"ATTACK! ATTACK! ANOTHER ATTACK! NO MORTAL OR GHOST IS SAFE! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES! ATTAAAAAACK!"
Fred and George looked at each other with wide eyes, there was no mistaking that was the tones of the Poltergeist, Peeves. They'd both been half asleep listening to Professor Burbage drone on about how the Muggles travel, having only taken the class in the first place to understand their fathers love of them so much, but it was boring. Neither twin had been paying attention, both silently wishing for something entertaining to happen when suddenly it did, but not in the fun way they'd wanted. The class scrambled out of their seats and into the corridor to see what was happening, the professor amongst them. Several other classes along the hallway had had the same idea and the corridor was filled with noise and panic. The twins stared in confusion trying to make sense of the sight in front of them, Peeves still hung in the air above the scene grinning widely. Fred and George knew he'd be loving the chaos he'd created, chaos was what he lived for.
Using George's shoulder to steady himself Fred stood on a loose brick in the wall to get a better view over everyone's heads. Harry seemed to be trying to protect someone on the floor while getting crushed himself by the intrigued students itching to get a closer look. Their House Ghost Nearly Headless Nick was also there, black and smokey, no longer his usual transparent self. He lay floating immobile a few feet off the ground. The red head quickly jumped down and filled his brother in on what he'd seen when Professor McGonagall showed up, her sixth year class in tow. Pointing her wand in the air she set off a loud bang that brought silence to the corridor. She began ordering everyone back into their classes and the Professors obliged, rounding their students up and guiding them away from the scene, allowing some privacy for it to be dealt with. Fred had other ideas though and caught his brother's gaze and subtly jerked his head, they wouldn't be returning to class. Pressing their backs against the wall they hid in the small alcove as the hallway cleared, silently they watched the scene unfold before them and George raised his eyebrows as the body of Justin Finch-Fletchley laying stiffly on the floor came into view. In the days since the duelling club debacle rumours in the castle corridors had been that the Hufflepuff student would be the next petrified, it sent shivers through his spine that it was true. Hurried footsteps could be heard in the distance and suddenly another second year Hufflepuff showed up and began yelling.
"Caught in the act!"
"That will do Macmillan," Professor McGonagall replied sharply. The twins watched as Professor Flitwick, who had hung around to assist, conjured up a stretcher before levitating Justin's body onto it. Above them Peeves cackled loudly, blowing raspberries as he began singing.
"Oh Potter you rotter! What have you done? Killing off students, you think it's good fun!"
"That is quite enough Peeves!" McGonagall barked and the poltergeist flew off, but not before poking his tongue out at the two red haired boys. Soon enough Justin was carried off and Ernie was tasked with fanning the ghost along the corridor leaving just Harry and McGonagall, Fred sucked in a deep breath as the head of house instructed Harry to follow her to the Headmasters office. He did find it a little strange that the young boy had once again been found at the crime scene and knew it wouldn't go down well.
"Is the coast clear?" George asked quietly and Fred nodded, glancing back and forth along the hall.
"Come on, we need to go find Georgia" leading his brother back to the Runes classroom where they'd left her and Ruby earlier. Ruby and Georgia were trying their hardest to concentrate on the task in front of them. Georgia really didn't understand it but knew she couldn't put her hand up and ask Professor Babbling for help again so she decided to really focus and see if anything would sink in. The moment she put a quill to parchment the door to the classroom creaked open, but as they went to school in a castle she put it down to the age of the building. That was until she heard an all to familiar voice.
"Pssssst Gia!" Fred hissed from the doorway which caused Georgia to jump ten feet into the air.
"Jesus Christ Gred! What the hell are you playing at?!" She shot back, heart pumping and cheeks red from embarrassment. Ruby turned on Fred as well, wand in hand ready to hex him six ways Sunday.
Professor Babbling stopped what she was doing up at the blackboard and turned to look at the girls desks, Georgia's outburst had alerted her to some interlopers.
"Mr Weasley, I trust there is a perfectly good explanation to why you and your brother" she looked between the pair of them "have decided to interrupt my lesson?" She asked, eyebrows raised and arms folded, having put the chalk down onto her desk.
Fred and George looked between each other sheepishly and opened their mouths to reply but the teacher stopped them with one simple look "10 points from Gryffindor for each of you. Now, if you wouldn't mind..." she indicated to the door and they shuffled out the way they had come, George hitting Fred upside the head for being an idiot and ruining their chances of telling Georgia what they had intended to in the first place. Fred cast George a defeated look, admitting he didn't always have the best of ideas but at least they knew Georgia was safe and that put his mind at rest a little even if it had cost them house points. His stomach growled making him aware of the time, checking the watch on his wrist he noticed they only had twenty five minutes until lunch time. They could wait that out. Not wanting to be caught out of class the boys decided to wander round the halls and loop back around in time for the bell to go. Allowing them to meet the girls after class. They casually lent on the wall and watched as everyone else exited the Runes classroom, saying hello to some of their other friends, but it was another five minutes before Georgia and Ruby appeared.
"What took you so long?" George asked, he was hungry and wanted to get to lunch.
"We got kept back and lectured for your behaviour" Ruby huffed, jabbing her index finger into George's shoulder.
"I'm sorry" he mumbled, rubbing his arm.
"You'd better be, because next time we'll all end up in detention to catch up on the work we missed" Ruby warned him and the younger twin nodded.
"Why were you both out of class so early?" Georgia questioned, with a frown as she linked arms with Fred and Ruby, sandwiching herself in the middle. Ruby linked her free arm with George and the four of them made their way to the Great Hall like a human barricade. The twins shared a look over the tops of the girls heads before Fred replied quietly so that no one would overhear them, "We wanted to be the first to tell you there's been a double attack"
"On who?" Georgia asked slowly, afraid of the answer.
"That Hufflepuff from duelling club"
"Justin Finch-Fletchley?" The brunette gasped when she received a nod of confirmation.
"Who else?" Ruby queried, tightening her grip on Georgia. The attacks were becoming more frequent and it was getting quite scary.
"Nearly Headless Nick" George responded.
"You what?"
George nodded his head, "We seen him ourselves, whatever that monster is it's got the ability to attack the non living too"
"No ones safe," Fred told them, remembering Peeves' words.
Georgia shuddered at the thought, suddenly very thankful for her friend's protection. They split up as they reached the moving staircase not having the space to stay linked together. Reaching the bottom of the steps Georgia gulped as a thought occurred to her.
"Wait, does that mean you saw who or what attacked them?"
"No" Fred shook his head before retelling them the story of them being in class and hearing Peeves shouts in the corridor, alerting the professors who had been teaching.
"Did you find out anything?" Ruby asked hopeful for some clues on who the heir might be. The twins shared another look and Ruby looked between them trying to read their faces. "What?" she asked, not liking their reaction.
"Harry was there" George told her, with a small grimace. Not wanting to burst her bubble. "Pretty sure Peeves caught him in the act"
"So we were right?" Georgia exclaimed.
"We don't know that" Ruby's words were cut off by Fred.
"I don't want to say I told you so but he got taken to Dumbledore's office" he said apologetically.
Harry was indeed missing from lunch and Ruby got an unsettling feeling in the pit of her stomach, she swished her spoon through her bowl of soup not really feeling hungry anymore as she pondered the possibility of sharing a common room with a heir of Salazar himself. Harry was back again by dinner time that night and she found herself questioning everything that had happened since Halloween again. "Potter!" She hissed down the Gryffindor table where the speckled twelve year old was sat with Ron and Hermione, the rest of their friends giving them a wide berth. The double attack was common knowledge amongst everyone now and had turned the nervousness into real panic. Harry looked up and slid closer to the elder students as the blonde witch beckoned him over. "Is Dumbledore expelling you?"
Harry shook his head, looking bewildered "No, I didn't attack Justin and Dumbledore knows that"
"So, just the wrong place, the wrong time?" Ruby asked, throwing a glare at Fred for putting doubts into her mind.
"Yes" Harry nodded. "Hagrid can vouch for me, I was talking to him moments before it happened" he pointed towards the teachers table where Hagrid was sitting in his place at the end.
"It's okay, I believe you" Harry nodded at her words, offering her a thankful smile because no one else seemed to believe he wasn't behind it, before he returned to his best friends.
"That settles it then" George spoke, causing Ruby to look at him.
"If Dumbledore believes him then I believe him" Fred continued.
"Harry isn't the heir" George concluded and Ruby smirked, stabbing a roast potato with her fork. Maybe next time her friends would trust her judgement a little more. As the news spread the amount of people signing up to head home for the holidays increased and McGonagall passed along the table to make sure she had everyone's names down that were leaving the castle.
"Miss Wilkins, Miss Goshawk, are you both still leaving? I don't want another repeat of last year" the professor's eyes bore into her skull and Ruby gulped before pulling the parchment closer to her and signing her name before looking back at the Head of House and nodding profusely.
"Yes Professor McGonagall, definitely leaving this year and no I won't be changing my mind" she clarified as she eyed the twins, who shook their heads at being offered the parchment, so she handed it to Georgia instead.
"You're leaving us?" George inquiried, a hint of sadness in his voice.
Ruby nodded her head picking her roast potato back up, "Yeah, mum would kill me if I missed another Christmas at home and Onyx has promised to try and visit again" she shrugged, really missing her big brother with what was going on at school, "You're not leaving?" She asked in return.
Fred grabbed another bread roll before answering, "No, Mum and Dad are visiting Bill in Egypt for Christmas this year. No point in us all going" Ruby could understand that, she'd known the Weasleys long enough to know they didn't have much money but they made do with what they had and were still always so warm and welcoming and she admired it. Fred's eyes then fell onto their brunette best friend cocking his head to the side in a questioning manner.
"Why haven't you signed up to go home?" Fred quiered, as his brain caught up with the fact he'd just watched her take the list and push the parchment along the table to Angelina and return to eating. It was now halfway down the table without her signature on it.
"You didn't either" Georgia shot back, he had no right to question her when he himself wasn't leaving the castle.
"Please tell me that's not the reason you're deciding to stay" Ruby had been about to put another roast potato into her mouth but stopped half way.
"No it's not, but if you must know Hogwarts Christmases are so much better than Muggle ones. I had to endure enough of them for the first eleven years of my life so excuse me for wanting a little change" Georgia huffed, dropping her fork onto her plate with a clang. "Besides I really don't see the point in returning to Wales when these two are going to be staying here" she gestured in George and Fred's general direction. "I mean I'll have my body-guards on tap 24/7" she gave a fake smile to the red heads who didn't meet it back but instead shook their heads at her.
"Nope, not happening Goshawk, not this year. Not with a bloody monster on the loose within the castle" George wasn't usually the one to put his foot down so that made Georgia sit up and take notice.
"Wow Georgie, snuck some firewhiskey into your pumpkin juice this evening did you?" Ruby questioned, also shocked at his demeanor.
But he just rolled his eyes in reply and stared Georgia down, hard. "We're waiting, Georgia" he simply said, arms folded and eyebrow cocked. Georgia hated being put on the spot like this and would give anything to magic up a hole in the ground to swallow her up and transport her back to her dorm room so that she could stay there until it was safe to come out.
Fred and Ruby looked at her as well so sighing she met George's eyes "You have no idea how boring Muggle Christmases are do you?" she addressed all three and was in turn met with three shaking heads.
"No, we don't but we do have some idea about the fact that this monster is out for Muggleborns and if you're still in the castle during Christmas time I think we can safely assume that you will probably be its next target."
Georgia gasped at the red head's words, "George Weasely! How dare you have such little faith" she glared at him before looking between the three of them again "I honestly don't understand why you want me to change my mind? With it being the holidays I doubt there's going to be much drama with hardly anyone here. So, why the massive fuss to make me leave? It doesn't make any sense."
"Do you think the monster knows it's Christmas?" Fred asked, raising his eyebrow. "It doesn't care who it attacks, so it's not gonna care when it attacks."
"Fred has a point," Ruby agreed. "And rather than having to worry whether you're safe every day we'd all much rather you be at home and know you're definitely out the way of any danger" Ruby spoke, reaching out to take hold of Georgia's hands. Hoping the soft approach would work better to get through to her. "I'm going home, you're not gonna miss much"
"Nearly everyone is going home this year. It'll be boring staying here" George added.
Georgia bit her bottom lip, considering their words. Looking up from her hands that were enclosed in Ruby's she caught the girls eye - she could spend more time with Fred if she stayed, not to mention she could find out more about George's crush on Ruby. "I'm fine with boring, I'll have both the twins to keep me company, never a dull day with them right?"
Fred groaned in frustration, running his hands over his face. "You're such a stubborn little witch"
Georgia took her hands back and folded her arms across her chest in defiance, not ready to back down and listen to her friends demands. "You've made your decision, so let me have mine. If you're gonna stay then I'm staying too"
"Trust me, we'd go home if we could. Christmas is all about family, I'd much rather spend the holidays at home with mum and dad" George offered, scooping up some chocolate pudding up now that it had appeared.
"Just another reason I want to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas, you've all got siblings to share your joy and excitement with. I don't have that. I love my parents, I do, but it's not the same as making magical memories with you guys" Georgia desperately hoped they'd understand where she was coming from. "So i'm really not going home" she added with a tone that suggested the debate was over.
The twins sighed in defeat simultaneously, she had them with her side of the argument, they didn't know how else to persuade the stubborn brunette that going home was the best option for her. Ruby hadn't said much and the twins looked at her for help, she was usually good with words and being a girl meant Georgia was usually willing to listen to her, they had a better understanding of each other. Fred could practically see the cogs turning in the blonde's head and knew she was cooking up some brilliant plan and waited with bated breath for her to speak.
"I've got an idea" she finally said, her voice quiet as though she was still mulling the idea over before voicing it. "It's quite brilliant actually" she nodded a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "We should all kick ourselves for not thinking of it sooner"
There was a thwack and then George yelped in pain, "I don't think she meant literally you bloody idiot" he growled at his twin, rubbing his aching shin where his brother had kicked him.
"Sorry, terrible reflexes" Fred smirked, feeling pleased with himself as Georgia pressed a hand to her mouth to hide her giggles. "What's this great idea then?" He asked, prompting Ruby to continue.
"What if we all go home for Christmas, no listen" Ruby added as the twins went to interrupt her. "I know you can't go to your own home" she told the two boys. "But that doesn't mean you can't come stay with us, we can all go together and we can take turns on whose house we stay at each year" she shrugged.
Georgia looked at the three of them and gulped "I couldn't ask you to do that though..." she aimed that mostly at the twins.
"You don't have to ask, we're in" Fred cut her off.
"I think it's a genius idea" George added, in awe of the suggestion.
"And I'm sure mum will be fine with us being somewhere else for the holidays" the elder twin added with a shrug.
"I don't know how my mam and tad will feel about having twin boys in the house" The brunette admitted, working out in her head where they would sleep. Plus she secretly liked the fact that her and her mother, Kay, outnumbered her dad in the boys to girls ratio and if Fred and George turned up it would make it male heavy and that just wasn't fair. "Especially ones that are clueless to everything Muggle. I don't know if I can handle a few weeks alone with the pair of you acting like over excited puppies, no offence boys"
"None taken" they said in unison.
"I'd be there to help keep them in check" Ruby offered and Georgia gave her a shocked look.
"Wait, you will? But what about spending Christmas with your own family in Devon. Don't you have plans?"
"Not any physical set in stone plans" Ruby shook her head. "Onyx hasn't even confirmed he's definitely coming home this year" the blonde replied, shaking her head sadly. "Besides, it doesn't have to be your house we stay at. I'm sure I could sweet talk my dad into agreeing" Ruby batted her eyelashes, making herself look innocent "Anything to make his only daughter happy"
"How about you flip a coin to see who gets the pleasure of writing home to ask permission?" George suggested, remembering their tradition for decision making.
Ruby nodded her head enthusiastically and patted her school robes, usually having random bits of everything in her pockets. She found a loose knut and held it up.
"Heads or tails?" She asked her best friend.
"Heads I ask. Tails you ask" Georgia replied.
"Deal" Ruby balanced the bronze coin on the tip of her thumb and flicked it up into the air, spinning as it went. She was ready to catch it when Fred with his lightning quick reflexes snatched it from the air and pressed it firmly to the back of his other hand. Hiding it from sight.
"Oi!" Ruby whined.
"Just keeping it fair" he shrugged "I want no funny business"
"I'm not a cheater" she huffed "Don't keep us waiting. Where are we spending Christmas?"
Fred lifted his right hand revealing the coin sitting on top of his left hand. Heads facing upwards. "Looks like we're living that Muggle lifestyle for the holidays"
"Dad will be so jealous" George said, unable to hide his own joy at the idea of seeing how the other half lived.
"Are you sure you're okay with that?" Georgia asked, looking at Ruby.
"Absolutely, I haven't had a Muggle Christmas since the year before Onyx started Hogwarts. Mum likes to stick to her roots sometimes and keep things simple. I was only a kid then though so I'd very much like to experience one again"
"That settles it then, we've got letters to write and McGonagall to go find so we can sign that paper to leave the castle." Fred clapped his hands together.
"She's going to hate us" Georgia groaned, burying her face in her hands. Not looking forward to telling the older witch that they had indeed changed their minds again.
"Wales isn't going to know what's hit it" Ruby giggled wondering what she was letting herself in for.
