Flames of Eternity // George Weasley

15. Ravenclaw Tower

Hello everyone, first I just wanted to say that I am so very sorry for the long wait for this chapter. I promise, this won't become a regular thing. This is my longest chapter thus far, so I hope you all enjoy it.

And now, I just to say thank you so so much for 100K on this story. I can't believe two months have already passed since starting to write this. It feels surreal and I never would have thought you guys would enjoy it just as much as I do. You guys are seriously amazing with your support—not just on this platform, but TikTok as well, where I've seen many of you recommending it. I'm so grateful and lucky to have all your guys' support.

I love you all ~ claudia

Song for this chapter ~ Pierre by Ryn Weaver

George's POV

The two weeks spent back at home over the holiday turned out to be more than I could've ever expected. Although it started off not particularly great, every other day was even more amazing than the next. It was one thing for me to have spent the holidays with Calista and have her meet my family, but having finally admitted to how we truly felt about each other was like having a huge weight lifted off my chest.

    As excited as I was to head back to Hogwarts with her alongside me now, I began to come back to the reality of her predicament with that vile scumbag and how it would be handled. I didn't want to seem overly domineering and scare her off, but his last spoken words to her did in fact get me worked up, especially with the lingering memories of his past threats as well.

    "I don't see them anywhere," Fred spoke, peering into each compartment we passed by as we continued to walk down the train's long corridor, momentarily looking back to shoot a smile at Calista, who was now trailing behind me.

    "There they are," I said, pointing to a compartment up ahead where I now saw Oliver heading into. As we approached it, ready to greet our friends and take a seat, Fred abruptly stopped in his tracks as he looked inside, making Cali walk into my back. "Hey, watch where you're going," I said, giving her a smirk, before looking up to see the cause of my brother's sudden halt—Angelina.

    As we all said our 'hellos' to one another, excluding Angelina who sat glaring at Fred—Oliver, Andy and Lee stood around awkwardly, now giving Fred and I guilty looks as if to tell us they'd be sitting with her for the rest of the ride. Quickly catching onto this, I told them we'd see them later in the Great Hall for dinner, the three of us now making our way further down the corridors to find ourselves a compartment.

"Why not over here," Calista spoke, tugging at my sleeve and leading Fred and I into the direction of a girl now walking into a compartment.

"Looks like someone's already taken it," I said, pointing to the girl who I now remembered to be the one who I caught Fred staring at the one time in Hogsmeade.

"It's okay, I know her...so does Fred," she spoke, now catching the attention of my twin who up until this point seemed to have something clouding his mind. "Hey, Rowan," she spoke, directing her words to the girl who now looked up from her luggage to see the three of us standing before her, quickly shifting her gaze to Fred. "Is it alright if we join you? Everywhere else is full."

As we stood there, waiting for a response to Calista's question, the girl quickly realized how long her and Fred had stood looking at each other.

"Um...yeah, of course," she muttered, turning to face Calista once more, as we now all took our seats—Fred placing himself next to Rowan, the two of them offering shy smiles to one another.