She Will Be Loved

She Will Be Loved

By: Kinoryo

Chapter One

"Where's your ketchup?" came a voice from the kitchen.

"I ran out a couple days ago, you'll have to have plain old eggs!" Katie yelled back from her room. She smiled to herself at the loud groan from the kitchen. She flipped over the shirt she was ironing.

"Y'know, you could have breakfast at your own apartment!" she called teasingly. George Weasley walked into her room with a plate of scrambled eggs.

"Don't even joke about that. You know how seriously I treat food," he said, sitting cross-legged on her bed and positioning himself to commence stuffing his face. She smiled, crinkling her nose.

"Oh, yes, I know." Katie had been out of Hogwarts for only a year and she was living on her own in her very small (but cheap) flat. She also happened to be strategically placed down the hall from where George and Fred lived. It was completely coincidental (yeah, right). Actually, it was thanks to the twins that she was able to live in the appartment. They drove out the old inhabitant of her flat with some Weasley's Wizard Wheezes and then they put in a good word for her with their super. She was quite content with where she was and was secretly glad for George's daily visits. The twins would stop in at unpredictable hours. George came more often than Fred, who was always whisked away by his current girl of the week. The twins had matured a lot since their involvement with the order, but they still maintained their love for mischief and their firey personalities.

"Why do you use that thing again?" George asked, pointing to her iron with his fork.

"Why not, we live in a muggle building with electricity. Besides, I suck at ironing charms, you know that. Don't you remember when you wanted me to iron your tie for your Christmas dinner last year and I ended up shrinking it and turning it pink?" she asked, smiling at the memory of his face when she gave it back to him.

"Yeah, but that turned out to be a great gift for Ron. He really liked it," he said sarcastically. An uncommon silence fell between them.

"So," George said, choking down a mouthfull of eggs. "How's the prat?"

Katie sent George a glare, nearly burning her hand with the iron as she passed it over the sleeve. "His name is Derek, thank you very much. And he is fine."

George had finished with his eggs and was now leaning back on the bed. He was trying really hard to mask his jealously and was failing horribly. He knew that Katie's boyfriend's name was Derek, but to him he was just 'the prat.' Derek was really tall with dark brown hair and was twenty-one or something like that. All George really knew was that he didn't like the guy and if he even tried to touch his Katie, he'd break off his fingers one by one.

Bzzt!

"That's him now! He's taking me to work," Katie exclaimed, blushing slightly as she unplugged the iron and began to wind up the chord. She ran away to answer the door, pausing briefly to check herself in the mirror to make sure that she looked presentable.

"Hey, sweet cakes," he said as she opened the door. He was roughly a head taller than Katie and had very tan skin topped with very dark brown hair. He had brown eyes to match that always seemed to burn holes right through her. Katie smiled and motioned him inside.

"I'm almost done, I just need to go change out of this shirt," she said, closing the door behind him. He turned to her and held up a purple flower.

"I got this for you on my way here. Of course it doesn't compare to your beauty," he said, smiling slyly and reaching out to stroke a lock of her blond hair. At this she blushed completely, especially since at that moment George decided to come out of her room and lean against her door frame, but she couldn't help but smile. He thinks I'm beautiful, she thought gleefully to herself. But he wasn't the only one who thought that.

George watched the two of them by the door with complete and utter disgust. He'd always loved Katie more than what he thought was necessary. It was hard to explain, even to himself. And right now he was seriously considering either running into the bathroom and barfing, or throwing his plate at Derek's head.

"Hon, your shirt?" asked Derek. Katie, who had been completely distracted by the presence of her boyfriend, had completely forgotten.

"Oh, right!" she said and went to dash back into her room, but stopped at the look on George's face. She couldn't remember the last time she'd seen him looking so glum.

Derek looked up and saw George for the first time. Most boyfriends would be worried if they came over and saw some guy walk out of their girlfriend's bedroom, but not Derek. He completely understood her and George's relationship, he was wonderful in that way.

George, realizing he was in Katie's way to get into her bedroom, moved silently into the kitchen. Normally he wouldn't rinse his plate, but he wanted to spite Derek by showing that he could be chivalrous, too. He put the plate in the sink and turned on the water, hearing Derek behind him.

"So, Dirk, how are things at work?" George asked as he turned to look at his rival, not really caring. Derek and Katie both worked at a wizarding publishing company. Derek was one of the editors and Katie was his secretary, a waste of Quidditch skill if you asked George.

"Things are fine, and the name's Derek," Derek said, smiling. Derek seemed equally as determined to prove his chivalrousness. George decided he was even going to dry his dish and put it away, when he realized that he didn't know where the towels for drying dishes were. He couldn't let Derek know that, however. He turned around so that Derek wouldn't see him drying it with his shirt. He then walked over to the cabinet by the refridgerator and put the plate back.

George had just opened his mouth to say something else snide when Katie came back into their presence. She wrapped her arms around Derek's left arm. George just stared. Her sunshine blonde hair was pulled up into a ponytail and she was wearing her baby blue shirt she'd been ironing over a pair of black "dress-pants". When did she become so beautiful? George asked himself, picturing her back at Hogwarts in her Quidditch robes and covered in mud.

"Let's go, honey!" she exclaimed happily. She smiled at George and said, "Don't forget to lock my door when you leave, ok? We're going out on a date tonight, so I put some lasagna in the fridge if you get hungry later." She winked at him as the couple walked through the door.

"I'll just eat at my own flat tonight!" he called after them, knowing full well that that lasagna would be long gone by the time she returned. But Katie and Derek didn't respond. As he heard the door close, George swore violently and loudly.

"Now is that really necessary?" came a familiar voice from the door, which had opened almost as soon as it had closed. George looked up to see his twin standing in the doorway, wearing a bemused expression. George said nothing, but went and slumped down on Katie's couch. Fred moved over to a nearby chair.

"I just saw Katie and Monsieur Amour," Fred said, amused, as he sat down. George glared at his brother, the only other human who knew how much George cared for Katie.

"Yeah, he's taking Katie to work this morning. Later they're 'going on a date,'" George said bitterly, imitating Katie's voice and making a horrible face. Fred raised his eyebrows at George.

"So how was your date with... what's her name?" George asked, trying to direct the attention away from himself or Katie. Fred grinned like a madman.

"Her name is Marlena, and it was great. But back to you," Fred said, ignoring George's groan, "when are you going to tell her?"

"Tell who what?" George said, feigning ignorance in hopes of annoying Fred since he clearly wasn't going to let this go.

"Tell Katie that you love her. The only reason I'm not over here at Katie's all the time is because I want to give you two knuckleheads some time to yourselves."

Fred's bluntness surprised George somewhat. He considered denial, but Fred knew him too well. He sighed and leaned back into his chair.

"Never."

"But why? She used to like you a lot, y'know," Fred said. George winced as yet another memory of Hogwarts fluttered the the surface of his brain.

"Yeah... I know..."

~

It was a few hours before Fred and George's planned escape from the tyrannical ruling of Dolores Umbridge when Katie and George ran into each other outside of the Great Hall. The silence between them was heavy and awkward. The look of desperation on her face told him that she knew.

"Fred just told me about... what you two are going to do," she began to say. She couldn't seem to figure out what to say. George's shoulders slumped. He'd hoped she wouldn't find out until the time had come.

"Yeah..." he had so much that he wanted to tell her. But that would be pointless. He had to go and he was probably never going to see her again.

"George, don't do it. You can stay here," she pleaded, reaching out a tenative hand to touch his arm gently. He pulled away.

"No I can't, you don't understand," he shook his head and went to walk up the stairs.

"George, I love you!" she called from behind him. He closed his eyes, so happy to hear it and yet so sad at the same time. For some reason, he just couldn't say anything. He stood as still as stone, his hand resting on the banister.

"Thank you," he said and hurried up the stairs to the boy's dorm. He willed himself not to cry and to be a man. I love you, too.

~

George shook the memory from his head. That had been that last time that he and Katie had talked for the longest time. As he and his brother flew out of sight, he had looked back at her and thought his heart was being ripped out as she hid crying in the shadows.

"We need to be responsible adults and get to work," George said as he got up and went back to their flat to get changed.

_-_-_-_ Two Weeks Later _-_-_-_

"Hope you enjoy your Blood Blisterpods!" George said with a smile as he handed the merchandise over the counter to the eager thirteen-year-old.

The only bad thing about owning a joke shop was that the best days for business were on the weekends. So, here George and Fred were at their Hogsmeade outlet.

"Hey, Fred!" George called as he watched the thirteen-year-old skip out of sight, "I'm going to go out and get something to eat!"

Fred poked his hand out from behind the door to the inventory room and gave him a thumbs up. George rolled his eyes and walked out into the April sunshine. It was really nice outside and he wondered vaguely what Katie was doing at that moment.

It was as he was walking out of the Three Broomsticks that he saw something that made his heart stop. A very tall twenty-one-year-old with tan skin and dark brown hair was walking past. Eww. Derek. He thought to himself. Derek had his arm around the shoulders of... not Katie!