Chapter 97: 22nd September 1991, Sunday: Part 3

George ended up leaving the Library reluctantly with the yellow book in his possession. He booked it out for a month but he was pretty sure that he'll be returning it the next day since there was only so much he could need to read that was relevant to his situation. George hadn't lost all hope yet since Pince had inadvertently given him another option. Maybe she was right and some of his friends had borrowed the books he was looking for, he would have to ask to find out.

He checked the time and noticed that the Gryffindor Quidditch team practice was about to begin in ten minutes. That meant that there was a high chance of Neville and his friends currently making their way to watch and support Harry, this would allow him to talk to Neville before their next potion class. He immediately headed down the moving staircases and towards the exit of the school until he was blocked by a group of boys and girls standing in the middle of the corridor. They were all dressed in orange protective clothing and carrying brooms, two of the girls were struggling to carry a large wooden chest.

George didn't try to navigate past them since he had recognised them instantly as the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The group were standing around a boy who appeared to be giving a pep talk, everyone listening looked exhausted even though they hadn't started practice yet. After a minute, the monotonous pep-talk ended and the team stopped blocking the corridor, they walked out of the castle and headed toward the quidditch pitch. George recognised Harry with his new Nimbus 2000 at the front of the group talking to a guy much taller and older than him who must have been Oliver, the Gryffindors team captain and keeper.

He also recognised two identical twins with ginger hair pretending to sword fight with their beater bats as they walked across the field, George did not doubt that they were the infamous Fred and George Weasley up to their normal antics. Behind the team of seven Quidditch players was another group comprising the people he was hoping to meet. George saw Neville, Ron, Seamus and Dean tailing the Quidditch team with an excited looks on their faces. He knew that Harry had only had his new broom for three days and this was probably his first time flying with the rest of the team. Therefore, all of his dorm room friends must have made sure that they were available to watch him practise.

George could overhear the conversation from a distance and recognised that they were discussing Harry's new broom and were wondering how fast he was able to travel from one end of the pitch to the other. George was not particularly keen on talking to Ron until after Halloween, but he didn't see this as an issue since he was only asking Neville and his friends, bar Ron, if they had a copy of the books he was looking for. Therefore, George increased his pace and caught up with the group.

He snuck up behind Neville and whispered into his ear, "boo."

In typical Neville behaviour, he leapt into the air in surprise and stumbled over his own feet. He almost pushed over Seamus if it wasn't for George grabbing hold of his robes and pulling him back upright. Neville turned around with his face flustered but he relaxed the moment that he recognised George.

"Stop doing that to me, you're gonna give me a heart attack. Why can't you say hello like a normal person?", Neville panted with his hand pressed against his chest.

George shrugged his shoulders whilst smiling and responded, "and where would be the fun in that?"

Neville looked at George from top to bottom with a perplexed expression on his face.

Then he asked George, "did you get taller?"

George shook his head, "nope, you must be getting smaller."

By this point, the rest of Neville's group stopped following the Quidditch team and turned to face George. It was only when George was standing around a group of boys the same age as him that he realised how tall he was for his age. He wondered if he was destined to live like Hagrid when he grew up, forever towering over professors and students alike. It would become problematic if people started to think he was half-giant as well since he already had enough prejudice from the Slytherin house to last a lifetime. Then again, George might be spending the rest of his life in a cave so maybe it didn't matter either way.

Seamus and Dean had expressions which clearly showed they had no idea who George was. but Ron's squinting eyes and furrowed brow seemed to be putting two and two together. George could feel the suspicion already starting to culminate from the ginger-haired nuisance.

He kept a jolly smile on his face as he turned back towards Neville and asked, "aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

Neville took a few seconds to look back and forth between George and his roommates before he realised that they hadn't met yet. George would compare Neville's brain to an old car that had been sitting on the driveway a bit too long; it took a few turns of the key before it showed any signs of life. Clearly, Neville had forgotten that George lived in a completely different part of the school and wasn't present in the majority of his lessons, so there would be no reason for George to have met his other friends yet.

Neville eventually gestured toward each of the other boys while introducing them, "err… okay. He's Ron, that's Seamus and that's Dean."

George could always rely on Neville to make things way more awkward than they needed to be, it was one of the most endearing parts of the innocent boy's character. George maintained a reserved attitude as he just held up his hand and waved, he was letting the group take the initiative to start the dialogue.

Ron was the first to break the silence, "are you really a muggle-born, or is that just something Slytherin made up?"

"I can't say for certain since I've never met my parents. Both of my foster parents are muggles though so I'm basically a muggle-born either way", George answered openly.

Ron didn't seem convinced, "well how come you're so good at potions then? Even Hermione can't make them as good as you and she's a right know-it-all. Are you trying to tell me that you've never touched a cauldron before comin to Hogwarts?"

George could put the effort in and come up with a believable excuse for his talent in potion class, but, he didn't see the point.

He merely lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers in front of Ron and jokingly said, "it's my magic fingers."

Ron seemed to take this answer as some form of provocation as his face stiffened. George knew that trying to convince Ron was a fool's errand since deep-seated prejudice wasn't something that could be washed away with a few pretty words and a fun story. It was going to take a lot of time and a good facade to drop Ron's guard. Sadly, George would have to start befriending him at some point since Ron was intrinsically connected to Harry and Hermione, the mission demanded his compliance to work.

Ron gestured toward Dean as he asked, "Dean, you're a muggle-born. Ask him something only a muggle would know."

The attention was shifted to Dean as the poor boy's eyes darted around nervously, he didn't look happy to have the spotlight suddenly forced upon him.

Dean appeared to be in deep thought contemplating a muggle question before he raised his head and asked George, "who do you support?"

George chuckled in response to Dean's question since it was so predictable, everything always came down to football. Practically every boy in Britain, who was a muggle, would have an answer to that question and it could make or break a friendship in the blink of an eye. Personally, George didn't have an opinion since he wasn't interested in sports, but that didn't mean he didn't keep himself educated on that topic just in case. George had Dominic to thank more so than any of his books since he was a massive football fan, it came up at the dining table at least once a week to Amanda's annoyance.

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George answered confidently, "Man United, and you?"

Dean looked equally surprised and happy after hearing George's answer, he must have not had a chance to talk to another boy with a muggle background before today. Rather ironically, Dean's first conversation about muggle football was with a Slytherin which was the last place anyone would expect to find a football fan.

Dean smiled and said, "West Ham."

George acted surprised as he filtered out the relevant information from his memory of footy trivia, "really? I've never met a West Ham supporter before. Let me guess. You're from East London, Essex maybe?"

Dean looked even more surprised as he lent back and said, "yeah, I am. You could work that out from the team I support?"

George held his hands out with his palms facing the ceiling and tilted his head, "you can tell a lot about a person from the team they support, especially when it's barely in the league. How do you fancy your chances this season?"

Dean looked to be offended by George's words, "what ya sayin? West Ham is going to thrash Man United, just you watch."

George played along with the banter, "I don't know what world you're living on, but there's no way Man United is going to lose to West Ham. I wouldn't be surprised if West Ham is kicked out of the First Division."

George might have said a little too much as Dean looked like he was about to throw down the gauntlet. He wasn't lying though, West Ham was doing badly at the moment which was probably why Dean was taking the insult so badly. Luckily for George, Ron butted into the conversation before anything kicked off.

"What are you two goin on about?", Ron said irritably.

Dean turned to Ron whilst pointing at George, "he's saying my team sucks."

Ron just looked even more confused than normal, "is this about that 'leg ball' you've been talking about?"

George and Dean rolled their eyes simultaneously at Ron's ignorance of the most popular sport in the world. Neville just looked happy to be part of the group even though he also had no idea what they were talking about. On the other hand, Seamus was looking toward the Quidditch pitch with a concerned look on his face.

Seamus said anxiously, "I think Harry is flyin on the Quidditch pitch, they've started without us."

Seamus's announcements seemed to wake everyone out of their stupor as they all looked toward the Quidditch pitch. George could faintly see the ant-sized orange figures of students riding brooms, they were flying back and forth whilst throwing balls at one another.

Ron hurriedly proclaimed, "you guys can talk about muggle stuff another time, we have to go now before Harry thinks we've forgotten about him."

All of the children ran off toward the Quidditch pitch without saying another word except for Neville and George. Neville was going to run off with the rest, but he saw George standing still and probably thought that it would be rude to ditch him without talking first.

Neville shyly asked him, "was there something you wanted?"

George looked back towards the book he had been carrying and remembered why he had introduced himself in the first place. Even during his holiday, his mind could get so easily distracted by something as trivial as football.

George shook his head and answered Neville, "since you asked, I was wondering if you've loaned any books out of the Library recently?"

Neville thought about it for a second and answered, "just one about water plants in the Mediterranean. Why?"

It was a long shot and George hadn't expected much, Neville never had an interest in animals anyway. He knew that if there was a topic that Neville was passionate about, it certainly wouldn't be anything that didn't grow out of the ground.

"It doesn't matter, don't worry about it. I'll let you go and catch up with your friends. Have a good weekend", George said whilst smiling and waving his hand.

He was just about to turn around and leave when he heard Neville's voice, "you could come with us if you like. I know it isn't your house practising but it's still pretty cool to watch. Harry has got this new broom that is really fast, everyone's talking about it."

George stopped walking and seriously considered Neville's offer. He didn't have a reason to agree but he also didn't have anything better to do other than read his book about dragon breeding. He only had one day left before he stopped his relaxation project so it was probably in his best interest to do something conventionally fun for a change.

Having made up his mind, George turned around with a big smile on his face and said, "sure, why not? I could do with a little fresh air."

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