

she admired how they were so themselves, not caring that people tended to assume them dumb. 

(which was ridiculous to octavia because did they know how much brain power and creativity went into their pranks).

in short, she loved the twins, they were two of her best friends, along with hermione, harry, and ron.