"1...2...3...4..." you heard Fred calling. You took off at a run to find your spot. You were playing hide and seek, like you always did at these reunions. The Burrow was the best venue for hide and seek because there were so many great hiding spots, both inside and out. Fred and George seemed to be the best at this game, but you had one secret spot where no one could ever find you. You ran down the stairs quickly, hoping you wouldn't be heard or spotted. Your parents were in the sitting room with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, waiting for the roast to finish and you tip-toed to the one area where you shouldn't have been, the kitchen. It was an unspoken rule that the kitchen was off limits when Mrs. Weasley was preparing dinner, but you were never one to follow rules. You heard the adults talking in the other room and knew you had a very limited window to get situated. You opened the cabinet under the sink and went to climb in when you realized there was already someone in there.
"Hey! This is my spot!" you whispered, still trying to keep your cover.
"Well too bad, I was here first," he spat back.
"READY OR NOT, HERE I COME!" Fred called. Your eyes went wide in panic and you shoved yourself into the cabinet.
"Slide...over..." you said as you dug your elbow into George's side. You knocked over stacks of bowls and pans and you quickly shut the cabinet door hoping to muffle the noise.
"I can't believe you took my spot," you grumbled.
"Your spot? I don't see your name on it," he teased. You smacked him and he winced. "Now, that wasn't very nice."
"Shh...you'll give our position away." You heard footsteps coming across the tile floor and held your breath.
You sat there for what seemed like hours, whispering insults back and forth and laughing about stupid things. The hardest part about sitting there was that dinner was starting to smell amazing. It was torturous. That was the downside to having a great hiding place; you were stuck there until you got found.
"Okay, I give up. You guys win. Just come out now," you heard Fred calling.
"Should we?" you asked George.
"Nah. It's more fun this way."
By this point all of the kids were looking for you both, and maybe even the adults. It was hard to tell for sure, considering you were curled up in a cabinet, but you could hear lots of footsteps and your names being called repeatedly.
"Kids, come for dinner!" Mrs. Weasley called.
"What about now?" you asked George, thinking that the seekers would stop looking for you the minute their eyes caught sight of the meal.
George shook his head no and you trusted he knew what he was doing. "Just wait for it..." he whispered.
As if on cue, both the cabinet doors suddenly flew open. You had been caught. You then realized, it was Mrs. Weasley who had caught you and she had yet to notice two children were in place of her kitchen supplies. She was turned and was calling for the older boys to come and set the table.
Slowly, very slowly, she turned around and bent down to tend to the cabinet. George's face broke into a warm smile, knowing what was coming next.
"AAAH!" she shrieked upon seeing your childish figures cramped into such a small space. You and George erupted into laughter at her reaction as everyone else scurried in to see what had happened. Mrs. Weasley was leaning against the counter, clutching her heart before she essentially beat you with a dishtowel to get you to come out.
"George! Y/N! What on earth were you thinking? You nearly gave me a heart attack!"
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Weasley! We didn't mean to. We were just playing hide and seek," you spoke, innocently enough. Her mood completely changed and it was as if nothing was wrong.
"Well...alright. Go wash up for dinner," she said.
Fred approached the two of us, "That was brilliant. Couldn't have done it better myself," he said, giving you both high fives.
Dinner was full of laughs and merriment as the two families conversed over a lovely meal. George sat across from you at the table and every now and then he would kick your shins and give you that evil grin of his. This was your relationship. You were essentially the second Weasley girl, and according to the twins you were more fun to torment because you could dish it back.
Dinner drew to a close, which meant you could continue playing again. The adults stayed and talked more over tea as you all made up imaginary games, pretending to be people you weren't. Then, soon, your parents would call you and give you the twenty-minute warning, which always meant you were leaving in an hour. You would say your goodbyes like it was no big deal, but once you started heading home you grew infinitely sadder knowing you'd be playing alone until your next trip to the Burrow.
X
A lot of time had passed since the hide and seek days. Now, hide and seek was used when you were playing hard to get, which happened quite often now that you were a 5th year. You also didn't see as much of the Weasleys as you used to. When you were younger, you would go over to the Burrow all the time. But now you only really saw them in passing at Hogwarts. You were still friendly, of course, but you had found yourself in a different friend group.
Recently, you'd been spending a lot more time with the Ravenclaw's largely because you were dating Roger Davies. You had started dating towards the end of your fourth year and things had been going great. You were particularly excited for the upcoming school year because they had announced the Triwizard Tournament.
The champions had just been announced and you were in Room of Requirement, sipping a butterbeer and celebrating with a majority of the Hogwarts population.
"Here ye, here ye!" someone called out. Your attention shifted to the center of the room where the Weasley twins were making an announcement.
"As you all know, we are here for two reasons. One: to celebrate the success of our fellow Hogwartsians," one of them spoke. The crowd cheered. Cedric's friends clapped him on the back while Harry stood awkwardly in the corner with a handful of Gryffindors from his year.
"And two is to have a bloody good time!" the other twin shouted. That statement was followed by even more applause. People clinked their butterbeer bottles together as the twins made a few more remarks to the group.
You mingled around the party for a bit, keeping your eye out for Roger who hadn't seemed to arrive yet. After a few butterbeers, you stopped worrying so much about your boyfriend's whereabouts.
"Who wants to play spin the bottle?" you heard someone call. That certainly caught your attention. All the participants sat in a circle on the floor.
"What rules are we playing tonight?" Cho asked.
Fred spoke next, "Spinner gets one spin. Whoever the bottle lands on can decide if they want one kiss in front of everyone or five minutes in the closet. You only get a re-spin if the bottle lands on yourself. And all wands in the middle of the circle. We don't need any interference. Sound good?" Everyone nodded in agreement and the festivities ensued.
Since Cedric was the champion, everyone agreed to let him spin first. His bottle landed on Lavender Brown and she chose to enter the closet with Cedric. Cho looked pissed, as she had her eye on Cedric this year. The two emerged from the closet minutes later, Cedric looking sheepish and surprised and Lavender trying to hide the grin creeping up her face.
You waited and waited for your turn, and you found yourself getting bored. You were about to leave the game and head to bed but then you heard your name.
"You're up."
The bottle slid over to you and you decided you would leave after your turn was up. You held the glass bottle for a moment before placing it in the middle of the circle and giving it a good spin. The bottle was almost mesmerizing as it completed rotation after rotation before finally slowing down to land on someone. You slowly looked up to see who was at the receiving end of your spin and you internally cringed to see that familiar smile.
"Alright Y/L/N, I will see you in the closet," he said. Everyone 'oohed' like you were preteens as he stood up and made his way to the closet. You reluctantly followed, knowing this was your ticket out of here.
"Well if it isn't my first girlfriend," he smiled as you made your way through the door.
"You wish, George. We were six...it didn't count."
"That's what you think." You rolled your eyes at his comment.
"Just so you know, nothing is happening in here. I have a boyfriend."
"Ah of course. Well how are things?"
"Things are going great between us. We've been dating almost-"
He cut you off, "I wasn't asking about Roger. I was asking about you. We haven't talked in a while."
"We run in different circles, George. We aren't kids anymore. We're barely even friends."
He clenched his heart, "Ouch. That hurts."
"Well it's true!"
"Just because we don't hang out or talk doesn't mean we're not friends."
"Yeah, whatever," you mumbled.
"I bet I know more about you than your so-called friends, Cho and Marietta. In fact, I think I know more about you than Roger."
You raised an eyebrow at him, "Is that so? Prove it."
"Well, I know that your favorite color is purple, your best subject is Charms, and you hate the cold but you love Christmas."
"That is not that impressive. Roger knows all of that."
George took a step closer to you, "Does he know that you secretly love watching Muggle movies, you're ticklish on your left knee and that there's a little star shaped mole just behind your ear." He gently tucked your hair behind your ear and ran his finger right over the hidden mole. You looked up into his eyes and felt an unusual feeling that you weren't sure how to define. For a moment, you thought you saw him leaning in towards you. He was going to kiss you and for some odd reason, you were going to let him. Just as your lips were about to touch he turned away as there was a series of knocks on the door.
"I think our time is up," you spoke softly. You slid from under his gaze and opened the closet door. "They all bolted..." you stated. The room was full of discarded cups and empty bottles, but no familiar faces to be seen.
"Filch or someone must've come by," he said, "The knock was a warning." You shrugged and without talking you made your way out of the room. "Heading back to Gryffindor tower?" he asked you. You had briefly thought about going to Ravenclaw tower to check in on Roger, but you decided against it.
The journey was silent, for the most part. Neither of you felt the need to talk. Just as you were about to turn a corner, George grabbed your wrist and pulled you back. You turned back at him confused and he said, "Not that way, we'll get caught. Filch is usually patrolling that corridor." You gave him an unamused look, thinking he was just trying to make things difficult when he added, "Trust me."
You weren't sure why, but you did trust him. You followed him down a dark hall that you'd never been down before. You hoped he knew where he was going. It was dark and you couldn't see very well but you didn't want to give away your position by using Lumos. Out of nowhere, George took your hand and helped guide you down the hallway. You didn't really understand why he was being so nice to you. You had barely talked over the years, aside from the occasional family gathering.
Your thoughts were interrupted by a sudden pop of light. You looked up and the two of you were face to face with Professor McGonagall.
"Professor," he spoke.
"Mr. Weasley...Ms. Y/L/N. Is there a reason you two are out of bed past curfew?" she asked you sternly.
"Yes, but it's not a very good one," you said. You were toast. If it had been Flitwick or Moody you could've talked your way out of it, but McGonagall was too strict. You only hoped your punishment wasn't too severe.
"Ten points will be taken from Gryffindor. Each. And you will report for detention later this week."
"Yes ma'am," George spoke.
"Now back to bed, both of you!" You scurried past her as you realized how close you were to the common room.
"So much for not getting caught," you muttered.
"Hey, lay off it. I was trying to help," he snapped. "Sometimes you can be such a bitch," he added under his breath. You weren't expecting that, but you admittedly deserved it.
You reached the common room and you went in and immediately went up to your room. You curled up in bed and tried to sleep as best you could.