Summary: Ever since the arrival of Fred and George Weasley, Hogwarts hasn't been quite the same. Pam Alexander should know. She values a sense of humor and a knack for witty adventures in her friends. But in her guys? She values flaming red hair. AU near the end.(For those who haven't read DH, all I can say is: Fred!)
Chapter 1: Squawking and Fast-talking
Having a witch mother and a Muggle father, my family grew up in a pretty mixed way. Some nights the Tales of Beetle and Bard put my brothers, sister and I to sleep. On others, stories of The Little Mermaid and Cinderella were the last things we heard before a good night's rest. Personally, I loved the Muggle stories. Stunning princes and beautiful princesses living happily ever after? Those made me smile.
I always dreamed the Princesses lived in fascinating stone castles surrounded by forest, with the smell of flowers in the air and pine needles littering the ground. So naturally, the week after my family had moved from London to Ottery when I was eight, I was desperate to explore.
I stared out my new bedroom's window at the cloudless blue sky. The leaves of great elm and willow trees rustled in the light summer breeze. Our new home was smaller than the old one, despite now having an attic. It was made of brick, but on the inside creamy-colored wallpaper and light hardwood floors contributed to the warm feeling of this house.
My new room was mostly rosy pinks and peach colors. I didn't mind, it had an antique feel and the sheets were soft. It was the smallest bedroom, but the amazing view from the window definitely made it the best room in the house. There was a small cushioned bench below it, now covered in teddy bears and other stuffed animals, except for one small spot, which was bare. That was where I sat now, watching the birds flutter in and out of the trees.
And I longed to be outside, running around. Who in their right mind would want to be inside on such a pretty August day? Speaking of which, I thought, there must be some other kids in this place.
Quickly, I stood up. I was so excited I knocked down five or six of the stuffed animals, but I was already jogging down the warm hallway. Skidding to a stop in front of my parent's room's door, I put on a grin (which was not hard, considering my excitement) and opened the oak-wood door.
"Mum, can I go for a walk?" I looked at her imploringly.
"Only if Meredith goes with you. I don't want my Pammy to get hurt out there." My mother smiled tenderly, but I stomped my foot in indignation.
"But I'm eight years old already! I can't have Merri holding me on a leash forever, can I?"
"Pam, eight years old doesn't seem like young to you, but Albus Dumbledore is nearing 150 years old. And as well," My mother added warningly, because I'd opened my mouth to protest, "Meredith has a wand and knows how to use it."
This shut me up at once. She had a good point- I didn't even have a wand yet, and if I did I wouldn't know what to do with it. "Fine," I grumbled. "See you in a little while, Mum, love ya."
Upon reaching my older sister's room, I found she wasn't there as usual. Her room had shades of pale green and gold, with a thick scent of pine mixed with her kiwi shampoo. Nearly everything was in order and clean. However, her copy of A Standard Book of Spells, Grade One lay open on her bed.
Curiosity overcame me and I pulled the book onto carpet floor with me, flicking absentmindedly through the pages. I understood hardly anything, except for a levitation spell.
"Not the best read I've ever had." I muttered to myself, laying the textbook back onto her bed.
"Really now? I found it quite interesting."
My older sister stood in the doorframe, the bright sunlight from the window in my bedroom backlighting her dramatically. Her blue eyes were narrowed, but she was grinning. "Mum told me you fancied a walk."
Eager to get out of there, I nodded. "Yeah. But she won't let me go unless you have your wand."
"Tough luck. I can't do magic outside school. Guess that's another secret Mum's keeping from you. C'mon." She turned and lazily waved her hand, beckoning me downstairs.
I followed, pulling on my sandals.
Once we were outside and walking along the path that leads into the grove of trees, I tried to level out my voice. "Uh, Merri? Whaddya mean another secret?"
"Oh, Mum hasn't told you?" Meredith sounded both peaceful and concerned.
"No…" I wonder what they could tell Meredith and not me.
"Does Elias or Peyton know?" I wouldn't admit it, but having my brothers know and not I was pretty scary.
"Nah, Peyton's too young and I don't think Elias knows. But the seeecret is…." She tapped her lips with her forefinger, as if contemplating weather to tell me or not.
"Merri, just say it already, please!"
"Alright, alright! There's another family with kids our age in it. I've seen them once. Just follow me…"
And Meredith started though the middle of the trees; cutting along a path so precise I wouldn't have been surprised to see a line on the ground. Brambles snapped back and pricked my bare shins. The unleveled ground made me stumble all over the place, hitting my head on trees. Meredith didn't seem to have these problems- every protruding root she avoided easily. Once we arrived at some bushes just before a clearing, Meredith turned around for the first time. "Jeez, Pam, you look pretty banged up." She raised her blonde eyebrows, genuinely surprised.
I just smacked my palm to my forehead.
Focusing my attention back to the clearing, I now noticed that a tall, crooked house loomed in the distance. Giggles and yells were emerging from the yard behind it.
"Hey, crouch!" Meredith alerted me back to our current spying situation. I dropped to my knees and crawled toward the bush.
Gently, I pulled some of the leaves apart to make a hole. From this view box, I could see seven – seven – kids playing in the yard. One was trying to govern the younger four, while the two tallest ones were telling off the youngest boy. There was only one girl, and she was much younger than me. Every single one had vibrant orange hair.
Meredith looked much less surprised than I did. In a hush, she explained to me:
"Yeah, the tallest one is Bill. The littlest boy is Ron, and the girl is Ginny. The twins, I dunno their names, but they're always messing around with the younger ones and sometimes even the older ones!"
As I took this in, I felt something tickle my leg. Cold chills ran through my body as I looked down apprehensively. A fat, fuzzy green caterpillar was inching up my leg. And this was no garden variety bug – it was a good eleven inches.
I screeched as loudly as my lungs would let me. Jumping to my feet, I held out my left leg and kicked it around. Meredith was up and trying to calm me down, but I mean, it's some chubby hairy thing crawling on my body. Panicking full force as I realized all eyes were on me, I tried to turn on one leg and toppled over the bush, landing on my face with a soft thud.
And as quickly as the mortifying silence had come, it left in an eruption of "What just happened?" "Is she okay?" "What were they doing back there?"
"I'm okay," I said, standing up and brushing myself off. Although, it was more to calm myself than the people in front of me.
"Uh, awkward meeting, huh?" The oldest said, with a hint of amusement in his voice. "You seem the energetic type." Bill said to me, grinning.
"Sorry, my sister is afraid of bugs. We'll just be going now…" Meredith still looked pretty mad at me. Grabbing my arm and holding it tighter than was probably necessary, she pulled me away from them.
"Wait! Is that one of those really big caterpillars?" I turned around to see one of the twins running toward me, followed closely by the other. "We got Bill to buy us one while he was at Hog-"
"Wait a second!" The bossy one commanded. "How do we know they're not Muggles?"
"Oh! I go to Hogwarts, and my mother is a witch." Meredith loosened her grip on my arm.
This shut him up. "As I was saying, we got those caterpillars at Zonko's. They're not real. Pretty funny prank huh?" The twin closest to me ginned triumphantly. "You wanna see the rest of the stuff we got?"
"Uh, sure." I smiled; it's a relief to have someone to play with who isn't Meredith.
They led me over to their back porch. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Meredith step nervously into the yard.
"Well, here it is." The other twin spoke up. "Our entire arsenal of pranking magic."
It was an arsenal – quite a number of dangerous-looking instruments, bubbling potions and lollipops.
"Impressive." I nodded. Suddenly realizing how hungry I was, I went for a lollipop-
"You don't want to eat those." The twin on my left said.
"Blood-pops, they are." The one on the right whispered.
I withdrew my hand quickly. "Wait, what are Blood pops?"
"Lollipops that taste like…blood." Right Twin grinned at my apparent stupidity.
"Oh…that's it?" I reached for one again.
"But they also make your ears spurt red water." Left Twin said quickly, making me drop the unwrapped 'pop onto the wooden porch with a clatter.
"Uh, what are your names again?" I wanted my story for Peyton to be as accurate as possible.
"You never told us your name, either." Right Twin smirked. "Or your friend's for that matter." He jerked a thumb over his shoulder at Meredith, who was now talking avidly to Bill.
"She's my sister, for your information, and she's Meredith and I'm Pam." I said crossly.
True, me and Meredith didn't look much alike. She had thick blonde hair and dark blue eyes, while my eyes and hair were both a mousy brown.
"Oh. Well this is Fred," said Right Twin, gesturing to the redhead on my left.
"And my lovely brother is George." Finished Fred, grinning slyly. "So, Pam, it's short for Pamela, right?"
"Um…no, just…Pam." I shrugged.
"Right-o. So, I've never seen you or Meredith here before." George broke the awkward silence that had followed.
"Yeah, we just moved into that house over there." I pointed over the hills to the right.
"So that's why Mum's been baking all day." Fred gestured towards the back door. "Shoved us all out here and said, 'Go ride on your brooms, or play, Mummy's got work to do.'"
"Wow, we get cake? What kind?" My eyes widened with glee – any mention of sweets and I go nuts.
"Most likely chocolate," Fred mused.
"Or possibly pumpkin pie." George thought aloud.
"Oh, I hope it's vanilla crème." I clasped my hands together and stared dreamily at the sky.
Before we could speculate any further, footsteps came towards the door we were sitting in front of.
"Pam, you and Meredith have gotta go." Fred leapt to his feet, followed closely by George. Same time, same place tomorrow, right?"
The footsteps got even closer.
"Yeah, sure- MEREDITH!" I yelled her name across the yard; she jumped in shock.
Running as fast as my short legs could carry me, I hurdled into my sister. "We have to go, we have to-"
But before I could finish my sentence, the door opened with a groan. "I have a…"
Everyone froze. Meredith's mouth hung open slightly.
A plump woman had emerged from the back door. She had a sweet voice and the same red hair that carried through their family. Her face was now a mixture of shock and bewilderment.
"Well," She continued in the same voice, now stepping fully onto the porch. "I see you have all met the new children next door?"
"Hi, Miss!" Meredith smiled.
"Hello. Please, come inside!" She ushered me and Meredith in and closed the door behind us. Even though she seemed happy to see us, I heard her round on the kids.
"They could have been Muggles! Your father would have lost his job! Not to mention, you've never met them before, they could have been anybody!"
I stared in a full circle, taking in the room. My hand dawdled for a moment on a huge hat. I pulled it on and silently showed it to Meredith. She rolled her eyes, but smirked.
The yelling outside continued.
Despite the situation, I started giggling uncontrollably. I clapped a hand over my mouth, trying to suppress the noise- the yelling had stopped, and the woman probably was glaring in each of the kids in turn, obviously infuriated.
"What are you laughing at?" Meredith elbowed me, knocking me into a hat stand, which toppled over both of us, walloping Meredith square on the head. I laughed even harder, and felt like my lungs were going to burst.
"What in your right mind would make you-" The yelling had resumed.
Too much for such a small kid to take, I folded and let out a loud snort. All of the talk died out, and no matter what I did, my laughter rang out to the yard beyond.
"Ah, the sound of a child's laughter." I recognized George's voice over Meredith's clamoring to get to me and my incessant giggling and snorting.
"Is there anything more precious?" Fred added, beginning to laugh as well.
Meredith reached me and shoved a piece of parchment into my open mouth. I sputtered and gagged; having paper plunged down your throat hurts! Once it was safely out of my face, I realized how quiet it was.
More footsteps. With Meredith's help, I put the rack back up and clamored to put back on the two hats that had fallen.
We ran into the small kitchen and sat quietly on two of the chairs. The rest of the large family shuffled in.
"Hello dears, I'm Molly Weasley. This is Ginny," She pointed towards the girl, who smiled shyly. "My youngest son is Ronald," The boy looked up and half-waved, returning to his conversation with one of the others. "Fred and George," she indicated the twins, who winked. "Percy," The one with the horn-rimmed glasses nodded, "Charlie," The second tallest grinned warmly us- Meredith giggled into her hand. (I kicked her under the table.)
"And my eldest is Bill." He looked up and said "Hey."
"Oh, and my husband should be home soon." Her smile widened slightly.
"So there are your introductions, girls. Anything I can get for you two, just let me know." Mrs. Weasley bustled over to the stove.
I stood up the second I had the chance and darted back over to the twins.
"Pam, just the person we needed to talk to." George pulled me over towards the staircase.
"You're not scared of getting into a little mischief, are you?" Fred asked.
"No way. I live for fun." I put on my most sly grin.
"Perfect. We want you to help us with a little prank." George looked playfully evil, and so did his twin. "C'mon, we need to plan this."
We set off up two flights of the narrow, slightly crooked stairs to a small room.
"This is headquarters." Fred waved his hand around the room. "Now take a seat and grab some Chocolate Frogs, because we've got a lot of work to do."
A/N: Hopefully the second chapter will be up soon. Let me know what you think so far. (And don't worry; the whole 8-year-old thing won't go on forever. They'll be 11 by chapter three. XD )