Chapter 10
Early next morning, about five o'clock, George opened his eyes to the soft orange glow of the rising sun shining through the window. He closed his eyes again, not wanting to get up, until, suddenly, he remembered where he was. He leapt up from bed and padded over to the window.
The morning was bright but hazy; he could see a flock of birds flying above the forest, and close to the forest edge he saw Hagrid emerging from a tiny hut with a huge dog following him. He headed into the forest, carrying a large sack of something obviously heavy, as he could see even Hagrid was struggling under the weight.
George settled himself on the window ledge, simply staring at the beauty of his new home, when he heard movement behind him. Fred had stirred, and was yawning widely.
"I thought I heard something," he whispered. "And then I remembered, could this possibly be my recently discovered twin?" He grinned at George, and continued. "Shall we go have a look around the castle?"
"Won't we get caught?" George said, but he was smiling mischievously.
"Not if we're careful." Fred winked at his twin. "Come on, what's wrong with exploring at five in the morning? It's called an 'adventure.'"
"Okay, let's go. Let's just pull some jeans and a top on first though, I don't think I'd like being discovered in our pyjamas. It would be harder to stay dignified."
"Right, be quick and quiet though, we don't want to wake Lee and Kenneth."
And so, the twins, silently as a mouse, pulled on some clothes and crept out of the dormitory and through the portrait.
"What are you two doing at this time?" scolded the Fat Lady, yawning widely. "I deserve sleep, you know!"
"Yeah, okay," said George, rolling his eyes. "See you later."
"Bye!" Fred called back merrily as they reached the end of the corridor and she disappeared from view.
"Where shall we go, then?" George asked as they walked aimlessly around the corridors.
"Dunno. Shall we go outside?"
"Yeah, it looks warm, and I bet we're less likely to be caught out there."
"Okay, come on then." Fred looked on top of the world as they heaved open the huge front doors and walked out onto the wide expanse of grass, looking down upon the lake and the mountains beyond.
They walked down towards the lake, breathing in the clean, cool air.
"This. Is. Perfect," George sighed, as they reached the lake and stopped, staring over at the sun rising behind the mountains.
"It really is. Glorious. It's so warm as well!"
The pair fell silent, looking at each other. They grinned simultaneously.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know, George, am I?"
"I think you are, Fred, I think you are." And with that, George grabbed Fred by the arm and threw him into the lake, jumping in after him."
The two of them gasped at the cold, but as they got used to it they began to laugh and splash each other. Fred pulled off his t-shirt, throwing it on the bank, but said nothing when George didn't follow suit.
The twins stayed down by the lake for at least three hours, alternating between lying on the bank talking, with the sun drying their skin and their clothes, and jumping back into the lake. George, being the better swimmer of the two- he would often go to the lake near the Crofts' house to swim when the weather was hot- actually ventured out into the middle of the lake, but swam swiftly back towards the edge when he noticed a long tentacle poking out of the water nearby.
It was half past eight when Fred and George ran out of the lake, and Fred, checking his watch which he had left by his t-shirt, cried out:
"It's half past eight! Breakfast has already started! And we need to get changed!"
"Damn it!" George groaned. Fred pulled his t-shirt on and the twins ran back towards the castle. They sprinted through the entrance hall, hoping against hope they wouldn't meet a teacher.
Their wishes were fruitless. A professor appeared, tall and thin with lank, greasy black hair to his shoulders and a hooked nose. He glared down at the twins.
"And what exactly are you doing?" he said in a quiet but deadly voice. "Not only are you soaked to the skin, but you are outside of the castle before hours and out of uniform. Not a great start to the year, is it?"
"No, sir," the twins said.
"Detention for you both, and twenty points from Gryffindor. Your house won't be very happy with you, will they? Weasley, isn't it?"
"Yes," said George.
"Yes what?"
"Yes, sir," he finished.
"I'll send the details of your detention to Professor McGonagall. I think I have the joy of teaching you today. I'll look forward to it." His voice was laced with sarcasm.
The blacked haired professor turned tail and walked away, leaving the twins stood there, dripping wet. Fred stuck his tongue out at the retreating man and the two of them headed back to the dormitory.
They fell on their beds, laughing until tears fell from their eyes.
"Did you see his face?" Fred cried, barely able to breath from laughing.
"I know, actually priceless!" George agreed, thumping his fists on the pillow.
"Come on though, we'd better have some food," Fred said shortly after they had composed themselves. "We won't make it through the day otherwise."
Fred and George changed quickly into fresh clothes, George carefully hiding his scars and Fred pretending not to notice. As George pulled out his robes and stepped into them, Fred asked him:
"George, do you want some of my robes? Yours are a bit short..."
"No, I'm fine, thanks," he replied, his ears going pink.
"Oh, go on," Fred continued kindly. "It's no trouble, I could easily have been in your position and you in mine-"
"Fred, no! I'm not a charity."
Fred glared at him, and stubbornly threw his own robes on the floor. "Right then." And he took the second pair of George's robes- also several inches too short and greying- and put them on.
"Oi! Give them back!"
"No. Now we're the same."
George looked baffled. "What's the point though? Fair enough that I look stupid, but why do you need to?"
"So we're the same; come on, we can't switch places and confuse people if we look different, can we?" He paused. "Anyway, I want to look like you. In this together, right?"
George grinned. "That's right. The Weasley twins against the world. Now come on, lets go eat, quickly!"
The twins arrived at the Great Hall at ten to nine, and rushed to sit next to Lee, who just looked at them, shaking his head.
"Where the hell did you go? I got up at seven and you were nowhere to be seen!"
"We just went for a walk-"
"-and a swim."
"Lovely morning, though," Fred finished with a grin.
Charlie appeared out of nowhere and sat opposite the twins.
"Where have you been? Percy was looking for you, but you were late, and Lee didn't know where you'd gone."
"We went outside and lost track of time."
"And we got caught by a hideous, greasy haired professor. Detention."
"And we lost twenty points."
"Sorry."
"Snape? And isn't it a bit early to be getting into trouble? Seriously, why are the Weasleys so extreme? Percy is a right snob and won't set a foot wrong, and you two have put us into the minus figures on the first day? Honestly..."
"Sorry, Charlie."
"We won't do it again."
"Somehow, I don't believe that. Anyway, Percy has gone to the library before his first lesson- I know, don't even ask- he'll meet you guys at lunch. So don't go getting another detention, okay?"
"Okay Charlie," they chorused in unison. Their brother left, shaking his head but not managing to disguise a smile.
It hadn't yet been five minutes since Charlie had left the Great Hall when Professor McGonagall appeared behind the twins. They looked up from their plates (piled with bacon, eggs, sausages, beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, black pudding and hash browns), only to see her disapproving glare on them.
"Here are your timetables, Weasleys," she said, with a dangerous undertone to her voice.
"Thanks, Professor," Fred replied, avoiding her eye.
She began to walk away, and the twins breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately for them, though, she turned around and said, as an afterthought:
"And don't think I don't know about your... outing this morning. I will not act on it this time, but I will say this, I won't tolerate you losing points like that for our house in future. You have been warned."
And with that, she swept out of the Great Hall, leaving the twins staring at their plates. Once she was well out of sight, their eyes met.
"Well, that was awkward," George said seriously.
"We'd better be careful from now on, Georgie." Fred agreed, nodding.
They raised their eyebrows at each other, and burst into laughter.
Lee leaned over and punched Fred on the arm. "Oi!" Fred replied, rubbing his shoulder.
"Just, shut up laughing so I can talk!" Lee replied, but with a grin all the same. "I've been trying to get a word in but you've been laughing so hard you haven't heard me! Now listen, we've got Snape first thing for Potions..."
"Wait,-"
"-Snape, that's the one with the greasy black hair-"
"-and the long nose-"
"-and the terrible personality-"
"-and, most importantly, has a grudge already against you two," Lee finished.
"Oh dear," the twins said in unison.
"'Oh dear' indeed." He moved to stand behind the twins and patted them on the back. "I'm going back to the dormitory anyway, I'll see you in Potions."
"See you later," they called after him. They looked down at their timetables and shook their heads.
"Double Potions," Fred groaned. "Our first lesson, and we know it's going to be a disaster."
"No question about it," George agreed.
"Although," Fred said, grinning, "we are already in trouble..."
George raised his eyebrow. "The whole points thing though... McGonagall won't be very impressed."
"So? And anyway, if we're careful, he might not know it's us."
"Really? He clearly will know it's us after this morning."
"But if he can't prove it? Surely even he won't take points without proof?"
"I dunno Fred, he seems the sort of person that doesn't care much about fairness..."
"Oh, come on Georgie!" Fred whined. "I just know it will be the most horrific two hours of our lives if we don't make it fun!"
"I don't think it would be the worst day of my life, Fred," George said quietly.
There was silence as George looked away and pushed around the few scraps left on his plate. Fred reached out and touched George softly on the arm.
"I'm sorry," he said simply. George looked round at his twin and smiled. "Okay. Let's do it."
A/N: Hi again guys! Sorry its been so long (again) but here I am! This chapter has been almost done for ages but my problem is that I'm struggling where to go from here, so I've left it for a while as I came up with some new ideas for the next chapters. The next chapter is actually the worst one so it may take a while, or it may not, but I couldn't just leave it out as I think it's an important chapter to include :P Thank you everyone for your patience :) Special thanks to Ryah Ignis, Spiralling-Down, KCRedPanda98, GeorgieForever, KatiePennn and Mickey S. J. Reilly :) You guys are awesome!