Most Noble ━━ George Weasley

iv. Mia Goes Fourth

       "I'm guessing you didn't hear me," he says, with that shitty cocky smile he always seems to wear.

       Mia smiles back at him. "Oh, I did."

       "You're funny. I missed your jokes," he tells her, and he laughs at her, but it sounds too condescending for Mia's liking. Mia's trying to find the right time to go, oh, uh, I have a boyfriend, fuck off, please, thanks. "How has your summer been, then? Obviously not the greatest, but... I've been thinking a lot about you."

       "Really," says Mia, nodding along. Shockingly, she wishes George would appear and, like, make this prat so uncomfortable he leaves her alone. "I bet that was super hard for you."

       "I know you went through a lot," he says to her. Mia looks up at him, and raises an eyebrow. This is painfully uncomfortable. She watches his hand, that had been leaning on the kitchen counter, slide towards hers. Jesus Christ. "And if you ever need anyone..."

       "Mia!"

       Oh thank God.

       George appears. Mia doesn't, like, want to act as if she's relieved to see him, but, when she sees the expression across her ex's face fall, she feels a hell of a lot better. Hopefully he'll leave her alone now.

       But here's the funny thing.

       George, by the looks of his shit-eating grin, must think that Mia doesn't want him to show up. Which is hilarious. Mia finds this incredibly funny. She's here, absolutely relieved that he's shown up, and he's here, thinking that him making a fuss is going to annoy her. His grin is funny to her... She likes to think this falls under the whole I'm-part-Salvatore-I-can-sniff-manipulation-out, because maybe that's not the full case here, but, the fact that she reverse-psychology'ed George into helping her? That's got Salvatore written all over it.

       "I was looking everywhere for you," says George, and he's grinning still.

       Mia sees her ex's hand move off from the kitchen counter, having realised that this plan of his is no longer possible. Brilliant.

       "I'll see you around," her ex says.

       Mia snorts. "Totally."

       He begins to walk away, and Mia lets out a laugh, having a drink. "Merlin, don't date Gryffindors," says Mia, shaking her head.

       George's eyes widen. "Hang on."

       "What?" she says.

       "You went out with him?" he says.

       Mia sighs. "Unfortunately."

       George's jaw drops.

       "You went out with Cormac McLaggen?"

       "Yeah," says Mia, and she shakes her head, taking another sip of her drink. "And, like I said, I've learnt my lesson. Gryffindors are stupid, and they shouldn't be dated. Especially little shits like that one that are on the Quidditch team — not even that, but he was a reserve, he was barely on the team."

       George looks at her oddly. "Gryffindors aren't that bad?"

       Mia scoffs. "OK, scarlet bitch?"

       And then she starts to walk away.

       "Hang on," says George, following her. Mia sighs. She'd rather not go into the whole list of who she's been out with. It's boring. All of them ended with the illusion went. She stopped thinking they were all amazing and she couldn't find them attractive after that. Oh, well. "When did you go out with McLaggen?"