After talking to Padma, Iris did feel a little better. Not a tonne better but still enough that she could start to move on from what happened. She was able to stop fixating on the dinner and able to continue on. Iris was still mad at George for the audacity of what he had to say about her and she recognised the need for them to talk, to properly talk. She just had no clue how to go about it. George still it would appear was avoiding her, whether it be out of guilt or because he partially believed his own words. Iris had yet still to see him and she was not exactly rushing to see him again. But then again she did value her life as a free woman, and this situation needed addressing so that neither of them ended up locked away for simply not being able to get along. 

And after 7 days since their last encounter, Iris had enough of waiting for George to seek her out. It was becoming obvious he was not going to. It was never in her nature to be timid, nor was it to seek out confrontation. But she wanted this to work. Maybe it was because she was starting to develop feelings, maybe it was because she just could not leave things the way they were. Maybe she just wanted an apology, even if it was not a genuine one. 

That was how she found herself stood in the front of Weasley Wizard Wheeze five minutes before the store closed, watching as the final customers approached the till. Waiting for them to leave so she could talk to the owner who was currently playing checkouts. The second she had entered the store, the little bell ringing and George had looked up Iris could feel the tension build. He had tried to play it off with the general welcome message he must have given every customer who entered his shop. But Iris could see the disbelief in his face. George had not expected her to seek him out. He had not expected her to come anytime soon if possibly ever. That much was evident. 

But Iris was not giving up, she had made her mind up. If she turned around now and left she would be betraying all the work she had put in to getting to this exact moment. The ever amounting anxiety, the sweaty hands and the overall feeling of the possible dread she was going to experience at the end of this conversation would all not be worth it if she just turned on her heel and exited the brightly coloured front door of the joke shop. 

It would appear that George was not the only one who was aware of why she was really here. For Iris had been spotted by Lee Jordan, George's less eccentric best friend, and someone Iris had begun to get to know very well from her own work in the pub. It would appear that George had told his best mate what had gone on between them both and he too had expected at one point for Iris to appear wanting to talk things out. It wouldn't be an unreasonable conclusion to have drawn if George told his best friend just the bare minimum of what had occurred, less than what Iris had told her own would have been enough to clue the man into knowing that there were some clear things that needed to be talked through reasonably between the pair. Lee had sent her a nod in greeting and awareness when Iris remained standing in the store, the man having snuck past her to lock the front door after the final customer had left, flicking the sign over to closed before he went out back to give the pair some space. 

"Iris." George spoke to her for the first time since she had entered the shop. And it would appear he had been anticipating the conversation between the pair for a little while if the tone of his voice and how he seemed just a little bit anxious to be alone with her. 

"George." Iris kept her words short for now, not wanting to make a real scene where they could clearly be seen from the street. 

"I suppose this is more than a friendly visit?" George was trying to brush things off but Iris was here not to be nice, she needed to set down proper boundaries and speak through their problems like adults, but that did not stop her being a little petty. 

"I don't know are you going to insult me using your brother's sprit to justify just how low you can go?" Iris wished her tone had a bit more spunk to match the words she used, but alas she sounded just as unconfident as she felt deep down having this conversation in the first place. 

"Alright, were starting there it would seem." George paused as he finished closing the cash register before looking back up at Iris finally taking the step to make eye contact with her. 

"Shall we go somewhere else for this conversation. I feel like its going to be rather heavy and doing it in the middle of a joke shop probably isn't so appropriate." His words were mature and Iris had to remind herself that sometimes the jokester element was only the front that he put onto the world. 

"If you wouldn't mind." George did not respond only inched his head in the direction of the back of the shop before heading in that direction himself. Iris was quick to follow him as he took her towards the offices and store room and then to a set of stairs that were behind a locked door. Going up the stairs the pair remained in silence continuing on as they reached another locked door, strange that wherever they were going was behind two locked doors. But that was until Iris twigged where she was being brought. Her brain finally pieced it together that they were entering the flat above the shop that George lived in.

George motioned for Iris to sit down on one of the sofa's as he continued on into what she assumed was the kitchen. She could hear him opening and closing the kitchen cupboards and the sound of the kettle turning on. Though he did not turn back around to ask how she had her tea, of course he was making some it always made a difficult conversation a little better. Rather Iris focused on the decorations of the home, noting that it very much screamed George, for the most parts. But she could then also clearly see where Fred had once been involved in the decoration side. For some of the photos hanging on the walls only contained one of the twins and having spent a decent amount of time around George, Iris could clearly tell the two apart. There were many photos of Fred and his girlfriend of the time Angelina in one corner of the living room wall, though the rest generally contained the members of the Weasley family, this one corner looked like a little project of that relationship shared for the world to see like an artwork. 

When George reappeared from the kitchen, he held two mugs of tea in his hand. Offering one to Iris he wordlessly sat beside her. And Iris carefully brought it to her lips wondering just what on earth she was going to be drinking. Only to be surprised that the tea was made just as she liked it. Two sugars and milk. 

"How did you get this right?" She asked generally curious. 

"You're not the only one who likes to observe people." George started though paused taking a sip. "Padma turned up a couple days ago, told me to take the stick out of my arse amongst other things and her parting words were to put two sugars in your tea if I didn't want it chucked down me." 

 Iris partially hated that her best friend had got involved in the relationship problems that had been occurring between the two. But part of her wanted to laugh that Padma had come into the shop just to tell George to get his act together. 

"Sorry 'bout that." Iris spoke but her tone gave away that she was not sorry in the slightest. 

"No, I should be the one apologising. I've been a proper dick to you these last few weeks." George was quick to apologise and Iris wondered if he had been thinking about it for a while. 

"Yeah you kinda have." Iris didn't deny it, nor was she going to allow him to take complete blame. "But then again I suppose I haven't exactly been the best."

"We're both a little fucked up really." George commented his attention half on Iris and half on his cup of tea.

"Perhaps that was why they thought we would work best together." Iris mused waiting for his reaction, knowing he hadn't been the most responsive to the whole thing from the beginning.

"Some sort of help each other, help yourselves." 

"What if they're not wrong George? What if we can help each other. Let's be real neither of us are really over what happened. I haven't stepped foot in my childhood home or seen my parents in months because I think I'm moving on too fast trying to force life without her. And you can't even think about going forward without him." Iris started this was what she wanted to get to, the whole reason she felt like they were stuck as they were.

"What are you suggesting we do? It's so pointless I see him every time I'm in the mirror. Everything I have here and that I do in daily life reminds me of him. And you're no better, so what you weren't identical every small thing you do reminds you of her. How do we do this?" George, luckily, did not seem completely opposed to what she was suggesting this time, he hadn't started by snapping at her which was an accomplishment. 

"Together. We do it together."

"Where do we start?"

"By doing stuff that we know they would never do. Things that won't remind us of them entirely." Iris suggested, if she was being honest it was the first thing she thought of that made just a little sense to her.

"Okay, that might be something we can do." 

"And we start talking to one another. The good and the bad what are we supposed to be to one another if we can't talk.  I want to be able to sit down and tell stories about my sister, I deserve that and you deserve to be able to sit and talk about your brother. I want to hear your memories of him, I want to hear about the brother in law who wont be there to embarrass you." Iris felt like she might have stepped to far and held of on the 'on our wedding day' that she wanted to include. Because yes he had been a dick to her on more than one occasion but George Weasley had her wrapped around his little finger. And there was nothing she could do otherwise. 

"I'd like that. I can't talk to any of my family about him anymore." And Iris could tell just how sad this fact made him, she wished she was as upset about not talking to her parents about her sister but they had barely looked at her yet alone attempted to talk to her since the funeral over a year ago. But she could imagine what it felt like. 

"You have me George, you have me from now on." Iris let her words show the promise. 

"And I'll try to be there for you. I'll try not to be such a knob anymore. No more snapping for no reason." George's words also held a promise, a promise that he wanted so bad to hold up. 

"Angry George is a bit of a turn on, don't get rid of him entirely." With her final set of words Iris could feel the tension in the room start to lift she had finally gotten to the point she had wanted. They were opening up and hopefully preventing any more blow outs.