George and Cosette exchanged a similar look, and she assumed that he too was remembering the last time one of her body parts came in contact with his head. Cosette could tell he was holding back a smile as he pulled Lottie out of the living room to have a more private conversation.
"I'd kill to listen in on them right now," Hermione said quietly enough so only Cosette and Fleur were able to hear. When Cosette sat back down, Hermione raised her eyebrows, "Did you really hit him?"
"He had me pinned. I had no choice," Cosette explained. "He'll be fine. Molly's a wonderful Healer, she'll fix him up no problem."
"Her and Arthur went up to Fred's room," Fleur told her. "I say we give them a minute or so before we tell her that you bruised her son's face."
Cosette nodded but she was more focused on watching George and Lottie who were standing next to the staircase talking in hushed voices. She wasn't the only one who was wondering what they were discussing though. Bill and Ron were also occasionally turning their heads to get a glimpse.
She saw Lottie reach up and lightly touch George's face but he flinched out of the way and brought her hand back down between them. His eyes met Cosette's for only a second before all of them sitting down could very clearly make out Lottie exhale loudly.
Lottie reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out her wand but before George was able to say anything else, she apparated out of the burrow. The group of them in the living room tried to act as though they weren't trying to eavesdrop and pretend that they were all having their own conversations, but they didn't keep up the facade for long as George turned and walked into the kitchen.
Cosette took it upon herself to follow him, ignoring Hermione's voice in her ear telling her to just give him a minute. She headed towards the kitchen as well and saw George reaching for a glass to fill it up with water.
Cautiously, she took a few steps towards the center of the kitchen, glancing over her shoulder once to see if anyone in the living room was watching but they were all involved in their own conversations.
She walked over to where George leaned against the kitchen counter. He most likely noticed her walk in but didn't say anything as he took a sip from the glass.
"You alright?" Cosette asked him, resting her hip against the counter as well. When he looked up, he wasn't at all surprised to see her. He probably figured that if anyone was going to follow him, it would be Cosette.
"She doesn't listen to me," George huffed out quietly, obviously referring to Lottie. "She's great and I love being around her but I swear there's a switch that goes off in her mind and she only listens to me when she wants to."
"Is this about her showing up unexpectedly?"
He nodded slowly, "I told her last week that today had the potential to be a little stressful for everyone and I didn't invite her for that reason. It's not really a good time for her to get to know the family."
While Cosette had not come right out and said that she didn't get a good feeling from George's new girlfriend, it was clear to everyone in the burrow that she wasn't Lottie's biggest fan. However, she cared about George and didn't want to put a dent in his happiness, "Look, obviously I don't know Lottie very well but if what I said made her angry enough to leave then I'm sorry."
"You had nothing to do with it," George glanced her way and showed off what maybe could have been considered a smile, "Well, it wasn't just you."
"So then why did she leave?"
"I told her to."
"Oh," Cosette nodded to herself, unsure what else to say. It didn't seem as though he was eager to talk about Lottie at the moment, but she also didn't want to just leave him alone feeling sorry for himself. Her eyes darted from the floor to the window above the sink before landing on the bruise just below his eye.
In the few short minutes they had been inside, it had already darkened. The swelling wasn't too bad but Cosette walked over the freezer anyway and pulled out an ice pack. She grabbed a towel that was hanging off the stove to wrap around it before making her way back over to George.
She stopped right in front of him and when he realized what was in her hand he laughed quietly, "An ice pack? Really? How old am I? Just fix it with magic."
"I'm a terrible Healer and you know this. I would probably end up breaking something permanently if I attempted to fix anything," Cosette admitted with a smile, although it really wasn't something she should be happy to say out loud. "Please just put the ice on your face before it starts to swell."
"I'm not going-"
"George, don't argue with me." she interrupted him, trying to be firm but they were both fully aware of how childish this was. He dipped his head down and laughed again but when he lifted it up, Cosette took it upon herself to press the ice pack against the bruise.
He flinched back immediately, nearly hitting his head on the cupboard doors, "That's so cold."
"Yeah, it's supposed to be," she stepped a little closer to hold it against his face again, this time he didn't react. "I really am sorry about this."
"Could be worse," George said, crossing his arms over his chest, "Could have gotten me in the jaw again."
Cosette could do nothing to stop the stupid grin forming on her lips, "In my defense, you had it coming."
"Which time?"
"Both."
"Fair enough."
They heard laughter coming from the living room and Cosette glanced over her shoulder momentarily but from where her and George stood in the kitchen, they couldn't see anyone else. Cosette turned back to look at him, "You know, I never really got an explanation for why you were such a prick back then."
Fred had assured her that he would get to the bottom of his little blow up, and she trusted him. However, Cosette never did find out what happened. He avoided the couple for the next week and then acted as though nothing ever happened in the first place. She wasn't even sure if Fred had talked to him or if they mutually decided to ignore the conversation.
Eventually, Cosette had forgotten about it too. It didn't seem to matter to either of the twins so she let it go.
Now here they were years later. Cosette stood in the kitchen with an ice pack pressed against George's bruised face as the vivid memory of the last time she hit him was so present in her mind.
Of course, she had moved on from the incident, it had been nearly four years.
But Cosette still wanted an answer.
George shrugged his shoulders innocently, "I genuinely think I was just tired of seeing your face every minute of the day."
Although she knew he was joking, Cosette noticed the way he was trying to avoid meeting her eyes and it gave her the feeling that there was a lot more to that argument with Fred than she ever realized.
"Can you please be serious with me for a second?"
"I don't think I can, honestly," George stifled a laugh, and despite Cosette's best efforts to keep a smile off of her face for this conversation, one peeked through. George reached up and covered her hand holding the ice with his own, "It was four years ago, why do you even care?"
"Because for that short period of time you genuinely hated me," she said, trying to keep her volume to minimum to avoid concern from any one else in the burrow. "It's fair for me to want to know why."
"I never hated you, Setty" George quickly responded, sounding almost offended that Cosette would accuse him of that. His tongue poked out of his lips before continuing, "Quite the opposite, in fact."
"Opposite?" Cosette repeated, letting both of their hands fall so she could get a better read on his expressions. She dropped the ice pack on the counter beside him and looked back up, "What do you mean?"
"I shouldn't have used that word," George started to retract his previous statement, "Just forget I said anything."
Cosette stepped aside and watched George carefully as he put his glass in the sink. He was purposely avoiding looking at her again and it only took a few seconds for Cosette to put the pieces together.
Her mouth fell open, "You liked me."
It wasn't a question, but George, still keeping his attention on the sink, responded as if it was, "No. No, I didn't-." But he couldn't get the words out fast enough to convince her otherwise.
"George, you literally said 'opposite of hate'," Cosette released a short laugh, pressing her tongue against her cheek while she shook her head, "So, what? You were jealous of Fred and lashed out, is that what happened?"
"That's not-" George couldn't even finish his sentence as he finally turned on his heels to face her. He inhaled deeply and Cosette could tell that this was not a conversation that George ever planned on having with her, but she wondered if he had even told Fred.
Obviously not, right?
Fred would have told her.
"I wasn't jealous of Fred," he said calmly, taking a second to push his hair back, "I was confused for a little while and I thought that maybe I had feelings for you. But seeing as you were practically engaged to my twin brother, I realized that I couldn't and decided the best course of action would be-"
"-would be pretending that you hated me spending so much time at the flat so you had an excuse not to see or talk to me," Cosette finished the explanation for him. Her line of sight danced around the kitchen, trying to figure out the best way to go about processing this. She scrunched up her face momentarily, "I- I was with your brother. He...you...I mean. You can't...just, what the fuck, George?"
"What?" He retorted, not wanting to take the blame for anything. "You're really going to stand there and tell me that I'm the bad guy for having the tiniest crush on you? It didn't even last a week, Setty, I got over it."
"So you never told Fred?"
George raised his eyebrows, "In what world would it be a good idea to tell your twin brother that you're crushing on his girlfriend?"
Cosette was speechless. She had always been close to George and she definitely spent the most time with him out of all of the siblings when she was dating Fred but she never expected anything like this.
"Why?"
"Why what?" George repeated back, laughing a little at how vague her question was. "Why did I like you?"
She nodded once.
"You really want to talk about this right now?"
"I mean," she released a heavy breath, "Yeah, kind of."
"I'm not having this conversation with you," George shook his head, not even the least bit willing to talk about what happened four years ago. Without waiting for any sort of response, he stepped around Cosette to head back to the living room.
"George-" Cosette turned as well and reached for his wrist in an attempt to keep him from walking away, but he whipped back around quickly, causing Cosette to flinch back.
"No, Cosette." He stated with a look of strong determination, "The last thing I want to do on the day that we are cleaning out my dead brother's bedroom is explain to his grieving girlfriend why I used to like her. Forgive me for thinking that this is not the time or place to be having this type of conversation."
Cosette's fingers loosened around his arm. There was no use for her to continue arguing. George had given her a perfectly reasonable explanation.
"Maybe if it didn't take you three bloody years to come around I'd have been open to talking about sooner," he added on, giving her a quick look over.
"Hey!" She snapped, pointing a finger directly in his face. "Do not turn this around on me George Weasley. You know exactly why I couldn't just show up here and continue acting like a member of the family."
"Yeah because it was hard, I know," He started to raise his voice. "You needed time, Setty I understand that. But his death was hard on all of us and after pushing us away for three years you can't just expect me to be so willing to talk to you about everything. You need to understand that I'm not about to form any sort of friendship or relationship or anything with you unless I know that you're not going to abandon us again."
Cosette wanted to promise him and the rest of the family that she wouldn't leave. Even after being here for a few short hours, she realized that the companionship of Fred's family members was what she was missing in order to properly move on.
But she had yet to step foot into the bedroom and unlock the memories of him that were buried deep down.
There was no telling how she'd react when she finally walked up those stairs and forced herself into that room.
There was a possibility that Cosette would become overwhelmed by all of the little things that would remind her of Fred, causing her to break down and she had no intentions of starting the mourning process all over again.
The second that being back at the burrow became too hard for her to handle, she planned on leaving. If that ended up happening, Cosette herself couldn't give an answer as to when she'd return.
"Then why did you bring me here?" She asked, raising the volume of her voice as well.
"You read my letter. You had the floo powder ready. Don't say that I dragged you to the burrow." George shouted back, "You wanted to come home. All I did was give you the push that you needed."
"Who's to say I would have made it through that fireplace if you never showed up? Wanting to come back and actually coming back are two completely different things, George." Cosette retorted, feeling herself grow more frustrated with this conversation as the seconds ticked by. "Do you know many times I've thought about visiting your shop in Diagon Alley or dropping by here? Not a damn day went by when I didn't think about you or Molly or Ginny or anyone in this family. I didn't mean to push any of you out, it just happened. It was too-"
"Hard!" He cut her off angrily, "It was too hard, Cosette I know. How many times are you going to say that? Do you realize that you're the one who was making it hard? You were the one who built a wall of excuses and decided to grieve alone instead of letting us be there for you. This entire time, we could have been there for you."
Cosette darted her eyes away from his face for a second to see that the four of them that were gathered in the living room were now anxiously standing in the entryway, watching the two of them argue.
"I could have been there for you," George licked his lips, releasing a shaky breath as Cosette gave him her full attention again.
He was hurt.
It wasn't the type of hurt that they both felt the night that they lost Fred. That sort of pain couldn't be matched.
But they both had to say goodbye to the one person who meant the world to them. Instead of trying to help each other move on and learn to live with Fred's absence, Cosette decided to be alone. Forcing George to deal with the loss on his own as well.
His eyes burned deep into Cosette's as an overwhelming feeling of guilt washed over her. She wasn't able to translate any of her thoughts into words and just stood there speechless as George shrugged his shoulders hopelessly.
"And you should have been there for me."
~~~~
I haven't really made an author's note yet but to those of you who are reading Elusive I just want to say I appreciate you and I hope you really enjoy where it's heading so far. Those of you who have been commenting along truly make my day and just motivates me to write more. I love knowing your thoughts and theories.
That being said, please remember to vote if you like the chapters. The votes help the story get noticed by more people and that's all any writer really wants, yenno?? Thank you so much I love you all.
- em