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

Part Twelve

"Uh, yeah, it is, George. It's... really serious, actually." I dropped my line of sight to the ground, unable to meet his eyes. Suddenly, I lost any strength I may have had left and fell to my knees, and the tears that had been pushing forward the whole time spilled over and poured down my cheeks as I covered my face with my hands. Before even a moment had passed, George was kneeling beside me, his arms wrapped around my small, shuddering figure.

"Nicole, tell me right now: what's wrong? I'm here for you, and I can help you with whatever it is."

"No, you can't!" I felt the exasperation of the situation boil over, and I probably would've snapped had it been any other person. "I-I did something awful, and I can't take it back! I w-want to, but I c-can't!" My voice was shaky, breaking every few moments as I attempted to stutter out the words that I needed him to hear. "D-Draco, he...he..."

A false realization came to his eyes, and I knew he had assumed something that wasn't true. "He attacked you, didn't he? I'll hex that weasel before he even has a chance to think. He'll regret what he-"

"George, listen to me!" He froze, catching the tone in my voice of pure frustration, mixed with the distraught regret that had been eating me from the inside out, yearning to make itself known. The tears were still coming as I continued, "Draco got me to follow him into the trophy room a couple nights ago, and he kissed me. And I didn't stop him. I cheated on you, George. I'm sorry. It was a huge mistake, and I still care about you, but you deserve better than someone who can just do something like that without even thinking."

George's eyes were wide as I told him of what I had done, and it didn't surprise me that he seemed to be so shocked. But, somehow, he didn't actually look... angry. His expression turned to thoughtfulness, and we sat there for a few minutes, watching each other's faces as thousands of thoughts passed in and out of my mind. There was no telling what was going through his head, and as much as I wanted to ask him what he thought, I was almost too afraid of the response that I was sure to get. Finally, after a some time had passed, he let out a sigh, and, surprisingly, he wrapped me in a hug.

"Nicole, you made a mistake. Everyone does that every now and then. And, I know you're upset about it, and you think that you've done some terrible wrong, but even though it was Malfoy, you're obviously sorry about it, and I can forgive you, so long as I can trust you not to do it again."

I was shocked. He was completely forgiving me for cheating on him with the one student at the school that he probably hated the most. Was he completely mental? He deserved someone so much better than me, someone who wouldn't do something like that to him. I mean, I wasn't going to argue with him and make him hate me, but I felt like it should've meant more to him, that I betrayed him. Unfortunately, I didn't have long to ponder this, because just at that moment, I saw a bolt of bright light shoot past our heads, obviously having been poorly aimed at George's back.

Immediately, we were both on our feet, back to back, watching for more spells to come our way. For a moment, all was quiet, and then an explosion of light shot from the trees, all aimed at my friend. But before I could turn to help him, he pushed me to the ground and stood in front of me, trying to defend me from whoever had attacked us. But why was everything directed at him? Maybe they weren't attacking us, but rather simply George was the target, and I... I was the bait!

Draco had purposely told me to come out here to talk to George so that he knew where we were. Then, he and his posse attacked George, with no intention of hurting me. I couldn't believe he would do something like that! Finally, the weasel showed himself, stalking toward George with a frightening look on his face, a shower of spells coming from his wand. George was doing his best to defend himself, but apparently, still hidden somewhere, Crabbe and Goyle were aiding Draco as well.

I wasn't going to let this happen without doing anything about it. I stood up, but just as I did, Draco stopped, and George quickly followed suit. Draco still had his wand raised, pointed at George, and he was about to speak again, although it didn't seem like it would be to utter a curse.

"So, Weasley, looks like I got you this time. It wasn't so hard, really, with the help of your girl, there." He paused, looking at me, and said, "Thanks for luring him here. I don't think you're going to want to watch this, so you should probably get back to the castle. I'll meet you when I'm finished with this blood-traitor."

I just sat there, in shock, trying to comprehend what he was saying. He was making it sound as if I had known about his little plan all along, which wasn't true, and George.... It looked as if George actually believed what he was saying.

"Nicole, you... You knew about this? I thought you were sorry about what happened, about what you did, but..." His look hardened into a cold glare, directed at me, something I never wanted to see from him. That one look nearly broke my heart, but something in the back of my mind told me that he couldn't hate me, it wasn't possible. Then he simply said, "I hope you have fun with your new boyfriend. Goodbye, Nicole." Without another word, he lowered his wand and stalked away, taking my heart with him.

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Wow, folks, it's been AGES since I worked on this story, but a few days ago, I randomly decided to visit Wattpad and see how things were. As I was going through things, I saw a comment on this story, from weasleyluvr9, that poured the inspiration back into me and made me want to write again. After all, I write this story for you readers, right? So, anyway, this chapter is dedicated to her, for bringing back my muse with a few kind words!