For the Love of a Wizard (A George Weasley fan fiction)

Part Twelve

Part Twelve

My breath caught in my throat when I spotted the mess of bright red hair and the tall figure as I slowly trudged across the open courtyard. He was sitting under one of the large trees and talking to a few friends, some sixth-years that I didn't actually know. His animated hand gestures and facial expressions had become so familiar to me; I could pick out almost exactly how he was telling a story about how he and Fred had made a prediction - in the form of a bet, no less - of exactly how the Quidditch World Cup would play out, with Krum catching the Snitch and Ireland winning regardless, which was exactly how it had happened. I only knew because he had told me the same story in the exact manner on more than one occasion before, always with that same look of, "I hope I'm impressing her with this," even though he should have figured out by then that it didn't take too much from him to impress me.

I shook my head, fighting back the tears that were threatening to come because of the pain of knowing that those memories probably wouldn't happen anymore after the next few minutes. There was always a very tiny, minuscule chance that he would forgive me for the entire thing and take me into his arms and hold me until I felt better. But, honestly, I wasn't counting on that to happen. I knew George better than that.

"Nicole!" he called, spotting me before I could get my thoughts and words together. I slowly walked over, all eyes suddenly seeming to be on me. I hesitated, trying to remember how to speak plain English for him, and finally managed to get out what I wanted to say.

"George, can I talk to you for a minute?" In my words there wasn't the slightest hint of my true emotions, the regret, the guilt, the pain, and the remorse, so it sounded completely normal, especially to everyone sitting around. I was thankful for that as George got up from his tree-root seat and followed me to a corner of the courtyard.

"We need to talk, but... not here." I looked around his tall self to see a couple of his friends, as well as some people that I didn't think either of us knew, sneaking glances toward us, hoping to catch any tidbit of what might be passing between us, whether it was actual words or simply snogging.

Draco had told me that there was a clearing just inside the Forbidden Forest that was a good place to talk to someone in private, mainly because no one else cared to go there just to mess with some students or eavesdrop. As uneasy as I felt going there when Draco knew that that was where we would be, I knew that he was rig about the privacy part; no where else would keep other students away, and I didn't want either George or myself making a scene in front of a lot of our friends.

"Come on," he said, gently gripping my hand, and the seemingly-meaningless gesture almost brought the tears back to my eyes. I forced them down once more and let him lead me out of the courtyard and away from all of the prying eyes.

~~~

It took us at least twenty or so minutes to walk from there all the way out to the grounds, and even then, George didn't stop, simply pulling me along behind himself. I looked around as we walked, trying desperately to keep my mind away from what I knew I was about to do. Then, I noticed that the leaves had changed to beautiful hues of gold and red and orange, the kind of change they went through every single year. Perhaps, I thought to myself, I needed change just as much as those leaves did. Maybe I was about to change my hue, as well, but I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that it wouldn't be to a beautiful golden color.

Finally, my head cleared, and I gently, almost without any force at all, directed him toward the clearing that Draco had mentioned, looking around for any other students. I couldn't see any from where we were, and there were no sounds from any, so I assumed that we were alone.

"This must be pretty serious, if you're bringing me all the way out here," George said as we stopped in the clearing, its space being much smaller that I had expected. My brain, calculating as it always did, told me that this would actually make a very good place for a planned ambush. In the back of my mind, this registered, but I didn't think of it anymore, considering my situation.