Chapter 6

A Different Trio

"I hope Ginny gets Gryffindor," muttered George.

"Oh, she will," I replied.

"What makes you so sure?" asked Lee, quirking an eyebrow.

"Okay. The story of how I met Ginny Weasley," I began. "I was walking up the stairs to Fred and George's room and she comes up to me asking, "Aren't you too young to be friends with Fred and George?" "How old do you think I am? I asked. And she goes, "11." "Well, eight-year-olds shouldn't interfere with 14 year olds," I replied to her ouch-right-in-the-heart comment. Then she narrows her eyes and says, "I'm 11." Then she turns around and leaves."

"Bonding of the midgets!" yelled Fred, before I clocked him on the head with my plate.

Ginny Weasley did get in Gryffindor and I could see Gred and Forge beam. "She's your favorite, isn't she?" I asked lazily.

"I suppose she is," said George.

"She's the most like you…yet so different," I commented.

"If I met a girl my age just like Ginny, I would be in love," yawned Fred, stretching.

"Time to go to the common room?" I questioned.

"Sure," the three boys answered eagerly, happy not to be the first to admit he was tired. Fred and I played Wizard's chess while Lee and George played Exploding Snap.

"Finally! Someone I can beat!" yelled Fred, as he checkmated me. "Ron ALWAYS brags because he can beat me in Wizarding chess all the time," he added.

Not too long after, we decided to retire. I gave everybody hugs and George said, "In first and second year, you ignored us when we went to bed. For most of third year, you smiled and waved. Now you're giving out hugs."

Fred cut in, "If you don't be careful, you're gonna be snogging us each night before we go to sleep." So I fell asleep with a smile on my face. How quickly that smile would disappear, I had no idea.

If you told me what my main source of pain would be that year, before it actually happened, I would have laughed in your face and called you delusional. But the first week back at school, it happened. The thing I never thought would happen, but always worried about, happened.

I dropped a flask in Potions and, instead of cleaning it up magically, Snape sent me to get a mop from Filch's broom closet. I opened up the closet and stood paralyzed in shock. There stood Angelina and Fred, who had obviously been snogging. I gathered my wits and did the only thing that seemed rational. I ignored Fred and Angelina, grabbed a mop, and went back to the dungeon. Divination wasn't even as fun as it would have been, because I was just soooo confused inside. Two weeks, empty, ghost-like, almost non-existent weeks, passed.

I finally did the smartest thing I'd done in those two weeks. I went to see Professor McGonagall. "And I've never felt so mixed up before," I ended.

"And you've already considered that…" she asked.

"that I'm in love with him?" I cut in. "I've considered it, but it feels more like the best big brother ever is leaving. It's the end of Fred, George, Paige and Lee. And the beginning of something else."

And so it was the end of the four of us, and the beginning of something completely different. I joined another trio-Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger, and me. I guess everybody thought it strange that a first year, second year, and fourth year hung out together, but I didn't give a crap. We had fun goofing off together, and discussing the ever-confusing species of the male. "If Fred heard me talking like this, I would be tied to him and never allowed to be more than three feet from him," I laughed.

"Me too," added Ginny.

"You know…we probably should be studying," spoke up Hermione.

"Okay… whose homework first?" Ginny asked.

"How 'bout mine? Hardest first?" I suggested.

"Sure," answered Hermione, and with that, we started attacking the evil thing called homework.

Over the next few months, Ginny and Hermione became my best friends. George and Lee did seem to miss me, but I kept assuring them that I was fine. Whenever I saw Fred, my face would flush a little. Not out of embarrassment, but out of anger. "How could he just up and leave his best friends? How could the best friendship ever just…end?" I would constantly ask myself.

As I was walking down the hallway one day, I muttered, "I hate testerone and hormones." I think McGonagall heard me, but she just left it. "She probably has seen Angelina and Fred sucking each others faces off today," I thought. "It's kinda hard to miss. But why do I care so much?" I asked myself. "I DON'T KNOW!" I answered aloud. That same general scenario happened about three times a day, so my brain was constantly hurting.

People around school kept getting paralyzed, but it was nobody I knew. That is…until Hermione. I was really upset, despite the fact that the Mandrake would be ready soon. It was always lurking in my mind.

One of the last days of the term, all the third years and up were supposed to go to Hogsmeade. I was really looking forward to bringing stuff back for Ginny and Hermione, when she…um, woke up. That all changed when it was announced that somebody was in the Chamber of Secrets. I rushed into the common room, running around, trying to figure out who it was. Nobody seemed to know, so I rushed to McGonagall to try to figure out who it was. But I stopped when I heard screaming coming from down the hall. It was Fred and Angelina.

"How can you want to go to Hogsmeade when somebody's in danger of dying?" he yelled.

"Having fun takes your mind off of things like this!" Angelina bellowed.

"How am I supposed to think of anything else?" Fred asked.

"Do you know who's in the chamber?" she questioned.

"It's Ginny!" he roared, in a voice that seemed to end the world. I froze for a few seconds, and then ran into Fred's arms, and we held onto each other like there was nobody but us and our worries in the world.

"Where's the chamber? How do we get in?" I asked desperately into his chest.

"I don't know. If I knew, I'd be down there," answered Fred, resting his chin on top of my head. We stood there for hours, holding onto each other. An eternity later, McGonagall found Fred and told him that his sister was in the hospital wing, and all family could come visit her. He kissed the top of my head then ran off to see Ginny.

"That was a brotherly kiss," I assured myself over and over again, as I walked back to the common room. And it was. No strange relationship blossomed from it… thank God! I was glad summer holidays were soon. I'd be spending my time at the Burrow.

A/N: I had bits of fun with this chapter, the tension with the Angelina, Fred, Paige triangle. One guess as to who Paige is in love with! 