Can we have a moment of silence for this photo please...
Ollie just can't stop messing with my heart.
-
Dear father,
I knew you were a homophobic piece of shit, but this? This is low, even for you.
William is your son. Your only son and your oldest son. But being his father does not give you the right to tell him what to be or who to he. It definitely does not give you the right to tell him to hide who he is as a person.
William is gay and you need to get that through your thick skull and accept him. Support him. He needs your support. He needs to feel some love from his own father.
Being gay isn't shameful. I don't know why the world thinks that. Why does it have to be wrong to be two of the same gender in a relationship? It needs to be normalised like a relationship between a male and a female.
You are a part of the problem, dad. Why is it that your pride is more important than the happiness of your son?
I hope William decides to cut you out of his life, because you don't deserve to have an amazing person like him in your life.
Now that we're on the topic of things you've ruined... fuck you for cheating on mum. Yeah, I know about it. Pansy Parkinson told me about it. Congratulations on choosing the Parkinson's over your over family. You disgust me.
Rot in hell.
- Allie
I re-read my letter to my dad, over and over again while I sat on the floor of the owlery.
Boy he was going to be pissed at me for this, but I didn't really care — not when he's constantly hurting my brother.
I folded the letter and put it into the envelope. I pulled out my wand, flicking it at it to seal it up so I didn't have to spend time doing it by hand.
My owl's nest was at the top of the owlery tower. Her name is Nikita, a regular barn owl. My siblings and I each have our own. Williams is Kiki, Eleanors is Silver and Charlottes is Amory.
Once I sent my letter, I made my way back to the stairs but stopped when I saw the familiar face on the ground floor of the tower.
He looked up at me, his head tilted back and his hands pushed into the pockets of his coat.
"Charlotte said she saw you make your way down here." He said. "She told me you looked upset, so I wanted to make sure you were alright."
I forced a small smile as I made my way down the stairs. When I got to the end, I simply looked at him for a moment before I wrapped my arms around his back and hugged him with my head resting against his chest.
He automatically wrapped his own arms around my shoulders, hugging me back just as tightly.
"Are you okay?" He asked, resting his cheek against my head. I hummed in response, smiling weakly.
"I'm okay." I assured him. "I just did something I should've done a long time ago."
I pulled my head back from his chest to look up at his face. He smiled comforting when our eyes met, his hand moving up to lock a strand of my hair behind my ear.
"Dads are a waste of space." I breathed, but immediately realised that George's dad actually was nice. "I mean— not yours. I've met your dad and he seems like a really nice person."
"I know what you mean." He chuckled, nodding slightly. "I suppose you don't have a very good relationship with your father?"
I shrugged and untangled my arms from around his back. When he let go of me too, I fidgeted with my fingers as I kept looking up at him.
"It's not... me." I breathed. "It's William's relationship to our dad."
"So— you're upset because of a relationship you're not a part of?" He asked and narrowed his eyes at me. "I mean, I get why you would be worried, but is your relationship to your dad good?"
I slowly folded my arms over my chest, looking up at him as I thought about the things he said.
"My dad is homophobic." I said. "He won't let Willia—"
"Listen, I don't mean to overstep and I don't agree with your dad being homophobic, but sometimes you need to look at things in a different perspective. If you keep walking around trying to fix things for others, you'll end up harming yourself in the process."
Oh shit.
I'm dating a psychologist.
"You're starting to sound like that shrink my mum made me see when I was five and broke William's leg." I said, causing George's eyes to widen. "And I just realised how crazy that sounded. I didn't break his leg. It broke on its own from the fall."
"Uh— what fall?"
"I pushed him down the stairs." I admitted. "But it wasn't like it was on purpose. He stole my toy so I got mad and pushed him. It was just not our luck that the stairs happened to be behind him."
I looked up at my boyfriend, waiting for his response. Hopefully I didn't scare him too much for him to break up with me.
"O-kay." He hesitated, sending me an odd look. "Well, I'm just saying what I read in a psychology book."
A small smile spread on my lips.
"You've read a psychology book?"
He smiled nervously and bought a hand up to scratch the back of his neck while he looked down to avoid my eyes.
"Before I knew you liked me, I read a lot of books from the library because I wanted to seem smart when talking to you."
Oh.
"When did you know you liked me?" I asked, genuinely curious about it. "I mean— we got together pretty quickly, didn't we?"
"Do you uh— remember our second year?" He asked, causing me to nod slowly. "That's when I first noticed you. It was during the Gryffindor against Ravenclaw match and you were the new beater while I was the new beater on my team. I don't know what it was, but your name was the only one from your team that I remembered after hearing it for the first time."
There he goes fucking my heart again.
"I don't exactly know how long." George added. "That was just when I noticed you. I had a feeling you were special. Turns out I was right about that."
Don't make me cry.
"You never told me that." I said softly. George shrugged and pushed his hands into the pockets of his coat.
"I wanted to ask you out last year before you started dating Ironwood." He said. "Though I was too scared. I thought that if you did happen to like one of the Weasley twins, it would be Fred."
Oh.
"Come." I said, grabbing his hand before I dragged him out of the owlery.
"Where're we going?"
"The lake." I told him. "It's a relaxing place when you need to get away from everything or when you need to be alone."
He didn't say anything else. I dragged him all the way down to the lake where I sat down on the ground, my legs folded. George stayed standing, giving me a curious look as I looked up at him.
"Sit." I smiled. "It's not like the ants are gonna crawl up your ass."
"Well I hope not." He grinned before he sat down next to me, his legs stretched out. "That sounds uncomfortable."
He leaned back on his arms, staring out at the lake with a soft smile.
"Why did you say you'd think I'd want Fred?" I asked. "I don't quite understand."
He turned his head and looked at me for a minute before his eyes dropped to the ground between us.
"A few years ago, in year four, Fred dared me to flirt with this girl in our year and ask her out." He explained. "She rejected me harshly. Told me it was cute of me to ask, then proceeded to ask if Fred was available."
I tilted my head as I listened to him speak. It seemed to be something that affected him in a negative way. He seemed upset about it.
"That's just plain rude." I commented, feeling myself getting aggravated by the thought of someone hurting his feelings.
"No it's okay, honestly." He forced a small chuckle. "Fred is more reckless with less insecurities. I guess that's what attracts people."
"Not all people." I scoff, causing his eyes to flip up to meet mine. He smiled softly, but his smile quickly dropped and a frown took over.
"Can I ask you something?"
I know exactly what he's going to ask.
"George." I moved closer to him. "If you're going to ask me why I'm with you and not Fred, the answer is exactly what you think people dislike about you."
"Huh?" He raised an eyebrow, and I smiled comfortable at him as I laid down with my head on his lap so I could look up at his face.
"I like that you're more careful." I said. "I like that you are more likely to stop and think about boundaries."
I could tell he tried to fight a smile, but I could also tell he really needed to hear that.
"Do you want to know why I fell in love with you?" I asked. He hummed in response, running the fingers of his right hand through the front of my hair repeatedly. "I think it started the night you and Fred helped me during the death eater attack. I was grateful for the both of you, but you were the one who held my hand the entire time and didn't want to let go. You were the one who kept checking up on me in the following weeks to make sure the bruising on my ribs healed properly. Every time you wanted you wanted to touch me, or when you wanted to kiss me, you asked permission which is an important thing that lacked of in my old relationship. When we had sex, you made sure multiple times that I was okay with what we were doing. And that's only the tip of the iceberg. You're sweet, you're loving, you're caring and you're funny as hell. I love you because you're you."
I meant everything I said. It was important for me that he knew how loved he was, how perfect as how special he was.
"And just because Fred has less insecurities doesn't mean he's more attractive. I don't know how many times I've heard someone say that people are more attractive when they're confident and love themselves, but I think that's bullshit. People don't choose to have insecurities and they definitely do not choose to doubt themselves or hate themselves so why should that determine how attractive they are as a person? No — I just think people say that because they don't want to be the person to reassure the ones with insecurities. They simply don't like confrontations and they're probably not in touch with their own emotions because you know what, Georgie? Everyone has at least one thing about themselves that they don't love."
George kept brushing his fingers through my hair as he looked down at me, smiling weakly. His other hand found mine, bringing it up to kiss my palm.
"Thank you." He smiled. "You should be a public speaker."
I laughed softly, shaking my head as I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensations of his fingers in my hair along with the sounds of nature in the background.
"I have no idea what I want to do with my life." I admitted. "That's why my schedule is full of classes. That way I don't have to make a decision right now."
"That's smart." He said. "Fred and I are planning on opening a shop."
My eyes snapped open as he spoke and my lips parted before they formed a wide smile.
"No shit." I cursed. George chuckled at my reaction but nodded as he watched my facial expression. "Wait— like for your prank products and shit?"
"Yeah. We made a bet during the World Cup and we won but we got tricked so we don't actually have the money." He said. "Though we're working on earning it before we finish school."
"That's so cool!" I exclaimed. "Is that why you've been selling products during the year, and been placing bets on the champions?"
"Gotta find the money one way or another." He said. I immediately sat up and turned to George while I ran a hand through my hair.
"Babe if you ever need any help with money, I'd gladly make an contribution." I said. "It wouldn't be an issue. Or— if you don't like the word contribution, it could be almost like a sponsorship."
George grasped my jaw to pull me in for a short kiss before he shook his head at me.
"I love you, but you're my girlfriend and I would never ask my girlfriend for money." He said. "Fred and I will figure it out. But thank you for not telling me it's a crazy idea."
"A crazy idea?" I frowned. "Wanting to open a prank shop is cool, not crazy. I can't wait to see how it turns out."
-
Fun fact: when I was 2 and I sat with my newborn sister on the lap, I pushed her on the floor face first.
She's okay though.