"What are you reading?"

"Oh, um...it's called A History of Magic." Ever didn't look up from her book, only curled in on herself a bit in an effort to look...less. She didn't want to be seen, she didn't want to be picked on for being...what had Professor Flitwick called it? Muggle-born.

"Why are you reading that old tombstone of a book? We could teach you more in five minutes than you could read in a year!"

"I like it."

"Yeah, well, most muggle-borns will, they like learning about what they're getting thrown into, it's all very interesting to them—"

"But when you've been living in the wizarding world your whole life it really isn't anything serious."

"Is it..." She peeked up tentatively, and was surprised to see not one boy, as she'd originally thought, but two red-heads, identical in every way. "Is it that obvious I'm muggle-born?"

"Well, you could just be a really bookish kid if you were reading any other kind of book..." began the one on the left.

"...but a lot of kids know the big stories from that one, so they don't delve too far into it."

"But it's not like it's a bad thing to be muggle-born." One boy dropped down on her left while the other took a seat on her right.

"Who told you that it was?"

"Well..." Her head was spinning a bit from their back-and-forth, but she felt a bit better, hearing that, and looked between the two, chewing on her bottom lip. "Nobody, but I figured some people wouldn't like it."

"Well, you're right about that," said the twin on her right.

"But that doesn't mean you should hide it."

"Would you want your parents hiding your grandparents, just 'cause they were different?"

"No, but-"

"Exactly!" said the twin on the left. "So don't hide where you came from!"

"And if anyone's mean about it, tell us! We'll hex them!"

"Who are you gonna hex, now?" The three of them jumped, turning to look in the doorway; none of them had even noticed it opening. There stood another boy with red hair, but older. On his chest was a prefect badge, and Ever swallowed hard. Had they been talking too loud? Was he going to get them in trouble?

"Anyone who says anything mean about—what's your name?" The twins seemed to realize just then that they had no idea, and when the first—the twin on her right, he always seemed to speak first—asked, the second perked up and immediately turned to look at her.

"Ever. Ever Moore." The boys, all three of them, grinned; the oldest seemed to be trying to bite his back, with little success.

"Your parents must hate you with a name like that," said the twin on her right.

"Anyway, anyone who's mean to Miss Moore about being muggle-born," the twin on her left finished the little explanation. The older boy sighed.

"Boys, you know that as a prefect I'm going to have to tell you that you're not allowed to hex anyone, no matter what new slurs they manage to come up with for muggle-borns this year...and they will come up with some," he muttered under his breath. He glanced over his shoulder and stepped into the compartment, sliding the door shut behind him in a swift, practiced move. "But as your brother, may I recommend petrificus totalus? It won't get you in trouble much, 'cause it doesn't hurt anyone, but it'll stop 'em right in their tracks."

"See, this is why you're our favorite brother," Twin One—she'd decided that's what she was going to call the one on her right, until she learned his name—said to the prefect, grinning widely.

"Yeah, Percy never teaches us anything cool like that."

"Yeah, well if you'd been reading your spellbook you'd know it already. Ever." The girl jumped at her name, wiping the little smile at their interaction from her face. "I'm Charlie Weasley. One of them is Fred and one is George, and you'll have to ask which is which because they never tell me—"

"Oh, but on a day like today, the first day of term," began Twin One.

"And when you've just given us such an amazing spell to work with," Twin Two pitched in.

"We will bestow upon you our greatest of gifts."

"He's Fred."

"That's George."

"And we'll probably never tell you honestly again," they finished together. Ever glanced between the two of them inconspicuously, trying to find little hints to tell the two of them apart, but came up with nothing.

"Fat lot of good that'll do once the two of you switch places, but thanks, I guess." Charlie turned his gaze back to Ever, and she found there one difference between the brothers; his eyes were blue, while the twins' were brown. "I'm in Gryffindor, but even if you're not, don't hesitate coming up to ask for help. The prefects are always meant to help anyone from any house. You may wanna stay away from the blokes in green though, alright?" The girl nodded thoughtfully, chewing on her bottom lip, and he patted her on the shoulder. "Good on ya. I have to get back to patrols. You two." He fixed his eyes—they were very blue, weren't they? Quite pretty, really, if you liked that sort of thing, and Ever most decidedly did not—on the twins. "Behave. Don't torment the poor girl."

"Sir, yes sir!" They saluted. Charlie rolled his eyes, but was smiling as he turned to walk out of the door.

There was an awkward lull in conversation for a moment, and then Fred jumped across to the seat opposite Ever to get a better look at her. George quickly followed suit, and the two of them sat, staring her down. She fought the urge to cover her face with the book on her lap.

"Um...so—"

"D'you have a purple tongue?" Fred asked.

"What? No! It's red just like anyone else's—"

"And what about webbed feet?" George inquired.

"No...should I?"

"We don't know. What's standard protocol for a muggle-born witch's body?"

"I suspect it's the same as a witch with magical parents!" Ever could feel her face heating up, and did grab the book, hugging it to her chest. "Why are you asking all these stupid questions? I'm human, just like you, even if my mum and dad haven't got any magic!"

"We didn't mean to offend," said Fred, so sincerely that the girl couldn't even begin to doubt him; still, she clutched the book to her chest tightly, looking down at her kicking feet. "See, our dad is in the Ministry of Magic—"

"There's a Ministry?"

"Of course! Who else d'you think makes all the rules?" George asked, blinking down at her.

"I dunno, some mighty magical warlock." The twins snickered—even their laugh was exactly the same—and shook their heads.

"Nah, there's a Ministry, and our dad works there and he's mad about muggles and muggle-borns."

"We hear all sorts of things that he says when we're not meant to be out of bed, and we were curious."

"Did you ever think," Ever began slowly, picking at the leather binding of her magic book—magic book! She could still barely believe it—"that he says that stuff because he knows that you're out of bed when you're not meant to be?" The twins looked at each other, dumbstruck. "No, I thought not," she giggled, sliding her book into her bag. "Parents are more clever than you give them credit for."

"Oh, our mum would love you," said Fred, sounding more disgusted than happy about it. For a good while—maybe half an hour or so—there was quiet, with only the rattling of the train to keep the silence from being absolute, but it was more comfortable now. Ever thought she ought to say something, but didn't really know where to begin—and then the door slid open again.

"Everything alright in here—oh, it's you two."

"Well 'ello Big Bill! How are you this fine afternoon?"

"Shut it, Fred."

"He's not Fred, I am!" And he was telling the truth, but Ever barely noticed, because here was another red-head with blue eyes the exact same shade as Charlie's. He even had a badge like Charlie's, but the P had been changed to HB.

"Whatever. You two alright? Not bothering this girl about whether she's got spots in places she shouldn't have?"

"We're not bothering her," the twins chorused, and when the older boy looked at Ever to confirm it, she nodded quickly.

"We're just talking, honest." He seemed satisfied, and nodded to the three of them before sliding the compartment door shut. Ever turned to stare at the twins.

"Just how many of you are there?"

"In school or in general?" Fred asked, propping his chin up in his hands.

"There are some who aren't in school?" Both boys nodded, George mimicking Fred's posture. "In general, then."

"Well, there's Bill—"

"He's the one you just met," George explained.

"I dunno if I'd call that a meeting, really."

"Yeah, well he's busy, being Head Boy and all. He's the oldest, he's seventeen," said Fred, holding up one finger.

"Then there's Charlie," said George, and Fred added another finger to the first. "He's sixteen."

"Percy," Fred grimaced, putting up a third finger. "He's thirteen, and insufferable."

"What's so bad about him?"

"What's good about him?" the twins muttered in unison.

"Anyway, then there's me," said George.

"Then me," said Fred.

"And you're both first years too, right?"

"Yep," they agreed.

"Then Ron. He's nine."

"Bit annoying, but not so bad," Fred piped up.

"And Ginny's just turned eight this past month."

"I dunno how your mum and dad handle you two, let alone seven," Ever snickered.

"We ask ourselves that every night before we go to sleep," said Fred, glancing out the window. "It's getting dark."

"We better head down to the powder room to change," said George. "We'll be there soon."

"We'll uh." The twins flushed a bit, looking down at their trainers. "We'll knock before we come back in, yeah?"

"Oh, um, yeah," Ever mumbled, hopping to her feet to drag down her trunk. The boys grabbed their robes and were gone in an instant, the compartment door banging shut behind them. As she dressed, she composed her first letter home in her head.

Dear Mum,

I haven't really been here long, I know, but I've made a couple of friends, first years like me. Their names are Fred and George Weasley, and they're perfectly silly boys with hair fire-engine red, if you can believe anyone's can be so bright naturally—but it is, because I've seen two of their brothers and they have it too!...


Disclaimor: I should have put this at the head of the thing, but I don't own Harry Potter.

Author's note: This is a rewrite of an old story I started nearly three years ago. I never finished it, but I'd like to change that now. I hope you like it, because this was quite fun to write!