Aesthete | George Weasley

Chapter 12

Christmas with her grandmother was wonderful. Tia enjoyed the peace and time she had to draw and paint. At Hogwarts, she rarely had enough time to really start painting, and even then, she was never sure if it was really a good idea to paint in the girl's dorm and maybe spill the whole floor full, so she'd left it until now. At home in her room, where everything was already full of paint, she didn't care if a stain was more or less dripping onto the floor.

For Christmas, she got new charcoal pencils, new paints/colors with brushes, but also warm clothes because Tia had written in a letter how cold it could get in the castle.

In addition, a lot of chocolate and not only from her grandmother, but also from Katie and Leanne, who immediately understood that Tia was always satisfied with chocolate. Tia had also sent different types of chocolate to her friends and added some sticks of licorice for Katie after her friend raved about it.

At home, Tia also enjoyed the food that tasted best, no matter how much paella there was for feasts, and she enjoyed a perfect, hot cup of cocoa with chili every day, as her grandma always did.

Much too quickly, as it seemed to her, the holidays passed and the time came to travel back to Hogwarts.

As soon as she entered the Great Hall with her luggage, a small whirlwind rushed towards her.

"Tia!" exclaimed Katie enthusiastically when she saw her friend. "I missed you so much!"

Tia was preparing for the impact, but Katie still pushed the air out of her lungs.

"I'm glad to see you, too." Tia gasped. "But I can't breathe."

|~|

Katie didn't miss a second and told exactly what she had experienced during the holidays. She said that she had enjoyed Quidditch with her father and assured her that now she was sure that she wanted to join the quidditch team, and Leanne told her about the new dress she had received for Christmas.

At some point, however, Tia wanted to enjoy a little peace and quiet and sat down with her sketch book and a hot coca in the common room, which wasn't too crowded until now.

She was drawing off the common room itself, with all its armchairs and homework, books and parchments lying around, when someone sat down in the armchair opposite her.

At first, she didn't pay attention to them, but at some point in the feeling of being stared at became too much, and she looked up from her work.

"Hello, George." she greeted him briefly before lowering her eyes again.

George didn't say anything at first, surprised that she greeted him before he said: "Hello. What are you doing?"

"Planning to take over the world – and all this from an armchair." sighed Tia, who hated such obvious questions. What did it look like? She clearly didn't knit.

"You're drawing, I understand." grinned George, who had understood the sarcasm. "And you're drawing... the common room?"

"My grandmother wants me to draw everything, so she can see it." Tia explained without looking up. "It also got a little loud after the others had so much to tell. I'm not ready to go back to school yet."

"So you enjoyed your holidays?" concluded George, and Tia just nodded.

For a moment, it was quiet again. Tia drew and George watched her until Tia couldn't stand it anymore, put the pen aside and looked at George directly.

"What do you want?" she asked him, and George was a little overwhelmed with the question.

"Uh..." he stammered. "Originally, I was looking for Fred, but then I saw you sitting here alone, and I wondered if you needed a little company, and then I sat down, and we started talking... I think that's why..."

"You don't have to feel compelled to talk to me." Tia vowed. "If you plot anything with Fred – I also enjoy my peace."

"I also enjoy my peace and quiet occasionally." George defended himself. "All that's missing is a cup of tea..."

Tia looked at him thoughtfully for a moment, as if trying to see through him, but finally, she shrugged her shoulders.

"I have cocoa here." she offered. "You can have a sip, too."

George blinked a few times, and somehow he got a little hot, but then he nodded, unable to speak a word, and Tia held out the steaming cup to him.

He took a sip and enjoyed the hot drink when he realized it couldn't be regular cocoa.

"Is it... spicy?" asked George. It wasn't an unpleasant spiciness – rather a slight accent that actually tasted pretty good.

"Oh, sorry, I should have warned you." Tia said quickly, blushing. "My grandmother always makes it like this... I'm sorry."

"Don't worry – it's not that bad." George waved off. "What else did I expect from the chili girl?"

"I can't help it that the English people don't season their dishes at all." Tia complained. "I mean... Yes, I really season everything with chili, but that doesn't mean that a hint of heat belongs in decent rice!"

"So you're really from Spain?" asked George quickly, but he only then noticed that it might have come across a little strange when he suddenly revealed such facts about Tia. "I... uh... I've only heard rumors and until now, I thought they were fake and-"

"Yes." Tia interrupted him before he could stammer any longer. "My family is originally from Spain – I was born and raised in England."

"Crazy." said George, impressed. "I've never been abroad. My older brother works in Egypt, but we..."

"If it cheers you up somehow, I've never seen Spain either." Tia admitted. "My grandmother always tells me stories about it."

"Here you are, George!" Fred came down the stairs of the dormitory and waved to his twin as soon as he saw him. "I found the stink bombs! We're ready to go!"

"I'm coming!" shouted George back and then turned back to Tia. "Thanks for the cocoa. See you later."

He jumped up and left Tia alone with her drawing again, but she didn't stay alone for long because suddenly, someone sat down in the place where George had just been sitting.

Tia looked up and saw Leanne's confused but amused look.

"Yes?" asked Tia, who knew the look very well and knew that Leanne wanted to say something. "What is it?"

"Was that George Weasley talking to you?" asked Leanne, twitching her eyebrows.

"Are you ok, Leanne? Your eyebrows twitch so strangely." Tia remarked, turning to her drawing of the common room again.

"Don't change the topic now! I thought you were archenemies!" said Leanne a little loudly, but Tia was still very relaxed.

"No, apparently not. He's actually quite ok." Tia waved off. "He can be very calm if he wants to."

"But it was George, wasn't it?" asked Leanne again for safety. "I can hardly tell the two apart. I just guessed it was George – it could have been Fred."

"As far as I know, it was George." Tia reflected. "They look similar, but there are differences. Maybe I'm just imagining that I've seen through them, and actually, I'm constantly confusing them."

"Stop distracting – you know I'm into drama! What did he say?" asked Leanne, her friend, and slid as far forward in the chair as possible.

"I don't know – we just talked. Why is this so important?" Tia didn't really understand what her friend had all of a sudden – she often talked to people, and until now, Leanne had never reacted like that.

"I understand." Leanne twitched her eyebrows again, stood up and grinned knowingly at Tia before running up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Tia sat there confused for a moment before shaking her head and returning to drawing. Sometimes people were weird, and she wished she could read minds to know what people wanted to say. Why did everyone always have to speak in riddles?