Archive of Our Own ^beta

"This doesn't even make sense!" Alex groaned. "Listen to this – if potion bears penchant to volatility, add ingredients punctiliously; if not, add ingredients expeditiously. What does that even mean? How am I supposed to understand that?"

"Honestly, I don't even care as long as you find out what you did wrong today," Lando replied tersely as he brushed his fingers over his singed eyebrows. "I'd love to not lose my only facial hair every Potions lesson, if that'd be possible. Merlin, Alex, that was the third cauldron you exploded this month!"

"The third?" Charles asked incredulously. "I always thought I was bad at Potions!"

"Thanks Charles, that really makes me feel better."

"At least you still have your eyebrows!" Lando whined. "Why is it that it's you who is exploding all these cauldrons, but it's always me who is losing his eyebrows?"

"Shhhh guys," Pierre said even though he was clearly supressing a laugh. "You have to quiet down, Madam Pince is giving us her death glare and I can't afford to be kicked out of here right now, I really need to finish this essay for Defence."

Alex, Lando and Charles all turned their heads simultaneously only to find themselves faced with vulturelike stare of the librarian, causing them to duck their heads back towards their books immediately.

"Sprout spoke to me yesterday," Alex whispered, after checking that Pince had been distracted by a brave first-year who had dared to approach the irritable woman. "She said that I'd need to keep up with my study work and get my grades up, otherwise they'd kick me out of the Quidditch team."

"What, really?" Pierre asked loudly in surprise, but quickly lowered his voice again. "But you only just joined them, Alex, are they really gonna kick you out this quickly?"

"Wouldn't be too bad in my opinion," Lando remarked. "You're way too busy since you've made it onto the team anyways, and I still don't get what all the fuss is about. It's just a frickin' sport!"

"It's Quidditch! That's not only just some sport!" Alex countered indignantly. He might have grown up with Muggles but he'd fallen in love with the sport of the wizarding world immediately and really couldn't understand Lando's strong aversion to it. "Come on, Charles, back me up here!"

"Never thought you would ask a Slytherin to back you up," Lando snorted.

Alex had to admit that Lando had a point there – he generally tried to keep his distance from the Slytherins as much as possible. This animosity of his had arisen immediately in his first year in Hogwarts due to no other than Esteban Ocon, a Slytherin Alex had met on the train – long before he'd even known anything about houses and what they stood for – and befriended on the long journey to the school. They'd stuck together during the Welcome Feast until they'd eventually been sorted into different houses but even after that, they had still been quite friendly with one another and Alex had still hoped they could be good friends.

This hope however, had faded rapidly after Esteban had returned from celebrating Christmas at his parents' home and explained to Alex in less than friendly words that unfortunately, his parents deemed Alex unsuitable due to his blood status and that they couldn't be friends anymore. Alex' only attempt at reasoning with Esteban had been met with a Jelly-Legs jinx and thus, Alex had decided to stay clear from the Slytherin from now on and had started to avoid the whole house whenever it was possible.

Charles was the only exception to this rule since Alex had befriended Pierre, a fellow Hufflepuff, after the disaster with Esteban and he had made clear from the beginning that he and Charles were and would always be a package deal. And since Charles was the only one of his friend group who played Quidditch for the house team as well, Alex had to admit that he was actually quite glad that Pierre had brought him along.

"Alex is right, Lando!" Charles said now and yes, Alex was definitely happy he'd joined their little group. "Quidditch is more than just a sport… it's a lifestyle, it's passion! Alex, we need to find a way for you to stay on the team!" Charles seemed to contemplate something before he suddenly got that determined glint in his eye that already told Alex that no matter what Charles had come up with, he was not going to like it.

"I know! I can ask George to tutor you! He's an absolute genius when it comes to Potions, even Snape is impressed by him!"

Okay, yeah, Alex wanted to take every nice thought back he'd ever had about Charles and curse Pierre for dragging the well-meaning moron into his life. Getting tutored by a Slytherin model student? Alex could not imagine many things that would be worse than that.

However, he did not get a chance to object to the plan since Lando had snorted loudly with laughter at Charles' plan and regained the attention of Madam Pince, who was unfortunately no longer distracted by the younger students. She was stalking towards them now, her face distorted with a grim expression.

"Oh Merlin, we're in trouble," Pierre muttered. "For fuck's sake, Lando!"

"ENOUGH!" Madam Pince screeched as soon as she was close enough. "This is a library! OUT – out with all of you!"

She whipped out her wand, causing their books, bags and the remaining school supplies that had been spread out on the table to fly into the air and chase them out of the library, knocking into them repeatedly while they ran.

*****

"I can't get tutoring from a Slytherin student," Alex complained to Lando later when they were sitting in History of Magic. Charles had gone off to Transfiguration class and Pierre had sat down a few seats away next to Lance where he was now furiously scribbling on his parchment, trying to finally get his Defence essay done in time for the next lesson, so it was just the two of them quietly talking to each other while Binns was droning on about the witch hunts in the fourteenth century in the background. Binns was the only teacher who could've made such an exciting topic seem boring and yet, Alex was grateful for the chance to talk to Lando in peace.

"It'd be so humiliating,"  he now bemoaned, letting his head sink down on the table in front of him. "A Slytherin model student, no less. Can you imagine how much he would mock me?"

"I would say 'Don't worry, Charles knows what he's doing', but it's still Charles, so… good luck, mate." Lando's response was not as reassuring as Alex would have liked.

"Thanks, mate, you're really helping me here. Merlin, I need to get new friends."

"Ah come on, Alex, no need to be so dramatic!" Lando nudged his shoulder until Alex finally lifted his head back up. "Charles is a Slytherin and he's alright most of the times, who says Russell can't be like that as well? He's in my Herbology class and he seems fine. He's quiet, mostly, and crazy smart, but definitely not as obnoxious as Ocon and his little gang. Don't you have any classes with him?"

Alex tried to remember if he had noticed anything in particular about George Russell during the past three years, but failed to come up with anything remarkable. He (luckily) only shared one class with the Slytherins and seeing as he tended to avoid encounters with them, Alex had only ever seen George from afar and never spoken to him before.

"Only Astrology," he answered Lando's question. "And it's so dark on that damn tower that I have trouble seeing Pierre when he's standing right next to me. So no, I haven't noticed him much, but that can also be a good thing, right?"

"Right," Lando nodded. "It'll be fine, Alex. You'll see."

*****

It was not fine. It was the next day at lunch and Alex had been enjoying the delicious roast chicken in the Great Hall when suddenly no one other than George Russell appeared besides him. Alex shot a panicked look towards the Ravenclaw table where Lando was sitting, but his friend was currently busy talking to another student and oblivious to Alex' predicament. Traitor. Almost all the other Hufflepuffs had stopped eating and were staring incredulously at the Slytherin in their midst, but George had either not noticed them or didn't care.

"Alexander," he said casually as he folded his long limbs into the chair that Pierre had vacated only minutes ago to go meet up with Charles before their next class.

"Uh, yes?" Alex sputtered. He finally glanced up to the other boy's face and found himself fixed by the most mesmerising eyes he had ever seen – eyes that were now scrutinising him thoroughly. Feeling his face heat up, Alex shifted uncomfortably in his chair and wished himself to be far, far away from this entire situation. He was just about to say something else, but right at that moment, George nodded slightly, seemingly content with what he'd found in Alex' face.

"Leclerc told me you were in need of someone tutoring you in Potions?" He asked and a few of the girls next to them started giggling, probably remembering his latest mishap in class.

"Uh, yeah – yeah, I do," he stammered despite feeling his cheeks glow even redder than before, because really, what was he supposed to do? He desperately needed help and it seemed like George Russell was his only hope of staying on the Quidditch team. A necessary evil, as Lando liked to call it. "Can you help me?"

"What would be in it for me?" George asked.

Alex wasn't surprised, not really – George was a Slytherin after all – but he had no idea how he could compensate George for his troubles. "I don't know," he shrugged, not quite sure if he had just squandered his only chance at a decent Potions grade.

But George just raised an eyebrow at him, a slight smirk playing around his lips. "We'll figure something out," he said as he pushed his chair backwards. "Be ready on Friday then. I'll let you know where we can meet."

Alex could only nod and stare as George smirked at him one more time before collecting his belongings and marching confidently towards the exit of the Great Hall without a second glance.

*****

Friday came and Alex had no idea what to expect from the coming day. He felt himself becoming increasingly more nervous the later it got, so that by the time he had reached Transfiguration – his last class for the day – he was so fidgety that instead of vanishing the mouse like he'd been assigned to, he only managed to turn her slightly translucent and highly agitated.

Pierre only watched him pitifully. "Here," he said after McGonagall had dismissed them and handed Alex a slip of paper. "It's from George, Charles gave it to me earlier."

Alex had no idea how Pierre and Charles managed to see each other so often during the day – they were in different houses, after all, and he didn't get to meet up with Lando even half as often – but he thanked Pierre gratefully as he took the note. He was very relieved he didn't have to go and seek out George himself to ask when and where they would meet today.

The note itself was held very simple: 3pm. Potions classroom. – G.

Alex cast a quick Tempus charm to check the time and sighed as he saw that it was already close to the proposed time. Saying goodbye to Pierre he turned left instead of joining his friends in the sunny courtyard and made his way down the broad stone staircase towards the chilly dungeons.

It felt weird being in the Potions classroom outside of his normal lessons and Alex entered it only very hesitantly. The room felt even more eerie due to the lack of noise than it did during class, an atmosphere that was definitely not helped by the pickled animals floating in glass jars that were lining the walls. Alex sighed again and was just about to drop his bag onto one of the large tables when he noticed a slight movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned and froze – none other than Severus Snape stood in the doorway leading to the supply cupboard. Snape curled his lips as his piercing black eyes fixated on him and Alex was sure he was only seconds away from being thrown out of the classroom. Was he even allowed to be in here after class hours? Had this all been an elaborate prank planned out by George with the sole aim to get him in trouble?

But Snape only narrowed his eyes as he usually did when he was about to criticise Alex' lousy attempt at whatever potion they were brewing at the moment.

"Albon," he said tersely. "I'd advise you not to destroy too much of my classroom but I am aware that it is a lost cause already. Mr. Russell, I trust you to see that this endeavour will not end in a major disaster."

"Sure thing, Sir!" A voice behind him answered emphatically and Alex flinched, not having noticed that George had entered the room in the meantime. Snape only gave a curt nod at George's reassurance and swooped past them flinging the door shut behind him with a swish of his wand.

"He's always so dramatic," George grinned. "So, Alexander, are you ready?"

Alex didn't know if he was ready, but he nodded and the two of them unshrunk their cauldrons – Alex' fourth one this year – to set them up on the burners.

"Well, what potion are you having difficulties with?"

"Uh, all of them?" Alex answered before he could stop himself and promptly felt his cheeks heat up. On the other hand, it was probably better to be honest about his lack of skill from the start if he actually wanted to improve and learn something from George.

George in turn raised his eyebrows and seemed to suppress a chuckle, but at least he didn't outright start to mock him. Small victories. "Right," he said. "Leclerc told me you exploded a cauldron last week? How about we start with that one?"

Alex briefly wondered if he'd spend his entire time in George's company with burning cheeks and internally cursed Charles yet again. At the same time, he was also wondering why the other boy had such a strong effect on him since he usually didn't get embarrassed very easily, the constant mocking he got from his friends had toughened him up in that respect. Interacting with George Russell, however, seemed to be a completely different story.

Ultimately, he agreed with George's proposal and they both started to prepare their ingredients for the brewing of the Pepper-Up Potion. They had decided to brew the potion next to each other at the same time, so that Alex could easily follow George's steps and George could find out what had gone wrong with Alex' brewing last time.

The first few steps went quite smoothly with George only having to correct his not-so careful preparation of the crushed Bicorn horn and reminding him that the potion should definitely not be heated for longer than the recommended ten seconds. After the first couple of ingredients had been added, the potions had to be left to brew for thirty minutes though and Alex found himself stalling while cleaning up the remains of his Mandrake roots, not knowing whether he should initiate any kind of small talk. Luckily, George seemed to be more socially competent than he was and made the decision for him.

"So, what are you good at then?" he asked, shooting Alex a pointed look that reminded him of their awkward lunch conversation a few days ago.

"I'm a pretty good flyer, I guess," he pondered. "And good with animals, we've got quite a few at home." Alex grinned. Thinking of his home, his family and their pets never failed to put a smile on his face, although he missed them all terribly every time he returned to Hogwarts. When he met George's eyes, he noticed that the other boy had a weird expression on his face and he had no idea what he'd said to cause it. "They're all non-magical though, I'm afraid," he suddenly felt the need to add. He'd rather avoid another Ocon situation, if possible. "Both my parents are Muggles."

"Okay," George said. His expression had morphed into a carefully neutral one.

"Is that a problem with you?"

"No, definitely not." George replied. "I'm sorry if the reputation of my house says otherwise, but I can assure you that someone's blood does not matter to me one bit, Alexander." His voice was tinged with something Alex couldn't quite put his finger on, but he did seem sincere, so he decided to trust the other boy and drop the subject.

Letting his fingers run over the wood of the table he was leaning on, Alex stared longingly across the room to the simmering cauldrons, wanting nothing more than to brew the rest of the bloody potion so he could get this whole thing over with. Although he had to admit that George was not even half as obnoxious and Slytherin-y as he had expected and he also knew that he had been the one to make things weird.

"So, flying and animals, does that sound useful to you?" Alex asked, trying to get them back to safer ground.

"Nope," George said to Alex disappointment and sent him a half-hearted grin. "Those are the exact two things I have absolutely no interest in. I'd rather stay with both of my feet on the ground, thank you very much, and animals never really seem to like me."

Alex was just about to respond something stupid about how animals tended to be good judges of character that would've undoubtedly heightened the tension in the room again, when the Tempus charm he had set earlier went off and rescued him. He hastily flicked through the pages of his copy of Magical Drafts and Potions, trying to figure out the next steps, while George seemed to know the instructions from memory and was already adding the English Thyme to his cauldron. His hands worked confidently and his eyes were focussed on the steaming cauldron before him, but at the same time he seemed to be closely following every single one of Alex' movements.

Realising he had waited for too long already and his potion's colour was already much darker than the clear mint green his book recommended, Alex rushed to fling his own thyme into the cauldron. Relieved, he watched as the potion immediately returned to a much lighter colour, but at the same time he also earned himself a stern glance from George.

"Careful," he cautioned. "Potion brewing is a rather delicate affair."

Delicate was definitely not a word Alex had ever connected with this dreaded subject of his, but he tried to keep his hands steady as he added five drops of the fluorescent red salamander blood to the simmering mixture. Right, almost done. Only two more anti-clockwise stirs and then the fire seeds – Alex was cautiously optimistic considering this was already much further than he'd come in the past lesson. Right as he dropped his fire seeds into the cauldron though, Alex caught George's horrified expression out of the corner of his eye.

"Watch out!" George yelled just as Alex's potion gurgled dangerously and began to thicken at an alarming rate. He abandoned his own potion and pushed Alex out of the way barely seconds before the cauldron started spitting burning hot chunks of scorching liquid into their general direction – chunks that now hit George instead of him. Alex felt helpless as he watched, but George seemed to be completely in control over the situation, only flinching when one particular forceful splash of half-liquid-half-solid potion hit him on the forehead. Annoyed, the Slytherin waved his wand and shouted "Evanesco!", successfully vanishing the charred remains of Alex' potion, a lonely cloud of dark red vapour the only lingering trace.

"Bloody hell, Alexander, you're a right menace with a cauldron!" George gingerly touched his fingers to the spot on his forehead where the potion had hit him – and completely burnt his left eyebrow. Oh god, Lando was never going to let him live this down if he ever got wind of this.

"Oh shit," he exclaimed as he rushed to George's side and lifted his hand, letting his own fingers hover over the angry red spot as if he could make it any better this way. "I'm so sorry! Wait let me – " Alex hurriedly reached for his wand and pointed it at George's face. George, in turn, had gone very still and was eyeing Alex' wand warily.

"You're better at that than you are at Potions, right?"

"Couldn't go much worse, could it?" Alex responded and cut off George's protests with a quick "Episkey!" George swore as the spell washed over him, but the redness receded and Alex didn't feel as awful about the incident as he had before.

"I can't grow your eyebrow back though, I'm sorry about that," he said sheepishly. "Now you know why I really need the Potions tutoring, I guess."

"Yeah," George chuckled, his fingers still touching the place where his eyebrow was supposed to be. "Don't worry, I will figure something out for you."

*****

As Alex' luck would have it, it didn't take Lando long to find out about the catastrophe that his first tutoring lesson had been. It was the next morning, to be exact, and Alex and Lando were standing together at the entry of the Great Hall, trying to catch up in the midst of the stream of drowsy students who were trying to reach the breakfast table without having to open their eyes too much. From time to time, the two of them would choose to sit together at one of their house tables, but since it still earned them strange looks from other students, they weren't too keen on doing it too often and usually tried to find a more or less quiet moment before sitting down to talk with each other.

Normally, Alex was quite fond of this tradition, but on this morning, it meant that they were still standing next to the door when George entered the hall and Lando of course spotted him immediately. "I see you had your first Potions lesson with Russell," Lando snickered and – to Alex' horror – started waving at George.

"Oi, Russell!" He yelled and several people in the entrance area turned their heads towards them. "We're matching now!"

"Shut up, Lando!" Alex hissed, but it was too late – George had already seen them and was walking towards them. Alex didn't know when his aversion against the other boy had switched from being simply due to house loyalty to being rather based on the fact that he apparently couldn't talk to him without blushing and embarrassing himself, but it had happened and he wasn't sure he liked it.

"Nice eyebrow," Lando smirked as soon as George was within earshot.

"Thanks, mate," George snorted and instinctively moved his slender fingers over his non-existing eyebrow. "I can only say the same about you. You must be Alex' regular Potions partner then?"

"Hey!" Alex intervened.

"Yup," Lando said, completely ignoring Alex' protest, while George laughed, showing a row of perfect white teeth. "Lando Norris, pleasure to meet you."

"Norris, hm?" George sized Lando up. "Weren't you the guy who painted the walls of the Hufflepuff corridor in our first year? I haven't seen it myself, of course, but I've heard it was a proper nuisance to Filch. Impressive stuff."

Alex laughed, fondly remembering the night he and Lando had become friends all those years ago. He was incredibly thankful to have met the other boy so early into their life at Hogwarts and considered himself very lucky to have found such a great friend in him. The Ravenclaw seemed to be thinking along similar lines and grinned affectionately at him before answering George.

"Ah, yeah," Lando laughed, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "Not on purpose though! I simply forgot to vanish the paint, I swear!"

"Right," George raised his singular eyebrow, clearly not believing Lando's explanation. "Anyways, I'm absolutely starving, so you'll have to excuse me, boys." He nodded at both of them before heading towards the Slytherin table.

Alex watched him sit down near Charles and a dark-haired girl he didn't know and noted that some of the other students sitting with Ocon seemed to throw dirty glances in George's direction that he either was oblivious to or didn't care about. He wondered what that was all about but didn't have a lot of time to think about it because Lando pushed his shoulder to regain his attention.

"He seems alright, doesn't he?" Lando asked, nodding towards George. "Didn't give you a hard time or anything, right?"

"No, he's been quite nice, surprisingly enough," Alex said. "He even said he'd continue to tutor me after I caused him to lose his eyebrow, so I really can't complain. I'm not too sure what he gets out of it, but it's definitely a better start than I expected."

"Who knows?" Lando asked cheekily. "Maybe he'll even manage to get you a half-decent Potions grade this year!"

*****

"Right, new plan!" George announced when the two of them met again in the chilly dungeon. He sounded far too cheerful for Alex' liking – he had just gotten out of a double lesson of History of Magic and would have much rather gone back to his dorm for a quick nap. However, the first Quidditch match of the season was steadily coming closer and that, coupled with the memory of Snape's displeasure in regards to his most recent concoction, was enough motivation to forego his bed.

"So, since our last approach clearly did not work well enough," George explained, purposefully disregarding Alex' unenthusiastic response. "I thought of something new. Instead of both brewing the potion at the same time, only you are going to do that and I will talk you through it."

If possible, Alex' mood deteriorated even more at that announcement. Not only did he have to brew that godforsaken potion again, no, now he had to do it while George was going to be watching and scrutinising his every move.

"Don't worry!" George quickly added and Alex wasn't quite sure whether it should worry him how easily the Slytherin could read him already. "I think I figured out what your main problem is and how I can help you. You said you're good with magical creatures, right? What about Herbology?"

"Uhm, I'm okay, I guess? Not as good as with creatures, but definitely much better than at Potions."

"Perfect, let's start then!"

Alex had no clue what George was getting at, but he was already feeling more optimistic than a moment ago. He unshrunk his cauldron and got the ingredients from the cupboard but before he could start preparing them for the brewing process, George stopped him again.

"Right, so what have you got there?"

"What?" Alex asked confused. "The ingredients for the Pepper-Up Potion?"

"Duh," George snorted. "What I mean is, what exactly are those? Now, when you prepare them, look at each of them and try to remember where they come from and what properties they have."

"Um, okay," Alex said and looked down at the ingredients on the table in front of him. He didn't know whether George wanted him to do this out loud but Alex could see out of the corner of his eye that he was leaning against the table with folded arms and watching him expectantly, so he took a deep breath and began.

"Okay, so this is Bicorn horn, which needs to be crushed… and a Bicorn is a dangerous beast that is said to feed on kind-hearted and devoted husbands, but I have absolutely no idea what that means for this potion…"

"Very good, Alexander," George nodded after Alex' voice had trailed off. "Bicorn horn is usually used in potions to impart an essence of duality, which stems from the contrast between the dangerous nature of the beasts and the kind hearts of their victims. We want to create a duality in this potion as base for converting sickness into health."

"Right," Alex said, even though he definitely didn't remember hearing about this before. Truth be told, he had never paid too much attention to the ingredients that they used in class because he'd seen them purely as means to an end, but apparently there was more to them.

"These are English Thyme and Mandrake root," he continued, encouraged by George's positive feedback. "And they're both often used in Healing potions because of their restorative abilities."

"That's quite correct. And this?" George pointed to the small conical flask filled with scarlet red liquid.

"Salamander blood," Alex answered confidently, but then hesitated. He really didn't know a lot about magical lizards, let alone their bodily fluids.

"Erm, the salamanders in the Muggle world can regrow their limbs if I remember that correctly, so maybe the blood has regenerative properties as well?" he guessed tentatively.

"They really regrow their limbs? Without magic? Huh," George asked curiously. "Eh, close enough. It's blood from the Fire Dwelling Salamander and they can't regrow any limbs as far as I'm aware, but they live inside of fires and feed on flames, and thus their blood has powerful regenerative and curative properties."

Alex grinned, feeling immensely satisfied with how well he was doing at this. If he was only this good at the actual brewing process, he definitely wouldn't need any tutoring. But on the other hand, then he probably wouldn't have met George and Alex couldn't really bring himself to regret that. Sure, the other boy was still a pureblood Slytherin and probably the poshest person apart from Charles that he had ever met, but he was also nice. He didn't have a single obligation towards Alex and yet here he was, patiently explaining potions ingredients to him, smiling encouragingly at him the whole time and generally being much more charming than Alex could've ever expected.

"What about the last ingredient?" George prompted. "It's the most important one to know for this potion."

Alex gingerly picked up the small orange seeds that were still lying on the table and tried to remember what he knew about them.

"They're called fire seeds," he said slowly, "because they're from the fire seed bush and they're incredibly hot when they're still attached so they need to be hit with a freezing spell before they can be collected. And they're… oh…"

"Exactly," George smirked, seemingly pleased that Alex had drawn the conclusion by himself. "They're extremely volatile and need to be handled carefully, especially around fire, because they emit great bursts of heat and can therefore easily cause – "

" – explosions," Alex finished George's sentence, vividly remembering how carelessly he had thrown the seeds into his cauldron and George's horrified expression during their last meeting.

"See why it's important to understand what exactly you're working with?"

"Yeah," Alex nodded. He should probably be even more embarrassed by his lack of knowledge in regards to difficult – and dangerous – ingredients he was supposed to be working with, but really, he was just glad that he now knew what part of the process he needed to work on in order to finally achieve better results. It was a first step into the right direction.

As expected, the brewing process went much better than their last attempt and, in the end, Alex not only had a still intact cauldron but also a potion that actually showed the orangish colour it was supposed to, even if it was much fainter than what he'd seen from Snape and George. Still, it was definitely a massive improvement for him and Alex swelled with pride underneath George's satisfied look.

"Well done, Alexander!" He praised him. "In our second lesson already, that's impressive."

"Thanks," Alex responded. "You're a great teacher. And uh – you can call me Alex, by the way."

"Oh, so teaching you how to brew a potion without letting your cauldron explode unlocks the first of your friendship levels then? That's good to know, I'll keep that in mind, Alex."

"Oh, fuck off," Alex tried to feign offence, but he couldn't quite contain the grin that was fighting its way onto his face at their new-found camaraderie.

*****

In the course of the following weeks, Alex spent almost all of his time not only learning about potions ingredients and re-brewing potions he should have mastered three years ago, but also getting to know George better. They had decided to meet up twice a week for tutoring since Alex basically had to make up for three years of "severe Potions neglect" as George liked to call it and thus, the two of them spent more and more time together.

Alex started to appreciate George's sharp sense of humour, his seemingly never-ending patience and his sheer brilliance when it came to potions-brewing. Charles really hadn't exaggerated when he'd called George an "absolute genius" and even though the Slytherin knew perfectly well how good he was and could therefore often sound fairly cocky, Alex surprisingly found that he didn't mind that too much. In fact, he noticed that he was actually enjoying it more and more to listen to George talking about the advantages of fresh over artificial ingredients and the more or less favourable reactions of certain bases. George was well-spoken at the best of times, but when he talked about potions-related topics, he rose to a whole new level – Alex had seldom heard someone speak about a topic with so much dedication and passion, especially not about Potions.

"How come you're into Potions this much anyways?" Alex asked one afternoon when they were walking up to dinner together after their lesson.

"My mother –" George began, but hesitated, seeming uncertain for the first time since Alex had met him. "My mother, she used to work as a healer, so she was always very skilled with them – and then, um, my father left us, so she had to quit her job…" He trailed off again, lost in his thoughts, and Alex wished he could take the question back. It was unusual to see George this unsure of himself and he regretted being the person to put him in that position. But before he could try to backpedal his way out of the conversation, George looked up again and continued talking.

"It was very difficult for her at first, obviously, but then she decided to open a small apothecary from our home, which was easier to manage with a toddler because she didn't have to leave for work every day," he explained. "I mean, she still couldn't leave me alone all day, so I spent the most part of my childhood in the apothecary with her and I basically grew up around herbs and potions, which is where my affinity stems from, I reckon."

"I'm sorry about your dad," Alex said. He felt the desire to hug the other boy but wasn't quite sure they had reached that level of closeness yet, so he stuck to squeezing George's arm comfortingly. "That must have been awful for you and your mum. Thank you for telling me."

"Yeah," George said. "Thanks, Alex."

After that, George didn't seem to be in the mood for casual conversation anymore – which Alex really couldn't blame him for – and so they parted ways in the direction of their respective house tables. Upon arriving at the Hufflepuff table, Alex saw that Charles had joined Pierre for dinner tonight and was happily chewing on a turkey sandwich, completely unbothered by the fact that, save for Pierre and Lance, all the other Hufflepuff students had moved away and left quite a few empty seats next to him.

The three of them all looked up when Alex dropped down next to them.

"Alex!" Charles exclaimed and patted him on the shoulder. "How are you, mate? How's your Potions grade doing? They're not seriously still thinking about dropping you off the team, right?"

"Eh, no, I don't think so?" Alex supposed. Truth be told, he hadn't thought about Quidditch outside of his regular practices all that much since he'd started to actually enjoy his time with George instead of simply seeing it as means to an end.

"No way!" Pierre laughed. "You have no idea how much Alex has improved in the what, four weeks, since George started helping him. Even Snape called his Pepper-Up Potion 'adequate' last week!"

"Yeah, you should've seen his face," Lance snorted. "Looked as if he was going to be sick."

"Wonderful, I knew he could help you!" Charles said proudly. "Listen, Alex, you really have to beat Gryffindor this Saturday. If I have to listen to Verstappen brag about how good their fucking team is for one more week, I'm going to throw myself off the Astronomy tower."

"Don't be so dramatic," Pierre admonished his friend jokingly, but Alex remembered the crushing defeat Slytherin had suffered only weeks ago at the hands of Gryffindor and he knew how insufferable a smug Max Verstappen could be. Alex hoped he could help his friend with taking the Gryffindor down a notch, but despite his eternal optimism, he actually wasn't sure whether they'd be able to beat Verstappen's team.

His own team was good, he knew that, especially with Lance playing as a keeper now – a position that came much more naturally to him than that of a chaser – but Gryffindor seemed to have hit the jackpot this year with the unbeatable Beater duo of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. He wondered whether George would be coming to see the match and couldn't help remember their earlier conversation.

"What do you know about George's family, Charles?" He asked after Pierre and Charles' bickering had died down.

"Huh? Not much, I think… George keeps mostly to himself, he spends a lot of time in the Potions classroom and I'm usually with you guys, so I'm not hanging out with him that often," Charles considered, furrowing his eyebrows.

"His family hasn't been living around here for long, they've only moved to the area a couple of years ago. I remember that there were some strange rumours about them in the beginning, but I'd say that's completely normal among pureblood families, they always like to talk shit about one another, and it died down fairly quickly. Why do you ask?" His eyes narrowed sharply as he looked into the direction of his own House table where George was sitting. "Did he say something stupid to you?"

"No, no, not at all!" Alex tried to placate him hastily. God, how did he keep making conversations so awkward today? He should really just shut up and not speak for the rest of the evening. "I was just curious, I promise. It's all good."

Charles didn't look entirely satisfied and sent another glare into George's direction, but dropped the issue in favour of involving Lance in the discussion about how likely it was for Hufflepuff to beat Gryffindor and whether that would give Slytherin the chance to still be in the running for the Quidditch cup or not.

Alex thoughts on the other hand stuck with George and what he'd learned about the other boy's family today. He wondered briefly about the rumours Charles had mentioned, but it already made him feel deeply honoured that George told him about something as incredibly personal as the separation of his parents, so it didn't feel right to pry even more into his personal life.

"So, you two get on well then?" Pierre asked curiously while Charles and Lance were still deeply engrossed in their conversation about Quidditch.

"Yeah," Alex smiled, thinking of how much he was enjoying the time with George and how easily they had clicked. It was almost as effortless for him to get along with him as it had been in the beginning of his friendship with Lando, except that George's teasing comments still made him blush in a way that was a completely new kind of embarrassment.

"He's been very nice to me," he told Pierre. "I was quite surprised, to be honest, didn't know Slytherin produces more than one decent person a year." Pierre let out a snort of laughter, quickly checking that Charles still wasn't paying them any attention.

"He's quite funny, even though he can be a bit arrogant sometimes, but he's also got the talent to show for it, you know? So, it's not that bad. And you should hear him talk about Potions! I've never met anyone who talks like that about a school subject, but it's super fascinating to listen to him, he really knows what he's talking about and it's a million times better than to listen to Snape!"

"Ooooh, Alex!" Pierre grinned, nudging him with his elbow. "It almost seems like you have a little crush on George!"

"What?" Alex stared wide-eyed at his friend. "It's not – it's not like that! We're only friends – barely! I'm not even sure if he sees us as friends, we haven't even known each other that long yet… but I don't have a crush on him!"

"Are you sure about that?" Pierre asked, a smirk still playing on his lips. "Because it sure sounded a bit like it when you just talked about him, I can tell you that much."

"Of course I'm sure! We don't even hang out outside of the Potions lessons."

"Well, would you like to do that?"

"I mean… yeah, sure, I'd like that," Alex stammered. He was sure his head had once again adopted the colour of a Chinese Fireball. "We get along, so of course I'd like to spend more time with him, but I also like spending time with you or Lando or even with Charles and that doesn't mean anything."

"If you say so," Pierre conceded to Alex' relief. "Is he coming to the match then?"

"I don't know, actually," Alex considered. "We haven't talked about it. But I'm sure he is, the whole school is gonna be there, right?"

"You should ask him to come. Show him the best side of you." Pierre winked before turning around to join Charles' and Lance's conversation, acting as if he hadn't just single-handedly caused Alex to have a mild emotional breakdown.

*****

Alex was still thinking about Pierre's words as he was heading down to the dungeons after dinner to find George, having decided to ask him whether he'd come to Alex' match. Not because he had a crush on him or anything like that, just because… just because Alex wanted to show him that he wasn't everywhere as inept as he was at Potions. Even the idea of knowing that George would be in the stands and cheering him on made Alex feel a surge of excitement that he couldn't solely attribute to feelings of pure friendship, no matter how hard he tried.

A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he made his way to the Potion-Mixing Room where George liked to spend the majority of his free time as Alex had learned over the past weeks. The room was "for advanced students only, Albon" as Snape liked to remind him all too often, so he didn't quite know what George was doing in there, but if he wanted to find him, it was the most likely place to start.

Walking further down the dim stone corridor, however, Alex' smile began to fade as he spotted the lanky figure of the absolute last person he wanted to meet right now. Or ever.

"Well, well, well, would you look at that," Esteban sneered and slowly sauntered towards him. He held his wand somewhat loosely but Alex had enough experience with the other boy that he knew how easily this unexpected meeting could end in a fight, so he gripped his own wand tightly beneath his robes.

"What are you doing down here, Albon? Did you get lost?"

"Fuck off, Esteban," Alex muttered with an eyeroll. He really didn't want this to end in an outright confrontation if he could avoid it, but unfortunately, Esteban seemed to have other ideas.

"Or are you looking for Georgie?" He taunted, his voice dripping with barely-contained mockery. "You two are spending an awful amount of time together lately, what's that all about anyways? Why would he choose to hang around with someone like you?"

"Why don't you ask him that and leave me alone?" Alex decided he had had enough and pushed past Esteban. But if he thought Esteban would just give up and leave, his hope had been in vain.

"Ah, ah, that's not nice. I just asked you a question – Flipendo!" Alex heard Esteban's shout, then there was a loud bang and he was knocked forward, catching himself with his outstretched arms just in time to not smash against the ground with full force. Groaning, he got back on his feet and rubbed his aching limbs. Had Esteban really just jinxed him while he got his back turned? What a bloody prick.

But before he could turn around and retaliate, the heavy door of the Potion-Mixing Room was pushed open and George appeared, having probably been alerted by all the noise.

"Alex?" He asked in surprise, but the happy grin he flashed Alex (that made Alex' heart definitely not beat a little bit faster) turned frosty as his gaze fell upon Esteban. "Right, what's all this then?" He sighed and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

"Your little pet came looking for you, Russell," Esteban jeered. "Maybe there's something to those rumours about you after all, huh? Is that why you hang out with someone like him? Or are you just a dirty little blood traitor?"

Esteban spat on the ground in front of them, his face contorted in contempt, and all of a sudden Alex was overcome with a rush of red-hot anger. He started to raise his wand, ready to get revenge on Esteban, but George moved quicker than him.

"Petrificus Totalus!" he yelled and Esteban's arms and legs snapped together, glued to his body so he couldn't move anymore. His whole body went rigid, causing him to sway back and forth until he slowly fell over, landing on his back. Alex stepped closer cautiously, not quite sure whether to expect the next shot of malice, but George's spell had made his mouth snap shut as well so that Esteban could only glower furiously at him.

"Come on, let's get out of here!" George urged, tugging Alex through a shortcut hidden by a portrait of Hesper Starkey.

"What about Snape? Won't you get in trouble if he finds out?" Alex asked as he rushed to follow George through a narrow corridor.

"I doubt Ocon will tell him," George snorted. "Snape doesn't like him very much."

"Never thought I'd agree with Snape on something," Alex mumbled, pleasantly surprised when George let out a cackling laugh. He kind of wanted to hear that sound again immediately.

"So, what's the deal with you and Ocon then?" George asked as they reached the end of the corridor and slipped out into the courtyard. A gust of the cold November air hit Alex' face and he shivered, quickly casting a Warming charm for himself and for George, who smiled gratefully at him.

"Eh, we have a bit of bad history between us," Alex said, settling on a stone bench next to George. "It's complicated." Deep down he knew he could probably trust George and tell him what had happened between him and Esteban in their first year, but there was a small and ugly voice inside his head that pointed out that George was still a pureblood and a Slytherin – exactly like Esteban – and that it wasn't a good idea to remind him of Alex' lower status too often if he really wanted a chance to be his friend.

'Or more,' his brain added helpfully.

"What rumours was he talking about?" Alex asked instead because he really couldn't deny that he had grown curious after first Charles and now Esteban had both mentioned them.

"It's complicated," George grinned slyly, and yeah – even though he felt a slight disappointment at not being able to satisfy his curiosity, Alex really couldn't fault him for his answer after having just used it himself only moments ago.

He leaned back with a sigh and watched the sky above them. It was a clear night; the stars were clearly visible above them and Alex was enjoying the warmth that was spreading from where George's shoulder was touching his own. He felt more peaceful and relaxed than he had in a long time.

"Not that I am not enjoying this – because trust me, I am – but may I ask why you were looking for me in the first place?" George turned to look at him and he was so incredibly close that Alex almost forgot how to breathe. At this proximity, he could almost count the individual brown specks in George's blue eyes and all of a sudden, Alex wanted to find out whether the other boy's lips were really as soft as they looked. George cocked his eyebrow (that had luckily fully regrown over the past weeks) and looked at him expectantly, reminding Alex that he'd actually been asked a question.

"Eh, right," Alex said and moved slightly away from George to clear his thoughts, remembering why he'd gone down to the dungeons in the first place.

"I was just – I was just wondering, if you were coming to the Quidditch match tomorrow? Which is a stupid question since the whole school is gonna be there, so you're probably going as well, but I – " Alex stumbled over his words as he saw George furrowing his eyebrows and pressing his lips together tightly. This had been an awful idea, he was making an absolute fool out of himself, but now he might as well just get it over with. "We're playing Gryffindor tomorrow – which you probably know – and yeah, I'd like it if you were there, so I just thought I'd ask. But I see now that it's a stupid question, so yeah, don't worry about it."

"It's not a stupid question, Alex," George said and squeezed Alex' arm reassuringly, the guarded expression he wore moments before completely gone from his face. "It means a lot that you want me to come and that you came to ask me instead of just assuming I'd be there anyways. Of course I'll come."

*****

The morning of the match, Alex was overcome with an extreme nervousness that he hadn't felt since the Sorting Feast in his first year at Hogwarts. Over the past weeks he had been busy with trying to improve his Potions grades to insure that he could stay on the team and also fairly distracted by his growing friendship with George, so that he didn't even have time to panic about the fact that he'd be playing his first Quidditch match – in front of the entire school – today. The panic set in at breakfast and Alex was glad that Lando had come over from the Ravenclaw table to distract him by rambling about the exciting new sweets Honeydukes were currently promoting while he was pushing his toast around on his plate without any intention to eat it.

"We should get going, Alex," Lance said and stood up from the table. "You know how Romain gets when he has to wait."

"Uh, yeah, just a minute," Alex said and looked around the Great Hall, scanning the other students.

"What's up?" Lando asked, following his gaze. "Who are you looking for?"

"Eh – I asked George to come," Alex answered and couldn't keep himself from blushing slightly as Lando raised his eyebrows in surprise. "And he said he would, but I haven't seen him yet and I don't really have time to wait for him, so…"

"You asked George to come? And he said yes?" Charles interrupted him, looking confused.

"Yeah," Alex nodded. "Why are you so surprised at that? Should I have not done that?"

"No, it's just – George never comes to Quidditch games," Charles explained. He was still staring curiously at Alex and he wasn't quite sure he liked the way Charles was looking at him. "He's scared of heights, he actually nearly passed out during our first Flying lessons and he doesn't even go near the Quidditch stands, so in all three years, he's never once been to a match. He must really like you, Alex."

George was scared of heights? Alex didn't quite know what he was supposed to think about that. It was certainly not something he'd expected to hear, especially not about George who always seemed to be so confident in every situation. He also wasn't sure whether he should still expect George to come – had he just agreed to it in order to placate him and never planned on actually attending? Or was Charles right and George really did like him – enough to try to overcome his fear?

"That's great and all, but we really gotta go," Lance chimed in, more urgently this time and Alex reluctantly got up but not without casting one last glance towards the Slytherin table.

"Go, Alex," Lando urged him. "Grosjean is gonna flip if you're late. We'll watch out for Russell and get him to the pitch, don't worry."

Thankful for Lando's reassurance Alex hastily grabbed his things and followed Lance out of the castle and down to the Quidditch pitch. Enough about George – he needed to focus now. But really, Alex couldn't help himself and when he climbed on his broom and pushed himself up into the air, the first thing he did was to search for his friends in the crowd of cheering students. It was easier to spot them than Alex had anticipated because it appeared that Lando had designed a huge poster that glowed brilliantly in the Hufflepuff colours and read "Go Alex!"  while a tiny Alex on a broomstick was flying circles around the letters. He smiled as he remembered all the times Lando had complained about that "stupid sport" and rolled his eyes whenever he and Charles had talked about Quidditch. Lando might never become the biggest Quidditch fan in the wizarding world, but he was here now, supporting him wholeheartedly and Alex truly couldn't wish for a better friend. He was definitely going to buy him a whole box of chocolate frogs the next time they went to Hogsmeade.

Grinning, Alex flew a sweeping arc in their direction and his heart soared with joy when he spotted the tall figure of George inbetween the rest of his friends. As far as Alex could tell from the distance, he was determinedly staring at the sky and not at the ground, but he was there, he had come only for him and Alex felt like his heart was going to burst from all the satisfaction and pride.

Maybe it was seeing George in the stands, maybe it was the memory of Charles' words from this morning, Alex wasn't quite sure, but he played the best he had ever played before and although he and his teammates didn't quite manage to outfly the insanely quick duo of Verstappen and Ricciardo, they fared well enough that by the time Madame Hooch's whistle sounded and it was their seeker that had caught the snitch, they had kept close enough – "Hufflepuff wins!"

Alex felt like he was in a trance as he flew towards to ground amid his cheering teammates – they did it, they had won – and then Lando was by his side, pulling him into a hug while he was still halfway in the air, and Pierre and Charles were screaming into his ear. The support of his friends meant the world to Alex and yet, he was searching for only one particular face in the crowd. When his eyes finally found George's and he saw the pride and admiration that were radiating from the other boy, Alex truly felt invincible.

*****

"So, when are you going to ask him out?" Lando asked casually as he and Alex walked back to the castle. The match had ended a while ago and most students had already escaped from the cold autumn air and gone back to their common rooms to either celebrate the win or mourn the loss, but Lando had waited until Alex returned from the locker room so that they could walk back together.

"What? What do you mean?" Alex squealed.

"George. When are you going to ask him out? You're obviously into him."

"I'm not into him," Alex lied.

"Right. Don't play dumb, Alex." Lando said and rolled his eyes. "I've known you for far too long to believe that. Plus, with how you two looked at each other after the match today, I'm sure I'm not the only one who noticed."

Alex felt himself blushing furiously. Was it really that obvious? And, more importantly, had George noticed it as well?

"I can't just 'ask him out'," Alex said as he pushed open the heavy entrance doors of the castle.

"Why not? There's a Hogsmeade weekend coming soon, just ask him to go with you, he's definitely gonna say yes."

"You think so?" Alex wished he was as confident as Lando. "He's still -" He hesitated.

"Still what?" Lando prompted. They'd reached the part of the castle where Alex had to turn right into the direction of the basement and Lando had to go left to get to the Ravenclaw tower, so they'd stopped walking.

"Slytherin. Pureblood. Cooler than me?"

"Stop that shit, Alex," Lando narrowed his eyes and stabbed his index finger into Alex' chest. "You're worth exactly as much as everyone else here and you're the coolest person I know. Stop saying stuff like that or you'll end up believing it. And besides, George definitely likes you. Didn't you listen to Charles this morning? He's scared of heights and he still came to the Quidditch match just for you."

Alex smiled - Lando had a point there, he had to admit.

"You're gonna ask him out tomorrow, Albon, no discussion. Get your head out of your arse."

Still shaking his head, Lando turned around and made his way into the direction of his common room, leaving Alex with a smile of his face and a heart full of cautious optimism for the next morning.

*****

The next morning, Alex was essentially vibrating out of his skin due to nervousness. He had sat down next to Lando at the Ravenclaw table today so that he'd be able to keep an eye on the Slytherin table but as it turned out, that wouldn't have been necessary – no matter how intently he stared across the hall, George just didn't appear.

"He's not coming," he sighed, propping his chin onto his hands dejectedly. The nervousness was slowly ebbing off and Alex couldn't help but feel strangely disappointed. Of course he'd been nervous, but after the talk with Lando yesterday, he'd also been kind of excited at the prospect of getting to ask out George Russell – and more importantly, excited about the chance of George saying yes.

"What's up with them today, anyways?" Lando had stopped chewing his toast and was now watching the Slytherin table quizzically as well. "They all seem so… worked up about something."

Now that Lando had mentioned it, Alex noticed it too. The Slytherin students were sitting in small groups like they always were, but today they all seemed to be whispering urgently with each other and some people were even getting up from their seats to pass messages to other groups. It all seemed quite strange and Alex wondered how he'd been so focused on waiting for George that he'd missed it before.

"I really wanna know what's going on there," Lando said and not even two seconds later, Charles plopped down in the seat next to them.

"What a morning," the Slytherin groaned. "Where's Pierre?"

Any other day Alex would've found it sweet how Charles immediately asked about Pierre the second he noticed his friend not being there, but today he just wanted to shake him and ask him what was going on, ask him where George was and find out how these two things were connected. Somehow, he was sure that they were.

"In the library," he answered impatiently. "What's going on, Charles? Why's everyone acting so strangely?"

"There's some drama with Russell and Ocon," Charles shook his head. "People are being stupid as usual."

"What drama?" Lando asked cautiously after exchanging a worried look with Alex. Esteban being involved was never a good sign. "Spill it, Charles."

"Remember the rumours about Russell and his family I mentioned the other day?" Charles said, looking back over his shoulder into the direction of where Esteban was sitting and conspiring with his lackeys. "I still don't know if there's any truth to them, but apparently he and Ocon had a little, uh, altercation in the corridors a few days ago and now Ocon is pissed and has dredged them up again, telling them in great detail to everyone who will listen… which is practically everyone."

With a jolt, Alex remembered his and Esteban's fight in the Potions corridor two days ago. George had also been there – was this the 'altercation' Charles was talking about? He thought of the intense anger he'd seen in Esteban's eyes as he'd lain on the floor, bound by invisible restraints, and concluded that yeah, seeking revenge for losing out in a fight by talking shit definitely seemed like something he would do.

"What are those rumours?" Alex asked a bit hesitantly. He would have rather heard it from George himself but the whole situation left a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach and he just really had to know what was going on.

"They're saying that he, uh…" Charles voice dropped down to a whisper and Alex and Lando moved their heads closer to him, not looking any less conspiratorial than the Slytherins over at the other table. "They're saying that he's lying about being, you know, lying about being pureblood. And as if that wasn't bad enough on its own, apparently his mother is some crazy Muggle-hater who killed her own husband."

"What?" Alex suddenly felt as if all air had been sucked out of him. Looking over at Lando, Alex could see that he was staring at Charles with wide eyes, equally as shocked by the revelation as Alex himself. They had both heard what Charles had been saying, but it just wouldn't make sense inside of Alex' brain, it couldn't be –

"That's a joke, right? There's no way that's true," Lando said incredulously, Alex nodding along emphatically.

"I wish," Charles sighed and rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand. "Good chance it's just silly gossip, but apparently Ocon's and Russell's mothers used to work together at St. Mungo's hospital so she caught a lot of the stuff that was going on with their family and talked about it at home, and now that Russell managed to piss Ocon off, he's bringing it all out into the open so that everyone can rip him apart."

"But – but why?" Alex faltered. His brain was still playing catch-up and his heart felt as if someone had put an iron fist around it. "That doesn't make any sense! I even talked to him about, you know, blood status when we started with the tutoring and he really didn't seem like someone who comes from a family of Muggle-haters."

'I can assure you that someone's blood does not matter to me one bit, Alexander.'  George's words from their first Potions lesson were still echoing in his head and Alex couldn't help but think that this must all be a giant misunderstanding. After the whole thing with Esteban, Alex was sure he would've noticed if George had been putting on an act the entire time they had spent together.

"Shit, that's bad," Lando muttered. "If he really lied about his blood status…" He trailed off, shaking his head speechlessly.

"That's what you're worried about?" Alex asked. "Not him being from a family that hates Muggles and his mother apparently murdering her husband?"

"People murder their spouses all the time," Charles pointed out.

"Not helpful, Charles."

"Listen, Alex, I know blood status really shouldn't matter anymore – and Merlin knows, it's not important to me, you know that," Lando explained, "but unfortunately, it still matters to some degree and lying about it, that's something most people take super seriously, especially those kinds of pureblood pricks he's surrounded with in Slytherin."

"Hey!"

"No offense, Charles, I know you're not all like that," Lando said and slung his arm around the other one's shoulder. "You should talk to him," he addressed Alex after Charles had been placated. "You wanted to talk to him anyways, right? This just makes it spicier."

"You just want me to get all the gossip for you," Alex rolled his eyes. Truth be told, he'd completely forgotten about his original plan to ask George out since Charles had come over and dropped this bombshell on them. The glorious feeling Alex had been floating on since yesterday's Quidditch match had evaporated and he couldn't quite believe how everything had turned to shit in so little time.

"Not just that," Lando grinned and pushed Alex to get up. "But if you have some afterwards, I'm all ears."

*****

This was how Alex ended up in the Potions corridor – yet again. He was standing at the entrance of the Potion-Mixing Room and was watching George who was standing with his back to the door and hadn't noticed him yet. During their many tutoring sessions, Alex had watched George brew potions about a million times and thus noticed immediately that something was off today. George's usually smooth and graceful movements were jerky and erratic today and even from his position at the door, Alex could see that his mind was somewhere else. Which was understandable, of course, considering everything Charles had told them today.

Trying not to startle George, Alex knocked gently on the doorframe before entering the room but the unexpected sound still made the Slytherin spin around abruptly and Alex noticed with a jolt that his eyes were swollen and red-rimmed as if he'd been crying all morning. When he saw Alex, George quickly snapped his head back around, turning away from his as much as he could.

"What do you want?" he asked tersely without looking at him. In all their time together, Alex had never heard his voice sound this harsh, not even in the beginning when the two of them barely knew each other. This conversation was off to a great start then.

"Erm, hi," he said carefully, not quite knowing how to proceed. The situation felt volatile in a way he couldn't quite grasp yet. "I just wanted to check if you're okay?"

"So, you've heard then?" George muttered hoarsely; his eyes still focused on the ingredients he'd laid out next to the boiling cauldron in front of him. The potion appeared to be complicated, Alex didn't even recognise most of the ingredients save for the more common ones such as spider legs and chicken blood.

"Yeah," he replied. "Is it…is it true? What they're saying?"

"Is that what you're here for?" George snapped and finally turned around again to face him with a steely expression in his eyes. Alex instinctively took a step backwards. "Trying to get the gossip straight from the source?"

"I – no, that's not what I was –" Alex tried to defend himself although he couldn't help but feel a bit guilty when he remembered the end of his conversation with Lando and Charles. It wasn't like he was only here for the gossip though, he just wanted to know what he was dealing with – the George in front of him right now seemed so different to the boy Alex thought he had gotten to know over the past weeks and he wasn't quite able to silence the nagging suspicion in his brain that maybe the rumours were true, maybe he had been lied to yet again.

"I just wanted to check on you," he finished lamely.

"Right," George said flatly. "I'm sure it doesn't matter to you at all whether it's true or not, huh? Are you gonna give me the whole 'Blood doesn't matter'  talk? What a load of bullshit." He forced a humourless laugh. "You should be the first one to know that that's a fucking lie."

 Alex felt a wave of bitter anger bubble up inside of him at George's words. 'I can assure you that someone's blood does not matter to me one bit, Alexander.'  The words were still reverberating in his brain – had it all been a lie? This was the Esteban thing all over again.

"So it's true then?" he asked again, a hint of desperation in his voice. A part of him was still clinging to hope, waiting for George to deny the accusations against him, waiting for him to say that it was all a misunderstanding. Waiting for him to confirm that someone's blood – Alex'  blood – still didn't matter to him, that what had been developing between them was real and not just something Alex had made up in his head based on a facade George had been putting on.

"Of course it's fucking true," George snarled, managing to sound equally angry and defeated, and Alex' heart sunk. "Are you happy now? Got what you came for?"

The potion behind him bubbled dangerously and George moved his wand, trying to settle the seething concoction, while Alex could do nothing but watch in stunned silence. So this was it then? Everything between them had been nothing but a deception? He felt as if someone had rammed a knife into his chest and was slowly twisting it, carving the act of betrayal into his skin.

"Why pretend then? No matter what Charles said to you, you didn't have to tutor me, so why did you?" Alex whispered, surprising himself with how broken his voice sounded and how much effort he had to put into keeping it together. Maybe he should have left then and there, but he was just so sick of it, so sick of constantly having to be on guard because other people had fucked up opinions about magical blood, so sick of always having to expect new friends to turn on him again.

"Planning to follow in mummy's footsteps?" he bit out and he knew it was cruel, but he wanted it to hurt George the way he was hurting right now.

"Don't you dare speak about my mother!" George shouted furiously, the bitter frustration in his gaze giving way to mounting anger. "You understand nothing, Alexander. You have no idea what –"

But Alex would never hear what George thought he had no idea about because right in that moment, they were both distracted by George's cauldron which seemed to be fed up with getting ignored and started sputtering loudly.

"Oh, shit,"  George croaked, his eyes rapidly filling with panic as he turned towards the cauldron and hastily started muttering incantations that Alex had never heard of, but it was too late – the cauldron let out one last shrill hissing sound before it started to shrink dramatically and spit its scalding hot content everywhere. Alex could hear piercing screams echo through the dungeon and only realized a second later that they belonged to both of them. He had never felt as much pain as he did once the first drops of the burning liquid touched his body and made him feel as if his skin was slowly but surely burned off his bones.

In a daze, Alex saw how George was stumbling through the room and waving his wand erratically, trying to get the harmful potion of his skin, and he wished with all his heart that their conversation had gone differently, that he could've taken a different approach and managed to comfort George in his distress instead of riling him up even more. He wanted to say something – anything – but when he tried to take a step towards the other boy, the pain immediately went from 'hardly bearable' to 'too much' and his legs crumbled underneath him before everything went dark.

*****

When Alex woke up again, his body felt weird. Most of the pain seemed to have subsided, but his head was throbbing and his skin felt severely irritated at different parts of his body, like someone had peeled it off and put in on again but in way it wasn't supposed to be. He also felt a gentle pressure on his left hand and opened his eyes to see that he was in the hospital wing and that Lando was sitting at his bedside, holding Alex' hand between his own.

"Hey," Alex croaked, which caused Lando to look up at him with a relieved grin.

"Hey," he said. "The talking didn't go too well, did it? Exploding a potion again, really? I thought you were past that."

"You could say that," Alex grimaced when he thought of their disastrous conversation. "Did you see George? Is he…is he alright?"

"Yeah," Lando nodded and pointed into the direction of another hospital bed around which the curtains were drawn. "Wasn't particularly happy to see me, but he's over there. Madam Pomfrey already took care of him, so he's probably sleeping now. Speaking of which – "

Alex raised his head with great effort as he heard the nimble witch make her way over to his bed.

"Mr. Albon," she said and gestured for Lando to help him take his shirt off. "Not a Quidditch injury this time but a botched potion, I see."

She mumbled on while she cast a few diagnosis spells on him, but Alex couldn't pay any attention – he was too preoccupied with looking at what the potion had done to his body.

"Holy shit," Lando whistled. "That's equally gross and cool."

Alex had to agree with him – on the spots where the potion had burnt itself through his clothes and hit his skin, it had caused the skin to become pixelated and almost translucent, making it possible to see the flesh and bones and even parts of his organs underneath. It was more of his body's inner life than Alex had ever wanted to see and he felt a bit dizzy now that he looked at it.

"It will turn back to normal in no time," Madam Pomfrey comforted him while she took two bottles from her tray and unscrewed the caps. "But for now, you need to take this and have some rest. Mr. Norris, I must ask you to leave now."

Lando only left reluctantly, promising to be back soon, and as soon as Alex had swallowed the (quite disgusting) potions he immediately felt so drowsy that the only thing he could do was to sink back down into his pillows and let the pattering of rain against the windows lull him back to sleep again.

*****

Whatever Madam Pomfrey had given him had definitely proven its effect because when Alex woke up for a second time, the lights in the hospital wing had already been dimmed which strongly suggested that he had been sleeping for hours. On the plus side, his body felt much more normal again – the irritating feeling of his skin had decreased significantly and the throbbing headache had disappeared. Curiously, he looked over to the other bed and discovered that the curtains had been pulled back and, besides the crumpled sheets, empty.

As his eyes got more used to the darkness, he recognised George's silhouette in front of the window. The other boy had his back turned to Alex and was staring out into the darkness, his shoulders hunched over and shaking slightly as if he were crying silently. The sight of him hurt Alex' heart, no matter the bitter words they had exchanged earlier – over the past weeks, George seemed to have carved himself a permanent place in Alex' heart and even though he knew it would most likely not end well, Alex couldn't give up now.

He sighed and slipped out of his bed, padding across the room on socked feet to stand next to George. Out of the corners of his eye he could see that his intuition was right, there were in fact tear tracks on his cheeks, but the Slytherin was adamantly looking straight ahead so Alex went along with it and stared out of the window as well.

"Hey," he said quietly.

"Hey," George said and exhaled heavily. Then, after a pause, "I'm surprised you're still talking to me."

"Yeah," Alex replied. So was he, to be honest.

They both went silent again and kept staring out of the window into the dark November night. Alex followed the raindrops running down the glass with his fingertips and tried to think of something to say, something that would steer the conversation into a different direction than the last time.

"What potion were you trying to brew?" It seemed as good of a choice as any and Alex was also genuinely curious what had happened to his body.

"Invisibility Potion," George answered. Right, that would explain the sudden window into his body's inner workings.

"I'm sorry about that, by the way. About hurting you, I mean." George said and glanced at him for a second before he stared out of the window again. Alex wasn't quite sure whether George had intended the layered meaning of his apology or not, so he didn't comment on it.

"An Invisibility Potion?" he asked instead. "Isn't that super advanced stuff? I didn't even know they taught that here."

"They don't. But since I'm quite decent at brewing, Snape sometimes help me learn stuff that's not on the curriculum but still sounds interesting. And usually, it goes quite well when I'm not, you know, experiencing emotional turmoil or whatever." George wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and sent Alex a half-cheeky grin that reminded him of the cocky kid he'd grown so fond of over the past weeks.

But there was still so much between them that was unspoken and unexplained.

"Why did you lie to me, George?" Alex asked, trying not to sound as bitter as he felt. So much for staying on safer ground.

"I didn't." George's voice was barely more than a whisper but Alex heard him loud and clear. "I never lied to you, Alex. I didn't tell you a whole lot of stuff, but I swear, I never lied to you."

"Sure you didn't," Alex scoffed. "Remember when you told me you didn't care about people's blood? You sure seem to care enough to lie about yours."

"It's – it's complicated, and yeah, I know I fucked up, but please, let me explain?"

Alex nodded silently because yeah, he really did want an explanation.

"Okay so, as you probably know, I haven't been living in London very long yet," George began tentatively, his eyes flicking to Alex' face every once in a while. "I grew up in York with my parents, a town with only a very small wizarding population and even though I knew I was a wizard since I was a small child, I always had to keep it a secret since my dad… he was a Muggle. I didn't care, I loved him and so did my mum, but she never told him about magic and about our world. I think… I think secretly, she wanted nothing more than to give up her magic and live with him, in his world."

George went quiet and Alex could see that he was struggling against a flood of long-buried memories, his knuckles turning white where he was gripping the window sill, and without thinking too much about it, Alex instinctively covered George's hands with his own. The other boy inhaled shakily at the contact and closed his eyes for a moment before he continued talking.

"That wasn't possible, of course – she had her job as a healer at St. Mungo's, which was difficult enough to hide from my dad, and then there was me, a small magical child causing his first bouts of accidental magic. My dad… he didn't understand what was happening and that frightened him, so in the end, my mother had no choice but to confess everything she'd been hiding from him."

Alex nodded; he could relate to that experience very well. As the only one with magical blood in his family he had scared the others quite a few times with incidents of colour-changing furniture, exploding lightbulbs or even flying pets. His parents had dragged him to multiple doctors to try and figure out what was going on with him and when he received his Hogwarts letter on his eleventh birthday, everyone had been surprised but also extremely relieved that no, he wasn't possessed by a demon as his siblings started saying, he simply was a freaking wizard.

"It didn't – I think it's safe to say it didn't go over particularly well," George smiled sadly. "I don't know what was said between them, of course, I was still too young to understand what exactly was happening, but the next thing I remember is my mother packing our things and whisking me off to London. I never saw my dad again."

Alex wasn't quite sure if it wasn't just the mirror image of the raindrops running down the window in front of them, but George's eyelashes looked suspiciously wet and Alex tried to comfort him by squeezing his hand reassuringly. He had already started to regret his words in the dungeons before George had started telling him his story, but now he was positively overwhelmed with guilt over having judged George so harshly without seeing the full picture.

"My mother – she's never been the same since then. She's turned into a very bitter woman and it's been – it's been quite difficult. Whatever happened it between her and my dad seems to have completely skewed her perspective and I think that sadly, she is projecting all the negative feelings she's still harbouring towards my father onto, well, the rest of his community so to speak."

"Muggles, you mean?"

"Yes," George nodded. "And anyone of Muggle-blood, really. That's where the whole lie started, you know? When we moved to London, she wanted… a fresh start, and she wanted to distance herself as much from my father and our old life as possible. She quit her job and opened the apothecary and, additionally, invented a completely new backstory for us that she made me go along with."

"So that's why people think you're pureblood even though you're not?" Alex asked, slowly connecting the dots. "Lando said that's a pretty big deal."

"Exactly," George nodded again and shifted uneasily. "And yeah, Lando's right, it is a pretty big deal. I should have never gone along with it in the first place, but back then, I didn't really understand the whole meaning of it all and at some point, it was simply too late to turn back, you know?"

He sighed and turned around, his back against the window sill and his hands fiddling with the hem of his shirt. Alex followed suit and turned as well; his body positioned in a way that made it possible for him to really look at George instead of just watching him out of the corner of his eye.

"This means that you… don't agree with your mother's views, right?"

"No!" George shook his head vehemently. "I mean – I did believe her at first, but as soon as I came to Hogwarts and noticed that the only people who were spouting the same things she did were people that I really didn't want to be associate with, which made me completely reassess my whole worldview."

"Shit, that must've been hard," Alex said, barely able to hide his relief at George's revelation. "Did the teachers know?"

"I don't know for sure, but I'm quite certain that Dumbledore knows, that man knows pretty much everything that's going on at Hogwarts. And I assume Snape did too, but I never talked about it with any of them nor with any of the other students. I think that was the hardest part about it, not talking to anyone. But what was I supposed to say?" He let out a cynical laugh. "Maybe Ocon did me a favour, who knows? At least I don't have to carry that stupid secret around anymore… although I probably won't be very welcome with my housemates anymore."

"You're still welcome with us," Alex reassured him and was rewarded with a warm smile that made his heart flutter. It seemed that now that they were moving past the heavy stuff and clearing the air, his crush on the other boy was returning with full force. But Alex still had something he wanted to get off his chest.

"George, listen – I need to apologise, too. As soon as I heard these rumours about you, all I could think about was what that meant for me. I mean, sure, I thought about what it'd mean for our friendship if they turned out to be true but I not once stopped to think about how you were doing and how you were feeling. So, yeah, I just want to say sorry for judging you so harshly without even knowing the whole story.

"Thank you, Alex." In George's gaze laid nothing but gratefulness when he turned to look at Alex. "When I found out that the rumours had been spread around again, I was fully prepared for you to walk away and never speak to me again and I don't know how I'd have coped with that… so thank you. For letting me explain and for staying with me. You have no idea how much that means to me."

George smiled at him in a way that made Alex feel like he was the only person in the world who mattered and it made him feel warm all over, his own smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. The world seemed to shrink down to the two of them as they stood in the hospital wing in their pyjamas and grinned at each other like idiots after the intense rollercoaster of emotions that they had gone through.

"You know," Alex gathered all his courage and nudged George with his shoulder. "If none of this stuff had happened today, I would have asked you out this morning."

He held his breath, searching for a hint of rejection in the Slytherin's face, but George merely raised his eyebrow and his soft smile turned into a knowing smirk.

"Oh?" He asked cheekily as he stepped closer to Alex and suddenly Alex couldn't breathe because George was as close to him as on the night when they snuck out into the courtyard together and he could feel slender fingers tracing the side of his cheek.

"If you'd have asked me I would have said yes." George took another step closer and gently took Alex' face into his hands. Alex could feel George's breath on his lips and his heart hammering in his ribcage as if it wanted to leap out of his body.

"Are you still asking?"

"Yes," Alex breathed and as soon as the words had left his mouth, George moved to close the last gap between them and pressed their lips together.

Kissing George felt as natural to Alex as flying did. They moved clumsily at first, before they let their emotions flow freely and sunk deeper into the kiss. Alex put his arms around the other boy's waist and pulled him closer, drowning in the feeling of George all around him. His lips were soft, even softer than Alex had imagined them to be and he couldn't suppress a soft moan when his tongue touched Alex' lips.

Never in his life had Alex felt so much overwhelming love and tenderness before and he could see his emotions reflected in George's gaze as they slowly separated. He keenly wanted to hold onto this moment forever.

"Well," George smiled softly. "I'm still saying yes then."