"So did we miss much in Defence Against the Dark Arts yesterday?" asked Rose when they got down to Care of Magical Creatures the next morning. She hadn't thought to ask before.
"Yeah, you missed all the fun," joked Tee. She recounted the lesson's events to Rose and George.
"You've been lucky lately, haven't you?" George said to Fred.
"Very," said Fred sarcastically. "I think things just like to strangle me."
"And I just like to get hit on the head," added George.
"It's fun, isn't it?" said Tee brightly.
Rose laughed, but George made a face. "If you say so."
"I've hit my head so many times, I think I've become immune to it or something," said Tee. In answer, Fred pulled a book out of his bag and hit her on the head with it. "Ow! Hey!"
"Maybe not quite so immune," grinned Fred.
"Bully," Tee pouted.
"Aww, I'm sorry, Kittykat," said Fred, putting his arm around her.
Tee gave him a shove instead. "Bugger off."
"Fine," said Fred, acting offended. "I'll be Rose's friend instead." He tried to put his arm around Rose.
"No, you won't. You're bullying my Tee!" protested Rose, pushing him away as well. "Eww, and your hand's all vuzzy..."
"It's what now?" said Fred, looking at his hand in confusion.
"She means your veins," explained Tee. "Rose doesn't like veins."
"Well, your hand's 'vuzzy' too," pointed out George, taking Rose's hand and inspecting it.
"Well, your fly's undone," retorted Rose, pulling her hand away.
"What?" George started and looked down. It wasn't.
"Made you look," grinned Rose.
"And what were you doing looking in the first place?" grinned George, starting to tickle her.
"Alrigh', you lot?" greeted Hagrid, suddenly appearing beside them.
"Yeah, fine," replied Rose, managing to push George away. "Just got two troublesome boys to deal with."
"I'll second that," grinned Tee.
Hagrid looked bemused. "Well, I can assure yeh you're not the firs'. I think every teacher in the school will agree with me on that."
Fred and George looked quite proud. "We try our best, Hagrid" they assured him.
"Righ'," said Hagrid, still wearing a bemused expression. He raised his voice. "Alrigh' then, class, we're gonna be startin' work on Fwoopers today."
He directed them all round to a small pear tree by the back of his hut, where a dozen large birds with impressive plumage were roosting – either orange, pink, lime green or yellow. They were all singing happily.
"Now Fwoopers come from Africa," explained Hagrid. "They never stop singin' an' will eventually drive yeh insane. So they're usually sold with a Silencin' Charm, which yeh have to renew every month."
"Well, they'd make a nice birthday present then," muttered George sarcastically.
"People like retailers like Fwoopers 'cos they lay real nice patterned eggs and their feathers can be used as fancy quills," said Hagrid. "So we're gonna be tryin' to get some feathers off them today."
Rose raised her hand. "Won't they mind that?" she said, concernedly.
"Nah, Fwoopers are normally quite docile," replied Hagrid. "Just tempt 'em to yeh with some of this food here. Then yeh pat them so that the loose feathers fall out. They re-grow their feathers pretty quick, so don't worry abou' that. Now if you all wanna have a go, come get some of the food..."
The lesson turned out to be one of their easiest yet. Most of the Fwoopers were happy to fly down from the tree and eat the food offered to them. And they seemed to enjoy being fussed over, so didn't pay any attention to the feathers fluttering down to the floor.
"They're so cute. I want one," said Rose wistfully, stroking the orange Fwooper that was now perched on George's outstretched arm.
"You want one of every animal we see," said George in amusement.
"Well, that's because we always have lessons on nice animals," replied Rose brightly.
"I know I wouldn't want one. The singing's already doing my head in," grumbled Fred, who was still trying to coax down a rather stubborn green Fwooper from the tree. The Fwooper was having none of it, however – it just remained in the tree, singing happily.
"Maybe it's a love it or hate it kind of thing," suggested Tee, collecting the yellow feathers that had collected on the ground from the Fwooper she'd been feeding and petting. "I quite like them."
"I definitely don't," said Fred, getting increasingly annoyed with the green Fwooper. "Look, just shut the hell up or I'm gonna curse your beak off."
"Fred!" objected Tee and Rose at the same time.
However, the Fwooper seemed to be perfectly capable of sticking up for itself. It finally swooped down from the tree and started to peck Fred repeatedly on the head. Tee, Rose and George all burst out laughing.
"Hey, it's not funny!" protested Fred, ducking and trying to swat the Fwooper away. "Come on, I was kidding..."
Eventually, the Fwooper got bored of harassing him and, adding to Fred's annoyance, returned back to the tree before he could even attempt to get any feathers from it.
"I'm guessing that's the reason they're sold with Silencing Charms," grinned George.
The rest of the lesson passed by quite quickly. Though the same couldn't be said for History of Magic. As always, Fred and George sunk back into their usual routine and dozed off. Even Tee and Rose couldn't resist putting their heads down on their desks. The lesson seemed to be going even slower than usual.
Annoyingly, their lunch break – which followed – seemed to pass way too quickly and they were in their next lesson for Charms before they knew it.
"Good afternoon, class," Professor Flitwick greeted happily, as usual. "We're starting a new spell today. I'm going to show you how to use the Bubblehead Charm."
"Bubblehead?" repeated Tee quietly. "That sounds like some kind of odd insult."
Professor Flitwick, not having heard her, carried on. "The Bubblehead Charm can be used for breathing underwater, in gas-filled areas or any other place where you'd need a fresh supply of air ready."
The lesson turned out to be quite an amusing one. Rose was the first to get the hang of the Bubblehead Charm, followed by Tee. "Wow, this is weird," she said in amazement, patting the giant globe around her head.
Tee was currently hitting her head off the wall – the bubble meaning that she just kept bouncing back. "This is so fun; I can't feel a thing!"
The twins started laughing. Neither of them had managed the charm yet. "It makes your face look weird," Fred told Tee.
Tee looked offended. "Your face looks weird!" she retorted.
"Oh, charming," said Fred, giving her a playful shove.
She staggered back slightly and her bubble knocked against Rose's. It made a light clunk. She laughed. "That sounded funny."
She and Rose then started headbutting each other. Fred and George burst out laughing. It looked like two fish bowls having a fight. When the girls grew bored and stopped, they realised that half the class had been watching them.
"We probably look like astronauts on crack," giggled Tee. Even Professor Flitwick was looking over, seemingly amused.
Rose laughed as well. She turned to the twins. "You two need to make a better start," she said, giving George a poke. "It's fun!"
"Ow. Okay, okay," he said. And after several attempts, he managed to perform the charm successfully.
"Wow, a Charms lesson George can actually do," teased Fred, who had also managed to do it.
Rose looked around the classroom, amused. Almost everyone had giant bubbles surrounding their heads now. "It looks like a diving school reunion," she remarked.
"Except divers would actually have enough oxygen," George pointed out, indicating Fred, who was now starting to choke inside his bubble. As Professor Flitwick had said, the Bubblehead Charm was supposed to provide them with a sufficient supply of air. Obviously, Fred hadn't managed to do the spell properly.
"God, you're hopeless," said Tee, rolling her eyes. She gave his bubble a sharp jab with her wand and it burst with a loud bang.
"Thanks..." gasped Fred.
"Smooth," smirked George.
"What?" said Fred loudly.
"I said smooth," repeated George.
"What?" asked Fred even louder.
George looked confused, but Rose started giggling. "The bang must have impaired his hearing."
"What?" repeated Fred. The others burst out laughing.
"And that's why you're not supposed to burst the bubbles," said Professor Flitwick, who had appeared beside them. "They are quite powerful, therefore will be very loud when burst. You should gently remove them with your hands."
Now bored of her bubble, Rose did as he said and pulled it off over her head. The slight resistance from it made a weird sucking noise as she pulled it off. "Eww," she said, pulling a face.
Once it was properly exposed to the open air, the bubble started to disintegrate from the inside out. Tee took hers off and it did the same thing. "Now that's pretty cool."
George tried to pull his off too, but it seemed to be stuck. "I can't get mine off!" he said, tugging at it.
"It's not exactly rocket science," said Tee sarcastically.
"No, really... It's stuck," said George, trying and failing to pull the bubble off.
"Boys," sighed Rose, trying to pull it off for him. Tee joined in as well, but it still didn't seem to help.
"Oh well, you'll have to stay as a spaceman from now on," said Tee brightly.
"No, come on. Help me please," begged George. "I can never do anything in Charms."
Tee sighed. "Fine. Fred, do you wanna give us a hand?"
"A what?" shouted Fred.
"Oh, never mind," said Tee. She grabbed hold of George's bubble again. "Rose, you try grabbing onto George this time. Then we'll both pull... Okay?"
"Yeah, okay," agreed Rose, positioning herself behind George and putting her arms around his waist.
"God, this is going to be painful," grumbled George.
"Well, it's not our fault you suck at Charms," grinned Tee. "Ready, Rose? Pull!" They both pulled at the same time, but it still wasn't working.
"Okay, stop. You're gonna pull my bloody head off in a minute," protested George.
"Just let us try one more time," said Rose from behind him.
"I don't like the fact that you seem to be enjoying this," remarked George.
"It's men needing women's help," said Rose. "Know your place."
Tee laughed. "Let's try again."
The girls both started pulling again and this time, it worked. Only the added momentum meant that George and Rose fell back onto one of the desks and Tee crashed into Fred, who had stupidly been stood behind her. She grabbed onto his arm to steady herself. The bubble had melted and covered her hands in a thick gloopy substance.
"Gross, George," said Tee, making a face. "This stuff is like glue."
"Sorry," apologised George, helping Rose to her feet.
"And thanks for getting it on my sleeve as well," Fred said sarcastically to Tee, apparently having finally gotten his hearing back.
"Oh, sorry," said Tee, attempting to pull her hand away. It didn't seem to work. She tried again. It still didn't work. The weird substance had stuck her hand to Fred's arm. "Oh, balls..."
"What is it?" asked Rose.
"Look," said Tee, holding her hand up, bringing Fred's arm up as well. Fred looked quite unperturbed.
George and Rose both started laughing. "Well, this is going to be interesting," said Rose.
"George, I'm gonna kill you," said Tee. "I've got one hand covered in some glue crap and one hand stuck to another person!"
"Come on, we'll go ask Professor Flitwick to unstick us," suggested Fred.
"No, wait! The lesson's nearly over and we've only got one class left after this," George pointed out. "Can't you just wait and sort it out later?"
"Why do you so badly not want Professor Flitwick to know you've messed up?" asked Fred.
"I just don't want him to think I suck at Charms," said George with an awkward shrug.
"But you do suck at Charms!" Tee pointed out.
"Thanks for the support," said George sarcastically. "But do you think you could just... wait until later?"
"...Fine," said Tee eventually. "But if Fred pisses me off too much, then I'm gonna blame you."
In Divination, they'd started on tarot cards – something which Rose had gotten quite excited about. She was the only one though. As usual in their Divination lessons, the twins were messing about and Tee was getting frustrated that she only had one hand to use.
"Finally, we're doing something worthwhile in Divination," exclaimed Rose, looking quite pleased.
"Speak for yourself," muttered George. He was holding several cards in a fan shape, like he was playing a card game. "This just isn't fun."
Tee copied what George was doing and shuffled some cards around in her free hand. She then threw them down onto the table and shouted, "Blackjack!"
The others started laughing, but Professor Trelawney suddenly came storming over. She'd obviously heard and wasn't impressed. It didn't help that she was already in a bad mood. "Go and wait outside the classroom!" she snapped at Tee. "I will speak to you after the lesson. I will not tolerate such immaturity."
Tee half shrugged and got up. Fred followed suit, trying not to laugh.
"Not you," Professor Trelawney glared at Fred. "Just her."
"Well, we're kind of a package deal right now," said Tee, demonstrating by attempting to pull her hand away.
"Oh, for God's sake!" snapped Professor Trelawney, whipping out her wand. She muttered a spell and the gluey substance dissolved away. "Weasley, sit down. Carroll, outside. Now."
They both did as she said. Once Professor Trelawney had drifted away again, Fred said, "So the old bat can actually use real magic."
"I think that's the first time I've ever seen her use a wand," George agreed.
XXX
The next two days passed as normal without anything remotely exciting happening. Tee managed to escape a detention from Professor Trelawney, so she played as good as gold in their lesson on Thursday. Eventually, it was Friday – the last day of the term before they broke up for Christmas.
For their first period, Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid's idea of giving a festive lesson was to tie a Santa hat onto the creature he was showing them. However, the lesson that day was on a huge Rhino-like creature and the Santa hat didn't make it look any less formidable.
"Right, this is called an Erumpent," announced Hagrid. "This one's a female. She's a beauty, en't she?"
Rose nodded in agreement, but the rest of the class just stared at Hagrid sceptically. Hagrid didn't seem to notice and carried on in full flow.
"Now, Erumpents originate from Africa," he explained. "They weigh over a tonne an' their hide repels most spells an' curses. The horn an' tail are used fer potions, but they're classed as Class B tradin' materials."
"Does that mean they're dangerous?" asked one of the other Gryffindors.
"Nah," replied Hagrid. "They won't attack unless yeh provoke 'em. Now I've got another two in the paddock round the back. I want yeh ter take it in turns ter collect some tail hair from 'em. I'll show yeh the best way ter do it."
"Because this isn't going to provoke them," said Fred, rolling his eyes.
The lesson turned out to be disastrous. Montague and a group of his Slytherin cronies took Hagrid's words as a challenge and spent over half the lesson goading and tormenting one of the Erumpent. Eventually, she snapped and started charging around Hagrid's hut. Montague and his friends then fled from the grounds, as did the majority of the class.
"We can't go!" protested Rose, grabbing both of the twins' arms. "We need to help Hagrid!"
With the rest of the class now completely gone, the twins, Tee and Rose took their wands out and started firing off spells, trying to force the Erumpent back to the small paddock round the back of Hagrid's hut where he'd been keeping them. Disturbed by their pack mate's state, the other two Erumpent were getting restless and it was taking all of Hagrid's efforts to restrain them from rampaging around too.
The rogue Erumpent managed to successfully back George up against the side of Hagrid's hut. Fred, Tee and Rose stopped, unsure what to do.
"Whatever yeh do, don't provoke her anymore!" yelled Hagrid, still trying to tie the other two Erumpent to the paddock gate.
"It wasn't us that did it in the first place!" protested Fred.
"I know, but I'm jus' tellin' yeh to be careful," warned Hagrid. "They can inject a liquid from their horns that causes things ter explode."
"What?" cried George. Hagrid certainly hadn't mentioned that part before. "You have got to be kidding me!"
The Erumpent, seemingly even more aggravated by all the noise, suddenly charged. Rose screamed as George dove out of the way at the last minute. The Erumpent crashed into the wall, which suddenly exploded into pieces.
"Watch out!" shouted Fred, grabbing both Tee and Rose and pulling them out of the way of the flying pieces of wood.
George threw both his arms up in front of his face to shield himself, before disappearing into a billowing cloud of smoke. The smoke dispersed minutes later, by which time Hagrid had managed to calm down the Erumpent and lead her back to the paddock.
"Well, that was new," said George, getting up and dusting himself off. He was perfectly unharmed.
"Are you okay?" asked Rose, as he came over to join them.
"Amazingly, yes," replied George, checking himself over.
"Shame we can't say the same for Hagrid's house," said Fred, looking pointedly at the gaping hole in the one wall.
As they all looked, Hagrid's giant but friendly boarhound, Fang, peeked through the hole and then crept out to see what was going on. Tee knelt down to stroke him and was repaid by him licking her face.
"Do you need a hand, Hagrid?" Rose asked. He was making sure the Erumpent was composed and secure in the paddock.
"No way," said George straightaway, grabbing her arm and pulling her back. "You're not going anywhere near those things."
"Oh, come on, George," protested Rose. "I appreciate you being nice but you don't have to look after me."
"Yeah, that's my job," smiled Tee.
"I've got 'em sorted now anyway," interrupted Hagrid. "They should be fine."
"What about your house?" asked Rose.
"That's no problem," said Hagrid. "I'll jus' tell Professor Dumbledore. He'll fix it for me in a minute. You lot had better go anyway. It'll be time fer yeh next lesson."
"Hopefully it'll be less eventful than this one," muttered George.
"It wasn't that bad," said Tee optimistically.
"Easy for you to say!" exclaimed George. "It was scary!"
"I didn't think it was that scary. It was actually quite exciting," insisted Tee. She then suddenly screamed and ducked behind Fred, making him jump.
"What?" he cried. He then noticed something white flutter past his face and started laughing. "After all that, you go and hide from a butterfly?"
"Well, I don't have an irrational fear of Erumpent," Tee pointed out, smiling sheepishly.
"To be honest, that would make a lot more sense," teased George.
"...Leave me alone," Tee sulked.
XXX
Unfortunately, their next period was Potions, so they were unlikely to have a good lesson. They managed to get through without too much torture and with just one essay to complete over the holidays. However, they couldn't escape anything in Transfiguration, which followed, and were given a mountain of homework.
Eventually, it was lunchtime and they gratefully found some seats in the Great Hall. Continuing with their new tradition, they were joined by Kayley and her friends.
"I can't believe how much homework we've got already," complained George.
"So much for a relaxing break," grumbled Fred.
"We haven't had any homework yet," said Marie brightly.
"Well, that's because you're stupid," said Tee irritably.
"Shut up," replied Marie. "Your face is stupid."
"Your mom is stupid!" retorted Tee.
The twins started laughing. "And you're both officially weird," Fred pointed out.
"Your face is weird," said Tee.
Fred paused for a few seconds. "Your mom is weird," he laughed, catching on.
"Oh God, are we gonna have to suffer this all lunchtime?" groaned George.
"Not if you don't annoy me, you won't," grinned Tee.
After lunch had finished, Tee, Rose and the twins made their way up to the third floor for Defence Against the Dark Arts and the fourth years traipsed outside for Herbology. Professor Lupin seemed to be in a happy, festive mood. The classroom was elaborately strung with red, gold and green paper chains and there was a pretty sprig of holly pinned to the front of his robes.
"Nice, aren't they?" smiled Professor Lupin, noticing them looking up at the decorations as they walked in. "Some of my first year girls insisted on making them and decorating my classroom for me."
None of them actually wanted to say that the paper chains actually looked tacky and rather childish. At least Professor Lupin was pleased with them. Instead, Rose complimented him on his new holly accessory.
Once the rest of the class had arrived, Professor Lupin announced, "Right! Since this is the last day before you break up for the Christmas holidays I thought we'd have a fun lesson instead."
"And there's the words you've waited to hear from a teacher your whole life," Fred whispered happily.
"So forget Defence Against the Dark Arts for now," smiled Professor Lupin. "Today we're going to try out a game of trust. So I need you all to get into pairs..."
Tee automatically jumped to Rose's side and announced, "Hello!" happily to her. Within minutes, the rest of the class had split into pairs as well. Professor Lupin brought out a box of blindfolds from underneath his desk.
"Now one person from each pair is going to have to stand over here and put on a blindfold," explained Professor Lupin. "Their partner will then have to verbally guide them to the other side of the room."
"Easy," said Fred, not quite as quietly as before.
Having heard him, Professor Lupin said, "It's not actually as easy as it sounds. It's going to be confusing enough with everyone shouting out directions at the same time. Then you're going to have to try and steer your partner around anyone who might get in the way."
Several students started laughing. This did actually sound like fun. Half of the class took blindfolds from the box and lined up along one side of the room, whilst the others backed out of the way.
"Okay. Everyone start now," instructed Professor Lupin.
The room was suddenly filled with noise. Like Professor Lupin had said, it wasn't as easy as it seemed. Everyone had started by simply walking straight ahead, but with the confusion of voices filling the room, they got distracted one by one and were now criss-crossing in every direction.
"Turn to the right," Rose encouraged Tee. Tee turned anti-clockwise back to the left. "No, to the right!"
"That is right!" protested Tee.
"No, it's not; that was left," insisted Rose.
"Oh, I'm so confused!" wailed Tee, feeling rather stranded in the middle of the classroom, unaware that she was actually surrounded by other people.
George was having similar problems. "Go left!" he directed Fred, who promptly wandered off to the right. "I said left, you idiot!"
"You said right!" objected Fred.
"No, I didn't; I said left!" claimed George adamantly.
Fred paused, looking confused. "I have no idea whose directions I'm listening to!" he shouted over all the noise. He strayed further to the left and crashed into Tee, who was still hovering in the middle of the room.
"Ow! I don't think I like this game," grumbled Tee.
She still stuck to that opinion when they'd collided another two times – her getting her directions mixed up and Fred becoming confused by the different instructions being shouted from separate students. By the fourth time, Tee was really not impressed.
"God, Fred, I'm gonna kick your ass in a minute!" she threatened. "You're not magnetically attracted to me or anything!"
When she heard a wave of laughter, she pulled her blindfold off. Fred followed suit. Since they'd been some of the last few people left who hadn't managed to reach the other side of the room, pretty much all of the class had been watching them in amusement, including Professor Lupin.
"You're a bit bad-tempered today," George grinned.
Tee smiled sheepishly. "It's actually really frustrating when you don't have a clue where you're going and you have to rely on someone else."
"Yeah, it's very disorientating," agreed Fred, though he hadn't gotten quite as annoyed as Tee. He tossed his blindfold to George. "You can have a go now since you think it's so funny."
Once the blindfolds were passed between the pairs, everyone arranged themselves ready to start again. Professor Lupin, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying watching everyone, happily announced, "Go!"
Again, the classroom was near reaching chaos. Fred seemed to enjoy being in the controlling position and was deliberately misleading George. "Turn to the left... Now right a bit... No, back to the left some more..." Poor George was pretty much wandering round in a circle and hadn't even realised.
Tee realised what Fred was doing. "You're such a bully. Do you know that?" Though she couldn't help laughing.
"But it's so much fun," grinned Fred. "Especially when you've got people who are easy to bully. Like you."
Tee pouted. "Well, you're just mean. You bully me all the time."
"It's because you're all cute and small," said Fred patronisingly, patting her on the head.
Tee swatted him away. "Do that again and I'll bite your hand."
Fred grinned again. "Is that a challenge?" He tapped her on the head again. Tee grabbed onto his hand, but couldn't get any further because he was too strong for her.
Meanwhile, Rose had been attempting to walk into the same bit of wall for the last minute or so. She hadn't received any further instructions, so had thought she'd been going in the right direction. Obviously not. But Tee still wasn't telling her which way to go.
Eventually, Rose just took her blindfold off. She looked around and saw Tee practically hanging off Fred's arm – God knows what she was trying to do. She then noticed that George was stood still in the middle of the room, looking rather lost. She went across and pulled his blindfold off him.
"That's why we're not getting anywhere," she said, pointing over to Tee and Fred.
George looked over to where she was pointing, just as Tee and Fred were progressing into having a shoving fight. Though it was pretty obvious Fred wasn't putting much effort in, otherwise he would have easily knocked Tee over.
"Oi!" shouted George. "Stop flirting and pay attention to what you're supposed to be doing."
They did both stop then. Tee just laughed and threw a spare blindfold at him. "I was actually sticking up for you, so leave me alone."
"She's trying to act all nice," laughed Fred, patting her on the head again.
Tee automatically smoothed her hair back down for the third time. "I swear, if you mess my hair up one more time, I'm gonna kick you in the–"
Professor Lupin chose that moment to join them. "Now, now, let's try and keep this suitable for all ages, Tee."
"Sorry Professor," apologised Tee. But Professor Lupin just smiled and she could have sworn he'd winked at her.