The following weeks were anything but spectacular. Jayla spent every bit of time she had with her nose buried in school books. The boys joined her a few times, but Jayla got so stressed she snapped at them a few times when they were distracting her. So all three of them agreed that it might be better to just let Jayla do her thing till those O.W.L.s were done. Surprisingly, Fred and George never teased her for that, but still offered to help her practice whenever she needed to – they even volunteered to be on the receiving end of her Stunning Spells.

The last week before the exams was almost over. Jayla dragged herself into the Great Hall for dinner after yet another long and exhausting study session in the library. She sat down at the Slytherin table, took a deep breath and closed her eyes, which were dry and hurt from all the reading at night lately. She was done with everything now though, which meant she'd have the weekend off to clear her head with some walks in the fresh air. She also hadn't talked to Fred and George all week and definitely longed for some human interaction. Speaking of the devil, the two red heads had just sat down at the Gryffindor table. Jayla saw them put their heads together while they were constantly eyeing her. She watched them scramble something on a piece of paper, before Fred got up and walked towards her.

"Oh, no, what is he going to do now?" Jayla's heart started racing, bracing herself to be suddenly dragged into one of their newest pranks. She must have looked at Fred with visible shock written on her face, because, as soon as he'd reached her, he said: "Don't look at me like that, I'm not going to do anything embarrassing."

Then he just sat down next to her as if it was the most normal thing ever for a Gryffindor to take his seat at the Slytherin table. Jayla nervously looked around, everyone was starring at them, even the teachers. The girl immediately put her head down, so her red cheeks were hidden by her dark hair.

"What is it?" she mumbled through closed lips.

Fred actually had the audacity to lean closer and whisper into her ear. Seriously, did he just not care what others were thinking?

"We just thought you looked super tired – no offense – and thought you could need something fun to cheer you up. That is, if you can put your books away for a bit," he whispered. Jayla almost jumped when he suddenly took her hand, which had been resting on her thigh, but before she could even react, he had already withdrawn and left his seat again. Jayla's cheeks were glowing red and warm by now as she could still feel everybody's eyes on her. What had he been thinking? They hadn't tried to hide their friendship anymore and the interest in it had ebbed down, but sitting down at the Slytherin table with all the teachers present? Fred definitely acted like he owned the whole world. Jayla usually admired that about him and had made herself feel more confident over time too, but sometimes it was also infuriating – like today.

It took her a bit to realize Fred had actually put a note in her hand. At least it made sense now why he had randomly grabbed her hand. Jayla stuffed it into her cloak. It had to be something secret, otherwise he would have just told her. The others had lost interest in her by now, so she risked a look at Fred and George. Fred was back to teasing their little brother once more, but hers and George's eyes met. Had he just been waiting for her to turn around?

"Sorry about that," he signalled her without actually talking while pointing at his brother.

Jayla gulped down her dinner because she wanted to read the message as soon as possible. Curiosity has always been her weakness. After all, that's also what made her end up with the two redhaired pranksters. She locked herself in one of the girls' toilets on the ground floor and took the crumbled note out of her pocket.

Meet us in the empty classroom on the 5th floor at 10pm. We'll make sure Snape is too busy to keep watch ;)

Jayla sighed. Those boys will definitely be the death of me, she thought. Her head told her to just wash the note down her toilet. Exams were only days away and she could only imagine what Professor Snape would do if he caught her tangled up in some shenanigans with two Gryffindor boys. There was just too much at stake for her. She had followed them blindly a few weeks ago, but Jayla had to admit she became a bit more cautious after the Quidditch final. But she also couldn't deny that this message had put a huge grin on her face. Just the thought of seeing the boys again filled her with excitement...

Before Jayla could make a decision, she had to head to her next classes. Those were filled with so much last minute information for the O.W.L.s that Jayla had no time to think about the evening and, before she knew it, she was walking down the stairs to the Great Hall for dinner.

"Psst, Jayla," she heard someone whisper on her right, just as she had stepped down the last set of stairs. She looked around and saw George leaning in the shadow of one of the small unused corridors leading to some storeroom. Jayla walked over to him cautiously. She was expecting Fred to jump out from behind the corner any second. But nothing happened and as she reached him, George gave her a quick hug.

"Why so secretive?" Jayla asked, still confused.

George smiled shyly. "I just thought you'd value some privacy after the scene Fred caused at breakfast."

Jayla realised once again, how different the twins actually were, especially when on their own.

"Anyway, are you on board today?" he asked.

Jayla looked down. "I don't know," she whispered.

George sighed. "I know you probably don't trust us that much after we messed up after the Quidditch final, but I promise you no one is going to catch us and it will be worth it."

Jayla was still looking at the floor. She usually didn't have a problem with saying something straight to someone's face, but she knew she'd probably give in if she looked up. Apparently, she had taken too many walls down and the boys, especially the one standing in front of her, had managed to break through to her soft core.

George cautiously put his hand under her chin, lifting her face up till their eyes met. "We – I – really want to apologize properly to you. Please?"

The look he gave her made her resolution falter.

"Fine," Jayla resigned.

"Awesome," George exclaimed and threw a piece of fabric in her arms.

Jayla raised her eyebrow.

"Don't try it now, but it's your ticket out of your dorm at night. Borrowed it from Harry as he still owed us a favour. Don't let anyone else see it though," George warned.

And with that he was off.

A few hours later, Jayla got ready to sneak out of her common room. Thankfully, the dorm itself was still empty as it was just past the night time curfew, where they were no longer allowed to leave their common rooms, but where it was still too early to actually go to bed.

The fabric George had given her felt soft in between her fingers as Jayla unfolded it. It turned out to be a cloak. When the girl put it on in front of her mirror, she found – to her astonishment – that it made her invisible. She wondered what kind of favour Harry owed the twins that he had lent them something so valuable.

Sneaking out of the dorm was easy enough hidden underneath the cloak. Getting out of the common room without anyone noticing the portray opening and closing would be trickier. Jayla took her wand out, pointed it towards a pile of old newspapers close to the fireplace and muttered "Incendio". The paper quickly burst into flames. Nothing dangerous, as it was just lying on tiles with nothing easily flammable close by, but enough to draw the attention of everyone in the room as a few Slytherins hurried to throw the burning paper into the fireplace.

Jayla used that ruckus to quickly open the portray and sneak out. The corridor was empty, the only proper light coming from Snape's

Storage room, where she could hear him cursing inside. Jayla had no idea what had happened, but it was a safe bet that this was Fred and George's promised distraction.

The girl went up the stair with quick strides, putting as much space between her and the Head of her House as she could. Still invisible, she made it to the 5th floor with ease. She listened for a second as she reached the door of the classroom where she was about to meet them. It still seemed to be quiet inside, so Jayla took a last look around and removed the cloak. She stuffed it into her bag before carefully opening the door. It creaked quietly, so the girl just pushed it open as far as she had to before she could wiggle through. With a sigh, she closed the door behind her again and turned around...And locked eyes with a figure that definitely was neither Fred nor George.