George Weasley climbed the stairs around and around and around and
around. The spiraling stairs seemed to go on forever and yet George kept
going. Something nagged at the back of his mind that he'd never seen this
part of the castle before, but it didn't really matter. The spiral
staircase finally came to an end, only to become a large rotting wooden
door. Light streamed in through the cracks in the door, illuminating the
darkness which engulfed him. A scream and a yelp, George suddenly burst
through the door, only to come face to face with You-Know-Who himself. Or
atleast... he knew it was You-Know-Who... he couldn't actually see his
face, but the presense was correct. And then he saw them. Fred, Alicia,
Angelina, Katie, Lee, Ron... all of them... even Harry Potter.. all
manacled to the far wall. All unconsious... Before George knew what was
happening, someone had grabbed him and thrown him out of a window... he
fell down down down down down, the ground rising toward him. The sensation
was almost magical and then..
George jolted into his bed. His eyes were closed and sweat trickled into his eyes. A dream... only a dream. Sleep was still upon him like a heavy blanket, and George could hardly tell what was dream or not. Not sure wether or not he wanted to remember the dream, George sighed deeply. The Dark Lord had been in his dream-- and not for the first time. But George pushed it aside. He knew it happened to both Fred and Lee all the time. It probably happened to alot of witches and wizards. But what an odd dream... He tried to remember what Voldemort's face looked like, only half way remembering he couldn't see it at all in the dream. Dreams were odd, George finally concluded and got up for a fresh Monday start.
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"Goodmorning!" George said along with his brother to all the Gryffindors in the Great Hall. They all looked up and smiled cheerfully, George wanting to catch Alicia's eye. Two days ago they had played Hide and Seek in the castle... and two days ago was the last time George had had a real conversation with Alicia Spinnet.
"I have a question," Angelina began. George looked up at her, along with Fred. "You two have been causing hardly any problems this year... what happened to the Fred and George we used to know?"
Fred and George glanced at eachother.
"We..--"
" --I..."
"Umm..." they said together. The rest of the group laughed as though they had planned this but George knew that neither he nor Fred knew the answer... they DID seem to wreak less havoc than that of the two previous years.
"We're working on it..." Fred finally answered. George nodded in agreement. The rest in the group suddenly looked a bit worried. George read their faces and knew they were becoming a wee bit scarred. This, in a way, reassured George. They were still afraid of the twin's antics, and with them waiting to see what the boys would do to cause mayhem, the suspence was building.
George had just started eating his bowl of cereal when there was a sweeping sound from above. Every morning .. every morning. Having seen the mail arrive enough times to know what was going on, George didn't even look up. That is until there was a commotion from alittle ways down. George watched as his little brother, Ron, and Harry Potter stood facing a short, blonde, pointy faced Slytherin first-year. Professor McGonagall was there in a flash and the Slytherin boy gave something to that little Longbottom kid.
"Ha... Slytherins..." George muttered.
"Don't First-Years have their first flying lessons today?" Lee asked after using his sleeve to wipe the remaining pumpkin juice off his face. George's eyebrows raised.
"Yeeaah!" George said along with Fred.
"Remember our first flying lesson?" Fred addressed the group.
"Well duh... it was only acouple years ago.." Alicia reminded them, buttering her toast.
"I hate those school brooms.. they vibrate if you fly too high.." Fred scowled.
"And mine kept flying to the left.. good thing we have our own brooms," George smiled, remembering when last Christmas when they each got new Clean Sweep Fives... ah the wonder of it..
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"And soooo... because the English hated Joan of Arc, she was condemned as a witch (yeah right!) and a heretic, and burned at the stake" George read off his paper, calmly as you please. If he had looked up, he would only be more inspired to make his audience shudder. "And 500 years after her death, she was declared a saint... little late for all that, eh?" George chuckled. Others did not. They simply blinked several times.
"Thankyou Weasley and Spinnet," Professor Magness, the only person besides himself not the wee bit faltered. "Lovely... and who's next? Ah... Diggory and Carter-- I believe you were assigned the report 'The Renaissance and Exploration?'"
George hardly pait attention to Diggory's oral report. He was too busy thanking Alicia athousand times for doing his half of the oral report.
"Thankyou!" George said. She smiled. "Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" George repeated time and time again as he wrote a big "THANKYOU!" on a bit of parchment. "And did I mention 'THANKYOU!'" he asked, shoving the thankyou notice in her face.
"Oh stop," Alicia pretended to be embarrassed. George grinned and looked up at Professor McGonagall, who was eying him like a hawk.
"Shhh... I'm trying to listen," George said out of the corner of his mouth.
"Me?!" Alicia hissed, trying to be as quiet as she could. "You're the one who's talking."
"May I please remind you.." came the Professor's voice. George watched her look around the room, avoiding *his* eye contact, "To please remain silent while others are talking?" George could feel her eyes on him. He sent her an appologetic smile as Diggory started talking again.
George pretended to listen intently but got caught in Diggory's words, much to his dismay... History really was quite interesting sometimes... unless of course, if it had something to do with boring Wizard's Conventions that he could care less about. And the Renaissance really was rather entertaining.. from a muggle point of view anyways.
Diggory had just started on the "Perfect Painter," Raphael, when Alicia poked him in the arm.
"What?" George turned his head sideways to look at her. She pressed a folded up sheet of paper into his hand.
George took the paper and unfolded it.
George--
This is boring. --Alicia
It was a simple note, and not the first one he'd got from a girl... but it WAS the first one he'd gotten from the girl he liked. George took out his special red bottle of ink and his quill, and wrote:
Alicia--
I know.
--George
He gave the note back to Alicia and watched her as she read it. She rolled her eyes, wrote something, and gave the note back to him. It read:
~How about making trouble?~
George grinned as he read this and turned to smile at Alicia. But she was turned away, looking at the ceiling innocently.
~What do you have in mind?~
George write back.
~I don't know! You're the criminal master mind here...~
George had to admit she was right. He thought for a moment, biting his lip. He pulled his wand out of his pocket, aim it ever so carefully and murmured, "Flandio."
He watched, with a smile on his face, as Diggory's shoelaces tied themselves together. No one seemed to notice, except Alicia, who giggled.
"And that concludes," Diggory said. George elbowed Alicia in the ribs to stop giggling.
"Thankyou Mr. Diggory -- up next I'd like to--"
Professor Magness was cut off by a loud "Oof!" as Diggory tripped over his own shoes and fell flat on his face, papers flying everywhere. The whole class burst out in a laughing up roar and George even caught Professor Magness trying her hardest not to smile as she ran over to help her student.
Alicia was laughing so hard she had to use George's shoulder as a support. They both laughed even harder when Alicia snorted.
"Settle down, settle down.." Professor Magness said, helping Diggory up to his feet after they had gtten the shoes untied. "Now obviously this is some sort of practical joke... and it was very clever indeed," Professor Magness kept a stiff look, but her voice was that of amusment. "But I must ask that this not happen again..." and suddenly the bell rang.
"You... are a genius," Alicia said, packing her books.
"Ah, but you came up with the idea," George said, patting her on the back as they waited in the line of people leaving the room.
"It was, wasn't it.."Alicia trailed off, obviously proud of herself. George smiled and hoped he would remember this moment for awhile....
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It was four o'clock when Fred and George were innocently making their way from the kitchens. Fred contently and slowly devoured a brownie as George read the map to make sure no one was coming.
"You just had to have more brownies, didn't you?"
"Wha?" Fred's mouth was over flowing in brownie crumbs.
"You heard me."
Fred struggled to swallow and wiped his mouth before fighitng back, "Excuse me Mr. I have ten cookies in EACH pocket of my cloak."
"Fred--Oliver's coming."
"Yeah right, you just want--"
"Hello, Oliver!"
George grinned as he folded up the map, happy for once the he had gotten the better of Fred.
"Fred! George!! You won't BELIEVE who our new seeker fot his year is!" Oliver was practically jumping up and down. He looked like he had to pee really bad too.
"Oooh! Lee Jordan?" Fred guessed. George stiffled a laugh. Lee couldn't even find his own socks in the morning, least of all find a little gold ball.
"Nono... it's McGonagall!" George proclaimed.
"Dumbledore!"
"Mrs. Norris!!"
"Oh! It's that Longbottom kid, isn't it?!"
Oliver was grinning from ear to ear but whether it was because of their jokes or who it was... neither of them knew. He kept trying to get the actual fact it, but it just wasn't happening. "No! It's--"
"Harry Potter!" Fred meant it as a joke and George laughed with him.
"I thought you'd never say it."
Fred and George stopped laughing and gave Oliver equally discombobulated looks. Oliver nodded in excitment, his grin bigger than ever.
"Harry Potter?" George asked. Fred was still contimplating.
"Yep."
"As in the little skinny kid with the glasses and the scar and the messed up hair?" Fred asked.
"He defeated the Dark Lord..." Oliver added in.
"Yeah, him!"
"Yeah... him." Oliver was nodding frantically. He looked as though he were talking about the girl he liked--which in a way he was seeing as he loved Quidditch so much.
"He can't play!" Fred proclaimed. "He's a first year."
"McGonagall is making an exception.. and he's perfect for the role."
"What, skinny little Potter on one of those school brooms?" Fred asked. "Yes, that'll win us the cup."
George elbowed Fred in the ribs.
"The REASON I've told you all first... well, I planned on it but the girls wouldn't tell me where you were until I told them what was going on... but anyways, the reason I WANTED to tell you first is that our team will be a complete set if we get Katie to play."
Fred and George glanced at eachother.
"And since nothing the girls have said and nothing I've said to her has seemed to work, I figured why not get you two to try to convince her to be on the team."
"Ah, my dearest Oliver... we don't try--"
"--We do, or do not. There is no try."
"I don't know, Weasleys. None of the girls could."
"Oliver, you insult us!"
Fred and George put their arms around the tall 5th year's shoulders.
"This'll be a piece of cake."
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"Katie, Katie, Katie, Katie, Kaaaaaatiiiiieee!!!" Fred and George sang, following Katie Bell at a safe distance through the halls.
"What bloody part of 'NO' don't you understand!?" Katie spun around on the spot and through her hands up in exasperation.
"N!" Fred said immediatly.
"O!" George chimed in.
Katie smade a squeaky-annoyed sortof sound that reminded George of Ginny when she was upset and spun back around to go to their next class.
"Playing hard to get, eh?" Fred mumbled under his breath, taking the same route to Potions.
"I don't get it! What's wrong with Quidditch?" George added before running to catch up with Fred.
"So, brother of mine, got anymore clever ideas to get Katie to be on the team?" Fred asked as they jumped down a small flight of steps.
"Well, Frederick," George started, "We've tried begging, pleading, annoying... I don't think there's anything else that we can do that we're actually good at."
"What, you mean like having an actual conversation with her?" Fred asked. Fred and George exchanged disgusted looks and shook their heads.
"Naaah.."
"Problem is, we told Wood we could handle this-- that it would be easy," George said as they came upon the door into Potions.
"Well I'm certainly not giving up. She's a great flier! You saw her out there .. and it was raining too! She'd make an excelent addition to our team."
"And honestly, what better three girls to be Chasers? Angelina, Alicia, and Katie?? They're already friends."
"This is scaring me--" Fred suddenly cut in.
"What's that?" asked George.
"We're actually making sense."
Fred and George put their stuff down and went toget their ingredients. George opened his mouth to say, "please!" again to Katie as she passed but she gave a firm, "NO!" before he even got to it.
Twenty minutes later...
"Puffer fish..."
"Eyes of."
"Asphedel.."
"Powered."
George used his wand to stir the Potion as Fred added the ingredients. It wasn't as though they enjoyed Potions-- quite the opposite-- but they needed the skills if they were to fullfill their life long dream ... that of creating a line of magical joke candies.
"Thyme."
"10 o'clock."
"Fred..."
"Yes?"
"Please tell me we have thyme..."
"I just said 10 o'clock!"
"Not THE time! Aarg! Out of my way!" George pushed his chuckling brother out of the way and checked the cupboard.
"Lacewing flies.." Fred said, throwing a pinch of thyme into the concoction.
"How much?"
"Umm... I dunno, ask Alicia."
George spun around in his place and looked up at Alicia, who's couldron was behind their's.
"Hello..." he said.
She looked up at him, a bit of grey fog escaping her potion. She gave him a sweet little smile, which sent his stomach jolting. He opened his mouth to talk but nothing seemed to come out.
"Yes?"
"Could you be a dear and tell me how much Lacewing?" George asked politely, finally regaining his senses. Alicia's nose crinkled as though she were trying to remember.
"A pinch?"
"Oh you're no help.." George said, turning around and peering into his and Fred's potion. It was a mucky brownish color. He heard a "tuh" from behind him and wished secretly that he hadn't been so short with Alicia.
"Professor Snape!" George called out.
"Mr. Weasley..." Snape crossed the room to their couldron.
"What color is it supposed to be?" George asked. Fred kicked him from under the table.
"Mr. Weasley, we do not judge our concoctions by their color," Snape leered at the twin's concoction, stirring it a bit with the ladel. "Five points from Gryffindor. The potion should be judged by it's effectiveness, not by it's appearance" and Snape strode off.
"Excusem'wa?! Last year he took points for our potion being light green instead of dark green!" Katie said from next to Fred. George glowered at Snape, as Fred
"Two minutes till your concoction should be ready!" the Professor announced.
"Aah!" Fred spun and started stirring while George ran his finger down the list.
"Two Fluxweeds and a dash of knotgrass?! Oh, who came up with this measuring system!?" George sighed, adding the ingredients. Fred shrugged and stirred somemore. Their potion was slowly becoming a redish brown color.
"Alicia, what color is your potion?" George spun and asked her another question. She glanced at him, and looked into her own couldron...
"Blue..." she said, looking out over at the twin's. "What did you do?" she asked when she noticed the boys' potion was a mucky mud brown.
"I don't know!"
"Time ... " Snape announced, still writing something on the black board.
"Are you sure we added everything??" Fred asked anxiously.
"Yes!! I mean, we got the Avil Mushrooms, the Cateri Powder, two drops of stickless bark..." George still skimmed frantically down the list. Snape was approaching ever too quickly.
"... is up." Snape finished his sentence as he stepped up to the Weasley's couldron. Fred and George both looked up at him with grim yet innocent looks on their faces. George, expecting Snape's face to look happy and smug, looked into the couldron when it wasn't. Quite the opposite, Snape was laddling out Fred and George's potion, which had magically turned blue. Fred's mouth fell agape.
"As you can see class," Snape struggled to get the words out. "Mr. and ... Mr. Weasley seem to have conjured up a ... " he tried to find a word. "...decent Spartic Pushover potion."
Fred's mouth was still agape when Snape hurried away to check other potions.
"What happened?!" Fred asked, ladding out the potion and checking to make sure his eyes weren't deciving him. The rather thick liquid that oozed out and back into the couldron was indeed blue.
"You're very welcome," Katie hissed at them.
Fred and George both turned to look at her. Katie was bent over a piece of parchment, pretending she hadn't said a thing. George couldn't help but notice the way her straight blonde hair fell infront of her face like that. Katie really was pretty, and George could see why Lee liked her.
"You... helped us?" the boys said together.
Katie looked up and grinned. "I don't have any clue what it is you're talking about." She started putting her things away and went to the sink to wash her hands off. Fred and George waited till the bell had wrung before approaching her with yet another of their plans.
"If you think this is going to stop us from trying to get you on the team-- " Fred started. George finished for him because Fred was looking a little disruffled.
"Then you've got another thing coming... right, Fred?"
Fred nodded in sheer agreement.
"Look... Fred," Katie stopped and grabbed Fred by his shirt collar. "George," grasped George's shirt collar too. "I, Katie Elise Bell, do not want to play Quidditch."
George looked at Fred and recognized his look of determination. This wasn't just a matter of getting Katie to play--oh, no--this was war.
"I didn't know her middle name was Elise," George said. Fred huffed.
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"Alright, alright... Fred! So she helped us with our potion, who cares?"
George was sitting on his bed examining the thing that muggles called a Quackalator. He wondered why... it certainly didn't have any duck-like qualities.
"It's not just that she helped us--though that bothers me--"
"Why?"
"Because!!"
"Because Fred doesn't think he needs help from any body."
Lee had come out of the bathroom and was toweling off his dreads. He gave Fred a smug grin though George wondered if maybe there was a sense of insult in the way he spoke. No... not insult... it was something else.
"I do too! Help is wonderful! Just not ... from... girls."
Ah. Now that Katie was brought into the picture indefinitely, George put 2 and 2 together. Lee didn't like how Fred didn't like help from Katie. George pulled a face. Fred really was very sexist sometimes... perhaps because all but one of his siblings were boys...
"It's not like she messed up our potion, Fred."
"We could have handled it... and if we hadn't--"
"--Then we'd be making an even worse grade than we are now--Fred!! Just drop it, okay!"
"Well it's not just the fact that she helped us.. it's that she tried to use it to ..."
"Not play Quidditch," all three of the boys said it together.
"Look, Fred. Katie doesn't want to play--who cares? We can always get a new--"
"Noooo!! It's gotta be Katie."
"Why is this bothering you so much? Since when did you become obsessed with Katie?" Lee was a little upset now. George looked from Fred's face to Lee's. Fred was grinning.
"Oh, so you're the only one who can like her, eh?"
"You like Angelina though."
Fred scratched the back of his neck and nodded with a slight grin on his face. "Yeah, I do. I don't know, it's just that George and I--"
"We made a promise to Wood--" George said.
"--And we can't break that promise--" added Fred.
"Because that would just be irresponsible," the twins said together. Lee starred for a few seconds and then a couple times.
"I don't how you two do that but if you really want Katie to be on the team, you shoul dhave just come to me. I know how to do it."
Fred and George exchanged glances.
"Do you?"
Lee nodded as mischievious grin spread on his face.
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Fred and George strolled into the Great Hall the next morning in a rather late fashion. Just coming back from setting up a nice little prank of Percy the prat, they were fighting their hardest not to crack up laughing. George pursed his lips together and stiffled a laugh as he imagined what Percy's face would look like later, as they slunk to the Gryffindor table. They'd just sat down, trying their hardest not to catch eachother's eye (or Percy's, lest there be suspicion), when Katie showed up standing right in front of them. She looked nervous, kept glancing at Lee.
"Goodmorning, Katie. Sleep well?" Fred asked, a overly large grin on his face. Katie rolled her eyes.
"I think you know why I'm here," she said.
Fred gave her a quizical look. George snorted. Oh yes, Fred was milking this for all it was worth. Obviously, Lee had somehow convinced Katie to join the team. George looked down the table at Lee, who was watching. George caught his eye and Lee smiled, giving thumbs up.
"No, Katie... Katie Elise, why are you here?"
"Fred, don't make me hit you."
Fred chuckled.
"You'll make a great addition to our team, Katie," Fred stood up, took Katie's hand in his own and shook it vigorously. Katie fought to get her hand back.
"Yeah, welcome to the team."
Katie sighed, still looking uncomfortable.
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"How'do you think Lee did it?" George asked as he and Alicia made their way out of the Great Hall and towards Muggle Studies. They hadn't talked much in what seemed like forever, though as George calculated--it'd only been yesterday that Alicia had sent him a smile that made his heart flip flop. So beautiful, George thought, examining the way the morning light shone through the hall windows and reflected off her cheeks, giving her skin a soft glow.
"Do what?" Alicia asked. She seemed thouroghly confused.
"Get Katie on the team."
Alicia grinned evilly. "Oh... that. I can't tell you."
George stopped in the middle of the hallway for a few seconds. "What?" George called after Alicia as he strode to catch up with her.
"I'm not allowed to share!" Alicia was giggling now, avoiding eye contact and wearing a goofy grin. So cute, George thought again. George suddenly remembered that Alicia was concealing information from him. Not fair!
"Why can't you tell me?" George asked.
"We told Katie we wouldn't."
"We?"
"Yes, we..."
"Who is we?"
By now they'd made it to their front row seats of Muggle Studies and Alicia had set her bag down next to their table. She looked up.
"We is... me and... um... aah... heh."
George gave her a look, prompting her.
"Angelina." she finished her statement. Oh, no but Alicia was still looking at the ceiling.
"Don't you dare lie to me Alicia, Fred and I wrote the book about lying."
"I'm not lying!"
"Someone else is involved--it's Lee, right?"
Alicia suddenly burst into giggles again.
George sighed and shook his head. "Girls," he mumbled as class started...
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
A/N: Aww, sorry I haven't written in a long time, you guys. I've been busy, I suppose... lots of junk goin' on. Whooooo... alright, alright... um... I'll probably edit this chapter sometime. I dunno how but oh well. :- P Take care!!
George jolted into his bed. His eyes were closed and sweat trickled into his eyes. A dream... only a dream. Sleep was still upon him like a heavy blanket, and George could hardly tell what was dream or not. Not sure wether or not he wanted to remember the dream, George sighed deeply. The Dark Lord had been in his dream-- and not for the first time. But George pushed it aside. He knew it happened to both Fred and Lee all the time. It probably happened to alot of witches and wizards. But what an odd dream... He tried to remember what Voldemort's face looked like, only half way remembering he couldn't see it at all in the dream. Dreams were odd, George finally concluded and got up for a fresh Monday start.
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"Goodmorning!" George said along with his brother to all the Gryffindors in the Great Hall. They all looked up and smiled cheerfully, George wanting to catch Alicia's eye. Two days ago they had played Hide and Seek in the castle... and two days ago was the last time George had had a real conversation with Alicia Spinnet.
"I have a question," Angelina began. George looked up at her, along with Fred. "You two have been causing hardly any problems this year... what happened to the Fred and George we used to know?"
Fred and George glanced at eachother.
"We..--"
" --I..."
"Umm..." they said together. The rest of the group laughed as though they had planned this but George knew that neither he nor Fred knew the answer... they DID seem to wreak less havoc than that of the two previous years.
"We're working on it..." Fred finally answered. George nodded in agreement. The rest in the group suddenly looked a bit worried. George read their faces and knew they were becoming a wee bit scarred. This, in a way, reassured George. They were still afraid of the twin's antics, and with them waiting to see what the boys would do to cause mayhem, the suspence was building.
George had just started eating his bowl of cereal when there was a sweeping sound from above. Every morning .. every morning. Having seen the mail arrive enough times to know what was going on, George didn't even look up. That is until there was a commotion from alittle ways down. George watched as his little brother, Ron, and Harry Potter stood facing a short, blonde, pointy faced Slytherin first-year. Professor McGonagall was there in a flash and the Slytherin boy gave something to that little Longbottom kid.
"Ha... Slytherins..." George muttered.
"Don't First-Years have their first flying lessons today?" Lee asked after using his sleeve to wipe the remaining pumpkin juice off his face. George's eyebrows raised.
"Yeeaah!" George said along with Fred.
"Remember our first flying lesson?" Fred addressed the group.
"Well duh... it was only acouple years ago.." Alicia reminded them, buttering her toast.
"I hate those school brooms.. they vibrate if you fly too high.." Fred scowled.
"And mine kept flying to the left.. good thing we have our own brooms," George smiled, remembering when last Christmas when they each got new Clean Sweep Fives... ah the wonder of it..
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"And soooo... because the English hated Joan of Arc, she was condemned as a witch (yeah right!) and a heretic, and burned at the stake" George read off his paper, calmly as you please. If he had looked up, he would only be more inspired to make his audience shudder. "And 500 years after her death, she was declared a saint... little late for all that, eh?" George chuckled. Others did not. They simply blinked several times.
"Thankyou Weasley and Spinnet," Professor Magness, the only person besides himself not the wee bit faltered. "Lovely... and who's next? Ah... Diggory and Carter-- I believe you were assigned the report 'The Renaissance and Exploration?'"
George hardly pait attention to Diggory's oral report. He was too busy thanking Alicia athousand times for doing his half of the oral report.
"Thankyou!" George said. She smiled. "Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou!" George repeated time and time again as he wrote a big "THANKYOU!" on a bit of parchment. "And did I mention 'THANKYOU!'" he asked, shoving the thankyou notice in her face.
"Oh stop," Alicia pretended to be embarrassed. George grinned and looked up at Professor McGonagall, who was eying him like a hawk.
"Shhh... I'm trying to listen," George said out of the corner of his mouth.
"Me?!" Alicia hissed, trying to be as quiet as she could. "You're the one who's talking."
"May I please remind you.." came the Professor's voice. George watched her look around the room, avoiding *his* eye contact, "To please remain silent while others are talking?" George could feel her eyes on him. He sent her an appologetic smile as Diggory started talking again.
George pretended to listen intently but got caught in Diggory's words, much to his dismay... History really was quite interesting sometimes... unless of course, if it had something to do with boring Wizard's Conventions that he could care less about. And the Renaissance really was rather entertaining.. from a muggle point of view anyways.
Diggory had just started on the "Perfect Painter," Raphael, when Alicia poked him in the arm.
"What?" George turned his head sideways to look at her. She pressed a folded up sheet of paper into his hand.
George took the paper and unfolded it.
George--
This is boring. --Alicia
It was a simple note, and not the first one he'd got from a girl... but it WAS the first one he'd gotten from the girl he liked. George took out his special red bottle of ink and his quill, and wrote:
Alicia--
I know.
--George
He gave the note back to Alicia and watched her as she read it. She rolled her eyes, wrote something, and gave the note back to him. It read:
~How about making trouble?~
George grinned as he read this and turned to smile at Alicia. But she was turned away, looking at the ceiling innocently.
~What do you have in mind?~
George write back.
~I don't know! You're the criminal master mind here...~
George had to admit she was right. He thought for a moment, biting his lip. He pulled his wand out of his pocket, aim it ever so carefully and murmured, "Flandio."
He watched, with a smile on his face, as Diggory's shoelaces tied themselves together. No one seemed to notice, except Alicia, who giggled.
"And that concludes," Diggory said. George elbowed Alicia in the ribs to stop giggling.
"Thankyou Mr. Diggory -- up next I'd like to--"
Professor Magness was cut off by a loud "Oof!" as Diggory tripped over his own shoes and fell flat on his face, papers flying everywhere. The whole class burst out in a laughing up roar and George even caught Professor Magness trying her hardest not to smile as she ran over to help her student.
Alicia was laughing so hard she had to use George's shoulder as a support. They both laughed even harder when Alicia snorted.
"Settle down, settle down.." Professor Magness said, helping Diggory up to his feet after they had gtten the shoes untied. "Now obviously this is some sort of practical joke... and it was very clever indeed," Professor Magness kept a stiff look, but her voice was that of amusment. "But I must ask that this not happen again..." and suddenly the bell rang.
"You... are a genius," Alicia said, packing her books.
"Ah, but you came up with the idea," George said, patting her on the back as they waited in the line of people leaving the room.
"It was, wasn't it.."Alicia trailed off, obviously proud of herself. George smiled and hoped he would remember this moment for awhile....
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It was four o'clock when Fred and George were innocently making their way from the kitchens. Fred contently and slowly devoured a brownie as George read the map to make sure no one was coming.
"You just had to have more brownies, didn't you?"
"Wha?" Fred's mouth was over flowing in brownie crumbs.
"You heard me."
Fred struggled to swallow and wiped his mouth before fighitng back, "Excuse me Mr. I have ten cookies in EACH pocket of my cloak."
"Fred--Oliver's coming."
"Yeah right, you just want--"
"Hello, Oliver!"
George grinned as he folded up the map, happy for once the he had gotten the better of Fred.
"Fred! George!! You won't BELIEVE who our new seeker fot his year is!" Oliver was practically jumping up and down. He looked like he had to pee really bad too.
"Oooh! Lee Jordan?" Fred guessed. George stiffled a laugh. Lee couldn't even find his own socks in the morning, least of all find a little gold ball.
"Nono... it's McGonagall!" George proclaimed.
"Dumbledore!"
"Mrs. Norris!!"
"Oh! It's that Longbottom kid, isn't it?!"
Oliver was grinning from ear to ear but whether it was because of their jokes or who it was... neither of them knew. He kept trying to get the actual fact it, but it just wasn't happening. "No! It's--"
"Harry Potter!" Fred meant it as a joke and George laughed with him.
"I thought you'd never say it."
Fred and George stopped laughing and gave Oliver equally discombobulated looks. Oliver nodded in excitment, his grin bigger than ever.
"Harry Potter?" George asked. Fred was still contimplating.
"Yep."
"As in the little skinny kid with the glasses and the scar and the messed up hair?" Fred asked.
"He defeated the Dark Lord..." Oliver added in.
"Yeah, him!"
"Yeah... him." Oliver was nodding frantically. He looked as though he were talking about the girl he liked--which in a way he was seeing as he loved Quidditch so much.
"He can't play!" Fred proclaimed. "He's a first year."
"McGonagall is making an exception.. and he's perfect for the role."
"What, skinny little Potter on one of those school brooms?" Fred asked. "Yes, that'll win us the cup."
George elbowed Fred in the ribs.
"The REASON I've told you all first... well, I planned on it but the girls wouldn't tell me where you were until I told them what was going on... but anyways, the reason I WANTED to tell you first is that our team will be a complete set if we get Katie to play."
Fred and George glanced at eachother.
"And since nothing the girls have said and nothing I've said to her has seemed to work, I figured why not get you two to try to convince her to be on the team."
"Ah, my dearest Oliver... we don't try--"
"--We do, or do not. There is no try."
"I don't know, Weasleys. None of the girls could."
"Oliver, you insult us!"
Fred and George put their arms around the tall 5th year's shoulders.
"This'll be a piece of cake."
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"Katie, Katie, Katie, Katie, Kaaaaaatiiiiieee!!!" Fred and George sang, following Katie Bell at a safe distance through the halls.
"What bloody part of 'NO' don't you understand!?" Katie spun around on the spot and through her hands up in exasperation.
"N!" Fred said immediatly.
"O!" George chimed in.
Katie smade a squeaky-annoyed sortof sound that reminded George of Ginny when she was upset and spun back around to go to their next class.
"Playing hard to get, eh?" Fred mumbled under his breath, taking the same route to Potions.
"I don't get it! What's wrong with Quidditch?" George added before running to catch up with Fred.
"So, brother of mine, got anymore clever ideas to get Katie to be on the team?" Fred asked as they jumped down a small flight of steps.
"Well, Frederick," George started, "We've tried begging, pleading, annoying... I don't think there's anything else that we can do that we're actually good at."
"What, you mean like having an actual conversation with her?" Fred asked. Fred and George exchanged disgusted looks and shook their heads.
"Naaah.."
"Problem is, we told Wood we could handle this-- that it would be easy," George said as they came upon the door into Potions.
"Well I'm certainly not giving up. She's a great flier! You saw her out there .. and it was raining too! She'd make an excelent addition to our team."
"And honestly, what better three girls to be Chasers? Angelina, Alicia, and Katie?? They're already friends."
"This is scaring me--" Fred suddenly cut in.
"What's that?" asked George.
"We're actually making sense."
Fred and George put their stuff down and went toget their ingredients. George opened his mouth to say, "please!" again to Katie as she passed but she gave a firm, "NO!" before he even got to it.
Twenty minutes later...
"Puffer fish..."
"Eyes of."
"Asphedel.."
"Powered."
George used his wand to stir the Potion as Fred added the ingredients. It wasn't as though they enjoyed Potions-- quite the opposite-- but they needed the skills if they were to fullfill their life long dream ... that of creating a line of magical joke candies.
"Thyme."
"10 o'clock."
"Fred..."
"Yes?"
"Please tell me we have thyme..."
"I just said 10 o'clock!"
"Not THE time! Aarg! Out of my way!" George pushed his chuckling brother out of the way and checked the cupboard.
"Lacewing flies.." Fred said, throwing a pinch of thyme into the concoction.
"How much?"
"Umm... I dunno, ask Alicia."
George spun around in his place and looked up at Alicia, who's couldron was behind their's.
"Hello..." he said.
She looked up at him, a bit of grey fog escaping her potion. She gave him a sweet little smile, which sent his stomach jolting. He opened his mouth to talk but nothing seemed to come out.
"Yes?"
"Could you be a dear and tell me how much Lacewing?" George asked politely, finally regaining his senses. Alicia's nose crinkled as though she were trying to remember.
"A pinch?"
"Oh you're no help.." George said, turning around and peering into his and Fred's potion. It was a mucky brownish color. He heard a "tuh" from behind him and wished secretly that he hadn't been so short with Alicia.
"Professor Snape!" George called out.
"Mr. Weasley..." Snape crossed the room to their couldron.
"What color is it supposed to be?" George asked. Fred kicked him from under the table.
"Mr. Weasley, we do not judge our concoctions by their color," Snape leered at the twin's concoction, stirring it a bit with the ladel. "Five points from Gryffindor. The potion should be judged by it's effectiveness, not by it's appearance" and Snape strode off.
"Excusem'wa?! Last year he took points for our potion being light green instead of dark green!" Katie said from next to Fred. George glowered at Snape, as Fred
"Two minutes till your concoction should be ready!" the Professor announced.
"Aah!" Fred spun and started stirring while George ran his finger down the list.
"Two Fluxweeds and a dash of knotgrass?! Oh, who came up with this measuring system!?" George sighed, adding the ingredients. Fred shrugged and stirred somemore. Their potion was slowly becoming a redish brown color.
"Alicia, what color is your potion?" George spun and asked her another question. She glanced at him, and looked into her own couldron...
"Blue..." she said, looking out over at the twin's. "What did you do?" she asked when she noticed the boys' potion was a mucky mud brown.
"I don't know!"
"Time ... " Snape announced, still writing something on the black board.
"Are you sure we added everything??" Fred asked anxiously.
"Yes!! I mean, we got the Avil Mushrooms, the Cateri Powder, two drops of stickless bark..." George still skimmed frantically down the list. Snape was approaching ever too quickly.
"... is up." Snape finished his sentence as he stepped up to the Weasley's couldron. Fred and George both looked up at him with grim yet innocent looks on their faces. George, expecting Snape's face to look happy and smug, looked into the couldron when it wasn't. Quite the opposite, Snape was laddling out Fred and George's potion, which had magically turned blue. Fred's mouth fell agape.
"As you can see class," Snape struggled to get the words out. "Mr. and ... Mr. Weasley seem to have conjured up a ... " he tried to find a word. "...decent Spartic Pushover potion."
Fred's mouth was still agape when Snape hurried away to check other potions.
"What happened?!" Fred asked, ladding out the potion and checking to make sure his eyes weren't deciving him. The rather thick liquid that oozed out and back into the couldron was indeed blue.
"You're very welcome," Katie hissed at them.
Fred and George both turned to look at her. Katie was bent over a piece of parchment, pretending she hadn't said a thing. George couldn't help but notice the way her straight blonde hair fell infront of her face like that. Katie really was pretty, and George could see why Lee liked her.
"You... helped us?" the boys said together.
Katie looked up and grinned. "I don't have any clue what it is you're talking about." She started putting her things away and went to the sink to wash her hands off. Fred and George waited till the bell had wrung before approaching her with yet another of their plans.
"If you think this is going to stop us from trying to get you on the team-- " Fred started. George finished for him because Fred was looking a little disruffled.
"Then you've got another thing coming... right, Fred?"
Fred nodded in sheer agreement.
"Look... Fred," Katie stopped and grabbed Fred by his shirt collar. "George," grasped George's shirt collar too. "I, Katie Elise Bell, do not want to play Quidditch."
George looked at Fred and recognized his look of determination. This wasn't just a matter of getting Katie to play--oh, no--this was war.
"I didn't know her middle name was Elise," George said. Fred huffed.
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"Alright, alright... Fred! So she helped us with our potion, who cares?"
George was sitting on his bed examining the thing that muggles called a Quackalator. He wondered why... it certainly didn't have any duck-like qualities.
"It's not just that she helped us--though that bothers me--"
"Why?"
"Because!!"
"Because Fred doesn't think he needs help from any body."
Lee had come out of the bathroom and was toweling off his dreads. He gave Fred a smug grin though George wondered if maybe there was a sense of insult in the way he spoke. No... not insult... it was something else.
"I do too! Help is wonderful! Just not ... from... girls."
Ah. Now that Katie was brought into the picture indefinitely, George put 2 and 2 together. Lee didn't like how Fred didn't like help from Katie. George pulled a face. Fred really was very sexist sometimes... perhaps because all but one of his siblings were boys...
"It's not like she messed up our potion, Fred."
"We could have handled it... and if we hadn't--"
"--Then we'd be making an even worse grade than we are now--Fred!! Just drop it, okay!"
"Well it's not just the fact that she helped us.. it's that she tried to use it to ..."
"Not play Quidditch," all three of the boys said it together.
"Look, Fred. Katie doesn't want to play--who cares? We can always get a new--"
"Noooo!! It's gotta be Katie."
"Why is this bothering you so much? Since when did you become obsessed with Katie?" Lee was a little upset now. George looked from Fred's face to Lee's. Fred was grinning.
"Oh, so you're the only one who can like her, eh?"
"You like Angelina though."
Fred scratched the back of his neck and nodded with a slight grin on his face. "Yeah, I do. I don't know, it's just that George and I--"
"We made a promise to Wood--" George said.
"--And we can't break that promise--" added Fred.
"Because that would just be irresponsible," the twins said together. Lee starred for a few seconds and then a couple times.
"I don't how you two do that but if you really want Katie to be on the team, you shoul dhave just come to me. I know how to do it."
Fred and George exchanged glances.
"Do you?"
Lee nodded as mischievious grin spread on his face.
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Fred and George strolled into the Great Hall the next morning in a rather late fashion. Just coming back from setting up a nice little prank of Percy the prat, they were fighting their hardest not to crack up laughing. George pursed his lips together and stiffled a laugh as he imagined what Percy's face would look like later, as they slunk to the Gryffindor table. They'd just sat down, trying their hardest not to catch eachother's eye (or Percy's, lest there be suspicion), when Katie showed up standing right in front of them. She looked nervous, kept glancing at Lee.
"Goodmorning, Katie. Sleep well?" Fred asked, a overly large grin on his face. Katie rolled her eyes.
"I think you know why I'm here," she said.
Fred gave her a quizical look. George snorted. Oh yes, Fred was milking this for all it was worth. Obviously, Lee had somehow convinced Katie to join the team. George looked down the table at Lee, who was watching. George caught his eye and Lee smiled, giving thumbs up.
"No, Katie... Katie Elise, why are you here?"
"Fred, don't make me hit you."
Fred chuckled.
"You'll make a great addition to our team, Katie," Fred stood up, took Katie's hand in his own and shook it vigorously. Katie fought to get her hand back.
"Yeah, welcome to the team."
Katie sighed, still looking uncomfortable.
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"How'do you think Lee did it?" George asked as he and Alicia made their way out of the Great Hall and towards Muggle Studies. They hadn't talked much in what seemed like forever, though as George calculated--it'd only been yesterday that Alicia had sent him a smile that made his heart flip flop. So beautiful, George thought, examining the way the morning light shone through the hall windows and reflected off her cheeks, giving her skin a soft glow.
"Do what?" Alicia asked. She seemed thouroghly confused.
"Get Katie on the team."
Alicia grinned evilly. "Oh... that. I can't tell you."
George stopped in the middle of the hallway for a few seconds. "What?" George called after Alicia as he strode to catch up with her.
"I'm not allowed to share!" Alicia was giggling now, avoiding eye contact and wearing a goofy grin. So cute, George thought again. George suddenly remembered that Alicia was concealing information from him. Not fair!
"Why can't you tell me?" George asked.
"We told Katie we wouldn't."
"We?"
"Yes, we..."
"Who is we?"
By now they'd made it to their front row seats of Muggle Studies and Alicia had set her bag down next to their table. She looked up.
"We is... me and... um... aah... heh."
George gave her a look, prompting her.
"Angelina." she finished her statement. Oh, no but Alicia was still looking at the ceiling.
"Don't you dare lie to me Alicia, Fred and I wrote the book about lying."
"I'm not lying!"
"Someone else is involved--it's Lee, right?"
Alicia suddenly burst into giggles again.
George sighed and shook his head. "Girls," he mumbled as class started...
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A/N: Aww, sorry I haven't written in a long time, you guys. I've been busy, I suppose... lots of junk goin' on. Whooooo... alright, alright... um... I'll probably edit this chapter sometime. I dunno how but oh well. :- P Take care!!