George\\\'s Girl

George's Girl

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'So, how did it go?' asked George.

Fred grinned. 'Great. Angelina was right: nobody came to bother us at all.'

The twins were so close it would never have occurred to either of them not to tell the other one about his love-life.

'I'll have to try that room sometime,' said George. 'Not that I ever got past the kissing stage with Alicia.'

'You didn't get back together on Valentine's Day then?'

George shook his head sadly. 'A forlorn Valentine's Day for an unloved Weasley.'

'Well, I still love you.'

'You're not my type, though!'

Fred looked round the common room, trying to see his youngest brother and sister. 'Neither Ron nor Ginny can even have got to the kissing stage yet, so you're still ahead of them.'

'I'd better be ahead of Ginny,' said George, 'considering she's only fourteen.'

'Yeah.'

'I can't leave Hogwarts as a romantic failure! I'd be worse than Percy -- at least he was occasionally engaged!'

'You've still got a year and a half. Well, a year and a third, anyway,' Fred reminded him.

'It's not fair. We each took a girl to the Yule Ball, but Alicia isn't interested in me any more, and you and Angelina are the big success story.'

'It happens. What do you want, love at first sight?'

'Love at any sight would do me,' sighed George.

'You'll find someone. After all, you're almost the perfect man -- you must be, you're my twin.'

'Ha ha. That's a thought, though. What about the old swapping trick?'

'You mean, you claim to be me, and sleep with Angelina? No!'

'We've done it loads of times!' said George. 'Well, not quite like this though.'

'Not at all like this. If it was just a matter of you going into Hogsmeade with her again, I wouldn't mind. This is different.'

'Yes, it is. Sorry.'

The idea continued to prey on George's mind. Three days later, Fred and Angelina again went off together to the North Tower. After they returned, Fred noticed that George seemed to be more bothered than before, and asked him why.

'I'm just getting more and more bothered by not managing to find a girlfriend of my own,' George admitted.

Fred shook his head, and said, 'I'm sorry about that. But I can't just stop seeing Angelina.'

'I know. I quite understand that.' George said.

Four days later, George was sitting on his bed reading when Fred came in.

'Off with Angelina again?' asked George, noticing Fred getting aftershave out of a drawer of his bedside table. Fred nodded, grinning.

'Don't do anything I wouldn't do, given the chance,' said George, grinning back.

Fred sat on his bed, dabbed a little aftershave on and put the top back on the bottle.

'Fred.'

Fred looked round to see what George wanted, to see him pointing a wand at him. He exclaimed in surprise, just as George said 'Stupefy!' Fred fell back onto his bed, unconscious.

George moved his brother so that he was lying on the bed properly, then took the aftershave, dabbed it on himself just as Fred had, and put it back in the drawer.

Then he took a deep breath, straightened his robes, and went downstairs to meet Angelina.

'Shall we go, then?' he asked.

'Yes, Fred.'

They walked together through the castle to the base of the North Tower. George wasn't sure whether he ought to be holding hands with her as they walked, but she didn't try to hold his hand, or look surprised that he wasn't, so he supposed Fred didn't either. She was looking around more than he would have expected. George supposed that she was making sure nobody was following them.

They got to the room that Fred had told him they used, and Angelina touched the lock with her wand and uttered the Unlocking Charms. They went in, and she locked it behind her. George looked round at the room, as he hadn't been in it before, and at the wide divan that Fred had Transfigured from the benches. Realising that he must be looking suspicious, he quickly said, 'Nothing's changed, so nobody can have been in here.'

'They'd have got a shock if they had, finding that divan there,' said Angelina with a smile. She sat down on the divan. 'Well, Fred?'

George sat down beside her, and started to remove his clothes. Soon, he and Angelina were lying together and caressing each other.

*

Neither of them realised that they could be heard further up the tower in Sybill Trelawney's rooms. She still had parchment and a quill ready, but didn't bother to write out the more repetitive messages she still assumed were from the spirits. One message was different though -- instead of the usual 'Oh, Fred, oh ... oh ... oh ...', a spirit voice said 'Oh, J-Jupiter, oh ... oh ... oh ...'

*

'Jupiter?' asked George, as the two of them relaxed afterwards.

'He's the king of the gods in Roman mythology,' Angelina explained. 'And the biggest of the planets.'

'I know that!'

She grinned at him. 'Well, you can take it as a compliment then.'

'Yes, all right,' he said, smiling back. Then he sighed. 'I suppose we ought to start getting back.'

They dressed, and went down the stairs, and started walking through the corridors. Angelina looked at him. 'There's one thing I would like to know.'

'What's that?'

'Did Fred actually agree to this, or did you do something to trick him?'

Her question hit him like a splash of cold water. 'I don't know what you mean!' he said, while trying to think of something better to say. He knew exactly what she meant, after all.

She frowned at him. 'George, do you really think I can't tell you two apart? After all these years in the same classes, and on the same team?'

'Oh.' He'd been congratulating himself on not having given himself away. 'I, uh, used Stupefy on Fred.'

'So he wouldn't agree? Good. And I suppose it is flattering, having you fight your own twin brother over me. But don't try this again, OK?'

'OK.' he said sadly. Well, once was better than never at all. 'Why did you go along with it, then?'

'I was curious -- partly about what you two had planned, partly about how similar you two are.'

'Oh, I see. I thought we were too similar for you to tell us apart.'

When they reached the common room, George headed straight for his dorm, and used Enervate to revive his twin. Fred looked dazed when he opened his eyes.

'Why am I lying down? What ... you were pointing your wand at me! Did you just pretend to be me?'

George admitted it, and told the whole story, emphasising the fact that he hadn't fooled Angelina anyway. 'You didn't say she could tell us apart.'

'I didn't know she could. George, I thought you understood me when I said no. This isn't like the other pranks. Angelina means something to me.'

'I know. I promised her I wouldn't do it again. There's no point, now I know she knows I'm me.'

'That really bothers me.'

'Why? The rest of our family can tell us apart, and so can Lee, Harry and Hermione. We knew it was possible, we just didn't know any other pupils could do it,' George said.

'I'm not bothered because she can do it! I'm bothered because she knew it was you all along, and still made love to you.'

'Maybe she didn't realise at first?'

'Why did she say "Jupiter" then? I bet she started to say "George" and then changed it to the first other name she could think of.'

'Oh. I never realised,' said George. 'Well, if you come downstairs with me now, I'll apologise to both of you.'

Back downstairs, they saw Angelina talking to Katie Bell. They hovered uncertainly until she finished and came over to them, her eyebrows raised.

George apologised to them both as promised, then Fred asked Angelina why she'd gone along with him, if she knew who George was to begin with.

'I was curious,' she said. 'Besides, I wanted to see if the two of you had one of your pranks planned.'

'Well, we hadn't,' said Fred, not sounding at all happy.

'No, I know that now.'

'Curious about what?' asked Fred.

'About just how alike the two of you are,' she answered, smiling at them both. 'You're very alike.'

'Oh, wonderful,' said Fred sarcastically. 'I just can't go along with this any longer.'

'Go along with what? George promised he wouldn't do it again.'

'But you knew who he was, and you still played along completely! I thought I meant something to you. Now the first twin that comes along who wants to sleep with you -- you let him.' He wished, too late, that he'd phrased that last sentence better.

'The first twin that comes along?' echoed George in disbelief. 'What, are there hundreds of us?'

'Shut up. Look, I'm serious,' he said to Angelina. 'After this, we're finished. I can't trust either of you.' He turned and strode back up the stairs to his dorm. The other two just stood and watched him go.

'I'm sorry,' George said to Angelina. 'I never dreamt he'd react like this. I suppose I should have realised he wouldn't be too happy though.'

'If I'd realised, I wouldn't have gone along with you,' she said quietly. 'I thought it'd be fun to play along to see what you two had planned.'

'Yeah, fun, not heartbreak.'

'Don't exaggerate. Or should I take points off us both?'

'I'm not exaggerating. You saw his face. I didn't realise he was so serious about you. Sorry.'

*

Over the next few days, Fred almost ignored Angelina. He couldn't avoid her entirely, since they were in many of the same classes, but he didn't speak to her unless he had to. He hardly spoke to George either; Fred had not even asked his advice about the most recent letter he sent to Ludo Bagman about their bet. The two of them both tried talking to him, but he simply didn't reply very often. This bothered George, as the twins had never gone so long without speaking to each other, and he could see that it was upsetting Angelina, too.

After almost a week of this, Alicia came over to where Fred and George were sitting and silently working on their homework after dinner. There'd been fewer pranks and more care paid to homework since Fred stopped talking to George. They still tended to sit near each other from habit, and to avoid others finding out about the argument and its cause.

'Hi,' she said, sitting down in a spare chair. The boys nodded. 'Look, I'd like to get some more sleep at night.'

George looked at her, puzzled. 'What? We're not doing anything to keep you awake.'

'Angelina's in the next bed to me. She keeps having bad dreams, and waking me up. She finally told me this morning that it's because of you two.' She paused. 'Nothing to say? I don't know what you did, probably one of your pranks, but can't you apologise to her and let everyone get some sleep?'

'I have nothing to apologise for!' snapped Fred.

'Well, Angelina and I already apologised to you,' George told him.

'So, accept their apology and we can all get some rest!' said Alicia. 'What happened, anyway?'

'I'd rather not say,' said Fred, grumpily.

Alicia clearly didn't like his tone. 'Fine,' she snapped in return. 'If she wakes me up again, I'll ask her when she's half asleep. She'll tell me everything then.' She grinned evilly. 'Or you could try to make sure she doesn't have bad dreams tonight.' She stood again, and went back to the table she'd been doing her studying at.

Fred and George looked at each other silently, then went over to Angelina, who was sitting by herself, bent over some sort of Quidditch plan, as the parchment resembled the diagrams they were used to seeing Oliver use. She looked at them, but said nothing. The twins sat in chairs near hers, one on each side. 'What's that?' asked George.

'I'm thinking about the team, once we're playing Quidditch again.'

'Oh, a new Keeper to replace Oliver.'

'And new Beaters too.'

'We're still here next year!' said Fred, startled.

'You don't have to be in the team, though.'

'Where're you going to find two thugs better at beating Bludgers than us?' asked George.

'I don't know, but I can't have Beaters on the team who won't co-operate with each other,' she replied. 'You two aren't even talking to each other any more, so you won't be any good on the team now.'

'We're as good as ever!' said Fred hotly. 'We don't need to talk during the game to know what the other is thinking!'

Angelina sat back in her chair and looked from one to the other. 'If you each know what the other is thinking, tell me what you're each thinking now.'

The twins looked at each other. They were both waiting for the other to speak first.

'Ten ... nine ... eight ...' said Angelina.

'He's thinking that you're wrong to get rid of us,' said Fred.

George said, 'He wants us to stay as Beaters,' at the same time. They grinned at each other.

'Plausible, but not too revealing,' she said. 'Why don't you go away and discuss it, and tell me what you've decided?'

She bent over the parchment again, waving her hand at them in a dismissive gesture. The twins returned to the table they'd been sitting at, and looked at each other in silence.

George broke the silence first. 'She's just trying to get us to talk to each other.'

'Yes,' said Fred.

'It might be working.'

'Yes,' Fred said, now grinning.

'Do you think she told Alicia to worry us like that?'

Fred shrugged.

'Don't stop talking now!' George paused. 'We've never gone this long without talking before. Not even that time ten years ago.'

'I still say that dice didn't come up with a real six.'

'OK! I knocked it as it landed so it came up with a six! Happy now?'

'Finally! It's taken you ten years to admit that!'

'Is it going to take ten years before you forgive me for what I did with Angelina?'

For a moment, George feared he'd brought that up too soon, and that Fred was going back to being silent.

'Not that long, no,' said Fred eventually.

George waited to see if Fred was going to say anything more.

'Look, this isn't just a dice throw. I trusted you. I trusted Angelina.'

George nodded, and looked at the parchment he'd been working on before, to avoid seeing Fred's expression.

'On the other hand,' Fred continued. 'I can understand why you're attracted to Angelina. I like her, you like her -- it's inevitable, really. I suppose I can even understand why she went along with it, from curiosity, as she said.'

'Well, I can understand why you're not happy. If you two had split up, and Alicia and I stayed together, and you'd done that ...'

'That's a thought. I wonder if Alicia would be interested.'

George shrugged. 'She's not interested in me anymore, anyway. If you get anywhere with her, it won't bother me.'

Angelina came over to them. 'Decided if you're on the team next year yet?'

'Well, we're talking,' said George.

'I don't know about this blackmail of yours,' said Fred. 'You must've been spending too much time with us.'

Angelina laughed. 'Well, you sound better.'

'That doesn't mean I'm feeling better about what you two did.'

Angelina sighed and sat down at the table. 'Look, this isn't the first time you've pulled this swapping trick. Remember that Hogsmeade visit? You said George was doing something else, and it would just be the two of us going. But it was George who went with me, and then we went to the Three Broomsticks, where you were hiding under one table, crawling around to where we were, thinking you were invisible or something, and jumping out at us when George set off that smoke bomb.'

'That's why you didn't even jump, just said, "Hi Fred", and kept drinking your Butterbeer,' said Fred. 'I just thought you had nerves of steel.'

'The point is, this is what you two do. You pull pranks on people. I went along with the prank that time, and I went along with it when George took me up to the North Tower. Seriously, what do you expect people to do? Is it that surprising that I went along with what looked like another prank? When George was looking around at what you'd Transfigured, I was looking around wondering where you might be hiding. While we were making love, I kept expecting you to jump out at some climactic moment, just like in the Three Broomsticks.'

'But it's not the same thing as going to the Three Broomsticks for a Butterbeer! Can't you see that?' demanded Fred.

'Of course. As I said, for one thing, I was curious about how alike you were. But can't you see that the way you two always act leads people to expect everything to be a prank? Even our first time in the North Tower, remember? I wasn't sure if the divan was going to Transfigure again.'

'People are looking at us,' said George quietly. Fred and Angelina had raised their voices to a point just below shouting. The two of them looked round, and saw that a lot of people were indeed looking.

'How public do we want this argument to be?' asked Angelina.

'We can't go to our dormitory, or your dormitory,' said Fred. 'Where can we get some privacy?'

Angelina grinned at that question.

'No. No chance. We are not going there!' insisted Fred.

'It's private. It's comfortable. And it's also where this problem really started.'

'She's got a point,' said George.

'We've both seen her points!' said Fred.

'You must be feeling better,' commented Angelina. 'So, do we have this argument in private, or do we keep the audience?'

'I vote for private,' said George.

Fred looked at the others all watching them. 'OK, private.'

'It's unanimous then,' said Angelina.

*

Once inside the room, the three of them sat on the divan, with Angelina in the middle. The interruption to their argument had left them feeling awkward about starting it again.

George broke the fragile silence. 'Well, Fred didn't leap out at us. He was lying unconscious on his bed -- and that was my fault.'

'And, as I said, I can understand how you were thinking -- I like Angelina, so you like her,' said Fred.

'"Her" is sitting right here,' said Angelina.

'Sorry. It's an awkward way to argue, sitting side by side instead of facing each other,' Fred apologised.

'True,' said George, gesturing with his wand. A bench turned into two chairs. He pushed one over towards Fred, and took the other himself. Now the three of them were sitting at the points of a triangle.

'Fred, do you see why I thought it must have been one of your pranks?' asked Angelina.

'I suppose it did look like one,' Fred replied reluctantly.

'So, is this argument over now? Or are you still going to be awkward about it?'

Fred sighed, and looked down at his knees. The other two waited to see what he would eventually say. The expressions on his face, changing more rapidly than the weather in April, suggested he was having trouble deciding on an answer. It was a few minutes before he spoke again. 'I do miss you, Ange. I miss our pranks, too, George. I suppose it's stupid to carry on like this. It's hurting me as much as you two.'

'Well, the two of you are in the right place to kiss and make up -- and more!' grinned George. 'So, if this is all settled, I'll leave you to it. OK?'

'Yeah, thanks George,' said Fred. He looked at Angelina, who grinned and nodded.

'Get back on the divan, and I'll restore the bench,' said George. 'It's good to have you back, Fred.'

'Don't go yet,' said Fred.

'You just agreed I should!'

'Yes, but ...' Fred looked at Angelina. 'I was saying to George how we've always shared everything ...'

'Even me, it seems,' she said drily.

'That's sort of it. Ah ...' he couldn't quite work out how to say the next bit.

'You don't mean you want the two of you to "share" me? Like a cauldron cake?'

George shook his head.

'We wouldn't tear you in half and eat half each, but ... yes, something like that,' said Fred.

'This is ridiculous! That's what started all this argument to begin with!' said George.

'Not quite. This whole thing started when you tried to trick us both. This would be more honest; no more going behind my back,' grinned Fred.

'I don't like the way you're talking about me being shared without even asking me,' said Angelina.

'Sorry, I just wanted to stop George leaving before we talked about it. What do you think about it, then?' asked Fred.

'I don't even know what you're trying to suggest! Do you mean you both come up with me, and I make love to one of you while the other watches, and then you swap round?'

'No. I don't think that's a good idea,' said George.

Fred shook his head. 'I didn't mean that.'

Angelina frowned. 'So, do you mean that the two of you take turns to come here with me? Or are you thinking of all three of us making love at once?'

'All three of us?' echoed George.

'I wasn't thinking of that, no!' said Fred. 'How would that even work?'

'It's something I read about a while ago,' said Angelina. 'I don't know the details, it would have to be trial and error.'

'It could be... interesting,' said George. 'It certainly takes "sharing" to a whole new level.'

'If it works, yes,' said Fred.

'It could also take jealousy to a whole new level.'

'Oh, that's true.'

'Then, it wasn't what you meant, but you're thinking about it?' asked Angelina.

'I'm thinking about it. George?'

'It's a bit of a shock. Not that I object to making love to Angelina, of course!' George said.

'Of course you don't,' said Fred. 'Who would?'

'Percy?'

'Apart from Percy!'

'Never mind Percy, what about you two?' she asked.

'I think I'd like to try it at least once,' said George.

'It would be different. Yes, at least once, to see how it works out,' said Fred. 'Now?'

Angelina nodded. 'Why wait?'

'I'll make the divan wider,' said Fred, taking out his wand, 'if you stand up a minute.'

George turned the two chairs back into the original bench.

The twins joined Angelina on the newly-widened divan.

*

Later that evening, Professor Trelawney heard her 'spirit voices' again. This time, as well as Fred, the spirits seemed to be concerned about somebody called George. She added that to her notes, and wondered who these people might be, and what their fate could have to do with Jupiter. Taking down her astrological materials from the shelf, she started to analyse Jupiter's present position, in hopes of solving the mystery.

*

Aftermath

'It definitely felt as though you both enjoyed that.'

The three of them were lying, satiated, on the divan.

'That was ... quite interesting. That's the one thing I never thought that George and I would never share.'

'Same here. It just never occurred to me. I did wonder about us maybe falling for twin girls -- like those two in Ron's year.'

'Am I as good as two?'

'Better, I think. Don't you agree, George?'

'Definitely. Oh, definitely. Quite a way to make up again. Let's keep doing this, OK?'

'I'm ready to do it again!'

'I don't think he meant that. If he feels like me, he doesn't even have the energy to fall asleep right now.'

'No. I don't even have the energy to finish ...'

'Still the jokers, eh?'

'I think George and I will always be jokers. But we take you seriously.'

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