Upside Down and Inside Out

"You said you were staying home today, Mummy," Brianna announced as she walked into Hermione's bedroom. She pouted, sticking her bottom lip out so far Hermione was afraid she'd eventually trip on it. "You promised that you'd take me to Diagon Alley."

"Oh, we're still going to Diagon Alley, honey," Hermione assured Brianna. "We're going to meet an old friend of mine. You might remember George, Ron's older brother?"

"The joke buddy?" Brianna asked. "Fred's twin?"

Hermione nodded with a smile. "Yes, that's him. He moved to America last year, if you remember." Hermione watched as Brianna's face screwed up in concentration. "Maybe you don't remember. Anyway, he moved back here, and we're meeting him at the ice cream parlor."

"Yay! Ice cream!" Brianna began to hop around like a bunny rabbit.

Hermione watched with amused interest before finally turning back to her closet. She had to find something to wear. Black robes just would not suffice for a - meeting? - with George Weasley. There you go, Hermione, Hermione scolded herself, getting all excited over a guy. He's just George, for Heaven's sake. And you can't do that to Brianna. Hermione quickly assured herself that she and George were, and never would be, nothing more than friends.

"What do you think about this, Brianna?" Hermione pulled a pair of Muggle jeans and a light blue Muggle shirt from her closet.

"Pretty!" Brianna concluded.

"What about this?" Hermione held up a purple long-sleeved Muggle shirt and very ugly green Muggle jeans.

"Pretty!"

Hermione sighed. "Why am I even asking a five-year-old for fashion advice?" she asked, eyeing the purple stretch pants and dark blue tie-dye shirt Brianna was wearing. ("I got dressed all by myself!" Brianna had exclaimed. When Hermione tried to convince her to change, Brianna threw a fit, so Hermione left her alone. She would convince her to change before they left for Florean Fortescue's.)

"I dunno," Brianna said.

Hermione looked over at the five-year-old. "Brianna, get out of my makeup!" she exclaimed, seeing the girl going through the large makeup bag sitting on her vanity. After seeing Brianna quickly tug her hands out of the bag, Hermione turned back to her closet. She was deciding between a white tank top and a black V-neck shirt when she heard a loud crash sound behind her.

Hermione whirled around. "Brianna!" she scolded.

Brianna was lying in the floor, surrounded by makeup and fingernail polishes of all colors. A bright pink lipstick was in her hand, and lines of it were on her face from her attempts to put it on. Some loose powder was scattered on the carpet, and a bottle of foundation was leaking the liquid substance. Hermione placed a hand to her forehead and let the shirts drop to the floor.

"Did I not tell you to get out of my makeup?" Hermione asked, raising her eyebrows.

Brianna looked at her mother with wide, innocent eyes. "I just wanted pink lips, Mummy," Brianna said, "and I didn't make a mess."

Hermione placed her hands on her hips. "Oh, you didn't? Then what's that on the floor? Did the makeup just explode out of the bag?"

"Do I still get ice cream?" Brianna looked ready to cry at the prospect of not getting any ice cream. The little girl looked absolutely pathetic that Hermione began to laugh.

"Of course you do, sweetie," Hermione said, "but only because George is buying it." She grinned to herself. "But right now you get to go to your room and put on that nice little yellow sundress I laid out on your bed, all right? We want George to see the nice little lady that you are instead of looking like an escapee from a seventies thrift shop, right?"

Brianna nodded and stood up from the floor, letting the lipstick tube drop from her hand as she did so.

"All right. You go get dressed and come back in here after you're finished," Hermione instructed.

Brianna listened obediently and quickly ran from the room. With a sigh, Hermione found her wand and cleaned up the mess in her floor. After putting her makeup back in the bag, she finally decided to just dress in a pair of fitted black robes. George probably wouldn't be wearing Muggle clothes, anyway, and she didn't need to stand out. That was her reasoning, anyway.

{}

"Over here, Hermione!"

Hermione looked up and smiled the second George Weasley was in her line of sight. "Come on, Bri," Hermione said, reaching for her daughter's hand as she tugged her toward the table George was seated at.

"Hullo, George." Hermione greeted him with a large smile as she placed her pocketbook on the table and helped Brianna into a chair.

"Is this little Brianna?" George asked in a disbelieving voice. "The same little Brianna?"

Brianna grinned. "I'm a big girl now!" she exclaimed giddily.

"That you are." George smiled warmly at her. "Hey, can I buy you and your beautiful mother an ice cream?"

"Oh, no, George," Hermione protested. "I'll buy my own, although I'll let you buy Brianna one."

"Oh, come on. I'm the one that made this - meeting," George said, his voice faltering. "Besides, the guy is always supposed to pay."

"Nonsense!" Hermione pulled her moneybag out of her pocketbook, only to have George grab it out of her hands and put it in his pocket.

"Come get it."

"George Weasley," Hermione said in a warning tone, a grin forcing itself onto her face. "Fine, I'll let you buy me an ice cream."

George's face lit up. "Good. Isn't that good, Brianna?"

"Yup!" Brianna most likely hadn't heard the question, because she seemed rather absorbed in playing with paper napkins that were on the table.

Hermione shook her head. George seemed a lot different than before he had left the previous year, and she couldn't deny that. For some reason, she had never pictured George ever offering to buy his younger brother's best friend an ice cream at Florean Fortescue's. She didn't exactly expect being seated at an outdoor table at Florean Fortescue's with George and her daughter, either. She knew that they must look sort of like a young family out for a day in Diagon Alley, despite their varying hair colors. That thought sent a chill up Hermione's spine.

"Hermione?" George waved a hand in front of Hermione's face, and she blinked. "You got spacey there for a second. Brianna asked if she could go talk to Ron, so I said okay."

Hermione looked over to where George was looking. Ron and his current girlfriend, Melisha, were at a small table similar to the one she and George were sitting at. Brianna was in Melisha's lap, tugging on her silver hoop earrings. Hermione could almost hear the words, "Oh, these are sooo pretty," coming out of Brianna's mouth. In fact, Hermione was sure Brianna was saying that exact thing when Hermione saw her daughter's lips move and Melisha gave her a tight-lipped smile. Melisha was obviously not a kid person.

"You just had to let the tiger out of the cage, didn't you?" Hermione asked with a sigh. "I'll never detach her from Melisha's earring."

George laughed. "She shouldn't be wearing those giant things anyway," he said. "She might get caught on a tree branch or something."

"You're hopeless," Hermione stated simply.

"Why, you've hurt my feelings, Hermione."

Hermione got the impression that he seemed to be flirting with her, and that made her heart jump almost all of the way out of her chest. She instantly began to wonder what would have happened between them if George had not gone to America after Harry's death. It was quite obvious that George would have spent a lot of time around Brianna and her, being Brianna's "makeshift daddy" and being a friend to Hermione. Or possibly something more...

Oh, stop being an idiot, Hermione. George doesn't think of you that way, Hermione scolded herself. She shook herself out of her thoughts completely as one of the waiters walked over to take their orders. George took charge, and Hermione found herself lost in her thoughts again. That is, until she felt something land in her lap and looked up to see George grinning at her.

Hermione picked her moneybag up out of her lap. "Oh, I'm a moron," she said. "I would've let you keep this if you hadn't thrown it at me." She stuck the bag back into her pocketbook and then looked back to George, who looked away from her quickly. Was he staring at me? Oh my God...all right, no need for me to start acting like the boy-crazy teenager I never was.

"Ah, you're not a moron; simply forgetful."

"That's a whole lot better."

George nodded. "It sure is." Hermione studied his face for a moment. She could tell that he seemed to want to say something else, and her heart jumped when she realized he was opening his mouth to speak again. "Listen, Hermione - "

But he was cut off by Brianna, who decided to bounce right back over to her mother at that exact moment.

"Is the ice cream here yet?" she asked cheerfully, obviously not realizing she had interrupted George.

"In a minute, honey," Hermione assured her as she helped Brianna back up into her lap. "George and I ordered you a chocolate cup, against my better judgment."

"Little girls need chocolate," George said simply. "Don't they, Brianna?"

"Yup!" Brianna chirped.

Hermione sighed as she looked over at the table Ron and Melisha were at. They were sitting close, and Ron had his arm wrapped around Melisha. Melisha's head was resting on Ron's shoulder. The couple looked very content sitting there, and Hermione just wished that she could have what those two had...again.

Hermione turned her attention back to George, who was now whispering something in Brianna's ear. Brianna was grinning from ear to ear, and she began to squeal as George laughed. He's so good with her.

"You gonna eat your ice cream or are you gonna let it melt?"

Hermione looked down at the table, where the vanilla milkshake she had ordered was sitting in front of her. A little less than half was already gone and, knowing that she hadn't drank any of it, Hermione glared at George. "You drank my milkshake, didn't you?" she demanded in an accusatory tone of voice.

George grinned at her and replied, "How do you know that I drank it?"

"George Weasley, how dare you teach my poor little Brianna to drink other people's milkshakes?! And Brianna Marie Potter!"

"Yes, Mummy?" Brianna asked, looking up at her mother with wide, innocent brown eyes.

"You know you're not supposed to eat the food of others unless you ask first, and they say you can."

"But George told me to!" Brianna defended herself.

Once again, Hermione turned her motherly gaze to George. "George..." she said warningly.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Please forgive me." He saluted her, and reminded Hermione very much of Ron.

"Ron taught you that, didn't he?" Hermione asked with a smile, her small amount of anger quickly vanishing. "Well, I always have to forgive people that salute me."

{}

"So, you haven't told me anything about the past year," George said later that night. "How're you coping without Harry?"

George and Hermione were seated in Hermione's living room, each sipping on mugs of coffee. It had been a long day, and both were tired; after leaving Florean Fortescue's, George and Hermione took Brianna to a variety of different shops and let the little girl browse. Upon George's insisting, Hermione had allowed him to buy a rather large bag of sweets and a doll for Brianna. Of course, Brianna had loved the gifts and had worn herself out playing with them. By the time the sun was setting, Brianna had fallen asleep in George's arms, and the three had Apparated back to Hermione's cottage. Once they arrived, Brianna was tucked tightly into her bed, and George and Hermione had gone back to the living room to talk and watch some Muggle movies.

"Well..." Hermione hesitated before continuing, "Well, I guess I'd be lying if I said life was just perfectly peachy. Actually, I know I'd be lying if I said that, because it's everything but perfectly peachy. I hate seeing Bri without a father figure in her life, you know? I can't keep telling her that her daddy is away on a business trip. It may work now that she's five, but when she gets old enough, she's going to realize that people don't go on years-long business trips without so much as a phone call to their family." She sighed heavily. "It's so hard..." She looked down into the dark liquid swirling around in her cup, and was on the verge of tears until George gently tilted her head back up so she would have to look at him.

"Hermione," George began, "my offer that I made before I left for America still stands. You know, when I said that if Brianna ever need a makeshift daddy. Well, I'm still here for you, one hundred and ten percent. Through thick and thin."

"You know, you're going to make a great father and a fantastic husband to some lucky woman someday," Hermione said thoughtfully.

"Some people would say otherwise." George grimaced, and Hermione knew that he was speaking of his parents. Just before he left to go to America, he, Molly, and Arthur had been in an argument that ended in Molly being rather uncharacteristic and saying that he would never grow up and would remain his careless, immature self. George had left mad at his parents. Hermione realized that that was the reason George had not gone to see his family the second he arrived back in Britain.

"You will," Hermione said again. "I do not care what anybody else says."

"Thanks, Hermione."

"No, thank you," Hermione whispered softly as she leaned over to give George a hug. As she wrapped her arms around him and felt him returning the hug, albeit a bit awkwardly, she found herself getting caught up in the moment. To her, George seemed perfect. Not only was he loving, caring, gentle, good with kids, and willing to make sacrifices, he was just what she needed in her life. And she knew it.

As soon as she had gathered her emotions, Hermione sat up and looked at George. "If you ever need me, you can give me a ring. Or just Apparate over anytime. Or Floo. Or whatever you prefer."

George laughed. "You're one for words, eh?"

"Are you making fun of me?"

"What if I was?"

Hermione paused. "I don't know." She shrugged.

"So..." George's voice trailed off. "Now that all that boring serious stuff is over with, how about we move onto the less serious stuff?"

"Like what?"

George looked like he was debating something for a minute before sighing and finally saying, "So, you seeing anybody?"

Hermione found herself laughing so hard that her sides began to hurt. She remembered the sleeping Brianna so she tamed her laughter a little. "Oh God, George," she said. "That was the lamest excuse for flirting I have ever seen!" She instantly began to tumble into more controlled, quieter gales of laughter as soon as the words were out of her mouth. "'So, you seeing anybody?'" She looked at George, who seemed to be pretending to be hurt. "Okay, it wasn't lame and you weren't flirting."

"It wasn't lame," George said, "but I was flirting. Or trying."

Hermione felt her face begin to heat up. She knew the reddish tinge was creeping along her cheeks, showing George that she was embarrassed. But for once, she didn't care. "I'm not actually seeing anyone," she said, answering his original question, "but I have coffee every now and then with a man named Tristan Vaughn. Nothing serious..."

"Tristan Vaughn? As in the man who told you Harry was missing?"

"Yeah, it's pretty bad, huh. Are you seeing anyone?"

George skillfully avoided the question. "Well, Hermione, it's be great seeing you again. I better be getting to my apartment. It's kind of late, you know?" He stood up and gathered his wand and jacket. "See you later." And with that, he was gone.

Hermione stared, wide-eyed, at the place George had previously been standing. With a heavy sigh, she flopped back into the cushions of the couch.

Things just didn't seem to be going her way.