Interlude
The Library of Hogwarts was undoubtedly one of the caste's more important features: vastly oversized and filled with tomes unnecessary for the development of the average wizard from their first to their seventh year, it held heaps of secrets and fantastic pieces of magic.
One had only to keep searching, and then to bustle through the far less than clear theories explored in books that hadn't been reviewed in more than a few centuries. If a student persevered, however, and in particular explored the deeper recesses of the Restricted Section, he or she would be able to outshine their peers and eventually many adult wizards and witches whose only ambition relied on being chair-warmers at the Ministry. Provided of course that the student in question didn't spend all of their time on something completely useless like the influence of Mars upon the growth of Devil' Snare in tropical regions.
The Library was a vast room that composed almost an entire wing of the ancient castle of Hogwarts, and the only furniture present consisted of tall bookshelves filled to the brim with tomes of any kind, and study tables that somewhat broke the monotony of the endless rows of books. Natural light passed through the imposingly tall windows that reached the ceiling, while reading lamps had been added to most of the tables during the previous century.
Even while knowing most of that, after all, they had to learn prank spells from somewhere, and the older years had a terribly small variety to call upon, neither Fred nor George Weasley had ever been the type to sit at a desk and study. No, thank you, that was a job that prefect Percy covered perfectly, and the unreasonable expectations that their eldest brother Bill left were not going to be met by either of the two Gryffindor twins.
If the current spell or transfiguration interested them, they'd study it, if they thought that a potion had potential, they'd steal ingredients from Snape and brew it in one of the many abandoned rooms of the castle. And of course, with the knowledge of ingredients being of such monumental importance, the twins sometimes actually studied Herbology or Care of Magical Creatures.
Practice, however, was their only true teacher, and that was more than fine: when they spotted something worthy of learning or inventing, they'd experiment on each other, or on some Slytherin that totally deserved the risk of being the first to explore potentially dangerous side-effects.
The detentions weren't quite fun, but they mostly had learned how to avoid being caught by now, and the secret passages that they sometimes found were immediately added to the growing list of secrets capable of keeping the two away from the wrath of the professors.
The twins had always had a bond that was extraordinary even among wizardkind, and so they tended to live in their own world most of the time, or at least until Wood forced them to give their all during training.
But, when the evening of the 31st October saw Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and their own Ronald Weasley being returned to the Common Room with faces that would look scared on a skeleton, the twins' interest was caught.
And after a bit of encouragement that the twins were particularly apt at, Ronald had relented, spilling most of what had happened during that evening.
Fred and George knew of Cedric Diggory, of course, his lived nearby the Burrow, just like the Lovegoods, and Amos worked at the Ministry along with Arthur Weasley. The duo knew that he was a Ravenclaw, and... nothing else. But let it not be said that the Weasley family was ungrateful: Ron was too stupid to actually realize that charging after a Troll at eleven wasn't brave as much as idiotic, but the twins knew better.
"Are you sure Fred?" George asked with a faint grimace appearing on his face, his eyes distastefully taking in the magnificence of the Library, able to see only the endless hours of meaningless study that one could carry forth in such a place.
His far less handsome twin simply looked at him, and it was enough to say everything that passed through his head. We already talked about this.
The point was that the Weasley family owed Cedric Diggory, and they owed him big. Since Ron was... Ron, and Percy was a prat, it fell to them to thank the Ravenclaw properly, but that turned out to be more difficult than one would have expected.
They spent the previous week trying to figure out what made him tick so that they could repay him for saving their little brother, only for him to consistently disappear when the twins were about to talk to him privately. Fred and George tried to study Diggory like he was to be their next target for a prank, hoping that their experience would allow for a quick job, so that they could return to their far more important jokes.
However, the only thing that truly struck them, besides the Ravenclaw student's uncanny ability to disappear from one corner to the next leaving no trace of his passing, was that he was always on his own. In the house of Bronze and Blue, there were many introverts, and self-study was something common, but everyone had a small circle of people to study with if nothing else.
Everyone except Diggory, that was.
And since he saved Ron's life, there was only one thing the Twins could offer as repayment, even if it meant that the twins had to enter the Library with no mischief in mind for the first time in their lives: they'd offer him a place on the elite group of Those Who Experimented Assiduously, which also stood for The Weasley's Exciting Activities. Besides, they heard from the grapevine that his wandwork was spectacular, and they'd need someone very good with transfiguration if their Canary Cream Project was to take off.
"He'll accept, and it will be a win-win for everyone, George." Fred grinned cheerfully at his twin, "Relax!"
Eventually, exploring aisle after aisle, they managed to grind through the admittedly vast Library, and they found their target. Well, they heard him first.
"Only because this year you're a prefect, it doesn't mean that you're the only one responsible for everyone in the lower years, Penelope." Diggory's voice was earnest while maintaining a distracted tone, "And most certainly it doesn't mean that you have to focus this much on me, there are lots of people that actually need supervision."
"You managed to get lost during the only night in which a Troll roamed the castle!" a girl hissed back, a dull thump of a tome being dumped on wood accompanying her words, which caused the twins, still unseen behind a tall shelf, to exchange a surprised glance.
They knew all about minimizing damage, courtesy of Molly Weasley's own brand of education, and they knew that Ravenclaws didn't much care for bravery and honor and fantastical Griffindor things, but not telling even to the prefect hounding him that he actually saved three kids from a Troll, when it would have been enough to get this Penelope off Diggory's back... wow.
"See? He can even keep a secret." Fred remarked with a wide smile, knowing that George, still hesitant when it came to the plan, couldn't deny it.
"And what's with these books?" the more or less stern voice of the prefect claimed once more the attention of the twins, "Do these... Diggory, do these come from the Restricted Section?"
The Twins exchanged another penetrating glance, eyebrows rising into their hairline at the juicy piece of information, and they eagerly settled against the bookshelf, eager to hear more. Only because they were in the Library in the first place to thank this Diggory fellow, it didn't mean that they didn't recognize when it was the time to wait.
"McGonagall gave permission, not that it's any of your business, anyway." Diggory sighed, the solid thump of a book being closed a bit more energetically than necessary underlining his words, "And shouldn't everyone be quiet in the Library?"
"The Shape Within?" the witch clearly didn't care to listen to the words of the other Ravenclaw, "The Deeper Truth of Self? Are you trying to become an Animagus?"
While the magic itself was a mistery, thanks to McGonagall's casual displays during the years even the Weasley Twins were aware of the topic's nature, and they couldn't resist such an opening when it was offered. George tried to come to terms with the actual skill of the fourth year while his less capable brother decided to enter the fray.
"Hello!" Fred stepped forward before George could point out that maybe interrupting the clearly studious wizard, which was already fending off a prefect, maybe wasn't the best way to make a good first impression, "We're Gred and Forge Weasley."
A flash of a pained expression appeared on the visage of Cedric before he turned his head, his eyes focusing on the intruders as if a dragon warding its hoard: "I know, and I really hope you're not going to do a mess here, the Librarian will exact her revenge by having you rewrite ruined tomes with your blood."
The grisly description made the Twins shiver for an instant, while the girl present frowned at the interruption and opened her mouth to nag them into submission, but George was an old hand at this kind of game, and he went to salvage the situation: "No pranks, and no ruining books. We've heard you saved our little brother's life, and we wanted to thank you."
"What kind of idiotic thing are you two planning now?" Penelope Clearwater's green eyes immediately pinned the two mischief-bringers where they stood, while her free hand tucked a blonde lock of hair behind a ear when the duo didn't look forthcoming with information: "Diggory, what are they talking about?"
The Ravenclaw wizard blinked owlishly, surprise clearly appearing on his face while he studied their faces: "I was pretty sure that nobody was going to talk about the night of the 31st. Dumbledore's orders."
Penelope's jaw hung open for a couple of seconds: "They say you..." she frowned, quickly putting together the admittedly obvious puzzle, "But then..."
"We heard he turned a wooden club into a giant snake and used it against the troll to save three wayward first-year Gryffindors." Fred grinned openly, enjoying the feeling of openly talking about something that should have been kept a secret.
Diggory clicked his tongue in annoyance, his wand flashing briefly as he muttered something too low to be overheard. The other three students tensed minutely when they heard a faint buzz pass them by, and the Weasley twins, in particular, were staring at the fourth-year Ravenclaw student like he had grown a second head.
Gone was the spacey boy that they had tried to follow multiple times since their decision of bringing him on board, there was no absent-mindedness about the way in which his eyes looked them over: "You were eavesdropping, weren't you?"
Without waiting for an answer, he shot a scathing glare at the prefect by his side: "I managed to stay on my own and to look utterly unremarkable for years, then I save three kids, and all comes tumbling down." Diggory passed a hand into his hair, almost pulling it out of his scalp.
The twins' eyes gleamed with understanding at the scene, and after exchanging a glance with each other, both fell to their knees: "Teach us, master of pranks!"
"Silencio." Penelope retracted her wand after a perfectly executed jab at the annoying Weasley on the floor, tilting her shoulders so that she could face again her fellow Ravenclaw: "Yeah, I want an explanation for that too,
"I like exploring, being absent-minded and looney allows me to get away with a lot of stuff." Cedric's unapologetic shrug was accompanied by him sitting again in the chair he had claimed for himself, assuming a slouch that was just shy of screaming 'unassuming'.
"Like that time when you cursed Stephan while trying to use Wingardium Leviosa." Penelope ignored the twins making faces and rolling one over another as they laughed at the sheer genius of building a reputation that made you look innocent even when you blatantly did something wrong, "And let me guess, you aren't actually a sleep-walker, are you?"
Diggory answered her with a grin: "It's also hilarious to see the faces of the professors when I do something perfectly without being able to explain it properly." only then did his eyes return to the twins still on the floor as he hunched forward in his chair, his expression turning curiously blank. "So, what do you want to keep this whole thing a secret?"
Fred and George saw only the movement that returned the boy's wand to his sleeve, and an instant later, they were able to talk again: "Your most masterful prank enlightened us!"
"We actually wanted to thank you for Ron, honest." George turned serious for a moment, taking over in order to not exasperate further the clearly capable wizard in front of them, "And, besides a blanket protection from the prank that we'll perform,"
"Allegedly." Fred was quick to add.
"We wanted to welcome you on some of our experiments, since you're a Ravenclaw and we do new stuff constantly."
"So your thanks is an occasion for me to play babysitter?"
Penelope tucked again a free strand of blonde hair behind an ear, sighing in exasperation while she finally settled onto a free chair: "I'll pretend that I haven't heard the last part of this conversation." said that, she simply popped open one of the many tomes that Cedric had lifted from the Restricted Section, her eyes starting to eagerly roam over the positively ancient ink.
"We thought you'd be more eager to join a..." Fred hesitated, seeing that the twins' plan wasn't going as smoothly as the duo had foreseen.
"Research Group!" George jumped on the hesitation of his brother, a charming smile appearing on his features while he captured once again Diggory's full attention.
The Ravenclaw looked... conflicted. A series of twitches too fast to follow appeared on his features, until he took another deep breath: "Fine."
He closed his eyes as he almost violently slammed his back into the armchair, his hands combing through his hair as if looking for answers. "Fine," he repeated, "but we do this my way: one of you starts applying himself seriously in Charms, the other in Transfiguration, and I mean seriously. Penelope will work with the one applying himself in the first subject, and I'll be the taskmaster for the second one."
"What?" Clearwater's voice popped up, grabbing the attention of the horrified twins and the now grinning Diggory.
"You should have stayed away when you could." Cedric ignored the spluttering indignation of the Weasley while he opened his arms, as if to show something obvious with his palms turned upwards, "I'll become an Animagus between this and the next year, if you want to jump on this boat, you have to row."
The Ravenclaw turned towards the twins before the flabbergasted prefect could object: "You wanted to repay me for saving your little brother's life while gaining something for your future pranks or whatever, this is how it will happen: take it or leave it."
The Gryffindor wizards looked at each other for a couple of second, a silent conversation taking place as they both considered the pros and cons of the offer the surprisingly manipulative Ravenclaw. After a few seconds during which they became increasingly aware of Diggory's weighty stare, the twins relented, nodding in acceptance. The Weasley owed him for saving Ronald after all, and if this was the sacrifice required of them, they would pay it.
Let it not be said that the twins weren't honorable.
Just as the younger wizards sat at the reading table already occupied by the two Ravenclaw students, a fifth person made itself known by clearing her throat.
That Saturday had started out normally, with me dodging Clearwater's ever-increasing attempts of keeping an eye on me before I grabbed the bunch of books I had selected previously in the Restricted Section in order to park my ass in the practically abandoned Muggle Studies section of the Library. I loved Transfiguration, it generally came easily enough to me, but the kind of preparatory studies that McGonagall dumped on me as a test of my resolve wasn't something I could breeze by.
Besides the practical process necessary to becoming an Animagus, there were countless implications that I had to be aware of before meeting again the Transfiguration Professor. Not last that even an apparently successful transformation could mess with your head if you weren't aware of who you were.
Some of the tomes I had to work through elaborated on how a mage's identity could be compromised, even marginally, if 'a wizard became the animal, but the animal wasn't the wizard'. And obviously, all the books treated the topic with the endless obfuscations necessary to express concepts that could hardly be described with mere words.
Sadly, Clearwater proved to be an actual hound when she wasn't in the regular vest of a studious Ravenclaw. She took as a slight on her duties that she'd been unable to keep me with the group the night of the 31st of October, and she vowed to herself that she'd make sure I became a responsible, self-sufficient wizard before the year was out. Of course, by that, she means to chain me to her.
In hindsight, I should have remained in the Restricted Section to study: but there weren't reading tables there, and the environment was more than just a bit eerie. So I parked my ass in the forgotten Muggle Studies section of the Library, and I had barely gotten started when the Ravenclaw Prefect came by. I had just been considering how much trouble I'd be were I to stun her when she noticed my books, and then just how much different my behavior was.
Of course, between the exasperation and the actual focus I needed to munch through the veritable piles of tomes McGonagall assigned me, I slipped just enough for Clearwater to spot how differently I behaved compared to the usual 'me' I paraded around.
Given my utter lack of knowledge when it came to Obliviation and the offensive side of the Mind Arts, I was left with the option of bribing the Ravenclaw with knowledge so that she'd both keep my secret and stop hounding me.
Before I could verbalize that decision, the Weasley Twins decided that it was a good moment to reveal themselves, along with the fact that they'd be overhearing for the last few minutes.
Snape's always effective 'Muffliato' had become a must by then. I could figure out a way to contain the secret among three students, but really, I hoped that Irma Pince, the gargoyle-like librarian that didn't tolerate whispers in her vicinity, didn't come by.
Fred and George then revealed that they wanted to thank me, and that their offer was basically taking part in generally purposeless manufacture of prank-oriented tricks. Not something that I had the time or the patience to be involved with.
Just as I was about to ask for secrecy in exchange for the Marauders' Map, with a timing that I could only define exasperating, I remembered that one of the two would die at the final battle in the castle. I really didn't want to get involved with the mess that was the Order of the Phoenix, Harry Potter had to do what the Chosen One had to do.
But very much like the night of the 31st October, I became acutely aware that the twins were fucking 13 years old.
Letting them to their fate was a grade-A dick-move. I already felt marginally disturbed at the idea of letting them experiment without supervision, never mind the instant of terror that seized me when I spotted the excited gleam in their eyes at the mention of 'Animagus'.
With a migraine already starting to hammer in my head, I tried to put together my problems so that they could be solved in a way that needed minimal effort on my part, my plans for my 'children-free' years of schooling tumbling down so that at least officially I could remain a side character.
I used to feel reasonably good about my long-term planning abilities, not so much now that I kept finding main characters trying to drag me into the mess that their lives would be. I mean, besides the eccentric Amos Diggory, even my own mother was more pleased about my insane intelligence than saddened by my less than genuine affection.
Oh, I cared about my 'new' parents, if only because they were loving people that raised me after my rebirth. At least, Amos did. There was no substituting a genuine parent-son relationship, even while I occasionally perceived any form of oversight as overbearing, I couldn't deny that it was better to be borne from rich magical parents than as a muggle, at least as far as rebirth went. Even if my rebirth apparenlty killed Mrs. Diggory...
I wrenched my thoughts away from one of the only topics capable of making me uncomfortable and tried to focus on the here and now: I was in the uncomfortable position of not being certain about what I needed to do. But I had to play with the cards I had. Onward it is.
At least the twins were described as being quite clever in the books, and if I managed to unbalance their 'pranking instinct' just enough that they'd enjoy magical research, I'd gain access to two reliable wizards to bounce my ideas with. After all, the Hat placed me in Ravenclaw because I cared about Magic.
Like anyone presented with the sudden opportunity to do and explore the impossible, I was simply too fascinated by the endless possibilities to be sorted anywhere but in the house of blue and bronze.
And if I insisted on one of the two Weasleys learning Charms only because Penelope was great at them, and so she'd be busy enough to leave me alone from time to time, well, there was nobody to point that out.
Distracted as I was, I didn't notice the new person walking up to my improvised group until she cleared her throat.
"Good morning," Hermione Granger started to talk in the precise moment everyone at the table turned in her direction, her eyes widening in fright at being the focus of so much attention, "I wanted... I mean, I..."
The first-year witch closed her eyes and took a fortifying deep breath: "Thankyouforsavingme!"
Yeah, I'll avoid mentioning how everything would have turned out okay nevertheless. I suppressed a snort at how Granger had spoken, seeing clear as day that she was a bundle of nerves. Hello, social anxiety.
"And, um, I wanted to ask how you managed to apply a Sizing Charm to a Transfigured Creature without incantations" seeing as nobody interrupted her, she barreled forth with the speech she had in mind, "because it shouldn't be possible for a fourth year ..."
"Wait," Penelope's voice grabbed my attention, "that is how you saved the kids? By fighting the troll? Are you insane?"
Then she blinked, her head turning like an owl's to observe the younger witch: "And how would you know what a fourth year can or cannot do?"
Ah, meaningless details and irrelevant inconsistencies, the joy of every Ravenclaw. I sighed, my eyes landing forlornly on the tomes that I still hadn't manage to study, aware of just how much of my morning had gone to hell.
"Well, I saw what he did, and so I researched the spells," Hermione frowned in confusion, likely not seeing how absurd it was that an 11 years old girl with less than 3 months of magical education could grasp the complexity of what I did, "but..."
"And you understood them?" this time was Fred to question the girl, eager to avoid the beginning of his new dedicated career as a student.
At the hesitant nod of the girl, an heavy quiet settled over the group. The Weasleys and Clearwater too flabbergasted to reply, and I too fucking tired to care.
After three long seconds of silence during which Hermione's cheeks grew redder and redder in embarrassment, I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose while I visibly fought off a migraine. Sure, why not? It's not like I haven't already tried to help her already. Besides, the better she becomes with magic, the easier Harry's job will be. And I'm still curious about Parseltongue.
"Sure, there is space for a little first year." I pointed my wand at the nearby chair, levitating the stack of books on it so that they instead rested next to me, "This table has become a circus already, might as well lend you a hand."
AN
The first 500 words are entirely about the mindset of the twins and the description of the Library, I prefer more dynamic chapters, with some dialogue surrounding a bit of action if I manage it. But we are still in the introductory stage of this story: shit will actually start to happen with Harry's second year.
I hope all of the interactions went more or less smoothly, and that what I'm planning isn't too blatant.
I know that I've said that it is the general lack of a 'story' in 'The Bigger Picture' that pushed me to write this fic, but while I'll take pieces here and there, I really have to rework a lot of things in order to make this story at least appear original.
This chapter got a bit more verbose than what I'd have liked, but I wanted to introduce some active characters into the story before we went too far ahead, and I didn't want to rely on flashbacks to flesh out the interactions: so the twins (they're in their 3rd year) enter the fray along with Penelope Cearwater (5th year prefect, Percy's future girlfirend). For now, I'm building the girl's personality around the classical unimpressive Ravenclaw eager for knowledge, if a bit more willful, we'll see how interacting with Diggory will change her future.
How could I not exploit this chapter to throw Hermione into the MC's life? A bit more than I've already done at least.
As for the life of the MC until know, the Twin's exploration reveals that he's been a loner, and he kind of drops the 'mask' with this little group. I used the last 1st person POV to clarify what has been going on in the MC's head, and to maybe point out how he didn't want to be involved with Harry Potter (that is why he didn't train himself for war until now).
And unless I missed something, if Harry's in his fourth year for the Triwizard, then Diggory must be in his Seventh, which means that he's in his fourth now (1-4,2-5,3-6,4-7: these are the respective years for Harry and Diggory).