Blue moon ; George Weasley

Eight

The very next day, Esme was leaving her dormitory as early as possible, being the only one in her dorm to be awake already.

She was walking down the stairs as she looked at the timetable that she had woken up to. It had been put on her dresser.

She had had an uncomfortable dream, her mum having been in it. Esme didn't like dreaming about her mother. She'd rather not even think about the woman. It hurt too much if she did.

In the dream, her mother had sat down with Esme and talked about the future.

Fred was in the common room. He had been up early as well and when he noticed Esme come downstairs, he offered her a smile.

"Good morning, Ess. Sleep well?"

Instead of answering properly, she just hummed, not wanting to get into the dream about her mother.

"What are you doing?" She decided to ask as Fred sat with something on the sofa. "Did you get the map back from Harry?"

"The map?" He asked and looked at her. "No, Harry's still got that."

Sighing, Esme slumped down next to her friend, now noticing what he was doing. He was writing a letter.

"It's the first day back. Who could you possibly be writing?"

Esme reached out for the letter but Fred laughed as he moved the piece of parchment out of her reach.

"None of your business." He grinned, getting up from the sofa to move over to the armchair. "What're you doing up so early?"

"No reason. Are you gonna owl it?"
Esme pressed on, and Fred shook his head. "So it's to someone within the castle? Is it a love letter?!"

Fred slowly raised his eyes to look at her as if she was completely insane.

"Do I remind you of someone who would put time and effort into writing a love letter?"

Esme shrugged. No — she knew he wasn't the type, but now she was curious. Fred was writing someone within the castle and he didn't want Esme to see.

What Esme didn't know, was that Freddie was gonna slip Elliott a small note, warning him about ever breaking her heart.

He may not have been the one deeply and madly in love with her, but she still meant everything to him and he needed to keep her safe from anymore heartbreaks.

Esme hadn't admitted to dating Elliott, but Fred wasn't an idiot. He knew that she had started dating her childhood friend.

Though he didn't know why. She had hated him for several years and suddenly she was sneaking around with him?

How long had she been sneaking around?

"Is George asleep?" Esme asked, and Fred nodded. "Lee too?"

"They both are." He told her. "Why?"

With a small grin, Esme got off the sofa and hurried up the stairs towards the boys dormitory, Fred calling after her multiple times without getting an answer.

She snuck into their dorm, carefully shutting the door behind her.

Esme had read a book about muggle pranks and she now felt very excited about trying it on George and Lee.

She had to pass the time with something and breakfast wasn't ready for another ten minutes.

Making her way to George's dresser, she smiled to herself. George kept a can of shaving cream in his dresser, even though he couldn't grow a beard.

He had bought it to try and convince everyone that he could and that he wasn't a child.

Of course, George wasn't a child. He was seventeen — of age.

Esme grabbed the can of shaving cream and then walked back to George's bed, carefully grabbing his hand to turn it around.

She sprayed it into his hand and then did the same to Lee before putting the can away. She hurried out of their dorm and downstairs to Fred who had no idea what Esme had been up to.

"Are they awake?" He asked and Esme smiled, shaking her head while throwing herself on the sofa.

"Can I ask you a question, Freddie?"

"Sure."

"Do you consider me attractive?"

Fred froze, thinking for a moment, wondering if he heard her right, and then he looked at her to see her already staring at him.

"I mean... yeah." Fred shrugged. "Why?"

Esme didn't know how to answer that. So instead she just decided to give him a compliment.

"You're quite attractive as well."

He couldn't help the small chuckle leaving his mouth. Then he sat up straight and put the new folded piece of parchment in front of him on the sofa table.

"So... you think George's attractive, do you?"

"What?" Esme sat up as well, suddenly sweating. "No— no! I said you."

"Yeah, but we've got the same face." Fred grinned at her. "Which means... if you find me attractive, you find him attractive."

"You—" Esme felt her face grow hot and Fred found her reaction amusing. "— you're annoying. I'm gonna—"

As Esme stood up, Fred cut her off while grinning widely. "You can't leave the common room before six."

He was right. It was five minutes to six and students were only allowed to leave their common rooms in the morning at six o'clock.

Ignoring Fred, Esme walked to the bookshelf in the room, grabbed a random book and seated herself at the table below the window which was across the room from him.

"What're you reading?" He asked, but Esme ignored him, feeling both annoyed and embarrassed. "Oh c'mon, Essie. Don't be upset. What're you reading?"

Scoffing, Esme closed the book and frowned at the title.

"Adventures of Martin Miggs, the mad Muggle." She muttered, realising she had grabbed a children's book.

Sighing, she pushed the book away from her and turned in the chair to look at Fred.

"What time is it?"

He shrugged. He was having so much fun frightening and embarrassing Esme.

"Why are you in such a rush?" He asked. "Got anyone to meet? A certain Slytherin, perhaps?"

"A Slytherin?" George's voice echoed through the room and Esme quickly stood up.

"George!" She exclaimed, watching her friend join them in the common room, his face oddly enough clean and free of shaving cream.

Maybe he had cleaned it off immediately. Maybe he wasn't going to confront her about it.

"Good morning." George offered her a soft smile, wondering why she was so on edge, and then he turned to his brother. "Shaving cream... really? You're better than that."

Fred laughed before shaking his head.

"What are you—" then his eyes landed on Esme and the realisation hit him. "...that's what you were doing? Pranking them with shaving cream?"

And at the same time as George and Fred looked at Esme, there was a scream from the boys dormitories.

"Shaving cream?!" Lee screamed. "George! If you put shaving cream in my hand— it's in my hair!"

The sound of the clock hitting six o'clock filled the common room and before Lee could storm into the common room or before the twins could say something, she had hurried out onto the staircase.