Chapter 15

POV George

George had thought that Umbridge had already been a menace before the holiday’s but that was nothing compared to how she was after the Christmas holidays. It was clear that she wasn’t happy that Dumbledore allowed them to leave the school before the holidays had officially begun.

It was Friday night before the Valentine’s Day when George was sitting on a sofa in a corner of the common room. Hermione had just left when Fred sunk down in her now empty place next to George.

“So, are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?” Fred asked him with a smirk on his face.

“Yeah, I’m going with Hermione in the morning, but she said she had a thing to do around midday so if you are also in Hogsmeade we could do something together then.”

“I know what we can do.” Fred replied his smirk was now a big smile.  “You remember that I told you that I’ve had written to the landlord of the shopfloor we’ve seen in the daily prophet.”

“Yeah sure” George replied not entirely sure what Fred was going for.

“Well, he said we could go and take a look at them.” Fred said excitedly.

 “Sure, that’s a great idea. I just hope no one will notice that we are gone. And I’m dam well not gonna tell Hermione about it.”

“Great then I will meet you just outside of Hogsmeade around midday.” Fred said with a big smile before he left George again.

George was awake early next morning it was 7:30 a.m. He had agreed with Hermione to meet her around nine o’clock for breakfast. He contemplated for a moment whether he should go back to sleep or whether he wanted to get up. But he soon had to realise that he wasn’t able to fall back asleep, so he quietly got up and dressed. The common room was empty expect for Crookshanks who was lying on the sofa by the fire. As soon as he saw him, he got up and came up to him meowing.

George bend down to pat him.

“This must mean Hermione’s up as well.” George whispered.

After some time he straightened back up and climbed through the portrait hole.

When he arrived in the great hall Hermione was the only person at the Gryffindor table.

“You’re nearly an hour early.” Hermoine said with a smile on her face when he sat down opposite from her.

“Well, so are you” He replied whilst he cut open a bread and started to spread butter on it.

“What are you going to do whilst I’m doing my thing with Harry?” Hermione asked before she took a big bite of her own bread.

George froze for a moment but since he was just pouring himself some juice Hermione didn’t seem to have noticed it. He hadn’t told her that their dream to buy a shop to pursue selling their products would probably be reality soon.
He and Fred had planned to go to tour some possible shopfloors in the Diagon alley. He hadn’t told her partly because they will break some school rules with them leaving the premises and partly because he doesn’t want to tell her that he will leave school early.

“I will do something with Fred.” he answered after a short pause.

But Hermione didn’t seem to recognise his hesitation. She simply nodded and carried on eating.

George hated not being able to tell her what he actually was going to do but as long as nothing was final, he didn’t want to tell her more about his and Fred’s plan.

“I thought I would need to wait for you forever” Fred said in a dramatic tone when George arrived at their agreed location.

“Well, I am sorry but now I am here to spend my whole afternoon with you, honey.” Georged replied and tried to match Fred’s dramatic tone.

They agreed to meet behind Hog’s head since there usually were very few people. Their plan worked as they looked around, they saw no one.

“Ready?” Fred asked George.

“Ready when you are” George with a faint smile.

He still wasn’t sure if this was a good idea. He realised how much he had changed since he started dating Hermione. Before her he would have never doubted their plan. But then again as of right now he wasn’t really doubting the plan he rather wasn’t sure how mad she will be when she will eventually find out. He had no idea how he is going to tell her. If this meeting goes well, he had no idea how soon Fred would want to realise their plan. Besides Hermione there were very few reasons to stay in Hogwarts till the end of the year.

While thinking about that he started to turn, and they both vanished from Hogsmeade.

George hadn't been to Diagon Alley for two years. He wasn’t used to it being relatively quiet. He had only been there when there were numerous Hogwarts students also shopping for their school stuff.

Fred led him to a little office which was cramped between two shops. He had never noticed it before. Fred went in before him. A bell rang and an old looking man looked up from his papers.

“You must be Mr. and Mr. Weasley.” The old man said.

“Indeed, we are” Fred replied with a big smile on his face

“Pleasure to meet you” George added.

“So Mr. and Mr. Weasley what do we think about this one?” The man old man asked. He had shown them various shopfloors al afternoon long.

“Well, me and my brother will have to discuss this together before we can tell you anything definitive but we will contact you as soon as we’ve made an decision.” Fred replied quickly before George could say anything.

“We really should leave now the dinner is about to start at Hogwarts” George said, “But it was very nice meeting you and like my brother already said we will contact you soon.”

When they reappeared in Hogsmeade Fred immediately said “We can talk about this later tonight or maybe tomorrow morning but right now I am starving.”

George had nothing to add to that and just followed Fred.

The sun had almost completely set when they finally arrived at the castle.

“Where have you been for so long?” Hermione asked as soon as George sat down next to her.

“I am sorry we lost track of time.” George replied after he gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “How was your afternoon, got everything done like planned?”

“Yeah, and I think it will lead to a great result.”

“Care to finally tell me what exactly you plan was or is?”

“No not really you will see when it comes out.” Hermione said with a Hermione untypical grin on her face.