george weasley x mudblood, slytherin reader
warnings: fluff!! not that long, one use of y/n, reader is lonely and sort of anxious, and i wrote fred to be a little mean, sorry to all the fred girlies.
summary: you're bad at potions. a certain ginger twin offers to help.
notes: this might be part one of something more, if you guys like it. i don't know if my writing is any good because i just recently started again, so comment if i should change anything and if you want me to continue with part two! also, don't mind grammar mistakes, english isn't my first language. not proofread! enjoy!
if someone were to ask you which class to erase from reality, you would choose potions. potions has made you cry more than all the other classes you have combined. mostly because of your professor.
the sight of him was enough to make the hairs on your back stand up. there was no one else at this school that made that happen, except maybe dumbledore, but that was from respect, as opposed to fear. with snape, it was just fear. one time, your first year, he had yelled at you for exiting a classroom before letting him get by first. it was strange. apparently, he never yelled. he was more known for being very... quick and insulting.
but at you - he had yelled. and your classmates had laughed and you had wanted to sink into the ground. and since then you absolutely hated potions.
that moment is still etched into your brain, especially right now, as you try to steady a trembling hand waving your wand to stir the cauldron in front of you. you were presenting to the class, to try and get a good mark, because to get a good mark from potions was a miracle task for you. you sigh as you stop stirring for a moment, moving to the small bowl of crushed up mistletoe berries that you prepared earlier.
"and now we add the mistletoe berries." you say, but only loud enough for snape to hear. you try to imagine nobody else is in the room, because thinking about all of your terrifyingly judgy peers watching you do this as well would make your hands shake even more.
once the berries are inside, you stir again. but something is wrong. the potion was supposed to turn a dark green. instead, it seemed... brown. you stir more and your eyebrows furrow. but before you can question anything else, the potion starts to thicken and rise and bubble and you're barely quick enough to grab the lid and close the cauldron shut. you breathe quickly, looking up at snape who's impression is... indifferent. but just then you hear something.
a snort. you look at the source. it was fred weasley, of course. who was now covering his mouth to silent loud laughs. his twin brother george also let out a huff of amusement. and they, of course, started a chain reaction. soon the whole class erupted with barely silenced laughs, giggles and whispers.
your hands got a little sweaty. your chest suddenly felt tighter and your vision blurrier. just don't cry, you tell yourself when you look at snape again. he still looks the same, only this time his eyebrow is raised.
"professor, i'm so sorry. if i can try again-"
"try again?" snape repeated, loudly. everyone went quiet. it wasn't usual for snape to talk this loud. once again, he had yelled at you. this is just like that one time...
"you can't prepare one of the easiest potions correctly and you expect me to let you try again... think better next time, and don't waste my classes with trying again." he spoke. not yelled, but his tone was still a lot harsher than it usually was, even when he was scolding someone.
you nodded fastly at him and began to clean up the mess you made. you tried your hardest not to cry, but the tears just ran down your cheeks anyway. it was embarrassing, but you were no stranger to crying in potions, and you hoped no one was looking at you anymore, since snape already started explaining to the class what you did wrong. you didn't listen much, but it was something about not crushing up the right amount of berries. of course it was a stupid thing like that.
snape hates you. you know that. despite being slytherins head of house... your head of house, he singled you out. ever since he yelled at you in year one you knew he did. some of the hufflepuff girls you study with said they think it's because you're a mudblood. well, they didn't say it like that, but they might as well have had.
it may be the reason. but you also think (and fear) it's just because he sees through you. he can see you don't belong. not just in slytherin, but in hogwarts. he can see you can't do potions and he probably knows that you can't really do anything else properly and that you don't belong here. you belong somewhere in the muggle world, in a muggle school with a muggle life, just like your parents.
you look up and behind the man, and see everyone still looking at you. amazing. most look embarrassed for you, but only some look sympathetic. that doesn't surprise you.
george weasley seems to be in the fewer group. despite his twin brother having to try his damned harderst to not point and laugh, he... doesn't look like he wants to laugh along anymore. there's a certain sadness in his eyes. but you look down again. it's probably only pity.
it's friday. just get through this class and then it's the weekend. calm down.
saturday does... not come quick. the embarrassment from potions makes time seem a lot slower. but it does come, eventually. and you like saturday. it's the only day you have real peace. friday is not real peace, because you still have classes, and sunday is pure chaos that you basically study your whole way through almost every week. saturday was just... peace. but it was also a bore. and a... mental challenge. because you were alone. you weren't studying with the hufflepuff girls, nor hanging out with them as you usually do during the week. you don't know if they really saw you as a friend, but you hoped so, because you didn't have many of them here. and you liked hanging out with them. they sometimes made that feeling that you sort of always have somewhere in your mind, that you don't belong, disappear. even if only for a moment.
it's spring. so the weather is nice. nice enough to only wear a hoodie and sweatpants as you sit outside. that was another reason to love saturday. you got to ditch your robes and finally wear something comfortable. so you sit at the edge of the courtyard on a bench, reading a book you had read three times before. you also brought another one with you, in case one starts to bore you, but that never seems to happen. in fact, you still found new stuff to underline with your pencil.
"hey." you hear from somewhere close enough to make your head turn up. and it sure surprises you.
it's a weasley twin. you have to narrow your gaze to figure out which one...
george. it's george weasley. you know it's him because of the shape of his face. it's less square than his brothers.
you take a quick look behind you to see if he was talking to somebody else, but he wasn't. he was talking to you. and looking at you, which was uncomfortable.
"you okay?" he asked and tilted his head slightly to the side. "after that... fiasco in potions yesterday." you almost roll your eyes. you hate that he had reminded you of it. "i'm fine." you replied quickly to get rid of that thought as soon as possible. he nodded. and then he sat down next to you, which made you look at him again, confused.
you hated that question as well. so you sighed.
"why are you alone?" great response, you pat yourself on the back internally for that. and honestly, it was the more interesting question. you're alone most of the time, and him? you haven't seen him alone probably since he got off the train at hogsmeade for the first time.
he grins, turning his head, looking to the side for a moment.
he grinned. it wasn't anything unusual but it was a strange feeling to be the reason someone like him grinned.
"fred is with his girlfriend and lee has gone missing." he replied playfully. and you want to smile at his tone but refrain.
"fred has a girlfriend?" you ask as you pretend to be jotting down a serious note at the top of a page in your book, when really you're only copying words you see in the first sentence. it was just a way to get out of making eye contact with him.
meanwhile, george nods. "yeah. why, were you looking to snatch him up yourself?" he grinned again. you couldn't help but scoff. "no." you replied simply. fred was very... smug. a lot more smug than george. you had made that observation in your second year, when they had both pulled a prank on you. well, it was intended to be for any slytherin, so, of course, you were the one to walk into it first. it, being a glitter bomb near the slytherin common room. you stepped on it and it exploded with colorful glitter, mostly over your shoes and pants, but you still found glitter in your hair months after it happened. but the prank earned laughs from only one twin. since george noticed that the casing of the glitter bomb had been unstable and exploded along with the glitter, a piece hitting you in the face. you were lucky it missed your eye, but still, it made you lose balance and fall down. and george had immediately ran to you and began apologising and helping you up. fred didn't notice, and apologised a few days later in a class you had together, basically only after having been forced by his brother to do so. george had looked at you with slight remorse ever since.
"sorry for him, too. he tends to laugh." george said after a moment, stretching his legs and crossing them while resting his elbow on the bench back rest.
"yeah, i noticed." you say with a quiet sigh, closing your book, leaving the pencil inside to know where you finished. you can feel georges gaze get softer, even though you don't see it.
"seriously though, you okay? you didn't look... well, in class." he asks again. you sigh again. "i'm fine." you look up at him and see him looking at you. looking at you. it makes your shoulders stiffen a bit. "snape just hates me." you try to reassure.
george nods. "why though?" he scrunched his nose.
you shake your head and shrug. "i'm bad at potions." you say simply instead of telling him what you really think - that snape hates you because he can somehow tell you're not good enough at anything.
"yeah." george says and grins again, looking ahead. for a moment you don't register that, but then you give him an offended look.
your eyes meet again. "what? you are." he laughs and moves just a tiny bit closer. you scoff again, hoping that it isn't obvious that his proximity makes you a little more nervous then before.
"listen, i can help you." he said, voice soft. you look at him. it's so strange that he's talking to you this way. that he's even talking to you. "hm?" is the only way you're able to react.
"honestly... i'm quite good at potions. fred and i mix up a ton of them for uh..." he pauses and you raise an eyebrow. "a special project." well that sounds ominous.
"you don't plan on poisoning anyone, do you?" you ask and he laughs. you must admit making a funny guy like him laugh makes you feel kinda fuzzy inside. "only mildly." he replies, and this time you let yourself smile a little bit, looking down at the book in your lap.
"you really think i can be helped?" you ask him, looking up again. your tone was playful but the question was serious. "oh yeah." he nods and purses his lips. "yesterday you were doing really well. i think you would have made the potion correctly if you weren't nervous... people make mistakes when they're being too cautious, you know?" he goes on, and you hum. you guess he's right. and him telling you you were doing well also makes you fuzzy. even though it's probably just a white lie, it feels nice to hear it.
"i'll um... i'll think about it." you say and he smiles. "i'll take that as a definite yes... and it's free of charge. might finally make that glitter bomb up to you." he said.
"please, that was ages ago." you dismiss, hoping he didn't notice the way you had to breathe in at the fact that he still remembered that.
"well, i still feel bad for it. it must've hurt. and you looked like you were already having a bad day." he said and you went quiet. because that was an observation you weren't expecting him to remember for so long. and it felt strange. strange but... nice.
"so... first lesson is tomorrow at six. i'll pick you up near your common room." he declared, standing up and smiling at you. "till then, y/n." before you could be polite and say something back, he was strutting across the courtyard, moving towards some other boys that greeted him with grins and fist bumps.
well, that was confusing. and... nice. yeah. he was nice to you. and you're not sure what the motive behind that was, but you're certain it will keep you up at night.
maybe sunday wasn't going to be so bad this week...