Author's Note!

I wanted to just add a note about this story before people start reading. I started this as a gift fic way back in 2007 when my best friend wasn't very well. Because it was so long ago my writing style wasn't as good as it could be, but I love our characters in this and had so much fun with the storyline that I'd wanted to still upload it here and try to continue it.

I felt like going back through and revamping the whole thing, but in the end I decided to just keep it how it is. This way it's just a good example to show how much my writing style has improved over the last several years! Obviously the newer chapters I add are going to be written a little differently, so if there are noticeably different styles towards the later chapters then you know why!

Tee Carroll belongs to me and Rose Cason belongs to my friend. She's not on fanfiction but you can find here over on deviantART as theicemaiden.

XXX

It was a warm morning in early September and Platform 9 ¾ was crowded with students ready to go and start the year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Feeling just as nervous as the new first years were two teenage girls. Although they were going to be joining Hogwarts as fifth years, this was their first year at the school. It wasn't often that students were transferred in so many years late but the headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, had made an exception.

None of the other students knew any of this, but they could see that these two girls were new and were curious as to why they were starting at Hogwarts so late.

"Tee, everyone's staring at us," the taller girl said nervously. She had waves of brown hair that reached down towards her waist. Her eyes were frosty blue and her pale skin was broken by a light spray of freckles across the bridge of her nose.

"Don't worry, Rose. It's because we're just so damn popular," joked Tee. In contrast to her much more graceful friend, Tee's hair was short and cut in an asymmetrical style with a long side fringe that was constantly falling across her face. She often dyed her hair, so it was currently a dark shade of red. She wore a pair of tiny frameless glasses.

Rose smiled. Tee always tried to cheer her up.

"Just ignore them," Tee reassured. She glanced over Rose's shoulder. "Oooh, check it out. Fittie at two o'clock!"

"Where?" Rose turned around. She spotted the guy Tee was watching just as he properly turned towards them, revealing the cigarette in his hand.

"Yuck, smoker... Forget it." Tee made a face.

"Just not hot at all then now?" laughed Rose. She knew how much Tee hated smoking. She didn't like it much herself, but she wasn't quite as outspoken about it. That was usually the case between them.

Tee shook her head violently. "Kissing someone who smokes would be like licking the inside of an exhaust pipe."

As soon as she said it she realised she'd said it too loud. Firstly for the fact that the boy gave her a dirty look, and also because she heard an appreciative laugh from behind her. She looked over her shoulder and the guy who was stood there smiled at her. She returned the smile before turning back to Rose.

"I think you've made a friend," laughed Rose.

"And possibly an enemy as well." Tee inclined her head towards the smoker, who was still watching them. "Let's move away a bit." She glanced back over her shoulder again, but her apparent 'friend' had already disappeared into the crowd.

Just as they were shuffling away, the train rolled into the platform and hissed to a stop. Eager to avoid the throng of people getting on, Tee and Rose hurried to the door so that they could try and beat the crowds. When they were safely on board, they quickly found themselves an empty carriage. Tee happily sat down but Rose remained standing.

"I'm gonna go find the toilets," she told her friend.

"Are you alright?" asked Tee, concerned. Rose looked even whiter than usual.

"Yeah, just... the pill's kicking in," Rose explained.

Tee nodded understandingly. "You want me to go with you?"

"No, it's okay. Just save me a seat," Rose smiled.

Tee smiled back sympathetically. "Okay."

As Rose left the carriage, Tee stretched herself out and lay down across the three seats. She pulled her iPod out of her pocket and fixed her headphones in. She knew that electronic devices that Muggles used didn't work at Hogwarts, so she wanted to make the most of her music while she could.

After about ten minutes, Rose still hadn't come back. Though she still worried, Tee knew that Rose's medication often made her nauseous. She wasn't overly concerned by her friend's absence just yet. No more than usual anyway.

If she'd noticed the carriage door slide open, she'd have thought it was Rose returning. It was, in fact, the guy she'd seen earlier. Well, actually there were two of them. Tee didn't notice until one of them took the iPod out of her hands.

She looked up in surprise and quickly pulled herself round into a sitting position, ready to demand her possession back. But he simply sat down next to her and started flicking through her music. His twin then sat down on her other side, pulled one of her earphones out and put it in his own ear.

"Let's see what you're listening to then," he said.

Tee watched, bemused, the need to respond defensively quickly vanishing. These two obviously didn't have any confidence issues. She realised now that one of them was the guy she'd seen on the platform.

"Guessing you guys must be Muggle-born?" she said, figuring they'd have to have lived around Muggles to be familiar with iPods.

"No, our family's pure blood," said one of them.

"But our dad's obsessed with Muggles," added his twin.

"Always messing around with Muggle stuff."

"Can be quite useful sometimes."

"But it drives Mum nuts."

The twins knew that it usually disconcerted people when they finished each other's sentences, so they sometimes did it on purpose. Tee, however, found it more amusing than anything, though it did make her feel a little like she was watching a tennis match.

She couldn't help smiling. "Cute... So are you gonna tell me your names, seeing as you've just invaded my personal space and all?"

"I'm Fred," said the twin who was currently sharing her earphones.

"And I'm George," said the one holding her iPod.

"Or am I George?"

"And I'm Fred?"

Tee hesitated. It wasn't difficult to confuse her at the best of times. A pair of twins trying to mess with her head didn't exactly help. "Okay... Why don't you tell me the truth about your names now and I'll just remember that for later?"

"You won't be able to tell us apart."

"Even our own mother can't."

Tee grinned. "Try me. My oldest cousin has twins, so I'm quite good at this kind of thing."

The twins looked at one another. "Okay. We were telling the truth the first time," said the one with her iPod, who'd now revealed himself to be George.

"And if you're so good, which of us did you see on the platform earlier?" asked Fred.

Tee looked from one to the other. She took just a few seconds to decide, then pointed to Fred and grinned.

Fred smiled but shrugged. "Lucky guess."

Tee laughed. "Yeah, right. I bet I could tell the difference between you any time."

Fred looked over at George. "You're on!"

"What? You wanna make it a real bet?" asked Tee.

"Yeah, why not?" grinned George.

"What's the conditions?" Tee asked warily.

"Hmm, I'm not sure. We can decide on that later," answered Fred.

Tee shrugged. "Okay then." She shook hands with both of them.

"So what house are you in?" enquired George.

"I'm not," replied Tee shortly. "This is my first year."

"I didn't think I'd seen you before..." Fred thought aloud. "What's your name?"

"Tee," she answered.

"But you're too old to be a first year," George pointed out.

"Right. I'll be in fifth," Tee replied vaguely. It wasn't difficult to tell that she didn't particularly want to explain more, so they didn't press it any further.

"Same year as us," Fred said instead.

The carriage door suddenly slid open again and they all looked around as Rose walked in. "Whoa... I'm more ill than I thought; I'm seeing double," she joked, sitting down opposite them.

Happier now that her friend was back, Tee squeezed out from in between the twins, leaving them with her iPod, and moved across to sit next to Rose. Rose linked her arm through Tee's – a habit of comfort she'd developed over the years they'd known each other.

"So are you two... related or something?" questioned George.

"Best friends," Rose beamed.

"Yeah, this is Rose," Tee introduced with a smile. "Rose, this is Fred and George." She pointed to each of the twins.

"I'll attempt to remember which of you is which, but my head's a little fuzzy right now," Rose smiled apologetically.

"We've already got a bet going that I'll be able to tell the difference between them," Tee grinned.

"Really? Ooh, good luck then, guys. Tee's quite good at that game."

The twins' faces fell slightly. Tee grinned and stuck her tongue out at them.

They didn't seem to have been chatting for much longer when then train suddenly started to slow down and pulled to a halt with a screech of its wheels. "We're here already?" said Rose in surprise.

"Oh bugger, we haven't even changed into our robes," said Tee. The twins were already wearing theirs.

George was looking out of the window, trying to see what was going on. "We can't be there yet!"

"Maybe the train's broken down," suggested Tee. No sooner had she said it, all the lights went out and the carriage rocked slightly as someone climbed aboard. "Oh... bugger," she repeated.

Fred laughed nervously. "Whatever's happened, they'll fix it. There isn't much magic can't fix."

The carriage rocked again. They could hear noises from outside their compartment. It sounded like someone was moving down the corridor outside.

Suddenly, the carriage door was flung open and someone burst into the compartment. The girls and the twins all jumped. By the pale moonlight falling in through the window, they could make him out to be a boy a year or so younger than them. He had floppy, platinum blonde hair. The twins seemed to recognise him.

"What do you want, Malfoy?" challenged George.

The boy, Malfoy, didn't say anything. He stuttered a bit, plainly terrified, and ran straight back out again.

"Silly git." Fred shook his head. "Probably scared of the dark."

A dark shadow suddenly appeared outside the window of the sliding door. But it wasn't Malfoy this time – it was something else entirely... The temperature of the air seemed to have dropped dramatically. They could actually see spirals of frost creeping across the window.

"What is it?" Rose whispered.

"I dunno..." Tee started to say, but George cut across her.

"I think I might know," he interrupted quietly. "Just stay still and keep quiet. Maybe it'll go away..."

George was right. The four of them sat in complete silence, hardly daring to breathe, watching as the creature paused outside the door. After what seemed an agonisingly long time, it glided away along the train.

"What was that?" asked Tee, once she felt free to talk again.

"I think... I think it was a dementor," replied George. Fred nodded – he'd obviously guessed it as well. "They're the guards of Azkaban."

"Dunno why there's one here though..." said Fred thoughtfully.

"Did you feel how cold it went?" Rose rubbed her arms. They were covered in goosebumps. It was still quite chilly, even now the dementor had moved on.

"Well that's what they do, don't they? Dementors, they sort of... drain the happiness away," said George.

Tee gave Rose a slight nudge. "Are you alright?" she asked quietly, now desperately wishing they could talk more privately.

Rose started to reply in an undertone when the lights suddenly flicked back on again. Though more relaxed now that the train was lit up again, they could all see just how scared each other was – the twins were both very pale and Tee's eyes were fixed on the carriage door.

But, within moments, everything had returned to normal. The train was now back in motion and people were beginning to move freely up and down the corridors again.

"We'd better go change into our robes," Tee said pointedly to Rose.

"Yeah, okay," agreed Rose. She helped Tee to pull out their backpacks from the luggage rack, then turned to the twins. "We'll be back in a bit."

XXX

It was completely dark by the time the train arrived at Hogwarts. The majority of the students getting off the train seemed to be heading towards carriages that looked as though they were being pulled by invisible horses. The groups of first years were making their way towards a giant of a man, who was beckoning them over.

"Have you guys gotta go with the first years?" asked Fred.

Tee and Rose looked at one another blankly. They didn't have a clue. Tee shrugged. "We weren't told."

But they were saved from their confusion by the giant man appearing at their side. By the light of the lantern he was carrying, they could see how wild he looked. His head and face were hidden behind tangles of dark hair. He was easily several feet taller than everyone else. Yet his beetle black eyes were twinkling and warm – implying that he was, to put it literally, a big friendly giant.

"I'm guessin' you two are the new fifth years?"

The girls both nodded. Rose couldn't help smiling to herself. She knew Tee was quite touchy about her height - now she looked completely comical standing next to this huge man.

"Dumbledore's told me all about yeh. I'm Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper," the giant introduced proudly. He then spotted the twins. "Yeh alrigh', Fred? George? Hopefully yeh won't be givin' me any hassle this year?"

Fred and George both put on their best innocent faces. "Of course not!" said Fred.

"Wouldn't dream of it," added George.

Tee and Rose exchanged amused looks. They'd only known the twins for a few hours, but could easily see through their innocent act. And from the looks of it, Hagrid could too. He rolled his eyes and turned back to the girls. "Come on then, yeh need to come with me an' the firs' years so yeh can get Sorted."

They nodded again and said their goodbyes to the twins.

"Hopefully we'll see you at the Gryffindor table." Fred winked at them.

Tee and Rose followed Hagrid, amongst the small first years, over to the vast dark lake where lots of rowing boats were waiting for them. They both climbed into one of them with a pair of tiny first year girls.

Whereas it had been warm on the platform earlier in the afternoon, it was very cold out on the lake. Tee and Rose didn't care that much – they'd started racing the other boats, knowing they had an obvious advantage by being several years older than everyone else. The castle loomed up above them as they crossed the lake as fast as they could.

They easily reached the other side before anyone else. The two first years stumbled out of the boat, glad to be back on the ground. They obviously hadn't approved of racing across the lake at top speed. Tee and Rose found this very funny and were still giggling by the time all of the other first years had joined them on the bank.

Once Hagrid rejoined them, now rather wet, as the tiny boats didn't carry his weight very well, he started leading them up to the castle.

"So yeh've made friends with the Weasley twins?" he made conversation as they were walking.

"Err, yeah," replied Tee. The twins hadn't told them their surname, but Hagrid could hardly be talking about anyone else.

"Pair of ruddy troublemakers, they are," grunted Hagrid. "Spent half me life chasin' 'em away from the Forbidden Forest. Good souls though. All the Weasleys are a good lot. Well, here we are, everyone!" They'd arrived at the front doors to the castle. "Welcome to Hogwarts!"

Once they were inside, Hagrid passed them onto a stern-looking woman with hair tied back into a tight bun. Hagrid waved goodbye and disappeared through a door to their right. The woman introduced herself to them as Professor McGonagall, deputy headmaster and head of Gryffindor house. She took them through the door that Hagrid had gone through and they found themselves in the Great Hall.

They had to line up behind the first years, whilst Professor McGonagall read their names off a list alphabetically. When they were called, each student had to come up to the front and try on the Sorting Hat. The Sorting Hat was a frayed hat, sitting on a stool in front of the teachers' table. It proceeded to sing a song to the whole hall, explaining that it would decide for each student which house they'd be in.

Normally, all of the other students would be most interested in watching the first years being Sorted. But this time, they were more curious about who these two new, much older girls were and why they hadn't been attending Hogwarts until now.

"Now this is embarrassing," Rose muttered in Tee's ear.

Tee didn't disagree. It was quite uncomfortable having everyone's eyes on you. Though she was often quite happy being at the centre of attention, this wasn't one of those occasions. Still, she attempted to pass her discomfort off with her usual humour. "Now I feel really popular!" she whispered back.

They watched the first years dwindling down as they were Sorted into their houses. They were starting to get more and more nervous as they waited for their names to be called.

"I always heard a load of bad things about Slytherin... But now I know I definitely don't wanna join them," said Tee. "Look what a happy bunch they are."

Rose looked over at the Slytherin table and stifled a laugh. Every person sat there was completely stone-faced. They didn't even look particularly overjoyed when a few of the first years were sorted into their house.

"Do you reckon we're in alphabetical order with the first years or will we be called after everyone else has been Sorted?" asked Tee, as 'Cadge, Nathaniel' joined the Ravenclaw table.

But before Rose could hazard a guess, Professor McGonagall had called out "Carroll, Tia."

"There's your answer," whispered Rose. "Good luck!"

"Oh bugger..." Tee rolled her eyes. "Here goes..."

She made her way over to the stand, sat down and pulled the hat down over her head to try and drown out the murmurs from the other students. Her heartbeat was going a mile a minute. She then that any house would be okay as long as she wasn't Sorted into Slytherin, but she still found herself hoping towards...

"Gryffindor!"

Tee pulled the hat off with a big grin, practically bouncing up off the tiny stool. She'd done it! She looked over at the Gryffindor table and could see Fred and George waving to get her attention. She hurried over to them as they shuffled up to make more room along the bench, both grinning. They each punched her on the shoulder as she sat down.

"Let's just hope your friend's in Gryffindor too," said George.

"Oh God, I hope so!" Tee rubbed her shoulder with one hand and crossed her fingers tightly on the other.

"Cason, Rose," Professor McGonagall called.

Tee gave Rose the thumbs up before she disappeared under the hat. She now felt even more nervous than she had with her own Sorting. But she needn't have worried, because the Sorting Hat had barely touched Rose's head when it yelled...

"Gryffindor!"

"Yesss!" Tee punched the air happily.

Rose made her way over to the table, beaming. Tee made sure that Rose sat on her other side so that she wouldn't suffer hits from the twins as well. "That was lucky..." breathed Rose.

"You're telling me! I was more scared for you than I was for myself!" said Tee, patting her on the arm. She was about to say something else when she heard someone call her name from down the table. She waved to a small group of girls who were sat further down and mouthed 'I'll talk to you later.'

"Who..." Fred started, but broke off as the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, stood up.

Professor Dumbledore's speech wasn't long, so they were able to tuck into the food that had appeared along the four tables within minutes.

By the time the feast had finished, they were all happy and very full of food.

"So where do we have to go now?" asked Tee, as people were starting to file out of the Great Hall. She couldn't really be bothered to move after how much she'd eaten.

"Up to the Gryffindor common room. Come on," said Fred, giving her chair a helpful kick.

Tee and Rose both got up reluctantly and trailed after Fred and George out of the Great Hall. They followed the twins up flight after flight of stairs. Tee complained the whole way that she hadn't bargained for this. Up the fourth set, she fell through a trick stair, as Fred and George had conveniently 'forgotten' to warn her about it.

Finally, they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady. They gave her the password that they'd heard from a prefect downstairs and all clambered through the opening. They found themselves in the common room – a large, circular room filled with squashy armchairs and a warm, crackling fireplace.

There were already quite a lot of students in there and they all stared openly at Tee and Rose. But before any of them could so much as sit down, a group of girls had all suddenly converged on Tee. Rose started laughing as she realised who they were, whilst the twins watched in amusement.

A girl with long brown hair gave Tee a big hug, then did the same to Rose. "I'm so chuffed; I can't believe you both got into Gryffindor!"

Tee beamed around at the other girls as they all gave her hugs as well. "I know, it's great! The Sorting Hat isn't exactly fashionable though, is it? Do you reckon it suited me?"

There was an appreciative laugh. Rose was now getting her share of hugs too.

"Oi." Fred gave Tee a poke, grinning. "You gonna introduce us?"

"Like you need introducing!" said one of the girls. She had dark skin and carefully styled, black hair. The group of girls had just started their fourth year. None of them had actually spoken to the twins before, but they all knew who they were. It wasn't surprising when most of the school did.

"Okay, we know we're famous," grinned Fred. "But who are all these friends of yours when you've only been here for an hour?"

Tee grinned back. "Well this is Sumayyah," she pointed to the girl with black hair. "And this is Marie, Shabanga…"

"It's not Shabanga!" protested the girl wearing a traditional headscarf.

Tee laughed. "Okay, sorry Shabana." She then put her arm around the girl with brown hair who'd hugged her first. "And this is my sister, Kayley," she said proudly. "Doesn't look like me at all, does she?"

The twins both shook their heads. The only similarity between them was the eyes and even they were different shades of brown.

"She looks more like your sister," said George, pointing to Marie, who had short, layered black hair and top-framed glasses. She laughed.

"Everyone says that," said Tee. "But yeah, that's how I know this lot. They're all in the fourth year."

"I think I'm gonna go to bed," Rose announced suddenly, in the first break between conversation that she could find. She'd been fighting back yawns for the last several minutes. "I'm shattered."

"Bit early, isn't it?" said Fred, raising his eyebrows.

"Not really," Tee interrupted quickly, sparing Rose the suspicion. She turned to her friend. "I'll come with you."

"It's okay," Rose replied. "I can go by myself."

"Oh... okay." Tee bit her lip. She felt guilty. She'd probably been more protective of Rose than she'd realised.

Rose clearly knew what she was thinking. "Don't worry, Tee. You can shepherd me around as much as you like tomorrow."

Tee grinned. "Okay, it's a deal." She gave Rose a big hug. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Goodnight!" Rose said to Tee and the twins. Kayley and her friends helpfully showed Rose the way up to the girls' dormitories.

As other people had been disappearing up to their beds over the last few minutes, the common room was suddenly a lot emptier. A small group of third years were sat in the far corner, already breaking out a set of Wizard's Chess. Tee sank into one of the empty armchairs by the fire.

"What was all that about?" asked Fred, as he and George sat down in two seats opposite.

Tee sighed and rubbed her eyes. "Rose has got leukaemia..." She stared down at the floor, rather than looking at the twins. Even now, it was still hard to think about.

"What... What's that?" asked George, though he could tell it was something bad.

"Cancer," said Tee sadly, looking up. "Blood cancer."

"So that's why..." Fred started.

"Why we've started Hogwarts this year, yeah," Tee finished for him. "She couldn't start until her hospital appointments had spread out more. And I didn't want to start here and leave her for months at a time. Thankfully, Dumbledore had no problems with us starting this late."

"But how are you gonna know all the stuff from the last four years?" questioned Fred. "I mean, we're taking our OWLs this year... Aren't you?"

"Yeah, that's why we started this year," explained Tee. "Rose's still not perfectly healthy, but we needed to start now to be able to take our OWLs. She's well enough to come here, but she still has to take medication every day. We've been home schooled up until now."

"I never knew they did home schooling for wizards and witches," said George in surprise.

"They don't normally," admitted Tee. "But Professor Kettleburn, who used to teach Care of Magical Creatures here, lives just on the same road that Rose does. And he was able to connect us to some other people who could teach us on other subjects."

"That's pretty cool," said Fred.

"They were a lot more easygoing then I expect most teachers are," Tee agreed. She grinned. "Not as many rules. So it's a shame I won't get as much freedom here."

"Get used to it," laughed Fred. "We managed to."

Tee laughed too. "So which teachers do I need to be especially careful with?"

"Well, McGonagall for a starter," said George. "She's a good head of house, but she won't stand for any trouble."

"And Snape, the potions master," added Fred darkly.

"Most of the others aren't too bad actually," said George.

"Yeah, the ones you can really get away with stuff are Flitwick, Trelawney, Hagrid..."

Fred and George continued to give Tee the low-down on teachers and lessons. By the time they'd run through them all, they were the only ones left in the common room.

"Okay, I am officially knackered," announced Tee, pulling herself out of her chair with some effort. She was still feeling the weight of all of the food she'd consumed at the feast.

She laughed at George who was practically dozing off on Fred's shoulder, having left Fred to do the talking for the last ten minutes. By now, Fred was also looking quite bleary-eyed.

"Come on, you two," she said, throwing a pillow at George, who grumbled and pushed it aside. "Surely your beds would be more comfy than down here."

"It involves moving..." mumbled Fred. Tiredness had hit him the moment he'd stopped talking.

"Fine... You guys can stop here if you like, but I want my bed," said Tee, making her way over to the staircase to the girls' dormitories. "Good night!"

The twins made some virtually inaudible replies.