Study Breaks

Chapter Three

As George rushed towards the Quidditch pitch, his mind kept returning to the look on Hermione's face right after he kissed her the day before. It was quite the look, especially considering he'd only kissed her cheek. He wondered how she'd look if he kissed her properly, would she blush or turn pale, or worse, reject him completely. He was hoping that wouldn't happen. Assuming she ever let him get near enough to kiss her. She would have slapped him or something if she hadn't liked him kissing her, right? At this point he wasn't particularly sure of anything. Except that this was very probably going to be the longest team meeting of his life.
And it was. The discussion of strategy bored him. He barely noted the practice times for the next week. Fred had to nudge him when Katie asked a question about chaser/beater strategy. It was sheer torture sitting there talking about moves when he could be with Hermione trying to figure out how she felt about him. Since he was starting to figure out that he was feeling something for her, much to his surprise.
Generally girls his little brother's age didn't interest him. Of course the fact that the only girls that age he knew, aside from Mione, were Pavarti and Lavender could have something to do with that. Gossip and giggles generally didn't interest him either. But neither did bookworms. Except Mione was more than a bookworm. She was smart and studious, yes, but she was also pretty daring and adventurous if half of what Ron said was true. And there was that talk they'd had on the beach, where she revealed a great deal of vulnerability that made George want to act all protective. Which was pretty scary since he never felt like that about anyone, except his family.
The worst part, though, was the fact that when she had smiled at him after he teased her out of her bad mood it made his chest go tight. That was pretty freaky. When she had colour in her cheeks and her eyes were sparkling with energy, she was one of the prettiest girls George had ever seen. He'd never really noticed it before, but after spending so much time with her over the past two days he was seeing a whole lot of new things in Hermione.
The meeting finally broke up, and George hurried towards the castle. As he walked away from the field, still wrapped in his own thoughts, he heard Harry's voice from behind him.
"Hey, George, d'you have a moment?"
George stopped and waited for the younger boy to catch up.
"What's on your mind, Harry?"
"Well, I'm note quite sure how to say this," Harry paused, then rushed on. "Are you interested in Hermione?"
George stared at him. He'd thought that Ron would have been the one to challenge him, not Harry. It looked like this could be awkward.
"Why are you asking?"
"She's my best friend and I really don't want to see her hurt and I think that she might be interested in you and I want to make sure that you're not just playing with her and wow this is the longest sentence ever!" Harry stopped and took a breath. "Really George, I'm just wanting to know that you aren't going to hurt her, that you're either seriously interested or not interested at all. Because if you do anything to make her upset, I will beat you with your own Quidditch club. Just so you know."
George was about to laugh at the ferocious look on the younger boy's face, but realized that it probably wouldn't help his cause at all.
"Harry," he began, "I'm not entirely sure what I feel for Hermione, but I do know that I would never, ever knowingly hurt her. So you can stop looking at me like that."
Harry laughed and relaxed. As he turned to go, George caught his arm.
"There is one thing I want to ask. What is Ron going to think if I do ask Hermione on a date? Is he in love with her?"
"Y'know George," Harry replied, "I'm really not sure. I think that Ron is too possessive of Hermione, but in the end he probably doesn't want to date her. It just bothers him that other people notice that his friend is a girl. Maybe if I could get him fixed up with someone else, he'd get over his belief that Mione shouldn't date."
"You're as much of a match maker as Lavender and Pavarti, aren't you?" George laughed.
"Yeah, but I'm a lot better at it, don't you think?" Harry grinned and walked away.
George stared after the younger boy, still chuckling over the thought of Harry Potter - Matchmaker. He took a deep breath. Harry had said that Hermione might return his interest, which had given him a fluttering feeling in his stomach. And if the other boy would keep Ron from blowing up over the whole thing, perhaps there was a chance he could actually explore this attraction he felt towards Hermione.

Hermione caught herself checking the clock in the Gryffindor common room for the seventh time in ten minutes. It was getting ridiculous. Ever since Harry had implied, or more accurately, flat out said that George might be interested in her, she couldn't seem to concentrate on anything else. Which was completely wreaking havoc with her attempts to finish her Potions assignment. And Potions was not a class where she could make mistakes, not with Snape looking for any possible way to take points away and embarrass her in front of the class.
What a horrible man, she thought. Which lead her to thinking about how supportive and kind George had been that afternoon when she babbled out all of her fears of being less worthy than other witches. It truly was her greatest fear, that someday it would be proven that because she was of Muggle family that she wasn't as good as the everyone else. But George had talked her around and made her see that all of the horrible remarks from the Malfoy's and other people were to be ignored. And he'd teased his back into good humour and generally been really sweet for the entire afternoon. And then he'd kissed her. She looked up at the clock for the eighth time. It had been more than two minutes since the last time she'd thought of the kiss. This was definitely an improvement.
Since she wasn't getting any Potions work done, Hermione shoved aside her books and put a scrap piece of parchment on the table in front of her. She picked up her quill and started to make a list, as she always did when there was a tough puzzle to work through. On one side of the paper were the reasons she shouldn't be interested in George: Prankster; Joker; Never takes anything seriously. She thought about that last one, then crossed it out. He'd looked very serious when he had told her to ignore all the horrible people who called her a Mudblood. Next was Quidditch-crazy. Which also got crossed out, since it wasn't fair to use that when her two best friend were also mad about Quidditch. The line that said Ron's Brother stayed, though, and was underlined several times. That could be a real problem, she thought. Depressed by the exercise, she turned the parchment over and started a new list.
His smile; his laugh; great conversation; really understanding; kind; fun to be with; ear-blushing. The last one seemed a little ridiculous, but she didn't want to cross it out. The ear-blushing that looked so silly on Ron was completely appealing on his older brother. Deciding to leave it, she started to add 'smart,' which seemed appropriate. George was smart. He just used it differently from her, with his inventions for the joke shop and quick one-liners. She bent her head over the list to keep writing when a voice made her jump.
"Whatcha writing?" Ron's voice seemed very loud. "Is it Potions? Cuz I'm completely stuck and could really use some help, Mione."
She pulled her potions book over top of the list.
"Uh, no. Sorry Ron, not Potions, just making up a list of stuff I need my parents to send me from home." She could feel herself blushing at the lie. "But I could try to help you with the homework."
"Great! So I'm completely stuck on the third step..."
Hermione lost track of what Ron was saying. Most of the Quidditch team had just walked into the room, but George wasn't with them. Neither was Harry, she noticed, which made her groan.
"What? Was that the wrong idea. Cuz it seemed to make sense with the flobberworm pus to counter..."
"No no, Ron, it's fine, I just thought of something uh, I, uh need from home."
Ron looked at her with confusion, but kept on with his potion recipe. Hermione half listened as she thought of ways of killing her best friend. If Harry was talking to George about her, she was going to have to hurt him in ways he couldn't contemplate. He'd have to suffer for days for embarrassing her like that.
"Okay, what's wrong with the idea of the juvenile mandrake root for the fifth problem? It seemed to make lots of sense."
"Huh?" Hermione had no idea what Ron was talking about.
"You glared at me. I thought it was the right idea, you know, to counteract mild paralysis?"
"Uh, sure Ron. I'm sorry, I was thinking of something else. But sounds good, I guess, yeah."
"Mione, you totally aren't paying any attention to me. I'm going to go and see what Seamus and Neville think. Maybe they'll listen to me." Ron picked up his books and stomped off.
"Sure, Ron."
Hermione continued to stare at the door. The next person through was Harry, alone. She let out her breath. It was okay. He'd probably just taken a different route from the rest of the team. It also meant that George would be along at any moment. Hermione started to move her books around, pulling out the list she'd been making and sticking it near the back of her potions textbook. She then pulled out her assignment and stared at it intently. Maybe she'd be able to get somewhere before George arrived.

She had barely started to figure out what the assignment involved when someone tugged at her hair. She looked up into George's green eyes.
"Hey Mione, studying hard as usual I see. Whatcha working on?" He sat down on the arm of her chair, leaning down to look at the papers on her lap. "Ah yes, the famous improper petrifacus curse. A good brain-teaser that one."
"You know the answer? I mean, you remember the assignment?" Hermione looked up at him eagerly. "I can't seem to get a handle on it. I mean, there's so many different options, but they all have bad side effects."
"Well, it was years ago that I read this, but as far as I can recall, its really simple. If you change out the flaxweed in a revivitas elixir for mandrake it, should do it." He shrugged. "But you might want to check that. It's been ages."
Hermione was flipping pages and comparing sections of her textbooks. She closed the book, finally, and stared at him. "How on earth did you know that off the top of your head? Did you partially petrify someone recently? I mean, where did that answer come from?"
"So I'm right?" Hermione nodded. "Well, Potions is a breeze. I mean, most of the ingredient interactions are fairly predictable if you look at their base properties. And that one was really simple, just a changing an awakening ingredient for a de-paralyzing one. Stop staring at me like I just invented a self-writing essay."
"Sorry. I'm just amazed that you know so much about potions. It doesn't seem..."
"What, like I pay attention and learn things in school?" He stood up. "Well, actually, I do. I happen to be really good at Potions and Charms and Herbology. How else do you think I can create all those jokes and pranks? It's the other stuff that I don't care about. And just because I don't get as many OWLs or NEWTs as my brilliant brothers doesn't mean I'm an idiot. If you think that, you really don't know much about me at all."
"George, sit down." Hermione grabbed his hand and pulled him back onto the arm of the chair. "Look, I don't think you're an idiot. I never did. I just assumed that you didn't really apply yourself in any classes." He glared at her. "That sounded wrong. What I meant was, I didn't know there were subjects that you were such an expert at. I'm just starting to figure out that lots of my assumptions about you were wrong, okay. So don't be mad, please."
He looked down into her pleading eyes. This girl had an amazing knack for getting under his skin. George knew that most people thought he was hopeless at school. It wasn't as though it was common knowledge that he and Fred were top of their classes in a select few subjects. But that Hermione could think he was a complete incompetent at school really bothered him.
"I'm not mad, Hermione," he finally replied. "I should be used to it. Most people think I'm an idiot. I'm just a bit touchy about it sometimes."
"Hey, you have every right to be mad. I should have figured out that you're pretty smart, just by the stuff that you've invented. And I shouldn't have assumed that just because you need help in History of Magic that you need it in the other classes too. I mean, I never really got the hang of Divination."
"Yeah, who does?" George laughed. He put a hand over his eyes and whispered mysteriously "I see... a future where ... stuff happens... to people..."
Hermione started laughing. George kept making vague predictions in a thin wispy voice that was frighteningly similar to Professor Trelawney's. By the time he stopped, the two were leaning against each other and gasping for breath.
"Oh man," Hermione finally managed. "I don't think I've laughed that hard in weeks. Maybe not since Ron tried to bewitch his freckles and ended up with rainbow spots across his face."
"Hey, what's wrong with freckles?" George pretended to take offense
"Nothing at all. But I guess Ron doesn't like his, since he tried to magic them away. That'll be the last time he points his wand at his face, definitely."
"Did you know that you have freckles, Mione?" George's voice had softened, and he was leaning over her.
"Really?" Hermione felt a bit breathless. "Where?"
"Right here," he drew his finger across the bridge of her nose, "in a little line. Like a constellation, or a galaxy."
"You're stargazing on my nose?" she asked, pulling her head away from his hand. He was giving her shivers and she wasn't sure she wanted this to be happening in the common room.
"Of course." George moved back, sensing her change of mood. "If you look closely at Fred's left cheek you can see Leo."
"I'll have to trust you on that one. Or ask Angelina."
"Good plan." He stood up. "Speaking of plans, do we want to study here, or move to the library? I vote library myself, but it's up to you."
"Library sounds great. Let me drop off the stuff I don't need and I'll meet you back here."
"All right. I'll get my books and meet you in ten minutes." He smiled at her and tapped her nose. "Stargirl."
Hermione looked down at her books, and when she got the courage to look up again, George was gone. She stood and started to pick up her things. From across the room, Harry looked up from the chess board and smiled. Things were shaping up quite nicely, he thought to himself.