FOUR

It was Thursday, and the Great Hall was particularly barren for lunchtime. The gifted good weather had remained consistent throughout the week, which led to most students spending as much time outside on the school grounds as possible. Lucie had begged Eve to join her and a couple of their fellow Hufflepuffs outside for an improvised picnic, but Eve declined. She wanted to get as much work done as possible before the Hufflepuff quidditch tryouts. The tryouts started at seven, and Wells made it clear the team needed to come early to be considered fair participants.

Thus, Eve found herself sat alone at the Hufflepuff table, her thoughts and pieces of parchment sprawled out in front of her. She decided to keep a scale of time between her DADA essay and her sketchbook. A balance between labor and daydream.

Currently, the labor was three feet on Strategies a Witch or Wizard Could Use to Defend Themselves without Performing a Single Jinx. She couldn't believe Umbridge had assigned it. The professor might as well have forced her students to toss all of their wands in the bin at the start of classes. Eve was sure they weren't going to need them all year.

So far, she had only written a few lines, but it was enough for her to call for a break. Grabbing her sketchbook and dropping it on top of her essay in a satisfying thud, Eve turned to a fresh page. Taking a quick survey of the hall, she decided on a Hufflepuff first year that sat at a distance across her. The boy, 10 minutes earlier, had been engrossed in what looked to be his Potions textbook. But now, with his right palm tucked under his chin, his eyes were closed and his mouth slightly ajar for a peaceful nap—a perfect still-life model for Eve.

She went to work first on the outlines of his silhouette, sketching the way his body hunched over his seat onto the table, detailing the forms on his arms, one on his face, the other sprawled on top of his still opened textbook.

She had only gotten to the shading of his disheveled, dirty blonde hair when she felt the weight shift on either side of her.

"What are you drawing?" the Weasley twin on her left asked pointedly. He thumbed the notebook slightly to get a better view of it.

Eve grinned, gesturing to the sleeping boy down the table from them. The twin to her right side laughed lightly, glancing from the page to the boy a few times.

"It's quite good," he commented, and Eve smiled at him kindly.

"I don't know, George. I think it could use some more action in it. It's missing quite a bit life to it," the twin now assumed to be Fred teased, in his best art critic tone.

"Well, he is," Eve challenged, "quite literally, asleep."

"Is he? How sure can you be?" Fred asked with amused concern.

"Yes, he definitely looks too still for my comfort," George joined in before letting out a dramatic look of revelation, "perhaps a poisoned scone. Do you know if he has any enemies?"

"Hufflepuffs don't have enemies," Eve interjected with an innocent smile, but the boys pushed on.

"To think she's been drawing the poor boy this own time instead of saving him," Fred replied, sharing a reprimanding look with his brother.

Eve rolled her eyes, and with a quick motion, grabbed a loose grape from her abandoned plate. With a light toss, the grape hit the boy on the shoulder, the contact immediately causing him to wake up in alarm. The little Hufflepuff made a quick glance around himself before sheepishly looking back down at his book and resuming his reading.

"Oh, look. He's been saved. Happy day," Eve replied, smiling heroically from twin to twin. The boys exchanged a look of shock before bursting into laughter.

"Well, you're quite the bully, aren't you?" Fred scolded, but his facial expression was one of astonishment.

"She's stealing our job, Freddy," George said, shaking his head in dramatic defeat.

"We came here offering gifts, and she's turned it into war," Fred sighed, earning a look of skepticism from Eve.

"Oh, stop that. What have you brought me?" Eve asked, shooting a smile to each side of her.

"George," Fred nodded to his twin, who in turn reached into his robe pocket, pulling out something too small for Eve to see him in his palm. For a moment, George just held his closed fist in front of her in bated anticipation before dropping a small pink wrapped candy on her notebook.

She took the candy in her palm and examined it closely.

"Puking pastille," she identified, earning approving nods.

"We thought we should give our latest investor an early sample before it hits the market," George replied.

"As well as come with a new proposal," Fred continued, looking at Eve with his bestselling smile. Eve hesitated.

"Erm, what is it?" she asked, but she already had a clue what the proposition would be.

"To meet the highly anticipated demand of this school, we are going to need a bit more Aconite," George replied, receiving an instant shake of the head from Eve.

"One leaf is inconspicuous enough, but surely you don't think a bunch of leaves is going to go unnoticed by Professor Sprout?"

The twins seemed prepared for such a question, Fred immediately jumping into their sales pitch.

"Yes, the greenhouse supplies, diligently overseen by Sprout, seem out of the question. With that being said, here at Hogwarts, we are so lucky enough to be bestowed with miles worth of Scottish farmland ready to be wielded."

Scottish farmland almost caused a grin from Eve, but she worked hard to keep her countenance stern and professional.

"So, you want me to steal more Aconite so you can start your own illegal garden somewhere around the school?"

"There are no rules against growing plants at school," George challenged, "well, we didn't actually look up if there was, but if we are assuming not, since it would be stupid if there were. Also-"

"We'd need you to grow it for us," Fred finished, but upon seeing Eve's raised eyebrow, he continued.

"You would know how to harvest it and everything. George and I aren't too familiar with taking care of magical plants. Plus, you've already worked as an accomplice with us before, so we already know your Hufflepuff conscious is vastly weaker than your peers'."

For a second, Eve thought to rebuttal such an accusation, but she pressed on with the topic at hand.

"And what would I get out of all of this?"

The twins smirked at this.

"We figured you could decide that," George replied.

"We can offer a number of different services to our peers," Fred grinned.

"I'll think about it," Eve finally said, making sure her face hide any sign of confirmation.

"Think about working with us or what you would want?" Fred asked now.

"Both."

The twins exchanged looks, seemingly contented with this answer. They stood from their spots next to her now, as if needing to be off to another business meeting. This sentiment was probably right, though, Eve thought.

"We'll be in touch," Fred nodded, turning on his heel and making his way in the direction of the Great Hall doors.

"See you, de Santos," George waved, following closely after his brother.

Eve watched the twins turn into a corridor and disappear from view. Only a moment later, the school bell chimed, indicating the lunch hour was over, and they had 10 minutes to get to their next classes. She lazily sighed, got up from her seat, and began to pack up her work into her book bag carefully. She pocketed the sickly pink candy into her robes.

The ungodly Umbridge essay wasn't even remotely touched. But this fact didn't linger long in her mind as she made her way down the corridor that would lead her to her next Positions lesson. Instead, her thoughts were occupying elsewhere.

What would I need from the Weasley twins?


Author's Note: A bit of a short chapter but I wanted the twins to get their own scene, ya know. Thanks for everyone who has been reading so far! I've been having a lot of fun writing this.