Chapter Text
The air in the castle that night was crisp, wind ripping through windows as two pairs of footsteps ran down an empty Dungeon corridor, a third pair of feet hobbling after them, followed closely by four paws.
“Get back here, you PAINS!” Filch shouted after the two blurs of red hair running ahead of him as they barely stifled laughter. Filch knew he couldn’t keep up with the young boys, so his feet slowed to a stop. His head turned down to where Mrs. Norris sat at his feet, “We will catch those two next time…”. And with that, Filch retreated back to making his rounds.
Up ahead, around the corner, stood the infamous troublemakers, Fred and George Weasley, heaving, half from their run and half from shushed laughter. “Did you see the way he tripped chasing us around those corners? HAH, priceless!” touted Fred as he rested his hands on his knees. Just as George was about to respond, the two whipped their heads around when they heard footsteps approaching them.
“I don’t get today’s whole entire potions lesson, it's actually starting to piss me off, Lia!” whisper-shouted a girl's voice down the corridor from where the twins stood. The two shared a quick, panicked glance and ran to hide behind a large pillar at the entrance to the Slytherin area of the Dungeons. Poking their heads out from behind the concrete, the boys saw two figures headed in their direction, decked out in the telling dark green of Slytherin house, their robes billowing out behind them as they walked gracefully down the cold corridor. “It's really not THAT complicated, Daph. I will explain it to you tomorrow in the library during our study sesh…”, spoke the other slightly shorter girl.
As the girls walked past the stone pillar, George hated that he immediately recognized the voice and that head of golden-brown hair. While he would never let any of his friends find out, his mind reeled with barely retained excitement at the idea of catching a small glimpse of…her. While Fred eased out a sigh of relief at not being found loitering outside the Slytherin Dungeons, George was still holding his breath from the pure subconscious reaction to seeing the woman who haunted his dreams, hell, not only his dreams but his thoughts.
Ever since George saw Cordelia Lionesse step out of a sleek black car at King’s Cross Station at the beginning of their fourth year, when she finally joined the student body of Hogwarts after years of traveling with her family, George felt something within his mind click into place. Like there had been a missing piece, and the second he saw her standing by her massive pile of luggage, that piece was found. His hopes and dreams of ever having a chance with the intimidating girl were quickly doused when the sorting hat proclaimed proudly that her home would be in Slytherin house. He quickly learned that Cordelia belonged there. Whether it was spreading awful rumors, having an even bigger superiority complex than Draco Malfoy himself, or gossiping rudely in the courtyard with her clique of equally imposing girlfriends, Cordelia was a Slytherin through and through. And no matter how much George was supposed to hate anyone and everyone even remotely like her, he could never quite force his mind to hate the girl...
Fred suddenly snapped his fingers, and George rapidly blinked as he left his mind and refocused on the cold Dungeon walls around him, playfully shouting, “Hey, what was that for?” Fred’s eyes rolled, “You were staring off into space…I was starting to worry you had eaten one of our Out of Space cake prototypes…” and George only shook his head, all thoughts of Cordelia being tucked back into the dark little hole he kept them in. “No, no, no! Sorry, I was replaying the image of Filch running after us!” George said almost too quickly, only to cover up his true thoughts of the privileged Slytherin.
Fred and George quietly laughed and discussed their next prank on Filch as they walked back to the Gryffindor common room, but George couldn’t help but let a small fragment of his mind to wander back to Cordelia. He often found himself replaying every moment when he happened across her path. Whether in the Great Hall at breakfast, when she pushed past a group of Hufflepuffs, or when she accidentally ran straight into George while rushing to her next class, offering zero apology, but George getting to replay the moment she actually looked at him over and over in his mind was payment enough.
George knew that if anyone ever found out, especially his family, of his thoughts toward the “evil, snobbish bitch” as Fred once referred to Cordelia, he would get his head chewed off. He already knew Cordelia couldn't care less about his existence, but that didn’t stop his continuing interest in the girl.
George never quite knew what caused his keen interest in Cordelia. Maybe it was simply how gorgeous George found her. Or, or… maybe it was that one night…that one fateful night in the library a year ago. No people. No noise. No reputation to uphold. No friends to entertain. Just the two of them. Sitting in comfortable silence as they studied for Snape’s potions exam. That silence ended up being broken by a simple question from Cordelia’s lips. “What’s with your whole jokester gimmick?” A question that carried a slight tone of judgment or disapproval was answered by George in a joking way, ironically. “It’s not a gimmick, it’s a way of life!” George snickered out with a simple eyebrow raise to drive his point home. That line of questioning turned into a three-hour-long conversation where the pair somehow let down their walls just enough to catch real glimpses of each other beneath their extravagant public personas, one full of pranks and laughter, and another full of gossip and sneers. Maybe it was the exhaustion that allowed them to be so free with one another… or maybe it was something deeper that George is convinced they both felt—that feeling of belonging, freedom, and ease. Maybe George was so enamored by Cordelia that he imagined her genuine laughter at his jokes that one night… that he had hallucinated her rambling on about a muggle book she found interesting… and maybe he just saw a shadow lying over her face instead of a slight blush as he tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. George knew all those happenings were true…but they were short-lived. A one-night stand of emotional vulnerability between the two students who are such opposites, from such different worlds, that if the other ever uttered a word of that night, the whole of Hogwarts would be shocked.
Cordelia hadn’t spoken a single word to George since that night a year ago, besides an occasional insult or quip aimed at him or his group of friends. Little did George know that was all about to change...