Work Text:
Last Kiss
I still remember the look on your face
Lit through the darkness at 1:58
The words that you whispered for just us to know
You told me you loved me
~`~
George stared out at the water.
It had been Angelina’s idea, sneaking out of the castle, down to Hogsmeade and then apparating somewhere near the sea. Hogwarts was impossible right now for both of them, too loud, too big, too much. The arrival of Umbridge and her rules and her backwards idea of teaching was suffocating. So the quiet sound of the waves, the cool feel of the water, it was enough to bring them back.
It was grounding in a world that was so up in the air.
“You didn’t write,” said Angelina, and George glanced over at her. She was sitting up, her legs pulled close to her chest, wearing a dress that was too thin for the wind coming off the water. George forced himself to sit up beside her and took off his sweater, he was getting a little too warm anyways.
Angelina always made him feel warm, feel better, feel more.
“Here,” said George, handing over his sweater, and watching as Angelina slowly pulled it on. He liked seeing the letter ‘G’ on her body, his initial marking her as his. “And there was nothing really worth writing about.”
“Liar,” said Angelina, resting her head on her arms and turning to look at him. George sighed and reached over, giving one of her braids a little tug, something he had been doing since he met her six years ago.
“I can’t really talk about it, Ange,” George told her, and Angelina nodded, making George want to tell her everything. She was always easy to talk to, always easy to get along with, and he would always love her for it. “Mum and Dad didn’t really want us to know anything.”
“I figured,” mumbled Angelina, turning away from him and looking back out at the water. The tide was starting to come in, lapping at their toes. The water icy despite the warmth still in the air.
“I missed you still Ange,” said George, moving so he was closer to her, their shoulders and knees bumping together. “I should’ve come and visited.”
Angelina nodded and George wrapped his arm around her. He really didn’t know if his parents would’ve let him leave, but that was for him to worry about, not her. She worried about everything, her parents, her siblings, him. It was too much, but that was one of the many things George loved about her.
Angelina put everything on her shoulders and carried it well. At least she did until she was alone, or thought she was alone. There was a reason why he was here and not Fred, not Lee nor Alicia. She could act like she was alone when they were together.
“I thought that because things had been…had been…” trailed off Angelina, and George shook his head, reaching over and cupping her cheeks in his hands, holding her gently.
“I’m not taking anything back Ange,” whispered George, before he leaned forward and kissed her softly. He knew that it was stupid to do this, they really couldn’t do this, not right now, not this year. They were going to graduate, they were going to be leaving school, and they were going to go off and fight in the war. But that didn’t mean that he didn’t want to kiss her, have a relationship with her, and fall even more in love with her.
He was hopeless.
“Gee,” whispered Angelina, her voice soft but her eyes desperate, and George knew that he looked the same.
They were leaving school in a matter of months, they were leaving a home to step into an uncertain future. He had no idea what was to come, but just like his Uncles Gideon and Fabian, he knew that he would be fighting. They would find each other in the end, he would promise that to himself, it would be the only thing that got him through what was to come.
Disappearances, murders, attacks on Muggles, they were whispered between Order members over the summer. It was starting up the same as it did last time, and George couldn’t help but worry.
He knew that half-bloods like Angelina were seen the same way as most muggleborns.
Angelina stood up, pulling her arms into herself and stepping forward into the cold surf. George watched her as the moonlight wrapped itself around her frame, making her skin darker and her eyes brighter.
If he had his way, they would run away, get out of the country and live together somewhere safe and come back after the war was over. They would get to fly every day, just the pair of them, and Angelina would be happy and George would be happy with her.
“Is it cold?” asked George, as Angelina stepped farther out into the water, getting the hem of her skirt wet. He had rolled up his jeans before they even left Hogsmeade, sneaking out right under Umbridge’s nose.
“Freezing,” said Angelina with a large grin as she turned back her back to the ocean. “Come in with me.”
George smiled and followed after her, letting his jeans get wet and heavy, following her farther and farther into the water. He didn’t know who splashed who first, or how they both fell into the water, quite frankly, none of it matter. None of it mattered because right then and there, they were just two seventeen-year-olds.
They were just a pair of dumb kids in love with one another.
“I better get my sweater back,” George told her as they walked hand-in-hand along the beach. He had both of their shoes in his hand, while she held her wand tight in her hand, with their fingers locked together between them. “Mum would be upset if she knew that it was stolen.”
“I’ll write her and let her know that you gave it to me,” said Angelina, and George smiled, squeezing her hand and wishing that he could kiss her. Beside them, the first rays of the sunrise were coming in, which meant they were way past due to get back to school. “And that chivalry is dead…killed by one of her sons.”
George laughed, and Angelina smiled at him, and he didn’t care as he leaned over and kissed her again. Her mouth was soft and warm against his as her arms wrapped around his neck, holding him close.
It would be their last kiss for a long time, George knew with everything that was happening, everything he heard over the summer, that it wasn’t going to be easy from here on out. He could live with it, even though he knew that he would miss Angelina, but he would grow to love her more as the time passed. Their separate paths were becoming harder to navigate together with each passing day.
“Are you ready?” asked Angelina, and George nodded, tucking one of her braids back behind her ear and leaning forward again, pressing his lips to her forehead.
“I’ll marry you when the war is over.”
“I’ll take you up on it.”