Chapter Text
“We have to do something, as this is getting ridiculous,” Fred said.
They both leaned against the bar with their drinks and watched George and Alicia continue their endless dance around one another. They were clearly in love with each other and yet neither was making that first move. At first, it had been really amusing, but now, it was frustrating and a little sad.
“Tell me about it, I’m so tempted to just lock them in a closet until they figure it out,” Katie half-joked.
“It’s not a terrible idea, but we could do better.” Fred mused.
A couple of weeks later,
George heard Alicia’s voice as she came through the back entrance of the building. He should've gone to greet her; he was closest, given the location of the R&D Lab in the WWW building.
However, he decided to hide like a coward. He’d purposefully chosen to do all the delicate potion restocks, so he had a valid reason to avoid her. The real reason he was avoiding her was that he was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with her.
It wasn’t like the books– Love didn’t strike like lightning. He didn’t just turn around and, in an instant, see her for the beautiful, intelligent, kind, hilarious woman she was and think ‘she’s the one ’.
No, it was a slow buildup of all the smallest details that led him to one late night in Gryffindor common room in his last year at Hogwarts. They had been playing wizard’s chess. He couldn’t even remember the joke he told… However, he did remember her laugh, how breathtakingly beautiful she looked- he knew in that moment, he wanted to be with her forever.
As the Muggles saying went, 'When Man plans, God laughs'. Merlin, did God have a good belly laugh at him. Everything spiralled out of control very quickly. He and Fred abandoned their education and started the shop. Then the war came, and George had no chance to declare himself to Alicia. Somehow, two years passed after the war– just as George finally felt like he’d found his footing again, he was friend-zoned.
The sad thing was that he had no idea how to escape the friend zone. Every time he flirted with her, he wasn’t sure if she was aware he was flirting and politely ignoring it to preserve their friendship or if she was just oblivious.
He also didn’t have the guts to ask outright, not publicly anyway. Even if he did, there was the annoying fact that he could never get a private moment with her. There was always someone or something interrupting them.
“Afternoon Fred, I’ve come to do your books,” Alicia declared.
“I wish you’d do my brother,” Fred replied cheekily.
“Which one?” Alicia quipped.
“I didn’t know I could provide multiple options,” Fred said thoughtfully.
George snorted a laugh at his twin’s antics. The sound of Alicia’s musical laughter carried down the hallway– he could just imagine her smile. He didn’t have to wait long to see it for himself, as the door to the lab opened and Fred walked in.
"Forge, I’ve amazing news! Our saviour has arrived." Fred announced it like he was an MC announcing the arrival of a celebrity. Alicia casually strolled in; she was still dressed in her work clothes. It was a midnight blue dress that was cinched at the waist with a matching belt and brown ankle boots. The dress had a pleated midi-length skirt, three-quarter-length sleeves, and a mandarin collar. Her wavy dark brown hair was pulled up into a messy bun with tendrils of hair softly framing her face.
His heart skipped a beat at her warm smile. Her cheeks were a lovely shade of pink against her pale, light brown skin. Her freckles softly sparkled like bronze stars, one of the few visible signs of her spell damage from the war. Her spell damage was the unusual result of being impaled on centuries-old rebar infused with centuries' worth of magic.
It was rather ironic that being impaled on the rebar had saved Fred and her life, now left her magic in a rather unpredictable state. George wasn’t sure what she was capable of, or if she even had a new wand yet. He wanted to know, but everyone was more focused on talking about other matters. Alicia usually avoided talking about herself entirely, so he didn’t ask out of politeness.
"Alicia, how are you?" he asked. She looked tired and a little frazzled but otherwise in good health.
"Good, and you?" she asked. She stuck her hands into the pockets of her dress and wore a warm closed lip smile.
“Great,” George replied.
“Well, I’m stumped on my project. I wouldn’t mind a second opinion, given charms were one of your strong suits,” Fred told Alicia.
“What project?” George asked as he followed them to Fred’s desk. He didn't recall Fred mentioning any new product ideas let alone in the lab the last week or more.
“What’s the problem?” Alicia asked Fred.
“Let me show you,” Fred lifted up two identical gold cuffs from a drawer at his desk, “first you put the bracelets on like-”
Fred slapped one cuff onto her wrist and the other on George’s wrist. The bracelet clasp instantly locked and cinched to a snug fit on their wrists.
“Hey-” George started.
“What the hell?!” Alicia demanded at the same time.
“So, and voila, you’re tied together for twenty-four hours. The problem is that I can't seem to find a way to get them off before the twenty-four hours are up,” Fred told them.
Alicia grunted as she pulled on the cuff, but it would not budge. She looked a little panicked, something George felt too as he tugged on his own cuff.
“Fred, get this off,” George told his twin. Fred threw his hands up in a helpless gesture.
“I told you, I can’t, but they should unlock in twenty-four hours,” he told him.
“Should?” Alicia asked darkly. The air crackled with magic around her, her panic turned to outrage.
“Give or take an hour. Relax, it’s just a mild magical curse-” Fred started to explain.
“You cursed us?!” Alicia exclaimed.
“Is it really a curse to be bound to your mate for a day? I’d say ‘no’,” Fred told them. He slowly backed his way to the closest exit. George would’ve run if he were Fred as Alicia looked ready to throttle him. George would happily stand back and let it happen.
Fred dashed for the door, Alicia went to grab for him. "Fred, I’m going–” she jumped back and cried out in pain like she’d been zapped. “Ow! mother of dragons!” Alicia cursed.
George was by her side in an instant. “Hey, are you ok?” he asked her.
“This damn bracelet zapped me!” Alicia hissed in pain. She shook out her limbs and whimpered softly.
"Yeah, so that’s the other problem I’m stumped on. You see, you can’t be more than five feet apart, otherwise you will experience minor discomfort,” Fred said quickly as he ran for the door.
“Minor!?” Alicia asked incredulously.
“Yep, now, I gotta get to the floor and help close up. George will show you to our shameful closet of disorganised paperwork and help you with the receipts and whatever,” Fred told them. He gestured two thumbs to the doorway and backstepped out of the lab.
“You did this to avoid getting our paperwork together for the audit?!” George asked him incredulously. Fred gave a shrug, and if it were any other time, George would’ve laughed, but not today.
“More or less, and I’ll be at Angelina’s tonight, so, you’re aware, five feet is 1.5 meters, give or take a few centimeters. I recommend you two stay close to one another, very close,” Fred told them.
“You’re really making me regret saving your life!” Alicia shouted at Fred as he apparated away. She groaned in frustration and turned to George.
“It’s just twenty-four hours,” George said more to himself than Alicia.
“You weren’t impaled on a thousand-year-old rebar and as a result have a shonky and unpredictable magic core, what if it’s longer?” Alicia asked him.
“We’ll work it out,” George assured her as he inspected his cuff more closely. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. There didn’t seem to be any emergency release measures in the device. However, he believed in Fred’s work; if he said twenty-four hours, then it would be twenty-four hours.
“I have a date tomorrow morning, will it be fixed by then?” Alicia asked.
“Probably not, Fred is very good at charm-work and curses,” George told her. He didn’t like the idea of watching Alicia on a date with another guy. He was going to get Fred back for this.
“Great, well, I need to see where you’re keeping all your books,” Alicia said in resignation.
“Which books?” George asked absentmindedly.
“Your accounting ones, and all your receipts and invoices, anything related to the business for the past four years,” Alicia reminded him.
“Oh, yeah, the audit,” George said as he gave up on the cuff.
“Yeah, the audit. You know the Ministry likes it when businesses pay their taxes, and if you don’t, they can shut you down until this is sorted and your bills are paid, right?” Alicia asked incredulously.
“Like that’s stopped us before,” George scoffed.
“George,” Alicia groaned impatiently.
“This way,” George told her, he directed her out of the labs and into the hallway. He gestured to the door labelled ‘Miscellaneous’. Alicia looked between him and the door with a slightly concerned expression. She took a fortifying breath— which in George’s opinion was needed— before she grabbed the handle and opened the door. She flicked on the light and drew in a sharp breath.
“What-” she stopped, she looked like she was struggling to find the words. George leaned on the doorframe and watched as she stepped into the room. Her reaction was pretty much as he expected it to be.
“So, we got a good idea of our profits, and they well and truly exceed our outgoings,” George assured her.
Alicia looked between him and the room with a drawn expression, “Where are the books?” Alicia asked in a weak voice.
George tapped his temple with his index finger, "Up here," he said before he gestured to the room, “The rest in there.”
“There is nothing but an ocean of paper in here, George. Is this a recipe for pierogi?” She asked incredulously as she held up a bit of parchment.
“Oh yeah, I was looking for that the other day,” he said. He took the recipe and folded it in half before tucking it into the top pocket of his shirt for later.
“I really thought Fred was joking when he said it was a closet. But this really is a Closet, isn’t it?” she asked him.
“Magically enlarged one, yes. It was a quick solution that kind of took on a life of its own,” George offered in mild amusement and embarrassment as he’d never seen Alicia so lost for words.
“George! Why didn’t you hire a manager to take care of all of this for you?!” She demanded.
“We were busy,” George said with a shrug. Alicia took a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm herself.
“Fred said it was all organised and it would be an easy job. So, right now, I really need you to tell me there is some kind of order to all of this!” Alicia exclaimed.
“Oh yeah, oldest stuff at the back, newer stuff at the front,” George said.
“Very funny,” Alicia remarked wryly. She wore a humourless smile as she waited for the punchline. A beat passed between them. He watched as her smile faltered, “You’re not joking.”
“Not even a little,” George told her.
“I–” She closed her eyes as she looked a little ill. He didn’t blame her as he felt ill every time he came into the room trying to find an old invoice. But Hogwarts and his parents didn’t teach them business management or bookkeeping. His mother wouldn’t even share her recipe for lamb roast, let alone how to make a budget.
Fred and George had to learn on the fly. So, they decided that as long as they made money and people were getting paid, then it was all good. But the expression on Alicia’s face said otherwise.
“Ok, we can do this,” Alicia said. He wasn’t sure who Alicia was trying to bolster: himself or herself. She rolled her shoulders back and took yet another fortifying breath. “We’ll sort this out, but it’s going to take longer than the few hours that Fred let me believe it to be,”
“Where do we start?” George asked her.
"Pick a pile," Alicia answered sullenly as she gestured to the room.
A couple of hours later,
Alicia was waist-deep in receipts. She took another step, and she cried out in pain as electricity painfully zipped through her body. A small fire started to her left.
Alicia cursed loudly from the pain and her little burst of uncontrolled magic. Tears blurred her vision as she grabbed the flaming receipt. She quickly used the skirt of her dress to smother out the fire. She did not need a real fire to spread to the other paper in the room and kill them. She dropped the half-burned receipt and groaned as she pressed the balls of her palms to her eyes.
“Hey, it's ok,” George told her. He waded through the paper to her side.
“No, it's not, none of this is ok! It's a complete nightmare. I didn't need this stupid curse on top of everything else,” Alicia cried. She was at the end of her rope as it had been a very long week. She was exhausted, hungry, and depressed as she couldn’t catch a break.
“Come here,” George said. He closed the distance between them. Her heart pounded in her chest as he got right in her personal space. People usually kept their distance from her, as if her condition were contagious.
“What are you doing?” Alicia asked him as he pulled his wand out of his pocket and slid a finger between her belt and dress. She swallowed nervously and tried not to think too hard about every gesture he made.
“Putting us on a leash, as I can’t imagine being electrocuted so much, is safe for our bodies. We don’t need you accidentally setting the place on fire, though I have a feeling it would make a vast improvement,” he told her. A piece of red string appeared out of nowhere and attached itself to her belt, and then trailed to the belt that held up his pants.
“Smart,” Alicia said, “About the string, not the fire,” she added for clarification. George smiled.
“I have my moments, isn’t there a spell we can use to organise this more quickly?” he asked her. Alicia sighed.
“I can't use magic. The last time I used wandless magic on paper, it started a large fire,” she informed him.
“Use your wand,” George told her.
“I don't have one,” she told him. Her wand rejected her, as her magical core was so damaged it didn’t recognise her.
“It's been over a year since the war,” George said incredulously.
“Wands are expensive, especially when your magical core is fucked by a piece of rebar that is imbued with centuries of other people's magic, ok?!” she confessed, her cheeks burned in shame.
“Ok then, let me do it. Just tell me the spells,” George told her.
“I'll write them down, but they aren’t perfect. We’ll still have to go through it manually,” Alicia sighed. She was so used to doing everything the hard way. It never occurred to her to get George to do the magical heavy lifting.
“Are you mad because of your date tomorrow? I can just sit at another table and read a book,” George assured her.
“It’s not that,” Alicia said. She pulled a pen out of her dress pocket and wrote the spells on the back of an invoice.
“Then what is it?” George asked.
“Promise me you won’t judge me?” Alicia asked him.
“Judgement free zone, and I will not divulge anything said to me while wearing this cuff to another soul,” George promised her.
“You know how Fred is planning to propose?” Alicia asked him.
“In graphic detail, yes,” George drawled in an exhausted manner. Alicia smiled. She could only imagine how many discussions George had to endure as the plan had been in the works for months.
“I've been helping him, and Angie is getting suspicious. She thought Fred was cheating on her and that it was with me. I couldn’t tell her that I was helping Fred pick out her engagement ring. So, I lied,” Alicia told him.
“What was the lie?” George asked
“I said I was asking Fred for dating advice,” Alicia told him.
“She believed that?” George asked as he tried to keep a straight face. Alicia rolled her eyes as she knew it was a ludicrous lie. She passed the page with the spells to him.
“Not until I said that Fred’s advice worked and I said I had a date with someone tomorrow morning,” Alicia explained.
“So, you’re just going to go on a date with some random bloke tomorrow to sell the lie?” George asked incredulously as he used one of the spells; paper swirled to life around them and started sorting itself into piles by year. They’d still have to check every single page to make sure the dates were in the correct order and even in the right pile, as some receipts overlapped with different dates.
“Yes, and fortunately for me, my mother already had a date lined up for me. It's pretty mortifying, I know—but if Angie stalks me, then she’ll see I’m not lying,” Alicia explained in a matter-of-fact manner. She busied herself with sorting through the paper left behind.
“Who’s the guy?” George asked her.
“I don’t know, my mother is just hellbent on getting me to settle down. She thinks if I don’t entrap a wizard with my good looks now, then I will end up alone forever due to my magical shortcomings,” Alicia told him.
“That is—” George was left struggling to find the words. Alicia looked up from her work at him with a wry expression.
“Yeah, I know; I’m getting used to being a disappointment to everyone." She saw his arms were out wide. "What are you doing?" she asked.
"I'm offering you a hug. You need the oxytocin to feel better,” George told her. Alicia reluctantly moved into his arms as she felt it would be more awkward to leave him hanging.
The hug was a little awkward at first, and then it melted into something truly lovely. She took a deep inhale; he smelt just as she predicted, like her Amortentia potion—warm caramel, hot summer days, and the distinctive scent of sulphur dioxide gas that was emitted after a match was struck. Just as she was enjoying the physical contact, her stomach rumbled loudly .
“Perhaps we should call it quits for today and get some dinner?” George mused.
“Sounds good, as this job is definitely going to take more time to get through than I originally estimated,” Alicia surmised, as his first spell hadn’t even finished collating one year yet. She reluctantly pulled out of his embrace. She tried not to focus too much on how his warm hand lingered on her back.
“We should also stop by your place,” George added.
“My place where your brother is currently wooing my flat mate?” Alicia asked him. George winced at the thought— Neither of them wanted to walk in on that, if they could help it.
“Hmm, are you happy to borrow my clothing and order in?” He asked her.
“Sure,” Alicia blushed. “And there is no good time to say this, but I need to use the loo,” she said awkwardly.