Chapter Six: Games and Guitars

Harry awoke the next morning with a start. He wondered for a minute why he was so excited and then he remembered: It was winter break! He ran to wake up Ron, who immediately jumped out of bed to get changed for the day. Winter break meant everything from snowball fights to great feasts, but no Hogsmeade this year. After Voldemort's rise to power, letting students wander too far out of the castle was much too dangerous.

The two boys went downstairs to the common room to see Ginny and Seamus, dressed and ready to go outside. Since the beginning of this year Harry had not seen a lot of either of the two Gryffindors, so before they went outside he and Seamus got into a quick conversation. When the two left Hermione came down the stairs and stood next to Ron, smiling. He took her hand and she kissed him for a while. Harry looked down at the ground, a little bit embarrassed by the two best friend's actions.

When they were finally done, Harry decided that today was definitely a Ron and Hermione day, which meant he had to find someone else to hang out with. He immediately thought of the twins, if not Lauren than at least Nick, and asked Hermione where they were.

Ron answered for her. "Probably doing twin stuff, you know, like all twins do… Fred and George or Pavarti and Padma for examples… ok maybe those are the extremes, but still."

"Erm… I don't quite understand what 'twin stuff' is." Harry replied.

"Oh, the usual. Quite a bit of trouble making, tricking people, messing with minds… a bit like two of the Marauders would do. Anyways they…"

But they were interrupted by Lauren and Nick flying into the room, tripping over each other and falling on the floor laughing hysterically.

"Oh, what did you two do now?" Hermione asked, with a slight smile.

"Uh… what do you think they didn't do?" Ron asked, his face lighting up in wait for the story.

After five minutes, the duo finally stopped laughing enough to be understood while telling their story.

"Oh my gosh… wait until you see Filch and Mrs. Norris…" Lauren started cracking up again.

"Let's just say… Filch is going to have some pretty hair for the month… and some hot clothes…" Nick laughed, "And by hot I mean hot pink."

"Wow, Filch shouldn't mess with us when we're trying to charm the ceiling in the great hall or make the statues throw up mice every five minutes. Because we'll still do it AND change his hair to blond pigtails and pink robes for a month. And it's all Mrs. Norris's fault for even finding us… finally she's coughing up those hairballs she always seems to have and she is much prettier green anyways." Lauren grinned and Nick gave her a high five. They started laughing again as the three others stared at them in disbelief.

"Oh, you two don't get yourselves in so much trouble!" Hermione exclaimed.

"Hey, there is no proof. We're not in any trouble and we won't be either… we learned a thing or two from the muggles on how to get into trouble and out of it and trust me, we've taken a lot of time to learn the latter." Nick said, grinning.

"Grow up!" Hermione giggled, but was obviously pleased at the twins' work.

"Hey… getting older is mandatory. Growing up is an option." Lauren smiled.

"Yeah, and it's hard to keep yourself miserable on Mondays when you act so young." Nick grinned.

"Yeah, I hate Mondays. Just imagine what it would be like if we had to spend 1/7 of our lives like that or something." Lauren sighed.

"God Lauren, you should have been born blonde. That's the trouble with the gene pool… there's not a life guard." Nick sighed, and Lauren hit herself when she realized what she had said.

"This girl is depriving some poor village of its idiot. She might be smart, but she never thinks before she says something. Jessica Simpson doesn't have anything on her. Our teacher asked us why the right to bare arms was important, and she told her that if we didn't wear short sleeves we would get really hot in the summer. Geez." Nick laughed and Lauren hit him. The other three laughed when they saw this new side of the twins.

"Hey guys, what do you say to going and taking a walk around the grounds?" Harry asked the twins.

"Sure, but we're going to have to bring our guitars. We're doing a song for the talent show at the feast tomorrow… Dumbledore asked us, just wait and see! We'll practice out there, and you can listen if you want. We need an outside opinion." Lauren smiled cooly, working on the "just friends" thing but not too well. She seemed to honestly regret her kissing him or ever having anything between him. In fact, Harry was pretty sure she thought he had a big head.

"That sounds great." Harry smiled back, trying not to put any unneeded emotion into the smile.

Lauren and Nick grabbed two guitar cases and came out with Harry. People gave the two twins interested looks because of their guitars, and a few muggle-borns smiled at the familiar sight. When they finally got out on the chilly grounds, they went to sit on large rocks by the lake… almost exactly the spot Lauren and Harry had kissed. Harry gave her a look, but she pretended not to see him. Damn, thought Harry, what's her problem? I like her a lot and she knows it, she just has to hold on to things that are over and done with. Like Tinora… like Gianni. You can move on without forgetting, thought Harry.

Lauren and Nick both got out different looking guitars… Nick explained he played base and Lauren played electric. They did some tuning with them before they were ready.

"Ok I'm going to be singing "Pieces of Me" by Ashlee Simpson and we're going to sing "A Whole New World" together… the songs we pick are supposed to be symbolic, in a way." Lauren explained, smiling the ironic smile. "So Nick, I'll go first, ok?"

Nick nodded and started playing, with Lauren following suit. She smiled immediately and then started singing. Harry's favorite part of the song was the beginning:

"On a Monday, I am waiting

Tuesday, I am fading

And by Wednesday, I can't sleep

Then the phone rings, I hear you

And the darkness is a clear view

Cuz you've come to rescue me

Fall... With you, I fall so fast

I can hardly catch my breath, I hope it lasts

Ohhhhh

It seems like I can finally rest my head on something real

I like the way that feels

Ohhhhh

It's as if you've known me better than I ever knew myself

I love how you can tell

All the pieces, pieces, pieces of me

All the pieces, pieces, pieces of me"

Harry was in shock when the song was over. Dumbledore definitely wasn't kidding when he said they had talent. He wondered for a split second if Sirius had been able to sing, but then let that thought leave his mind as Nick and Lauren launched into the duet, "A Whole New World". Nick was an amazing singer, and the two of them sounded as if they were professionals. When they finished Harry was left speechless until they went back up to the tower.

When they got back up, Nick, who was practically Sirius Black in another body, asked "Hey, how's the whole 'just friends' thing working for you two? You guys used to talk so much, I'm a little bit worried."

Lauren sighed annoyed. "Leave it to Nick to ask the inappropriate question at the inappropriate time. If you must know, we're just fine, thank you very much. Now Nick, you will never try to get into my personal life again if you ever want me to help you plan your pranks again."

"But Laur, you're my sista. I'd do anything for you, girlie." He laughed and lightly punched her in the shoulder. "And Harry, sorry about that. Just wanted to hear the truth. Which I haven't yet heard. And I don't think I will hear it anytime soon if Lauren's going to keep blowing up at me." With that he went up to bed and Harry followed suit. After all, Quidditch was tomorrow and the three were on the team.