Rumour Has It - George Weasley
A/N: I think this may be my longest imagine yet, but lord can I go on about those Weasley boys.
Warnings: None
Pairing: George Weasley x Ravenclaw!Reader
Word Count: 2,887
George Weasley was silently debating what way he’d be irritating Snape this potions lesson when he felt it. Someone was watching him. He had a good idea who it was too. See, you thought he was oblivious to the fact that you couldn’t take your eyes off him if he was anywhere in the general vicinity but Fred had pointed it out to him a couple of weeks ago and he was now acutely aware each time your gaze lingered on him. What he couldn’t work out was why you only stared, but not once had you spoken to him.
Across the room, you were absent-mindedly stirring your potion while you admired him. He was gorgeous, that was true, but there was something more that intrigued you. You’d always been aware of the Weasley twins, it was impossible not to be. They were loud and brash and ridiculously entertaining, but people wrote them off as if that was all there was to them; pranks and back chat. The immediate shock value of their iconic pranks was what caught your attention, same as everyone else, but what held was the sheer ingenuity of it. That was what people missed, the genuine intelligence that these boys held that allowed them to create these products of theirs from scratch. They were probably some the smartest student Hogwarts had ever had and people wrote that off because of how they chose to utilise it.
That idle curiosity had grown into something more over the time that you’d watched them, you’d begun to notice the little differences between them. You were sure now you were one of only a handful of student who could tell them apart, not that they’d have any idea. Then suddenly it was George you were watching, rather than both of them. He was quieter, though only by a hair, than Fred. He was more inclined to think before acting, seemed gentler and more conscious of people’s feelings than his twin. It was endearing. It was also infuriating how nervous this made you around him, you weren’t a nervous person by nature but whenever you thought of actually speaking to him, you flooded with heat and found it damn near impossible to form coherent thoughts. How would you explain the fact that you knew so much about him without sounding like you needed to be committed?
Your attention was refocused as the subject of your gaze shifted to turn around and your heart stuttered in your chest as his gaze landed on yours. The only thing you could manage was to send him a soft smile, which he responded to with cheeky wink and grin of his own. Flushing red, you tore your gaze away to add porcupine quills to your potion. Hands shaking, you added several more than the recipe called for and immediately there was a loud bang and thick purple smoke was sent billowing from your cauldron.
“What is going on over here?”
Snape’s voice sent your heart plummeting as he appeared through the smoke like a demon, faced twisted with fury. The smoke dissipated with a single wave of his wand, and his eyes landed on you.
“10 points from Ravenclaw for general idiocy and,” he looked down at the blackened mark left by your disintegrated cauldron with disgust, “detention, I think. This evening after dinner”
“Seems a bit unfair, sir,” George was suddenly speaking up in your defence, “she clearly didn’t do it on purpose!”
“Since you feel so strongly about it Weasley, you can join her for detention this evening.” He turned back to you, “You are excused, go and get cleaned up, we certainly won’t be needing you in this class today.”
George was simmering with annoyance as you left the room, eyes downcast. Snape was such a bully. If that had been a Slytherin, he’d have just cleared up the mess and ignored it. He also couldn’t help but feel a little guilty, he’d obviously had something to do with it. Well, he thought, he’d just have to use tonight’s little detention to apologise. He needed to ask one thing though, and he turned to the Ravenclaw girl beside him,
“Hey, you’re friends with Y/N, right?”
“I’ll have you know I’m her best friend Weasley, why?”
“She always seems to be looking at me, but she never talks to me. Do you have any idea why?”
Your friend’s face lit up as she laughed quietly. You’d kill her for this, but she was sick of watching you mooning over George from afar. She knew you were the sort of person he’d enjoy spending time with if he got the chance, and you definitely deserved to be happy, so she thought she’d give things a nudge in the right direction.
“So you finally noticed, did you? Okay, I’m trusting you to handle this nicely, Weasley, because if you hurt her then I will make Snape look like the best thing that ever happened to you. She likes you, but you make her nervous so she won’t come and speak to you.”
He said nothing more, turning back to his cauldron with a soft smile.
“Mate, you realise that ever since you noticed her staring at you, you’ve been just as bad?” Fred’s voice rang in his head, “You’re constantly trying to see if she’s looking at you, and when she’s not staring at you, you’re staring at her. For the sake of my ever dwindling sanity, just ask the girl out!”
He might be being a tad biased, but he’d always thought his brother gave excellent advice.
———————————————————————————————————–
You’d spent the hours since your potions fiasco psyching yourself up for your detention. This would be the first time you ever spoke to him and you were determined to make some sort of normal conversation with the redhead. Even if you never plucked up the courage again, you would at least be comfortable in the knowledge that he didn’t have this everlasting image of you as a bumbling moron. There would be no repeat of the earlier events, which you had immediately decided would be an isolated incident. As your friends had reminded you over pumpkin juice in The Great Hall, you were an intelligent and confident young woman and you’d be damned if you let some boy turn you into a stammering mess, even if that boy was George Weasley.
When you arrived in the dungeons, you saw that George was already there waiting, and he flashed you a welcoming smile, which you returned with a confidence that made his eyebrows shoot into his flaming hairline. Snape barely glanced up from his paperwork before he directed you down the hall to clean and organise the store room, alphabetically. Git.
The air in the store cupboard was heavy and stale, but you ignored it as you started rearranging bottles containing the most obscure ingredients, dusting shelves as you went. You worked silently for a few minutes before you became aware of two things. One; George was not helping, he was leaning in the doorway and two; he was watching you with a sly smile. You steeled your resolve not to melt under his gaze and turned to meet his eyes with a questioning look.
“Rumour has it,” he began, “I make you nervous.”
To his mild surprise, rather than flushing and stammering, you let out a light laugh. As he always did when he heard your laugh, he thought it was one of the most wonderful sounds in existence.
“I see my best friend has been running her mouth again. I should have expected as much, Hannah never could keep a secret. I’ll admit, there’s more than an element of truth in that statement but I’ve decided on a fake it until you make it sort of approach where you’re concerned.”
“Is that so? In that case, you reckon you could ‘fake it’ enough to tell me why you’re always staring at me?”
“Well, I imagine you’ve got a pretty sound theory on that already. While you’re on the right track, it’s not entirely as you might believe.” You thought you saw the slightest hint of disappointment flash behind his eyes. “I’m afraid you’ll think I’m odd if I tell you.”
The laughter on his face was back in an instant, “You’re pretty much running that risk either way at this point.”
You couldn’t help it, your laughter joined his and seemed to ring all the louder in the confines of your temporary prison.
“Fair enough. It’s like this, right, I tend to be quite observant and I like watching the people around me and deducing things about them based on their behaviour. You and your brother are so often the centre of attention that naturally I noticed you. It’s just that I didn’t stop noticing after every one else had.”
George finally stepped into the room, straightening with curiosity.
“And what exactly did you notice?”
“A lot of things, actually, mostly about you. I noticed that you always seem to follow Fred’s lead, but not in a way that he or anybody else even realises. It’s in the way that you’re slightly more laid back than he is, in the way that you always seem to let him have the last word and the way that you always let him be slightly more centre of attention. And I do mean let, because it’s not that he’s superior in any way, it’s that you know he enjoys the reaction he gets and it’s not that you don’t enjoy it, because I can see how much you love making people laugh, but it’s more important to you that he’s happy.”
He was closer still now, and looking at you as if it was the first time he’d really seen you but you were in full swing and barely even noticed.
“I know you like to joke about it but there’s a small part of you that hates the fact the no one seems to be able to tell the two of you apart. I get that, I’d find it more odd if you didn’t feel that way. You guys are separate people and it must be annoying to never be seen as anything other than a package deal. I also know that it annoys you, both of you, when people think there’s nothing more to you than childish pranks and it pisses you off that they dismiss your dream to open your own shop. Which it should, by the way. That’s the one that really pisses me off too because the amount of work and skill it takes to come up with the stuff f you do? It’s insane, it’s genius! None of them seem to realise that if you wanted to, you could wipe the floor with them in your exams and - Why are you looking at me like that?”
You’d only just registered the look of awe on the face of the boy in front of you. For that matter, when did he get so close? He was only inches away now and - was it suddenly hot in here? His kiss shouldn’t have surprised you but you didn’t think you could have ever prepared for it anyway. It wasn’t soft or slow, he kissed you deeply, as if you were the very thing that anchored him to this Earth and he would float off into the abyss if he wasn’t touching you. His tongue was twisting around yours, flooding your veins with fire and sending you weak, melting into him. It was his strong arms around your waist that kept you upright, your arms seeking purchase around his neck. Instinctively, your hands slid up the back of his neck to sink into his flaming locks. As he pulled you flush against him, you gave his hair a gentle tug and you felt his chest rumble against yours as he made a noise that sent your head spinning.
“WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!”
Well, damn. You flushed the colour of George’s hair as he leapt away from you as though he’d been scorched. You’d lost all concept of time and, apparently, location to that kiss. You couldn’t bring yourself to regret it, not even as you shrivelled under the deadly glare of the Potions Master. Although, you thought, now probably isn’t the time to point that out. Snape spluttered furiously for a few moments before gaining the composure to force out words.
“You will each lose 100 house points and serve detention for the rest of the term. Separately.” It took every ounce of strength and common sense you possessed not to laugh as he stressed the last word obnoxiously. “Get out of my sight!”
You didn’t look at George until you’d cleared the dungeons. When you locked eyes, you both sank against the corridor walls laughed until you were breathless and tearful. Once you’d both calmed down, George offered you his hand and hoisted you up from the ground, his arm settling comfortably over your shoulder as he moved you in the direction of your common room. His tone was soft when he eventually spoke,
“Not that it wasn’t absolutely outstanding, but I feel the need to let you know that wasn’t the way I planned on that going.”
“There was a plan? A plan about me?”
The surprise in your tone had him looking down at you fondly, “Maybe you’re not as observant as you like to think. Not when it comes to yourself anyway. I’ve known for weeks that you were watching me, Fred pointed it out. He then pointed out that I’d become just as bad when it came to watching you. I was intending to use this evening’s detention as a chance to ask you if you’d like to go out with me some time, but then you were saying all these things that no one else knows about me and I guess my impulsive nature got the best of me.” You laughed at that, impulsive he most certainly was. His serious tone returned, “I’m obviously not as good at it as you are, but I’d like the chance to get to know all those little things about you as well.”
“I think that can be arranged, Mr Weasley.”
You couldn’t help the quick flash of disappointment when you reached the tower to your common room, but it faded with the realisation that there would be more time for you and George. After he kissed you softly goodnight, you headed up to your dorm with heavy eyes and a light heart.
———————————————————————————————————–
There was confused murmuring from both Gryffindors and Ravenclaws alike the next morning as the passed by the four giant hourglasses in the Entrance Hall on the way to breakfast. Could it be right that both houses had lost so many points in the space of one night?
You were resolute in your mission to avoid looking up at the hourglasses as you hustled past the other students in what you hoped was complete anonymity. Although, surely no one could know it was you who lost so many house points. As you reached the perceived safety of your table in The Great Hall, you became aware that your entire group of friends was more focused on your arrival than was strictly normal. Of course it was Hannah who spoke, she was your best friend after all.
“There’s this rumour that you lost 100 house points after Snape caught you snogging George Weasley in the store room last night. Would you care to confirm or deny?”
A surreptitious glance over your shoulder told you that George appeared to be having a very similar encounter across the room. Totally worth it.
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