Goodbye Sky Harbor

Chapter Three: Outwardly Uncomposed

Sighs of frustration emitted from Holly's corner of the library as she glared at her Potions homework. She was decent at Potions, more than decent actually, but the O.W.L.s were more stress than she needed, her Aunt Aggie was still going on about her not getting made prefect, Eamon was making annoying inquiries about her friendship with Roger, her research on memory charms was going nowhere, and all of these things, however irrelevant to Potions, were consuming her entirely.

No matter how self-centered it was, she could only think how she'd like to worry about herself from time to time and be able to live out what made her happy instead of what pleased the rest of them.

Sad to think she wasn't even sure of what made her happy these days, her mind was too confused with what made others happy.

Looking down at her parchment again, she attempted to focus all her energy on Potions and the essay she was supposed to be writing.

"Wolfsbane... better mark where to find the contents, too..." Holly thought, paging through the book on her lap, "properties... let's see... it's not like they would have ever considered making me prefect, I'm not the type," the silent argument was picking up already. It wasn't a good sign. "And Eamon's being ridiculous, Roger's a friend. Honestly, it's as if he won't trust me after dating Marcus, which doesn't concern him anyway so I wish he'd bugger off. Wolfsbane, wolfsbane... oh, and what's wrong with my head?" worry creased her forehead and she sighed, throwing down her quill. A sharp pain throbbed around her temples and she leaned her head back, closing her eyes. Now was not the time for another one of these splitting migraines.

Of course, it had been stupid to let herself fall into one of her brooding moods. They always brought on these pounding headaches.

"I'm not cut out for this whole thinking business," Holly frowned, muttering to herself.

"You too, eh?" a voice cut through the pain and Holly jumped a good six inches out her chair. The freckled face peering over the top of the armchair immediately appeared to regret having spoken so suddenly. "Sorry, didn't realize I'd startle you out of a reverie," George said sheepishly. Holly's headache pounded painfully with each word, making her feel like he was shouting.

"No, it's alright," she murmured, rubbing her temples.

"Another headache?" he asked, lowering his voice as he perched on the arm of the chair. She nodded, they'd been happening more frequently, and one had even struck a few days ago during Advanced Astronomy, though she'd taken care to ignore it and appear ever herself. But apparently at least one person had noticed the one thing she thought no one would take care to observe.

"I just wanted to say sorry about upsetting you in class the other day."

Holly nodded, dismissing the concern with a wave of her hand. George looked around, then dragged over another decrepit-looking, overstuffed armchair. "What's up with you?" he asked. Holly met his eyes in surprise; this was the last thing she expected.

"Nothing. I'm just overworked, what with the O.W.L.s and all--"

"Well, my thing is I hate everyone thinking I'm stupid. So what's your deal?" he interrupted her. She was taken aback, but only momentarily. This was, after all, George.

"Being a loner gets tiring when people pull you out of your solitude to tell you everything you're doing wrong and nothing you're doing right," George nodded at this and for once, she felt maybe someone did understand.

"I wish I could either do something right or just find some way to be happy, so maybe it wouldn't bother me so much. Except I feel like a real prat for thinking all this, it's rather selfish, you know," she met George's eyes again only to see him shaking his head vehemently.

"You're 16, Holly. You're allowed to feel that way. Part of being a stressed-out fifth year, isn't it?" she smiled a bit at that, "People really do tend to dump too much on us, they assume we're old enough to bear the load. But we're not... and so sometimes, we teenagers really are at least half the victim we make ourselves out to be."

"I s'pose," she said, looking down again. She'd like to think herself stronger than that, though. "So what's this about people thinking you stupid?" she asked.

"Oh," he seemed a bit reluctant but then thought better of his silence, "I suppose I'm just sick of people thinking me and Fred are nothing more than troublemakers. Sure, we don't get the high marks, but it's only because we've never cared to. Our efforts are in our inventions, but I shouldn't expect people to understand. It'd be nice if they realized that 'Fred and George' are two separate people though, not a single entity."

This last bit startled Holly a bit, she'd always thought they liked being one person, and she said so.

"It always appeared to me you two meant to appear as one person, you do encourage the image after all, always so inseparable."

George paused to consider this, then nodded.

"I know. But still. We are two people, different in some ways, however small."

Holly studied him momentarily. How did he want people to understand this when he never said or did anything to exhibit his unhappiness with their assumption? But at the same time, how did she want people to understand her irritation with being forever the one who has to listen to everyone else's problem when she never spoke up?

"Of course you're different from Fred. How do you think I, and a few others, manage to tell you apart?" she said before she could even put her most recent thoughts into words.

"I never did understand how you could tell us apart when even our own mother seems to sometimes be unclear as to who is who," George said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"It's easy. The look in your eyes and your demeanor. Fred is brash, he rushes into things headfirst and without thought. You hesitate. Says volumes about you, but then again, I could be reading into things too much."

"No, it's always how I've felt. Fred always knows what he's going after and how he's getting there. I'm a little slower on the uptake."

"Not slow, just considerate. Of people, mostly," Holly said quietly.

"For someone who's shared more homework than conversations with me, you seem to know an awful lot about my habits of mind," George said smirking a bit.

"Just because I don't like crowds doesn't mean I don't watch them. Observation's an interesting thing. People are best revealed for what they are in such situations."

"You know, you're quite a different person than the one I thought I knew. You give people the wrong impression, maybe coming off as a bit judgmental. But then, maybe we're all too thick to realize you might prefer to think and watch rather than join in. And all the while, I know there's even more depth to you. I'm intrigued," George grinned and Holly's stomach did an odd flip-flop.

"One conversation and you've realized all this?" she asked, avoiding his eyes again. Where was this sudden shyness coming from, she wondered, though she thought she knew the answer anyway.

"Headaches and frustration have a funny way of creating telling experiences, don't they?"

"Yeah, yeah they do," she murmured, realizing her headache had faded considerably. She also realized this was the most she'd talked this openly to anyone since, well, since summer when she could talk to her cousins and to Terence. And oddly enough, she didn't mind having admitted so much to George. It was strange, but she thought (or did she just hope?) she'd perhaps found some understanding.

"No, use another word, otherwise it makes us sound like we're whining," Fred said, leaning over George's shoulder as they finished off another letter to Bagman demanding their money back, and their winnings.

"It's useless," George said, shaking his head and slipping the letter into his bag as Lee Jordan sat down across from the pair.

"What is?" Lee asked curiously.

"This Yule Ball business," Fred lied without hesitation.

"Whole ordeal's got me in a right mess," George agreed, "I was going to ask Alicia but she keeps saying she wants to go with you." George added, looking at Lee.

"She does?" he asked incredulously, his fork still halfway between his plate and his now-gaping mouth.

"Yeah, and everyone knows Fred fancies asking Angelina, so she's off-limits of course. And Katie's been asked by some bloke in Ravenclaw, Sam Capper," George sighed.

"The both of you are fairly popular, don't see how it could be horribly hard for you to find a date," Lee said, still looking slightly shocked about Alicia wanting to go with him, "What about Jocelyn Dorny? You know, she's on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team."

"She has no sense of humor. And anyway, what's with you and Quidditch players?" George frowned, "there's more girls than just the few who make the teams."

"It was just a suggestion, mate," Lee shrugged.

"Speaking of suggestions, why don't you go with that Ravenclaw girl? The one you and Davies always copy Astronomy work off of? You're friends," Fred pointed out.

"Holly. And she's going home for the holiday," George sighed again.

"Rotten luck," Lee said, "Well, I've got to go do that homework for Moody's class before we go to Transfiguration so I'll see you in a bit," he waved and exited the Great Hall.

"Did Alicia really say she wanted to go with Lee?" Fred asked after a minute or two.

"'Course not, but he wasn't going to ask anyone if I didn't hint at something like that first," George shrugged.

"Well that was fairly brilliant," Fred said with a wide grin.

"Brilliant eh? Planning another prank then?" Angelina's voice broke into the conversation as she sat down in the seat Lee had recently vacated, Katie sitting next to her.

"That or you had something to do with Lee just cornering Alicia and asking her to the Yule Ball. So which is it?" Katie asked.

"The latter," George responded, "Alicia said yes, right?"

"Yeah, she did," Katie confirmed and George nodded to himself, and allowed his eyes to wander the Hall. They fell, not too surprisingly, on Holly. Their talk on Saturday had surprised him; her good intentions, perceptiveness, and concern for most everyone but herself was quite contrary to the judgmental, arrogant misfit people made her out to be.

"Your silence is unsettling, George," Katie's voice startled him out of his thoughts and she smiled, following his line of vision, "I saw you two hitting a bludger around yesterday, didn't know you were practicing Quidditch with her, or that you were friends for that matter," Katie remarked.

"We're acquaintances," he shrugged.

"She's a great person when you get to know her, huh?" Katie said offhandedly.

"Makes you wonder why she ever went out with Flint," Angelina said, flipping through the mail that had just landed next to her plate.

"I'd forgotten about that," George frowned. Katie looked like she was about to say something, but shut her mouth again as a large amount of laughter erupted from the Ravenclaw table. The four Gryffindors looked around and located the source of noise as they spotted Roger Davies with his arm thrown casually around Holly Hocks' shoulders as Cho Chang and Emma Langford leaned over Roger's shoulder to laugh over some letter he'd received. Angelina and Fred shrugged and went back to talking about things that were going to be on their Transfiguration exam that day and Katie left to go investigate the episode with Holly and the rest, leaving George feeling strangely envious of Katie, Roger, Emma, and Cho's amity with Holly. He shook his head and tuned in to what Fred was saying about half-transfigured cows and listened half-heartedly until Katie returned.

"Well, that was interesting," she grinned. George shot her a questioning look and she continued.

"Seems Holly's brother, Eamon, suspects her close friendship with Roger is more than a friendship. And you know Eamon Hocks, always has been protective over Holly. He wrote Roger a letter that bordered threatening. Quite amusing, really," Katie nodded, "especially when he said any 'impure intentions' would finish with Roger being 'disemboweled'."

"I never knew Eamon was her brother. He was a real git, that one," George remarked.

"Well, they're nothing alike. Holly being so quiet and Eamon so brash, him so tall and she so short. Her in Ravenclaw and him in Slytherin. All they share really is that bloody sarcasm and accompanying smile." George grinned at that.

"More bark than bite," he murmured. Katie just nodded as she flipped absentmindedly through her own mail. But judging by the wrenching in his heart every time he looked over and saw Roger's arm still around Holly's shoulders, he couldn't help but think that Holly Hocks was anything but harmless.