~*~Eva~*~

It was very uncomfortable around Fred and George for the next couple days. Fred stayed angry about who knows what, and I was annoyed at him for the obvious reasons. Besides, he was being a baby about the whole thing.

We spoke to each other in stiff, polite voices.

"Would you pass the shepherd's pie, Fred?"

"Yes. Here you go."

George spent his time trying to lighten the mood, but he needn't have bothered. Our fights never last very long anyhow.

I could have spent those days with Warren, but he had been acting strangely around me lately. When I wasn't sitting by him, he would stare at me, a slight frown on his face. So then I would go join him, and he wouldn't hardly talk to me. It was a struggle to get him to even look at me.

After spending a silent and awkward dinner with him, I had begun to guess at what was wrong with him. (It's just a guess, though. I'm not an incredible reader of people's thoughts and emotions) The way I figured it, Warren saw that my refusal to side with him meant I supported Fred in attacking Warren. He seemed to have conveniently forgotten that I refused to side with Fred, either.

He's a idiot, but I suppose that I can forgive him that.

{}[George]{}

"You're sure this won't explode on her or something?" Lee whispered.

I glanced across the Potions classroom to where Eva had approached Snape with a question about whatever we were supposed to be doing. I hadn't actually paid attention to what he was saying, but when he told us to begin preparing our potions, Lee, Fred, and I had snuck to Eva's abandoned cauldron, and promptly began tossing in ingredients. Her potion, which had previously been a light gold color, immediately turned sludgy and gray, and began giving off the smell of mothballs.

"It shouldn't." Fred said to Lee. He glanced momentarily at me, and I could see that he had no clue what he was doing.

So that made two of us.

We were just planning to ruin her potion. I mean, the girl is a Potions genius. If we let her continue on doing perfectly, she might get an ego again. An arrogant Eva is certainly not a pretty sight, as we had learned to our displeasure in our third year. It was for everyone's happiness and well-being that we brought her down a bit more to our level. Really, we were heroes.

We hurried back to our table before Eva, Snape, or anyone else could notice our little excursion across the classroom.

I began shuffling potion bottles and flipping pages in my book, so that we could look as if we were actually doing something. Fred and Lee followed my lead, and Fred began giving some nonsense lecture about the importance of using high-quality rat spleens in a potion. Lee nodded occasionally, making sounds of agreement, even though neither of them knew what the hell they were talking about.

I stifled a grin when Eva returned to her cauldron. She frowned as she stared inside, probably wondering what had happened to her pretty gold potion. But she obviously decided to ignore it, and with a small shrug, and a glance around the classroom, she grabbed a handful of beetle carapaces and dropped them into the cauldron.

Seconds passed, then there was a large explosion from Eva's cauldron, and purple fire rushed out of the cauldron that Eva had been staring into.

She shrieked, and everyone in the classroom turned to look at her as Snape hurried over. Her cauldron was melted, and it was still covered in the purple flame. But even more worrisome was the flames that were flickering in Eva's curly brown hair.

"I thought you said this wouldn't explode." I whispered to Fred as we watched Eva frantically try to beat the flames out of her hair.

"Actually, I said it shouldn't. There's a difference, you know." Fred said.

Snape finally pulled out his wand, shouted 'Augeumentai!", then a large jet of water crashed over Eva's head, and the flame was finally put out.

"Miss Asher, do you care to explain how a student of your caliber managed to fail so abysmally in brewing this simple potion?" Snape said.

The smell of burnt hair was beginning to waft around the room, and the top of Eva's head was still smoking as she shook her head, though the rest of her was covered with water and dripping wet.

"No." she said. Then her eyes turned to where Fred, Lee, and I were seated, all three of us with slight smirks on our faces. "Although I do have some idea."

"Clean this mess up." Snape said, returning to the front of the room.

Eva glared at the three of us, silently mouthed some rather rude words, then proceeded cleaning up the ruined, twisted mass that had once been her cauldron.

~*~Eva~*~

A thing like that cannot go unpunished. Messing up my potion so that it exploded on me, while a fairly simple trick, was nonetheless effective. It's a bit scary to be caught on fire, you know.

I managed to save most of my hair, although some spots had been burned and charred, and needed to be cut. Thankfully, my hair still looked halfway normal once I got done.

As to my revenge, though… I decided to go with one of the oldest pranks known to mankind everywhere, wizards and Muggles alike. Sure, it was a bit lacking in originality, but there had to be a reason why it was used so often.

The next day, instead of going to breakfast with everyone else, I snuck up to the boys dorms and entered Fred, George, and Lee's room. I opened Lee's trunk first, and gingerly grabbed nearly all his underwear, Thank god Lee was neat. All of his underwear were stacked tidily in one section of his trunk. I shoved them into the bag I had brought with me.

Yes, yes, the panty-raid. I would have to do something more than just take them, though. But I would figure that out later.

George's trunk was next, and he, unfortunately, wasn't so neat. So I had to rummage around for what I was looking for. I hoped that all their things were clean, though I seriously doubted it. I mean, they were boys, after all. They probably just threw their dirty clothes, underwear and all, back in their trunk once they wore it, and didn't have their things washed till the end of the week.

I moved on to Fred's trunk and opened the latches.

Okay, Eva, don't pay attention to his underwear. Pretend you're just picking up… oddly shaped handkerchiefs. Yes, that's it. Oddly shaped handkerchiefs. But… Fred certainly had made interesting choices in his… handkerchief designs.

A couple were plain, or merely striped, but there was also one with four-leaf clovers, and there was one with the logo of Fred's favorite Quidditch team. One had a dragon across the back, even.

My face had heated up, but I was grinning widely at the contents of Fred's trunk. He would not be incredibly pleased when his four-leaf clover underwear were in the public eye. I finished stuffing the last of them into the bag, then hurried out of the dorms before I got caught playing around in their trunks.

That would certainly be a bit awkward.
'Eva, why are you clutching our underwear?' They would ask.
'Mind your own business.' I would reply.

I sat down in the common room and thought about what I would actually do with the underwear. I mean… I wasn't going to just carry them around all day. But it was already too late to hang them in the great hall, where everybody would see them at breakfast.

My eyes wandered over a pile of cardboard airplanes in the corner. They all had SPEW written on their sides in large black lettering. Spew? I vaguely remembered Hermione telling me about a club she called S.P.E.W. But why would she have a pile of airplanes laying around? My curiosity awoken, I ventured to the airplanes and picked one up.

I had barely touched it when it flew in the air and began soaring and swooping around the common room. So Hermione was advertising with cardboard airplanes… That gave me an idea.

I grabbed an airplane and a pair of underwear from the bag. If I could get these to hang from the airplanes, I could send long strings of underwear flying around the castle. That would be a great way to get the whole school to see them.

Brilliant.

There was no worry about whether the planes could hold so much weight. Luckily, they flew by magic and not simply floating on air. I eventually found a ball of wooly brown string laying around the common room, then set to work tying the underwear into several long chains. I ended up skipping breakfast, and all my classes in the first half of the day. But by the time I finished, I had nine airplanes, and nine chains of underwear. I waited until lunchtime to set the things loose, when the great hall would be filled with people again.

I'm sure I looked a sight, nearly running through the corridors, clutching underwear and cardboard in my arms. I certainly got quite a few strange looks from the few people I passed.

=+=Fred=+=

Despite currently pretending to still be angry with Eva, I allowed a bit of worry to show through to George.

"Where do you think she is?" I asked, glancing around the hall. I had expected her to show up for lunch, but so far she was nowhere to be found.

George wasn't paying attention to me, though. He was looking past me, a grin forming on his face. I turned around to see what looked like a small makeshift airplane flying into the Great Hall, trailing several pairs of some poor sod's underwear.

"Ah, how embarrassing would that be?" I asked George as we laughed at the spectacle. "To have all…." I trailed off as another eight airplanes flew into the hall. At the very end of one of them, I saw a pair with a familiar looking red-scaled dragon printed on them.

Oh. Crap.

George and Lee had stopped laughing, and now they were staring intently at the planes. The Great Hall was roaring with laughter by now, and several students were pointing at the planes as they soared over the tables.

"Are those… ours?" Lee said quietly.

George nodded.

Eva strolled into the Great Hall just then, and made her way to where we sat staring at the planes. She sat down across from me and smirked at the three of us.

"Fred, I have to admit, I'm curious about something." she said.

I glared at her. She seemed to take that as a sign I wanted her to continue.

"You have several very… interestingly designed underwear. What kind are you wearing right now?"

George snickered, but Lee's eyes were still fixed on the underwear planes, which were now doing loops and twirls in the sky, and getting dangerously close to the tops of people's heads.

"I'm not going to answer that." I said.I managed to make my voice sound suitably annoyed with her, but I'm afraid my cheerful expression gave away my happiness that we were finally speaking civilly again.

"Please? I'll never ask for anything again." Eva said, leaning across the table. "Go ahead, whisper it."

"No."

"If you don't, I will tell everybody who those lovely underwear belong to."We eyed each other, then finally I sighed and mumbled my answer.

She frowned quizzically and tilted her head to the side. "What? I didn't hear you."I glanced around, but nobody was near besides George and Lee, who were now discussing the best way to get their underwear out of the public eye.

"They've got little chocolate frogs on them. And Bertie-Bott's Every-Flavor-Beans." I whispered. "There. Happy?"

Eva's face lit up. "That's very cute, you know. I can picture you in… never mind." She broke off hastily, her face turning pink, and her lips pressing together slightly, like they always did when she got embarrassed.

"Go ahead. Finish your sentence." I said, directing a leer toward her. I had to torment her a bit, after all, even though I was fairly proud of her for even playing this trick on us.

She shook her head, then grabbed my plate and began eating my food.

And just like that, we were friends once more.

~*~Eva~*~

Everyone in Hogwarts became more cheerful as Christmas approached.

Decorations were put up all throughout the castle, and even Peeves was celebrating the holiday, zooming around the castle singing lewd Christmas carols and wrapping shining tinsel around the legs of students.

The Gryffindor common room had been strung with Christmas baubles, and twinkling lights, and several sprigs of mistletoe were hung from the ceiling, which most students took great pains to avoid.

"I hope Mum doesn't knit me a maroon jumper again. Everybody else gets a good color, but me…" Ron said as he and Harry worked on homework at a table in the corner.

The twins and I were sitting nearby at the fireplace, and we heard Ron's complaint.

"Oh, that reminds me." George said, "Mum's knitting you a jumper this year, Eva, and-"

"Really?" I said happily, looking up at him. "That's so-"

"Nice, sweet, motherly. Yes, we know." Fred said from beside me on the sofa.

"I'm supposed to find out exactly what color your eyes are. Mum wants to knit a jumper to match." George said. "I told her grayish-blue, but she wants to know details. She had Ron doing the same thing to Harry, so that she could knit him a jumper in the same color his eyes are."

"It was a bit strange, actually." Fred said, smiling. "To see Ron staring at Harry for the longest time, then writing something down and sending it off."

"So, let me see your eyes, and-" George said.

Fred shook his head. "Don't bother." he said. "Her eyes are more gray than blue. They're light, like a cloudy day, except that you can just barely see the blue sky behind the clouds. And sometimes, when she gets…" He trailed off. The tips of his ears and nose had turned slightly red.

I just stared at him, but Fred sent a desperate look at George.

George cleared his throat. "Right, so… I'll just write down all that Mister Poetic here said, and send an owl off to mum…"Fred nodded. He seemed determined to avoid looking at me.

"Okay." he said.

"Okay." I said awkwardly. My face was warm. I was blushing. Why was I blushing?

"Okay, then." George said.

...

I got a letter from my family at breakfast a week before the start of the Christmas holiday.

Evanna,

Your father has won an award at work for his excellent quality of work. We have been invited to attend an award ceremony in the British Isles on the first week you are scheduled to come home. The company will only pay the fare for four members of the family to attend, and Asha has expressed her desire to accompany us. Your father and I talked it over, and we have decided that it would be best if you stayed at school for Christmas, while we, Elliot, and Asha attend the ceremony. We apologize if you are disappointed, Evanna, but this will be a wonderful experience for us, and your father has worked so hard. If you are displeased with us, I understand, but do try to have a nice time in Hogwarts for the holiday.

We are looking forward to seeing you again at the end of the school term.
Your father says hello, and Elliot wishes me to tell you that he recently lost two teeth when he fell out of your tree house in the backyard. Really, dear, you shouldn't be encouraging his wild behavior.

-Love Mum

My face fell as I read the letter. I had been looking forward to being with my family again.

"What is it?" asked George.

"I'm going to be stuck at Hogwarts for the holiday." I said, throwing the letter down on the table. Fred leaned over and grabbed the letter, then began reading it in between bites of cereal.

"It doesn't matter." He said airily once he had finished the letter. "George and I were going to forge a letter to your parents telling them you weren't coming home anyway."

George nodded at me. "It's true. We had it all written out and everything."

"But since your mum and dad don't want you for Christmas after all…""We don't have to bother with our letter. You're spending the holiday with us, at the Burrow."

I beamed at them as I folded the letter up. "Does your mum know I'm coming?"

"She will when you get off the train with us." Fred said.

"And she's too nice to just leave you there in the station with nowhere to go." George said with a grin.

I couldn't decide whether or not they were serious, so I just grinned and kissed them both on the cheek.

We had our last D.A meeting before the start of the holiday. George, unfortunately, couldn't join us, as he was serving detentions with Filch for dropping Dungbombs into the pipes and spreading the smell across the whole school.

The Room of Requirement was already filled with people when we walked in.

"OK," Harry said, calling us all to order. "I thought this evening we should just go over the things we've done so far, because it's the last meeting before the holidays and there's no point starting anything new right before a three-week break "

"We're not doing anything new?" said Zacharias Smith, in a disgruntled whisper that carried across the room. "If I'd known that, I wouldn't have come."

"We're all really sorry Harry didn't tell you, then," said Fred loudly. I sniggered, along with several other people in the room. Fred smiled over at me and grabbed my hand, despite the presence of Alicia across the room with Angelina.

I wondered just what he was playing at, but I didn't let go.

"-we can practise in pairs," Harry was saying "We'll start with the Impediment Jinx, for ten minutes, then we can get out the cushions and try Stunning again."

Everybody divided up and began practicing, and the meeting went by quickly. Harry soon called everyone to a halt.

"You're getting really good," he said, beaming around at us. "When we get back from the holidays we can start doing some of the big stuff - maybe even Patronuses."

Everyone started leaving the room, after wishing each other merry Christmas. Alicia waved Fred over to talk with her a moment, and I watched Cho and Harry while I waited for Fred.

It was so cute. Harry would look over at Cho, then look down, and she would glance up at him. And they were both deliberately stalling, waiting until the room cleared out. I looked up to the ceiling, where a strand of mistletoe was hung by the door.

I pulled out my wand and made the mistletoe move over to above where Cho was standing. She looked up at it, then over at me. I winked and looked pointedly at Harry. Cho gave me a strange look, then Fred threw an arm around my shoulders and was leading me out of the room.

"Harry and Cho are going to kiss." I said happily as we walked along, feeling like I was a regular little Cupid, shooting my magical arrows and making people fall in love.

Fred seemed amused. "Why do you say that?"

"They obviously like each other. I bet that Harry will come in to the common room later, stunned and smiling. They'll kiss."

"You're on, Asher."

"Prepare to lose, Weasley."

… … … …

We sat on a sofa in the common room, waiting for Harry to walk through the portrait hole. I had curled up beside Fred, and kept dozing off on his chest. He wouldn't let me sleep, though, and kept pulling my hair, or blowing in my ear.

"There he is." he said quietly, poking me sharply in the side to wake me up. I turned around and we watched as Harry stumbled through the portrait hole. Hermione and Ron were still up, and they both looked at Harry as he sat down by them.

They talked quietly a moment, then Hermione's voice carried across the common room. "Did you kiss?"

Harry said something, then a moment later, Ron jumped up, grinning broadly. "Ha!" he yelled.

I lay back against Fred. "I told you they would kiss. I win." I declared with a grin.

"Maybe. But you don't win anything."

The grin slipped off my face.

"Wait. Why? I should get money, or candy or something."

Fred shook his head. "You should have said that before we shook hands and made the bet official. You never made sure that I bet anything."

Double damn.

I decided to pout about it. Because even if it never solved anything, it could be great fun. I crossed my arms across my chest and looked away from Fred.

"Are you…. You're pouting, aren't you?"

I didn't answer.

"You are." he said.

I still didn't answer.

"You're a spoiled brat, Eva."

"And you're a cheating git." I said.

"Oh, you don't mean it."

"Yes I do."

"No, you love me." Fred said matter-of-factly.

"I don't." "You said I was good-looking."

"And you said my moustache was handsome. It didn't mean anything."

"I swear, Eva, I really do think your moustache is attractive."

I looked at him, giving him my 'I can't believe you're actually saying that' face.

He laughed, and I elbowed him in the stomach.

"Stop laughing. This is serious business." I said.

"Yes sir." He said gravely, nodding at me.

"Shut up, Fred."

"You know, that's rather rude."

"That's it." I said., throwing my hands in the air. "I'm not coming to the Burrow for the holiday. I'll just stay at Hogwarts."

Fred flung his arm around me and pulled me beside him again.

"You'd miss me." he said.

"I'd celebrate to be away from you."

He looked over at me and smiled. "You wouldn't celebrate to be away from me and George."

I sighed. "No. I'd kinda miss you two. Just a little bit, mind you."

"And you do love me."I grimaced, but hugged him all the same. "You know I love you, Freddie."

"Love you too, Eva. You're still not getting anything from the bet, though."

I felt someone tap me on the shoulder. A boy was standing there. "Dumbledore wants you in his office."

I sighed and stood up. Just when my day had been going so great.

"See you later, love." Fred said, stressing the 'love' part.

"Night, Fred."

It was some pudgy older man from the Order who was there tonight.

He had a whole bag of objects for me to use to See. Some of the things weren't even from Death Eaters, just regular people that the Order suspected were working with Voldemort. I had to appluad the Order for their skill at petty thievery; it couldn't be easy to steal a floral print scarf, or an old picture frame from somebody's home.

But I swear, I was there Seeing for at least two hours.

Then McGonagall stepped into the office, followed by Ron and Harry, both in their pyjamas and looking nervous and more than a little bit scared.

I listened as Harry explained about a dream he had had about a snake attacking Mr. Weasley. Dumbledore listened attentively, then told McGonagall to go wake the other Weasley children. He started talking to one of the portraits in his office, and then to his phoenix.

I had scooted my chair away to the side of the room, and my stomach clenched while I listened to Harry's story. Poor, poor Mr. Weasley…

Fred, George, and Ginny were brought into the office, where Dumbledore explained to them what was going on.

"How're we going?" asked Fred, looking shaken. "Floo powder?"

"No," said Dumbledore, "Floo powder is not safe at the moment, the Network is being watched. You will be taking a Portkey." He indicated the old kettle lying innocently on his desk. 'We are just waiting for Phineas Nigellus to report back… I want to be sure that the coast is clear before sending you."

There was a flash of flame in the very middle of the office, leaving behind a single golden feather that floated gently to the floor.

"It is Fawkes's warning," said Dumbledore, catching the feather as it fell. "Professor Umbridge must know you're out of your beds… Minerva, go and head her off-tell her any story."

Professor McGonagall was gone in a swish of tartan.

"He says he'll be delighted," said a bored voice behind Dumbledore; the wizard called Phineas had reappeared in front of his Slytherin banner. "My great-great-grandson has always had an odd taste in house-guests."

"Come here, then," Dumbledore said to Harry and the Weasley's. "And quickly, before anyone else joins us."

Harry and the others gathered around Dumbledore's desk.

"You have all used a Portkey before?" asked Dumbledore, and they nodded, each reaching out to touch some part of the blackened kettle. "Good. On the count of three, then… one… two…"

Fred and George glanced over at me, their faces pale and scared.

I wished I could offer any kind of consolation, but all I could do was look helplessly back at them.

"Three." Dumbledore said, and they were all spinning and then they disappeared.

… … … …

I was sent back to bed soon after that. Dumbledore knew that I was supposed to be staying with the Weasley's over the holiday. He said that if Mr. Weasley survived, I would be sent with them.

I didn't like the sound of that. 'If' he survived.

I returned to my bed and curled up in the blankets, but I couldn't get to sleep.

At about eight, I went down to the Great Hall, where people were chatting and laughing, eager for the Christmas Holiday to begin. I ate something, I'm not sure what, exactly. Oatmeal, I think. I don't even like oatmeal.

Warren seemed to notice my distracted, sullen mood when I met him for lunch, but he didn't ask what was the matter, merely kissed my cheek and told me to have a good holiday.

The day passed slowly, but finally my last class was over, and I headed to Dumbledore's office.

"Fizzing Whizbee" I said to the stone gargoyles, who had both had had a festive Santa hat placed upon their heads.

They moved aside and I stepped into Dumbledore's office. He was at his desk, fiddling with one of the strange devices that were all over the shelves and tables.

"Ah, Ms. Asher. I assume you are here about the wellbeing of Mr. Weasley." he said with a small smile.

I nodded and sat down. Surely that smile meant that Mr. Weasley was alive.

Either that, or Dumbledore had a very morbid sense of humor.

"I am pleased to say that he is going to live, though it was rather close for a couple of hours." A wide grin split my face and Dumbledore continued. "I have spoken to Mrs. Weasley, and she has said that you will be staying at Grimmauld Place, instead of the Burrow. Also, I believe Ms. Granger will be joining you on your way to London."

… … ….

(Okay, that's the end of this chapter…

Please review, it means a whole lot to me!

XX