The War left many grieving, those who would never get the chance to tell their loved ones that they loved them one last time. Iris Brown was one of them, her twin sister ripped away from her at just 18, she never got the chance to do the things with...
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As the weeks drew closer to December Iris began to prep herself for what could be considered the worst time of the year for her. This time of jolly happy goodness still didn't feel right without Lavender by her side. The year before, she had spent the entire months of November and December feeling completely numb. She was void of emotion, and now as she hit the middle of November with her emotions on full whack she was both nervous and apprehensive for what was to come when the two weeks passed and she entered the 'best time of the year'.
Any excuse or reason to focus on something else rather than what she was dreading to come was a welcome in Iris' life. Therefore, taking on more responsibility and shifts at the pub was always welcome. She had been promoted to a duty manager, considering she was one of two full time members of staff she supposed there wasn't many others they could consider. But Iris decided to focus on the positive, Tom the current owner obviously thought of her capable enough to take on the responsibility. He after all was an ageing man hitting roughly 110, doing very well for a wizard if she said so herself, and he needed more time away from the pub in order to enjoy himself. He had no children just a niece who took on part time work in the pub but had no ambition for the place. Iris, however, loved the place more than she ever thought possible. Taking the job on this time last year, was done with the intent to just get away and try to focus on something else. But here she was just over 12 months on and not seeing herself working in any other profession.
And she supposed an even better reason to not focus on what was to come was perhaps the lanky ginger who had once again walked into the pub and made himself at home on one of the bench seats in front of the bar she was currently manning. George Weasley seemed to be a fluctuating presence in her life. Sure soon enough they would have no choice but to be around one another even more than they were at present. But the way he flickered in and out of Iris' life, even now, had her awaiting his next move. Much like a game of wizarding chess he would continue to strategise his next move constantly. Something she could never seem to keep up with no matter how hard she tried to predict his next move, it was impossible. George Weasley and his unknown thought pattern would continue to draw her in, enticed by the mystery. She was like some poor young teenaged girl, drawn in by the mysterious aspect of a person. Almost like she was crushing on the bad boy.
Iris supposed if she was being true to what she knew, considering they barely interacted at school. George Weasley was kind of a bad boy. He was definitely a trouble maker, she would probably never forgive him from interrupting her OWL exam with the fireworks. She had always hated loud bangs and that was just not nice. He was unattainable to somebody like her, a small nerdy girl who was barely known to people outside her own house. She was sure if someone like Harry Potter was ever going to write a memoir from his school days she wouldn't be included. George Weasley was also popular because of his misbehaviour, he was everything Iris was not whilst being at school. It was only ironic that in their adult years they were slowly morphing into being very similar people. Two lost halves of different souls wandering the same plane.
"Rizzo." George called out and Iris was confused as to who he was talking to for a moment. Until she noticed his eyes locked on her.
"No, my name is Iris George." Iris pondered for a moment what planet the ginger was currently on. He was acting rather bizzare.
"Rizzo." It would appear that he was also sober considering the challenging tone his words took on. George appeared as though he wanted to annoy Iris and get her agitated, and it was working.
"I will kick you out if you call me that again." Iris wished that his little name wasn't getting to her. But she was Iris, she had only been called Iris in her entire life and she knew what film he was referencing with the name 'Rizzo'.
"I dare you Rizzo." George had leaned forwards to taunt her further.
"You're in-despicable." Iris sighed as she turned away from him. Considering it was only 10am in the morning, she chose better than to provide him with his normal alcoholic order. Rather heading towards the coffee machine to use the hot water feature. A silver kinda rough looking single person tea pot was very quickly filled with a tea bag inside. Not forgoing the also rather rough looking, maybe not porcelain, cup she placed them both down in front of the troublemaker. Happy that he seemed to be at least feeling up to joking about. Even if it was at her expense.
"Yeah but you think it's cute." At George's words all Iris could do was give him a smile. She wished she could deny it in a manner which didn't obviously sound like she was lying. But that was a problem considering she could not do that.
"Drink your tea and get lost." Iris waved him off before heading in the direction of someone new in the pub she didn't recognise. It wasn't a common occurrence and she was going to try her hardest to turn this new comer into a regular patron.
She attempted to ignore George whilst he was sat at the bar. But he was making it rather difficult for her to do this. And therefore, in order to just see why he so desperately wanted to see her, Iris did once again venture back to standing in front of the bar stool he was sat in.
"What is it George? You're interrupting my customers." Iris wanted to sigh as she spoke but didn't want to give him that honour of seeing her agitated by his actions.
"Well, there's this new place opened up near the park. Wanna grab dinner together?"
"Are you asking me out?" Iris' tone was teasing, but there was an underlying sliver of hope to her words. One that she assumed he would not catch onto. After all she had seen how dense his younger brother was and hoped that it would be a similar situation.
"Oh god no, nobody else will go with me. Lee is busy and I don't have many other friends so it's down to you." His words hurt Iris a lot more than she thought it would, she thought she could hide her feelings but there was an initial pain much like she was having a heartbreak. But all she could do was hope that she wasn't giving him a grimace.
"I suppose I have nothing better to do."
"You get off at 7 right? I'll come past and pick you up at 8pm. Don't dress too nice, don't want people thinking it's a date."
"Who'd want to date someone who wears purple dragon's scale anyways. Now get lost you're interrupting my pub." Iris waved him off with her tea towel, that had been slung over her shoulder since she had started the shift at 9am.
She watched George go, that cheeky smile on his face like he had just won the world. But all she could think of was the way that things were obviously only one sided. Like he really didn't care that much about her, well maybe he thought of her barely as a friend. Whereas she thought of him as someone between a friend and something more, it wasn't appearing to be the same on the other side.
And she pondered, as she watched him go, whether this day would continue to slap this fact in her face. It was turning into a really bad stressed out day. Sure she might have been over reacting but Iris wouldn't deny being a little dramatic. After all she was just a 19 year old girl.
