Chapter 7

Vix and I were working on some last minute homework a few weeks later when she looked up and said, "Someday, I'm going to be Minister of Magic."

I looked up too. "Lord help us all."

"I just want to be able to pass laws that ban You-Know-Who from killing people and stuff."

"What brought this on?" I asked.

"I'm not really sure," she replied thoughtfully.

I continued working on my Charms homework, putting off my Transfigurations till last. I just finished Charms when Fred and George came into the common room and sat by us.

"If anyone asks, we were here since after classes," Fred said.

"What did you do?" I demanded.

"Nothing you want to get yourselves involved in," George replied.

"Okay..." Vix said slowly. "So Fred. When are we having our first tutoring session?"

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" I asked.

"What?"

"We all know what he really wants this to be," I explained, trying to get her to understand.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing. Never mind," I said.

"Well, in answer to your question," Fred said slowly, "why don't we start the tutoring now?"

"Cool!" Vix said, and the two of them went over to one of the desks that had just opened up.

I turned to George as I put away my Charms homework and pulled out Transfiguration. "He so wants her." George nodded in agreement, and then looked over my shoulder.

"McGonagall's essay?" he asked.

"Help!" I whined. "I do not want to do this!"

"Don't want to, or don't know how?" he asked.

"Er...don't know how. I'm not the best at Transfiguration," I mumbled. I really didn't like admitting this to George.

He smirked. "I can help you if you want," he said. "But if you don't, that's okay."

"No. I'll be fine," I said.

"Right," he said. "Well...that's okay. I mean, when Vix was struggling with a class she jumped at the chance to have a hot tutor like Fred. But you, oh no."

"Well, I—"

"Are you staying over holiday break?" he asked suddenly.

"Yeah, why?" I asked.

He smirked. "I guarantee you that I will be your tutor by the end of the holidays."

o.O.o

"I'm bored!" Vix complained.

"So go amuse yourself," I suggested.

"I've been doing that for hours! Come on, stop your corner sulking and do something with me!" she whined.

I wasn't really corner sulking. I was corner spying-on-Potter-when-he-bothered-to-come-back-to-the-common-room. But Vix didn't need to know all the details.

"I wanna play hide and seek!" she continued.

"That's a kid's game," I replied.

"So? Do you realize how big this castle is? We'll never find each other!"

"Ugh! Fine!" I agreed. If anything, I could ditch her and she'd be out of my hair for the next few days.

"Yay!" she squealed as Fred and George came into the common room.

"What's going on?" George asked. "Did Bex finally admit Vix is her best friend?"

"No way in hell," I said monotonously.

"We're playing hide and seek!" Vix squealed again. "How about we play teams? Me and George against Bex and Fred?"

"How about me and Bex," George suggested, "against Vix and Fred."

"Okay!" Vix said, giggling as she glanced at Fred. "We'll hide first. You guys count to 100."

"100?" I asked.

"It's a big castle. We need lots of time."

"One," I warned, "two—"

And they ran off.

"So childish," I whispered.

"Can I be your tutor now?" George asked.

"Speaking of childish," I said. He rolled his eyes, smiling.

"You stay here and keep counting in your head," George said. "I've got something that will help us."

I kept counting while George ran up to his room. When he came back, he had a blank piece of parchment in his hand. "The Marauder's map," he explained. "It shows everyone in the castle. And where they are. Reckon Fred will figure it out pretty quick, but Vix has no idea—she's really not all that into rule-breaking." He rolled his eyes at this. "But look." He opened the map.

"It's blank," I stated.

"For now," he added. He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the map. "I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he said clearly, and the map began to reveal itself. "There," he said as he pointed to Fred's dot on the map. It was down by Snape's office.

"98," I counted, "99, 100," I finished and we ran to the dot on the map.

"Put it away before we get there. We don't want him to know we have it," I said.

"Put what away?" a voice said behind us. We whirled around to find Snape standing there and sneering. "Give me that parchment, boy!" he snapped as George tried to put it in his pocket. He held it out for him, and tapped his wand to it. "Read it out loud," he said when words began forming.

"Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs…" George began.

"Yes?" Snape asked impatiently.

"Request that instead of tormenting young children, Snape should…go wash his incredibly greasy hair," George finished, looking satisfied at Snape. I kept a straight face as Snape glared from me to him.

"Hm…" Snape sneered again.

"Got it from Zonko's," I explained.

"Yes, well," Snape began, "I really don't know what's going on here—" he pointed between the two of us, "—but do well to remember that I am watching you."

"Creep," I whispered to George after he had left. Then we took one look at each other and cracked up.

"Success!" George said suddenly.

"What?" I asked.

"I made you laugh."

"Oh, don't flatter yourself. It's only funny because it's true," I said.

"That's true, so can I be your tutor now?" he asked.

"No!" I snapped.

He put his hands up, surrendering. "Come on, Fred's right over there."

"How did you know?" Fred asked, shocked as he stepped out from his hiding place.

"I heard you," I lied.

"You've got the map!" Fred accused of George.

"So!" George said quickly. "Why don't we go find Vix?"

"Okay," Fred said a little too quick. "I think she went this way."

But no matter how hard they looked, they couldn't find the poor fairy girl.

"Okay, George, I'm giving you full permission to cheat and use the map to find her," Fred said desperately.

"Why?" I asked. "It's so much more quiet."

"Because she's our friend," Fred reminded me.

"Correction, she's your friend. The only reason I'm here in the first place is because you guys won't leave me alone."

"So that means," George began, "that I can't be your tutor?"

"Rgh!" I squealed before storming away.

o.O.o

The three of us went three days without seeing Vix. I thought it was a \good thing. Fred was worried sick. George didn't care; he just kept bugging me about him being my tutor.

The day before everyone came back from the holidays was four days after our idiotic hide and seek game, and we still hadn't found Vix. Fred was constantly checking the map, but she never turned up. I was secretly, and not so secretly, glad.

George came up to me one last time before the holidays ended. "Okay. It's the end of the holidays, and I don't go back on promises. Now listen. If you don't agree to let me tutor you, I'm going to have to take extreme measures, and I don't think you're going to like them very much. So. Can I please be your tutor?"

I pretended to think about it before saying, "No."

"Cool. Okay. See you soon."

George left and Fred came into the corner. "Vix has not appeared on this map!" he said. "Where could she be?"

"Probably somewhere you'll never find her," I replied mysteriously.

"Oh, I hope not," Fred replied.

McGonagall came up to me later that same day. "Miss Malfoy," she began. "Your Transfiguration grade is becoming extremely low. So much so, that I have assigned you a tutor."

She wouldn't dare.

"Mr. Weasley is a promising Transfiguration student," she began.

"Which one?" I asked through gritted teeth.

"George Weasley," she replied.

She dared. She frickin dared.

I ended the conversation with McGonagall pretty fast after that and ran to the Great Hall because it was lunch time. There I saw George.

"What the bloody hell did you do?" I asked, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him into my face. He looked genuinely confused, and I realized this was Fred. I let go. "Sorry," I said. "Where's your idiot brother?"

"Hey, Ron," Fred said, gesturing to Ron.

"Not him, you moron. George! Where's George?"

"Where's Vix?" he countered.

I sighed. He was useless.

o.O.o

The next day, we had a feast for the returning students from the holiday break. Fred, George and I were eating, having never found Vix. Or not until now.

"Hey hey hey!" Vix said as she came up behind us.

"What the hell?" I asked, scared, as I whirled around. George laughed. I glared. I still hadn't forgiven him for the tutoring thing.

"I'm back," she announced.

"No really?" I asked sarcastically.

"Where were you?" Fred asked astounded.

"I'm not really sure," she replied. "But whenever I wanted anything- food, bed, toilet-it would just appear."

"You probably found the Room of Requirement," I said.

"Cool!" Vix squealed.

"Anyway," Fred said, standing up to scootch over and give Vix room, "sit down and eat with us."

"Okay!" Vix said, squeezing between Fred and me. Instinctively, I scooted over the opposite way and right into George's arms. I jumped, and scooted over and sat in the middle of them uncomfortably. After two minutes of this, I was about to leave when Vix started coughing and choking on her pumpkin juice.

"Oh my god," I said, whacking her on the back. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"I think I forgot to swallow," she said hoarsely. I couldn't help myself. I started cracking up over her stupidity. Soon I started coughing from lack of breath.

"Don't YOU die on me," George said.

"No problem," I coughed.

George put an arm around me. "You sure you're okay?"

I blushed slightly, then shrugged out of his arm. I nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. Now, I uh, think I'm gonna go back to the common room. I'm really not hungry." I hurriedly got up and fast-walked out of the Hall.