Belladonna

Angelina’s POV 

It was quite a late night in the common room but it wasn’t her fault she hadn’t had an opportunity to finish her charms homework. She’d been spending a majority of her free time giving feedback to Fred and George on their latest prank offerings. 

“ I think I’m going to just accept the dreadful mark I’m going to get on this essay,” Fred sighed. “ There’s absolutely no way I’m going to complete it tonight when I keep nodding off every five minutes.”

“Maybe you can charm your way into an extension,” George teased. 

“Ha ha very funny. You know Flitwick is just going to tell me I need to be better at my time management. He’s going to pile on the assignments so all I can think about is charms and not our upcoming business ventures,” Fred grumbled. “I’ll have more luck if I go to bed now and try to finish it during my free period before portions. What say you George, are you heading to bed?”

“I think I’ll stay up a bit more. I’m almost done with this last paragraph. I’ll be more helpful to you tomorrow if I finish mine tonight,” George suggested.

“Fine by me,” Fred turned to Angela, who was trying desperately to focus on putting the finishing touches on her essay. “Are you staying up too then?”

“Might as well stay up. My first class isn’t until 9:30 so I have an extra hour to sleep in,” Angelina shrugged. Fred simply shook his head and began to pack up. After a few minutes of gathering his things, George and Angelina were alone. Even though she hated working on assignments late into the night, the soothing sound of the fire popping and crackling was always a nice reward. She always loved the gentle hum of conversations in the full common room during the day, but it was on late nights with just the fire or rain she felt most at home. She was just re-reading her concluding paragraph to figure out the the last few sentences when she heard him,

“Have you ever been in love, Angelina?” The question caught her off guard. She had to be sure she heard him correctly. 

“What did you just say George, I was too focused on my essay to really hear you.”

“I was just curious if you’d ever been in love before,” George repeated. She noticed how he was spinning his wand in his hands, a thing he only did when he was nervous. Angelina thought about it and was grateful that she could disguise her blush  with the red glow of the fire. 

“That’s a bit personal isn’t it George?” Angelina sputtered. When he didn’t turn back to his essay, Angelina realized there was no way she was getting around this. “Well yes I have been in love before.” Angelina didn’t want to think of that feeling. She’d tried her best over the past few months to bottle that feeling and push it away, but now that it was being discussed semi-openly there was no way around it. She loved George and it was too painful to think that the person she loved more than anything was so close and so far at the same time. 

“What’s it like Angelina, when you’re in love with someone,” George wondered. He really wasn’t going to go back to his charms essay anytime soon was he? Not only was she tortured by this essay but she was going to be tortured by him too. 

“Well when you discover you’re in love it’s wonderful. All you can do is think about that other person and anything you can do to make them laugh or smile. You just want to be around them all the time. However, the longer it goes unaddressed the more painful it gets.” 

“How is it painful? Shouldn’t you be happy to have found someone that is a joy to be around?” George asked. How could he not understand what it was like to love someone with no idea if they loved you back? 

“You’re stuck in a limbo. You don’t know if they love you back or if they don’t see you as more than a friend. You certainly don’t want to say something to early because what if they look at you strangely and-”

“I see, that does sound horrible,”George mused. “Why would anyone want to be in love?” Angelina could see his point but at the same time she wanted to argue. Sure love was painful but didn’t the potential for love in return outweigh the pain? 

“Yes it can be painful but when you meet someone who loves you back, I’ve heard it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.” 

“You’ve heard?” George raised an eyebrow. “ Oh, you said you’ve  been in love, does that mean this guy broke your heart already?” Angelina remained silent. There was no way she could keep diving into this uncharted territory with George. What if she said too much and George never wanted to talk to her again. She couldn’t risk it. 

“What about you George, have you ever been in love?” Angelina questioned. George dropped his wand on the floor causing a few sparks to shoot out. 

“Been in love? No,” George answered. Angelina’s heart sank, of course he didn’t love her. They were friends and she should’ve known that. He was just overly friendly with everyone and she would just have to accept her role as his friend. “I’m in love.”

“Oh? You’re in love, well that’s…good news isn’t it?” Angelina murmured. 

“Well yes and no, I guess I’m in the agony phase but I’m pretty sure that’s where I’m going to stay,” George sighed and turned to Angelina. “You see Angelina, I love you.” Angelina was shocked. He was in love with her? That explained why he was asking her all these questions and wanted to stay up late to finish a charms essay. He wanted to spend more time with her, alone. 

“Oh George I -”Angelina started. 

“I know, I’m not the guy you were interested in and I understand you see me as just a friend. I respect it. I just thought, I’d like to tell you at least once.”

“George, I love you,” Angelina blurted out and George looked absolutely stunned. 

“Wait, you said you’ve been in love, I thought that you didn’t love anyone right now,” George exclaimed, moving closer to you. 

“Well, I guess you should’ve asked your question better,” Angelina giggled. “So now that we both know we love each other, what do you want to do now?”