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beamish

[ bee-mish ]

adjective

bright, cheerful, and optimistic.

Ever since they had bumped into each other on the train ride to Hogwarts, Harry kept his eye on her. As a Muggleborn, she stood out from everyone else, and they made her difference known to her. They were already two months into the school year, and it was Halloween, and Weasley the youngest had been mean to her at the end of Transfiguration. He had watched as she grew indignant, her hair fluffing up with magic as she tried to reign her temper in. Suddenly, she was bearing down on Weasley, her finger poking him in the chest as he gaped at her, wide eyed, and her mouth moved a mile a minute, telling him off. With a final poke and scathing word, she stomped off, the students gathered in the hallway parting like the Red Sea. Harry stared admiringly after her, before starting to follow her.

She may have been strong there, but everyone has a breaking point.

He lost her around a corner leading to the courtyard near the Transfiguration hallway, but as he whipped around the corner, he stopped short upon seeing the Weasley twins picking on her. Harry managed two steps before Hermione exploded at them too.

"Why is everyone bullying me?! I just want to learn, and to help, and everyone is treating me like I have the plague! Why you too?"

For a moment, the Weasley twins looked taken aback, and they shared a look between themselves as Hermione stood before them, sobbing. Nodding, they both swooped in to start comforting her.

"We're sorry. We only want to play pranks and there's such easy targets-"

"Why?! Because we're first years and know nothing about magic? Because I'm Muggleborn and have to work harder than everyone else here to prove that I deserve to be here as much as you do?" Her hair started sparking in her upset, her magic nearly bursting from her. Harry could feel it from where he hid to watch the scene. "Why are you picking on people younger than you? It's malicious-" The twins shared another look at her word choice here, "-and it hurts! That's what bullying is! A prank is supposed to be harmless, and be funny, not be humiliating. I just...I'm done with this! First Ron and now you guys?" She turned to dash away but one of the Twins grabbed her arm-Fred?- to hold her back.

"We're sorry," he stated, and after a moment he let her go once he knew she wasn't going to bolt. She looked up at them with teary eyes.

"Are you actually? Or are you apologizing because you have a sobbing 'ickle firstie' in front of you?" she shot back, her words bitter. The twins exchanged looked again, and Harry made sure to conceal himself behind a column when he thought one of them had seen him.

"We are sorry. We promise to stop bullying first years-"

"-gain their permission if we do want to test prank items on them-"

"AND have a prefect present to oversee and help undo any bad side-effects-" one of them added at her glare.

"AND we'll get some of the upper years to help reign in the bullying. To be honest, you're not the only one who's been bullied this year." Another shared look and the two of them got to their knees to teasingly supplicate, bowing to her as if she were a queen.

"We're sorry and pledge ourselves to help our Lady!" they said in unison. They must have a telepathic link if they can coordinate like that, Harry thought as he watched this all unfold.

"I will be your sword!" one twin stated.

"And I will be your shield!" the other added, and in reply, Hermione merely stomped her food, thinking they were making fun of her again.

"I don't want any of that! I just want you to stop bullying!"

"Can we at least bully your other bullies?"

"We can start with our little brother!"

"And then continue with anyone else who hurts others!"

"We'll even start small, give them a warning, so if they continue, then we'll escalate!" The twins' speak going back and forth would have made Harry dizzy had he been closer, but from where he stood, he could see both easily, without having to whip his head back and forth to keep his eye on them.

Hermione didn't seem to have that problem.

"And if it continues from there, you'll tell a teacher?" she asked in a small voice, wiping the tears from her face. The twins smiled gently at her, and Harry felt a small coil of something ugly form in his belly at the sight.

"If they continue from there, we'll get a teacher," they confirmed. Hermione's beamish smile seemed to brighten the twins, and suddenly they were on their feet with Hermione between them. Harry watched as his chance to finally talk to her outside of class literally walk away, but he could only approve as he overheard one of the twins ask loudly, "So tell us what our deplorable little brother did now."