"Great!", they exclaimed simultaneously. "I'm Fred by the way," the slightly taller one of them explained, and with a nod towards the other boy he added: "And that's George."

George raised his hand for a quick wave. Jayla knew them, even though they were Gryffindors. And how could she not? She doubted there was any student – or teacher – that hadn't heard of the two mischief makers causing all sorts of trouble.

"And you are?" Fred asked.

"I…oh sorry…I…," Jayla stuttered. Fuck. Why did she always get so nervous talking to people she didn't know? She took a deep, steadying breath. "I'm Jayla."

"Alright, as that's settle now. Let's go." George had hardly finished his sentence, when the two boys had already turned on the spot and started walking.

"Go where?" Jayla shouted after them.

Both boys looked over their shoulders. "Just wherever," they responded, again simultaneously – was that a twin thing? – before just continuing walking. "Seriously, what's wrong with those two?" Jayla wondered, hesitant if she should follow or not.

But curiosity got the better of her and she jogged after the two boys, trying to catch up with them. As soon as she had reached them, Fred and George parted, signalling her to walk between them. Without talking, much to Jayla's relief as she still needed to wrap her head around what had just happened, they led her to one of the trees next to the Great Lake and made themselves comfortable in the grass. Jayla sat down opposite the two.

"So…," George started. "Wanna talk about what happened earlier?"

Jayla rolled her eyes before she could stop herself. "Just the same as always," she replied. "I've not exactly been friends with anyone from my house ever since I started rejecting the views they have. I usually know better than to waste my energy on fighting with them, but sometimes my mouth is just quicker."

"Ha! I like that," Fred exclaimed. "You must be the first Slytherin we've ever met that's friends with students from other houses."

"I wouldn't say that," Jayla said with a heavy sight. "I don't exactly have any friends here to be honest," she added hesitantly.

Why was she telling them that? She had learned to hide her feelings since her early childhood as no one had ever cared anyway, so why was she suddenly sharing something so personal, so embarrassing with two random Gryffindor students?

Fred and George, who had always kinda been going along well with everyone, were so taken aback by that revelation that they didn't know how to respond immediately.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have bothered you with that," Jayla said, slightly panicking that she had already scared away the first people that actually wanted to talk to her, and jumped up, ready to leave.

This time, the two redheads reacted more quickly and stopped her before she had even stood up completely by grabbing her arm and gently pulling her down again.

"Please wait," George pleaded. "We didn't mean it like that. It just took our slow brains a while to process how someone so cool could have no friends," he added, half serious, half joking.

Jayla rolled her eyes at him but still felt a smile forming on her lips.

"Others are usually not known to be prone to making friends with Slytherins," she said, trying to sound casual about it.

Fred just shrugged, a huge smile back on his face. "Their loss."

"Sooooo…what else do you like to do, other than putting Draco in his place?" he inquired and the conversation soon drifted off to all kinds of fun topics.

Somehow, something about the twins made the girl feel comfortable. She could gradually feel the walls, she had spent so many years building up around her, crumble. After a while, she just closed her eyes, while listening to Fred and George discussing some of their mischievous plans that had just come to their mind. The April sun warmed her skin, almost making her forget everything around her. The boys were deep in a discussion Jayla couldn't follow, but she didn't mind as that just gave her more time to enjoy the moment. The lake had actually been quite busy earlier, with some smaller groups of students eating their lunch outside, but now they had all gone back to the castle, which made their place comfortably quiet. Wait a minute. Jayla quickly opened her eyes in shock. All the other students were gone. Her brain needed a bit of time to process what that actually meant, but then Jayla realised with a shock that their lunch break had ended a few minutes ago.

"Fuck!" she exclaimed, scrambling for her back.

The boys raised their eyebrows at her.

"Have you seen what time it is? I'm late for Potions and Filch is gonna catch us if we just try to walk in through the front gates now," Jayla shouted hysterically.

That apparently just amused Fred and George.

"You'd get along so well with Hermione," they laughed.

Jayla couldn't care less about who that was and just threw some death glares at them. The prospect of having to face Snape didn't particularly put her in the mood for jokes.

"Alright, alright." The boys put their hands up as if defending themselves against her invisible strike. "Don't worry, we got a few tricks up our sleeves," Fred added with a mischievous smile.

They slowly – too slowly for Jayla's liking, grabbed their bags and stood up.

"Everyone follow me!" Fred exclaimed, holding his hand up, pretending to wave one of those little flags tour guides usually carried around in busy sightseeing spots, and walked towards the castle. George just shrugged and signalled Jayla to follow. They were walking shoulder on shoulder while Fred was forming the lead.

"You'll still have to come up with an excuse for being late. Hopefully you won't get into too much trouble with Snape," George said, throwing her a shy smile. He seemed genuinely sorry, which eased some of Jayla's frustration.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay," Jayla replied.

She then playfully nudged George's side with her elbow. "Otherwise, I'll just play the damsel in distress, waiting for the prince on the white horse to save her from the evil wizard."

That earned her a chuckle from George.

"You don't strike me as the damsel type," George replied.

"Oh, so you're suggesting I'm more like an evil old hag myself?" Jayla stopped and crossed her arms, throwing George an offended look.

You could see a tiny bit of panic rising in the boy's eyes.

"No!" he almost shouted. "I didn't…I…I meant…". Jayla had never thought she would every see any of them lost for words, but there he was, nervously scrambling for words.

Jayla burst out laughing. She had meant to play offended a bit longer, but she just couldn't keep a straight face anymore.

"I was joking, George," she explained, still laughing. "Just because I had a little meltdown earlier doesn't mean you have to handle me with kid gloves, okay?"

George just shook his head at her, smiling.

"Oi, guys! I thought you were in a hurry, Jayla?" Fred shouted, way ahead of them.

When they had caught up to him, he led them through a tiny doorway and Jayla suddenly found herself standing in an empty classroom. She had been so lost in her conversation with George that she hadn't paid any attention to the way they had taken. She just remembered that they had turned right shortly before the main doors, but everything else was blurry.

"Wait…How?...How did we get here!?" she asked.

"No time to explain now. You have a Potions class to go to, don't you?" Fred said.

The thought of being late to Snape's class immediately brought Jayla back to reality. She vaguely heard the guys saying Bye as she was sprinting towards the door, her mind scrambling for an excuse she could give the stern professor. Luckily, the classroom was only on the first floor, so it wasn't far to the dungeon. Withing just a few minutes, Jayla was greeted by the familiar dump air that surrounded the lower levels of the castle, the results of those areas being surrounded by the Great Lake.

The door to the Potions classroom opened with a treacherous creak. All the heads turned as Jayla walked in and she could see a few Slytherin girls snicker. Her sole focus was directed at the tall black figure standing in front of the class, though. His disapproving glare made her want to vanish into a hole in the ground.

"I'm sorry, Professor Snape, I…»