Just Like Magic (George Weasley)

Twenty.

On Valentine's Day it was a Hogsmeade weekend. George and I decided against going to Madam Puddifuts because we knew all of the couples were going to be there and it was going to be packed, so we decided to go to The Three Broomsticks Pub instead. I prefered to drink Butterbeer during the day than tea anyway. We had a great time, too. I very much enjoyed our first Valentine's Day as a couple together. It just reminded me how lucky I was to have him.
   
The beginning of March was kind of wild. We woke one morning to the news that Umbridge was now the headmistress of Hogwarts, and Dumbledore was nowhere to be found. I sat at the Black Lake with Harry, Ron, the twins, and Hermione during break from classes just to ask Harry what happened. 
   
They said it was Cho Chang’s friend Marietta that snitched on what they were doing. Harry said that Dumbledore took full responsibility for the D.A., saying it stood for Dumbledore’s Army, not Potter’s Army, and that Harry was merely a member of the Army and not the founder, which was a total lie. I was just glad that Sirius Black's daughter was far from this whole situation.
   
Then Hermione tells us that they ran into Draco and his goons this morning and he docked them all nearly 50 points. I guess the new Headmistress has given her Inquisitorial Squad the power to award or take away points from the houses now, which is too much power for the Slytherin’s to have if you ask me. That’s when Fred and George spoke up, saying that they put a student in a vanishing cabinet for trying to take away points from them.
   
“But you’ll get in terrible trouble!” says Hermione, of course that’s her first concern.
   
“Not until Montague turns up, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him,” said Fred coolly, “Anyway…We’ve decided we don’t care about getting into trouble anymore.”
   
“Have you ever?” Asks Hermione.
   
Then the twins start doing that thing where they start finishing each other’s thoughts, “Course we have,” said George, “Never been expelled, have we?”
   
“We’ve always known where to draw the line,” said Fred.
   
“We might put a toe across it occasionally,” said George.
   
“But we’ve always stopped short of mayhem,” says Fred.
   
“But now?” Asks Ron tentatively.
   
“Well now –” says George.
   
“– What with Dumbledore gone –”
   
“– we reckon a bit of mayhem–” said George.
   
“– is exactly what our new Head deserves,” said Fred.
   
“You mustn’t!” Whispered Hermione. “You really mustn’t! She’d love a reason to expel you!”
   
“You don’t get it, do you Hermione?” Said Fred, smiling at her, “We don’t care about staying anymore. We’d walk out right now if we weren’t determined to do our bit for Dumbledore first. So anyway,” he checked his watch, “phase one is about to begin. I’d get in the Great Hall for Lunch if I were you, that way the teachers will see you can’t have had anything to do with it.”
   
“Do with what?” Asked Hermione anxiously.
   
“You’ll see,” said George, “Run along now.”
   
We all head into the Great Hall then. Filch comes in and retrieves Harry and takes him out of the Great Hall. It made me nervous. What more could Umbridge possibly want with him? I didn’t know. It wasn’t very long after that when we heard the first major BOOM! Come from right outside the Great Hall. That’s when we all decided to get up and run out the doors to see what the twins were up to.
   
Dragons composed of green and gold sparks were soaring up and down the corridors, emitting loud, fiery blasts and bangs as they went. Shocking pink wheels five feet in diameter were whizzing lethally through the air like so many flying saucers. Rockets with long tails of brilliant silver stars were ricocheting off the walls. Sparklers were writing swear words in midair of their own accord. Firecrackers were exploding like mines everywhere you looked, and instead of burning themselves, fading from sight, or fizzing to a halt, these pyrotechnical miracles seemed to be gaining in energy and momentum the longer you watched them.
   
I have never been more proud of the Weasley Twins before. They’re for sure going to put Dr. Filibuster out of business once they open their shop. Umbridge came out of her office, trying to stun the fireworks, but there were too many of them for her. The more she tried to vanish them, they multiplied. She screamed every time it happened until she finally learned her lesson.
   
They never did catch Fred and George for that little act, and their fireworks continued to get lost all over the school for the rest of the day. George was very proud of himself, and his brother, for doing this prank. They were heroes in the Gryffindor tower that night.
   
Something Fred said didn't really sit right with me. When he said that he and George didn't care about staying at school anymore gave me a bad feeling in my stomach. George didn't feel that way, did he? He would have told me.
   
He had more reason to stay than Fred did, so it made sense Fred would feel that way and not George. Right? Like my brother. George knows Joshua looks up to him, and that he needs him here. He wouldn't leave him like that. And me, of course. He wouldn't leave me. That would just be cruel.
   
It was the end of March when Harry had asked Fred and George to cause a distraction so he could sneak into Umbridge’s office and use her fire to talk to my dad.  They said they would, and it made me so angry. George told me all of this on a walk outside on the grounds  after dinner.
   
"If you guys get caught Umbridge will not hesitate to expel you," I remind him after he tells me all of this.
   
"You think I don't know that?" He asks, his tone slightly condescending. I didn't like it.
   
"I don't want you to leave," I told him, my tone was desperate.
   
He shrugs my worries off like their nothing, "I know, but it's not like we're never going to see each other again."
   
"What about Joshua? The kid adores you and you're just going to leave him just like that? And Ron and Ginny you just don't care?"
   
He sighs, kind of loudly, "It's not that I don't care, darling, but if Fred and I have to leave  it's better than getting caught and getting thrown out." Tears were in my eyes, threatening to pour out of my eyes. I wipe them away. "Darling why are you so upset? It's not like I'm breaking up with you."
   
"That's what it feels like," I admit. My voice was on the edge of breaking. "Everyone ways leaves me. This feels no different than everyone else."
   
Confusion is all over his face, and his tone matches it, "What are you talking about?"
   
"First my dad, and yes I was too young but I remember what it was like to grow up without him. And then my mum died, and Remus stopped coming around after that and I hardly saw my brother for years. This feels no different than everyone else leaving me."
   
"Darling," he says, a smirk on his lips and a slight laugh in his voice, "Don't you think that's a bit dramatic? I'm not leaving you."
   
"Don't you tell me I'm being dramatic because you don't agree with how I'm feeling," I nearly shriek. I was so upset right now. "Why am I not enough to make you want to stay?"
   
"I don't have a choice if we get caught, and we're going to get caught. We know we will."
   
He just didn't get it. He didn't understand what this was going to do to me, or my brother, and he didn't care. I was enraged. I've never been so angry. "Well fine," I say, crossing my arms over my chest, "you leave with Fred and you go run your joke shop and have a good old time. I'll right here, where you fucking left me."
   
I turned to walk away from him, but of course he follows me. "You don't get to say all of that and then walk away from me."
   
"I'm done talking," I tell him, "I have nothing more to say."
   
"We can't let my time here end like this."
   
"You're the only reason I'm upset right now. You are making me feel this way, not me. You know what to do to make it better, but you won't. You refuse to. You've made your choice, and now you’re the one who gets to go off and run your shop and be happy and I'm the one that's going to be here alone, without you. Don't you see how that hurts? Gosh I can't even look at you right now. So please just leave me alone."
   
I start walking again, this time he doesn't stop me. He lets me leave. That, of course, didn't make me feel any better.
   
I was in Flitwick’s class that next day when we heard the loud boom and the entire class followed her out of the classroom to see what was going on. The twins didn’t tell us what they had planned, but we knew it was going to be big.
   
I saw Hermione and I went over to her. She was in Umbridge’s class right now. “What have those idiots done?” Asks Hermione in a very angry tone. A swamp was now filling the corridor of the fifth floor’s east wing. Umbridge was frantically trying to get everyone to get away, but no one listened to her. We all just watched as the twins did what they did best; cause mayhem.
   
They were caught rather quickly, of course considering that we were only a floor underneath Umbridge’s office. She got George by the arm and Filch grabbed Fred and he handed him off to Umbridge as she said something I couldn’t hear over the commotion. They went with her without a fight.
   
That was when I walked back to the Dungeons to the Slytherin Common Room. I didn't want to see any more of this. On my way there I can hear Fred as he yells, “If anyone fancies a portable swamp, as demonstrated here, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley! Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes! Our new Premises!”
   
George calls, “Special Discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use our products to get rid of this old bat!”
   
The twins started their way out of the castle. Only stopping when they saw Peeves the Poltergeist and Fred tells him, “Give her hell from us, Peeves!”

__________________________
Here's part 20!

I know it didn't end very happy there.

Yeah she's being kind of selfish, but also like totally valid at the same time?

It's odd. I know.

-Emily Winchester.