Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

The day was officially at an end by the time Maera was finally able to talk with Draco, Blaise, Neville, the twins, and Percy. She trusted these six (even with Percy being new to the small group) the most out of anyone else at Hogwarts and desperately wanted to tell them about her new position as the Gryffindor seeker. She was the youngest seeker in a century according to Professor McGonagall. The woman had pulled her aside during lunch earlier in the day to confirm that the headmaster had allowed her to be on the team, explaining then that this hadn't happened in so many years. Maera thought that the older woman likely would have hugged her or something equally maternal if she wasn't as stuck in her teacherly duties.

Now, Maera was sitting in the library, the silencing spell she had found up and active. She didn't want to take any chances of other students, or even faculty, hearing what she had to say. Draco and Blaise were sitting with her, impatient to hear what had happened. Neville, the twins, and Percy, meanwhile were on their way from Gryffindor tower, having had to stop briefly after dinner to grab some books so that they could all work on their homework after her announcement (she somewhat felt that this wouldn't end up happening due to the enormity of her announcement).

"Mae," Draco said, grabbing her attention. "Can't you just tell us already?"

"No, Dray. I want to tell you all together." She stubbornly refused him.

Draco's face fell and he looked away from her, unhappy with her decision. The blonde Malfoy was used to getting his way, after all, so she wasn't overly surprised by his reaction.

Blaise rolled his eyes and smiled charmingly at her, "Can you at least tell us if it's good news or bad news?" This was a question that she was far more willing to answer, something she was sure that Blaise knew.

Sighing, Maera nodded and sat up straighter in her seat. "Yes, it's good news. No need to be worried for me, if that's why you're pouting." At this, she looked pointedly at Draco. The other boy turned a light shade of pink on his ears, from what she could see, but seemed to relax minutely. It was more obvious to her, now, how he reacted when she was in, what he perceived as, danger. "I promise, I'm not getting expelled and I don't have detention or whatever else the two of you have been agonizing over." Blaise's shoulders were also much lower and relaxed, now that she was actively checking. It was odd, having people that cared enough to worry like the two had been. "Though," She added, keeping a smirk off of her face, "We will have to tell your parents, too, Dray." The boy looked up and at her, startled and caught off guard.

The two Slytherins likely would have pushed her for more information, but the rest of their friends were finally coming towards them. The twins sat on either side of her, sandwiching her into place as they always tried to. Neville and Percy chose to sit with the Slytherins on the opposite side of the table.

"So," Fred started, leaning in and drawing out the o.

"What's your big announcement, Mae?" George asked, picking up the question for his twin.

Maera looked at all of the expectant faces in front of her, though Percy's was still more guarded than she'd like, and took a breath. "Before I can say anything," She started, looking at everyone individually, "I need you all to understand that, under no circumstance, can you tell anyone about this." Looking once again at everyone, she noted the serious understanding on each of their faces - especially the twins'. "Okay, so, earlier today," She began, explaining what had happened to Neville during their flying lesson.

Neville nodded, picking up for when he left. "After Madam Hooch helped me, we went to the Hospital Wing so that Madam Pomfrey could help me out. She was really nice, by the way."

Maera smiled, glad to know from how he was acting that Neville felt better already. "After all of that, Draco, Blaise, and I had planned to wait for Madam Hooch to come back so that we could continue the lesson. But… That didn't happen exactly." She turned away from everyone, blushing lightly at what she was about to explain. It was embarrassing that Weasley had gotten under her skin enough that she had jumped head first into danger - she shouldn't do that, there was no reason to. She picked at her hands as she continued, "Fred, George, Percy… Your younger brother noticed that Neville had dropped something - it was the remembrall that he had only just received in the mail from his grandmother that morning - and he picked it up, taunting us all about it. We asked him to give it back, but he wouldn't unless I," She stopped. She didn't want to tell them about his request, his try at blackmailing her.

"He told us that he would only give the remembrall back if Maera kissed him." Blaise said, picking up the story for her. "Maera refused and Weasley went up on his broom, telling Maera to 'come and get it' then, or something like that. Maera, undaunted and full of fury, followed the idiot into the air - for the first time ever on a broom!" At this, Blaise looked at her with resignation in his voice. "She chased him down, though, already superior to him on the broom with no instructions. Weasley threw the remembrall away from him and Maera dove for it. She dove fifty feet on a clunky, old, decrepit, school broom." The Weasleys and Neville were looking at her in horror. Fred and George were trying to move her so that they could look for injuries, but she was ignoring them.

"Blaise," She said, warning him to stop before he caused their friends to freak-out. Rubbing a hand down her face, she went on, "I caught Neville's remembrall and safely made it back to everyone else. I just hadn't known, though, that Professor McGonagall was watching from a nearby window." She watched as Percy realised what that could mean for her. Draco and Blaise already knew that she wasn't being expelled, but the others didn't. Percy paled, a soft and broken 'No' escaping him. The twins looked between her unreadable face and their older brother's heart-broken expression. Each grabbed her hand, holding on to it for life. "Professor McGonagall came and called me inside the castle, muttering about something under her breath. She dragged me through the halls, where I thought she was going to bring me to the headmaster so that I could be expelled for flying without permission." The twins' held onto her harder, Neville was now a stark white while Percy was hunched in on himself. "But," She said, choosing to end their suffering, "She brought me to the defense classroom to meet an older Gryffindor named Wood."

Percy and the twins sat up, recognizing the name. "Professor McGonagall introduced me to him, though I still don't know his name beyond Wood, and told him that she had found the new Gryffindor seeker." She stopped, waiting for them to react.

The only problem was, none of the boys seemed to understand what she was implying. She watched as they each looked at her expectantly, but she didn't say anything. They shouldn't need her to say anything else, she'd already told them that she was the new seeker.

"And?" Neville asked, earnest confusion on his face. If it had been any of the others, maybe not Percy, she probably would have rolled her eyes and told them 'And what'. Since it was Neville, though, and Maera knew that he wouldn't mess with her, she accepted that she needed to be more clear.

"And, I'm the new Gryffindor seeker."

The six boys looked at her. She stared back at them.

"You're what now?" Draco asked.

"I'm the new Gryffindor seeker." She affirmed.

Everyone stared at her again. Figuring that she couldn't do much of anything to help them reach whatever conclusions they needed to, Maera pulled her book on animagi out of her bag and opened to the last page she had been reading. What she'd gathered from it thus far was that the first step to becoming an animagus was to meditate. You needed a clear mind in order to envision the animal that you would turn into.

"So," Percy started, licking his lips as he breathed out, "You're the Gryffindor seeker and you're a first year."

Maera appreciated his logical approach. He was piecing it together as if it was one of his arithmancy problems.

"And, if you're the new seeker, then that means that you're not being expelled." This seemed to be the most important thing to Percy, and, it seemed, the others (aside from Draco and Blaise) as they all relaxed into their chairs.

Suddenly, the twins sat up again and looked at her with bright, excited eyes. "You're on the quidditch team with us!" They exclaimed, throwing their arms around her in a celebratory hug.

Their small group didn't get much of anything done that night. There were congratulations passed around, questions answered, concerns addressed, and an overall happiness between each of them. The twins talked her ears off about what she'd be doing on the team with them while Percy expressed his happiness and pride for her by questioning anything and everything he could think of. Draco and Blaise acted as if she was going to make it easier for the Slytherin team to win, but she could tell that they were also proud of her and happy for her. Neville was genuinely concerned given his own experience with flying, but her continued affirmations of her health helped him greatly.

Overall, Maera fell asleep that night happier than she had been due to the support of the people she loved most in the world. She'd need to let the Malfoys, and with them her father, know about her new position on the quidditch team, but she figured that could wait just a little longer.

Twins' POV.

Fred and George were happier than they had been in years. After being ignored and treated as if they were interchangeable by everyone, including most of their family, it was nice to have people wanting to know them and trying to tell them apart, even if only one person had been successful so far. They still couldn't believe that Maera could tell them apart as easily as she could. Even when they tried to trick her, she knew which was which.

It was as terrifying as it was refreshing. But, they both couldn't imagine life now without her in it. She had given them their individualism back. They would never be able to give that up, so she'd just be stuck with them for as long as possible.

Maera had also worked wonders when it came to helping them interact with more people. They'd deny it if anyone asked, but they were grateful to have more friends than just Lee and the quidditch team. She'd also helped patch things up between them and Percy, or, at least, she'd helped them begin to patch things up.

Currently, the two pranksters were relaxing in the Gryffindor common room. It was a time when their free period didn't match up with any of the first years, so Maera wasn't with them and Lee was busy in another class, one that the twins didn't take. The two were trying to plan a new prank to play on the entire school, but their hearts weren't in it like normal. Part of the reason was likely because Maera wasn't there to help, but the other reason could probably be identified as their broken relationship with their family. Ever since the two had begun to repair their relationship with Percy, they'd felt even further from the rest of their family. As a result, the two found it difficult to interact with anyone beyond their friends.

But, what were they supposed to do? There was no way that they'd ever try to create a close relationship between themselves and their parents. The two adults had burned any and all bridges between them, more so their mother (if they could even call her that - maybe egg donor was a better term?) than their father. Not to mention, their two younger siblings were nightmares. How could they hope to be closer to them? The answer was that they couldn't.

There were still two other Weasleys that they could talk to, however. It was as they were thinking about their older brothers that Percy came into the common room, likely done with one of his many classes. The fifth year noticed them immediately and smiled, though it was still strained at the edges (they were working on this, it wasn't just going to magically change in a day no matter how much they all wanted it to). The twins motioned the other red-head over, hoping that he might want to join them in their new mission.

"How's your day going?" Percy asked the two quietly, trying to not bother the atmosphere of the common room with overly loud speaking (something the twins were often accused of - they couldn't help being middle children with attention issues though, so everybody could stuff it).

"Eh." Fred said, leaning into George from where the two sat on a loveseat together.

Percy's eyebrows pinched together in concern as he sat down in the plush armchair across from them. "Anything I can help with?"

The twins looked at each other, a silent conversation playing out between them. At last, they nodded.

"Okay, what do you need?" Percy asked, leaning forward slightly. With the way he was sitting, his hair chose to flop into his eyes, the red curls masking his face for a second. He pushed them away in annoyance and looked earnestly at the two.

"We don't want all of our family relationships to be strained." They said it together, a tell for when they were extremely anxious or nervous.

Percy nodded, the curls flopping about his head as the twins watched (it was amusing, but it also made them wonder if their own hair would look like that slightly longer? Their mother, sorry, egg donor wouldn't let them grow theirs out too long for some reason). "Okay," He said, repeating it a few more times. He was likely trying to figure out what exactly they meant.

"We mean," Fred started, fidgeting lightly.

"We don't want our relationships with Bill and Charlie," George continued.

"To be as strained as they currently are."

"We were thinking of writing letters to the two of them?"

"Trying to get to know them better so that maybe,"

"We could be a better family?"

"Or, so that we wouldn't feel as alone?"

"Don't get us wrong, Perce," George said, rushing to placate any hurt that Percy might have felt from Fred's last question. "We've been feeling better all year with you and Maera and the others, it's just…"

"It's just that we don't want to lose a chance at being closer with other family as well." Fred said, adding, "Since we've started working on our relationship with you, it feels like we can at least get closer with Bill and Charlie - something that we had never thought about doing in the past."

The twins sat, looking across at their brother. What did he think about the word vomit they had just spewed at him? Was he able to even understand anything that they had said? Most people hated when they spoke broken apart like that (Maera wasn't included in that category, she loved it). To their surprise though, Percy nodded.

"I understand what you mean." He said, running a hand through his hair as he leaned back in his seat. "I want to be closer with them as well."

"So will you write to them with us?" George asked, leaning towards Percy.

The fifth year nodded, a small smile on his face, as he turned towards his school bag. He leafed through it for a second before bringing out two rolls of parchment, three quills, and some ink. (He gave the twins the colored ink and the two liked to think it was because he knew they preferred it to the black).

From there, the three siblings sat in a comfortable silence, composing the letters to their estranged older brothers. The twins started on Charlie's, taking turns writing just as they would when they talked. Meanwhile, Percy handled the beginning of Bill's, trying very hard to write in a manner that expressed his desire to be completely open and honest with his brothers. Eventually they switched and finished off the other letter before sealing them and waiting for Maera to see if they could use Hedwig to send them off.

The twins quietly reflected on what they had written while Percy worked on some homework. For Charlie, the letter started out: [Fred writing; George writing]

Dear Charlie - That seems too formal, now doesn't it, Gred?

You're right, Forge. Dear Dragon Dude - How about that?

That's maybe a bit too informal? I'm not sure what to do…

Maybe this can just count at the 'Dear Blah blah blah' section?

Yeah, we'll just go with that.

Okay, well, anyway, how are you, older brother?

What's it like being a big, bad dragon tamer out in wild Romania?

They continued to ask random questions that came to their mind from there, quickly filling a page of parchment. It was as they were turning to the back side of the parchment, that they decided they needed to have some sort of serious explanation written in the letter as well, or their brother might think it was all a joke (he'd probably assume that they had forged Percy's handwriting to make it look less like a joke - something that they would totally have done if this wasn't important to them).

We know that all of these questions might be weird, but…

We want to build a stronger relationship with you. We want to be better brothers.

Mom, or the egg donor as we've taken to calling her, has always made it so that you and Bill don't feel welcome at home. Or, that's what we've always believed. Percy's always felt like he's had to fill her perfect son mold that is impossible to meet, and Georgie and I have never felt wanted or loved by her.

When this year started, Freddie and I had thought that it would be like any other. We expected to enjoy the time away from home, from the egg donor more specifically, and that we'd continue to plan our future away from the family. This changed very quickly though when we got onto the train.

We had heard Ron picking on some other first years - And decided to come and interrupt him, since the egg donor wasn't around to get upset with us for doing so - And we ended up meeting a couple first years. You probably wouldn't have thought anything of them, one was obviously a Malfoy and the other was so short she didn't even look like she belonged on the train just yet (thankfully she's grown since then) - But, they have both been very important to us this year. The girl was Maera Potter Black and she has quickly become one of our closest confidants and friends. She's actually one of the biggest reasons why we're reaching out to you and Bill… Maera helped us realise that Percy wasn't who he pretended to be and we've been working on our relationship with him as well. Now, we want to work on being better brothers to you and Bill, so if you're willing to, that is, we'd love to get to know you better and work on being brothers more than acquaintances.

Percy took over the end of the letter from there, writing something that the twins didn't see. They focused on finishing the letter for Bill by asking all of the questions they could think of, just like with Charlie, and then making sure that he'd understand that they were serious in their desire to know him better.

The finished letters sat on the table between the siblings. Percy had been the one to address them before starting his work, easily taking his mind somewhere else it seemed. The twins, however, were struggling to look anywhere else. Hidden from everyone else, they clutched onto each other, anxious about what they had written. Were they too honest? They'd never expressed these sorts of feelings to anyone outside of Maera. She was the only person that really knew the authentic version of the twins. Percy was slowly beginning to be introduced to this version of themselves, but they were struggling with it. Maera was just easier to talk to. She wouldn't judge them for anything and seemed to always know what to say or what to do.

As if thinking about her summoned her, the short first year was climbing into the common room through the portrait hole. It was as if she had cast a spell on them by simply appearing because the twins' eyes were no longer on the letters. Now, they were watching the dark-haired girl as she came steadily closer. Her green-grey eyes were sparkling with amusement and mischief, like normal, but, when they came to rest upon the two red-heads that were already watching her, they lit up. She walked faster and stopped just a step closer to the twins' half of the table than Percy's.

"How's it going?" She asked, looking between the three Weasleys.

Percy smiled at her and shut his book. He discussed some sort of complex spell work, or something similar as she stood there. The twins weren't focusing on what they were talking about, rather on the fact that Maera was shifting back and forth on her feet. The girl probably wanted to sit, but there wasn't much of anywhere to sit unless she dragged a chair over. Moving as one, and with little thought of consequence, as normal, Fred and George reached out and pulled her down. Now she was stuck between the two of them and it felt right.

Maera, likely used to their behavior by now, didn't even react. She kept talking with Percy and relaxed into her new seat. It was nice, knowing that they could do this. They'd never had a friend that was as touchy as they were. Or, at least, they'd never had a friend willingly accept their touchiness like Maera.

Being ignored by their family for a large part of their lives, the twins didn't receive physical comfort from anyone aside from each other. When they'd begun to make friends and had learned that hugging, touching, casual physical affection of any kind wasn't weird or bad, they quickly became sponges. They sought physical comfort whenever and wherever they could. But, since they were boys, it quickly became apparent that they weren't meant to act this way. It wasn't appropriate for them to do so by the time they were sorted into Gryffindor. So, they stopped. They went back to relying on each other with the occasional affection (often begrudgingly given) from their teammates or Lee. But, Maera was different.

She sought physical affection just as much as them, though the abuse she had suffered made it difficult in the beginning for her to accept it. As the semester had continued, though, they had built up a sort of physical affection agreement. They could each reach out to each other and accept or offer affection whenever, no matter what was happening or who was looking. They weren't embarrassed by what others thought, especially the twins, so they didn't care when people stared in shock or commented on how a girl shouldn't be sitting so closely to two boys. In all, they were just happy that she was willing and comfortable to give and receive physical affection like this.

The two boys cuddled her closer as she spoke with their brother. It didn't matter that they were pushing the loveseat's capacity by having three people on it. Nothing tended to matter when they were with Maera, though they weren't sure why that was. Shrugging it off, Fred and George waited patiently to tell her about the letters, something they were able to do not too long after the girl had sat down as Percy chose to retire to his room, claiming an early morning as his reason for leaving.

The three friends ignored the empty seat across the table, choosing to continue sharing the loveseat.

"So, you two," Maera started, "What's with the letters on the table?"

"They're for Bill and Charlie. We wanted to ask if Hedwig could send them out for us?" Fred asked, voice muffled by Maera's dark and curly hair.

Maera nodded, not needing the words to be translated. She didn't move to grab the letters or leave, like Fred and George expected, though. Instead the girl stayed where she was, likely to help the two remain calm, chasing any anxiety away just by being there.

If the three stayed on the small loveseat in the corner of the common room all night, well, no one needed to know that.