This is just an idea that has been floating in my head for a little too long. It begins at the glorious departure of the Weasley twins OoTP, and then blasts into the future. Please let me know what you think, cause if it doesn't seem too good I'm going to scrap it. Thanks!
Oh and as for a disclaimer: I only own the story idea.
Remember When
Chapter 1
15 minutes
Alicia Spinnet paced nervously back and forth across her dorm. She was almost certain she was going to be sick but she prayed to keep control of her stomach till after he left. Which by then could be a mixture of nausea and depression depending on which way things went. Hope was about the only thing she had left. Mostly because everything she had ever done to try and express her heart backfired. She hoped that this important meeting he asked her to was to profess his love for her.
What else could it be?
For Merlins sake they were together 20 of the 24 hours in a day. That had to mean something to him. She was also pretty sure that some of his 'accidental' touches weren't so accidental. This had to be it, it just had to be.
12 minutes
He'd be arriving in 12 minutes.
When he had pulled her aside after Herbology it was evident that whatever he needed to talk to her about was serious, and on the plus side he looked nervous too.
"Hey Leesh, wait up a second."
"Yeah?"
" You busy after Ancient Runes today?"
" I'm supposed to go over some new plays with Angie but I can skip if you need me."
"I need you."
"What!"
" I mean, well, I need to talk to you…it's important."
"Everything ok?"
" Yeah, uh, fine I just need to tell you something. I'll meet you up in your dorm about 15 minutes after class then?"
"Uh ok."
" I'm gonna go now."
" Me too."
"Bye."
"See ya later."
It was perhaps the most awkward conversation they had ever shared. SO naturally it meant one thing.
" He's in love with me." Alicia sighed and pulled her dark brown hair out of her face.
9 minutes
He'd be in her room in 9...
The knock on the door practically gave her a heart attack. Without much thought as to what she was doing Alicia sprang across the room and sat seductively on her bed. Hell if this didn't woo him then the boy was brain dead.
"Come in." She sang out in the most sultry voice she could muster.
The door kicked open with a loud bang. "Thanks for ditching out on me this afternoon. Geez and you couldn't even open the door for me?" Angelina moved across the room towards her bed with a large stack of books in her arms. "I waited in the library by myself Lici….the library! It was awful! I was by myself with a bunch of know-it-all wankers. Plus Umbridge came around and demanded I give her a full fledged description on why I was there, how long I was staying, what books I was taking out…blah blah blah. I'm surprised she didn't ask for my favorite color and my ultimate turn on." She dropped the books down on her bed.
"Didn't Katie tell you I had something to do? I told her to go find you for me." She bit nervously on her lower lip.
8 minutes
" I havent seen Katie since breakfast this morning." Angelina shrugged before kicking off her shoes.
"No!"
"No what?" She flopped down onto her bed and opened up one of the large books she had brought back with her. "oohh we should try this move next practice."
"Angelina you can't stay."
" Lici I'm pretty sure you are off your rocker today." She shook her head as she flipped another page of the book.
"Angelina you really really cant stay." Alicia motioned towards the door frantically.
Not bothering to pay much attention to her friend, Angelina reached into the pocket of her robe and pulled out a licorice wand. "Why…got a hot date or something?" She chuckled slightly and ripped off a bit of the wand. "Huh?" Bringing her eyes up to meet Alicia's she immediately sprang from her bed. " For the love of Merlin you do!" Racing across the room she grabbed Alicia by the shoulders. "Who? Tell me now!"
"Angie please go before he gets here."
7 minutes
"Just tell me …wait he's coming here? So it's a Gryffindor?"
"Angelina!"
"Come on Leesh this is monumental news! I mean you've been so obsessed with George for like a gazillion millenniums that its amazing you actually decided to go out with someone else…"
Alicia scuffed her foot against the floor. "I never said it was someone else."
Angelina's eyes went wide " No way…"
"What?" The smirk on Alicia's face was priceless.
"You've been snogging George."
"What! No… I mean I wish, but no…" She chuckled. " Actually it could be happening a lot sooner then I think."
"You dirty fox you finally told him?"
" Not exactly," Alicia sighed and reached for the hairbrush that was out on the night table. " I mean I'm finally gonna fess up when he comes here but he was the one who wanted to tell me something important. "
"Oh Lici!" Angelina reached out and wrapped her arms around her friend. " I am so excited for you!"
5 minutes
"Thanks, now can you please leave?" She pushed the largest smile on her lips and hoped Angelina would take the hint and beat it.
"Relax Alicia you know how George and Fred operate. If he said he'd be here in ten minutes it will most likely be twenty. So just add another ten minutes and take a deep breath."
"Come on Angie! I always hold back the girls from coming up here when you are spending your alone time with Fred."
She sneered. "Fred and I don't have alone time!"
"Oh right, you just padlock yourselves up here and discuss the life cycle of mandrakes." Alicia dodged a flying stuffed animal. " Hey that was almost my head!."
"Shut up." Grabbing the brush from Alicia's hand she pushed her down and began brushing the girls long hair. "
"Angie I'm nervous…." Her heart skipped a beat as she stared at the door. " I've been waiting for the right time to tell George how I felt since fourth year."
"Yeah I know. Remember I've slept in the same room with you for years. Your dreams are revolting….." Throwing her free arm over her forehead Angelina pitched her voice in an obnoxious dramatic pitch. " Oh George, I love you so much. Your body is so divine, and your soft red hair draws me to you with each waking moment. All I ever wanted was to hold you in my arms and call you my own…."
"Alicia?" Both girls snapped their heads up towards the door. " You in there?"
"Oh! Uh, er, give me a minute…" She jumped from the bed and grabbed the brush from Angelina. Her voice dropped to the lowest whisper possible" I thought you said add another ten minutes!" She waved the brush frighteningly close to Angelina's face .
"So I was slightly off. You think he heard me?" She hissed back, grabbing her shoes and heading towards the door.
"What are you doing?" Alicia grabbed her by the arm and yanked her back.
"Alicia are you ok in there?" George's voice carried through the door.
"Peachy, be right there…" Bringing her mouth next to Angelina's ear she ushered her towards the bathroom. " You can't go out into the hall. It will make things awkward. He'll think your gonna stop and listen at the door so he wont tell me what it is he needs to tell me."
"Alicia that's absurd! If George sees me coming out of here I'm pretty sure it will look normal seeing as I live in this room too! Ouch don't squeeze my arm so hard."
"I know how George feels about stuff like this and if he sees you out in the hall he's gonna think your spying on us and then he wont tell me!"
"All right, all right, so what do you suggest I do?"
"Hide in the bathroom." Alicia began pushing Angelina towards the bathroom door.
"What are you crazy! What if George has to use the bathroom?" Angelina put her hands up against the frame of the door in hopes that her leverage would stop Alicia's pushing.
"Hide in the shower behind the curtain."
"That's disgusting. I'd rather die then have to go through that…"
"Ok ok if he needs to use the bathroom I'll think up some excuse. Just hide in there please!"
" You owe me so much for this asinine idea of yours. I want you to know I- " But Alicia closed the door on her before she could finish the sentence.
Taking a much needed breath Alicia smoothed down her hair and headed for the door. This was finally it. She was going to finally tell George, her best friend, that she was in love with him.
Turning the doorknob she swung the door opened and tried to gather the courage to speak. Though the only thing she could manage to get out was rather pathetic .
" Hey"
"Uh, hey. Are you ok? Sounded like you were at war with something in here." George let himself into the room and took a quick look around. " Fighting with your teddy again?" He picked up the stuffed animal Angelina had thrown at her earlier.
"Heh, yeah." God she hated herself. " So…what did you need to talk about?" Getting right to the point was way easier then letting her suffer through mindless chit chat.
"You know you ought to get rid of some of these " He tossed the teddy back into the pile of other stuffed animals that sat on her bed. "your gonna come off sorta sissy."
"Sissy!" She folded her arms across her chest. "My teddy bears make me look sissy?"
"Well to be frank…yes."
"I'll show you sissy." With all of her might she took off and tackled him to her bed. Pinning him beneath her she stared down with a satisfied smile. " That's one for sissy me and none for oh so macho you."
"Alicia….you're crushing me…." He let out a breath and tried to move from beneath her.
"Calling me fat?"
"No it's just that your crushing my spleen." He bucked up and knocked her back. "Geez, what have you been eating Spinnet? Lead?"
"Your hilarious."
"I know, I know." He cleared his throat, before pulling her pillow from the head of her bed and tucking it under his chin. " So…"
"So what is it that you needed to talk about?" She was pretty sure her heart had just skipped across the Pacific ocean. Her hands were balled up as the sweat began to form. She sure hoped he didn't grasp her hands or anything.
"Leesh, its really not that easy to come right out and say." He ran his hand tentatively through his hair. " There's sort of a story that goes a long with it…did you hear that"
"Hear what?" She flickered her gaze towards the bathroom door.
"Eh, never mind. Point is that I can't really just come right out and say this. Its rather important and I really need to lay it all out on the table first."
"Uh huh, right, lay it out, go on then…" Could he torture her any longer?
" Alicia, we have certainly been through a lot of things together. I mean if I hadn't hexed you back in first year you would have never slipped that potion in my juice at breakfast and then we'd probably not be the closest of chums like we are now. "
" Yeah well you deserved it after that gross saliva hex. I could barely swallow fast enough before more filled my mouth. "She shuttered. It had taken nearly three hours before the hex wore off, and Prof. McGonagall made her lean over a bucket that entire time. She was surprised she didn't turn into a hunchback after that episode.
"But you looked so cute with that dribble pouring out of your piehole. Hey it was also the only way we could keep you quiet for a couple of hours. You and Angelina would barely shut up in the common room."
"And what did it matter if we were talking? You and Fred are louder then the entire Gryffindor house."
"Yeah but we were writing up some very serious pranks, and you kept breaking our concentration. "
"George!"
"What?"
"The important thing you needed to tell me…" She rolled her hand in front of his face as if to urge him onward.
"Oh right." He sighed. " I was just about to get to that…."
" Alicia sweetie take a deep breath." Angelina rubbed between Alicia's shoulder blades. " You are going to make yourself sick if you keep this up."
" Tat's sy or ou to ay…"
"Lici I cant hear you. Your face is pushed so far down into that pillow I fear you may swallow it."
"Tat's sy or ou to ay…"
As much as Angelina felt sorry for her friend, suffering through this language barrier was beginning to take a toll on her nerves.
"HONEY I CAN"T HEAR YOU WHEN YOUR FACE IS PUSHED IN THE PILLOW" Yeah, she could be brutally honest.
"Sorry." Alicia picked her body up and flopped onto her side. " I just cant believe he said those things to me. After all the time I have wasted thinking about this moment….it all just crashed down in less then ten minutes." Wiping the tears from her eyes she sighed.
"Leesh it's not worth it. He's not worth it. Don't waste your tears on a prat."
"That's easy for you to say, Fred and you have a relationship that can surpass this…George and I…" Her eyes flickered towards the picture on her night table. " We never had that kind of relationship."
"Honey he's doing this cause he's a good friend. He's doing this to help Harry." Angelina ran her fingers through her hair.
"But why did he have to say those things? Why did he have to be so cruel?"
That was one question Angelina couldn't answer. Actually she was surprised at the course words George had said to Alicia only moments ago. Her guess would have been a million years if someone had asked her if George had a cruel bone in his body. Now, well now she'd have to bite her tongue if someone asked that.
"Alicia, I cant tell you what George was thinking, but what I do know about him is how much he cares for you. He didn't want you waiting around for him, or wasting your talent by not pursuing your dreams. This was the only way he could keep you from letting your feelings make the wrong choices. He doesn't want you sticking around here just so you can be with him…he wants you to go on and have bigger and better things. " She shrugged. "Well at least that was the impression I got."
"But wont you miss Fred too? I mean he didn't even tell you what they were planning to do."
" Fred and I have our own warped agenda, and if things work out, well they will work out. He knows how I feel, and I know how he feels and that all that really matters Alicia. Though I will kill him if he does this and leaves Quidditch in a hole. " But Alicia's slumped shoulders only told Angelina that she wasn't convinced. "Lici, how was he looking at you when he said those things. Did it seem like he meant it? Did you really believe that he felt the way he said he did?"
That's when it hit her. He had said those things to keep her from staying behind for him. He had said it because he felt he couldn't offer her the world he thought she deserved. She was an idiot. Angelina was right after all.
"Oh god, what time is it?"
"Why?"
"He needs to know I understand. I need to see him before he goes. If he leaves without thinking I know…. If I cant tell him…" And with that Alicia jumped from her bed and flew through the door.
She had time. She just had to have time to get there. He had only left minutes ago and unless Fred had been waiting outside the door he would still be around. But when she reached the empty common room her heart sunk. Time was running out.
"Alicia wait up." She heard Angelina's voice behind her as she sailed through the portrait and out into the hall.
Where the hell could he be?
"Come on Terrence, hurry up. It's a riot. You should see Umbridge's face!" A tiny boy and his friend breezed by her and began taking the nearest staircase downstairs.
"Well that's convenient." And she followed.
The entrance hall was in an uproar when Alicia finally made it. What she had missed she could only imagine, but her only focus was the two figures that loomed above the entire crowd.
"Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they're going to use our products to get rid of this old bat." George yelled from above the crowd.
Alicia felt her heart clench as she frantically waved her arms in the arm. All she needed to do was get his attention for a brief second and he'd know how she felt. Then everything would be ok. Wouldn't it?
"Give her hell from us, Peeves." Fred added before turning his broom around.
"George! Please look at me! George!" But the crowd had sprang into more cheers and her words were lost behind the clapping.
George too, began to turn his broom towards the door, though his eyes wandered slowly through the crowd. As if he knew exactly where to look they locked briefly with a pair of hazel ones, and even though he couldn't hear her at all he could distinctly read 'I love you' spill from her lips before he rode off into the sunset without turning back.