Okie dokie, here I am again.^^;

***

Chapter 16

Trowa watched as Duo and Heero disappeared around the corner of the corridor, smirking inwardly. The two were so obsessed with recon missions that they took whatever opportunities to use their skills. Trowa had to admit, they were very good, but he knew that his skills in recon could surpass theirs any day. He also knew that he was damn good at infiltration.

That was what Trowa considered their stay at this castle: infiltration. The mission was to collect data on possible enemies and allies, and to draw as little attention as possible.

If Trowa were weaker, he would have sighed. Heero and Duo had a knack for getting themselves in trouble, even though before the war ended, Trowa knew Heero would have never thought of running off on make-believe recon missions with Duo.

The stoic European kept a close watch on the corridors he was making his way through as he followed Hermione and Ron – he was tired of relying on people for directions, and it was only their second day at the school. He knew without looking that Quatre and Wufei were doing the same, and cursed his luck that Duo had run off with Heero. Heero had the most extensive memory out of all of them – he'd have the castle memorized long before any of the others did. Duo would rely on instinct, as would Quatre and himself, and Wufei would rely on his newfound trust in the paintings until he got his own bearings.

As the group entered the Great Hall, Trowa immediately spotted two new faces seated at the Gryffindor table. As they approached the two boys, Trowa realized that they were twins and obviously related to Ron. They looked up as the group approached and beamed.

"Hey, you lot! Welcome to Gryffindor!" one of them called.

Quatre smiled politely in response. "Thank you."

"Shouldn't there be two more of ya?" the other one asked, frowning. Trowa watched his eyes as the redheaded boy mentally counted the three of them and turned to Ron. "Eh, Ron? Did you lose them already?"

Ron frowned as well, only now noticing the absence of Heero and Duo. "Er… Where'd they go?"

Hermione arched an eyebrow. "They took off after asking about Harry, didn't you notice? They snuck back down the corridor."

Trowa looked at the bushy-haired brunette in carefully masked surprise. He truly hadn't expected her to be the one that noticed their escape. Quatre seemed surprised as well, not that anyone other than Trowa would notice it.

"Right, then…" Ron trailed awkwardly, obviously bothered by the fact that the two had disappeared under his watch. "Well, hope they find Harry so he can lead 'em back, s'all I can say. Otherwise they're in for quite a bit of searchin'." Ron sat next to one of his brothers suddenly, and Trowa found himself slipping onto the bench opposite him. Quatre flanked him and Wufei flanked Ron, and soon the redhead was almost completely surrounded by them.

If he even noticed, he didn't show it.

"Hullo then," the twin next to Trowa greeted the three pilots. "Name's George. That's Fred." He gestured to the other twin, who grinned at them. Beside Wufei, Hermione huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Really you two, you'd think by now you'd stop trying to confuse everyone. George is next to Ron, and Fred is next to Trowa. They've done this every year," shaking her head and reaching for some lunch, Hermione heaved a sigh.

Quatre smiled, amused. "So how come we haven't seen the two of you before now? I'm assuming you're Ron's brothers?"

Fred, George and Ron all nodded in unison, and Ron gestured further down the table. "That little redhead girl down there is Ginny, an' she's the youngest."

"You wouldn't have seen us," Fred began, answering Quatre's first question. "We were late getting here. Missed the first day of school."

George grinned widely. "Dad was late getting us to the train, an' we missed it. Then he got called in on business and didn't trust us to go ourselves, so he let us stay home the first day 'til he could come too and explain what happened to Dumbledore."

"Don't see why he bothered," Fred said. "We're only here as aides anyway. Dad managed to get us signed up for some sort of assistance course for graduates."

"Just when we thought we were free," George sighed.

"The deal was if we did this for him this year, Dad said he'd help us out next with our building a Wizard joke shop."

"They'll never shut up if you don't stop them," Ron cut in, smirking at the glares from his brothers. "They love telling people their life stories. Next they'll be telling you lot about their conquests from first year to seventh, then their plans for this year. It'll take awhile, too, so you may as well grab lunch while you can."

Quatre seemed interested in Ron now, for he asked, "How many siblings do you have in all?"

Ron's ear's turned red and he looked embarrassed. "Three more, besides the ones here. There's seven of us."

Quatre smiled. "You're close with all of them?"

"Well, sorta. Bill and Charlie left home a while back, but they visit. Percy's still at home."

"Oh, I'm sure that's great. I have a lot of sisters, but I've never really spent time with many of them."

"How many?" George piped, indicating he'd been listening on their conversation.

"Twenty-nine."

Fred whistled in appreciation, eyebrows raised.

"And he's the only boy," Wufei mumbled, smirking slightly. Quatre nodded, smiling.

The twins were distracted from comment when the Great Hall doors swung open, and in marched Heero and Duo. Behind them they could see McGonagall, Harry and the Malfoy boy, but they didn't come into the hall for a few moments. Once Heero and Duo were seated – Heero next to Quatre and Duo next to Hermione – Malfoy and Harry were then allowed to enter the hall and immediately went in separate directions, glaring at each other the entire way. Harry threw himself into the seat next to Heero, glaring at Malfoy as he sat across the room.

"Harry, what happened now?" Hemione asked, at the same time Ron demanded, "What did that git do now?"

Harry sighed and shrugged. "Same old thing, we dueled, and Finch caught us."

"After we did," Duo added, frowning at Harry. Harry shrugged again, grabbing a sandwich from a plate on the table.

"Down there, at the end? That's Fred and George, Ron's brothers. They're aides here at the school this year," Quatre explained to Heero and Duo, gesturing to the identical redheads.

Heero grunted, looking pointedly at Duo. Duo sighed.

"Hey Har'?" Harry looked up at him questioningly.

"Yes?"

"You think you, Ron and Herm' could teach me an' the guys some magic after you're done eating? Just some basics, ya know, to start us off?"

Harry looked up at Hermione, who seemed pleased at the prospect of teaching, and at Ron, who just shrugged and nodded.

He smiled at the five boys. "Sure, no problem."

***

End Chapter 16….

And before somebody asks: FRED AND GEORGE ARE NOT STUDENTS! I know they graduated. I brought them back. Sue me =P

Didn't really like this chapter, but it was plot development! Needed for future chapters. The next chapter should be better and more exciting.