Forget Me Not || George Weasley

Chapter 26

Olive knew of Nigel and Dennis during her early years at Hogwarts, but it wasn't until her fourth year that she truly met them. 

Dennis had slammed into her in the corridor, knocking her off her feet and sending their papers flying. He was late to Potions and was already near tears when he'd knocked into her, and when she'd seen his wobbling lower lip and tear filled eyes she had wrapped the small boy into a hug so tight it had nearly hurt. That was it, a kinship started from a mutual hatred of potions and a fear of hurting others. He then introduced her to his friend Nigel, and Olive had a crush on him from the start. 

Big blue eyes and strawberry blonde curls that flopped in front of his face whenever he got excited. She fell in love with his timidness, his eagerness to impress the older students he'd been hanging out with. He couldn't tell Olive where it was he was sneaking off to all of the time, but she didn't mind. Not when he would teach her new spells that she thought would be impossible, or help her and Dennis study for potions. She knew now, that he had been apart of Dumbledore's Army. She was glad she didn't know then. She would have worried. 

She'd tried to turn that crush into love, to feel the things that her grandfather and grandmother used to fill up the living room of their home with. Nigel paid attention to her, Nigel was nice to her. Nigel thought she was funny and didn't think she was stupid. She tried, and when he saw that, he tried too. Whiskey fueled snogs and late night whispering with her hand running through those curls and his fingers dipping under her shirt had ultimately led to an awkward shag that showed that, for as much as they tried, the thing they were both looking for just wasn't there. 

And after she'd been hurt, after she couldn't remember what exactly had happened, the will to try had completely disappeared. Nigel would always be her friend, but she wasn't blind to how he looked at her scar, how he talked to Dennis about her memories. Nigel didn't look at her like he used to. Not anymore. Or at least, not that she cared to see. 

"Did you like Paris?"

He smiles at her over his pint, his tanned skin crinkling above his brows, "I liked it fine. I think Dennis would enjoy it, but I can't seem to convince him to go."

Nigel, out of the three of them, was the only one to pass his seventh year exams. Olive didn't care to, not after the strain of returning to Hogwarts. And not when she had the unspoken funding for her dream. Her new dream. Ice cream. Low pressure, sweet, and as fulfilling as anything else. Ice cream was safe, and Florean's was hers. Dennis still was struggling to fit in somewhere, and while Nigel tried to convince him to try the potioneer training along side him, Dennis ultimately declined. 

"I'm worried about him,"

Olive lifts her eyes from her untouched mead and stares at Nigel curiously. He sighs, swiping a hand over his mouth before saying lowly, "He's at a stand still, Liv. He's stuck."

"He's grieving," Olive reminds him, clenching the fist she has under the table. She peers at her barely touched food, wondering when her appetite had gone. She'd been starving earlier, when George Weasley appeared in her shop and held her hand and helped her remember Hermione's birthday. She'd been hungry, eager. And now she wasn't. Now she felt slightly ill. "Don't push, Nigel. He needs more--"

"More time," He finishes with a sigh, shaking his head and looking away from her. The war had changed people, that much was certain. It had damaged some, taken pieces of them away. Dennis, George. Her. The war had changed Nigel too, and his timidness and softness had faded. Nigel turns his head back to her, jaw clenching slightly. She shakes her head, deciding to change the subject, "Do you think you'll stay in Paris? You do seem rather happy, Nigel."

He smiles wryly, and Olive is taken for a moment by how easy it seems for him. She smiles too, quirking a brow and taking a small sip of her mead when he says, "No, I don't think France is for me." He pauses, lifting his own drink to his lips and glancing at her for a brief moment, "I have been thinking about settling down somewhere though."