I do not own Harry Potter, the Wizarding World, or any canon characters.

The Family that Chooses You

Chapter 35 – Back Together

Harry frowned with concentration, his wand up and out, his eyes glued to the small orb that floated above him. He muttered the words of the charm to himself as he moved the wand slowly, the tip pointed directly at the bobbing glass ball. It swirled around his head in slow easy patterns, changing color as it did.

A slip of the hand caused the orb to wobble in the air before it fell. Harry caught it easily with his free hand, much like he would a Snitch. "I kept it up in the air a lot longer this time!"

Alicia ruffled his hair. "Good job! The Wisp orb gets progressively harder to control the longer you keep it floating. You can make its movements easier so it's not as hard of a challenge but the more erratic it moves, the more precise your wand movements have to be. It's actually a fun way for you to build your dexterity and your spellcasting."

"I love it, thank you so much!" Still holding wand and orb he hugged Alicia hard about the middle.

"You're very welcome, Harry," she said, squeezing him back. She looked over his head at a pair of girls on the facing couch. "What were you saying earlier? About how I do not allegedly care about Harry?"

Katie rolled her eyes. Angelina made a rude gesture. "I didn't say you didn't care. I said you didn't care as much," Angelina said. "I was also kidding."

Alicia made a dismissive sound and pretended to look wounded. "My best friends at the school, impugning my honor. Making scurrilous remarks about me. Oh woe is me! Whatever did I do to deserve such slander?"

"Swallowed a thesaurus?" Katie suggested. "Or maybe had one shoved up your-"

"Nah not that," Angelina interrupted with good cheer. "Alicia used to talk like that all the time. She's showing her 'good breeding' by talking like a fancy lass. Or when she's mad about something but mostly when she's pretending to be high class."

"Peasants," Alicia said as genteel as she could, pressing her teeth together.

This time Katie and Angelina made matching rude gestures, shaking their hands emphatically at Alicia.

"Harry, the girls are being mean to me again." Alicia patted him on the back. "Please make them stop, I am rather delicate you know."

"If you're delicate, then I'm the Queen," Angelina snorted.

"My apologies your Majesty, where are my manners?" Alicia grinned. "Go on then Harry, practice your look on them."

The boy needed no second bidding. He put his wand and orb on the table, already summoning his puppy-eyed look. He looked from his couch at the other and tried to look even more pitiable than he did earlier.

"Nope, can't handle that," Angelina said, averting her gaze. She got up and pulled Harry up without looking directly at him. "Here, practice on Katie, she likes to think she's tough so this will be good for her."

"Nooooo!" Katie yelled as Harry sat beside her. She tried to scramble away. "Monsters! All of you!"

"Get her Rabbit!" Angelina called and she and Alicia laughed as he chased Katie around the couch. Angelina then looked directly at her friend. "Hey, so what's bothering you?"

"Many things. My current bother is a tall girl who's being overly familiar. Perhaps you know her?"

"Tall, lots of muscles, cool braided hair?" Angelina asked, picking up the orb and looking at her reflection.

"Not that many muscles," Alicia replied snidely. She poked Angelina's arm. "You're getting a bit of flab here."

"Hey, there's kidding and then there's being cruel." Angelina put the orb down and flexed her arm, inspecting it critically. "Now out with it. You've looked bothered on the train before we couldn't find Harry so it wasn't just that."

"Perhaps I knew we wouldn't find him so I was preemptively upset by that."

Angelina crossed her arms and looked down at her friend, her amusement fading. "I know you talk like that when you're laying it on thick or when you're genuinely upset and right now, I'm leaning towards the latter. I know you don't like writing stuff out on paper because it creates a record of sorts. So I'm betting this has been going on since Summer break."

"Nobody likes a know-it-all," Alicia said dismissively.

"Fine, be that way." Angelina turned her back on Alicia and flopped back, pressing the smaller girl into the couch.

"Get off me you massive woman!" Alicia tried to struggle out but Angelina went limp, squishing her back down. "You're crushing me!"

"You'll have time to talk before you get crushed completely."

"I was lying earlier! You're all flab now!"

"Not smart of you to antagonize the person that's currently crushing you," Angelina retorted. She leaned back harder.

After some more struggling Alicia slapped at Angelina's arm. "Fine, fine, I yield. Get off me please." She sat up when Angelina did, smoothing out her clothes. "It's more of the same really. My Mother really tried to emphasize family duties during our family trip."

"You're the top of our year in Potions, you're even past our year technically and with Snape in charge, that's a literal miracle. Is she trying to get you to quit Quidditch again?"

"Thankfully no. She learned to 'allow me that frivolity' a while ago. Especially when I threatened to be barely adequate at potions in retaliation if she persisted."

"You being adequate would still be better than most people." Angelina rolled her eyes.

"'A Spinnet is never adequate,'" Alicia muttered with venom. "She married into the Spinnets, what does she know?"

"What does your father say?" Angelina asked, wrapping an arm around Alicia's shoulders.

"He's just proud of my general marks and especially my potions skills. Otherwise, you know how he is, lets the real-world drift by so he can focus on experimenting and developing."

"So what is she mad about now?" Angelina sighed as she realized. "Oh…that old argument."

"Yeah," Alicia said looking downcast. "I'm not even sixteen yet. Of course that was when she became serious about it so I must be the same."

"Sorry pal," Angelina said, hugging her.

"Thanks." The shorter girl returned the gesture. "I didn't realize how on edge it was making me. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Just wanted to help my best friend out of her funk." She sighed. "Wish I had some words of wisdom but I kinda don't have any. You know I got your back no matter what you do though."

"I do, and I rely on it." Alicia shook her head as if to literally shake the thoughts away. "Now it's my turn. How're you doing?"

"Do you think that you're smooth? Because let me tell you, that was not a smooth deflection."

"Not my finest no. I blame my delicate nature right now." Alicia grinned at her friend's snort. "I know you were a little annoyed on the train too and see how I said annoyed and not bothered so you cannot blame your concern for Harry."

Angelina waved a hand. "It's nothing."

Alicia flopped down on Angelina, trying her best to crush her.

Angelina looked wholly unimpressed. "No offense, but you can't pull it off like I can."

"You're like more than a foot taller and a certain amount of weight heavier, that as your best friend, I will not guess out loud to spare you."

"You were saying I'm all flab not minutes ago!"

"It was said in a fit of pique and I know you don't hold it against me."

The tall girl sighed. "I mean, I guess I should have expected it really. To get the mickey taken out of me."

"Expecting it doesn't make it any more pleasant. They were rather sharp with it."

"I guess I wasn't expecting it to bother me as much. Or annoy me as you said. Merlin knows they've teased me about all sorts of things before. Don't know why this subject is more sore."

"Yes you do. You're feeling more insecure about it than anything else. Maybe more insecure about this than anything else before."

Angelina flushed. "You're right. I keep thinking it's a giant mistake or something's going to happen and it'll be this big thing."

"Or maybe nothing bad will happen and it'll be okay. Nothing wrong with enjoying the moment."

"I guess," Angelina said sullenly.

"I did give them an earful after you left."

Angelina smiled a little. "I caught some of it as the door closed. What did you call them?"

"I said that they were the biggest pair of tits in the compartment and that included the girls. The only difference was that no one wanted to look at them."

The tall girl clapped her hands over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. "Oh that's brilliant! How did they respond?"

"I barely gave them a chance to. Just kept tearing into them until the cowards dropped a firework and ran."

"Sounds like them," Angelina said. Her good humor ebbed. "What a start to the new year huh? We drag on the baggage from before the year starts to dampen things."

"I heard it's a problem with getting older, you worry more." Alicia looked up. "What's it like?"

"What's what like?"

"Getting older, slower, more decrepit. You have the benefit of experience so I thought it would be best to prepare now. Hear it from the source."

Angelina scowled. "I'm barely a month older than you."

"Thirty-three days to be exact." She patted Angelina's arm very gently. "Oh dear, you're already losing your mental faculties. It really is a shame to see it hap-EEK!"

Angelina rolled on the couch, pinning Alicia beneath her. Then she took a pillow and started smothering Alicia's face with it. "I knew I'd do this one day. From the moment we met I knew this would be how it ends, I just imagined it would be much later and in the middle of the night. Well, no time like the present then!"

Alicia squirmed and wriggled, laughing her head off. "All that girth and you cannot even smother someone properly!"

"Oh don't make me try harder," Angelina growled between gritted teeth.

At this point Harry and Katie had stopped running around the room, stopping to watch the attempted smothering. "Is this normal?" Harry asked Katie.

Katie nodded. "This happens occasionally. Alicia will say something to deserve it and Angelina will attempt to punish her for it."

"Attempt?!" Angelina scoffed. "Succeed you mean."

"I don't deserve it all the time," Alicia argued, her voice muffled by the pillow. "Also, no you don't succeed nearly as often as you imagine."

Harry and Katie watched Angelina redouble her efforts.

"You better stop her," Katie said with a smile. She pushed Harry towards Angelina. "Any more of this and they might actually get in trouble."

Angelina saw the boy walk to her and she closed her eyes. "Nope, I've found the weakness to the puppy-eyes. If I don't see it, it won't affect me."

"Awww," Harry whined. "I wasn't going to do it this time."

Angelina snorted. "I'm onto your tricks Potter."

Katie whispered into Harry's ear. He nodded and started speaking. "I was just hoping I could get an Angelina hug. It's been so long since I've gotten one. I've forgotten how they feel."

She opened an eye to glare at him. "I hugged you before dinner!"

"Which is an age ago. And I only had the one over the Summer." Harry shook his head with faux sadness. "I guess I'll have to go un-hugged. I might as go to bed, all cold and-"

Angelina leapt off Alicia and tackled Harry into the opposite couch. "No you're not going anywhere!" She pulled him onto her lap and squeezed him tight. He giggled and wrapped his arms around her, snuggling closer.

Katie pulled Alicia up into a sitting position and flopped beside her. "Should we feel bad that we're turning Harry into a manipulator?" she asked half-jokingly.

Alicia ran her fingers through her hair, straightening it back out. "If he ever acts that way to anyone else, then maybe. I personally don't think he will. He's comfortable with us and knows we won't hurt him, it's all in fun." Her features softened as she looked at Angelina and Harry. "Besides, he's lacked positive contact for years. It's fine that he is catching up a little now."

A pair of coughs drew their attention and Fred and George stood off to the side with identical looks of contrition.

Alicia and Katie looked coolly at them while Angelina looked away.

Harry looked back and forth between the twins and the girls, growing concerned.

"We, uh, would like to apologize," Fred said.

"We, uh, might have taken things a bit far on the train," George continued.

"You might have?" Alicia repeated scathingly.

"Alright, we did," George said.

"So we're apologizing."

"I can't help but notice that you're here only after Harry showed up," Angelina said scowling.

"What're you going to do if he doesn't work, drop another firework?" Katie sniffed.

It was Fred and George's turn to scowl. "Alright, look, we came to apologize and if y'all don't want to hear it then that's fine. We tried," Fred said shortly.

"And since you already called us a pair of tits we might as well bounce and-"

"What's all this about?" Harry asked hesitantly.

The five older students looked at him and faces began to color.

"We got into a bit of an argument on the train," Fred said slowly.

"We said some…unkind things. We meant them in fun but it got a little too far," George said just as slowly.

"Did you mean them?" Harry asked.

The twins squirmed. Being interrogated by Harry of all people about their misdeeds made it extremely uncomfortable. "Yes and no?" George said. At the frowns from the girls, he continued. "I mean, we meant them as in we tease people. We say funny things. But we didn't mean for it to be that rude." His eyes narrowed. "You girls said some things back too, before the lecture from Alicia and Katie even."

"Only in retaliation!" Katie said. "You two started it!"

Before they could argue again Harry spoke. "The girls were really hurt, especially Angelina. I heard her say so."

Angelina and Alicia winced. They did not realize Harry had heard them talk, thinking he was too busy chasing Katie. The twins winced as well.

"We figured," Fred said lamely. "That's why we wanted to apologize. We mean it too."

Harry looked up at Angelina. "It doesn't make it right, but you know Fred and George would never really hurt us."

She sighed, trying to hold onto her anger. "I know," she admitted. Finally, she looked at the Weasleys. "I won't be sorry for being upset, but I'll accept your apology."

"I guess I'm sorry for what I said too," Katie said. "I think you two will one day find someone that'll tolerate you."

"I'm not apologizing," Alicia said primly. "I'm rather proud of my comment, thank you very much."

That made everyone snort laughter. "Yeah it was pretty good," George said with a grin.

Fred leaned over and ruffled Harry's hair. "Look at you playing mediator."

Harry smiled shyly. "I just, didn't want you all to be mad at each other. I like it when we're all close and stuff."

Angelina's hug tightened on him.

The twins pulled over two chairs and plopped down in them. For a long time, they sat in companionable silence.

"I have a question," Harry started.

"What's that?" George replied.

"What did you mean earlier by bouncing and a pair of tits?" He flailed in protest as Angelina clapped her hands over his ears. This feels rather familiar, he thought while struggling ineffectually. He could not hear anything besides muffled noises but he saw the twins being berated by Alicia and Katie. Only this time the twins were arguing back with Alicia and not backing down. Everyone's faces were turning red. From what he could tell Alicia and Katie were embarrassed and angry while Fred and George were suppressing hilarity.

He shrugged and snuggled back against Angelina, unconcerned. He would learn soon enough. He was just glad things were back to normal.