Magic? || Years 5-7

Knocked Off-Kilter: Year 6/Summer

George hummed quietly.

"I couldn't see his arm," Her voice faded further, hands twisting together uncomfortably, "but he scared Borgin and. . . yeah - I. . . I uh. . ."

"Do you think he - ?" George began.

Amisty swallowed and looked away, "Maybe?"

"Amisty," George clasped her hands in his, squeezing her fingers, "I promise you that Death Eater or not, Malfoy will not do something to hurt you."

"That's not what I'm worried about," Amisty protested. "I don't want him to hurt himself!"

"Why do you think he's going to do that?"

"Because Lucius Malfoy is in jail," Amisty whispered. "He failed You-Know-Who."

"And now Malfoy has to pay for it. . ." George finished quietly.

She nodded miserably.

"He'll be careful," George reassured, but he didn't sound that certain of himself. "He's smart, isn't he?"

"When he tries," Amisty mumbled.

George wrapped his arms around her shoulders, tugging on her curls gently and smiling at her grumble.

"You could always go through your short hair phase," He offered with a teasing grin. "You know, the one where you stick it to the man and chop it all off."

She leaped on the subject change so quickly she almost got whiplash.

"Mhm," Amisty scoffed, rolling her eyes. "Wouldn't that be a statement to make back at Hogwarts."

"You'll shock more people than you'll think," George replied, helping her to her feet as the rest of the Weasleys were finishing up their payments. "Seeing Amisty River with short hair? Might give some people a heart attack."

"How much thought have you put into this?" Amisty asked.

"Just a little," George shrugged. "Could be a battle tactic, who knows?"

Amisty pulled on a stray strand, thinking of the curses and hexes thrown during the Department of Mysteries.

"Give it some thought, okay?" George's smile wasn't forced, but there was a somber edge to it.

"I will," Amisty smiled. "Thanks for talking to me, George."

"Of course, Am," He replied, hugging her again one last time.

"Keep me updated on the shop, would you?"

"I'll try," George puffed out his chest, tugging on the collar of his magenta robes. "You see how busy we've been."

"Yeah, yeah," She smiled.

»»————- ♡ -————««

"Yes, I've already agreed it was fishy, Harry," Hermione didn't even bother looking up from her Runes textbook as she lounged on the windowsill beside Amisty. "But haven't we agreed there could be a lot of explanations?"

It was the last week of the holidays and Harry had yet to drop the events of Diagon Alley from the conversation.

"Maybe he's broken his Hand of Glory," Ron offered, tugging at the twigs of his broomstick to straighten them. "Remember that shriveled-up arm Malfoy had?"

"But what about when he said, "Don't forget to keep that one safe'?" Harry asked, acting as if he hadn't already asked that same question seven times that morning. "That sounded to me like Borgin's got another one of the broken objects, and Malfoy wants both."