III- George

I felt my eyelids get droopy as Fred and I sat in the living room making the final touches of the products that we would be selling at the school over the year.

"Welp." I clapped my hands. "I think I'm gonna get a glass of water and call it a night."

"Mmm." He acknowledged me while still engrossed in his work.

When I had reached the sink, I heard a loud crash coming from the fireplace.

"Sydney?" I heard Fred say.

At the mention of her name, I felt my heart rate speed up, as it always had since I could remember. I subconsciously groomed my hair with my fingers, making sure it didn't look too raggedy.

"What are you doing here?" Fred asked.

I put the cup I was going to pour water in on the counter, as I heard her sob. I walked to the living room where Fred and Sydney were now hugging. She must've gotten out of bed as her pajamas were covered with soot, and her auburn hair was all over the place. I could hear her breathing heavily against Fred, and it took every ounce of my willpower to let Fred be the one who comforted her as it was normally my job.

"Do you want him?" Fred asked as her crying to pick up again, noticing that he wasn't really calming her down.

I saw her nod. When she untucked her head from Fred's shoulder, our eyes met. Instantly all of the pain she was feeling came crashing down on me.

"Shh," I told her as she came crashing into my chest, her grip tightening on me each second scared to let go. "Everything will be okay."

Instead of answering I could feel her silently sob heavily into my chest. I felt my heart breaking into tiny million pieces every second that passed seeing her like this. All I wanted to do was make this pain she was feeling go away, if I could bear it for her I would in a heartbeat. Fred met my eyes and left the room to leave us alone.

We just stood like that for a while, with my whispering to her that everything would be okay, until she finally said, "My dad left."

She pushed herself off of my chest to meet my eyes. Hers were bloodshot but seemed to relax as soon as she saw my face.

"I woke up to loud noise downstairs and caught him with bags." I wiped the tears away from her face as she told her story. "He told me he was sorry, that he tried as long as he could, but he never wanted a family…kids….me."

I felt anger wash over me, he told her he never wanted her? Who could not want her, she was the absolute sweetest person on the planet with a heart of gold. I pushed her back into my chest, and I felt her relax as I ran my hand through her hair.

"I didn't know what to do." She mumbled. "The only thought that went through my head was that I needed you."

I kissed the top of her head. "I'm always here," I reassured her.

-*-

I sighed as I fell onto my bed in the dorms. I had just gotten back from the pitch with Sydney and it was as mentally draining as it was physically draining. She wasn't kidding on her fear of Bludgers was intense, and with her schedule, we won't get enough time practicing around Bludgers as I'd like until the match next month.

"Oh, you're back!" Fred called as he walked into the room. "How was the library study date."

I rolled my eyes at him. I kept my promise, I didn't tell Fred about her fear of Bludgers, which meant I couldn't tell him about my exact whereabouts and come up with an excuse that he wouldn't really wanna join us. Telling him I was going to join her in the library and study with her was a really big turn-off for Fred on wanting to spend time with us.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize you sitting in the library with her studying and you staring at her wasn't a date. Wait, it never is."

I reached over to the bedside table and found a book and threw it at him. I have been in love with her for as long as I can remember, and Fred always loved to tease me on the fact I was in love with his best friend. He laughed and sat across from me on his bed.

"I got some news!" He said cheerfully. "Apparently in Potions class on Monday, Angelina was talking to some Clare chick-"

I groaned at the mention of her name.

"Oh, you know her?" He asked.

I scratch the back of my head. "Yeah, sort of. She asked me to walk her to class, she's got this idea that I like her."

Fred raised his eyebrows. "Is there something you neglected to tell me?"

"No," I laughed. "She apparently had come up to Syd on Monday asking about us, and she had hinted to her that I liked her."

"And I bet you didn't even proceed to tell her who you actually like?"

Over this past year, Fred has been hounding me to finally tell Sydney how I feel about her, that eventually, she will be someone else's. Every time I tell myself I was gonna do it, I chicken out by the time that I see her as fear washed over me that I might lose her. At this point, I've come to the conclusion that I probably will never be able to tell her.

"You know that I haven't."

He clapped his hands. "Ok, then you're really gonna like this news. You have a date next week Saturday night."

"With who?"

"That Clare girl. We're double dating."

"You and Angelina?" I asked in disbelief.

He was so adamant that he wasn't thinking about dating until later in life, but we all knew that he liked her.

"Yeah, but that's not the best part." He said nonchalantly. "We'll be at The Three Broomsticks, specifically at three, which is the same time Sydney will be working. I checked."

I felt my hands cover my face and my fingers made their way to my temples, and slowly rubbed them.

"Why on Earth would I like this news? The last thing I want Sydney seeing is me with someone else."

"No, no sir. That's exactly what you want." He explained. "You obviously can't tell her how you feel, so we apparently need to provoke some jealousy into her to get her to admit how she feels."

I scoffed. "Okay, is that before or after she gets over her stupid crush on Isaac."

"Could you sound anymore jealous?"

Even though she thought no one knew about the stupid little crush she had on her Quidditch Captain, she obviously never saw her face flush so badly when he talks to her, it was just like back in the day when she had a crush on Percy. As kids growing up, she acted the same way with him. Isaac could tell though, her inability to speak up against him. He's using this crush she has on him against her and playing her in the next match. Adding to the list on why I can't stand him.

I laid back where my back rested against my headboard and sighed, "I don't wanna talk about this anymore."

Fred began monkeying with papers that were on his bedside table. "Are you in for next week?"

"Yeah, sure why not."

"Awesome." He said whilst handing me papers. "I need you to take these to Journey."

Journey was Sydney's owl, that she deemed as "our" owl. Her parents had bought Journey for her at the beginning of First-Year. She had brought her over to our house the day she had gotten her and introduced her as "our owl". I even got to name her(Fred wanted to name her Owl). She was always like this, sharing her things. Even when she made the Quidditch team, before he left, her dad would buy her the number one broom on the market and let Fred and I use it on the matches we weren't playing Ravenclaw.

"Why can't you?"

"Because she likes you better." He pointed out.

I sighed as I took the papers from him. "Fine, but you owe me."

"I got you a date."

"Not the one I wanted," I muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing!" I told him as I walked out of the dorm.

"Yeah, that's what I thought!" He called after me.

-*-

As I got to the owl tower there were only ten other students in there getting their mail. When I got over to Journey's cage, I brought a handful of specifically made owl treats I had concocted for her, which I hope tasted like mice as that was what I was intending for but I wasn't willing to test out that it did. She playfully nudged her head into my open palm after eating.

"Good girl." I petted her.

As I tied the letter Fred wanted to send out to her leg, I look to see the letters that were left at the bottom of her cage. They must've gotten dropped off by the school owl. I quietly picked them up as Journey left the tower to go deliver Fred's message. I separated the letters from Sydney's weekly Quidditch news and the Transfiguration Today papers she subscribes to every month. At the number of letters that were it looks like neither she nor Fred had been up here this week. When I was about to put her stuff into the cubby that was outside Journey's cage I came across the O'Connor family wax seal in the last letter.

I ran my finger over it. I didn't have to open it to know who it was from. After all her dad had left her family over the summer and hasn't had any contact with him since. It had plunged her mum into massive debt that Sydney had picked up a job at The Three Broomsticks to help relieve the financial stress off of her.

The night her dad left had flashed through my memories. I remembered how utterly broken she was over it. She still has so much hatred for him, and the last thing she needed on her plate was trying to mend her relationship with her tool for a dad. I put the rest of her mail in the cubby and shoved the letter from her dad in my pocket.