do you got room for one more troubled soul [louis]

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Georgie had been wary of going out into public ever since the debacle at Madam Puddifoot’s, but, like all teenagers, she was getting a little stir crazy after being cooped up in the orphanage for nearly a month. There had been heavy rains recently, which had limited her ability to venture outside, so to say that she was relieved when the rains had stopped and the sun had dried away all of the puddles was an understatement. Even the cobbles and benches, normally the last things to dry, were perfectly devoid of water, which was what made Georgie so confident that her stunt was going to work.

Most people would agree if they were told that trying to walk across the tops of three benches like they were a balance beam (or a tightrope, depending on how generous you were) was dangerous. Georgiana was of the exact opposite opinion: it wasn’t dangerous, it was fun. Since she had absolutely no adult supervision for the first time in a month, she was determined to get her adrenaline rush. Her sneakers were scuffed up and beat up, but they had amazing traction, if she did say so herself. Placing her foot on the arm of the bench, Georgie boosted herself up so she was on the top, and began to walk.

@louis

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Louis and his sister Dominique were both returning to Hogwarts that year, Dominique perhaps a little less willing and eager than he. The summer so far for Louis had been filled with adventure, and he planned on having a few more before the struggles of sixth year started. First thing was first though, and that was a trek to Diagon Alley. He greeted Hannah Longbottom the landlady of the Leaky Cauldron cheerfully as they made their way through the pub to the back wall where Diagon Alley was hidden. Louis spotted his friend Georgie walking on the tops of the benches, her arms held out like an acrobat. Louis had bonded with her over their shared sense of adventure; they had gotten into plenty of trouble up at school, but he hadn't seen her much over summers. He had asked her to stay a few times, but she hadn't taken him up on his offer yet.

He told his sister he'd meet her here in a few hours and bounded over to Georgie. “Watch your step there Georgie don't want to fall,” he shouted, then laughed as he raced over to the other side and hopped up onto the top of the opposite bench. He started to carefully walk towards the center like his friend, arms held out in balance. “So what brings you to Diagon Alley today, besides the obvious?” he asked her.

@georgiana

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The warning about not falling was almost Georgie’s undoing; she turned her head to see who had spoken, and that had messed up her entire sense of balance. She managed to recover, and the fact that Louis moved to be directly in front of her was helpful. She could continue her conversation without trying to focus on the task at hand. “I won’t fall.” She told him, though she wasn’t sure if that was the entire truth. Georgie mostly relied on visions to figure out whether or not she was doing something potentially disastrous, but her visions seemed to be more long term, especially recently. If she fell and got a scrape, then she wouldn’t be able to tell that in the few visions she did have from this general area in time.

When she met Louis in the middle of the bench, Georgie stepped down to the seat, not wanting to run into him and cause them both to bust their heads open. “Cabin fever.” She informed her friend, flopping down onto the bench in the least ladylike manner possible. “The rain’s made it kind of difficult for me to go outside, and the orphanage is only so big.” The same thing was true of other houses, but at least when kids were cooped up in their own house they could do whatever they wanted. Georgiana didn’t have the same luxury. “What about you?” She asked, remembering her manners at the last minute. “Doing something fun with your sister?” She guessed. Louis and Dominique were almost as close as she and Lance were. Almost.

@louis

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Louis gave her what he believed to be a winning smile. He completely understood Georgie's cabin fever as he had experienced it himself. Gone were the days that he could jump around in puddles during a rainstorm and get fun out of it. He had tried to follow Dom's suit and catch up on his reading for the beginning of his sixth year, but that had gotten boring after five minutes. He had planned on spending the first sunny day on the waves windsurfing, but he had promised Dom that he'd go with her to Diagon Alley to pick up their supplies; they had gotten their letters the week before. “At least you can come here whenever you want,” he said, trying to sound reasonable. He hopped a few steps and jumped onto the bench Georgie was balancing on. “I am here with Dom to get school supplies. Super fun right?” he said sarcastically. He hopped down from the bench and looked up at her. “I suppose it's good to be prepared early, but man the waves by the beach were amazing this morning. I wanted to go windsurfing but nope, had to be responsible,” he told her.

@georgiana

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Georgie wrinkled her nose when Louis said that she could go to Diagon Alley whenever she wanted. It wasn’t that easy. How would it look in the paper if the orphanage lost one of their children in the middle of Wizarding London because they just let the kids wander around? “I have to submit a form every time I leave the orphanage.” She informed Louis, trying not to sound too beat up about it. “If I don’t get back by four, they’ll be pretty pissed.” Which meant she needed to catch the bus by half past three to make sure that the she got back on time.

She nodded when Louis confirmed her suspicions of his companionship in the alley. “Yeah, super fun.” Georgie agreed. She tried to ignore the niggling jealousy in the pit of her stomach. At least Louis got to choose his own books, instead of using the class set the orphanage had available. Sure, Georgie had a few of her own, but those were birthday gifts from Max’s parents or books she had purchased with her own allowance. She nodded along with him when he talked about the waves on the beach. If she was lucky, Georgie could whip up enough interest for a field trip to the beach, but it wasn’t likely. “Hey, you know that now your mom and dad can’t be mad at you when you go to the beach later.” She said, trying to remain optimistic. “The weather’s supposed to be great for the rest of the month, right?”

@louis

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Louis contemplated Georgie's price of freedom; he couldn't imagine having to sign a form so his mother and father knew where he was at all times. He was thankful then that Dominique was with him so he didn't necessarily have to have consent to be there. “That must be a pain,” he sympathized. “Why four of all times? Why not six, or sunset even. You'd think that they would just want you home before it got dark out,” he asked, curious of the rules of an orphanage. It seemed a bit too rigid for his liking; he supposed he could understand why they were strict. The children they were looking after were not theirs yet they were the only adult guardianship they had left in the world. It suddenly struck Louis how sad that must be for Georgie, but he quickly pushed it out of his mind.

“The weather is supposed to be great for this rest of this month yeah, I'm hoping that this step is the next to get Dom to come out on the sailboat with me. She'd been cooped up for awhile so I think it's finally changing,” he said conversationally. Suddenly, an idea struck him. “Say, what would it take for the orphanage to let you come to my house for a few days? You could get away from the rules and stay in Victoire's old room. I'm sure my parents wouldn't mind,” he suggested. He would of course ask him when he got home, but he didn't think they'd care all that much. Not after he told them Georgie lived in an orphanage over the summer.

@georgiana

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Georgie gave Louis a small half-smile when he said that it must have been a pain to have to submit the form. She nodded in agreement before listening to Louis’s series of questions. If she was honest, she didn’t know the exact answer, but the Hufflepuff liked to pretend there was a method to the madness, so she tried to rationalize the rule. “They want to make sure we’re back in time for dinner, since they can get in trouble if we don’t get all of our meals.” Georgie replied with a shrug. “And if we’re supposed to be back by dark, if someone’s late it becomes a lot more serious. They also need time to contact people if it looks like someone’s gone missing. That can be hard to do if office hours finished a long time ago.” They were all god reasons, but Georgiana still wasn’t sure if any of them were the reason for her imprisonment.

She nodded along when Louis began to talk about his sister. A boy in Dominique’s house had been killed during the past school year, and Georgie imagined that had to have been hard. A part of her said that she should have been able to see that coming, should have been able to stop it, but she tried to ignore that part. It was always telling her to do stupid stuff like be safe. “There’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen. Mostly paperwork, saying that for the duration of the stay I’m under the legal guardianship of your parents. They’d probably need to be interviewed.” That was one of the main reasons Georgie chose not to stay with Max over the summer; she didn’t want to put the burden of bureaucracy on her friend’s family’s shoulders. “If you’re up for that, and they are…it could be nice. Do you really think they'd let me?”

@louis

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Louis nodded as Georgie explained her curfew times, and again he felt a pang of sympathy for her. It was unfortunate that orphanages seemed to care less about the welfare of their charges and more about getting in trouble. It made his determination to get them to allow Georgie to stay with them for a bit even stronger. “Paperwork, schmaperwork. My father has to file paperwork all the time, this won't be a big issue for him,” he told her confidently. He was beginning to get excited about the idea; he was sure Dom wouldn't mind another girl around the house since Victoire was so busy off being the Minister of Magic, and his parents would be fine. He remembered once when he was around ten, his mother took him up on the hill by their house where a patch of flowers had grown over a small tombstone. She explained to him that a house elf that had saved the lives of his aunt and uncles by giving his life had been buried by hand here, and that she had vowed since that day to always give shelter to anyone in need.

“I told Dom I'd meet her at the new ice cream parlor up the street, you interested? My treat,” he asked her.

@georgiana

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Georgie was actually getting eager to get to stay with Louis’s family. It would be nice to get away from the masses of small children who always wanted to do something with her constantly. She’d actually get to sleep in if she wanted to, with no one there to pull on her hair or jump on her stomach until she agreed to play. She smiled crookedly at her friend, but tried not to look as excited as she felt. She was worried that he’d end up inviting her to stay longer, and she really didn’t want to be a burden on him or his parents. “Well, when you ask them…tell them thanks for me, okay?” That assumed that Louis’s parents were going to say yes. Oddly enough, Georgie was optimistic about her chances. He seemed so confident, and she trusted Louis.

When it came to the ice cream, Georgie blanched. She didn’t like charity, and she had already accepted a lot of Louis's that day. She still wasn’t sure how well Dominique liked her, and if Louis was going to meet her, she didn’t want to intrude. “Are you sure? I don’t wanna make your sister mad.” She said, accent getting thicker as she began worrying more. “I mean, it’s for you two to spend time together, and y’all have had some tough times, and I don’t wanna take away from that.”

@louis

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Louis nodded in affirmation; he knew Georgie would be thankful to get out of the orphanage for a few days.  He also knew his parents wouldn't mind; Zac would come into Shell Cottage like he lived there.  There was one time last year when Louis was out wakeboarding that he came home to find Zac tucking into some of his mothers' home made food in the living room like he'd been there all day.  Not that Louis minded in the least; he loved that his parents were okay with it at all.  Besides, with Victoire gone and Dom having been locked in her room for half the summer, they'd probably appreciate another female presence in the home.


Louis shrugged nonchalantly when Georgie mentioned not wanting to butt in on family bonding time.  She sounded worried, and Louis wanted to assure her that she had no reason to be.  "Are you kidding?  Dom has to see my face every morning, noon and night, she'd be relieved to see another face for once," he said with a laugh.  True,  his sister had seen some of Finn Jordan over the summer, but other than that it was mostly all Louis.  He grabbed Georgie's arm and tugged her towards the parlor.  "Race you!" he exclaimed, and took off into the crowd.



@georgiana

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“I guess you’re right. If I had to see that face every day for a month, I’d probably get sick of it, too.” Georgie teased, though the relief in being accepted into the Weasley home still ended up showing through. The thought that she had never met Louis’s parents certainly crossed her mind, but she could worry about that later. If all else failed, she could just play the poor orphan girl card to excuse all of her actions. Not that Georgiana would actually do that – Louis was cool, and she didn’t want him to think she used her status as an orphan to get ahead. That was just a stupid thing to do.

She was jerked back to the present, literally, when Louis grabbed her arm. Georgiana laughed uncharacteristically loud when Louis announced there was a race on. “No fair!” She called after him. Louis was a solid half a foot taller than her, and he already had a head start. The only thing that she had going for her was that she wasn’t afraid to slam into people to get where she needed to go. She shouted apologies after herself, of course, but that didn’t stop her from doing that. When she screeched to a stop in front of the ice cream store, Georgie looked around – she had lost Louis in the crowd, and wasn’t sure who had won the race.

@louis

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Louis had sprinted down the Alley to try and beat Georgie; he may have height and leg length on his side but he wouldn't count her out just yet. He stopped outside the ice cream store, looking around for her. He had ended up losing her with the dozens of shoppers in the Alley, some shooting him a few looks of contempt. He grinned sheepishly and stood on a table to look for the head of blonde hair. Finally, he spotted her and waved.

“Over here!” he called, hopping off the table. He gave her one of his winning smiles; he had been fortunate enough to never need those Muggle contraptions called braces, something his Aunt Hermione had warned him about whenever he'd eat too many sweets at their house. “Call it a draw? I don't actually know who won,” he suggested with a chuckle.

@georgiana

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Apparently the confusion had been mutual, and Georgie gave a half-smile at Louis when he approached her. Had he been standing on a table? Props to him. “I guess it can be a draw.” Georgie responded with an over exaggerated eye roll and an equally melodramatic sigh. “But only because you asked so nicely. Next time I’m declaring myself the winner.” She said, only half-teasing. She deserved to win by default, if only because he was so much taller than her. They had both gotten to the ice cream shop, though, so that was good. Georgie pulled the door to the place open, savoring the blast of cool air that hit her face when she did so. Georgie kept the door open with her foot so Louis could follow her in, beaming. This day had turned out a lot better than she could have ever hoped for, and she planned to have time of her life until four o’clock.

@louis

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Louis laughed. "Well then next time I just have to make extra sure I don't lose you in my dust as I leave you behind!" he teased.  They entered the ice cream parlor, and like the part French gentleman he was, he allowed Georgie to order first.  He then put in his order of mint chocolate chip ice cream topped with nuts, hot fudge, cookie crumbles and sprinkles and led the two of them back outside.  He saw people glancing down at his ice cream choice, but he didn't care - they can judge his pick all they wanted, it wasn't going into their bellies.  He tucked in, stopping for a few moments at a time to avoid brain freeze.

 "So...where are headed after this?" he asked her, slurping up a bit of ice cream that had already begun to melt.  He'd need some water soon - he always needed water after ice cream.  He sat back in his spindly chair and tilted his head towards the sun, closing his eyes and basking n the warmth.  Summer was his favorite holiday, and when Georgie came to hopefully stay with him later on, he planned on showing her some of his favorite activities, many of them including the water.  "You know how to swim yeah?" he asked her suddenly.  He supposed if she didn't he could always teach her.


@georgiana

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Georgie wasn’t sure why Louis liked to have more toppings than ice cream, but she didn’t really care. All she needed was cookies and cream ice cream with cookies on top, and she was happy. She had a thing for cookies, though she was still of the opinion that the best way to enjoy ice cream was with apple pie. “Dunno.” Georgie said, eating her ice cream as neatly and carefully as she could. If she got sticky, she’d have to wash her face, and if she had to wash her face, she’d have to have a vision. It was one of the things that defied her normal habits of messiness.

“Theoretically, I could swim.” Georgie responded, looking sideways at Louis. “Water is not my favorite thing in the world, so I avoid it at all costs. Which includes avoiding swimming.” She informed him. Georgie couldn’t remember whether or not she had mentioned that it was water that triggered her visions, but she hoped that Louis knew that she wasn’t just being ornery – though that was something she would do. “Do I need to know how to swim?” She asked, slightly scared for what would happen to her if Louis said they were doing water sports in the future.

@louis