| Inked | (George Weasley)

Chapter Sixty-Nine

Olive did not sleep that night.

She hadn't realized how much time had passed until she looked up from her notebook, noticing the sun starting to peak into the Ravenclaw Tower's windows.

As soon as she got back last night she changed into pajamas and brought her notebook and pen down by the fire. Opening up to a new page, she spent hours writing down every single detail of the night she just had. Olive wanted to make sure she got every second down, from the moment she walked down those stairs to George kissing her goodnight.

And she did it.

Flipping through the newly added pages, Ollie smiled to herself. She wanted more than anything to go to the first page where the memory started and read it all the way through. Maybe she'd relive it the same way she had relived the memory about her and George running through the halls one night last year.

There was no way of knowing that it could work. Sure, Missy had given her a pen last Christmas that allowed her to see and relive what she was writing... but Olive was pretty sure she hadn't used that pen the day she wrote down the memory with George.

It was a long time ago, nearly a year, so she couldn't really remember.

Besides, she wasn't sure if she wanted to find out yet, either.

"Good morning, Ollie."

Nat came yawning down the stairs, her hair still messy from sleep and her sleepy eyes filled with tired content. She plopped down on the couch next to her friend, resting her head back on the cushions.

"Morning." Olive closed her notebook, holding it up against her chest as she eyed Natalie with a hint of suspicion in her eyes, "It's a bit early for you to be up, isn't it?"

The blonde shrugged, "Says the one who was the last to come in last night." Nat sat up more to point a playfully accusing finger at the fellow Ravenclaw, "Or should I say this morning?"

Olive tried her best to hide the blush on her cheeks, focusing her gaze at the dying fire at their feet. She hadn't come back to the tower that late last night. It had been almost half past two on Cho's clock when she walked in.

"Well, what did you do last night?" She desperately wanted to change the subject, "I suppose maybe I should be asking Marjorie that question-"

"I asked you first."

"Well I asked you second." Olive quirked a brow, "We can do this all morning."

Natalie chuckled, "You're a feisty one when you haven't slept, aren't you?"

Ollie shrugged, suppressing a yawn as she turned back to the fire. Her eyelids felt heavy, her head a little fuzzy from the lack of sleep, but the sun poking through the windows told the girl that she wouldn't be able to fall asleep even if she wanted to. She'd be better off soldiering through the day on no sleep than trying to get an hour or two in now and be more tired when she woke up.

"How was your night?" Olive asked, changing the subject.

Nat smiled, "It was... amazing. I've truly never had that much fun before, or felt that way about anyone... ever really."

"I'm glad you're happy." She matched the blonde's smile, "Really, Nat. I am."

"Enough about me and my amazing night." Sitting up to face Olive, Nat put her hands on her friend's shoulders, "Tell me about yours. I want every last detail."

"Oh! Me too!" Cho was skipping down the stairs, nearly knocking over two fourth years as she juggled to get her slippers on the correct feet, "Thank Merlin I didn't miss the gossip."

"Would you two stop yelling?" Olive scolded them as Cho joined them on the couch, a smile still present on her lips, "I don't want to make a big deal out of anything."

"A big deal?" Cho rolled her eyes with a laugh, "Olive Marbella Lark. You went to the Yule Ball last night, with George bloody Weasley-"

"We didn't go to the ball together." Ollie corrected them, her fingers nervously rubbing at the binding of her notebook, "We just sort of.... ended up hanging out for half the night."

She didn't meet her friends in the eye for fear she'd turn into a blushing mess, especially since last night was almost too good to be true. Getting her hopes up about what happened and blowing things out of proportion was the last thing she wanted to do.

"Did you kiss him?" Nat asked bluntly, "Did you-"

"Nat." Cho shot the blonde a look, "Don't ask her that-"

"Hey, I'm just being curious about our friend's night!"

Olive shook her head, paling at the idea Natalie was suggesting, "What? No, we didn't do anything like that. We just kissed-"

She paused. Her eyes falling on both Cho and Natalie, both of whom had gone deadly quiet and had cheeky, knowing grins on their faces.

They tricked her into admitted that, didn't they?

"Sometimes you two are the most Ravenclaw people I know." Olive ran a hand down her red face.

"You kissed him!" Cho whisper-squealed with excitement, ignoring the raven-haired girl's accurate assumption about their intentions, "Ollie!"

"I knew you liked him." Nat sat back triumphantly, a satisfied smirk spreading across her features, "Ha."

Olive rested her head back against the cushions of the couch, staring up at the stone ceiling feeling both wide awake and extremely sleepy. As Cho and Natalie chatted excitedly about how long they figured their friend had a crush on George, Ollie couldn't help but blush as her fellow house-mates stared at the trio as they passed, grumpily whispering to each other about how it was too bloody early for these girls to be squealing like that...

I couldn't agree more, She thought to herself.

"So are you two, like, a thing now?" Cho asked, wiggling her eyebrows.

Internally groaning, Ollie did her best not to show the confusion and annoyance that was building in her gut, "Um... no. I don't think so."

"You haven't talked about it, haven't you?" Nat chimed in. When Olive shook her head, the blonde sighed, "Ollie..."

"It's not like I have much experience in these things." The Lark girl admitted, regretting the hint of annoyance in her voice, "We kissed at the Yule Ball, then after we went up to the Astronomy Tower to talk and hang out, and then Snape caught us and George walked me back to the Tower. He kissed me goodnight. That's all that happened, okay? It was the most perfect evening with him that I could have ever imagined, and now I have no idea how I'm going to act around him, because I like him and I don't want to screw it up like I do everything else."

There was a long stretch of silence after Olive's short outburst. Cho and Natalie just stared at her, waiting for her to say something else.

Ollie's eyes shot almost helplessly between the two, bloodshot from the zero hours of sleep she got the previous night. She felt like an idiot. The one thing that she had subconsciously wanted to happen for the last year had finally happened, and now that it did, she had no idea what do to next.

George could talk his way in and out of anything. He was confident, funny, and had no trouble talking to anyone he met.

Olive?

She hopelessly fancied him and felt as if her tongue had fallen out of her mouth by the mere thought of running into him.

"You're right, Nat, she is feisty when she's tired."