Three weeks later and Georgia was trying to plan all the ways she could escape the twins, she had loved having bodyguards and found it really endearing that her friends wanted to protect her, they had been caring at the start but now she was bored of it, very bored.
"Tills please can I come to Arithmancy with you?" she begged one morning at breakfast as she noticed George and Fred rising from their places further down the table to make their way over to her. She didn't even take Arithmancy but anything was better than having her every move carefully watched and questioned.
Tilly shook her head "You and I both know you'd hate that class besides you're getting taken from class to class by gorgeous George, why are you even complaining?" She asked, head cocked to the side.
Georgia snorted and sprayed the pumpkin juice onto the table "Oh my Godric Tilly! You sound like me Mam when she's talking about George Michael"
"Who?" Tilly asked, looking utterly baffled and Georgia internally face palmed herself. "He's a Muggle pop star, don't worry about it" she explained whilst also casting a drying spell over the spilled juice. After cleaning up the spillage Georgia clocked the twins making their way closer and groaned slightly as she looked back at Tilly and Ruby begging both of them with her eyes to think up a plan to save her, hoping they could walk to class together, without her new bodyguards. The mousy haired witch gave her an apologetic look and shrugged her shoulders, not knowing what to do when the two red heads were already upon them.
"Morning Goshawk" Fred smiled, overly cheerful for it being the first thing in the morning.
"You ready to go?" George asked.
"You know, I'm more than fine getting to classes without an escort" Georgia sighed, really hoping they'd stop the protection act.
"Not happening Gia, not while there's something mad on the loose" Fred shook his head, shoving his hands into his robe pockets, "Roo can't you talk some sense into her?"
"Tried" Ruby shrugged, throwing her bag over her shoulder and downing the last of her juice.
"I've got Tilly and Ruby, we'll be fine, seriously" the brunette insisted.
Fred scoffed, looking at the two short witches still sat at the table. "Neither of you could fight off a monster, you gotta be athletic like Georgie and I" he puffed out his chest trying to look more manly. Georgia rolled her eyes at him, wondering why exactly she liked him so much. Finishing the last of her pumpkin juice she grabbed her school bag and linking arms with the blonde witch she waved goodbye to Tilly and gestured for the twins to lead the way out of the hall admitting defeat. She'd have to be better prepared to shake them off next time.
December quickly arrived with a thick blanket of snow that covered the entire castle and school grounds making it impossible for anyone to venture outside. Being stuck inside was making everyone miserable so when the notices went up that Professor Lockhart and Professor Snape were starting a duelling club it created a happy buzz around the school. Everyone was excited to have a little bit of excitement to look forward to after a long week of classes.
"What do you reckon? Should we go?" Ruby asked, eyeing the notice. Not too sure what to make of the choice of Professors running it. Neither striked her as great fighters. Lockhart had failed to teach them anything useful during their weekly Defense lessons. Choosing instead to talk only about himself and have them read about his adventures from his books.
"I'm all for it," George nodded.
"Yeah, it'll be good to know how to defend ourselves if that monster attacks again" Fred agreed.
Georgia hadn't been as keen on the idea, she was all for knowing how to use her magic correctly but she didn't like the idea of using it on someone else unnecessarily but wasn't given much choice in the matter as her friends still weren't letting her out of their sights, even when she needed the bathroom the twins would either send Ruby with her or they'd hang around outside the door. She was sure she'd soon hate her friends if they didn't all back off and give her some space. After dinner that evening they'd all returned back to the Great Hall which had been transformed, the long dining tables having been replaced by a stage. The hall was already packed with students, excited to learn. Lockhart strutted his way across the stage wearing plum coloured robes, his wide smile fixed onto his face. Snape followed behind him, his upper lip curled into a scowl.
"Gather round, gather round" Lockhart called out "Can everyone hear me?"
George saw the glint in his brother's eye and knew what he was planning before it even happened, so excusing himself he squeezed through the group of students taking Georgia's hand and pulling her after him as Fred took hold of Ruby's wrist and tugged her through the crowd as the four shoved their way up to the front so they'd have a better view of the action.
"Professor Dumbledore has granted me permission to start this little club, so that I can train you all to defend yourselves as I have done on countless occasions - full details can be found in my published works" Lockhart flashed them all another grin and both Fred and George groaned loudly as how highly the guy thought of himself.
"Now, allow me and my assistant to demonstrate" he gestured wildly to Snape who continued to glare at him. "We will cast our spells on the count of three, and neither of us will be aiming to kill" Lockhart laughed lightly. George snickered, glad he wasn't the one standing in the Defense Professors position, he wouldn't put it past Snape to aim to kill in a friendly duel. Both teachers faced one another, raising their wands and giving curt bows.
The golden haired man counted to three and in one swift movement Snape had swung his arm shouting "Expelliarmus!" Georgia gasped in horror as Lockhart was flung backwards across the stage, where he landed with a bang. Several of the slytherins cheered loudly as he picked himself up and dusted his robes down.
"There we have it! That boys and girls was a disarming spell. Wonderful idea to show them that one first Professor. But if you don't mind me saying so, very obvious you were about to cast that. Had I wanted too I could have stopped it"
Ruby rolled her eyes, not sure he would have been able to defend himself. "He's all talk, no action" she muttered, the twins nodding in agreement.
Snape was looking murderous and Lockhart quickly turned to them all, flashing them his bright teeth "Enough demonstrating though! You've not come to watch us duel, I bet you're all excited to get to trying it yourselves. Let's get you all paired up!"
The quartet looked at one another and George grabbed Ruby's wrist, stepping closer to her, which was met with eyebrow raises from Fred and Georgia, but when Ruby looked at him with questioning eyes George brushed it off "Figured it would be too obvious to choose Fred as we always duel one another and you two keep telling us how you're better than us at most things so, figured I'd see for myself" he threw her his trademark mischievous grin. This then left Fred and Georgia to partner up, the red-head nudged her whilst throwing her a wink.
"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you" he said but Georgia shook her head at him "I'm going to wipe the floor with you Weasley. You have been warned" she giggled and then skipped off to the other end of the stage not caring that she probably looked ridiculous. Snape was their referee - much to the pair's chagrin - and judging by their potion masters' sarcastic quips he wasn't thrilled at the prospect either, then again when was he ever happy?
"Duel stance" the greasy haired professor drawled and the pair obliged, Georgia smirked, not knowing exactly where her confidence had come from considering who her duelling partner was, before pointing her wand towards Fred and calling out "Tarantallegra" and then doubling over into giggles as Fred's legs began to dance wildly.
While George was distracted chuckling at his twin Ruby took the opportunity to cast her own spell "Rictumsempra" clutching his stomach George doubled over as his laughter increased, uncontrollably.
"Disarm only" Snape snarled at the four of them, shooting a Finite Incantatem at both Fred and George to end the laughing and stop the jinx before Fred got out of breath, before moving round to check on the other pairs of duelling students.
"Stop! Stop!" Lockhart could be heard shouting over the chaos, no one had taken note of the advice for disarming only, instead attacking one another with various spells. "I think we ought to have a demonstration on how to block unfriendly spells. What do you say?" He cast a flustered look towards Snape. Before the black robed Professor could respond though there was a bang and the tip of Malfoy's wand exploded, everyone turned in time to see a long black snake shoot out of the end and land on the floor between him and Harry. The room filled with squeals as everyone backed up, moving away from it.
"Don't move Potter," Snape drawled, pulling his sleeves back and pointing his wand at the snake, but before he could take action Lockhart once again swept in.
"Allow me" he announced, brandishing his own wand. Georgia clutched at Fred, peeking past his elbow as she hid behind him. She watched with wide eyes as the snake flew high into the air and dropped back to the floor with a sickening smack. The snake was now angry and raised itself up hissing. It slithered towards the nearest student which just so happened to be one of the second year Hufflepuffs, Justin Finch-Fletchley, the snake exposed it's fangs as it hissed again, looking ready to attack. Georgia dug her nails into Fred's arm and then found herself watching everything happen in slow motion. Justin backed further into the crowd, the snake following his every move, then suddenly Harry was walking towards it speaking in some odd language and surprisingly the snake stopped and turned, as though he had actually heard him and listened. Georgia was used to things being unusual in the magical world but even she knew that wasn't possible, she blinked realising that they might have been right after all, maybe Harry really was the heir of Slytherin so tearing her eyes away from the scene she'd been transfixed by she looked up at Fred's face and noticed him grimacing, she happened to look at where her fingers were and a blush crossed her cheeks, she apologised and then removed them. She then looked at him again "Freddie…" she whispered, not too sure if she could voice this.
"Mmm?" He responded "I-I think we might be right you know…." She finally said, before trying to locate Ruby and George to get their take on things, ignoring the fact that she had just made Fred's ego hundred times bigger. Ruby was gobsmacked at what she was seeing and turned to look at George to judge his reaction, she caught sight of both his and Lee's faces and would have laughed under other circumstances at how comical they both looked. The pair of them staring at Harry as though he'd just grown a second head, as though unable to believe he had a secret talent he'd never told them about. Quickly realising that her face probably looked a lot similar she closed her mouth and reset her features as Snape stepped forward, watching Harry, with an odd look on his own face, it was a look that she couldn't read. Their potions Professor waved his wand at the snake and it vanished in a puff of smoke.
"What do you think you're doing?" Yelled Justin, glaring at Harry who looked bewildered. Turning on his heel he stormed out of the Great Hall as it filled with quiet whispers, everyone trying to process what they'd just witnessed.
"Come on, move" Hissed Ron, taking hold of Harry's robes and forcefully pushing him forward and out of the hall, Hermione close behind them. The crowd of students parting to let them past as though frightened to be near them.
"Let's go" announced Fred, jerking his head towards the doors of the hall and the others happily complied. The four of them stuck close together as they left the hall and headed to the deserted corridor on the first floor where they'd claimed the empty classroom as their own. The room was cold and Ruby quickly filled the wall lamps with bluebell flames, something she'd learned from Hermione, casting both warmth and light throughout the old classroom. The plush sofas were still there from the last time they'd hung out, a sure sign that no one had found their hideout yet.
"The fuck was all that about?" George asked, sighing heavily as he flopped onto one of the sofas.
"Don't know, but it wasn't the duelling club experience I was expecting" Fred replied, taking the other sofa opposite.
"You can say that again" Ruby nodded, sitting on the floor with her back against the plush sofa, hugging her knees to her chest, feeling bummed out it hadn't gone to plan and been as fun as they'd expected.
"Well I for one think it was very informative..." Georgia piped up from her position on one of the bean bags, causing Ruby to scoff.
George sat up a little straighter "What do you mean? We learnt nothing practical"
"Well pretty sure Harry just managed to speak to that snake" she pointed out to them, "Plus, Justin did look rattled, almost as if Harry had purposefully made the snake attack him."
"You're being ridiculous," Ruby told her, laying her head against George's knee.
"Excuse me?" Georgia asked incredulously, arms folded and stare hard.
"That snake dropped as soon as Harry spoke to it, no way did he set it on Justin" Ruby shook her head, not believing it. "Harry is no more the heir than we are"
"Come off it, of course he is," Fred argued back. "Even Salazar himself was known as serpent tongue. Only a true heir would be able to speak to snakes"
"So why isn't he in Slytherin then?" Ruby quizzed with a raised eyebrow causing Fred to open and close his mouth, unable to find an answer. "The sorting hat is smart, it would know better than to put an heir of Slytherin into their rival house"
"She's got a point you know" George spoke up.
Georgia and Fred both mimicked him and giggled as they did so. George glared over at them, more than sure that his twin had let his secret out to the brunette, but they just shot him some wide grins back and acted like everything was normal.
"Besides," Ruby said proudly, ignoring their childish behaviour, "Harry is a half-blood, not a pure blood so he sure as Helga can't be the heir. Whilst Salazar hated muggle borns he also didn't think anyone that wasn't a pureblood was worth knowing" she then looked at the twins "Oh and blood traitors were also frowned upon"
Georgia interjected at that point "Doesn't anyone else remember the entire debate the hat went through when he was on Harry's head? Not to mention the fact that Hermione was a hat stall…"
"See? Goshawk and I are standing by our theory, Harry is the heir and that's that." Fred claimed.
Ruby then bit her lip "Actually now that you mention it, did anyone else catch the look on Snape's face when Harry spoke to the snake?" She enquired, that had been bugging her since they had found seclusion in the classroom.
The other three looked between themselves "Snape showed an emotion other than anger?" Fred quipped which caused George to laugh and Georgia to snigger. "Good one Ruby-Roo" the younger twin finally said once he'd got his breath back.
"Stop. Calling. Me. That." the blonde hissed out pinching the back of George's calf, causing him to yelp, "Please" she added, even though she wasn't feeling very polite.
"That's you told Georgie" Fred smirked with a glint in his eyes.
"I didn't imagine it" Ruby huffed, she'd seen the look on sour Snape's face. There was definitely more to it and she'd sure as hell find out what.
"Not saying you did, we're just messing" George ruffled her hair, causing her to smile.
"I'm telling you guys, Harry isn't the heir. We can't waste time fearing him when he isn't gonna attack us. One of his best friends is Muggle-Born, do you really think he's going to have a grudge against them and want them all out of the school? Just, think about it" Ruby pleaded with her friends. Hoping they'd see sense. The others pondered her words, still not fully on board, the factors that pointed towards Potter being the heir that had opened the Chamber were still pretty big and staring them in the face. The four of them sat in silence for a while, playing over the evenings events in their minds, trying to make some sort of sense of it. Finally Georgia let out a yawn making them all aware of how late it had gotten.
Ruby checked the time on the watch on her wrist and stood up, stretching her limbs out. Georgia copying her actions. "It's not long until curfew, we should head back" the blonde witch commented. With a grumble the twins followed suit, extinguishing the flames with a flick of their wands. They walked through the deserted castle, their footsteps echoing in the silence of the halls. Soon they reached the entrance for the Gryffindor common room and giving the Fat Lady the new password of the week they bid one another goodnight.
