"I win!" I shouted, standing up from my place beside the coffee table and doing a little jig.
"No fair!" George pouted and pushed the tiny little chess pieces off of the board. "You totally cheated!"
I gasped and laid a hand over my heart, giving him a look of false hurt. "George" I squeaked, "I can't believe you'd say something like that. Don't you trust me?" George hoisted himself onto the couch and stuck out his upper lip.
"Of course I trust you. I also think that you cheated" he persisted and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. I slowly made my way around the table, gliding into his space and placing my hands on my hips.
"You can't cheat at Wizard Chess. I'm pretty sure it's impossible." George merely shrugged and I sighed before throwing myself into his lap and wrapping my arms around his neck. "Sorry love, you just stink at chess" I pecked him on the cheek. "But you are rather adorable when you pout.
"You think so?" he laughed and stuck out his bottom lip to an impossible length. I couldn't help but laugh because he looked absolutely ridiculous.
"Come on you, let's go get something to drink" I tapped the end of his nose and jumped off of his lap, not before I captured his hand in mine. He paused in the middle of his room to grab his rucksack and hoist it gently over his shoulder before we continued on into the kitchen.
"What do you feel like.... pumpkin juice? I think we have some butter beer" I opened the fridge and George set his bag carefully on the counter. I don't know what it was with him and that bag today, but he was taking it with him everywhere and treated it like it was glass. I was tempted to look inside, but he wasn't away from it for more than three seconds.
"Butter beer would be great" he said and crossed over to the Wizard Wireless. He played with it for a moment or two before he settled with the newest song from The Raging Hippogriffs. He turned the volume down a tad so it wouldn't wake up my dad upstairs and took to bottle from my hands.
In the minute that it took me to pour myself a glass of juice, George had managed to drain the entire bottle. He shrugged and took my glass of juice and set in on the counter. His hand found mine again and he pulled me close.
"Thirsty?" I asked him as we swayed to the music that was playing gently in the background.
"A tad" he shrugged and spun me around suddenly. I was back in his arms before I knew it, although my head was spinning slightly. We didn't need to talk much. I merely rested my head on his chest and closed my eyes for a few minutes as the song played. I could have stayed like that forever, in his arms where nothing could go wrong.
When the final notes of the song had disappeared from the air, George swallowed thickly and stepped away from me. Tiny little droplets of moisture had formed on his brow as he bit his lip. He slowly lowered himself onto his knee, pulled his bag towards him and began to rummage through it.
"What are you doing?" I asked, my voice going up an octave or five. He didn't think that he needed to propose because we had had sex, right? I mean, that was pure ludicrously. I wanted to marry him, I truly did, but we were still only teenagers. "George Fabian Weasley what in the name of Merlin's beard are you doing?!"
He didn't answer me. He continued to go through his bag until he found what he was looking for. He wrapped both hands around it and pressed it to his chest as he looked up at me with those big eyes of his.
"Acelynne...." George started and I felt as though I was going to hyperventilate.
"George..." I squeaked and absently took a tiny step back.
"Will you be the mother of our first pet?" he said excitedly and held out a lime green fluff ball, with eyes.
"What?" I said, completely taken aback. The thing stood up on its tiny little legs and looked at me, squealing unintelligently and shaking out its fur.
"Ace, this is Bart and he is a Pygmy Puff! Fred and I made them, they're miniature Puffskeins!" George got off of his knee and stood up, pressing the little ball of fur into my hands. "So what do you say? Do you want him?"
I sighed and pressed Bart to my chest, which made him squeal happily. "Of course, love, he's positively adorable."
"But not as adorable as me, right?" he winked and petted Bart, his hand coming very close to my chest. I stretched up onto my toes to kiss him and he smiled mischievously, pressing his lips to mine with more force than needed.
"I don't know, George. Bart is pretty good looking.... But a tad too hairy for my taste" I winked. "Anyways, it's getting late. You best be going soon" I pecked him on the cheek and freed one of my hands from Bart so I could get him some water.
George sighed through his teeth and leaned against the wall. "I don't know, Ace. I think I might be too drunk to go anywhere, with all those butter beers that I've been drinking." He smirked and leaned against me.
"Uh huh" I said unbelievingly. I began to head up to my room, the bowl of water in one hand and Bart in the other. George followed me up the stairs and watched from my doorframe as I set up a tiny little corner for Bart with some pillows, newspaper, and his water. "What do they eat?"
"He really liked cake" George laughed and ran a hand through his hair.
"Lettuce it is!" I said and turned away from Bart, who was bouncing up and down on his new bed. "So, you're too drunk to go home, are you?" I pushed George out of my room and into the corridor. "Then you can go sleep in the guest room, by yourself."
"Really, Ace, you'd do that to me?" he said as we passed my dad's room and stopped in front of the guest room.
"Well we aren't going to exactly shack up with by dad on the other side of the wall. He likes you George, but he doesn't like you that much, so take it or leave it, love" I ruffled his hair and pecked him on the cheek. Or, that's where I was aiming at least.
He turned his face and I got his lips. His hands flew to the side of my face and he kissed me hard enough to make me see stars. And of course, because I'm a hormone driven teenage girl, I didn't pull away.
One of his hands managed to pop open the door and he ushered me inside, all without breaking the kiss. Oh no, that only broke when he pushed my gently onto the bed and stood above me, looking as triumphant as you could imagine.
Our lips managed to find each other again as we rolled around on top of the comforter for Merlin knows how long. The only reason we broke apart at all was so George could whisper, "So what about those separate rooms?" into my ear as persuasively as possible.
Oh yeah, I was supposed to be stern right now. I shrugged and rolled off of the bed. "You're right. As fun as this has been, I must head off to my room. Goodnight" I smiled teasingly and George crinkled his forehead in frustration.
"But Ace!" he whined and I opened the door.
"I said, goodnight. I love you."
"I love you too, you little vixen" he grumbled and laid back on his bed. "Goodnight."
_______________________________________________________________________________
"Acelynne" the wind hissed in my ear. It cut me to the bone, sending a chill up my spine and freezing my feet to the ground. I didn't know how long I had been standing here, but it had been a while. But instead of going numb, like the ice should have done, it kept burning.
"Acelynne" it hissed again. My teeth chattered behind my frozen lips, threatening to crack in the cold. I couldn't speak, couldn't move, couldn't do anything but stand here and freeze.
I opened my eyes and looked down at my feet, which were planted on a rock. It wasn't a big rock, my toes dangled over the edge as they curled into themselves. The water that surrounded the rock looked colder than the air and it lapped greedily at the side of the stone.
But apparently it was big enough to hold whoever was calling my name.
"Bonjour, Acelynne" he said, his boney hand clamping down over my shoulder.
I tensed and shrugged him off, fighting back the overwhelming urge to shut my eyes again. "Antoine" I breathed and bit my cracked bottom lip.
"So you remember" his lips were beside my ear, his breath as ragged as my own as he hissed. "It's been over a year. A year since you had me killed."
"It wasn't my fault!" I whimpered and turned around to face him. It wasn't the face that had haunted me for so long, but the Adonis-like face that I had first known. He looked like the boy who I thought to be like family to me, not the monster he truly was.
"And you think it was mine?" his voice dropped below a whisper and his hand slipped from my shoulder to hang limply at his side. "What would you say if I told you that I was forced into doing what I did? That it was the only thing I could do to survive?" He looked up from the spot he was staring at by his feet and met my eyes. "And didn't you do the exact same thing?"
I swallowed thickly and avoided his wet gaze. "I would say that you are a liar. You lied to me at Hogwarts and you're lying to me now" I could feel the anger ebbing out of my body, only to be replaced with gut-wrenching guilt.
What if he wasn't lying? What if he was forced into it by family, friends, or was just recruited because of some sort of talent? Was it the real him that I saw at Hogwarts? Would he still be alive if I had died instead of being rescued? Could it really be justified, one life or another?
I opened my mouth to speak, but instead a blood curdling scream was let loose at the sight of the monster behind him. It only looked half-human, like a body that had been decaying in water forever. Its pale skin sunk into the gaps between the bones, the sallow skin the only variation of colour.
It reached forward and grabbed him by the shoulder, pulling him into the water before he could even look behind him.
"NO!" I shouted and jumped into the water before I could think. The cold water enveloped my body and pulled me deeper than I wanted to go, the blackness stifling my search for him. I spun around in the water, my limbs flailing against the current.
Through the ink I could see him, not twenty feet away, fighting with the monster and obviously on the losing end. I pushed forward and reached for him, but it grabbed his ankle and pulled him deeper.
I had to suppress the scream that was about to surface and began to swim after them, the light getting thinner and thinner the deeper I got. I couldn't keep up with the beast and Antoine, but I followed them long enough to witness his head jerk upwards as he caught my eyes in the distance. He gave me a sad smile before his eyes rolled back in his head, his body went limp, and he was dragged down farther without any resistance.
It was over. There was no use to go after him, he was dead. He was dead, again, because of me.
I let out a scream in frustration, and immediately regretted it. The current pulled tighter on me, taking me in every direction but up. I struggled against it, but my vision began to go blurry around the edges after several seconds.
I gasped for air, though I was feet from the surface, and took in a mouthful of icy water. It slid down my throat and filled my lungs with the burning sensation I felt surrounding my entire body. I began to sink, and the final sliver of light disappeared from my vision.
I sat up in my bed, choking for air as I clawed at my throat. It took me a few seconds of flailing in my bed, pinned down by the sweat-soaked sheets, and crying hysterically before I realized what had just happened.
It was just a dream, I reminded myself but I couldn't fight the onslaught of tears that just kept coming.
Snap out of it, inner me screamed.
No! For Merlin's sake you were just there too! You saw Antoine, and felt everything! You cannot tell me to calm down.
It was just a bloody dream! She shrieked in the back of my mind as I untangled myself from the sheets and leaned over the edge of my bed. There sat my trunk and everything that was inside. That tiny vile of potion called my name, but so was the voice in the back of my mind.
If you open that trunk and take that potion, you'll regret it, she hissed. I bit my lip and my hand absently reached for the clasp on the trunk. It shook as it inched its way forward through the air.
The touch of the metal burnt my skin as I fumbled with the lock. My hands were shaking so hard that between that, and the burning, I couldn't get it open. But I could still feel the presence of that tiny vile.
After several moment of fumbling with the lock, it seemed to slip from the back of my mind. My hands stopped shaking and the tears dried on my cheeks, leaving my skin feeling tight and constricted.
Have you calmed down yet?, she asked and I nodded. Do you see the mistake you almost made?
I guess.
How do you feel? She asked in her normal, chastising voice.
Cold. Guilty. Shitty.
Did you mean to rhyme?, she half-laughed.
Maybe.
Slowly, I got off of my bed and stretched out my legs. It suddenly dawned on me, that George was sleeping in the guest room because we had stayed up too late, playing Wizard Chess. He had claimed that he was too drunk to even Floo home, although he only had one butter beer. He probably would have been in here with me if it wasn't for the fact that my father was home tonight.
I tiptoed across the carpet and opened the door, wincing as it creaked quietly. I closed it and made my way down the corridor, keeping my fingers crossed as I passed my father's room, and laid my hand on the guest room knob.
When I opened the door, I was greeted with the sight of my adorable ginger-haired boyfriend sprawled out across the comforter, his too-long arms and legs dangling over the sides of the bed and his mouth hanging wide open. He snorted slightly and buried his head into his pillow.
"George?" I whispered, approaching the bed with tentative steps. His eyelids fluttered but he didn't wake. He merely grunted a tad bit louder and flopped onto his stomach. I sighed and rolled my eyes.
I rounded to the end of the bed and crawled onto the foot. There was a space about 1 foot wide between him and the wall that I could fit into. Trying not to shake the mattress as I moved, I made my way into the spot and lied on my side, staring at him as he slept.
Immediately, I felt like a creep. Watching him sleep, really? That's one step down from taking a lock of his hair and making a Voodoo doll out of it. If he woke up, he'd probably think I was insane.
I began to shimmy from my spot, snaking my way down the mattress in a way that wouldn't disturb him.
"Do my eyes deceive me? My girlfriend sneaking into bed with me? And I thought that I was the bad influence in this relationship" he mumbled and reached his hands down to grab mine, pulling me back into him.
"Sorry love, I didn't mean to wake you" I whispered and George laughed.
"Don't be sorry. I'm not" he winked and pulled me into his chest. "So what do I owe this most fortunate visit?"
I paused for a moment and tried to think of an excuse, but came up with nothing. "I.... uhm... couldn't sleep" I shrugged but felt George tense up beside me. His head moved away from its spot on the top of my head and moved down so he could look me in the eyes.
"Did you have a nightmare?" he said. His grip on me tightened, as if my answer was of the utmost urgency.
"It was nothing..." I avoided his gaze but he caught my chin and pushed it up gently with a finger.
"I thought you said they were gone" he said, moving closer so his lips were pressed against my forehead.
"They were. This is the first one in months" I lied and looped my leg around his. "But it's fine. I can't even remember what it was about. It was off-putting, that's all." Another lie, but I had to do it.
"Ace...." George sighed but I tilted my head upwards and awkwardly met his lips with mine.
"I'm fine, George. Is it so wrong that I just wanted to come in here and be with you?" I said, pulling away from only far enough so I could speak.
"Of course not, but Ace, if the nightmares start to come back-ˮ he started but I grabbed onto the collar of his shirt and crushed myself to him. He kissed me back tentatively before pulling away and resting his hands on my shoulders.
"Please George, you know that I always tell you everything. Why would I be hiding something as silly as nightmares?" Or the vile of potion in the bottom of my trunk?
"So, if we're done talking about this, I'd like to try and get some sleep."
"But Acelynne-ˮ he tried to speak again, but I pressed my finger against his lips and pecked him on the cheek.
"Goodnight, love" I mumbled and dug my head into his sweater. George remained tense before sighing and pulling me as tight as possible. I forced my eyes shut and slowed my breathing, silently hoping that he would buy it and think that I had already fallen asleep.
And when I finally did, it was nightmare free.