Honey honey, how he thrills me
Honey honey nearly kills me
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯↠◦↞⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
There was a strange giddy-ness that came with the name, George Weasley. The warmth that came with the yellow jumper. The smile that came with a fuzzy memory.
Iris felt more like herself than she had ever before meeting George. Maybe it was the fact that he didn't push on questions about the war or that they shared equal pain and trauma or that he was simply just a great person.
After her evening with Fred and George at the shop, Iris started seeing a lot more of the twins. Since their shop wasn't too far, she could casually walk over when she was bored or just needed a laugh.
George ran out of jokes for her name rather quickly but that didn't stop him from sending her pickup lines through owls.
Audrey had returned from her holiday with Percy and she was rather happy with it. The girls decided it was time to catch up with each other and so they sat in the newly renovated Leaky Cauldron, sipping on hot chocolate and talking about everything.
"I'm not ready to go to work yet!" Audrey groaned.
"What is the progress with Hogwarts?"
"Well, since the school is huge, repairo simply won't do it. Since we have time till August to get ready for the school year, we should be done with the building by June and that's a task. That's why I have multiple shifts in a day!"
"That's awful! Must be weird looking at Hogwarts all broken"
"It is. I see places here and there and remember times when things were simpler and we were just school children"
"It feels like so long ago"
"It does..."
The two continued to converse about school, work and their families when they were interrupted by the Weasley twins.
"Hello Audrey!" They said in unison.
"Fred George! great to see you here!" She gave both of them a hug.
"And ofcourse, Iris!" The girl waved at them.
"What are you doing here?" Audrey asked.
"We are actually here for our dear Iris!" Fred replied and Iris' gaze snapped to him.
"You see," He sat down, "When she was with us last week," Fred motioned George to sit down, "We came up with an idea" The older twin had said it loud enough for his younger twin to hear. A lot of people in the pub stared at them for disrupting their peace but the two didn't care.
"Idea!? Last week?" Audrey turned to Iris, "you were hanging out with them!?"
Iris simply nodded trying not blush too hard.
"You sneaky lil thing!" Audrey gave her a knowing look and Iris rolled her eyes.
"So, here it is!" George reached to his pocket and took out an Ordinary quill.
"No offense George, but that's a quill and not a very good quality one either" Audrey pointed out.
"It's not just a quill!" Fred scoffed.
"This is a special quill! For Iris!"
Iris looked at the boys in confusion.
"This quill will write down your thoughts on its own! So you don't need to write yourself on paper! Now you must be wondering how is it going to know to write your thoughts and not someone else's? That's where Ollivander comes in! You can associate this quill with your wand with a simple charm and it will only write down your thoughts. You don't have to hold it or help it." Fred explained.
"Only drawback is that it writes everything. Every single thing you think so it's a little annoying at times when you want to lie to a person but we are working on it" George added. He proceeded to hand her a parchment and the quill, "Tap your wand on it thrice"
Iris followed his instructions and on the third tap, the quill floated off the table like it had a mind of its own. It immediately detected the parchment in front of it and started writing Iris' thoughts.
"Wow! This is amazing! I can't believe you actually did this!" Fred and Audrey leaned over it and read it out loud, "but what if I run out of paper?"
"Oh yes. take this. This paper is charmed to clear itself once it's full" Fred handed it to her.
Iris was feeling tears prick her eyes. She didn't have a lot of friends apart from Audrey and her sister who would go to any lengths for her. What Fred and George had done meant a lot to her and she couldn't be thankful enough.
They couldn't get her voice back but they gave her an outlet to be more comfortable around people. It was one of the sweetest gesture someone had done for her.
Overwhelmed with emotions, the girl stood up and threw her arms around George, tightly pulling him into a hug.
She then looked over to Fred and signaled for him to join the hug.
"Thank you!" Audrey read out from the paper, "It means a lot to me"
Iris was sewing a dress for the shop, her wand placed between her teeth and her mind focusing on the stitch. There was a sudden knock on the door that made the girl jump, resulting in the wrong stitch. She angrily stood up and burst the door open to see George Weasley standing in front of her.
Her heart seemed to have melted at the sight of the boy because her anger had died down almost instantly. Motioning for him to come in, the girl quickly undid the small flaw and corrected it before joining the redhead who sat on her sofa.
"What are you doing?" He asked. Iris held up the dress to show it to him.
"You made it?" And she nodded. "Pretty impressive"
"Thank you"
"Now before you get angry with me.." George started and Iris narrowed her eyes at him, "I want you to listen to the whole thing."
The girl walked up to him, her wand still between her teeth. "You can not get angry until I'm finished" He seemed genuinely scared of an outburst from the girl. "And I'm taking your wand" He reaches out and pulled the wand out from between her teeth and made a face at her, "this is disgusting"
Iris rolled her eyes and waved her hand, telling him to tell her what he was going to.
"Promise me first."
The quill lifted from her table and wrote down on her parchment, "fine. I promise"
"Good. We are going to St. Mungo's, not the hospital part but to the classes they hold to learn sign language which you have completely abandoned."
"No! That's absolute bullshit. I'm not going. No way"
"Not for you! For me. I want to learn sign. I want to do this and I will only do it with you"
The quill seemed to pause writing anything for a second and George grew suspicious. Then it furiously attacked the parchment as it wrote down, "just because you took my wand away doesn't mean I can't attack you with my bare hands, George Weasley!!"
"Please. I need this and I know you do too" Was he really doing it for himself or was he doing it for her?
"I can't go back there"
"I don't understand, why not?"
"Because when you lose your voice with no explainable reason you become their lab rat. I spent weeks in that hospital under random spells and potions because they couldn't explain what happened to me and it was awful. It was beyond awful" tears rolled down her eyes as she put her face in her hands. George didn't know what to say. The truth was, despite knowing Iris for a few months, he didn't know her at all. "Look, I don't care for sign language. I'm perfectly fine here like this. You should go if you really want to"
"I'm not going if you're not going. You know what? Who needs to go to St. Mungo's? We'll do it ourselves right here" George smirked and Iris looked at him, puzzled.
"We are going to get every muggle book ever and learn it ourselves. Every weekend"
The reason George wanted Iris to learn sign was because Adeliene has asked him to convince her. The reason George agreed to it was because he wanted to spend more time with her and though it was a selfish reason, it benefit Iris a lot.
Because of George, Iris was learning sign language much faster and with much more interest. He always seemed to make jokes and keep it fun. He didn't push her to keep up with the others and the two always went for ice cream later.
Adeliene was much happier because her sister was making an effort and finally coming to terms with her past.
Fred was happy because George was socializing with someone outside the family more freely than normal. He was being himself which was a rare sight to see since May 2nd.
George was happy. He was content with Iris and completely falling for the girl. She was so kind and amazing. And despite not knowing a lot about her, George didn't feel the need to ask her questions. The two were okay with not knowing each other's past, all they needed was the present.
As Valentine's Day approaches, Fred nudged his brother to ask Iris out on a date. He thought it would be the perfect idea since the two were clearly interested in each other.
And so, a very nervous George asked Iris out.
"So..um..February! Great month!" He said and received a weird look from Iris.
"All months are great! You shouldn't discriminate!"
She joked.
"Yes but February is special"
"And why is that?" She knew exactly why.
"Because on the fourteenth, you and I are going on a date"
"Really!? And where are we going?" A smile spread across her face.
"Anywhere you want"
"Then, I know a place. Maybe I'll take you out on a date instead of the other way round"
"Sounds good to me! Pick up at 6!" George winked at her and she laughed.
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯↠◦↞⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯