"LIKE"

LIKE: be fond of; George Weasley couldn't believe it, he liked Lorelei Black — maybe even something more, I mean, he had kind of liked her before, around the time they'd started Hogwarts till the time he got slap-slammed by her to the ground (which he frankly deserved, if he was being honest) and he still had to do so much more to convince himself to not act on that crush, and let it die, and it had, he'd then developed a crush on Angelina Johnson, but then Lorelei Black strutted back into his life and he was left with the feelings swallowing his heart whole and this time maybe even more than before.

George watched as Lorelei brought down her record player along with a tray full of vinyls, most of which he knew she'd stolen from her aunt, and the other half was her father's that he left behind, Lorelei had bought only a few of those in there, but George knew she still took great pride in her vinyl collection for someone who'd stolen almost all of it.

"Queen or ABBA?" she asked and everyone started talking at once, George watched the grey eyed Ravenclaw shake her head as her and Birdie passed each other a look.

"We have to go with Queen," Sirius told her and Andrew nodded his head in agreement, Lorelei reached for 'The Game' by Queen.

"Oh, shut your mouth" Sirene told the two men she then turned to look at Lorelei, "Play ABBA kid" Tonks agreed with Sirene.

Lorelei looked between the three confused at which one to pick, she then saw Remus in the corner sitting alone with a small frown on his face, "Uncle Moony, you're the tie-breaker here, pick one — Queen or ABBA?"

"Uh..." Remus looked between Sirene, Tonks, Sirius and Andrew, all of them had their eyebrows raised at the werewolf expecting an answer, "What about The Beatles?"

"Goddamn it, Moony" came the collective response and whining of the Black twins, Remus remained unbothered by the sound he'd heard almost all his school life, "That's not how it works, dumb bum! Choose one!"

"Hang on, why do the old people get to make the choice?!" Hope said with her brows furrowed from the other end of the room, "We're all literally here..."

"Excuse me, young lady?" Remus objected with his eyebrows raised at his daughter, "Who are you calling old?"

"You?" Hope said as if it was the most ridiculously obvious thing in the world, Remus looked scandalized.

"Hey" came a yell of protest from almost everyone in the room, "If it wasn't for us, you wouldn't even know good music, ungrateful child" Remus flicked her forehead.

"Well—" George watched as Lorelei tried to defend her friend, but she couldn't find a proper response, "No, I have nothing, you're right about that"

For some reason, George found it funny.

He had no idea why.

He just did.

George Weasley found Lorelei Black funny.

So unbelievably funny.

"If it wasn't for you, we wouldn't even be here!" Birdie retorted back, "Who's got the upper hand, now, huh?"

The adults blinked.

"How about this? We just listen to someone else instead," suggested Lorelei trying to end the debate and actually use the vinyls she brought down from her room, "How about christmas classics?"

"That seems appropriate" George agreed and Lorelei looked at the others with a hopeful look, they all looked at each other for a second before another debate started about the Christmas songs and what songs they should play first, Lorelei let out a tired sigh and then joined George on the floor near the fireplace.

"What about you?" Lorelei asked him and George turned to her confused at the question, "What songs do you want to listen to?"

"Uh" George thought for a moment before he realized he hadn't really listened to muggle music that much since Lorelei and him had fallen apart years back, "I don't know, I don't really remember the artists you made me listen to"

Lorelei looked offended, "Oh, come on! Not even one artist?" she asked him as she nudged his shoulder.

George paused as he tried to remember that song Lorelei and him were obsessed with as a kid, "Oh, I remember this — uh, what was it? Right, uh, I started singin' bye-bye, miss american pie?" he sang in a weird tone, he was completely off-pitch, but he didn't mind.

Lorelei smiled at the memory of a seven year old version of her forcing George to sit through the songs she loved, this song, this song was theirs, "Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry"

George joined in with a small chuckle as both of them struggled to finish the song because they'd start cracking up the second they looked at each other, "Them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye"

"Singin' this'll be the day I die. This'll be the day I die" the two of them finished, Neveah Ross walked in, she too hated that she'd ruined the moment, but she had something to talk to her daughter about — something important.

🫐

"SO?" asked Lorelei as Neveah pulled her out of the room because she had some important matters to discuss, Lorelei will admit — she had no idea what her mother wanted to talk to her about, and it bothered her just a little, but she was probably being a bit paranoid as she always does, Lorelei crossed her arms as the cold hallway sent a tiny chill down her spine, "What did you want to talk about?" she asked with a small nervous grin stretched on her lips.

"It's— I'm—" Lorelei watched her mother stutter as she struggled to form sentences, well sentences that made actual sense, not just sentences. Lorelei raised her eyebrows expectantly hoping for something else rather than the mess of a combination of words.

"Mum, you've got to give me something here" Lorelei said with a small grin, "My mind doesn't work like a computer that rearranges words in the order they should be in."

"You know that I love you, right?" Neveah grabbed Lorelei's arm and tried to break the news to her as gently as possible.

"Yes?" Lorelei said narrowing her eyes.

"And I want you to know that I'll always love you, no matter what happens" she told the younger girl who frowned just a bit.

"Mum, just tell me already" Lorelei said as she felt herself growing more and more nervous by the second, "What is it?"

"I'm— I've been dating someone for the past two years" Neveah told her daughter and watched as her face fell the small nervous grin turning downwards into a confused frown.

"Oh?" Lorelei said as she stepped backwards just a bit, Neveah had a wincing expression on her face, "Well, uh, that's— that's ok"

"That's not it, El" her mum said and she fiddled with her fingers before she pulled her left hand up, and in her ring finger sat a ring with a pretty diamond in the middle, "I said yes"

"Oh?" Lorelei said this time with a bit more surprise in her voice, Neveah looked at her daughter waiting for a response other than that, something, anything, "Why are you telling me this? What do you want me to do?"

"I don't— I don't want you to do anything," Neveah told her daughter as she reached out to hold her hand but Lorelei stepped back, "El... I just... I wanted you know that—"

"Know what, mum?" Lorelei asked, her voice sounding a bit on edge, "You weren't ready for us all those years ago, and now you suddenly are?"

"Lorelei, you know it's not like that" Neveah tried to explain, but her daughter cut her off.

"No, mum, that's exactly what it is" she argued, "You weren't ready for dad, and you weren't ready for me, but now you've met this random guy and suddenly you're ready? You're ready to marry him?"

"It's not a random guy—"

"I don't care!" Lorelei exclaimed, her grey eyes filled with fury, she had tried to not let her angry get the best of her, but it happened — it was almost like that anger was bubbling inside of her, waiting to just explode and break free and Lorelei had just allowed it to, "But I guess you don't either since you're so ready to move on with your life, from us, from me, I'm sure I've been holding you down"

"No, honey..." Neveah reached out for Lorelei once again only to be met with another cold response as Lorelei held her hand up creating this space between them.

"What now, huh? You're gonna marry him? Have another kid?" Lorelei asked with a dark chuckle, "You planning to stay for this one or...?"

Neveah watched as her daughter walked away and inside one of the empty rooms of the house, she was tempted to follow her, yes, but she knew that Lorelei probably needed space now more than over so Neveah held herself back, she shouldn't have done this — she should've just said no, she should've known that Lorelei's wasn't ready for this.

I mean, what was she even expecting? Lorelei would be happy for her? She'd congratulate her? Maybe give her a hug? She should've known better, she had been the one to ruin her childhood and now she's ruined their relationship once again.

Lorelei looked down at her shaking hands, she then tugged at her hair as she walked around the room, she couldn't let it happen again — she had to do something, something to occupy her mind.

The piano.

Lorelei rushed to the little stool and sat down on it staring at the black and white keys with her hands floating just above them, almost touching, she gently placed her fingers down to play a chord, with no music sheet in hand she only played the one song she remembered—

It wasn't even a real song, just something she'd made up as a kid, but it was nice. It was familiar and Lorelei was fine with it. She wondered if she'd blown it out of proportion with her mother, but she stopped — she didn't want to get more angry anymore, it was exhausting, everything annoyed her these days, everything made her angry and it was so tiring having to control her emotions because she didn't want to explode like a bloody volcano and here she was doing just that a few minutes ago.

Lorelei Black needed to stop letting her emotions get the best of her.

haha so...the weather?