Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, but Roxanne belongs to me.
~ "Have we lost the magic that we once had?" ~
I walked into the Great Hall, extremely nervous, though I didn't show it. My head was held high, though not high enough to seem like I was desperately trying not to seem anxious – which I was. My experiences in Durmstrang and Beauxbatons had taught me how to seem innocent and blend in, and I had become an expert at it.
I was wearing the standard white button-down shirt, grey plaid skirt, and thin black robes, and I hadn't accessorized them with anything – unlike the other students. Just this morning, I had seen two giggling first-year girls skip around school with pink flowery jewelry on every visible body part except their faces – bracelets, necklaces, earrings, anklets, and headbands.
My hair was tied back in a loose plait, a few strands cleverly concealing my eyes. I made my way slowly and steadily to the Gryffindor table, aware of the murmuring and sudden whispering at my appearance. I made a deliberately half-hearted attempt to push the hair out of my eyes and continued, exuding confidence and defiance with every step.
I took a seat next to two identical-looking redheads – brothers, and started eating. Dumbledore smiled at me good-naturedly from the Head Table. I smiled back, but frowned slightly at the sight of Dolores Umbridge sitting close to him. Umbridge gave me a sickly, toady grin, but I turned away, and found myself face to face with one of the ginger-haired twins.
"Hi." He said, smiling. I nodded curtly and continued with my steak-and-kidney pie. I hoped that I could eat in peace, but he persisted. "I'm Fred. Fred Weasley." He stuck out a stocky hand. I sighed silently, then decided to drop the hostile act.
"Roxanne." I shook his hand, feeling calluses and blisters. I opened my mouth to comment, but then closed it. He seemed to notice, raising his eyebrows. Fred's brother glanced at me and immediately sniggered. I yanked my hand from Fred's grasp deftly, affronted.
"He wasn't laughing at you." said Fred quickly, shooting a Look at his brother.
"Oh, sure," I said snidely. Fred chuckled and shook his head.
"You sure get offended easily." he remarked.
"I'm George." the other twin said. "George-"
"Weasley, yeah, I heard." I said, impatient to eat. I continued to ignore them, determined to finish my slice of pie without further interruption. My resolution failed in the next two seconds.
"I haven't seen you before. How come?" Fred asked.
"I'm new." I said quietly, furious with myself for replying – it was a reflex.
"You don't look like a first year." Fred said laughingly.
"Well, I'm not." I said, starting on a chicken leg. "I'm a seventh year." I added.
"Me too. George as well." He said, gesturing to his brother, who was deeply in conversation with a pretty dark-skinned girl. "That's Angelina." He said, smiling at her dazedly. I smirked, and he snapped back to attention. "What?" he asked, almost defensively.
"Nothing." I said, still smiling. Fred grinned sheepishly.
"She's pretty." He said, shrugging.
"So, you like her?" I asked. I knew that I shouldn't be talking, but I felt the need to make friends. Introverts don't usually tend to fare well in school.
"Not much now, because George's sweet on her, and I reckon she feels the same way. If she thinks that George's better than me, then she's not worth it." He said, as if it was as simple as that. I couldn't help laughing.
He joined in for no reason, and George and Angelina stared at us blankly. Angelina raised her eyebrows, and I decided that I would take her chances with her. "I'm Roxanne. I'm new here." I said, holding out my hand. Angelina paused for an extremely awkward moment, then shook it.
"Angelina Johnson. Quidditch Captain. Do you play?" she said. I nodded.
"Chaser." I said, answering the unasked question. Angelina scrutinized me closely.
"You might want to try out. You have the build for a Keeper though." She said. I shrugged.
"Yeah, I get that a lot. But I don't find it fun, Keeping. I like Chasing better, and even Jones won't play a position that she doesn't like to play." I said, shrugging. Angelina grinned.
"You know a lot about Quidditch. I can tell we'll be good friends." She said warmly.
"That would be great." I said, somehow managing to not sound desperate. George inconspicuously tapped Angelina on the shoulder, and, not-as-inconspicuously, kissed her gently on the cheek. Startled, I looked at Fred. His face was impassive, but his jaw was set angrily, and his mouth twisted at an angle that told me that he was holding back a yell. Or a scream, or an expletive. Either way, I was glad it was closed. Angelina, however, giggled and blushed, bringing her shoulder up to her ear shyly.
George stole a look at Fred and sighed guiltily at his expression, and opened his mouth like he wanted to say something, but closed it again. Fred purposefully looked away, at me. "I never really caught your last name." he said, obviously trying to initiate conversation.
"I didn't say." I said, and left it at that. He seemed to think that it was a legitimate reason, but (un?) fortunately didn't stop talking.
"So, randomly joining Hogwarts for a year, Roxanne-without-a-last-name?" he asked, casting a sidelong glance at me.
"I've been to Durmstrang and Beauxbatons." I said, leaning back in my chair and paying no attention whatsoever to his nickname for me or Umbridge's stupid speech. Fred didn't seem inclined to either. "Neither worked out, honestly." I said.
"Really?" he said, grinning. "You must be the regular troublemaker." he seemed interested. I laughed derisively, though not too loud - Umbridge was still droning on, and I wanted to seem like a model student, even if I wasn't.
"You have no idea." I chuckled. He gave me a skeptical look.
"What was the last thing you pulled then, what got you expelled?" he said, one hand on his chin, facing me, and yet already looking like whatever I was going to say would be nothing compared to his endeavors. I shrugged modestly.
"Oh, nothing, just a pinch of Doxy droppings in her perfume - that reeked of the most horrible, disgusting odor, by the way, so it didn't matter - but it turns out she was allergic to the stuff, so she broke out in hives and started screaming and ended up tripping over some, er, strategically placed books and into the fireplace." I said simply. Looking at Fred's horrified expression, I laughed. "It wasn't real fire, because the Floo Powder had conveniently toppled over into the fireplace, and obviously it listened to the first words she said, which were 'water, water, quick, water'. She, erm..." I trailed off. "She..sort of ended up in the middle of the ocean." I said, suppressing my own laughter at the memory.
"Well, she obviously Apparated back, because she had her wand, didn't she?" he said more than asked, before noticing my grin. "She didn't?" he asked incredulously.
"Well, you see..." I said sheepishly. "It had been, erm, conveniently removed from her office by a certain someone who may or may not be sitting in next to you right now." I squirmed, trying to keep the smug look off of my face. "It took the Ministry a couple days to find her. She managed to stay afloat, though."
"Impressive." he said, raising his goblet in my direction.
"Ah." I joked. "A pumpkin juice toast. The greatest among toasts."
"Only given to the best of pranksters." he continued, and we fell about laughing silently.
"So, what's one of your best gags?" I asked conversationally as we stood up - Umbridge had finally stopped her useless blathering, and we were asked to leave to our dormitories. "And you'll have to lead me to Gryffindor Tower, I don't know where it is." I said, as we walked towards the Entrance Hall.
"'Course, I don't mind." he said, climbing up the steps leisurely. "Well, do you want to hear about the time I cursed my brother's teddy bear?" he asked, and before waiting for an answer, launched into the tale of the wonderful prank, that was so long and complicated (and largely exaggerated) that it took us all the way up to the seventh floor, and Gryffindor Tower.
"Mimbulus Mimbletonia." he said to a portrait of a rather large woman, and the picture swung forward on it's hinges. "It's a bit of a squeeze." he said, gesturing to the portrait hole. I shrugged and swung myself in, emerging in a cozy, comforting room with warmth emanating from the fireplace.
"Well, I'm off to pretending that I'm in bed." Fred said as he followed me out of the hole. "Your dormitory is Angelina's as well, so, erm, you can talk to her yourself, I'm guessing..." he said somewhat awkwardly. "We get our schedules in the morning, at breakfast. We'll probably have a couple of the same classes. See you in the morning then." he grinned jovially, and climbed up the stairs with a jaunty wave. I waved back, smiling, then looked around for Angelina.
"You're with me, come on." she said from behind me. I turned around and followed her, looking around at all the paintings surrounding the walls as I climbed up the staircase farthest from the portrait hole. She opened a door and I followed her into the room, where three beds lay, one looking remotely less shabby than the other two. One of the used-looking ones was occupied by a girl with tawny eyes and long, caramel-colored hair tied back in a french braid. "Right, then, Katie, this is Roxanne, Roxanne, Katie. Katie's Chaser on our team, generally average at classes, but is a dab hand at Astronomy." Angelina said, somewhat bored. "Well, I suppose that's your bed, and that's your closet next to it, unless that's not your trunk?" she asked, pointing to the dark blue trunk lying next to the bed. Without waiting for an answer, she kicked off her shoes, moaning in relief, grabbed a nightgown from her trunk, and disappeared into the bathroom.
"No, it's mine." I said, making my way over to it. Katie got out of her bed and walked up to me. I smiled at her, too. "Hello." I said cheerily.
"Hi." she said, beaming. "Katie Bell." she stuck her hand out. I shook. "Angie's lying, I'm not a dab hand at anything, much. But I like stars, I do." she said shyly.
"I prefer Potions. Creating things, y'know?" I said, shrugging. She smiled.
"Well then maybe you'll be able to help me and Angie, we're hopeless at Potions. And Transfiguration." she added thoughtfully.
"Oh, I'm horrible at Transfiguration." I laughed. Katie grinned up at me - she was quite petite, probably not more than five feet four inches, I guessed.
"Well, I'll let you get some sleep. But it's nice to meet you, Roxanne." she said, smiling again and walking back to her bed.
"You too." I said behind her. I walked up to my trunk and grabbed for my nightgown, a cream thing with owls on the hem. I preferred to change in the confines of my bed, and so I shut the hangings, and eased off my shoes, my robes, my shirt, and skirt. I slipped on the nightgown and pulled my hair tie off. But I wasn't going to sleep just yet, so I drew back the hangings. I opened my trunk fully, and then opened the empty closet, using a few Vanishing Spells to get rid of the cobwebs. I sat on my bed, where I had a good view, and started relocating, not bothering to say the spells out loud.
As I worked, my shirts, trousers, skirts, and jeans all floated into place, even fitting properly on the hangers with an extra wrist flick. I arranged my shoes in a row at the bottom of the closet, then walked into the bathroom with my bag of toiletries and the miniscule amounts of makeup that I had managed to obtain. Angelina pointed me towards a chest of drawers, allocating me the third drawer to keep all my stuff in.
I thanked her, and put my deep blue toothbrush into a mug where two others - a red one with snitches patterned all over it, and a creamy pink one with hearts - rested. I brushed my hair out, smiled reassuringly at myself in the mirror, and - finally - collapsed into bed. It was 11:47pm. I stuffed my wand - twelve inches, supple, rowan, good for pretty much anything but Transfiguration - under my pillow, slid underneath the comforter, and fell asleep.
~"In a foreign place, the saving grace was the feeling."~
I woke up the next morning, an hour before I really needed to. I set out my uniform and debated wearing my robes (no, I reasoned, it wasn't really cold), contemplated my hairstyle (a side braid was decided upon), and made my bed to reduce the house-elves' work (I had spotted one or two hovering around the tables when Fred was leading me to the Tower). I stuffed all my books in a satchel and cast an Undetectable Extension Spell on it to lighten it, and tested out the weight - only a bit back-breaking. I went into the lavatory and had a quick shower, using a Hot-Air Spell on my hair to blow-dry it. I quickly tied it up into the side braid, snapping my hair tie back on before I changed into a clean white shirt, red-and-gold Gryffindor tie, grey sweater vest,
When I came back to the dorm, Angelina was up. I said good morning, and she looked surprised that I was already ready. "You can go ahead to breakfast if you want." she said. "George and his brother get up early, they're probably in the common room. You can ask them the way." I nodded and exited the dorm, satchel in hand and wand in pocket. Fred was in the common room, concentrating on a card house, eyebrows singed.
"Bet you can't clear two feet." I murmured absentmindedly as I sat opposite him.
"Morning." he grinned. "And get four sickles ready, I bet I can make it to three." I scoffed despite myself - it was so hard to be timid and humble around Fred.
"Three is nothing. I'm taking pity on you, Fred. I've made it to five." I declared. "And it's three galleons or nothing." I said that because three galleons was all I had in my pocket. It would be nice to have six. Fred raised his eyebrows. Then he looked thoughtful.
"How do you know that I'm Fred?" he said, grinning. I shrugged.
"I've had twins as friends before. You two are actually a lot more different than you think." I said.
"In what ways?" he asked curiously.
"Well, it's not like you have trouble figuring out who you are, so you can continue to be clueless." I smiled.
"You barely talked to George, how would you know that he's any different from me?" Fred asked.
"You said it yourself." I smiled. "I didn't talk to him, so it would take him awhile to place me. You recognized me the minute I sat down." Fred shrugged.
"Fair enough."
"You're losing that bet, by the way." I said, jerking my head towards the pile of cards that was now quivering suspiciously. Fred didn't even panic, simply adding more cards as the quivering increased. With a loud bang, it exploded, and by reflex I swung under the table, avoiding the heat. When I resurfaced, my fingertips where they had gripped the table were slightly scalded, and Fred's eyebrows were virtually nonexistent.
I laughed at the sight as I healed my burns, before sending blue light accompanied by an "Episkey!" in the direction of his eyes. When it cleared, they were back to normal. "Well, I win. Three galleons, monsieur." I said, grinning and holding my hand out.
"I'm pretty sure they cleared three feet when they exploded." he grumbled, but he forked over the galleons. "I hoped it was a false alarm."
"If it's a false alarm, you won't hear the whistle." I said, referring to the pressure-cooker-like hoot that grew louder closer to the bang. It was a precious bit of information that had won me a lot of money and saved me from losing even more. "Could we go down to breakfast?" I asked. Fred nodded, blowing on the scattered cards - they automatically stacked themselves into a neat pile - and standing up.
"It's a cinch finding your way around this castle." Fred said as he swung out of the common room and I followed. "Whenever you get lost, go into the nearest classroom and tap the bottom right-hand corner with your wand seven times. It'll show you what floor you're on. And the school is basically a rectangle with a courtyard in the middle, so as long as you get to your floor, you can just walk around until you get to the right room. And you're new, so they'll make sure you have the same schedule as someone who knows the school well."
We reached the Great Hall and sat down, and I noticed that there was barely anyone about. "We're the only ones at this table." I said, surprised.
"It's only six-thirty." Fred reasoned. I raised my eyebrows, impressed. In Beauxbatons, lessons began at seven, so waking up anytime later than five-thirty was a bit of a risk, considering the queues to get to the lavatory - and at Durmstrang, we were woken up at four.
"Four." Fred said when shared that bit of information. "Four, AM." he repeated, like he was making himself believe it. "That's bloody ridiculous." He said incredulously, and I laughed at his expression.
"What's bloody ridiculous?" said another ginger-haired boy, obviously related to Fred but not as tall, and younger, as he sat down opposite us. I smiled awkwardly.
"Getting up at four AM every single morning." Fred answered, still surprised. He snapped out of it when I brushed past him to grab the platter of toast. "Oh, Ron, this is Roxanne." I flashed him another smile, this one a lot more confident. "She's in my year, she's new. Roxanne, Ron, my brother. Yes, the one with the teddy bear. Fifth year. But four AM, every bloody day?" he asked again. I laughed - again.
"Yes, Fred. And hi, Ron. It's nice to meet you." I said, sticking my hand out. He took it and shook. I let go and pushed four slices of toast towards me, before buttering them liberally and reaching for the marmalade.
"So why are you up so early?" Fred asked Ron. "Everyone knows you'll wake up at three in the afternoon if someone lets you." he grinned. Ron shrugged, somewhat uneasily.
"I just randomly woke up, then I couldn't go back to sleep." he said vaguely, dumping a tonne of sausages onto his plate. I picked one off of the serving plate and took a bite, finding it much better than the rough, still-slightly-raw beef sausages that were served for special occasions in Durmstrang. At Beauxbatons, we were only served paper-thin slices of nonfat ham with our fresh bakery bread. It was good, but far too elegant for my taste. And there was no toast, for Agrippa's sake. No toast! How was one supposed to survive without toast?
Fred, Ron, and I chatted about Quidditch (Fred and I argued that Puddlemere United beat the Chudley Cannons hands down, but Ron poutily disagreed), muggle movies (we all laughed about how dreadful the Titanic was), and the girls at Beauxbatons (this was mainly for Ron's benefit, but I obliged). I was feeling quite relaxed, but the knot of nerves in my stomach tightened and swelled when Professor McGonagall started handing out schedules an hour later, when Katie, Angelina and George had joined us and put in their views of what we had been discussing ("Puddlemere?" Angelina scoffed. "I liked Oliver, but they were thrashed by the Bats."). The schedules were on new parchment, folded into thirds, with the Hogwarts crest stamped on top and the student's name on the front.
"Go on, show us yours then." Katie said, holding her hand out. She was sitting on my left and only had a tiny portion of rice on it - barely a spoonful. I placed my schedule in her hand and accepted hers, deciding not to glance down at her plate questioningly - it really was none of my business. I skimmed over her schedule, then glanced back at mine over her shoulder. "We have all of Tuesday together!" she exclaimed happily, grinning at me as she handed me my schedule and I hers. I smiled back, only to feel someone's eyes on me.
Turning around, I saw Fred looking at me, his eyes without that mischievous sparkle that was their trademark, but a serious, brooding stare. He didn't seem to notice that I was looking back. My smile faded.I wordlessly handed him my schedule, trying to grin. He snapped out of whatever daze he was in and exchanged with me. I scanned it, a genuine smile forming on my face. I turned back to him as the realization crept across his face. "Everything. Except Tuesday, everything. Every single class." I said, in a sort of strangled voice, so glad that I wouldn't be lost and I would have a genuine friend with me in every class I had.
"Don't look so cheerful." his voice was merry and lilting, and I turned to see that the brooding look had disappeared. "Four days is enough for you to get sick of me, I grant you that." he smiled.
"It'll take a lot more than that." I breathed involuntarily, a flush creeping up my neck for no particular reason. I took back the schedule and handed him his, keeping my eyes focused on my toast. There was a delicious hazelnut-cocoa spread that just melted in my mouth, perfect for toast. Oh, and what fine toast it was. Multi-grain, with oats baked into the crust and perfectly toasted, just enough for a rusty sheen to form on both sides. Both.
And the butter! Whipped to perfection with a white gleam. There was no butter in either of my former schools - Durmstrang because it wasn't absolutely essential and therefore redundant, and Beauxbatons because it didn't qualify as 'slimming'. Quite the opposite, actually.
"Right, come on then. Herbology." Fred said, disregarding my earlier comment, even though his ears seemed pinker than usual. I nodded, polishing off my last slice (sixth, I think) and washing it down with the cold milk in my goblet - cold milk! And not the non-fat, skimmed, idiocy we sometimes got in Beauxbatons - before standing up and climbing over the bench. I followed him to a wild-looking greenhouse that was set next to three others.
"Greenhouse Four is the one that's most dangerous." he said, grinning wickedly. "Loads of things to play. But don't worry. I'll let you have a good first day. Model student and all that." he waved it away, smiling. I smiled back.
"I wouldn't mind if you pulled something, you know." I said frankly. "Might make it a little more interesting." I glanced quickly towards him and back to my dragonhide gloves (I'd managed to fit them in before breakfast, and Fred had said that you needed them for everything in Greenhouse Four), that stupid flush creeping up my neck again.I backed away as several students swarmed in just before the bell rang - a series of ominous tolls that seriously creeped me out. Durmstrang had been worse though - clanging. Lots of clanging.
"Hey Freddie!" A girl with long blonde locks and an unbearably high-pitched voice came rushing through the crowd over to him, and sauntered up to his face. For some reason, I was pleased when I noticed that he looked mildly uncomfortable.
"Hi, Linda." he said awkwardly, his smile strained. The girl stank of tantalizing perfume, and had applied more eye makeup than I had ever seen - and as a former Beauxbatons student, that was saying something. Her hair was waved to perfection, and she had on the perfect amount of cherry red lipstick and a dab of lip gloss. She was so close to him that you couldn't swing a bowtruckle between them. He took a tentative and inconspicuous step backwards, still smiling. "Linda, this is Roxanne. She's new here - our year. Roxanne, Linda. Hufflepuff Prefect."
Linda cast a small, condescending half-smile at me before turning back to Fred. "But I always let you get away with stuff, don't I?" she murmured flirtily. I held back the urge to puke.
"Right." he said frankly and quickly, moving away from her. "Well, um, I've got to pair up with Roxanne, so I'll, uh.." Her smile, directed at Fred, turned into a devilish glare, pointed at me instead.
"See you around, Fred. And erm, new girl." she flashed another grin at Fred, a smug nod at me, and weaved her way through the crowd of students, still chatting merrily about the holidays, and made her way towards a bunch of girls who seemed to be waiting for her. Fred turned to me, his face blank.
"Shall we?" he asked flatly.
"Sure." I said, giving him a fleeting smile before following him towards one of the tables. Professor Sprout entered, and thankfully acted like I was just another student when she brushed past me, although she gave me a discreet wink. I'd already been introduced to her, and I was grateful that she didn't put me up on a pedestal.
After an hour, when my hands were coated thoroughly with dragon dung ("the best fertilizer there is, really." Professor Sprout claimed.) and I smelled like I had rolled in it, we headed back up to the castle and I took another shower before I met Fred in the common room for Charms.
I had added a touch of mascara to my lashes - my friend Aimee had given it to me as an unsubtle parting gift at Beauxbatons - and unchapped my lips using some pink-tinted lip balm. Maybe Linda's appearance had made me self-conscious, or I just realized that I looked abnormally plain. Hopefully, it was the latter. But I knew that it wasn't.
"So, Charms. Any, erm, friends there?" I tried to seem nonchalant, but one look at Fred's face told me that he caught the reference.
"Linda's generally like that." he said vaguely, before climbing out of the portrait hole. I followed him, stopping to stand in front of him and raise an eyebrow.
"Like what?" I asked, expecting him to avoid the question, since it was asked softly and could be ignored amongst the chattering of nervous first-years.
"You know. Hanging around all the time, and, er..." he trailed off.
"Not leaving?" I said, a reluctant smile playing around my face.
"She's a nice person." he reasoned. "Sort of." We had reached the Charms classroom. "We have Charms with the Ravenclaws. Bloody know-it-alls, all of them. 'Wit beyond measure, man's greatest treasure, and all that." he said, rolling his eyes. I grinned. "You've met old Filius? I noticed that you and Sprout seem to be mates."
"Yeah, I met all the teachers before term started." I said, taking the seat that had appeared from seemingly nowhere the minute I entered. Fred's desk had his name written on it in Everlasting Ink, with several hearts around it - the hearts seemed to be drawn by the other girls who sat regularly at the desk. I choked back a laugh at the number of them. "Well, you're the regular heartthrob, aren't you?" I tried to say with a straight face. Fred seemed flushed and awkward, and didn't even give me an answer, just a fleeting, forced smile.
He avoided the topic for the entire lesson, and we focused mainly on the Extended Shield Charms that we were supposed to have practised over the summer. I hadn't ever learned them, but soon discovered that with Fred sitting next to me and giving me tips, I was much better than most of the Ravenclaws in the classroom, even. At the beginning of the class, I looked at the needle I was supposed to charm.
"Protego Detrudus!" I said weakly, nearly breaking my wrist when I attempted the clockwise jab that the book demanded. The jet of purple light fizzled and died before it even reached the needle. I sighed.
"Counter-clockwise jab." Fred advised.
"Why?"
"Just try it."
"Protego Detrudus!". Then, "Reducto!" to test it out. I ducked to avoid the jet of light that made a fairly-sized hole in the wall behind me.
"See?"
"But how come?"
"More natural hand movement. This textbook's barmy."
"Well, ?" that was Professor Flitwick, hobbling towards us.
"Protego Detrudus!" Fred's voice was confident and commanding, and the shield was visible, a pulsing aquamarine aura around the needle.
"Well, let's see, shall we?" Flitwick warbled. "Multicofors!" why he was trying to change the color of a needle, I'd never know. Nevertheless, it didn't work, turning Flitwick's eyebrows green instead. He undid the charm and looked expectantly at me, and I hurriedly turned to my own sewing tool.
"Protego Detrudus!" I said clearly, sharply flicking my wrist counter-clockwise. I sighed with relief when it stayed put after Flitwick's attempt to make it bigger. He shot me a satisfied grin and waddled away. I gave Fred a look of gratitude, smiling warmly, and he smiled back.
"Charms is easy once you get the hang of it." he said, shrugging. "You can have my textbook if you want. My handwriting looks like a flobberworm exploded onto the page, but I write notes on every spell." Fred didn't seem the academic type, so I raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Me and George are planning to, er, start a...a joke shop of sorts. Like Zonko's, but...better. Hopefully." he said quickly, with an air of someone who wanted to get it over with. "You can laugh now."
"I think that's a great idea." I said honestly. "So that's why you're so good at Charms?" I asked. "Because you charm normal objects into joke stuff?" Fred nodded. I smiled again. "So tell me about it. What are you planning on making?" He looked me straight in the eyes, as if to make sure that I was serious. Then he launched into a long and complicated discussion about Skiving Snackboxes, his eyes alight and his face animated. Apart from a brief pause to write down the homework ("a four foot essay on the Extended Shield Charm and its Effects, if you please!" Flitwick squeaked), the conversation lasted until we sat down in the Great Hall for lunch.
"...which we're still considering because some of the teachers still faint at the sight of too much blood." he concluded as I took a seat next to him.
"You don't mind, do you?" I asked hesitantly. He looked up, puzzled. "Me sitting next to you, I mean. I mean, I've been following you around the for three hours, I would've thought you might want to have a brea-"
"Are you kidding?" he asked, grinning. "Of course I don't mind. Honestly, that's the first time anyone's ever..." he faltered slightly. "...actually listened to me for that long." he breathed, looking at me like he was seeing me in a whole new light. "But no, I don't mind. At all, really." he continued normally. "You can sit here anytime. Prankster to prankster, right?" he asked. I nodded, smiling as I raised my goblet of pumpkin juice and clanked it against his.
"So, what about Fainting Fancies?" I asked. He looked at me suspiciously, and I paused with my fork on its way to my starving mouth.
"You really want to hear me babble about that? More?" he asked.
"Of course." I said. "I like listening to you. You're unique." I told myself to stop, but my stupid uncontrollable mouth continued. "You're not just the generic, typical juvenile jokester. You...you have a story. And I know what it's like not to have that story told." I felt like punching myself as soon as the last sentence came out of my mouth. I winced inwardly, and maybe a little outwardly as well, because the next words Fred said were much softer and lower.
"So tell me your story."
And so I did.
A/N: Hi guys! This is my first HP fanfic, I think it's turning out pretty well. Reviews are pumpkin muffins and cream cheese. Something everyone needs. :) Hope you liked it! Another chapter coming up soon.
Song Credits - In The End - Snow Patrol, Only Ones Who Know - Arctic Monkeys