Elusive // The Weasley Twins

77. Tunnel Vision

Understandably, panic filled Cosette and George,

George could see the gears grinding in Cosette's head and he already knew what she was thinking. If she was going to choose any moment in her life to jump to conclusions, it would be now.

"Lottie," Cosette breathed out. "It had to be Lottie."

"Let's take a second," George instructed. While her name was appearing in his mind in flashing red letters, he really didn't want to think of the possibility that it could be her. "We don't know for sure who it-"

"Don't be so naive, George," she cut him off harshly, but the apologetic look on her face made it clear to George that she was reacting out of anger and fear. "I'm sorry, I just don't know who else would have pretended to be me to steal my fucking wand."

"But why would she need your wand?" He asked the question that was on both of their minds. "And how would she even know that you didn't have it? She's been out of our lives for nearly a month. She doesn't remember you cursing her."

"No, but she remembers me attacking her," she retorted back, beginning to pace around George's office. George took a second to close the blinds over his windows. "You only obliviated the memory of the curse but she remembers everything else that has gone on. Did you honestly expect that she would just move on from you so easily? That she would stop putting up a fight?"

And maybe George was naive to think so. He thought that what Cosette had done was enough to scare Lottie away indefinitely and he didn't want to do or say anything else to Lottie that had the potential of coming back to hurt them.

"She hasn't bothered us since that day," He tried to put the pieces together himself. "Why all of a sudden now would she just come back?"

"She saw her opportunity and she took it," Cosette shrugged her shoulders. If somehow, Lottie knew that Cosette was without magic there was no doubt in her mind that Lottie would use that to her advantage. Cosette couldn't defend herself if Lottie came at her.

But George wasn't convinced. He shook his head, racking his brain for literally any other explanation. "Can we think of other possibilities, please? If we go and find Lottie and it turns out not to have been her, it's only going to start more problems. I love you, Setty, but for once in your life you have to think rationality."

Hearing him say that he loved her definitely had her stopping in her tracks for a brief second, but it wasn't enough to calm her down completely. Cosette was convinced that this was Lottie. She didn't know how and she didn't know why, but it had to be Lottie.

But for George's sake, she decided to humor him and help him think of alternatives.

"Nick?" George asked.

"We know it's not Nick because he was with me all day yesterday."

"All day?" George repeated. There was a chance he slipped out on his own for a bit. And if Nick wanted Cosette and him to move out together, maybe he was acting selfishly by not letting her take her wand back. Maybe Nick had it in his mind that if Cosette went back to George, he would lose her and that's the last thing he wanted, especially after falling out with his father.

"All day," she confirmed. "We went and looked at the new flat, we got lunch after and then we went to Gringotts so he could check his account. Then that evening he went to practice and I sat in the bleachers and watched. He didn't even go out for drinks or anything after, we just went home."

So Nick was officially off the list.

"Hermione and Ron have absolutely no reason to want to take my wand either," she continued.