September 1998

Ginny left for her final year at Hogwarts on Tuesday morning and Molly had been dreading it for the last sixteen years. From the day her and Arthur first took Bill to Platform 9 ¾ she knew one day all of her children would be finished with school and blazing their own trails in life as adults, not needing her help for every little thing anymore.

But expecting the inevitable never made it any easier. Letting her youngest child cross through the platform between 9 and 10 for the final time was quite emotional for her, but with Fred's loss it only hit her harder.

Matters weren't helped by the fact that Ginny had already practically had one foot out the door as she was planning on moving in with Harry immediately upon finishing school. Many tears were shed as Ginny boarded the train for the final time. Arthur did his best to comfort his wife, reminding her that their children would never truly leave them, no matter how far they went. Even Fred was still with them in their hearts.

With Molly's increasing sense of uselessness in her empty home, she decided she wanted to start having as many family dinners as possible. It was difficult to work around everyone's differing schedules, but most of the Weasley children were more than willing to come to the Burrow at least once or twice a month.

However, George wasn't really interested. If it wasn't for his desire to make his mother happy he'd be content only returning to his childhood home for the holidays. But even if he really wanted to avoid it, living with Charlie meant he would never be able to.

Ever since moving back from Romania, Charlie was enthusiastic about any excuse to spend more time with his family. It was a nice sentiment and Molly was thrilled that her second oldest always seemed keen to see her, but the whole thing annoyed George who would much rather keep to himself.

Due to Charlie's excitement, he and George were the first to arrive at the Burrow that evening. They were so early their father hadn't even returned home from work yet. The brothers had left Verity in charge of closing the store when Charlie's constant checking of the time began to annoy George.

Upon entering the home, the boys were greeted by the delicious smell of their mother's cooking. If there was one thing George missed about living at the Burrow, it was having a home cooked meal every night. Charlie and George were both quite hopeless in the kitchen, they usually ended up eating noodles or sandwiches for most of their meals.

Though Charlie had just recently mastered making cheese toasties and was quite proud of their expanding rolodex of meals, nothing they ever made came close to what their mother could whip up.

"Oh, hello dears! I wasn't expecting you for another half hour." Molly said with a tone of excitement in her voice as they entered the kitchen.

"Charlie just couldn't wait to get home to his mummy, right?" George said sarcastically.

Molly whacked George's arm lightly with the wooden spoon she was holding in response to his comment before pulling them both into a tight hug. Despite the boys towering over their mother, she gave the most suffocating hugs. Looks were deceiving when it came to Molly, she was quite strong for her stature

"There's no shame in a man loving his mother, George." Charlie chuckled, wrapping an arm around his mother.

"I do love mum, I just don't count down the seconds until the next time I can come home - no offense mum."

Molly released the boys from her grasp and rested her hand on the side of George's face, "And for that you get to help me peel potatoes."

George sighed and reached around to his back pocket for his wand when Molly raised a hand to stop him, "No dear, no magic." she said with an innocent smile.

"Why not?" George groaned.

"Maybe chores will remind you of your childhood, perhaps then you'll be a bit more homesick." Molly replied kindly, handing her son a potato peel.

"That's likely." he muttered.

Charlie snickered at his brother and saluted him with a wink, "I'll be in the lounge if you need me."

George found a bowl to collect the freshly peeled potatoes in and made his way to the counter to begin his work, he was quite annoyed with the situation. Doing chores without magic did indeed make him feel like a child again, but this time he didn't have Fred to joke around with.

Years ago they would have definitely turned this task into a game. They would have probably seen how many potato peels they could stick to the walls before their mother noticed, yelled at them, and banished them from the kitchen.

As he brushed his hair from away from his forehead with the back of his arm, he noticed movement from the window out of the corner of his eye. He leaned over to get a better look and saw that Bill and Fleur had just arrived at the Burrow, but Eloise was nowhere to be seen. It made sense that she wasn't with them, it was a family dinner after all, he didn't know why he had thought there might have been a chance they would bring her.

At first he felt disappointed at her absence, he didn't want to admit it to himself but he missed her. He had only himself to blame though, it was his own fault that hadn't seen her, no one else's. The last time she sought him out he avoided her by using Charlie as a middleman in his excuses and he never made any effort to see her after that.

Secretly he wished she would have come along with Bill and Fleur, but he knew he would have probably spent the entire evening making excuses to avoid her anyway. In his head he tried convincing himself that it was a good thing she wasn't there, he had been confused about what he thought of her since the first time they met. Avoiding her was for the best, he didn't need anyone new in his life anyway.

"How kind of you to help your mother with dinner, George." Fleur said sincerely as the couple entered the house.

"What did you do?" Bill chuckled, knowing better than to think that George had volunteered willingly.

"Oh, y'know. Made fun of Charlie, annoyed mum, the usual." George shrugged, before tossing the potato peel in the sink and dropping the bowl of freshly peeled potatoes next to where his mother was working at the stove.

"Ah, just like old times." Bill nodded.

-

No sooner than 20 minutes later had everyone arrived, other than Hermione, who also decided to go back to Hogwarts with Ginny at the beginning of the week to complete her final year of school. Harry and Ron didn't see any value in going back and chose to start their Auror training right away instead. So the two were there without their significant others, but it still felt just like home to the both of them and Molly was pleased to have them there either way.

"Okay everyone! Dinner is ready!" Molly called from the kitchen as she flicked her wand, causing several bowls of potato soup and multiple loaves of freshly baked bread to find their place around the table.

George found himself sitting right across from Bill and Fleur, which had been the usual seating arrangement for quite some time so it shouldn't have been a big deal. But after meeting Eloise, any time he looked at the couple he was reminded of her.

"Been quite busy at the shop lately, George?" Fleur asked casually, before taking a sip of her water.

Though George didn't notice, to his left the sound of Fleur's question caused Charlie to perk up and listen in on the conversation about the take place. He wondered if Fleur was going to bring up the last time she and Eloise had come to the store looking for George. Charlie was never the best at lying, so when George told him to get rid of the girls he ended up telling them that George had stepped out and then all but ran from them before they even had a chance to respond.

"Somewhat, yes." George mumbled as he looked down at his bowl, avoiding his sister-in-law's gaze.

"Hmm, I'm sorry to hear that. It would have been nice to see you the last time Eloise and I stopped in."

"Did you need something specific?" George asked, trying his best not to sound too interested at the mention of Eloise.

"No, no, Eloise and I were just in the area and thought it would be nice to stop in for a chat."

"Right." George mumbled, idly stirring the soup in his bowl.

"What was it you said George had to do that day, Charlie? I didn't quite catch it since you made such a quick escape after telling us." Fleur turned to Charlie with a smirk.

George flicked his head over to his brother with a slightly annoyed expression.

"Oh, I- well you see, he had to um-" Charlie stumbled, forgetting what his excuse was as it had been a few weeks since the encounter.

"Why are you so interested in what I was doing?" George returned his attention to Fleur, interrupting his brother's rambling.

"Just making conversation." She responded innocently as she brought a spoonful of soup to her lips.

"I think that's enough, darling." Bill said softly. Though his expression showed that he found Fleur's antics slightly amusing, he didn't want to upset George who clearly looked annoyed with her.

"Yes, dear."

George knew that if he asked anything about Eloise that he would be admitting defeat to whatever game Fleur was trying to play, but his curiosity was eating away at him. Beyond his better judgement he decided to ask the blonde woman sitting across from him about the girl he couldn't get off his mind for weeks.

"How is she?" George asked quietly.

The corner of Fleur's lips quirked up at the question, "Eloise is doing well, though I think she gets quite bored sometimes."

George knew what she was doing, and he was about to play right into her hand, "Well, the store shouldn't be very busy next week."

Fleur brought her elbows up to the table, interlacing her fingers as she rested her chin on top of her hands. She had quite the smug grin on her face, as if she had just claimed victory over the situation.

"I will be sure to let her know."

George nodded at her and looked over at Bill who also had a smirk on his face. Had they both been conspiring against him? Was he that easy to read? The wall he had built around himself was clearly not as impenetrable as he hoped it had been. There was something about Eloise that made him curious and he was afraid of that, he was quite comfortable distancing himself from everyone. But how could this woman he barely knew somehow break her way through his wall without even trying?

It seemed like Fleur knew exactly what effect Eloise had on him and was doing her absolute best to sabotage his plans of keeping her away. A terrible feeling of dread crept over him, but it was too late to stop it now. George had cracked the door open only slightly and Eloise was already on her way inside.