A/N- To new readers, welcome! I do hope you enjoy the story.
To old readers, welcome back! If you're rereading, you will find some changes. I fixed a lot of typos, and added a bit. Nothing to major, but necessary nonetheless.
To everyone: I shall be fixing and rewriting all of the chapters. You'll know it's been updated, because I'll mention it in the author's note.
Enough of my rambling. Enjoy the story!
-oOo-
Chapter 1: The Beginning
"Fred! George! Wake up!"
I groaned and covered my head with my white pillow. Across the room, Fred did the same, adding in a few muttered obscenities. It was too early for shouting, and if Ron knew what was good for him, he would shut up and head back in the direction he came. But, of course, Ron never knows what's good for him.
"Come on, get up! We're gonna be late!" Ron's voice grew louder as he came closer to our (mine and Fred's) room. After a bit more shouting and a lot more heavy clomping, Ron finally came bursting through the door. The sound of the doorknob hitting the wall reverberated through my skull, making me wince, and I pressed the pillow harder against my face.
"Ron, what are you going on about?" Fred asked sleepily, obviously irritated. His voice was noticeably muffled due to his pillow.
"We'll be late!" Ron said again, urging us to get up.
"For what?" I asked groggily. I pulled my pillow off my head and propped myself up on my elbows, letting the pillow fall against my chest and into my lap. After rubbing my eyes and batting my hair out of my face, I opened my eyes. Ron was fully dressed standing in the doorway bouncing in place on the balls of his feet. I had to resist the strong urge to throw my pillow, or better yet, a book, at him.
"For the train!" Ron said, exasperated, and bounced faster. At this, Fred sat up completely, squinting at the light shining through the blinds.
"Oh dear, George, it seems ickle Ronniekins has forgotten the days of the week," Fred said, smirking at our little brother.
"Seems so," I agreed, grinning. "Otherwise he would know we pulled that same joke on him last week on Tuesday-"
"-And that we don't leave for Hogwarts for another four days, on Sunday," Fred finished for me.
"Now go away," we said together. Ron opened his mouth to say something, but used his better judgment and stormed out with a scowl on his face. I heard Fred mutter something that sounded like something along the lines of "stupid little brother…"
I laid back down, preparing to go back into my interrupted slumber, but now that I was awake, I couldn't fall back asleep. I turned over to my other side, then back to the right, but I couldn't get comfortable. I groaned into my pillow, which earned me an agitated "Shut up!" from Fred. After a few more minutes, I found a comfortable position on my stomach, but just as I was beginning to drift back to sleep, Mum called us down for breakfast.
"Fred! George! Ron! Ginny! Breakfast!" Fred and I groaned in unison, not wanting to get up. I debated skipping breakfast in order to sleep, but I heard Fred rustling around, so I decided against it. With much grumbling and yawning, we heaved ourselves out of bed. We didn't bother properly dressing; we just padded down the stairs in our matching black pajama pants and white tee shirts. When we got downstairs, Mum was waving her wand making plates of all the typical breakfast food zoom from the kitchen onto the table, and talking about Harry.
"…Was supposed to go get him ages ago. I can't believe I forgot! I hope he's not too upset with me…"
"Well seeing as the Muggles aren't exactly hospitable… ever…" Ginny chimed in, gazing at Mum, who groaned.
"Geez Mum, we've been wondering when you were going to get him," I joked. "Your memory's going fast." Mum turned to glare at me, and succeeded for the first few seconds, but then her glare turned to a look of agreement.
"Don't worry too much though, Mum. It doesn't look as though anyone's remembered," Fred said matter-of-factly.
"Yes, well, I'm off to get him," Mum sighed, turning around. "Your father took an extra shift at the ministry and won't be back before me so behave while I'm gone!" she said sternly. Ron snorted, just entering the room.
"As if Fred and George could behave."
"As if you could behave!" Ginny shot at him, and Fred and I grinned our identical grins.
"Good old Ginny, always on our side," Fred said smugly. Ginny smirked and stuck her tongue out at Ron. Mum rolled her eyes and bade us goodbye. She turned on the spot and disapperated with a loud 'BANG'. Fred, Ron, Ginny and I sat down at the table for breakfast. Ron was shoveling food into his face like he wouldn't be eating for another year; I really thought it would do him some good to take a table etiquette class or something. For about a half hour we sat eating, making idle chatter until Ron spoke up through a mouthful of eggs.
"What's taking Mum so long I wonder?" he asked. "All she has to do is get Harry and come back."
"Well I expect she'll be taking him to Diagon Alley to get his school stuff," Ginny said in a tone that suggested this should have been quite obvious.
"Yeah, Ron, get on top of it!" Fred teased, ruffling Ron's hair, only to be viciously swatted away.
"Yeah, you can be so dense sometimes," I smirked, copying Fred's mocking tone. Ron scowled, and looked like he was about to tell us off, but Ginny beat him to it.
"Oh come off it you two! Obviously you didn't bother to think of that either," she frowned and bit into a piece of toast, tossing her hair haughtily over her shoulder in an exaggerated how-about-that sort of way.
"Didn't have to little sis, you got it covered," I said, and poked her nose. Ginny narrowed her eyes, wordlessly threatening me to do it again. I decided that in order to preserve my well-being, it would be best to refrain from such actions. A moment later, she and Ron began a conversation that my brother and I couldn't have cared less about, and suddenly, I remembered that we had to owl Lee. The three of us had come up with the idea for spell check quills to sell at school, and needed a good lasting charm for them in order to work. We began brainstorming it last year, but now we were ready to put it in to action. Fred quickly cut across Ron and Ginny, having read the look of remembrance on my face, and I couldn't help smiling at the way our brains just clicked.
"Sorry to interrupt whatever it is you're talking about, but my dear twin and I have very important business to attend to," Fred smirked.
"I'm sure," Ginny sniffed. I smiled, following Fred up the stairs. The interruption was quite unnecessary, but it was fun to see the agitated looks on Ron and Ginny's faces.
Fred and I entered our room and scavenged around for parchment, a quill, and ink. Once our materials were at the ready, we wrote the letter, and asked for a speedy reply, as we were eager to get started. We had to take Ron's owl, Pigwidgeon , to send the letter seeing as we didn't have one of our own. We were able to easily sneak into Ron's room and take him. We tied the parchment to Pig's leg, and let him out the window. At that precise moment, there was a CRACK from downstairs, and the sound of Ron and Ginny yelling, "Harry!"
"Mum's back, I take it," I said. Fred shrugged.
"Might as well say hello to Harry," he said. We looked at each other, and smirked as our twin brains clicked again.
Together, we bounded down the stairs yelling, "Harry! HARRY!" like two little kids who hadn't seen him in years, when it had only been three months. He managed a pretty loud yell when we crashed into him, full speed, and accidently ran all of us into the opposite wall. Mum gave a startled gasp and nearly dropped Harry's books. We smirked, smoothing Harry's hair down, and dusting off his shirt.
"Boys!" Mum shouted, and I looked over my shoulder.
"Sorry Mum, we've just missed him so much!" I exclaimed. With that, Fred and I hugged him tightly, lifting him off the ground. Fred looked at me for a moment, and then looked back at Harry, eyes twinkling in a very Dumbledore like way. Mum looks absolutely wild, so we set Harry down.
"Sorry 'bout that, Harry," I apologized dramatically, sighing deeply.
"Yeah, mate. Sometimes we just can't control ourselves," Fred grinned.
"Er, yeah… so… yeah," Harry stammered, trying to fight the smile that was undoubtedly making its way on to his lips. He tried hard as he could to look serious and stony faced, but he couldn't, and cracked a smile.
"There it is!" Fred and I said together, grinning wider.
"Good to see you guys," Harry muttered happily.
"You must be starving, Harry darling," Mum chimed in. Harry blushed slightly before nodding. Mum rushed into the kitchen to get him food, and he sat at the table and began talking to Ron and Ginny. Mum brandished he wand, waving it every which way, making Harry's breakfast soar to him. It looked as though she had given him a dozen scrambled eggs, a pound of bacon, and a stack of toast. That boy will never go hungry in this house.
"Appetite of a Weasley, he's got," Fred whispered, leaning toward me. I could smell his breath. It was sweet, and I merely nodded. Suddenly, Pigwidgeon flew through the window in the kitchen, and landed on a jug of pumpkin juice. There was a bit of parchment tied to his leg, no doubt from Lee. I rushed over and untied the roll. Merlin, that was quicker than expected.
"You used Pig without asking me?" Ron asked angrily. Fred nodded absently and watched me unroll the parchment. "You can't do that!" Ron shouted. Fred sighed impatiently.
"We wouldn't have to if-" he began.
"-Mum would get us our own," I finished. I looked toward Mum, who raised her hands to her shoulders as if to say, "Leave me out of it". Ron let out an angry growl, and grabbed Harry, who looked longingly at his plate, which he had barely made a dent in, before following Ron up the stairs.
"See you, Harry," Ginny waved. Harry turned around enough to wave back before disappearing. Finally, I took a look at the parchment. Fred stood next to me reading along. He was closer than necessary, but I didn't complain.
"Brilliant!" Fred beamed.
"The 'gramatica' charm," I mumbled. "I never would have thought of that."
"No worries, brother. Even the greatest of minds falter sometimes," he grinned and patted me on the back, and I shivered as an electric chill ran up my spine.
"It lasts several weeks," I commented. "It's perfect!" Fred and I high-fived, and dashed upstairs to get started.
-oOo-
A/N- And there you have it; the edited chapter one!
I hope all you new readers enjoyed, and I hope all the old readers liked the improvements.
Review, please!