First Year

My palms were sweaty as I followed the bustling, nervous crowd of my fellow first years after Professor McGonagall. We entered the Great Hall, and all the boisterous talking from all the other students quieted to a low murmur as they all turned to watch our entrance, pointing out certain first years and whispering amongst their friends.

I could easily make out the colors above each separate table that separated the houses. Slytherin, Gryfindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff. By the end of the evening, I would be sitting with one of these houses. Great, now I've got a nervous stomach.

McGonagall lead us all to the front of the room to stand before a hat on a stool. Even though I knew what to expect, I was still mildly freaked out when a particular rip in the hat opened into a mouth.

After several first years were called and sorted into their houses, I heard my name called by the Professor.

"Carter, Amber."

Taking a deep breath, I pushed my way through the crowd in front of me, trying to ignore everyone's eyes burning into the back of my head. I made sure to watch my step, because it would of course be me that would trip on front of all of Hogwarts on my first day. But, thankfully, I made it to the stool without any problems.

The hat was placed on my head and immediately began to speak in my head. "Hm. Very interesting. You're a tough one, aren't you. Rather shy and quiet on the outside, friendly, an obvious Hufflepuff trait. However, I sense a strong sense of loyalty underneath, yes, very difficult…"

While the hat continued to mumble under his breath, my thoughts wandered thoughtfully over which house I'd be placed in. I doubt I'd be placed in Ravenclaw, I wasn't that smart. And I most certainly wouldn't be placed in Slytherin. After all, I'm a half-blood. My mother is a Half-Blood witch who went to Hogwarts when she was young, however my father's a Muggle.

I jumped when the hat suddenly shouted, "Ah! I know. GRYFINDOR!"

Several cheers erupted from the other students as I practically sagged in relief when the hat was removed from my head. I climbed down from the stool and quickly made my way to the nearest table with Gryffindor's red and gold colors. I sat in the first empty seat, next to a rather tall redhead who greeted me with a friendly smile.

After the rest of the first years were sorted, Professor Dumbledore told us to dig in and magically made a feast worthy of royalty appear on our tables. I helped myself to some turkey, mashed potatoes and green beans before someone actually spoke to me.

"So, how's it feel being sorted into the best house in Hogwarts?" a redhead who sat across from the redhead beside me asked. I paused and looked between the two boys, wondering if I was hallucinating. It was the same person. Wait-oh, duh. They were obviously twins.

"Um, pretty good, I guess. I was expecting to probably be placed in Hufflepuff, but I'm glad to be in Gryffindor." I answered quietly, I was surprised they even heard me.

"Yeah, you seem a bit on the shy side." the boy next to me pointed out bluntly. "Any-who, I'm George."

"And I'm Fred." his brother cut in, not missing a beat as George shook my hand. As soon as I released George's hand Fred offered me his.

"We're second years." they said in perfect unison.

"I'm Amber." I answered with a small smile, feeling my face heat up a bit at the attention. My pale, peachy skin did nothing to help conceal the rosy tint in my cheeks, so I slightly ducked my head, hoping my wavy, dark brown hair would help a bit.

We didn't talk much after that, as the twins turned to talk to a boy with dreadlocks, who I thought I heard called 'Lee'. The other kids in my year kept to their own little clicks, talking with people they'd already met on the train or who they were already friends with, leaving me to eat in silence. But I was content to be left to my own thoughts.

Second Year

Nothing eventful really happened during my first year in Hogwarts, although one of the first mail days I received a shock. A Little Owl had plopped right down next to my plate with a tiny note in her beak. It said,

'Amber, here's your present to celebrate your first year at Hogwarts. Use her to send us lots of letters to tell us how you're doing. Love, Mom and Dad'

My parents had gotten me my own owl. She was about 8 inches tall, dark brown with white speckles all over her body, and big, pale green eyes, and a sweet, friendly disposition. I fell in love with her almost instantly. Being such a creative person, I ended up calling her 'tiny' so many times that it just sort of became her name. Tiny. And besides being my pet and messenger, she became my best friend.

Anyway, that was basically the only thing of real interest that happened my first year.

My second year, however, is so far shaping up to be at least a bit more eventful. Just the first day we all found out that The Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, would be attending his first year at Hogwarts. And he was sorted into Gryffindor, along with a handful of other kids, including the twins' younger brother Ron. I didn't get to officially meet him, but I did see him. He looked so adorably in awe of everything, but I suppose all of us were like that our first day.

It was about two weeks into the year, and I was walking down a corridor heading to lunch, sort of following the small crowd, but being apart from it at the same time.

Suddenly a wet, cold feeling chilled me to the bones as something splashed over my head. I froze and I heard everyone in the hallway freeze, as well. Before laughter erupted from all directions.

Slowly, I looked down at myself. Some green liquid with the consistency of water was running down my body. It wasn't sticking to me at all, but it seemed to stain everything it touched. My clothes, my hair, my skin…

A couple particularly loud laughs drew my attention to several meters ahead of me.

There, standing side-by-side, covering their mouths to stifle their laughter, was a pair of identical redheads that I'd really only talked to a dozen times since we met. Around them were several others who were looking at me and laughing as well. I glanced around, feeling my chest sting and my eyes burn. I couldn't swallow past the lump in my throat. Laughter, cruel and cold echoed in my head, making everything spin.

Finally, it registered in my brain that I had to move. To run. And I did. I shoved my way through the crowd and ran. I ran until I found myself in the girl's bathroom. I was alone, and my legs couldn't keep me up any longer. I fell to my knees and pressed myself as far into the corner as I could, the stone floor and wall stinging my warm skin.

I hugged my legs to my chest, hiding my face in my knees as sobs racked my body. I'm not sure how long I was there, but it only seemed like a few moments before I heard the door to the bathroom slowly swing open, followed by a pair of footsteps. I clutched my knees tighter to my chest, trying to hide myself in the corner and suppress my sobs.

The footsteps kept approaching me until I heard them stop. It was silent for several moments before a warm hand hesitantly touched my shoulder. I flinched and bit my lip, trying to keep myself from sobbing all over again.

"Amber?" a quiet, hesitant voice spoke my name, and I stiffened. Tilting my head, I just barely peaked out from behind the curtain of wet, very dark brownish green hair. Knelt down before me, with identical worried expressions, were the same two redheaded third years that had been laughing at me not too long ago, probably the ones who set up the prank to begin with.

I buried my face back in my knees, not wanting to look at them. "What do you want?" I mumbled angrily into my lap.

"We just wanted to check that you were alright." the other twin answered. I'm not sure how I could tell their voices apart, even though I had no idea which one was speaking and which one wasn't.

"I'm fine, now leave me alone." I mumbled a bit louder, to make sure they heard me.

"Amber, we're really sorry. It wasn't you we were aiming for."

Confused, I hesitantly peaked out at them. "What do you mean?"

"We were aiming for those bloody Slytherin first years who were behind you." one twin, I think it was George, answered, anger briefly flashing in his brown eyes.

"Why?" I asked, not realizing I'd completely lifted my head from my knees.

The twins exchanged a glance before they moved to sit against the wall on either side of me, so I was in the corner, George was against one wall to my left, and Fred was against the perpendicular wall on my right.

Fred: "Well, see this is what happened-"

George: "On the first day, before the first years had entered the Great Hall for sorting-"

Fred: "The little git, Draco Malfoy made a rather insulting comment to our brother Ron-"

George: "Something along the lines of, "Red hair, hand-me-down clothes, you must be a Weasely',"

I felt anger fill my body at that comment, but the twins were continuing to talk, making me look back and forth like a Muggle game of Ping-Pong.

Fred: "And, well, we don't take kindly to people insulting our family,"

George: "Well, except Percy. He's a git anyway."

Fred: "So we thought we'd get a little payback,"

George: "But you aren't normally walking that corridor, especially not in front of those blokes,"

"So, we accidentally hit you instead." Fred concluded, both twins watching me for my reaction.

I nodded slowly, taking in the information and trying to decide which question I'd like to ask first.

"So, why'd you come after me?" I asked hesitantly, looking over at Fred.

Fred looked a bit sheepish and remorseful. "Well, we may like to joke around, and prank people, but we draw the line at hurting innocent people. Hurting those slimy Slytherins is one thing, but you didn't deserve it. And we really are sorry about that."

Seeing how sorry and upset both twins looked, I couldn't help but forgive them. "It's okay. I forgive you guys." they looked relieved so I asked my next question, "How'd you guys find me?"

I saw the twins exchange a sheepish look before George answered rather awkwardly, "Well, um, you, uh, left a bit of a trail." he nodded toward the door and only then did I notice the sloppy green footprints leading up to me.

Looking down at myself I realized I'd temporarily forgotten that I was completely green. Great. How was this going to work?

"Okay, so, next question: How long am I going to be like this?" I asked, looking back at Fred.

He grimaced and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, you see, we kind of designed the stuff to last about…a month." he finished quietly. My eyes widened.

"A month? I'm going to be green for a month?!" I frantically looked down at my hands, using my left thumb to try and scrub the green from the back of my right hand, but it was like it was my natural skin color. It wouldn't come off.

A small vile filled with light purple liquid appeared in front of my face. Following the hand it was attached to, I met Fred's eyes.

"Here. We invented a sort of antidote, just in case." he murmured gently. I slowly took the vile from him, glancing between him and the bottle.

"How do I know this isn't another prank?" I asked hesitantly.

George was the one who answered. "Did you not hear a thing we just said?" I looked over at him, and he looked visibly upset. "We don't prank people to hurt them. We do it to make people laugh. And you weren't laughing. Bloody hell, we made you cry! Do you really think we'd be that cruel?"

I bit my lip and looked down guiltily. He was right, now I felt bad for questioning them. "I'm sorry."

"No, don't be." Fred argued, glancing at his brother before looking down at me. "You have good reason to question our motives, after what we did. But I promise you this isn't a prank. We just want to try and make up for what we did. So, when you shower later, use that as a sort of shampoo and body wash, and just lather, rinse, and repeat a couple times and you should be good."

I looked down at the bottle cradled in my hands and smiled up at Fred. Then, a thought popped into my head. I leaned forward to grab my books, which one of the twins must have picked up and brought here because I'm pretty sure I dropped them in the hallway. I grabbed one of my text books and a piece of parchment. I could feel the twins' curious eyes on me as I found the spell I was looking for, wrote it down in the parchment, and handed it to Fred.

"I learned about this spell in class the other day. If you point your wand at Malfoy's plate at some meal time whenever you fancy, and mutter those words," I pointed at the paper I'd handed him, "it'll make his food explode all over his face, and maybe even the people around him." I finished with a small, satisfied smile.

Fred's smile grew into an excited, yet mischievous grin as he and George exchanged similar expressions.

"Bloody brilliant, Amber!" George exclaimed, pulling me into a one-armed hug.

"Thanks, Amber." Fred added when his brother let me go.

"No problem." I shrugged. "That slimy little git's got it coming."

OoOoOoO

This originally started out as a short story, but then all these ideas started popping into my head of moments to build up Fred and Amber's relationship, next thing I know, it's a cross between a short story and a chapter book.

Every other chapter is going to focus on a particular year, but this chapter would've been a lot shorter than the others if I did that, so this is both first and second year.

Let me know what you guys think so far!