S I X T Y

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One morning in early October, Hermione Granger found herself furious with the Weasley twins – although, that wasn't an uncommon feeling for her. It seemed as if she couldn't go a single day without running into one of their products for the joke shop.

That morning, Hermione was once again yelling at them about the fact that they were paying students first year students to experiment their products before they sold them.

"I've told you so many times already but you cannot test your products on students – let alone first years!" She exclaimed furiously. "I don't care if you're paying them!" Hermione then whipped her head around to look at her fellow prefect and yelled, "Ron! Back me up on this!"

Ron suddenly found his breakfast to be a lot more interesting. Harry snorted with laughter beside him.

"We've already tested them all on ourselves," Fred replied defensively. "This is just to see if everyone reacts the same."

"If you don't stop doing it, I'm going to–"

"What?' George scoffed, letting out a small, mocking laugh and not realizing what Hermione had planned if the two of them refused to listen. "Give us detention? Make us write lines?"

That was when Hermione – without saying a single word – spun around and marched over to the Ravenclaw table.

Fred realized what Hermione's plan immediately. He shoveled the rest of his breakfast down before beginning to stand out of his seat, ready to make a run for it if needed.

However, George didn't realize what was happening until he noticed Hermione standing next to Adeline, who had been casually eating her breakfast up until that point. He didn't even have time to react when he saw Adeline shoot out of her seat with a furious look in her eye and begin to storm towards him.

"Uh oh," George whispered to himself before standing up and quickly walking towards with a nervous smile on his face. "My darling, most wonderful Addie Eden, the most beautiful girlfriend in the entire world–"

"George Fabian Weasley, get over here right now."

"Well this seems like a lovers quarrel," Fred said quickly before bolting out of the Great Hall and away from Adeline's rage.

Even though Adeline was just as angry with Fred as she was with her boyfriend, Fred was so far away that she knew it was pointless to chase after him. So she turned her attention to George, who was shuffling towards her with a guilty look on his face.

The couple walked out of the Great Hall and stood just outside of the entrance. Neither of them knew whether it was going to turn into a huge argument, but either way, both George and Adeline didn't want too many people eavesdropping in.

"First years!" She hissed angrily. "You're testing on first years!"

"Not just first years! We do have some second years!"

Feeling as if she might start yelling, Adeline closed her eye and took a deep breath, trying to collect herself together. She hated arguing with anyone, especially George, so she wanted to try and get her anger down to a lower level before continuing the conversation.

Although, the thought of eleven-year-olds getting negatively affected by the experimental products did not sit right with Adeline.

"George," She eventually began to sigh. "I know you need to test your products and make sure they're okay to sell. That's super important – but first years! You know they're too easy to convince, especially since you're paying them. What if something goes wrong?"

"Then we'll be right there to fix it!"

"George! What if they end up in the hospital wing?"

"Then Madam Pomfrey fixes them right up! You know she's like a miracle worker."

"George..." Adeline repeated with a groan, hiding her head in her hands for a brief moment to collect her thoughts together before looking back up at her boyfriend again.

"I think I made it pretty clear how I feel about this. I know I'm not scary or intimidating–"

"You are a little scary," George muttered.

Adeline had to fight back the urge to roll her eye. "And even if I tell you that you can't test on first years, you might stop but Fred certainly won't..." An idea popped into Adeline's mind. "I want to test all the products before you start trying them out on the young students."

George immediately shook his head. "No," He refused. "I'm not having you act as a tester. You're not trying any of the products until we sell them."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want any of my products to hurt you!"

"Oh, so you're fine with potentially hurting first years but not me!" Adeline pointed out.

"You're different! You're my girlfriend!"

"You can test on me without a problem!" She argued. "I'm not any different from the first years!"

"Actually I look at you very differently from the first years," George mumbled, trying to fight back a smile when he saw the exasperated look on Adeline's face. "You know what I mean," He laughed. "I'd get a lot more affected if I saw you get hurt because of me."

"George, you know I love you, and I want the business to succeed. But I don't want a young student to get hurt too badly because of something you made. You know I'm a worrier."

"I know you're a worrier," George chuckled, grabbing both her hands and giving them a light squeeze in an attempt to make her smile. "I think it's one of the reasons Mum loves you so much. She thinks you'll keep me from doing something too dangerous."

"Considering I made the horrible decision of signing up for the Triwizard Tournament last year, I'm not sure if I can be trusted to keep you from doing something crazy."

Now it was George's turn to send Adeline that same exasperated look. Adeline couldn't help but chuckle a little at the sight before she focused back on the conversation at hand. "If you trust these products enough to put them through yourself and me, then they're okay to be put through the young students. Although, I would like it if you got some older students to be testers."

George looked like he was about to protest this, but the sound of two familiar teachers verbally sparring with each caught both of their attention. A large crowd of students started gathering near the entrance of the Great Hall, either to catch a glimpse of the argument between Professor McGonagall and Professor Umbridge. Adeline and George found themselves getting caught in the middle of the mass, and she kept a tight grip on his hand as to not be separated.

With a furious yet controlled voice, Professor McGonagall said, "I am merely requesting that when it comes down to my students, you conform to the prescribed disciplinary practices."

Confused, George quietly asked aloud, "What does she mean by that?"

Adeline didn't answer and hid her hand behind her back, hoping that George wouldn't notice the small movement.

Fortunately, George didn't seem to notice, as he was a lot more invested in the argument unfolding in front of his very eyes. "So silly of me," Professor Umbridge responded, letting out another one of her signature sickly giggles. "But it sounds as if you're questioning my authority in my own classroom, Minerva."

Professor McGonagall took another step up the staircase so that she looked even taller in comparison to the small woman and was looking down on her. "Not at all, Dolores," She managed to say through gritted teeth. "Merely your medieval methods."

"Merlin, I hope they start dueling," Melanie commented behind them.

"Professor McGonagall would absolutely obliterate her," Cedric added.

Professor Umbridge went up another step as if she was trying to loom over Professor McGonagall. "I'm sorry, dear," She said. "But to question my authorities is to question the Ministry...and by that extent the Minister himself."

She gave Professor McGonagall one final glare before turning to the crowd of students as if she was noticing them for the very first time. "I am a tolerant woman," She continued. "But the one thing I will not stand for is disloyalty. Things at Hogwarts are far worse than I feared. Cornelius will want to take immediate action."

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Professor Umbridge, unfortunately, was not under exaggerating.

The corridors of Hogwarts had become less like a school and more like a military zone, in Adeline's opinion. Sure, things were a lot more orderly than they had been in the past, but there was so much tension bubbling under the surface that it made Adeline nervous to walk through the corridors.

George had just met up with Adeline after her Transfiguration class had leaned in to give her a kiss on the cheek – something that was practically routine every time they even caught a glimpse of each other – when the couple suddenly went flying apart from each other. As Adeline tried to regain her footing and was wondering what exactly had happened, she heard a certain horrible voice yell out, "No PDA is allowed in the school corridors!"

Both George and Adeline glared at Professor Umbridge's retreating frame, but Adeline seemed to get over her annoyance much faster than George.

"Ignore her," She said quietly. Adeline then intertwined her fingers with his and began walking with him down the corridor again, making sure that Professor Umbridge was far away so she could be more free to say what she wanted. "We'll just have to make sure she's not around if we want to kiss or anything like that."

"I don't want have to look around and see if that pink toad is nearby just so I can kiss my girlfriend!"

A small, teasing smile appeared on Adeline's face. "I don't know..." She mused. "Maybe sneaking around won't be all bad."

"You two do realize that we're walking right behind you, right?" Melanie called out. When Adeline turned around to take a look at their friends, she saw them staring at her and George with a mixture of disgust and amusement.

As a flustered Adeline felt her cheeks begin to burn over the fact all her friends had just overheard that exchange, George smirked and tightened his grip on Adeline's hand and waited until their friends had walked a small distance ahead before pulling her off into a nearby empty corridor.

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a/n:

hi guys!!

this chapter was a little shorter, but it was a lot of fun to write adeline and george in this section :)) i love them so much they're my Babies

i hope you guys liked the chapter!! i hope you have a lovely day as well, and i'll see you at the next update!!

- g ♡