Hope - George Potter

29 - Research and Plans

While George had tried to suppress any thoughts about Snape reading his mind the day prior, his subconscious wasn't that forgetful. 

He woke up with a start in the middle of the night with the same feeling that he had had when Snape had tried to look into his mind. That uncomfortable feeling of something being wrong in his head and memories getting mixed together. Of everything getting out of the order it had been in before. He soon realized that it had just been a dream but he was still shaken. 

George could feel his clammy t-shirt against his skin. He had been sweating. Lying in bed felt completely disgusting, so he got up as quiet as possible in order to not wake Henry. George grabbed his towel and some other clothes. 

He looked at his watch on the way out before walking to the shower downstairs that they shared with the second years. It was half past four and George didn't think he would be able to sleep again, so he just went to the common room after his shower. The common room was nearly completely dark, but there was still fire in one of the fireplaces, so George lightened the candles with a burning piece of wood. He got settled in one of the armchairs in front of the fire and closed his eyes to enjoy the warmth. 

He watched the dancing flames that turned into figures and stories in front of his eyes - or memories. What exactly had Snape seen when he looked into George's mind? Had he even been reading his mind? There was only one way to know. 

George sighed when he dropped a small pile of books on the table in front of the fireplace. He was glad that the Ravenclaw common room was like a little library. That way he wouldn't have to go to the library on the other side of the castle during curfew. He opened the first book he had found on mind reading and other magic connected to the mind. He started reading but soon enough his eyes dropped and he was fast asleep. 

The book was still open on the page he had been reading on when Cho found him a couple of hours later. 

"Is that your new hobby - sleeping in weird places?" she asked him amusedly. 

"What? Oh," he chuckled, "yeah, next place on my list is the girls' dorm," he added with a wink.

"Ew don't be gross," Cho said with a distasteful face but a small smile still tugging at her lips.

"Sorry, my humor in the morning isn't the best," George said with a chuckle.

"So what were you really doing here? Personally, I prefer my bed over an armchair when I want to sleep but I guess that's just a mater of taste," Cho said.

"Just had a little nightmare and decided to stay awake but apparently I failed at that," George said. 

"So then you decided you needed some midnight literature about," she squinted to read the book's title," mind magic? Sounds like some really nice and relaxing stuff to read about in the middle of the night."

"Well it definitely worked to make me fall asleep again," George said.

"Was it really that boring?" Cho said with an amused smile.

"It was worse." George paused for a moment. "Do you know anything about mind magic?"

"No not really. Why?"

"Just wondering."

"Come on, George. I don't really know many people who read about mind magic in the middle of the night but I definitely didn't expect you to be one of them. What about your most basic principle in life: 'My sleep is holy'?" George smiled at the last part. Cho and Henry always made fun of him for sleeping in and getting angry whenever Henry would wake him up.

George dropped his voice. "I think Snape can read minds," he said. 

"Could be. Why do you think that?"