Despite her reservations, Eloise decided to follow Fleur's advice to visit George at the store. Honestly, she didn't think George was very interested in seeing her, even with her friend's reassurance. It didn't help that Fleur wouldn't come with her to see him, she said it was because George doesn't like having her around, which to be fair was probably true. But Eloise didn't think George really hated his sister-in-law, he was more likely just annoyed by her nosiness and lack of a filter when she spoke, which Eloise was more than used to by now.

It was about mid-morning when Eloise arrived on Diagon Alley, and even though she knew exactly how to get to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes she couldn't bring herself to go straight there, her nerves were too much. Instead, she decided to stop into the cafe she and Fleur discovered on their last visit.

Night Owls Tea & Coffee was a cute little cafe tucked between a second-hand Quidditch supplies store and a stationary shop that Eloise was very interested in browsing through another time. Even though it was a Monday morning the cafe wasn't nearly as busy as she had expected it to be. The only people in there were a young witch working behind the counter, an older wizard reading that day's edition of the Daily Prophet, and a short blonde witch waiting for her order to be made.

"Welcome to Night Owls! What can I get for you?" the chipper young witch asked as Eloise approached the counter.

How fitting it was for an energetic morning person to work as a barista. Eloise loved mornings, but in a relaxed way where she could spend her time reading and sipping tea by the window. Not in the way that she could just hop out of bed and be ready to tackle the day immediately.

"Just a latte, please."

"You got it! That will be 8 Sickles. Can I get a name for the order?"

"Eloise." she replied as she dug into her purse for the money.

"Eloise?" a voice came from the end of the bar.

Eloise turned her head at the sound of her name and saw the young blonde witch she had only seen once before smiling at her, it was Verity. Eloise gave her a friendly smile and a short wave before paying the barista behind the counter. Joining Verity at the end of the bar, the two of them waited for their drinks to be made.

"Sorry we haven't really been introduced, so me yelling your name just now was a bit weird." Verity chuckled.

"That's alright." Eloise replied as she twiddled her thumbs, watching the barista prepare what she assumed was Verity's order.

"George has me doing the grunt work, making me pick up their coffee this morning. It's almost like he thinks he runs the place." Verity remarked sarcastically.

The barista set three coffee cups at the end of the counter and called Verity's name, as she went to retrieve them she turned back to look at Eloise, "I suppose I could use magic to carry these back, but what's the fun in that? Want to help me? Only if you want to of course."

Eloise wasn't about to tell Verity that she had already been planning on stopping by the shop that morning anyway. Or maybe she already knew that was the plan and that's why she was asking. Had George talked about Eloise to Verity and Charlie? Surely not, he didn't seem like the type to open up like that.

"Sure." Eloise nodded with a smile.

The two witches waited for Eloise's order to be made and then began their walk back to the shop. Verity reminded her a little bit of Fleur, they both certainly were not afraid to say whatever was on their mind. But Eloise noted that Verity seemed much more fun-loving than her friend who tended to be more serious.

"Out shopping for anything specific today?" Verity asked brightly.

"Oh no, just wanted to get out of the house." Eloise lied.

"You're staying with Bill and Fleur?"

Eloise nodded, "I won't live with them forever, but I haven't decided if I'll stay here or move back to France."

Eloise hadn't mentioned that to anyone yet, the idea of going back to France. Saying it out loud made it seem like a real possibility that she wouldn't stay forever, rather than being just a casual thought in the back of her mind. She had only been living with Bill and Fleur for a little over two months now, and the idea of staying in England was tempting but she had no reason to make the move permanent.

Maybe she would move back home after the New Year. Although Bill had mentioned that she should talk to his brother Percy about getting a job at the Ministry, but she felt it was quite presumptuous to ask favors from someone she barely knew.

"I've always wanted to go to Paris, it seems so romantic." Verity mused as she swayed side to side on the cobblestone path, as if she were dancing to a love song playing in her head.

Eloise laughed, "I suppose it's alright."

Growing up half an hour outside of Paris in a flat with her parents was not very romantic to her. During the holidays her parents would whisk her away to the French countryside where her grandparents lived, those visits were much more magical to her than life in the city.

"It's got to be more romantic than London, I couldn't get a date here even if I wanted to." Verity snickered as she carefully balanced one coffee cup on top of the other before opening the door to the shop.

"I find that very hard to believe, but maybe I can get you in touch with one of my friends from Beauxbatons if you really want to meet a French man." Eloise laughed as she followed Verity into the store.

"What's this about French men?" Charlie asked as he peaked around the corner of a shelf near the door.

"Eavesdrop much, Charlie?" Verity asked in an annoyed tone.

"I just happened to be in the right place at the right time, love. Though I am restocking the Extendable Ears at the moment." Charlie smiled innocently.

"Just take your coffee, Weasley." Verity said, rolling her eyes.

As he retrieved the cup from Verity's hand he turned and offered a smile to Eloise. Remembering what happened between Fleur and George at dinner last week he was slightly surprised to see her, though he did know Fleur to be quite convincing.

"Alright, Eloise?" he greeted before taking a sip of his coffee, "Ugh Ver, did you forget the sugar? This is awful."

"Oh, whoops that must be George's. This one is your cup of sugar." Verity said as the two of them traded cups.

"There's nothing wrong with a man wanting a mocha latte on occasion."

"Right of course, excuse me while I go give the real man his drink." Verity teased as she walked towards George's office.

"Manliness has nothing to do with taste in coffee! Oh forget it." he called after her.

Bringing his attention back to Eloise, the two of them made eye contact for a moment and it looked like Charlie wanted to ask her something but couldn't think of how to form the words.

"Yes, Charlie?"

He furrowed his brows before shaking his head, "Ah, nothing don't worry about it."

A moment later Verity returned to the front with an annoyed frown on her face, she let out an aggravated sigh as she retrieved her cup of coffee from Eloise's hand, "I told George you were here and he said he might come out and say hello, but he is 'busy' right now. What a git."

Eloise felt her heart drop, she knew what Fleur had told her was too good to be true. George must have just agreed to whatever she said to him at dinner to get her to shut up and leave him alone. But Eloise knew she couldn't let Verity or Charlie know that George's aloofness bothered her.

She just shrugged and smiled, "That's no big deal."

"It's still rude." Verity grumbled.

Charlie looked between the girls, thinking of a way to diffuse the tension, "So uh, Eloise. I have this friend visiting from Romania next week, he's a real nice guy. I'd love to introduce you two."

"You're setting Eloise up with one of your Dragon Sanctuary friends and not me?" Verity interrupted.

"I'm not setting anyone up, well I guess I kind of am, but you don't need a blind date Ver."

"And why not?"

"Weren't you and Eloise just talking about French guys? Bother her for a date."

Eloise didn't know how to process the situation, Charlie's offer was so sudden and his bickering with Verity completely derailed her train of thought entirely. But all of their attention was broken at the sound of George clearing his throat behind them.

"Who's going on a blind date?" George asked as he crossed his arms, his eyes falling on Eloise immediately.

A pink flush grew on Eloise's cheeks, she couldn't tell if it was from George's sudden presence or the fact that he had overheard the topic of their conversation. Verity looked over and seemed to notice her expression, so she attempted to draw attention to herself instead.

"Me, well I mean maybe. Eloise offered to hook me up with one of her friends from school, and apparently Charlie has some single friends in Romania that I'm not good enough for."

"I didn't say that, all I was saying was that Eloi-" Charlie was cut off by Verity not so subtly stomping on his foot, "Ver, what the hell?"

"I'd love to meet your friend, Eloise." Verity smiled at her sweetly.

George raised an eyebrow as he looked between the three of them, before his eyes landed on Eloise once more. It was as if he was beckoning for her to validate Verity's story.

"Oh y-yes, I'll write to him this week. I'm sure he would love to meet you." Eloise said not so convincingly, glancing over at George to read his expression.

Before George could even respond they all heard a bell above the door, a young witch ran into the store excitedly as her father followed closely behind.

"Back to work, you two." George said flatly, before turning his back to them and retreating back into his office.

The entire situation was somehow worse than what Eloise had expected. George had barely acknowledged her presence in his store at all beyond a passing glance. She was left feeling quite foolish for expecting a different outcome. The more often she was around George, the more she was coming to the conclusion that he was only kind to her at the party because he was under the influence of alcohol, not because he had any warm feelings toward her.

Verity sighed and turned to Eloise, "Are you gonna stick around? It's been pretty slow, so we can probably chat more once these customers leave."

"Oh no, I should probably get going."

"Well, it was good to see you. You should drop by more often." Verity said with a smile before turning to find the customers who had just entered.

It was just Charlie and Eloise left in the front of the store, and Eloise had a feeling that he had wanted to take advantage of being alone with her to discuss his offer again without being interrupted.

"Listen Eloise, I don't know what is going on with you and George but I don't want to overstep."

"Oh no, there's nothing going on. I don't think he's very fond of me."

"I don't think that's true, but he's sort of been closed off since everything happened, with everyone not just you. I don't want you to think it's only you, but I don't know how long it will take him to come around. He has a few good days, but always ends up shutting himself off again in the end." he sighed and looked down at his shoes.

"It's okay. Um, what was your friend's name?" Eloise asked without thinking, though internally she immediately regretted considering meeting Charlie's friend when she knew her mind was so preoccupied with George. But pining after George was clearly a losing game.

"His name's Dhani, he's a real nice guy. Much smarter than me, though maybe not as charming." he smirked as he looked back to the blonde girl beside him.

"You make him sound too good to be true." she laughed.

"Well I'm not a liar, it's hard to be more charming than me." he chuckled.

"Oh, of course. When I think 'charming' you're the first person to come to mind." she replied with a tone of sarcasm. Charlie was much easier for her to talk to than George, but that honestly wasn't a difficult feat.

"Oh, thank you Eloise. But really, he is great, you two will get on well. I don't want to pressure you though, you can think about it and then send me an owl later this week if you want to meet him."

She nodded and smiled, "Okay, yeah I'll think about it."

"Great! Well, I better get back to work before Verity hunts me down. It was good seeing you again." he said, giving Eloise a short wave before turning and heading towards the unoccupied counter.

Eloise returned his wave and headed towards the door, a chime rang through the sales floor signifying her exit. As she stepped back out onto Diagon Alley her mind was racing. Would meeting Charlie's friend mean she was giving up on George? Was there anything to even give up on to begin with?

The idea of going on a date with Dhani made her feel anxious butterflies. But the excitement also made her feel somewhat guilty. She knew she was being ridiculous, there was nothing going on between her and George anyway. So why couldn't she shake the feeling that she might be making a mistake?

Maybe giving up on her little crush on George was for the best, nothing would probably ever happen between them anyway.

A/N: I'm excited for you to meet Dhani in the next chapter! His face claim is Dev Patel and I'm in love with him.

Also buckle up for the slowwww burrrrn :)