Miss Mischief ▶ George Weasley

Chapter Thirty-Six

If there was one class that Emerson could easily live without, it was Astronomy.

Professor Sinastra was a nice person, there was no doubt about that, but having to be up in the Astronomy Tower at midnight was something Emerson would rather not do. Honestly, she'd prefer sitting in an eight hour long History of Magic lecture than drag herself out of bed.

Emerson pulled on her robes and shoes, groaning at the ache in her back. Madame Pomfrey still recommended that she go to sleep early. Well, making up at eleven thirty sure didn't help that. Before heading down to the common room, she conjured up a glass of water and put a drop of the elixir in it. Instantly the pain was gone.

Most of the Gryffindor fifth years were down in the common room already, moping about and whining about wanting to go back to bed. Fred and George were among them, half asleep on the couches.

"Come on, you two," Emerson said as she approached them. "Leave the sleeping for during class."

George opened his eyes at the sound of Emerson's voice. "Sinastra will roll us off of the Astronomy tower."

"I have some candy if you want some?" Emerson pulled open the pocket of her robes, revealing a large amount of chocolates and other treats. "A little bit of sugar might keep you awake."

Fred grinned and held out his hand, letting Emerson drop a handful of candy into his palm. "Well aren't you sweet."

"You're like a walking Honeydukes," George said as he tore open the wrapper to a lollipop. Emerson smiled at him and she opened up her own lolly.

"You all can just call me the candy lady," Emerson said as she started walking towards the portrait hole. "Now let's go before Sinastra actually has a reason to push us off the tower."

While Emerson didn't like waking up in the middle of the night for an hour of class, the beauty of the stars somehow made it worth it. It was like the night sky was a face with little white freckles dotted through out it.

The students were learning about the moons surrounding the other planets. By the end of the year, they were expected to memorize each of the moons of Jupiter.

"Why do you think Earth only has one moon?" George asked as he peered through a telescope.

"Sinastra's probably told us," Emerson told him. They were charting some of the major constellations. She didn't know why George was asking about the moon. "Probably something to do with gravity."

George hummed in response, continuing to look at all of the different stars in the sky. "D'you ever wonder what it would be like to live in space? Or even just go to it?"

Emerson looked up from her notebook, looking at George carefully. His face was strained as he searched the night sky through his telescope, trying to find all of the September constellations. He was focused, which Emerson thought was quite cute.

"There are people who think that within the next fifty years that we will be living on Mars. But at the same time, many people think that the first moon landing was fake," Emerson said. "I think it would be scary going to space."

"Why's that?"

"I dunno, i just can't imagine just being in a giant machine in the sky where anything could go wrong," Emerson shrugged. "Also can you imagine if you were by Saturn or something and then suddenly aliens started coming at you? It just sound scary."

George laughed. "Aliens aren't real, Emmie."

The familiar feeling of angst developed when Emerson heard George's nickname. Emerson just pushed it off and laughed with him. "People all of the world don't think that witches or wizards or giants or werewolves or elves exist but here we are. We live in another world. I'm sure there's a world were aliens roam around, probing strange humans. Like yourself."

George looked down at her from his telescope. "You're very philosophical. Maybe you should become a philosopher or teach about the history of other worlds."

Emerson smiled. "No, I think that would make me too much like Binns. I think I'll stick with potions and things like that."

"Only you would want to willingly study potions," George shook his head. He took a break from the telescope and sat on the floor next to Emerson, looking over her arm to see her sketches of constellations. He was so close that Emerson could feel his warmth, hear his breathing, and smell the forest. How the hell does he smell like the forest?

It took all of Emerson's willpower not to just lean over and kiss him. But she couldn't, she knew she couldn't. First, George didn't know about Emerson's feelings and Emerson didn't know if he even liked her back. Second, they were in class.

"Which one is this?" George reached over and pointed to a constellation in the vague shape of a cross.

"Cygnus," Emerson said. "It's a swan. Some people think that it's really Zeus, the Greek god just disguising himself."

Pushing the notebook aside, Emerson stood and grabbed George's hand and pulled him upright towards the telescope. She peaked through it, moving it just enough to find the constellation hidden among the sea of other stars. When she found it, she stepped aside to allow George to see.

"Wicked," George muttered quietly. He pulled away and looked down at Emerson, watching her as she looked up at the sky. "Truly wicked."