Chapter Five: Settling In


Sitting still had never been something that I was particularly gifted at. Reading helped a bit, though I still typically had a habit of fidgeting, but I found that I never felt quite settled unless I was not.

Though my inability to remain stationary was never intentional, with six children in the house, my mother was forever running out of ways to keep me occupied. James struggled in a similar manner, but could easily be calmed by placing him in front of a chessboard or an arithmancy equation. Writing, reading, and crafting Quidditch plays delighted me to no end, but still I moved around, pacing, tapping my toe, and altogether getting ever-so-slightly under my mum's skin.

I had never considered myself particularly artistic, but one day my mother glanced over my shoulder while I was drawing a Quidditch play, froze, and then walked away looking intrigued.

The next day, she sat all of us down at the kitchen table, which was laden with large rolls of parchment, colored pencils, paintbrushes, and various types of paint. Lily and Albus dove into the project with abandon, smearing paint across both their parchment and the newspaper that my mother had cleverly thought to cover the table with prior to the activity. Teddy, Levi, and James also enjoyed the endeavor, though they decided to work together on one roll of parchment, snickering amongst themselves as they sketched speech bubbles over stick figures and used their elbows to block the page whenever mum strayed too close.

I was hesitant to do anything to the parchment in front of me, my penchant for perfection hindering me before I had even begun. Finally, I left the table to track down one of the pencils that I used to sketch Quidditch plays, deciding that I would use something that I could erase to begin with.

Though it took me ages to get through a rough sketch, I finally had something that I thought I could work with. James, Teddy, and Levi had long-since abandoned the table when I laid the first stroke of paint on my parchment.

Even when painting, I was never perfectly still, but my constant movement resulted in swooping, dynamic brushstrokes and vibrant colors. My mother was delighted by my new hobby, for I could find myself laser-focused on a painting for hours, unable to move on to a new project until I got my current one just right.

After my first painting, I very rarely shared my work with anyone, choosing instead to fill sketchbook after sketchbook with paint and then stash them behind the books on my bookshelf. I found that I also enjoyed drawing, though it didn't quite hold up to the rich, vivacious creations that I could craft with paint. My mother regularly took me out for new supplies, as I found that I was extremely picky with what sort of paint I liked to use.

Mum did not quite get what she wanted from my new pastime, as I typically only painted when I was alone, meaning no one else got to appreciate the quiet that settled over me while I worked. Still, she knew how grateful I was to her for introducing me to the hobby, and we both enjoyed our ventures for paints, as we regularly visited new places in search of colors that I had never used before.

Most of my paintings were landscapes, though I occasionally tried my hand at portraits of the people in my life. I found that my godmother was the most difficult to capture on parchment, as she had a sort of shimmer to her in person that did not translate well on paper. The other subject that seemed to evade perfection was, unsurprisingly to me, the sunsets at Hogwarts. I made many attempts to paint the vivid shades of red, orange, and pink that streaked across the sky at the end of the day, but none ever seemed to perfectly capture the magical event.


I sighed as I dodged Roxy's flailing limbs, barely avoiding being burned by the curling iron that she was wielding. Molly let out a squeak as I inadvertently pulled her hair, and I mumbled an apology while keeping a wary eye on Roxanne.

"It's not fair!" Roxy shouted. She was pacing back and forth beside the chair that I stood before, casually trampling the piles of clothes that were littered on the floor. As she ranted, she was gesturing wildly, swinging the curling iron that she held around in a rather alarming manner. "There's no reason that first years shouldn't be allowed to attend the ball!"

"Roxanne, quit with the curler!" Victoire yelped as Roxy came dangerously close to smacking her in the face with the offending item. She was carefully applying eyeliner to her upper lids, which meant that she was unable to dodge Roxy as easily as the rest of us were. "We all had to wait until our third year to go. You'll be fine until then."

"Actually," Molly said absently, clearly more focused on the two pairs of shoes that she was trying to decide between than the conversation at hand, "I had to wait until this year. You started going with Teddy "as friends" your second year, and Dom got asked by a third year to go our first and second year. So, really, I'm the only one who had to wait until I was allowed to go on my own."

Molly glanced up to find Vic giving her a look of slight disbelief.

"Sorry," She muttered, her cheeks flushing as she realized that she had just completely invalidated Victoire's point. After staring at her for a moment longer, we all broke into giggles.

"Okay, so not everyone has to wait until their third year," Vic amended, shaking her head at Molly with a crooked grin before turning back towards the mirror. "Still, if you want to go that badly, I'm sure you can find an upperclassman who would be happy to take you along as friends next year."

Roxy sighed, seeming to deflate slightly at the idea. "I don't want to find someone who's willing, though. They'll only be willing because of my last name, and that's lame."

We all fell into a fairly awkward silence, as no one was quite sure how to deny Roxy's statement. While there was every possibility that someone may be willing to ask her to the ball in the future for her own merits, there was no arguing that it was just as likely that she would only be asked because someone wanted to get closer to our family.

After a moment, everyone returned to what they were doing before Roxy's outburst. I turned back to Molly, trying to decide what I wanted to do with her hair. It wasn't as long as mine, which meant that a lot of the hairstyles I favored wouldn't work as easily, but there were still plenty of options. I studied her face in the mirror for a moment, trying to determine how I could best compliment her face, which was far rounder than my own.

"You're so pretty," I mumbled to her as I made a decision, carefully pulling part of her hair back into a braid.

Molly met my eyes in the mirror, smiling brilliantly at me. Her cheeks were once again flushed, and I made a note to ask Dominique to add a bit more blush to Molly's cheeks before they left, for she was even more lovely like this. "Thank you. You're pretty too."

I laughed lightly, returning her grin. "Thanks, Molls."

"Annie-dearest?" Dom called across the room.

I glanced over my shoulder to look at her, arching an eyebrow as I did so. Her tone immediately had me wary of whatever she was going to ask, and the wicked grin that she carefully smoothed out once she met my eyes did not help in the slightest. "Yes?"

"Jay Wood will be in his third year next year, won't he?" She asked me very casually.

I refrained from rolling my eyes as I caught on to her ploy. Instead, I gave her a look of faux confusion. "Yes, but you know you could have asked him to go this year, right? We've only just established that you don't have to wait until your third year to be asked to go, after all."

Dom blinked at me in obvious confusion for a moment. With the way that she was perched on a stool, feet pressed to the top rather than seated on her bum, she looked rather owlish. I fought off a smile as I waited for her to process what I had just said. Finally, she asked, "What?"

"Oh, don't beat yourself up, Dom," I told her in an overly sympathetic tone, offering her a smile. "I'm sure Jay will be happy to go with you next year! You can ask him now, so that the two of you can get a head start on coordinating your outfits."

"Why would I-"

I cut Dom off as I turned back to continue working on Molly's hair. Molly, I could see in the mirror, had her hand pressed tightly over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud. "It's so sweet that you have a crush on him! I'm sure he'll be so flattered. He's not quite as tall as you yet, but there's nothing wrong with dating a shorter man. Either way, the two of you will look lovely on the dance floor."

"I don't have a crush on Jay!" Dominique protested, clearly absolutely bewildered. In the mirror, I watched her turn to look at Vic in confusion. Vic promptly forced all traces of laughter from her face in order to give her sister a look of clear disbelief. Dom gaped at Victoire for a moment before throwing her hands up in the air and once again shouting, "I don't!"

"Don't be embarrassed, Dom. We're all family; we can tell each other these things. I know Jay's my best friend, but if you ask him tonight, I won't even have to worry about keeping your feelings for him a secret. Plus, you look so lovely in that gown that he'd be mental to say no."

Dom opened her mouth to speak, but finally caught sight of the smirk I sported as she met my gaze in the mirror. Her mouth opened and closed a few times, though no words came out due to her shock. The rest of us laughed hysterically at her expense.

"You snake!" She finally shrieked, tossing a sock at me. "I was actually stressed out about how I was going to convince you that I didn't have a crush on Jay without sounding like I was protesting too much! That was so embarrassing. I was totally convinced that you were going to walk away not actually believing me, and secretly be worried about it when you realize that you like him in the next couple of years here."

I rolled my eyes as she made her way back to what had undoubtedly been her original reason for bringing up Jay. I pulled my wand out from behind my ear, muttering a spell and flicking it in Dom's direction. She squealed as I hit her in the face with the sock that she had thrown at me.

"I don't like Jay," I announced flatly, knowing that it wouldn't do me much good if Dom had already made up her mind otherwise.

As expected, there was a series of disbelieving noises from around the room, to which I shook my head but didn't bother arguing with. As Dom had already mentioned, there was such a thing as too much protesting, and I didn't want to be accused of it.

When the girls were finished getting ready, Dominique asked that we take a few photos with a camera that she had. We started off taking photos of the three that were going, but soon Dom dragged everyone into the pictures. Eventually, Vic spelled the camera to just float in the air and go off periodically as we all huddled together and smiled.

Vic wore a pale blue dress that made her look ethereal. Roxy mumbled something about never wearing that color again after seeing Victoire in it, and I was inclined to agree with her. Dom wore a gold dress that should have been unflattering given her pale complexion, but was somehow stunning on her instead. Rather than looking awkward against her ivory skin and silver hair, Dom looked like a goddess. Molly wore a black velvet dress that was gorgeous on her, and I noted with a feeling of pride that her hair really showed off the shape of her face nicely.

When we had taken enough pictures that Lucy stopped trying to pick them up from off of the floor and Molly, Dominique, and Vic were in danger of being late, Roxy and I finally managed to convince our cousins to leave for the ball. We followed them down to the Common Room, where we took pictures of their date's faces and pictures of them with their dates, before we made our way back up to Victoire's dorm. As her roommates were all at the ball, she had invited us to enjoy having the dorm to ourselves for the evening.

"Can we paint our nails?" Roxy asked as we settled on the floor beside Vic's bed.

"Yes!" Lucy replied, leaping towards the box of nail polish at once and eagerly beginning to line the paints up in a row.

"Sure," I agreed at the same time, smiling at Lucy's enthusiasm.

I let my cousins talk me into a pale green shade of nail polish. They insisted that we also paint our toenails, and I refrained from complaining about how much I hated having both my hands and my feet out of commission when I saw how excited they were. Roxy swore that using magic to spell your nails dry made them tacky (and none of us knew the spell to do so anyways) so I resigned myself to dealing with it for the half an hour that it took for my nails to completely dry (according to Roxy).

"Hogwarts is so different than I imagined it," Lucy said thoughtfully as she painted Roxy's pinky a vibrant yellow.

"How so?" I asked, a touch taken aback by the look on her face-almost displeased. Hogwarts had yet to disappoint as far as I was concerned.

"I don't know. I think I was expecting more adventure and excitement," She said with a sigh. "It's silly. I know that our parents grew up at war, and I don't wish for that, it's just that…"

"You wanted things to be more exciting than just school," Rox finished for her, flexing her fingers and admiring her nails before giving Lucy an appreciative glance. "I get that."

They both turned to look at me.

"I get it too. To some extent, though, I think that we may not be finding things exciting because we're not trying to," I said with a shrug, wrapping my arms around my knees as the two exchanged looks of confusion. "If you're expecting to fight off Voldemort, you're not going to think it's exciting that you've discovered a hidden passageway."

Roxy sighed, falling back against a pillow. "That's true. I just feel like there's not a whole lot to do. We already have the map, so there's not much point in looking for hidden passageways when most of them are already marked down."

Luce made a noise of agreement.

I let out a soft laugh. "I think that you guys would be surprised at the things that you can find around Hogwarts that aren't on the map. The map only shows the layout of the castle to the extent that the Marauders knew it, after all. You two should come exploring with me sometime. Jay and I go occasionally, and there's so many things that we never would have seen otherwise. Hagrid will take you into the Forbidden Forest and show you something cool if you ask him to. Some of the paintings on the third floor have sister portraits in a part of the castle that was abandoned after the battle; they can tell you how to get into that area if you ask them. A few of the rooms in the dungeons have false walls that will lead you into old storage rooms. Jay says we should wait before fully exploring those; he wants to learn how to do the bubblehead charm properly, without potentially suffocating ourselves, before we go into them, just in case there was anything harmful stored there. Regardless, though, my point is that there's plenty to do here if you look for it."

Both girls were gaping at me, their eyes shining with excitement. Roxy had shoved herself back upright, her nails seemingly forgotten.

"Can we go now?" Roxy asked. Lucy immediately began nodding her head vigorously.

I laughed. "We can if you want. What about our nails?"

"I don't care," Roxy said. "Please tell me that it's your turn with the cloak?"

"It is. Do you two want to go look for hidden rooms on the fifth floor? One of the paintings on the second was hinting that there's a room that has a trapdoor to a miniature library there," I asked them.

Lucy and Roxy scrambled to their feet, nodding and talking so quickly that I wasn't able to understand either one of them. I laughed, allowing them to each grasp one of my hands and tug me towards our own dorm.

We didn't find the hidden library, but we did find a tunnel that led from the fourth floor to the first, which would be useful for getting from History of Magic to Transfiguration. It was hidden behind a tapestry, and it was one that none of us could recall seeing on the map. Lucy and Roxy were delighted at the discovery. They joked that, should we keep on making such fantastic discoveries, we would have to come up with our own group nickname, just as the Marauders had.


The time continued to fly by, and soon it was Christmas Break. Susan Bones' funeral took place on a weekday, but there was a ceremony honoring her that was planned to take place during the break, so that we could all attend. It was a very sober affair. The press were completely banned from the event, with dad having gone so far as to procure a Ministry officiated ban on the premises for the duration of the memorial. Hannah Longbottom sat in the row in front of us, and Neville held her while she sobbed loudly over the loss of her dear friend.

After the memorial concluded, we went to the Burrow and sat around the living room, listening to our parents tell old stories from their time at Hogwarts. We heard about Uncle Fred and Uncle George's various pranks, about Dad, Uncle Ron, and Aunt Hermione's adventures, and about the DA.

Lucy was too upset to join the family at first, but she eventually came down the stairs, Molly holding her hand gently, and sat sniffling next to her mother for the rest of the night.

Most of my cousins were in slightly better spirits by the time we were herded upstairs for bed. I felt better than I had, but there was still one thing that had upset me…

I glanced at Uncle George and Aunt Angelina's room as we passed it. The two had slipped out of the room when Uncle Fred was first mentioned, and they hadn't returned since. This was hardly an uncommon occurrence. I had also noticed that Uncle George often seemed to have issues being around Fred, as well. Though Fred put up a good front, I strongly suspected that it bothered him deeply.

The parents pretended not to notice us all sneaking into one room, though Uncle Bill definitely narrowed his eyes a bit at Teddy before Aunt Fleur pulled him away. We stayed up late, telling stories of Hogwarts to the little ones and gossiping into the wee hours of the morning. I watched Fred for a while, seeing how he laughed and joked when pulled into the conversation, but fell silent when the attention was off of him.

Everyone soon began to move to more comfortable positions for sleeping. Molly had her arm wrapped around her sister, who had fallen asleep early, exhausted by a day of tears. Lily crept over to where James and I were sitting and quickly fell asleep in my lap. Vic was passed out with her back against Ted's chest, Al and Rose were snoring side-by-side, and Roxanne and Fred were sleeping by my feet.

James wrapped his arm around my shoulder. I tucked my head under his chin in response, and soon we were both fast asleep.


Christmas was its usual grand affair.

A few years ago, the parents banned us from waking up anyone before dawn, telling us that we would wait to open presents for an extra hour past sunrise for each adult woken. This led to a tradition of all of the children lined up and down the hallways in the Burrow, waiting impatiently before a closed door. One of us would wait before a window at the end of each hall, prepared to give the signal as soon as the sun's rays peeked over the horizon. The moment the signal was received, doors were flung open and chaos ensued.

Downstairs, presents for all of the various family members were spread out on every available surface. After we had opened our presents, Grandma made us all adorn our new sweaters and line up for a picture. As per tradition, we smiled for a moment before revealing our goofiest faces. Uncle Ron and dad got in trouble once Grandma realized that they had worked it so that Uncle Percy, Uncle Ron, Albus, and Teddy were standing in a row-their Weasley sweaters spelling "prat" smack dab in the middle of the picture. The rest of us determined that the prank was amusing enough to be worth the extra twenty minutes that we had to spend retaking the photos.

We spent the rest of our break having snowball fights and lounging around the house. Vic spent quite a bit of time studying for her OWLs, and Teddy would often sneak up to her room to "help". Fred, James, and I flew up to their window with a camera a few times, making sure to gather enough blackmail to last a lifetime.

Jay had sent me another marigold plant for Christmas. While the first one had finally grown big enough to sprout tiny yellow buds, this one was larger, with rich red flowers on it. I had named my first plant Snitch and painted the pot with pictures of the tiny winged ball. I named the second Quaffle and decorated the pot with paintings of the ball in question. I had thrown myself into caring for the plants, as I was determined to keep them alive. I had written Neville asking for advice and had purchased a book about marigolds when Aunt Hermione had taken us all into muggle London. Jay had helped me craft the box that allowed me to safely transport plants, and Neville gave it his approval before the break. I had also purchased a bag of fertilizer, a tiny watering can, and new pots, so that I could move the plants when they got bigger. I had received a lot of teasing for my near obsession, but I ignored it all. Lily was proud, at least.

I spent a while with my godmother before we had to return from school. She told me excitedly that I had vastly improved at writing in French over the few months that I had been at Hogwarts. She then asked me, in French of course, about school. She already knew much of what I did from my letters, but she said that hearing about things first hand always made her happier. I asked her for more details about what her school years were like, and she told me all about growing up and learning magic in France. She even promised to teach me some spells that weren't a part of the Hogwarts curriculum.

My aunt also spent ages drilling me on Jay, whom I assured her was just a friend. That, of course, didn't stop her from teasing me mercilessly, and before long we were laughing hysterically. That was when she told me about meeting Uncle Bill, having him help her learn English, and even a bit about the battle of Hogwarts.

"Remember my darling, if you ever need anything, you may always write me. Be good and keep me updated on classes and that Jay of yours." At my protests, she held up her hands with a laugh and said, "I know that he's just a friend, but I would still like to hear more about your after-class flights together. I think it's sweet that he's helping a first year sneak out to fly. Not that you need his help, of course. Between your father, your Uncles Fred and George, and your grandfather and his friends, I think that history shows that you would do just fine with sneaking out on your own, but it's nice to know who will help you."

"Yes, Aunt Fleur," I said.

I watched as she took something from inside her pocket. "I didn't want to give this to you in front of all of the other children, but I got you a very special present for your birthday."

I held out my hands, watching as she placed a thin gift, wrapped in delicate silver wrapping paper, in my fingertips. I carefully pulled back the paper.

Inside was a book. It was a silver color, with a black ribbon sticking out of the pages. The cover was decorated with constellations, which slowly shifted across the cover just as they did in the night sky. It was possibly the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I tried to open it, but I wasn't able to.

"Why can't I open it?" I asked.

"Do you trust me?" She responded, the smile on her face promising that she was about to reveal something wonderful.

I nodded without hesitation.

"It is a magic journal. It needs you to do something in order to open. After that, only you may open, write, and read this journal. Everyone else may only do so with your willing permission."

I gaped at my aunt, taking in the beauty of the gift she had just given me.

"To open it, speak your full name over the journal and push a little of your magic into it. Don't worry about getting in trouble. I promise you will not. I had this specially keyed for only you, Annette. I know that we are a very large, loud family, and sometimes it's very hard to collect your thoughts-or do anything, really-privately. I also was thinking of the extra reading and studying that you so regularly do. I thought you might like a place to record your studies and any outside research you do. You may even find that you want to do some of your artwork in this journal. I had the pages made so that your paints won't warp or ruin them. They will also dry instantly if you will them to do so."

I was ecstatic. "That sounds brilliant! I always have parchment all over the place; this will make it so easy to keep track of everything! Plus, Fred got me this brilliant quill that will be perfect with this, so that I won't even have to worry about keeping a quill on me. If I make sure to always have my journal, I can just write things down as I think of them!"

She smiled at me, clearly very pleased with my reaction. "I'm glad that you will find it of use. It will also divide into sections for you, if you wish. If you simply talk to it, it will listen to you. Now, let us get it keyed to you."

I placed my hand on the book, trying to gather and push a little magic into it. I had absolutely no idea how to do that, but Aunt Fleur had made it seem so simple that I didn't want to ask. Just as I was beginning to give up and request help, I felt my fingertips grow warm. "Phoenix Annette Potter," I quickly commanded.

To my delight, the cover gave way beneath my fingers, revealing an emerald interior cover and my name scrawled across the first page.

"Thank you, Aunt Fleur. I love you very much."

"You are most welcome. I love you too Annette; remember what I said about all of the houses. It is okay to be cunning, loyal, brave, and smart. And you are," With that, she kissed my brow before getting up to help cook dinner.


We returned to Hogwarts shortly after that, and I found myself easily returning to my routine. I kept sneaking out to fly with Jay, Charms continued to come easily, and I spent a lot of time studying. Roxy, Lucy, and I went exploring a few more times, though we were surprisingly hard-pressed to find a time that worked for all three of us to do so. I knew that that was mostly my fault, as I was busy with the extra studying that I was doing, though Lucy and Lana regularly had plans as well. Apparently, Lana had found a small study group that the two liked to work with.

I was very grateful that my brother, cousins, and Lana were in my classes, as it made each day much more enjoyable.

There were about 100 students in each year, and most were fairly evenly split between girls and boys. So, rather than have four classes of roughly 25 students (one for each house) Headmistress McGonagall had split each year into two large, mixed classes. We had 48 students in our class. Lana, Lucy, Roxy, and I, two other girls from our dorm, Fred, James, and three other boys made up the Gryffindors. Then there were 12 Slytherins, 12 Hufflepuffs, and 13 Ravenclaws. I figured magic had to have been involved in the planning of the classes, for our little mixed group got along surprisingly well.

Shortly after returning to Hogwarts I realized that, while neither came anywhere nearly as easily as Charms did, I enjoyed Transfiguration and Potions a great deal. The extra studying that I was doing quickly helped me to appreciate the challenge that both subjects posed for me. While I was naturally decent at Transfiguration, Potions required a good deal of work for me to be good at it. Though I had expected Slughorn to be rather disappointed at my lack of natural talent in his subject (as he liked to talk frequently about how gifted my grandmother had been at Potions), he instead seemed truly delighted at the amount of progress that I made each time we met. The more I had to work to be successful in his class, the more he seemed thrilled with me for doing so.

I also spent a lot of time going over Herbology. Neville agreed to look over any essay that I wrote for his class so long as I gave it to him at least two days before it was due, so I was more than okay in the theoretical aspect of the class. Still, when it came to hands-on learning, I was one of, if not the worst, in the class. James and I were completely banned from working together in Herbology, because it was a complete disaster the one time that we tried it. His ability to handle plants was not as dismal as my own, but he was still a very poor Herbology student. In fact, his grade was lower than my own, as he did not spend very much time doing his homework.

I tried to write down everything that I learned in my journal. It was, surprisingly, less tedious than I had expected it to be. Every teacher, in class or afterwards, started off by writing the spell or potion on the board, along with drawing the wand movement or recording the ingredients needed, and explaining the lesson. This gave me ample time to write down what I was learning and what it did. I also recorded knowledge that I found interesting from books I read in my free time. When I was not reading or studying, I carefully crafted Quidditch plays and sketched pictures of various things around the school. The quill that Fred had given me was wonderful, and, though I could call it up from any piece of parchment, it spent most of the time that it wasn't in use stuck in a page at the beginning of my journal.

Fred and I became extremely close during our second semester at Hogwarts. Our close friendship came about after I had snuck out late one night, wandered about in an effort to make myself tired, and wound up stuck down a dead-end corridor with Filch's voice rapidly approaching. It was not my turn with the cloak of invisibility or the map, so I was quite certain that my luck had run out.

From what my parents had told us, Filch had always been a bit crazy. That being said, everyone agreed that Filch really went off his rocker after his cat, Mrs. Norris, had died. Ever since her death, he could be found walking about the castle late at night, talking to his dead cat and laughing to himself. People said that Professor McGonagall wanted very badly to dismiss him, but believed it would be too cruel. He was very old, and Hogwarts was all that he had.

Knowing all of this, I was naturally quite terrified when I realized that he had cornered me. I turned and started to run, despite there being nowhere to go, because I refused to wait patiently to be caught.

Just as Filch started to round the corner, two hands darted out from behind a suit of armor, one clapping over my mouth and the other dragging me back towards the hands' owner.

I waited, my back pressed against the stranger's stomach, until Filch had walked by us, turned in a circle with a confused frown, and finally left our passageway. As soon as his footsteps had faded away, I yanked myself from the loose hold I was in and flung my wand up into the person's face.

"Whoa there. Easy Nix; I didn't hide you just to get my face hexed off," Fred had said with a crooked grin.

"Fred?" I asked, lowering my wand.

"The one and only," He responded smugly, giving me a wink.

I chose not to mention that he was technically Fred the second, since I was quite sure that he wasn't particularly fond of being named after his father's dead twin brother. I knew it bothered him that his dad had trouble saying his name sometimes, or even looking at him on Uncle Fred and George's birthday, or right after people told how much he looked like Uncle Fred. With his brown skin, eyes, and hair, Fred was far from a carbon copy of our uncle, but they had precisely the same facial structure, so the similarity was still strikingly obvious. I had once overheard a conversation between my dad and mum, where my dad said he felt a bit bad for George because he had a constant reminder that his twin was dead. Mum had said that Aunt Angelina had named him.

"What are you doing out here?" I asked him.

"I could ask you the same question," He responded as he leaned up against the wall, shoving his deep brown curls out of his eyes as he studied me curiously.

"I was bored, and was thinking about going down to the lake, or maybe going out on my broom."

"I was thinking about pulling a prank on Filch, or maybe the Slytherins."

"Why didn't you?"

He averted his eyes.

My suspicions about Fred were immediately confirmed. Without thinking, I said the only thing that came to mind.

"I don't."

I wished I could take back the words as soon as they left my mouth, but it was too late. Hopefully, my suspicions about Fred were correct.

"What?" His eyes snapped back to me, and I knew that I couldn't back down now.

"I don't think that you're a copy of your dad, or his twin. I think everyone is his or her own person. Especially you. Don't think I don't notice those books on dragons you read, or the motorcycle magazines in your room," I folded my arms, trying to mask my nerves by faking confidence. "I told you, I pay attention, and I know enough to be sure that you're someone completely unique."

He stared at me for a moment before a slow grin spread across his face. The look on his face was similar to the one that he had given me on my birthday, though this time he was completely dry-eyed.

"I knew you were cool, little cousin."

"I'm 2 months-to the day-younger than you are, so don't go acting like you're so much older," I responded immediately. James was barely 7 minutes older than me, but he never let me forget it. Fred just laughed and slung his arm around my shoulders as we walked back to the Common Room.

Fred and I had already been good friends, but after our late-night conversation my cousin became my second closest friend-surpassed only by Jay. This was a fact that irked both of our twins. James went on and on about how Fred was his best friend, while Roxy constantly asked me how I could stand her annoying brother. Still, we enjoyed each other's company, and Jay got along with Fred quite well, so it worked out for me.

Fred and I hadn't pulled a single prank together, but this seemed to matter to the population of Hogwarts about as much as our relationship as cousins did, which is to say, not at all. We were dubbed the new prankster twins, and it stuck. Freddy, to my delight, began to tag along when I would visit our professors for extra practice, happy to spend his afternoons getting ahead in our classes. People stared and whispered as we walked by, convinced that we were up to no good. We would exchange mischievous grins, laughing lightly as they rushed to tell their friends that they saw us planning something, and continue on our way to take on extra classwork. Fred turned out to be the perfect person to take lessons with, for he was brilliant and excelled at all of the subjects that I struggled with. He helped me greatly in Herbology, even more than Professor Longbottom had been able to, for he seemed to understand where I was going wrong without even needing to think about it. Professor Longbottom told us that he was convinced we could read each other's minds. Sometimes, I thought that he was probably right.

Freddy was a genius when it came to Potions. While I was diligently learning all of the individual properties of ingredients (which would allow me to create potions in my own creative way, not directly from the instructions of the book) so that I may someday craft new, unique potions, Freddy seemed to know them all already.

"It's like cooking, Nix," He had tried to explain it to me once. "Sometimes you'll add a certain ingredient first as a base, but other times you'll add it last, as a garnish. Some ingredients mix and create a new flavor, while others can be used to cancel one another out."

I nodded along as though it all made perfect sense to me, and chose not to mention that I couldn't do more in the kitchen than boil water for tea without becoming a fire hazard.


I tsked to myself as I walked quietly into the fifth year dorm. The sun had only just begun to creep over the horizon, so the light was dim enough that I was having a hard time avoiding the random objects that were strewn around the room. Vic's roommates were slobs.

I headed for the neatest section of the room, pulling the curtains open and making sure to avoid the silvery-blonde mess of hair as I jumped onto the bed.

"Good morning!" I sang, grinning as Vic opened her eyes to give me a bewildered look.

"Love you and all, but why are you waking me up?" She asked, clearly grumpy. I would never have risked waking Dom, but Victoire was less violent in the mornings than her sister.

"Your alarm is going to go off in a few minutes. I know that it makes you mad, so I figured we'd see if me waking you up makes you less mad," I told her cheerfully.

She chuckled, irritation fading as she tugged me under the covers next to her. "I think I would genuinely be touched if I didn't know that you were secretly only doing this for the good of Quidditch," She told me playfully.

I laughed. "Do you want me to start waking you up for classes?"

"Absolutely not," She said, grinning. "Waking up early for Quidditch is one thing, but if you tried to wake me up early for class, I would probably wind up launching you across the room."

"Shut up!" Someone yelled.

I frowned, glaring into the gloom as I tried to figure out which direction the shout had come from. The sun was a bit higher in the sky now than it had been minutes prior, really illuminating the disaster that was Victoire's dorm. I detested her roommates. The few of them who had been willing to befriend the part-Veela had been cruel to her after doing so.

"No!" I yelled back, ignoring the way that Vic tugged at my arm. Using the other arm to push myself upright, I made sure that my voice rang out clearly in the quiet dorm. "We have a Quidditch match today and you're all going to go to support your team, so you may as well wake up!"

Groans rang out around the room, and several of her roommates buried their heads under their pillows as Vic's alarm started to go off. A stray hairbrush was flung in our direction, clattering loudly as it slid across the floor to come to a rest near the bottom of Vic's bed. I flicked my wand at it, muttering the vanishing spell without anticipating much success in my endeavor. Apparently spite made for a pretty powerful motivator, however, because the hairbrush promptly disappeared. I hoped that the owner would spend a very long time hunting for it before giving up on their task.

"I'm guessing that you broke my silencing charm when you moved my curtains?" Vic asked, staring at the spot where the hairbrush had just been with an amused expression.

"Whoops," I replied with a shrug, contemplating the rest of the room as I wondered if there was anything else that I could vanish without risking getting Victoire into trouble.

She giggled, tugging my wand out of my hands as she undoubtedly caught onto my train of thought. "They're going to complain about this all week."

"Let them complain. They won't do anything about it, and they're annoying even when you don't give them a reason to be."

"That's true. Did you bring stuff to get ready in here?"

"Yeah, I thought you may like company while you got dressed."

"Definitely," She said with a smile. "Can I do your makeup? I can make it all house colored, of course."

I nodded, reaching to grab the clothes that I had brought with me from the nightstand. Though I wouldn't say anything aloud, I was secretly hoping that this would be my only year spectating the Gryffindor Quidditch matches, so I was unashamed to go all out with my outfits for every match.

I grinned as Vic silenced the door to the bathroom before pulling out a radio. "Is that charmed to withstand magic?"

She nodded. With a wave of her wand, a song by Bedknobs and Broomsticks began blasting throughout the room.

We sang dramatically into our wands as we got ready. At one point, Vic played air guitar so atrociously that I was worried she would injure herself. She, remarkably, managed to avoid stabbing me in the eye as she applied red and gold eyeshadow to my eyelids while we continued to scream song lyrics. Once we were mostly ready, Vic amused us both by dusting my cheeks and nose with an excessive amount of bright red blush before handing me an eyeliner pencil and instructing me to draw tiny golden snitches over the rouge. I added mascara and red lipstick, and we both nodded our approval. It was so over the top that it was borderline ridiculous, and I was more than happy to sport it.

I dressed in a gold sweater with Gryffindor across it in bright red letters. Red pants and red shoes completed the look, though Vic did charm my shoelaces gold before nodding her approval.

I sat on the countertop as I did Vic's hair in two braids, careful to keep any strands from escaping. Victoire considered loose hair an unnecessary distraction during Quidditch, which was something that I agreed with wholeheartedly. When I was done, I hopped off of the counter and began to bounce excitedly on my toes.

"You almost love Quidditch too much," Victoire commented with amusement as she finished smearing her face with sunscreen.

"You can't love it too much. It's Quidditch," I told her happily.

She shook her head at me, but didn't argue as we began to make our way downstairs. Teddy and Jay were waiting in the Common Room when we arrived. Jay's expression was relieved when he noticed me trailing behind Vic.

"Did you think that I had gone down to breakfast and left you, or that I decided to have a lie-in?" I asked him.

"The first. He's smart enough to know that Quidditch keeps you from being able to sleep past six," Teddy said as he wrapped his girlfriend up in a hug.

"Good," I remarked, pleased.

I wrapped my arms around Jay's waist, grinning up at him. "Are you ready for your game today, Jay-bird?"

He laughed, tugging at a lock of my hair. His eyebrow was arched as he looked at me, undoubtedly at the nickname that I had bestowed upon him, but he chose not to comment on it. "I think I'm about as ready as can be expected. I like your little snitch freckles."

I giggled. "Snitch freckles?"

"Yeah, they're all over your cheeks, just like your freckles are when they're not covered up by blush. I also like the blush, by the way," He said, and his cheeks flushed slightly at the words. I smirked, enjoying how awkward the boy had suddenly become.

"Do you think I look pretty?" I asked him, drawing out the 'e' in pretty while batting my eyelashes at the boy.

He let out a bark of laughter, shoving me away from him with an exasperated smile. "I think you look like a rabid fan, and perhaps we shouldn't be encouraging you by talking to you," He teased. "You might become a stalker! My dad had one of those, once."

Teddy chuckled, clapping my best friend on the shoulders. "Say what you will, Jay, but your ears are pretty red for someone who's trying to deter a potential stalker."

I grinned, batting my eyelashes once again. "Is it because I'm a pretty stalker?"

They all laughed, though Jay was, indeed, quite flushed. Victoire threw an arm around my shoulders, dragging me ahead of the boys as we began to walk towards the Great Hall.

"Mon caneton," Vic said in a sing-song voice.

"Yes?" I asked, copying her and switching into French.

"Do you like Jay?"

I giggled. "He's my best friend."

"Teddy's my best friend," She told me with a pointed look.

"So is Levi," I countered.

"Oi! We can still hear our names when you speak in French!" Teddy shouted, his voice steeped in faux outrage. "Stop gossiping about us!"

We ignored him. Teddy spoke French, anyways. I knew that he was likely trying to keep Jay from feeling left out, which I appreciated.

"Whatever," Vic said to me, rolling her eyes. "I get to be the first to say 'I told you so' when you figure it out."

"Sure thing," I agreed, sticking my tongue out at her. She grinned, grabbing my sides and tickling me before I could move away from her. I shrieked in response, swatting at her hands and trying to get away. Vic laughed, dodging my hands and continuing to torment me. In all of the years that I had spent at her house growing up, I had never been able to escape one of her tickle attacks without help. She told me it was because, as my god-sister (mum was her godmother, as well as Aunt Fleur being mine), she had been tickling me since before I knew what tickling was. I always laughed and told her she was an idiot, which normally got me tickled.

"Tori, try not to kill my sister," Teddy laughed as I fell over, gasping for air and still struggling against Vic's hands. "She'll be sure to come back and haunt us if you kill her right before a game."

"You're the worst! Help me!" I wailed, swatting at Vic's hands with more force than I had originally been using as the situation became a tad dire for my ability to breathe.

Ted and Jay both chuckled. "Aren't you supposed to be nice, when asking for help?" Jay asked me.

"I'm dying!" I shrieked. "Vic, I refuse to fix your hair if you mess it up!"

She was red in the face from laughing so hard, but her hands stilled against my side. I immediately collapsed flat on my back, gasping for air. Jay's face appeared in my line of vision, and I quickly narrowed my eyes to glare at him.

"I hate you," I told him, still slightly out of breath.

He shrugged. "You'll get over it." He held out a hand to help me up, grinning slightly at the affronted expression that I gave the proffered limb before rolling over and getting to my feet without his help.

Teddy chuckled. "Watch it, Jay. She can hold a grudge like no other."

I frowned at him as well, before storming off with my nose in the air. Vic was giggling as she caught up to me, hooking her arm through mine.

"What?" Jay cried, outraged. "Why is she forgiven? She was the one tickling you!"

Victoire gave him a snooty look, one that she had clearly learned from her mother. It was the look that Aunt Fleur gave the press when they were being particularly nosy, one that typically got her called a 'stuck up French bitch' in the paper. She loved to laugh at the title. "I'm her favorite, haven't you heard?"

Both boys immediately began yelling, protests and complaints pouring from their mouths as Vic and I laughed and ignored them. The boys were still whining when we entered the Great Hall. Levi took one look at the mess and promptly began complaining along with the other two, though he was rambling about hippogriffs and making Vic and I laugh hysterically.

"Look, all I'm saying is that-" Teddy told me, holding his hands up before him pleadingly.

"-it's perfectly unfair that-" Jay spoke over him, pushing him aside slightly so that he was directly before me on the bench opposite Vic and I.

"-I mean really, making everyone fucking bow-" Levi ranted, shaking Vic's shoulders for emphasis.

Vic grabbed my hand under the table, turning towards me with a laugh lighting up her pretty face. "This is awesome. Can you get mad at them more often?"

"I'm not sure that awesome is the word that I would use," Professor McGonagall said tiredly from behind us. We all jumped slightly, turning to look at her with faintly guilty expressions. The silence was suddenly deafening as she gave us each slow, measuring looks. Finally, she told us, "Do try to keep from creating chaos before eight in the morning, next time. I wish you well in the match today. I can't give you any advice, as I am no longer Head of Gryffindor house. Were that not the case, however, I would likely tell you, Miss Weasley, to keep your elbows tucked in when you pass to your right. Good luck to you all."

Jay grinned at her back as she walked away. "Wicked. Dad always told me that she loved Quidditch, but I thought he was full of it."

"Nah, McGonagall is one of the biggest Quidditch nuts that I've ever met," Teddy laughed. "Just wait until you're made Captain. She always seems to be muttering to herself about "random" plays and "random" errors that she's seen players make. It's good for us, since Longbottom doesn't know a thing about Quidditch and is absolutely useless to the team."

Jay chuckled, but he was giving me a wide-eyed look, which made me grin at him. I knew that he hadn't heard a word past "wait until you're made Captain".

"She is right about your elbows though, Tori. It makes your throws predictable and you're more vulnerable to bludger attacks," Teddy warned Vic, using the butter knife that he held to point at her elbows while he spoke.

She nodded at him, though she seemed to be fighting a smile. "I know, I'll make sure to work on that."

Ted nodded, before turning towards the still moderately empty table with a frown. "Where's the rest of the team? I told everyone that I wanted them here by eight. Phoenix made it down before them and she's not even on the team yet."

Levi scoffed, reaching to grab the knife from Teddy so that he could butter his own toast. "Well your beaters are coming in the door now. I'm not sure about your seeker, but if I know Eli, he's probably already eaten and just ran down to the library for something. If you expected Jennings to have his ass down here in time to have breakfast before the match, you're kidding yourself. There's a reason that you were made Captain when Jennings was a seventh year who had been on the team longer than you have."

"Honestly. Jennings is a lazy sod. I don't know how he's stayed on the team for as long as he has," Teddy grumbled, taking a rather aggressive bite of his toast.

"There hasn't been anyone talented enough to beat him for the spot yet," Vic replied, giving me a pointed look.

I grinned at her before turning to Jay, who was also smiling. "Are you ready for the match?"

He nodded. "I'm nervous, but I'm far less nervous than I was for the first match. Do you want more tea?"

"Sure," I said, holding my cup out for him. "Have you been working on your roll for the Pultsky play?"

"Yeah, it's a lot better. As long as I grip the broom hard enough with my knees, I should be okay. It's just a matter of remembering to do that."

"I'll scream really loudly right before your part comes up, if you think it'll help you remember," I offered, smiling at Nikki as she climbed onto the bench beside me and snagged a piece of my bacon.

"You're always screaming loudly at matches," Jay teased, adding another piece of bacon to my plate with a roll of his eyes. "But yes, if you wouldn't mind, I would appreciate the reminder."

Beside me, Nikki was explaining to Teddy that one of the girls in her dorm had apparently accidentally put her jersey away in their trunk, which was what had caused Nikki to be late to breakfast. The other Gryffindor beater, a fourth year named Peter Giving, had been waiting for her in the Common Room, so he was also late as a consequence of the inadvertently stolen jersey. Teddy nodded understandingly, telling the pair that he would inquire after getting the team an extra set of game-day jerseys so that the problem didn't arise again.

I stabbed a strawberry, raising it towards my mouth only to have Vic lean over and steal it from my fork. Apparently, I was sharing my breakfast with everyone this morning. I rolled my eyes at Victoire, scowling at her cheeky grin before spearing another berry. Sticking it in my mouth as quickly as I could, my frown deepened as Vic playfully leaned towards me once again.

"No," I told her, emphasizing my words by pointing my fork at her. She bit at it playfully in response.

Jay was laughing at our antics when I finally turned back to him. "Sorry. Victoire was bugging me," I told him, throwing a faux-dirty look at a laughing Vic as I did so.

He grinned. "It's fine. You guys are amusing."

I gave him a small smile. Jay's comments about the dynamics between my family and me were always a tad wistful. I wished I knew how to explain to him that he had essentially become as good as family when he became my best friend.

As though reading my mind, Levi leaned over and ruffled Jay's hair. "They're ridiculous, you can say it. Once, Phoenix put salt in Vic's tea because Vic had eaten all of her candies. It started a series of the most ridiculous "pranks" that you've ever heard of."

Vic and I exchanged smirks. We had only been "pranking" each other because we had wanted to give the boys the impression that we weren't good at pranking. We had actually eaten my candies in my room while we schemed up our master plan, which was really a way at getting back at the boys for not letting us play Quidditch with them. While I pretended to put salt in Vic's tea and she filled my sheets with rubber spiders, we let the boys grow dismissive of us. Once Levi and Teddy had spent a week mocking us, we hung all of their underpants up in the tree outside of the Burrow just before everyone came outside to have dinner. It was my father's birthday party, so the entire family and many of our family friends had been there. James and Fred, who we were also angry with at the time, had taken the blame for it. To this day, no one besides Lily and Dom knew that we had been the culprits.

After everyone had eaten, Levi and I walked down to the pitch with the team.

"So, what was that smirk between you and Vic about?" Jay muttered in my ear as he slung an arm around my shoulders. I grinned at him, pleased that I would get the chance to brag about one of my better pranks to him.

"Long story short, Teddy and Levi thought that we were completely incompetent at pranking at that point-they've since learned better-and so we got away with stringing all of their pants up for half of the DA, most of the Order, and the entire family to see," I told him with a smug smirk.

He laughed. "You're an evil little bird, aren't you?"

I shrugged, giving him a sly smile. "If you say so."

The grounds were lovely as we exited the castle. There was only a light dusting of snow covering the grass, which seemed to shimmer in the sunlight as we walked. It was cold enough for our breath to be visible, which was colder than I personally preferred, but it wasn't so cold that the chill was unbearable. I liked the crunch that my boots made when I walked across the frozen grass, only just audible over the sounds of everyone talking amongst themselves.

"So, gossiping in French, hmm?" Jay teased, pulling my attention away from my shoes, as I had been deliberately trying to step on uncrushed areas of frosty snow. He was grinning, likely at my antics, and I blushed as I realized how silly I must have looked. "I don't suppose I get to be privy to the contents of that conversation?"

"No, that one we're going to keep between Victoire and I," I laughed, my cheeks growing warmer at the idea of telling him what we had been discussing.

He grinned. "I guess I'll just have to secretly learn French, to be in on the gossip. I can speak some Gaelic, but I've never learned any French."

"I can teach you," I promised.

"Really?" He asked, instantly excited. Jay's love for learning was one of my favorite things about him, so I was more than happy to be able to offer to teach him something that he didn't already know.

"Of course! I love French," I admitted. I gave Vic a sheepish grin as she glanced over her shoulder at my words, to which she smiled and mouthed 'me too'.

"A romantic, I see," Jay said teasingly.

I chuckled. "Not really. It's just something that I get to share with Aunt Fleur. It reminds her of home, when we converse in French."

Jay squeezed my shoulder. "Well, you must love her a lot. If you teach me French, I'd be happy to teach you Gaelic, if you'd like."

"Really?" I asked, intrigued by the offer.

"If you'd like. It'll help you win over my Grandad, at any rate."

I hid a grin, knowing that Vic would undoubtedly attempt to see my reaction to his words and would likely misinterpret my smile. Really, it just made me ecstatic to know that Jay clearly saw me as a friend that was important enough to eventually meet his grandparents.

As we neared the pitch, which had been magically kept clear of snow, I tugged on Jay's arm to get his attention, slowing our pace so that we were walking just a bit behind the rest of the group.

"You're going to do great," I told him, keeping my voice quiet. I had believed him when he told me that he wasn't feeling as nervous as he had been prior to his first match, but I still wanted to reassure him before he took to the skies. That being said, I also didn't want to humiliate him by making it seem like I felt the need to coddle him more than the rest of the team. "You played brilliantly in your last game, you play brilliantly in practice, and you're going to play brilliantly today. I'm really excited to watch you play again."

Jay gave me a warm smile, not seeming at all offended by my desire to reassure him. "Thank you, Phoenix. I'm excited to hear you scream your head off from the bleachers again."

"Hey!" I protested, elbowing him in the side when he laughed.

"I'm just saying!" He said, raising his hands slightly as in mock-surrender. "I've got to enjoy it while it lasts. Next year, you'll be on the pitch with me, so this is really my only shot unless we wind up playing for different teams when we go pro."

His easy confidence in both of our abilities made me smile, though I still pinched his side at the words. "Don't jinx it!"

"Which part?" He chuckled, rubbing his side where I had pinched him.

"Any of it."

I tried not to pout as the team parted ways with us on their way to the locker rooms. Levi replaced Jay's arm around my shoulder with his own, giving me a squeeze as we began to climb the stands.

"You know that you'll be on the team next year," He told me reassuringly. "Teddy has wanted to replace Jennings as chaser since before he was even the Captain of the team. Jay's been the only try-out that's even been decent since Vic, and there's no way that there's anyone in your year who's a better chaser than you."

"There's every chance that there is," I disagreed, having given this a good deal of thought already. "There's also a chance that someone who's really good will try out next year who hasn't tried out before. Maybe they've been practicing, but they had to work up the nerve, or they wanted to wait until after their OWLs so that they wouldn't have as many classes to keep up with."

He frowned. "Maybe. I guess. I still think that you're a shoe-in."

"Thanks, Levi," I said, bumping my shoulder against his affectionately. "Do you think mum and dad will come for the match?"

"Ginny is going to come for sure, but Harry has work and wasn't sure if he would be able to make it. I predict that he shows up ten minutes before the end of the match and screams twice as loudly as anyone else to make up for it."

I crinkled my nose at him. "It's weird that you call them by their first names. I know you have your own parents, but Teddy has another mum and dad too, and he still calls ours mum and dad."

Levi laughed, ruffling my hair. "Yes, but your parents didn't legally adopt me like they did Ted."

"I wish they had," I said with a slight pout. This was also something that I had given a lot of thought. Levi was my big brother-my eldest brother, actually-and it always made me mad when people refused to accept that as the truth just because our parents hadn't signed a piece of paper. "You live at our house, anyways."

"The perils of being an accidental pregnancy born to two curse breakers," Levi said, once again wrapping an arm around my shoulder. The words were nonchalant, but they shouldn't have been.

"Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur are curse breakers, and they're home all the time. They didn't just pawn their kid off on the next-door neighbors! You're amazing; you're probably going to be an even better curse breaker than your parents, but they wouldn't even know it!" I said, now more than a bit indignant on Levi's behalf. I had never had a complaint about him being around growing up, but I did resent his parents for basically abandoning him as soon as my parents offered to let him stay with us while his parents traveled for work. The fact that Levi didn't seem to resent his parents at all only made me begrudge them more.

Levi sighed, not seeming upset, but rather a tad weary. He ran his hand through his shaggy blonde hair, seeming to think about what he wanted to say for a moment before speaking. "I knew that this was coming, you know. Teddy thought that you would say something last year, but I figured that it would take until we got to Hogwarts. I know that Ginny and Harry tell you guys not to say anything about it, even though I don't mind. The others have already said something, but they were cool once I told them that it was okay. I figured that you would be the one to argue that it wasn't okay, though. You're just protective over the people you care about, you know?"

I nodded.

"Look. My parents didn't want kids. They like traveling for work. Bill and Fleur traveled before they met each other, but they agreed to settle down to raise their kids. That was a decision that they made before they even knew they were pregnant with Vic. Now, they avoid the big cases and don't travel together, so that they can be home with Lou. Honestly, once they send Louis off next year, it would shock me if they didn't accept a big job together. The difference between them and my parents is that my parents didn't want to put their life on hold for 11 years while they waited to send me off to school. Ted and I hit it off as friends the day that my parents moved into the house next to yours. Your parents overheard them talking about what they were going to do with me, because they had a big trip coming up. They offered to watch me for as long as necessary, because they're good people and, honestly, maybe they could tell that my folks just weren't cut out to be parents. Whatever the reason they offered; my parents were happy to take them up on it. Maybe it would have been nice if they hadn't. I don't know. But I'm happy being a part of your family. Plus, I think that my parents would resent me if things had worked out differently. Your parents gave me a loving home, siblings, and the chance at a halfway relationship with my parents. I'm aware that I basically have two sets of parents, but I've been calling your parents by their names for as long as I can remember. Honestly, at this point, when I say Ginny and Harry, I basically mean mum and dad. They know that," Levi told me. The entire thing was very blasé, making it clear that this was something that he had spent a long time thinking about, a conclusion that he was very comfortable with.

I sighed. "Okay. I'm still going to tell people that you're my brother though."

He laughed, seeming oblivious to the way that the girls passing him on their way into the stands turned to stare at him when he did so. I gave one of the girls a nasty look when she didn't immediately keep moving, which caused Levi to tug on a lock of my hair and give me a warning look. Perhaps not so oblivious, then. "Well good, because I tell people that you're my little sister."

I beamed at him, and he gave my shoulder a squeeze in response.

"So, do you want to take bets on the match?" Levi asked me, his expression playful.

"Absolutely not," I replied immediately. "Anyone who bets against you is a fool. You never predict anything incorrectly."

"That's certainly not true," Levi chuckled. "I'm just frequently lucky."

I rolled my eyes, not believing his words in the slightest. One of the reasons that I thought Levi would make such a good curse breaker was because I was fairly certain he had some Seer blood in him. He might not be able to tell the future, but his intuition was normally spot on. Helpful, when one picked a career that regularly had you betting your life on selecting the right place to put your feet. "Whatever. I'm still not betting against you."

Gryffindor won the match. Jay scored three more times than he had in the last match, which was an almost unheard-of increase, especially considering that he had done quite well during the last match. Jennings was knocked off of his broom by a bludger, as he was too busy staring at Vic to pay attention, despite having played with her for years. Luckily, Eli Harrison, Teddy and Levi's other roommate and the Gryffindor seeker, caught the snitch before Ted had to worry about finding a replacement. Levi was fuming over the incident, and I knew that Teddy and Vic were probably even angrier than he was. Vic was only an eighth Veela; it drove her insane that people still lost their minds to how pretty she was at times.

Dad showed up ten minutes before the match ended and screamed twice as loudly as everyone else to make up for it.


One morning towards the end of the school year, Professor Flitwick called me up to his desk and quietly asked me to come see him after dinner. I must have looked terrified, for he was quick to reassure me.

"I'm hoping to move you up a year in Charms, don't look like I've told you to put your hand in a tub of Blast-Ended Skrewts." He chuckled at my expression.

I had done my best to walk back to my seat normally, but I must have been practically giddy with excitement. Freddy had leaned over at once, asking if I would share whatever our professor had said, to which I happily did so. He immediately gave me a genuine grin, wrapping me in a tight side-hug that had our classmates staring. They were ignored. Roxy leaned forward, tapping me on the back and asking me what was going on. I told her my news as softly as I could, trying to keep from beaming like a lunatic while I did so. She and James exchanged a look that I could not read, but Freddy tugged me back towards him before I could ask what they were thinking, his brow slightly furrowed.

Jay missed lunch, so I told him in the hall as I passed him. He grinned, lifting me clean off of my feet and spinning me around while shouting about how proud he was of me. People blatantly stared at us, which was annoying, though also slightly amusing when we witnessed a girl run into a door because of it. The entire interaction was brief, as we were both rushing to class, but I was absolutely delighted at how joyous he seemed.

That night I scarfed my dinner down, ignoring the laughter from Jay and Freddy, and then rushed to knock on the door to Professor Flitwick's office. I was hopping in place while I waited for him to respond, though he only took moments to do so.

"Ah, Miss Potter, do come in now!"

I bounced into the room and smiled at the little man, unable to keep from fidgeting as I waited a tad impatiently for him to say or do something. He beamed back for a moment before gesturing for me to speak.

"You want to have me go into third year Charms next year?" I asked, praying that I had understood correctly.

"Indeed, my dear. I was thinking perhaps you could take your NEWTs a year early, which would give you the opportunity to spend an extra year learning spells and some theory that most students don't get to learn. Of course, you would be taking the additional course the same year that you take all of your other NEWTs, so we will have to try and keep the homework to a minimum, but that shouldn't be a problem with how quickly you catch onto things. I wasn't sure if you would be interested in this sort of thing, but I recently had an interesting conversation with Professors McGonagall, Bernet, Longbottom, and Slughorn about some extra work that you and Mr. Weasley have been taking on, so I thought you wouldn't be too terribly opposed to the idea. Plus, I've heard that you're rather good friends with Mr. Wood, so we could place you in his class, if you'd like."

Flitwick was waiting for me to decide with a mixture of hope and excitement. I wasn't ever going to say no to his proposition, but the moment he mentioned being in the class with Jay, I was completely sold.

"It would be an honor, Professor," I told him honestly, trying not to bounce in place with delight. "I love Charms so much; I can't even tell you how excited I am that I'll get to learn even more than I would have otherwise!"

"I knew that you should have been in my house!" He cried with mock outrage. I laughed as we sat down to finalize the details.


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