Despite all of her objections, Verity and George still found themselves walking from the flat down the snow covered sidewalk to the Leaky Cauldron where all of their old school friends had agreed to meet for dinner and a few drinks.
"Are you really sure this is a good idea?" she asked, carefully tiptoeing around a thin sheet of ice on the pavement.
"I told you to stop worrying. It'll be like old times."
"Nothing is like old times anymore." she responded harshly, rolling her eyes.
"Not with that attitude."
Verity merely scoffed at his remark. While his therapy seemed to be doing him some good, she couldn't help but worry that they were walking right into a trap - one that George had set up for himself. The man had a horrible habit of self-sabotage and it seemed he was too oblivious to recognize the warning signs every single time.
"Have you spoken to Eloise lately?" she asked.
"Yeah, she wrote to me a few days ago asking how my first appointment went." he replied nonchalantly.
"That's good."
Knowing he and Eloise were still on speaking terms helped to calm Verity's nerves ever so slightly. Although she didn't doubt for a second that George had neglected to inform her that he was attempting to rebuild his friendship with his ex-girlfriend. Resentment grew inside Verity as she silently blamed George for making her an accomplice in something that certainly wasn't a crime, but may as well have been with how scummy she was feeling about the whole thing.
But perhaps having Maxwell around to occupy Eloise's time lately would help her not be so concerned with what George was up to. That's what Verity had to tell herself in order to not feel so guilty for enabling him to go down this route with Alicia. As much as she tried to convince him it was a mistake, he just continued to ignore her and tell her she worried too much.
Being the last business on Diagon Alley open that Friday night, the lights from the Leaky Cauldron's windows emitted a warm glow on the snow. When George pushed through the door, holding it open for Verity, he scanned over the crowd.
Most of the patrons of the pub that evening were middle-aged single wizards spending their night alone, seeming to have no family to go home to. That or they simply didn't care about whomever was waiting for them at home. But in a corner booth sat Alicia and Angelina, the latter of whom waved the two of them over.
Verity grumbled something under her breath, and although George couldn't make out exactly what she was saying he swore he heard her mention Lee's name. Perhaps the only reason she'd agreed to the whole idea in the first place was to see him - he was her first friend in their group after all.
As they approached the table, Verity plastered a sickeningly sweet smile that didn't have a single ounce of authenticity to it. Making a point to refuse to sit next to Alicia, the blonde slid in next to Angelina instead leaving George no choice but to sit beside his ex. This is fine he thought to himself, hoping that perhaps when Katie or Lee finally arrived he'd be able to have one of them sit between them.
"Have you two been waiting long?" George asked, attempting to break the ice, even though it seemed that Verity had every intention of freezing over whatever he broke.
"No, not too long." Alicia replied, giving him a warm yet slightly awkward smile.
It was obvious things still felt tense between them, but George had expected this. They were a work in progress, he knew it would take time. Thankfully though, Lee and Katie arrived only a moment later.
The man with long locs made his presence known with a loud "Oi, you lot!" the second he stepped through the door, giving a big wave to the group from across the pub.
A few of the other patrons grumbled and gave the boisterous man dirty looks for his obnoxious entrance, but George instantly felt better now that Lee was there. No one diffused tension quite like him.
George slid out from the booth to allow Katie to sit between him and Alicia while Lee pulled up a chair from a nearby table, thereby making him the head of the table - 'as it should be', he would say.
After about twenty minutes of catching up, everyone seemed to be getting along just fine. While it wasn't like the old days, it certainly wasn't unpleasant. Well, almost everyone was getting along, anyway. Verity had a sour expression on her face nearly every time Alicia opened her mouth and George was beginning to feel frustrated with her. The least she could do was try to be civil.
"I'm getting a drink, anyone want anything?" George asked the group, mostly as a reason to leave the table and avoid looking at Verity.
"Surprise me." Alicia smiled at him, and he nodded in return.
"I'll go with you." Lee stood up from his seat before looking over the remaining girls who all assured him they didn't want anything.
The men made their way over to the bar, waiting for the bartender to come over and take their orders. For it being so close to the holidays, the pub was quite busy, but perhaps the Christmas season did that to those with no one to spend the joyous time with.
"I'm surprised you invited Alicia out, Angie said-"
"No offense Lee, but I don't want to get into all of that."
"Oi, don't get your knickers in a twist. I'm just making conversation."
"Well that's not a conversation I want to have right now." he replied curtly, glancing over to his friend whose expression dropped into a frown as he nodded in return.
Before Lee could come up with a witty remark to change the subject to something more lighthearted, the bartender approached them to take their order.
"I'll just have a firewhisky and whatever your most full-bodied wine is."
"Trying to get Allie drunk?" Lee asked, abandoning his plan to make George feel better as he wiggled his eyebrows at the redhead. But all it earned him was a sharp elbow in the ribs from George.
The typically rowdy man cleared his throat before looking towards the bartender and ordering in a more subdued voice than usual, "Just a Dragon Scale, please."
The elderly wizard behind the bar raised an eyebrow at the men before giving them a nod and turning around to prepare their drinks. George turned to Lee, thinking it might be best to actually explain the situation to him. If anything, he'd be able to clear up any misinformation he had heard from Angelina - whatever he needed to do to get Lee to stop teasing him about Alicia. But before he could, a familiar American accent stopped him.
"George, hey man!"
When he turned to his left, George watched as Dhani pulled out the stool beside him and took a seat, already holding a half drunk pint of beer in his hand. Just my luck, he thought as he let out a sigh.
He'd have to remember to have a discussion with Charlie later about why he chose not to inform him that his friend was in town. Even though there was no way Charlie could have predicted they'd end up at the same pub on the same night, George would have still liked some sort of warning.
"Hi." he responded flatly, not even bothering to introduce him to Lee.
But that didn't hinder his friend's outgoing behavior at all. Leaning back in his seat, Lee extended his arm behind George's back who was now sitting hunched over the bar counter, waiting impatiently for his and Alicia's drinks as he tapped his finger against the wood with his eyes trained on the bartender.
"Lee Jordan, professional Quidditch commentator and life long friend of this git. Pleasure to meet you."
Dhani let out a laugh and grasped his hand firmly, "Dhani Sarkar, Dragonologist and good friend of Charlie Weasley. It's great to meet you too."
At that same moment the bartender set Lee's drink in front of him, again proving that luck simply wasn't on George's side that night.
"Well, while I'd love to stay and chat, I've got a table full of lovely ladies waiting for me to keep them entertained. I'm sure I'll be seeing you around, Dhani." Lee smiled at him before hopping up from the seat and giving George a strong pat on the back as he walked by to return to their booth.
Instinctively Dhani's eyes followed Lee's path, seeing him join four women at the table. Though he couldn't see two of the brunette's faces, he did recognize Verity who was sitting next to a woman with long dark braids. Despite noticing that a curly head of blonde hair wasn't amongst the group, Dhani decided it was none of his business what George was up to. The two of them didn't really see eye to eye, through no fault of Dhani's of course, but he was smart enough to not pry into the man's business.
At least that was until the bartender placed two drinks in front of George. Knowing that he had bought a drink for one of the women at the table, Dhani simply couldn't bite his tongue anymore.
"How's Eloise?" he asked suddenly, before George had the chance to get up from the bar.
"She's fine."
"That's good. I was hoping to see her while I'm in town." Dhani said casually, keeping a careful eye on him to gauge his reaction.
George couldn't prevent himself from clenching his jaw slightly. Even though he and Eloise agreed that they were better off as friends while he figured his life out, that didn't stop him from feeling jealous over her new friendship with Maxwell. Dhani waltzing right back into the picture on top of it certainly wasn't helping make matters better for him.
"As far as I know she's leaving for France after the weekend, so I'm not sure she'll have time to see you." George said bluntly.
"I'll still send her an owl anyway just to see if she's free. Can't hurt, right?"
"I suppose." George muttered.
Just as if the night couldn't get any worse, over Dhani's shoulder George saw Alicia get up from the booth and make her way over to them. The woman who was probably just tired of waiting for her drink really didn't know the butterfly effect her meeting Dhani could potentially cause.
The horrible scenario was already playing out inside George's mind.
Alicia would casually introduce herself to Dhani, none the wiser to his past with Eloise. Dhani would send an owl to the blonde, asking to see her before she left to spend the holidays in France. The two of them would meet up, maybe to get coffee or dinner - it didn't really matter what. Eventually, the conversation would lead to George. Dhani would casually bring up running into him and Alicia at the Leaky Cauldron. Knowing George and Alicia were spending time together without her knowledge, even if it was purely platonic, would cause yet another rift between them. In the end, George would be left trying to desperately clean up another mess he'd caused, one he could have easily prevented by being honest with her in the first place.
Maybe he should have told her what his therapist said about reconnecting with people. Maybe he should have told her he was planning to spend more time with Alicia, as friends.
But there was no way of stopping any of this now, it was too late. Telling Dhani to not tell Eloise that he saw them together would be stupid. It would look incredibly suspicious even though he really wasn't doing anything bad. All he wanted to do was avoid any more unnecessary confrontation with her, especially if she was going to be France for several weeks with no way for them to resolve anything.
Then again, if he had nothing to feel guilty over, why was he so afraid of her finding out?
"What's taking so long?" Alicia asked George with a smirk before glancing over to Dhani.
"Dhani, this is Alicia." George introduced the woman without looking at either of them.
Knowing there was no escape from the situation now, he just needed to play it cool and maybe he could get out this situation unscathed.
"Nice to meet you Alicia, how do you two know each other?"
"Oh, George and I-" she started as she sat down on the other side of George in the seat Lee had left open.
"We were friends at Hogwarts, played Quidditch together." George interrupted quickly.
"I suppose that's the abridged version." she chuckled as she reached for the glass of wine in front of George.
After giving a skeptical look between the two of them, Dhani simply nodded and checked the time on his watch, "Merlin, is that really the time? I'd better get back to my sister's place or she'll kill me. It was great to meet you, Alicia. I'll see you around, George."
"Yeah, see you." George muttered as Alicia gave him a kind wave.
Dhani stood up and set some coins down on the counter to pay for his drink. Alicia watched as the man pulled his jacket on and pushed his was through the door and out into the snowy winter's night before taking a sip of her wine.
"I'm glad you remembered." she said as she pulled the glass away from her lips, swirling the dark burgundy liquid around.
"It's all you drank at Bill and Fleur's wedding. I miss the days when your favorite was butterbeer though."
"And why is that?"
"It's cheaper." he shrugged, "Tastes better too."
"Well, I can pay for this and no one is making you drink my drinks, so you can keep your judgement to yourself, sir." she quipped.
"Fair enough." he nodded before taking a sip of his firewhisky.
"So, who was that anyway?" Alicia asked.
"Hmm? Oh, Dhani's one of Charlie's friends." he shook his head with a shrug, hoping to make her believe them meeting truly didn't matter.
Alicia ran her finger idly over the rim of her wine glass as she gazed up as George who had been keeping his eyes trained forward, almost as if he couldn't even stomach looking at her.
"It didn't seem like you liked him very much." she observed, keeping a careful eye on his expression. But George wasn't going to give anything away to her if he could help it.
"It's a long story." he said vaguely.
"I've got time." she offered, leaning her elbow on the counter and resting her head in her hand.
But George merely shook his head and downed the rest of his drink. As much as his therapist advised him to open up to people he'd pushed away, he had very little interest in confiding in Alicia about why he disliked the man so much.
Truly Dhani was a nice guy, George knew that. But it was jealousy that fueled his dislike. Even though he knew that Eloise had no romantic feelings for the man, he also knew that Dhani's friendship with her was much less chaotic than theirs. If anything, he was jealous of the way they never had to worry about fighting over something any time they saw one another. Dhani was probably the guy Eloise went to for advice or for comfort whenever George did something to upset her, and he absolutely hated that.
Besides, whatever he and Alicia were right now wasn't friends and it wasn't lovers, confessing feelings and secrets to her felt like too much risk with very little reward.
Realizing George wasn't going to get into it, she decided to change the subject, "Why did you decide to ask Angie to get us all together?"
For a moment George considered waving down the bartender to order another drink. If he was going to have any extended conversation with Alicia it would certainly be much easier with a bit of a buzz, but he decided against it. Drunk George was a someone he didn't like at all.
"I just thought being together like old times would be good for me."
"You think this is like old times?" she asked, stifling a laugh.
George chuckled and looked down at the empty glass in his hands, "You sound like Verity."
A small laugh left Alicia's lips as she glanced over George's shoulder to see the blonde not so subtly sneaking glances at the two of them, almost as if she was making sure neither of them were going to cross any lines.
"She doesn't like me very much anymore." she replied, bringing her attention back to George.
"Can't really blame her, can you?"
"No, I guess not." she shrugged, picking up her wine glass and taking a larger sip than the last.
Finally George turned to look at the girl he once loved. Being friends with Alicia almost felt like an impossibility. The catastrophic end to their relationship almost felt irreparable, but for some reason he still wanted to try and he knew she did too.
"Look, I know they all sort of took my side when it ended, that mustn't have felt nice so I-"
"Sort of?" she interrupted with a laugh, "They all took your side, George. Even Angie."
"But I thought-"
"Angie stayed in touch with me, yeah, but you always meant more to her than I did."
"That's not true." he shook his head.
Why did he suddenly feel guilty? Their friends' reaction after the battle and the funeral were all a result of her choices, not his. He didn't ask anyone to take his side, he was just the victim of the situation so the choice seemed obvious to everyone around them.
But George knew exactly how it felt to be isolated, and it wasn't a good feeling at all. Even with everyone on his side, he still felt completely alone in the world. Maybe on the outside it seemed like George had won, he'd kept all of his friends after all, he had no guilt to carry for his choices in the matter. Yet, he still felt like the biggest loser of them all. Fred died and so did his relationship with Alicia.
"It is true, and you know it." she retorted with a sad sort of smile, "But I'm still glad you invited me out. It's nice to spend some time with everyone again, even if some of them aren't as pleased to see me."
It felt nice to share this moment with Alicia, but it also felt dangerous. If they were going to spend time together it was best to keep their one-on-one talks to a minimum, at least for now.
"Let's just get back to the table, yeah?" he suggested as he dug through his pockets, dropping enough coins on the counter to pay for both of their drinks.
After grabbing her glass, Alicia stood from the bar and followed him back to the booth where the rest of their friends were sitting. They both slid in next to Katie, not bothering to have her sit between them anymore.
"Ah, good timing! Verity was just telling us about her New Year's Eve par- ouch!" Lee started, but was abruptly cut off when Verity kicked him under the table.
With widened eyes, George looked between the two of them before he saw Verity subtly nudge her head in Alicia's direction while staring daggers right at Lee. Clearly she didn't want George's ex to know anything about the party she was planning.
"Oh, sod off Verity. Let Alicia come if she wants to." Katie said bluntly.
"That's not what I-" Verity shook her head looking towards the three on the opposite side of the table, desperately trying to form some sort of white lie to cover up the situation.
"It's okay, don't worry about it." Alicia assured everyone, awkwardly taking a sip of her wine and looking down at the worn wooden table between them.
George sent a glare right to Verity. All he wanted her to do was play nice with Alicia. They didn't need to be best friends, but the least she could do was not spurn the woman who had already been cast aside by their group, especially after they all agreed to make the effort to get together in the first place.
"A word, Ver?" George asked the blonde across from him.
With a huff, Verity slid out from the booth and walked around the corner where the two would be just out of earshot.
"Listen, George."
"No, you listen Verity," he said sternly, causing her to clamp her mouth shut immediately, "I'm not asking for much here. All I want is for you to be civil with Alicia."
"But I-"
"No, Verity. Stop acting like you're my mother or something. I'm a grown man and I can take care of myself. If I want to be friends with Alicia again, then let me. I don't need you making this more difficult than it already is."
"But she-"
"I know what you're going to say, and I frankly don't care. You're not being fair to her. If she wants to come over on New Year's Eve, she should be able to. They were her friends too at one point, it's not fair to keep them from her. Me trying to fix this situation is my choice to make, not yours. I don't care if you think it's a mistake, stop trying to control my life."
By now Verity's lips were pressed into a thin line as she waited for George to stop talking, her frustration with him was evident on her face. All she ever did was have George's best interest at heart and opening the door to Alicia seemed like a disaster waiting to happen. The two of them stood silently scowling at one another for a moment. When it seemed like George was finally going to let her get a word in, she let out a sigh.
"I was planning to invite Eloise."
"You know she's going back to France for the holidays, she won't come." he shook his head.
"She might. If she does, do you really want her to come to our party and see her there?"
"So then don't invite her."
That response didn't seem to please Verity at all as she crossed her arms over her chest. Despite her being more than a foot shorter than George, she didn't ever let his stature intimidate her - if anything her attitude struck more fear in him than he could ever unnerve her.
"Maybe you shouldn't invite Alicia."
George let out a sigh, "Lee already ruined that. She knows about the party now and not inviting her would cause more harm than good at this point."
"You know what your problem is George?"
"Oh, here we go." he groaned, rolling his eyes.
"Your priorities are all out of order."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Alicia ran away and you're still choosing her over Eloise. It doesn't make any sense!" she replied, raising her voice slightly
George quickly glanced over his shoulder to make sure no one was listening in on their conversation.
"I'm not choosing her over Eloise. That's not even what this is about." he seethed in a hushed whisper.
"You want to know the different between Eloise and Alicia?"
"Verity, can we not?"
But she ignored him, she needed to get this off her chest. Verity had been a witness to the back and forth battle that was George and Eloise's feelings for each other and she was frankly sick of it. Adding Alicia back into the mix was a horrible mistake, and Verity knew it. She didn't care how upset George got with her, or how controlling he thought she was. He had no clue how many of her thoughts she'd truly kept bottled in, but she was about to unleash all of them.
"Eloise was here, George. She wasn't a coward who ran away, she saw you at your worst and still stood by you. Time and time again she supported you, but how did you decide to repay her? With a one way ticket to Broken Heart Town. So sure, go ahead and invite Alicia to our party if that's really what you want to do. Keep putting effort into a failed relationship when the clear choice has been right in front of your face all along, it seems to be working out wonderfully for you so far."
Before George could even register everything Verity had said, she brushed past him, deliberately bumping his shoulder on her way back to their table. But after a few steps she suddenly stopped and spun back around to face him, "I'm still going to invite Eloise by the way, I'll even tell her to bring Maxwell."
Without even giving him a chance to respond, she again turned on her heel and left him standing alone. His eyes followed her back to the table, watching as she slid back into the booth next to Angelina. She turned to Lee and happily joined into their conversation as if she hadn't just dropped a massive truth bomb on him.
Things were supposed to go back to the way they were before. That's all George wanted.
Two and a half years ago everything in his life was so simple. The store was succeeding, his relationship with Alicia was going great, he and Fred were inventing new products. Everything was perfect, and desperately wanted it back.
Fighting for the past was a losing game, and deep down George knew that. But he was convinced that if he could somehow grasp on to something good from the old days, that's what would truly make him happy.
Maybe Verity was right. Holding out hope for a broken past to patch up his shattered heart wasn't healthy, but he didn't know what else to do. Without getting better he'd never be enough for Eloise, that much he was certain about. Everything he was doing was for her, right?
Going to therapy, letting her try to move on, being more open, not pushing people away anymore. It was all for Eloise.
But was reconciling with Alicia really the best way of healing, or was he simply trying to latch onto something familiar? It was as if his mind and heart were latching onto the one person that reminded him of how happy his life was before his world caved in. Even if she wasn't the same person anymore, it didn't matter. George would desperately hold onto the ghost of his past self if he could.
Somewhere in the back of his mind he knew that it was foolish, he was sabotaging himself. All he wanted was Alicia's friendship, just like when they were kids, maybe then he'd be happy. At least that's what he was trying to convince himself.
But the truth of the matter was that George didn't even know what his intentions really were anymore.