misdirection ⤷ g. weasley

[14] the three broomsticks

Marlee's POV

Tension grew between me and George. We talked less outside of school, seeing that he started to spend more time with Serena, and would talk like usual before class started. Until one day he didn't say a word to me. I thought maybe he was just in a bad mood so I didn't say anything about it. But then it happened the next day and everyday after that. Soon we stopped talking all together.

Angelina informed me that we would be having sessions for the newly named, Dumbledore's Army, in the Room of Requirement and since George and I weren't on a talking basis anymore, my only friends in D.A. were Angelina and Ginny. Although, I soon became a bit closer with Alicia and Katie too but they were awfully quiet—more so Alicia than Katie.

We'd been working on disarming, which as you may know, I already have some experience in. However, others like Neville were struggling a bit. But then again I was in the older half of the group.

Cho and Harry got a lot closer as well and I would occasionally tease her about it. She told me she was very conflicted about her feelings for him since she was still grieving over Cedric.

My worries about being the only Slytherin in D.A. went away after everyone came to realize that I was just an older (and better) version of Cho. Plus, being such a tight group and sharing this secret, it was better that we all got along. I was enjoying my time with my new friends so much that I forgot George was in the group as well. Despite Fred being with Angelina most of the time, George was always with Serena off to the side.

Once after a hard day's work in D.A., Angelina invited me to go to The Three Broomsticks with her, Alicia and Katie. Ginny eventually ended up also coming along.

"So what's going on with you and George?" Katie asked as we got our drinks. I gulped, knowing her and George dated a couple years ago.

I didn't really know how to answer this considering that I didn't even know what was going on myself, "I...erm...I actually haven't spoken to him in awhile."

"Really?" Angelina sounded surprised but I was just glad that meant my name was never brought up in their common room conversations.

"Yeah...we just haven't been able to see each other," I nervously drank my Butterbeer, hoping we'd move on from this topic.

"Don't you sit next to each other in Umbridge's class?" questioned Angelina. I forgot she was in that class with us. I wondered why she didn't notice that we stopped talking then. I guess she was too busy making eyes at Fred.

I wasn't in the mood to talk about this so I just made something up, "Yeah but I'm always far too busy catching up on my late work and he is...busy doing that too."

Merlin I sound dumb.

"If I'm being honest, it's Serena," Ginny blurted. "She's taking all of George's time, I mean he barely has time to hang out with us anymore!"

"It's true," added Ang.

"Well," Alicia leaned in, "I did hear them arguing once."

This got Ginny excited, "What about?"

Alicia looked around to make sure nobody we knew was around and we all leaned in to listen. "I'm not sure the context but all I heard was Serena talking about some girl that makes her feel insecure or something."

Oh no. She's good, she's really good.

Ginny gasped and yelled, "The girl is you, Marlee!" A couple heads of other diners turned to look at us.

"Well obviously but why would she say that? I mean we all know she's not actually insecure, so what's the reason?" Angelina pondered.

"She just wants to make my life hell," I shrugged.