Elusive // The Weasley Twins

12. O'Connor & Company

It was crowded, but George expected the grounds to be. Three years after the battle and friends and family of those who were lost had come to pay their respects. George glanced to his right and saw Harry, Hermione and Ron standing a few feet away from where the family gathered.

Hermione had her arm clutched around Ron's as she rested her head against his shoulder. She pulled out a tissue from her pocket and wiped her tears away with it while Ron relied on his sleeve to dry his eyes.

Harry stepped away from them and caught George's stare. He took his glasses off to wipe his eyes as well as he made his way towards him. He glanced behind George at Lottie who was standing next to Ginny and Molly.

"Where's Cosette?" Harry asked him, craning his neck around the field, already knowing that she wasn't anywhere in sight.

George shrugged his shoulders, "At home probably."

"I thought she would have been here today," he shoved his hands in the pockets of his jacket, "You know, she already took the step to rejoin the family. Sort of expected her to be here with everyone."

"Honestly," George took a breath, "I'm not surprised."

"No?"

"This is a lot for her all at once," he started to explain, scanning around for any more familiar faces. "She'll come back here on her on time, when she's ready."

Harry nodded understandingly and darted his eyes towards Bill who was stepping up to join the two of them. He was staring off towards the headstones on the opposite end. Both George and Harry turned as well to see what he was looking at.

"Is that..."

"It can't be," Harry scoffed, rubbing his hand over his chin.

George squinted, but it didn't help his vision at all. All he saw was a young man with dark hair kneeling next to a grave. He stood up slowly and wiped his knees, but he continued to stand in front of the stone.

"Who is that?" George asked, turning back towards Bill.

But Bill didn't answer him, instead he looked over his shoulder and called for Percy to join them. Percy walked up to George's other side and looked around at the group of them, "What's up?"

"Is that Nicholas?" Bill asked him.

"Nicholas O'Connor?" George clarified turning to the guy again. "As in, Setty's brother, Nicholas? That Slytherin prick?"

"Who are we looking at?" Ron appeared virtually out of nowhere, probably having seen their little huddle and felt left out.

"Setty's brother," Bill confirmed George's words.

"Nicholas O'Connor is here?" Ron's eyes went wide as he scoured the ground furiously. "That man's a legend! Where is he?"

And he technically wasn't wrong. Nicholas O'Connor was a student at Hogwarts, just a year older than George and Cosette. He also carried the Slytherin Quidditch team on his back for the majority of those years. As much as George hated to admit it, he was one of the best Keepers to ever play at Hogwarts.

After graduation, he even went on to play professionally with the Falmouth Falcons and as far as George knew, he was still with the team.

But George couldn't stand him. None of the Weasley's liked him, except for Ron. He caused chaos with his friends all throughout his school years and it wasn't the same type of pranks that him and Fred pulled. No, Nicholas O'Connor was ruthless. He bullied younger students for the fun of it. He used his position as the Quidditch team captain to avoid doing homework, or he made other students do it. George couldn't even count the number of hexes that he managed to get away with.