A.N—Cedric isn't going to really be in this fic much more, so I hope you're all happy! :) I was actually glad to be shot of him. I'm a Twin supporter, after all. DONT FORGET TO REVIEW!

Disclaimer—Yeah. I own Harry Potter. That and I've been to the moon...

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Song for this chapter; Something There—Beauty and the Beast.

Chapter Forty Two

Something There.

Fred looked over at Lexi for the third time in seven seconds. George looked up and rolled his eyes at his brother.

"For Merlin's sake, go and ask her out already!"

"What?" Fred gasped. "No! What if she turns me down? What if she laughs in my face?"

George surveyed his brother in astonishment. Fred had dated lots of girls before, but he had never been this hung up on one. The closest Fred had ever come to love was when he dated Katie Bell back in their fourth year, but that hadn't been serious.

"You should make a move on her soon. Lexi is the prettiest girl in the school, if you don't work fast, another guy will snap her up." George said, shovelling pie into his mouth.

Fred licked his lips, knowing his brother was right. He would have to make his move soon.

"Fred, George." Harry said. They looked up and saw him leaning over them. "We've found a place to practise. Seventh floor corridor, on the right hand side at eight. Tell Lexi, would you?"

"Sure thing, mighty leader." George saluted mockly and Harry walked away, chuckling.

Fred got up and took a breath before walking over to Lexi, where she was talking with Ginny.

"There are my favourite girls." Fred grinned.

"Hey Fred." Ginny smirked. "What do you want?"

"Why do you always assume I want something?" Fred asked, pretending to be hurt.

"Because 99.9 percent of the time, I'm right." Ginny replied. She winked at Lexi and walked away to the Ravenclaw table.

"What's up?" Lexi asked, shifting her books in her arms as she walked.

"Harry wanted me to tell you that they've found a place to practise. It's tonight, at eight." Fred said.

"That it?" Lexi asked, sounding disappointed. She walked into the library with Fred right behind her.

"Afternoon, Madam Pince." she called.

"Good afternoon, Lexi, Fred. How are you dears?"

"Good thanks. How's the book?" Lexi asked, leaning against the counter of the reception desk.

Madam Pince held up the book, a picture of an angel cradling a woman on the front.

"Wonderful!" the librarian whispered happily. "Thank you so much, dear, for letting me borrow it."

"My pleasure." Lexi smiled. "If you liked that one, I have another that may interest you. I'll bring it tomorrow."

"Oh, would you?" Madam Pince asked happily. Fred was watching this exchange with amusement. "Thank you very much dear. Oh and before I forget, that book you wanted just came back in. It's been re-shelved. You know where to find it, yes?"

"Of course." Lexi replied. "Thanks again!"

"Not at all dear!"

Lexi walked straight to the sections labelled 'Charms.' Fred right behind her. She strode right to the middle and dumped her bag on the counter. She then walked to the ladder. She stared to climb, but it wobbled, so Fred caught it and steadied it. Lexi was thankful she was wearing slacks today instead of a school skirt. She pulled a thick book from the shelf, and she slid down the side of the ladder smoothly, coughing when a thick cloud of dust swept up from the book.

"Okay then." Fred said. "What is so special about this book?"

Lexi smiled. "It has the spell we need to finish the Whizbangs." she explained and Fred nodded.

"Right." he said, smirking. "I knew that.

"Suuuuure you did." Lexi grinned. Fred chuckled. He tucked a stray hair behind Lexi's ear, accidently tracing the shell of her ear as he did so. Lexi stiffened. His hands were so gentle, it shocked her.

"Sorry." he mumbled. Lexi played with her hair.

"It's okay." she replied, turning to the page they needed. Fred, acting on an impulse, stepped closer, her shoulder bumping into his chest. She looked up and almost jumped out of her skin; Fred was so close, their noses almost touching. She never really noticed how blue his eyes were, or how adorable the freckles on his nose were. He was staring at her, as if trying to look into her soul. For once, Fred looked serious, his face blank as he leaned in closer. Lexi didn't know what she was doing in the moment that she closed her eyes and tilted her head up. His lips were getting closer, she could feel his breath on her cheeks...

BANG!

They jumped apart. Lexi looked and saw Madam Pince had been re-shelving books and had accidently dropped a very large book. She couldn't have seen them, but the timing was almost too perfect.

Fred cleared his throat loudly and mussed his hair up. He started to walk down the aisle and to the exit."I'll um...I'll see you in the...the common r-room—" he backed into the corner of the bookshelf and sent books falling on the other side. He blushed brilliantly and continued to mutter, flustered as he nearly ran out of the library. Lexi watched, giggling. Fred never got flustered and she found it adorable.

Wait...what?

Since when was Fred adorable?

Lexi blinked and thought about how she had almost kissed him. What had been going through her head? Fred was her best friend. She didn't fancy him. Not after breaking up with Cedric...well, that had been two months ago.

She bit her lip to stop a grin from spreading across her lips. The girls in her year level were always talking about the Twins. They all thought that Fred and George were so clever and funny and incredibly handsome.

She might as well see what the fuss was about.

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Lexi met up with the twins that night at eight on the seventh floor corridor, just as a door appeared and she pulled open the door. She led the way into a spacious room lit with flickering torches like those that illuminated the dungeons eight floors below.

The walls were lined with wooden bookcases and instead of chairs there were large silk cushions on the floor. A set of shelves at the far end of the room carried a range of instruments such as Sneakoscopes, Secrecy Sensors and a large, cracked Foe-Glass.

"Well," said Harry, slightly nervously. "This is the place we've found for practice sessions, and you've - er - obviously found it okay."

"It's fantastic!" said Cho, and several people murmured their agreement.

"It's bizarre," said Fred, frowning around at it. "We once hid from Filch in here, remember, George? But it was just a broom cupboard then."

"Oh yeah." Lexi said, looking around.

"Hey, Harry, what's this stuff?" asked Dean from the rear of the room, indicating the Sneakoscopes and the Foe-Glass.

"Dark detectors," said Harry, stepping between the cushions to reach them. "Basically they all show when Dark wizards or enemies are around, but you don't want to rely on them too much, they can be fooled…"

"Well, I've been thinking about the sort of stuff we ought to do first and - er -" He noticed a raised hand. "What, Hermione?"

"I think we ought to elect a leader," said Hermione.

"Harry's leader," said Cho at once, looking at Hermione as though she were mad.

"Yes, but I think we ought to vote on it properly," said Hermione, unperturbed. "It makes it formal and it gives him authority. So - everyone who thinks Harry ought to be our leader?"

Everybody put up their hand, even Zacharias Smith, though he did it very half-heartedly.

"Er - right, thanks," said Harry, who could feel his face burning. "And -what, Hermione?"

"I also think we ought to have a name," she said brightly, her hand still in the air. "It would promote a feeling of team spirit and unity, don't you think?"

"Can we be the Anti-Umbridge League?" said Angelina hopefully.

"Or the Ministry of Magic are Morons Group?" suggested Fred. Lexi sniggered, making Fred's chest swell.

"I was thinking," said Hermione, frowning at Fred, "more of a name that didn't tell everyone what we were up to, so we can refer to it safely outside meetings."

"The Defense Association?" said Cho. "The D.A. for short, so nobody knows what we're talking about?"

"Yeah, the D.A.'s good," said Ginny. "Only let's make it stand for Dumbledores Army, because that's the Ministry's worst fear, isn't it?"

"All in favor of the D.A.?" Hermione asked, kneeling up on her cushion to count. "That's a majority - motion passed!"

She pinned the piece of parchment with all of their signatures on it on to the wall and wrote across the top in large letters: DUMBLEDORE'S ARMY.
"Right," said Harry, when she had sat down again, "shall we get practicing then? I was thinking, the first thing we should do is Expelliarmus, you know, the Disarming Charm. I know it's pretty basic but I've found it really useful -"

"Oh, please," said Zacharias Smith, rolling his eye s and folding his arms. "I don't think Expelliarmus is exactly going to help us against You-Know-Who, do you?"

"I've used it against him," said Harry quietly. "It saved my life in June."

Smith opened his mouth stupidly. The rest of the room was very quiet.

"But if you think it's beneath you, you can leave," Harry said.

Smith did not move. Nor did anybody else. Lexi was smiling at Harry proudly.

"Okay," said Harry, his mouth slightly drier than usual with all these eyes upon him, "I reckon we should all divide into pairs and practice."

It felt very odd to be issuing instructions, but not nearly as odd as seeing them followed.

Everybody got to their feet at once and divided up. "Right-on the count of three, then-one, two, three-" Harry said.

The room was suddenly full of shouts of Expelliarmus. Wands flew in all directions; missed spells hit books on shelves and sent them flying into the air.

Harry moved off into the middle of the room. Something very odd was happening to Zacharias Smith. Every time he opened his mouth to disarm Anthony Goldstein, his own wand would fly out of his hand, yet Anthony did not seem to be making a sound. Harry did not have to look far to solve the mystery: Fred and George were several feet from Smith and taking it in turns to point their wands at his back.

"Sorry, Harry" said George hastily, when Harry caught his eye. "Couldn't resist."

Lexi was partnered with Cedric and they were both looking embarrassed, especially since Lexi kept disarming him. Either she was really good, or Cedric was reluctant to jinx her. A while later, Hermione said,

"Hey, Harry, have you checked the time?"

He looked down at his watch and was shocked to see it was already ten past nine, which meant they needed to get back to their common rooms immediately or risk being caught and punished by Filch for being out of bounds. He blew his whistle; everybody stopped shouting "Expelliarmus" and the last couple of wands clattered to the floor.

"Well, that was pretty good," said Harry, "but we've overrun, we'd better leave it here. Same time, same place next week?"

"Sooner!' said Dean Thomas eagerly and many people nodded in agreement.

Angelina, however, said quickly. "The Quidditch season's about to start, we need team practices too!"

"Let's say next Wednesday night, then," said Harry, "we can decide on additional meetings then. Come on, we'd better get going."

Using the Marauder's Map, Harry made sure that the coast was clear for them all to leave. But they went in small groups so it wouldn't look suspicious. Lexi hung back with Hermione and Ginny, having avoided them all day. They knew something was up, so they were going to bug her until she came out with it.

After Harry had left, Ginny rounded on Lexi. "Okay, you have five seconds to tell us what's happened."

"Or what?" Lexi asked. "Don't answer that. I don't wanna know."

Ginny smirked and Hermione crossed her arms.

Lexi sighed and blurted, "I nearly kissed Fred!"

Ginny's jaw dropped and Hermione's eyes grew to the size of galleons. It would have looked comical if the situation was different.

"Well, it's about time." Hermione muttered.

"Excuse me?" Lexi frowned.

"Fred's fancied you for years. I'd be surprised if he didn't admit to being in love with you." Ginny said, sitting down on one of the cushions on the floor.

"He...what?" Lexi asked.

"Honestly, are you blind?" Hermione said, joining Ginny. "Do you not see the way he looks at you, or how he looks ready to murder any boy that so much as breathes on you?"

"Really?" Lexi asked, half smiling and playing with her hair. Ginny and Hermione exchanged looks.

"You don't fancy him...do you?" Ginny asked. Lexi looked startled.

"No...Yes...Maybe?" she sighed. "I don't know what I feel."

Hermione patted her hand sympathetically. Ginny grinned. "Come on, let's go up to bed. It's late."

Together, the three girls walked back to the common room. They each had something in common. And that was that their feelings towards certain boys were either complicated or completely screwed up.

"Boys are stupid." Lexi mumbled.

"I hear ya." Ginny laughed.