The mere sight of the culprits made her exhale deeply with exasperation, drop her arm back to her side and nick the half-smoked cigarette she dropped from the floor and place it back in her mouth.
"You idiots scared the living fuck out of me." She told them sharply, watching them shift on the spot, rubbing their necks sheepishly. They were shivering, which was no surprised as they were dressed in short sleeved t-shirts and pyjama bottoms that looked thinner than her nana's skin. They were barefoot too.
"We could tell." Weasley 1 said.
"Sorry 'bout that." Weasley 2 added.
She sighed, and leant back against the wall, casting a drying charm on herself so her hair fluffed out and her cardigan didn't drag her down. Followed by a warming charm that made the two sag in relief where they stood, eyeing her strangely.
"You looked cold." She explained. "So. What is Mr Angelina Johnson and his clone doing here? Pranking some poor nobody, maybe?" She watched like a hawk as Weasley 2's cheeks flushed pink. That was Fred, then.
They opened their mouths at the same time, then sent pointed looks at one another until George began "We were looking for the kitchen actually." He said "But, then this painting offered us this weird spindly yellow flower and said it meant joys to come."
"He didn't offer it, that's his flower." Fred nudged him with an elbow "Merlin, terrible listener, aren't you?"
"Oops, silly me."
"What does that have to do with coming to the astronomy tower?" She droned, exhaling a puff of smoke.
"Well, we got talking." Fred continued "And he told us about this girl who came up to the astronomy tower with her 'large feline.'" He gestured to the fat cat lying on the ground, snoozing.
"So? You just had to come and see?"
They shared a look with each other then nodded "Yes." George told her "You were the girl crying on the train, right?"
Her cheeks flushed red, and she scoffed indignantly, crossing her arms over her chest "Don't be stupid, I didn't-I don't-I wasn't crying, ok?!"
"Then what were you doing? Were your eyes sweating?" Fred raised a brow at her "Smells like bullshit."
"It's none of your business." She decided.
"We just want to help! Y'know, we're known comedians, a good laugh can vanish all them tears away." George winked at her, and she scowled, looking away determinedly.
"You're known pains in the arse." She replied.
"Ouch."
"Now, that hurts."
"Trying to be good guys, and this is how she repays us."
"Y'know, I might just jump off the tower right now, maybe then she'll see the good in us-"
Cara smirked, ducking her head low to hide her amusement at their antics. Angelina chose a good boyfriend, she supposed, humour was a big plus in someone you're dating.
"That's better." George grinned down goofily at her.
She sighed, succumbing to the fact that these idiots would probably end up making her laugh anyway, their antics usually did. It was inevitable, she supposed. "I don't see a point to it."
"There's always a point in making people laugh!" They looked flabbergasted at her statement.
"Fair enough." She replied.
"Soooo." They tried to look nonchalant, whistling lowly and tapping their feet on the floor "Why were you upset, anyway?"
"Ah, so that was all a ruse to get me to spill, was it?" She snorted, shaking her head in disbelief. How could she have thought that they actually just wanted to lift her spirits?
"No way! That was to cheer you up, but, you can't help us being curious." She wondered if the two always had sheepish expression on their faces, and decided that was probably it.
"Why should I tell strangers my woes?" She retorted.
A glint shone in their eyes, and the one she believed to be Fred, stuck his hand out to her which she slowly took and shook once. "I'm George Weasley, Angie speaks of you a lot y'know." Wait, what?
"And I'm Fred Weasley, pleasure's all mine." He winked, sliding her hand into hers to shake. His hand was rough against her soft palm, covered in calluses and rough patches of skin.
"Wait, I-I think I got you mixed up." She scrambled for words. Surely, the boy who blushed at the 'Mr Angelina Johnson' thing she said was the one Angelina was dating.
Well, Cara thought, Angelina did say they were on rocky ground, didn't say why. She eyed George and wondered if maybe he was the reason.
"Meh, people usually do." Fred shrugged "Even our mum does."
"That…must suck." She frowned.
"Not really, we don't care. It's fun toying with people." George told her with a cheeky grin.
"True." She smiled "…I'm Caroline Sparks. Or, Cara."
"Cara." They echoed.
For a moment, they just stood there watching the other. Cara was still reeling from the fact that George had something with Angelina, and found that she despised the idea that Fred had no clue about it. It was almost becoming uncomfortable until a sleepy Rowley walked in, and purred as he nuzzled against her leg.
She beamed down at him, crouching so she could pet him "Hiya." She crooned warmly. "Finally awake, eh? You lazy twat."
"Wha-That's-" George scrambled.
"She said that nicely." Fred commented.
"But it wasn't nice."
Cara chuckled, letting Rowley approach the twins to sniff at their legs to see if they were worthy of his time. They too, fell to their knees so that they could give Rowley some TLC, but the cat only seemed interested in having George's attention.
She almost felt bad at the look of rejection on the boy's face.
"He's a fickle cat." She told him "Only likes a handful of people, like me and da and Professor Snape. Oh, and George now, of course." She winked at the unnerved boy who now had Rowley trying to climb onto his shoulders.
"Your cat likes Snape and not me?" Fred looked heartbroken, truly and utterly heartbroken and it made her chest flare with amusement enough for her to laugh until her eyes were wet and her cheeks ached. "Don't laugh at my sadness!"
"You-You just looked so heartbroken!" She explained through laughter.
Fred pouted, crossing his arms with a huff, but his eyes glistened with something akin to joy. It almost reminded Cara of how Dumbledore's baby blues twinkled.
"Told you a good laugh would cheer you up." George wheezed from where he was now lying. Rowley had given up trying to get onto his shoulders, and was now curled on the ginger boy's chest, looking like a ball of patterned fluff. The only way to tell that it was a cat was the tail curled around it.
"I guess so." Cara said, calmer. "I'm still not telling you why I was upset, though."
"Can we guess?" George queried, but didn't wait for her to reply "It's because of that kid you were arguing with on the platform, right?"
"Did Angelina tell you?" She deadpanned.
"Nope." Fred popped "Mum pointed you guys out to us. Saw the kid when he was walking away, he looked upset too."
She knew that. She didn't need reminding.
"So, we've theorised that it's that kid who's upset you."
"Wow, amazing."
"Don't use that tone with us, missy." Fred pointed at her sternly like she was a naughty child, making her raise a brow in amusement.
"Keep your guesses, I'm still not telling you." She told them.
"Who better to tell than two complete strangers?" George tried. She saw the point in it, they couldn't judge you with any biases, because strangers didn't know you.
"Two complete strangers who might use it to make other's laugh." She felt bad saying it, but Cara felt honesty was the best course of action in that moment. She felt a pang of regret at the look of hurt on their faces.
"We wouldn't do that." Fred frowned.
She didn't trust them. Not really. They mocked Slytherin's merely because of what house they were put in, for how their families lived, for how they were raised and these two managed to make a joke out of that, so surely, they could find it in themselves to make jokes about her.
Cara couldn't do it. As much as she was desperate for people here to understand, to help her understand, if Connor ever became the butt of the joke, she would never forgive herself.
And as much as she wanted to trust Fred and George Weasley, she knew that she couldn't.
oOo
Cara had rightly believed that the meeting with the Weasley twins had been a one off, especially after she practically told them to their faces that she didn't trust them whatsoever. She thought that they'd fulfilled their desire to make her laugh or whatever bullshit they'd made up, and would leave her be, but apparently-
"CARA!"
Cara had been wrong.
The twins had bolted up to her from around the corner, Lee Jordan following them with terrified eyes as the three of them hid behind her. She paused, floundered because three people, especially two as tall as the twins – couldn't hide behind a 5'6 girl.
"This-This is stupid." She said, finally "What are you even doing?"
"Wait for it." Fred whispered fearfully.
Suddenly, from around the corner burst a furious Angelina Johnson, wand in hand and eyes ablaze "Where-Cara, what're you-Oh." Angelina's eyes narrowed on the large bodies cowering behind her. "Care to shift so I can obliterate these morons?"
"Uh, what'd they do?" She asked.
"They," Angelina shot a hateful glance in their direction, earning a chorus of mocking squeaks of fear from them "tried to put their names in the goblet of fire, used a spell that would apparently allow them over the age line."
"Did it work?" She queried.
"No." Angelina droned "It didn't, did it, boys?"
"No, Miss Johnson." They harmonized.
"Try a potion, next time." Cara suggested "They have more chance of working on stuff like that, though, it's not guaranteed-Ow! Why did you hit me?" Angelina scoffed at her.
"I like her." Lee Jordan piped, peering at Cara from between the twins' shoulders.
"You're all terrible role models!" She exclaimed and turned to Cara with a "You shouldn't be encouraging them."
"Spare me the theatrics, sugar plumb." Cara waved her off "Don't act as if you're a goody two shoes, you're a right tiger when you need to be."
"Rawr." Lee growled suggestively at Angelina, earning a disgusted expression from the girl.
"Did you know that she spelled Thompson's quill to replace every 'potion' with 'liquid with a purpose' because he got a higher grade than her." Cara told the three, grinning when they began snickering.
"Don't pretend you didn't find that hilarious, buttercup. Snape ripped the shit out of him."
"Profanity. You're a terrible role model." Fred shook his head.
"Thompson? Good, he's a wanker." Lee commented. "Always has something to say, that prick. Sucks up to Snape, too."
"Your mouth's always been a little big, hasn't it, Jordan?" Cara shot at him, grinning devilishly at his abashed expression, hand pressed to his chest as if torn.
"Now that was just uncalled for!" He exclaimed.
"She's allowed to defend her boyfriend." Angelina said "Remember last year, when he bragged about how cute his girlfriend was? Yeah, here she is, the little cherub-" Cara batted at Angelina who started pinching her cheeks.
"Ew." The twins chorused, noses wrinkled. Lee Jordan's face was twisted in a grim expression.
"Surely you can do better than a good boy, Sparky." Fred commented, slinging an arm around her shoulders "You know he's a prefect too, right?"
"Yeah! Took house points off Gryffindor because Freddie and me-"
Angelina coughed "Freddie and I."
George sent her a scathing look "Freddie and I made his trousers turn inside out every time we saw him."
"He never noticed until someone told him." Lee added with a snort. "10 points every time. We were skint last year."
"Your faults." Angelina sung.
Cara snorted and said "I remember that. He always came back to the common room really angry, whinging about how immature you all were."
"Who wants to grow up fast?" Fred groaned "That sucks."
"Have a sense of responsibility." Angelina admonished.
"No." He stuck his tongue out at her.
"Oh, by the way," Lee stuck his hand into the pockets of his robes and took out a long, flesh coloured piece of string and handed it out to her with a cheeky smile. "It's a prototype they made, only one that's worked this well."
"And…? What does it do? Wait - you're giving it to me?" She raised a brow at their vigorous nods.
"I'm glad you asked!" Fred exclaimed, ruffling her hair and laughing when she grimaced "They're extendable ears. Basically, you placed one end in your ear, like this." He did so "And then throw the other end at, say, a door or a wall." He lobbed it at the door to the Gryffindor Common Room and it landed on the Fat Lady's lips which made her cry out in either shock or joy, Cara didn't want to know "And you can hear what they're saying inside. Like, I can hear Ron sobbing about Viktor Krum being in our school right now-"
The painting of the Fat Lady whinged in annoyance when the painting slammed open and the youngest Weasley boy lurched out, red faced and stuck his middle finger up at them. "Fuck you!"
"Aw!" The twins exclaimed "Ickle Ronniekins is learning big kid words! We're so proud of you!"
He slammed the door closed again.
"Anyway." George yanked the gift from Fred's hands and chucked it towards Cara, who caught it with ease "Here you go."
"Surely you need to keep prototypes to make more progress on version 2." She stated "Besides, what would I want with extendable ears?"
The three grinned toothily "Who knows? Happy Monday."
That evening, as she sat alone in her dormitory - all her dorm mates were downstairs playing poker – she sat at the desk in the corner of the room, biro in hand as she sat back in the chair, trying to write a letter home. Letter day was coming up soon and she didn't want to leave the hall empty handed.
The extendable ears caught her eye, left abandoned on the side of the desk where she put it that morning.
An idea came to mind and she leant forwards, pressing the biro to the lined paper she'd got from WHSmiths (Ma said Connor would appreciate muggle stationary instead of parchment and quill.) 'Dear Connor,' She wrote 'You can't do what I can, but you should still be able to experience it.'