If You'll Have Me | George Weasley

Chapter 31

THE SUN awoke her that morning, shining through the sheer curtains and onto her face. She was set to leave after the weekend and awoke that morning with George by her side. They decided to stay at the Burrow that night and leave the responsibilities of the twin's shop to deal with later. It wasn't as important as the time they had left together, George told her, and for the first time in a long time, she feels lighter.

She could not help but examine his face as he slept. Could not help but revel in the peacefulness masked across his face, or the flutter of his eyelids as if he was dreaming of something wild. Something felt different between them that night as they slept, and that morning when she woke. She was not bombarded with the sickening feeling that she might lose him in a couple of weeks. For once, she felt like she had him, and it was a feeling she could get used to.

Percy's bedroom was not fit for two, and neither was the twin-sized bed they slept in, but it still felt oddly comforting to be here in the place where everything had started.

Eleanor slowly creeps out of bed, careful not to wake George beside her, and slips out into the hallway. The girls. She wanted to see Ginny and Hermione, but they were not in their room when Elle peeked in. She only assumed they were downstairs when a pan clattered in the kitchen.

Hermione was standing in front of the stove as Ginny was beside her, using magic to whisk away at something in a bowl. It was a poor attempt at being silent, and despite them trying to talk in hushed voices, they were still talking loud enough that they could not even hear Eleanor walk down the stairs.

"Look at you two." Elle teases, causing the girls to jump. "I didn't know you were chefs."

"I'm not," Ginny says and drops her wand, causing the whisk in the bowl to stop moving. "We didn't think you'd be awake."

"We were going to surprise everyone with breakfast. Gotta make the most out of your last few days here." Hermione says, still too fixated on the pancakes she was trying not to burn.

The summer had flown by. It seemed like only yesterday they were laying out on the lawn, blowing dandelions in the wind that blew gently above the field, causing the tall grass to dance. It felt like their trip to London was a fever dream, that all the secret moments she'd had with George were fast-forwarded. She fears that she'd taken all those little things for granted while she had them.

Eleanor steps further into the kitchen and catches a glimpse of the disaster that Hermione was desperately trying to hide. She was known to be a perfectionist, but perhaps she'd had more to drink at the Leaky Cauldron last night than she'd like to admit. "Let me help," Elle tells her, but Hermione dismisses her by raising her hand.

"No, no. I promise this isn't going as horribly as it looks." She laughs, but it sounded more like she was trying to convince herself of that than anyone else.

Just then, the tea kettle on the stove begins to brew as Harry and Ron walk down the stairs, their faces still fresh of exhaustion and a slight hangover.

"Oh, thank God," Harry mumbles, reaching for a pancake off the small stack on the kitchen table. "I feel horrible."

"We know you can't handle your liquor, Harry," Ginny says with a hint of sarcasm which causes Ron to laugh. He then raises his gaze to Eleanor.

"Decide to move back in for your last few days, eh?" Ron asks her, and she shrugs as she walks to the cupboard containing all the coffee and tea mugs. She opts for the blue one with flecks of white paint embedded within.

"I missed the quiet." She teases, and the kettle lifts itself to pour her a cup of tea.

It was true that she hadn't stayed at the Burrow since the twins began to work in the shop. Because of their desperate need for help, she felt obligated to stay there, although she missed these mornings sitting around the kitchen table and going to the creek after breakfast, and doing nothing more or less.