Hi everyone! Thank you so much for reading my story. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it.

Chapter Seven

The Slytherin girl put on her night robes and pretended to turn in early for the night. All of her friends said good night to her, and she waited until the commotion in the common room settled down and she was sure that everyone had gone to bed. Natalie pulled out her Christmas gift that she had gotten Fred last year, the enchanted mirror. She put a silencing charm on her bed so that none of the other 6th year girls could hear her. "Freddie… Fred!" She yelled into the mirror.

She waited, wondering if he would even answer her yells. After a few moments of counting her breath so that she didn't start hyperventilating, she saw a flash of red. "Sorry to disappoint, love. George here."

Natalie rolled her eyes. "It's fine. I just need to talk to you two. Can you both meet me somewhere? I'll let you choose."

George looked thoughtful and then turned around, someone must have walked into the Gryffindor dormitory. "Oi, Fred. Get over here."

He handed the mirror to his twin and Fred smiled that did not match his eyes. "Hey, Nat."

"I need to talk to you two. I need to apologize. Where would you boys like to meet?"

Fred laughed and punched his twin in the shoulder. "Did you here that, George? Natalie Flint is going to apologize!"

George laughed. "Should we bring a camera to document the moment?"

"I think we should…"

Natalie cleared her throat. "If you two are done messing around… where should I head off to meet you?"

"Girls laboratory on the _ floor. Hopefully you don't mind having company because we need to make something that requires privacy." Fred smiled and had the gleam of a prank in the making in his eyes.

"Shhh…" George playfully said to his twin. "You don't want to spoil the surprise."

Natalie rolled her eyes. "Well I'm heading there now if you two are done."

"See you soon, beautiful." Fred winked and the image of the two Gryffindor boys vanished.

Natalie carefully got out of bed and put on her socks and shoes. She threw on her night robes over her green, silky pajamas and crept out of the Slytherin dorm. When she got to the common room she noticed that there was a boy sleeping on the couch, obviously had fallen asleep while studying. She silently cursed to herself and she tip toed passed him. It was Malfoy. She knew that if she got caught sneaking in or out that he would surely tell on her.

Somehow, Natalie managed to sneak passed him and was out in the corridor. Every so often, she would stop walking and listen for the sound of soft footsteps that could belong to Filch or Mrs. Norris. She managed to dodge anyone that could have been lurking in the Hogwarts corridors and made it to the meeting point.

Fred and George were already there, and they were sitting on the floor with their ankles crossed as if they always casually hung out in the bathroom. Natalie walked over and sat across from them and smiled. "I wanted to tell you guys that I overreacted and that I'm sorry for what I said. I lashed out in anger and it was unfair of me. I hope you can put yourself in my shoes and understand why I reacted that way. I didn't mean it and I hope that you can forgive me."

"Of course, we can forgive you, Natalie. We were worried that we were going to say too much and set you off which is why we hadn't brought it up before ever." George smiled kindly at her.

Fred wiggled his eyebrows. "But-" His eyes flashed that same wicked gleam that happened whenever he had a plan. "There is a way you could make it up to us…"

"What is it…" Natalie replied wearily. She knew that she would have to do whatever they asked since she owed it to them, but she never knew what they had up their sleeves.

The boys looked at each other and then said in unison. "Aging potion."

"Not this again…" Natalie groaned. "You won't be able to beat Dumbledore with an aging potion. There is no way he hadn't thought of that!"

"It's the best plan we got." Fred said defiantly. "So, will you help us or not?"

George laughed. "We really need your help, Nat. You beat us in potions every year and it's not just because you are a Slytherin and Snape is biased. You're genuinely brilliant at Potions."

Fred batted his eyelashes and clasped his hands together. "Pretty please will you help us?"

She sighed. "Fine… when should I begin making it?"

Fred leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I knew you would help us! How convenient that you ask… we actually have all of the supplies that you would need so you could begin tonight!"

She scoffed. "You boys really do think of anything."

George laughed and lead her to a stall that was at the far end of the room. "We figured we could come here every night and keep an eye on the potion. Freddie and I probably won't be able to see if anything is wrong with it so you'll have to come every night."

"I'm not coming here by myself. Someone has to keep watch." Natalie looked around remembering that they weren't in a safe place. A student or professor could walk in at any time.

"We will!" Fred promised. "We also will put a silence charm on the stall so that no one can hear us working on it. We really need to enter the tournament. There is a lot of prize money that comes with winning!"

"We could use the money, Nat. You know that." George looked down at his hands, embarrassed to admit that they were struggling to get Weasley Wizard Wheezes afloat since they were barely scraping by for money for supplies.

Natalie felt her chest grow heavy. Now that she knew why they wanted to enter the competition it all made sense. "Fine. I'll help you. But I'm being honest when I say, I hope neither of your names get called. People die in this tournament and I couldn't handle losing either of you—" She stopped and couldn't continue. Her eyes started to tear up at the thought of losing either of her best friends.

Fred wrapped her up in a hug. "Shh… shh… we aren't going anywhere. It would take a lot more than a tournament to take out the Weasley twins."

George laughed, "Trust me with all of our pranking, it's a shock that we haven't been more hurt in the past! We know what we are doing, Nat."

After the boys calmed her down with lots of positive thoughts and promises from George and lots of forehead and cheeks kisses from Fred, Natalie was able to calm down. The boys were diligently watching her work and follow along in the Potions page they had ripped out of the library book. Natalie clucked at the idea of damaging the book. "You could've just copied down the potion, you know…"

"We didn't want to risk messing it up." Fred blushed a little knowing that she loved going through the library and when people damaged the books, she would get angry. "I solemnly swear to never damage a library book again. Cross my heart and hope to die."

She rolled her pale eyes and laughed. "Whatever, Freddie. You're such a dork."

"That's the highest compliment you could give me, thank you." He kissed the top of her head as she was crushing up the first ingredient for the potion.

They continued to work like this for an hour or so before the potion was at a point where they could let sit for a while. The potion would have to brew for 3 days. George decided that he would do Fred and his own homework the next night and only Fred and Natalie were needed to go and work on it. They agreed and went on their separate ways.

Fred walked Natalie to the Slytherin common room entrance and smiled at her. "I'm sorry if I upset you today during the study hours. I really didn't want that. I really like you and I care about you. I just want you to be safe."

"Safe?" Natalie raised her eyebrow. "What do you mean, Fred? Like should I be worried about my dad?"

Fred looked at his beat-up shoes. "Well… I'm not trying to upset you again. I just think that maybe you should visit the Burrow more often during the breaks. I get very anxious when I can't see you and I don't know if you are safe. I'm very… protective over you."

Her heart fluttered a little and she felt her face getting hot. "I appreciate that, Fred. You do know that I can protect myself, though. Also, I don't think my dad will hurt me. I don't think he's a death eater…"

He shook his head and smiled. "No… no… I know you can protect yourself. I just worry you will be put into situations that you wouldn't normally be put into. I'm not going to talk more about your dad because I know that it'll cause a fight. However, I won't stop watching over you."

She raised his head with her hand so that she could look into his eyes. "I appreciate you watching over me, Freddie. It shows me that you care. I won't bring up my dad if you don't."

He smiled at her and leaned down to give her a kiss. "Goodnight, Natalie." He smiled against her lips and turned away while she was still standing on her tippy toes to reach his lips.

"Goodnight, Freddie!" She called in a loud whisper down the corridor. Before his figure retreated out of sight, she whispered the password and creeped into the Slytherin common room to go back to bed before anyone could notice that she was gone.