Disclaimer: Just admitting that I only own my original characters, and everything else belongs to Lady Rowling, that genious!
[Mike]
"Ahhhhhhh! Get up, Mike! Mikey! MIKE! If you don't get your sorry self out of bed right now, I'll-"
"Okay, okay! I'm up!" I sat up quickly, greeted by my darling twin sister's angry scowl. I knew not to mess with her when she used what I liked to call her 'over-protective mom voice'. Last time I didn't wake up when she yelled, she resorted to waking me the Muggle way- a good old bucket of water poured on my face. But simply waking me from my glorious slumber apparently wasn't enough to satisfy her.
"Do you even have any idea of how late we're going to be?! GET UP ALREADY!" She then proceeded to smack my arm repeatedly until I got out of bed.
"Good morning to you too, Sunshine," I responded sarcastically as I stood up, to which she just rolled her eyes. "Calm down, Rosie. It's not like we've been doing this for five years or anything." I reached down and ruffled her hair like I did when we were little. It never failed to make her smile, even if she did pretend to be annoyed by it.
"Alright, Mikey. Just get ready quickly! We need to leave, I don't want to miss the train!" Suddenly cheery, she all but skipped out of my room and threw a last remark over her shoulder with a smirk. "Don't forget to brush your hair. You look like you're a Potter." She shut the door and I laughed to myself. Rose always had to get the last word.
I walked down about 10 flights of stairs, considering that we were staying at the Burrow for our annual End-of-Summer family reunion, which involved all the Weasleys, the Potters, and Teddy. Along the way, I almost got ran over by Lily, who was laughing as Albus chased her around the house. James, Teddy, and Fred II were talking animatedly with George, who was probably helping them plan how they were going to prank their next victim. Rose was braiding Roxanne's hair and gossiping with Molly and Lucy. I don't know why girls find enjoyment in doing each other's hair; I mean, it's just hair. Hugo, Louis, Dominique, Percy, and Bill were watching Ron (yes, he is my dad and Hermione's my mum, for those of you who are a little dense) and Harry play Wizard's Chess, but everyone knew who would win *cough* Ron *cough cough*. Victoire and the women were all chatting in the kitchen and making a nice, big English breakfast for all of us. Gosh, it's great to be a Weasley.
"Breakfast is ready!" There was a moment of silence where everyone stopped what they were doing upon hearing Grandma Molly's shout, then we all scrambled into the kitchen like a herd of starving cattle.
In about 3 minutes flat, which must've been some kind of record, all of us were seated around the giant table and eating to our heart's content. We all had our 'spots' at the dinner table: Grandma and Grandpa were at the head and foot; George and his family were at the far right end, along with James and Teddy; Bill's family was sitting next to them; next came Percy, his wife Audrey, and their two daughters, Molly and Lucy; then my family, and then the Potters, which meant that I was sandwiched between Rose and Albus. Across from me, Dad was shoving every kind of food near him into his mouth; it never even touched his plate.
"You are such a pig! Do you ever stop eating?!" Mom teased him lightly with a shove.
"mffh cuffh I dffh!" He responded in mock outrage, but no one could understand him with his mouth full of food, and we all had a good laugh at his expense as friendly chatter started to fill the room.
Farther down the table, I noticed that Teddy was laughing half-heartedly, even though his best mates, James and Fred, were still laughing after most of the laughter died down, and we soon found out why. Dominique had a bite of her pancakes halfway to her mouth when her food literally exploded in her face and covered her in a menagerie of paint from head to toe.
"Ack! James, Fred, Teddy, you guys are going to pay for this!" Dom screamed, her big blue eyes narrowed and blond eyebrows drawn down. I don't know which was more hilarious-the murderous look on Dom's now pink, red, and yellow face or the fact that she had already spent two hours getting ready and wouldn't have enough time to change so now she had to arrive at Hogwarts looking like 20 different cans of paint had spilled on her. She stormed outside angrily, dripping paint where she walked, as if she was some slug that left a trail of colorful slime behind her. The image of Dom as a slug made me crack up all over again-Dom was the girliest, most dramatic girl I knew-she hated anything that crawled, slithered, or could get her clothes dirty.
But even after the successful prank, Teddy still looked like he had woken up on the wrong side of the bed. He wore a scowl that was quite unlike the smirk that usually lit up his face, his normally bright blue hair was a darker, almost black shade of blue, and his once golden eyes were now a dark brown. Since Teddy inherited his mother's Metamorphmagus powers, his hair and eyes reflected his mood. I was surprised that no one had questioned him about his stormy appearance yet.
"Hey, Ted," I called cautiously across the table. "What's got you looking so blue today?" I laughed at my clever pun. He glared back at me with such shocking intensity that I stopped laughing immediately.
"Like you don't already know," he spat with surprising venom in his voice.
Grandma Molly cleared her throat, interrupting my glare-off with Teddy. "Kids, do you have everything packed and ready to go?" Her voice was loud and she clearly meant to stop the possible fight before it began.
"Yes," James started to say. "I made sure I packed everything yesterday-ow!" Fred jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow, then leaned over and whispered something in his ear. James' eyes widened slightly with understanding then he cleared his throat awkwardly. With a fake smile now plastered on his face he replied, "I mean, um, what I meant to say was that I, uh, need to go pack some more shirts! Yeah, shirts..." And with that he left and almost everyone muttered an excuse to leave the room, but knowing my family, they were probably waiting just outside the kitchen and eavesdropping with baited breath.
Now it was just me, Teddy, Rose, and to my surprise, Lily. I had expected Rose to stay and play the role of 'peacekeeper' but I wasn't sure what Lily's motives for staying were. I noticed that the room was suddenly much quieter than before, practically silent, the only sound being my heart pounding in my chest. Teddy never shouted at anyone, never raised his voice, so when he did get angry, all his emotions he bottled up inside erupted out of him like a super volcano, and I had to admit, it was quite frightening to see Teddy all riled up.
"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about, Teddy. Did I do something wrong?" I tried to stay calm.
He gave a short, sarcastic laugh. "Ha, that's a good one, Mike. 'Did I do something wrong?' " he mocked. "Not me, poor, innocent, prefect-stealing Mikey!" I swallowed nervously in anticipation of the Teddy-explosion that I knew would soon come, with the direction this conversation was going.
"Wait a minute-" Lily interjected. "Mike's a prefect?!" Rose gasped and had a hurt expression on her face, making me feel the sharp stab of guilt. Rose and I were always very open with each other, but when I received my prefect badge in the mail, I hid it from her. I just wanted us to stay as close as we had been through the years and I thought that me being a prefect might create a gap between us.
"What, darling Mike didn't inform you of his new position? The position that he STOLE from me!" Teddy started to raise his voice and his hair was slowly beginning to turn from dark blue to bright red.
"So what if I'm a prefect? Maybe Neville finally came to his senses and made a smart choice this year!" I raised my voice back at Teddy. He was really getting on my nerves with this whole Prefect business.
Teddy merely looked amused and gave me a smirk. "You might want to look in the mirror, Mike. Because your nose is looking a little... brown."
I scoffed. "Are you implying that I bribed him?! If that's what you think, Teddy, then it's a good thing you didn't get Prefect. We wouldn't want someone who's gone off the deep end running Gryffindor, now would we?" I smirked back, arms crossed over my chest. We both knew he was being ridiculous.
"You think you can run Gryffindor, little Mikey?" It really annoyed me when he called me 'little'. He was only 10 months older than me, after all. "I'd like to see you try," he continued. "How are you going to cooperate with your fellow Prefect when you can't even say 'hello' to her?"
My face reddened. "Don't talk about something that you don't understand!" I shouted. Rose and Lily exchanged a nervous glance. They knew that the other Gryffindor Prefect, Samantha Malfoy, was a touchy subject for me.
"Oh, I think we both understand what's happening, or, more accurately, not happening with you and Sam. Typical 'you-like-her-but-she-doesn't-know-you-exist' situation. You know," he mimed thinking to himself by stroking an imaginary beard. "If you're not going to make a move on Sam, I might stop playing around and date her for real. She's quite a looker, isn't she? We certainly had a lot of alone time together as Prefects. Just the two of us, all alone at night..." He trailed off suggestively and winked at me with a falsely pleasant smile.
"She deserves way better than you! She's out of your league, so just stay away from her!" I yelled angrily, my fists clenched at my side.
"Or what?" He teased. "You're going to 'teach me a lesson'?" I couldn't take it anymore.
"Yes! Yes I am!" In a flash I angrily whipped out my wand and pointed it straight at his chest.
"Oh boy!" He laughed and pulled out his own wand almost lazily. What an arrogant git. "You want a duel, Mike? Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you when I knock you on your arse!" I didn't have to answer. We both started to shout a spell at each other, when Rose suddenly went into ninja-attack mode and shoved Teddy roughly to the ground. Apparently she was stronger than I thought.
At the same time, I heard Lily shout, "MIKE, NO!" at the top of her lungs. She tackled me from the side and my head slammed into the floor with a sickening crack. I tried to sit up, but a stormy ocean suddenly surrounded me, filling my vision with its black waves. The water was slowly rising; it was now at my neck and as I shouted for help, the dark, churning water filled my open mouth, my screams cut off as I coughed and struggled to breathe. The last thing I remembered was Rose's blood-curdling scream echoing in my head and then I was pulled under the water, watching the light from the surface fade away into inky darkness as I drifted towards the ocean floor.
