An: I know it's been a while, but I'm still alive! Here, I offer you Fred II and Louis Weasley.


It was raining and storming outside of the train. It was a gray, scary sky that Freddie saw when he looked outside of the window. Which he didn't. Freddie was more concerned about his cousin Louis.

Louis was two months younger than him. They were both Weasleys, but where Freddie had his mothers dark skin and curly dark hair, Louis looked more like one expected a Weasley to look like: light skin, the typical red hair, freckles. Only the eyes where different. Louis had his mother's blue eyes. That was not what Freddie was concerned about, though. Louis just didn't look comfortable right now, and Freddie had a pretty good idea why. Louis had been born with 90% hearing loss, which, translated into reality, meant that on his own Louis heard basically nothing. It had never really been a problem, because the family had just learned sign language. Louis had not gone to a muggle primary school, so everybody (including the whole extended family with uncles Sirius and Remus and aunts Tonks and Mary) Louis had been around had been able to communicate with him without problems. To Freddie himself sign language was a natural thing, taught to him from the very start, just like French.

But now there were going to Hogwarts, where almost nobody would know sign language, and while Louis was able to lip read, that by no means meant he would understand everything that was said. Once Louis had confided to Freddie that he actually only got half of what was said when he tried to lip read, and that he had to piece together everything else from the context.

So, going to Hogwarts was not going to be as easy as life at home had been. So, about a year ago the family had started experimenting. First they had tried muggle hearing aids. Gramps had been over the moon, completely in love with the technology behind it, and they had worked quite well. Freddie still remembered the look in Louis eyes when he had really heard his mother sing him a lullaby for the first time in his life. But after three weeks the hearing aids had stopped working. Uncle Bill, uncle Sirius, Freddies dad and Gramps had spent a whole week trying to figure out what was wrong before coming to the conclusion that it had been the magic the hearing aids where constantly surrounded with that had caused them to stop working. Louis had been devastated. If the magic at their home could do that, it stood to reason that the magic in Hogwarts would destroy the hearing aids in a day.

They had all started searching again, then. About half a year ago, the healers of St. Mungo's had approached them with a new spell. It worked great, allowing Louis better hearing than even the hearing aids had done. It had to be renewed every two months, but the healers had assured them that it wouldn't be a problem. Everybody had been so overjoyed and relieved that there had been a huge family dinner with everybody, and for a change everybody had actually gotten along without a fight. Still, Freddie knew that Louis was scared and worried about going to Hogwarts. He also knew that Louis might admit that to him, Freddie, but not to everyone else (except maybe his older sister Vic or their maman). And right now, the Patil twins where with them. So no hope getting Louis to talk.

The Patil twins were actually really nice. Their mother was the twin sister of Healer Patil, the one who had discovered the spell which helped Louis so much, and she (their mother) and her twin sister and the twin sister's husband where friends of the family. Freddie didn't know the specifics, but apparently Dean Thomas (the Patil twins uncle) had traveled with Grandma Andromeda's first husband for a while, and had been there when he had been murdered, and after the war he had searched for Grandma Andromeda and had told her everything and Grandma Andromeda had been kind of looking out for him ever since. And the Patil twins mother and aunt, the original Patil twins, where members of the DA and friends of uncles Harry and Ron and aunts Ginny and Hermione. (There was a funny story about how they went to Yule Ball with uncles Harry and Ron once. Everybody burst out laughing whenever it was told). So, Freddie and Louis knew the Patil twins. They had always gotten along really well, Selina being the quieter twin who loved to read as much as Louis did and Samantha the more adventurous one. But Louis wouldn't talk with them present.

Somewhere down the corridor a compartment door snapped shut. Louis startled. Freddie sighed. Worth a try, he thought, and signed: "Are you okay?" The Patil twins knew Louis had been deaf, but they didn't know sign language, so there was at least a chance that Louis would talk. Both of them looked at Freddie with unabashed curiosity, Sammy definitively mischievous, while Sels curiosity seemed to be more of academic nature. They were identical, both with long dark hair, big dark brown eyes and darkish skin (not as dark as Freddies, but definitively darker that Louis'), but in moments like this, Freddie had no problems telling them apart.

"It's fine, just a bit... worried, surprised, afraid?" Louis signed back, somewhat hesitantly, but he smiled and it actually didn't look forced, so Freddies worry went down a bit. He knew Louis basically since birth, so he was very good at reading his cousin's expressions.

"That's pretty awesome, you know, that you're literally able to talk without opening your mouths." Sammy said, still looking mischievous. Freddie knew all about mischievous. His father was a famous prankster after all, how could he not? Generally he approved of mischievous, but not when it when Louis was potentially on the losing side. He eyed Sammy critically.

"Don't look at me like that!" She immediately said. "It really is. If you taught us, we could communicate in class no matter whether or not the teacher approves and if we're not completely obvious no one will any wiser." She had a point there, Freddie had to admit.

"Uncle Remus knows sign language, you know. He's not going to be fooled by it." Louis stated matter of factly. He looked better than before, and Freddie almost involuntary shot Sammy a small grateful smile.

"I've read it's really difficult to learn, because it's got it's own grammar and everything. It's really another language, not just the same language with every word substituted with a hand movement." Sel supplied.

"Yep, you're right." Louis answered, and within seconds the two of them were discussing the difficulties of learning new languages, and whether the other had started learning for school yet.

Sammy rolled her eyes at them and looked at Freddie. "They're so going to be Ravenclaws, aren't they?" She asked. Freddie looked at them. He couldn't say that he hadn't thought the same thing. He would love to be in the same house as Louis, but Sammy was right. Louis seemed to be the stereotypical Ravenclaw, and Freddie was just not. He nodded.

"Well, then we two just make sure we end up in Gryffindor together, then it can be like when mum and aunt Parvati where in school together." She smiled, a bit sadly, and Freddie realized she wanted to be with Sel, too. He grinned. "Keeping up the family tradition then, Patil?" He said. "Absolutely." Sammy answered.


AN: So, I hope you liked it! I originally wrote this one from Louis' POV, but since I'm not deaf myself I had huge problems with that, so I changed it and had to rewrite everything.