Author's Note:
Feel free to thank CallaRose4ever for this quick update. There's just the one though, sorry. I have this story ready, (It's a ficlet really) but I haven't proof-read it to update so quickly. I'll try and do it as often as I can, okay?
Your wish is my command, my dear readers! ;)
Love,
CrazyA
Chapter 04:
The brutality of Dumbledore really knew no bounds! Both Fabian and Gideon were realising the truth of that statement. It had been a year since the Prewitt twins were homing with their sister, their homes and assets still frozen, yet when Black had offered the use of his ancestral property to the Order, his properties and vaults were opened up in the blink of an eye.
With both their tempers soaring high enough to justify their hair, they walked up to Dumbledore right after the first Order of Phoenix II meeting. The next day, they had every property and asset of theirs at their disposal. Just like that. Why the old coot hadn't done the needful a year back was beyond both the twins. But now, they were finally able to open their ancestral property, not just walk by its borders. They were finally able to enter their manor. They were finally able to go home.
Making sure to return much more than what they had borrowed from their sister's household, the twins were back at The Prewitt Manor. The Manor was in shambles, their elves nowhere to be found, but as broken and unkempt as it was, it was home. They were finally where they belonged. Looking at each other, sharing the thought and their eyes speaking so much more than words could ever express, they got to work.
As frowzy as it was, it was theirs. Breathing in the musty air, the duo silently began cleaning their home.
…
"You can just stay here till you get your Manor up and running, you know," Sirius offered the Prewitt twins. "It'll be good to have some company, be around those sailing in the same boat."
And that was that. The Prewitts now lived at Number 12, Grimmauld Place, with Sirius Black. Every morning the three wizards went to the Prewitt Manor in complete secrecy, for cleaning and every evening they came back with sore bodies, but it was better than staying within the mouldy walls of the dreary house that saw Sirius grow up.
"Thanks for the help," Gideon expressed his gratitude to Sirius.
"We appreciate it." Fabian nodded.
"Anything's better than here," Sirius clucked his tongue and continued to make his way through the bottle of firewhiskey he had opened that evening.
…
Number 12, Grimmauld Place, was bursting at the seams with people for a change. It was housing not just the Prewitt twins and the Black heir along with their occasional werewolf guest and this young metamorphmagus cousin of Sirius' who was crushing quite hard on the said werewolf, but the entirety of the Weasleys for some reason, along with any and every member of the Order that needed a place to crash. And in that mix, now were both Hermione Granger and Harry Potter.
Hermione had been a ball of nervous mess on the day of Harry's hearing, having nothing but litres upon litres of tea, black with lemon and salt, funnily enough, and had flown right into Harry's arms literally the second he was back.
Potter had been angry on his best friends before he left, but the second Hermione hugged him on his arrival, his arms snaked around her, holding her close. "Oh, thank God, you're fine," Hermione whispered, holding Harry's face between her hands, looking him up and down before hugging him tightly again.
"Wishing it was you, Gid?" Fabian cheekily whispered close to his twin's ear.
"You have no idea, Fab," Gideon replied, not bothering to censor his thoughts from his twin.
"Do you feel it?" Fabian asked curiously, "The pull of the bond?"
"More than I'd like to acknowledge given her age."
"Still not going to touch her?"
"Not till I can help it." Saying that Gideon made his way back to the kitchen where he was helping Sirius cook a celebratory meal in his godson's honour.
"Huh," Fabian whispered, watching the friends interacting with each other a little more before making his way back himself.
…
The fights between Molly and Sirius were soon turning into legends. While most times, Gideon did not bother interfering, this one time, he knew he had to make an exception. Molly really was going out of her way to be rude to the lad.
"You are not his parent!" Molly threw at Sirius with a glare to match her heated words.
"And neither are you!" Sirius bit back equally hotly.
"I am as good as…" Molly sniffed, her nose upturned in the air, thinking the matter shut.
She forgot she was fighting Sirius Black. He was like a dog with a bone!
Five minutes in, Gideon, and he was sure most others, had heard quite enough. "That'll be all for now," he spoke coolly from his place at the table. "Molly, we all know you love Harry, but Sirius is his godfather. He was entrusted the duty by Harry's parents and he can carry them out as he sees fit. We are no one to interfere with them. And Sirius, while we do respect your relationship with your godson, do bear in mind that most of us here care for him, not just as our saviour but as the young boy of a fallen friend. Molly, if are uncomfortable with what is about to be discussed, you may move your children away but we cannot stop Sirius from speaking with his godson."
Huffing Molly ordered her children out of the room, despite their grumbles, walking out behind them herself.
Hermione simply stared open-mouthed at the wizard, Fabian or Gideon, she wasn't yet sure which, who had actually made Mrs Weasley eat her words! A feat all by itself, considering even Sirius had so far been unsuccessful in doing it. And man, had he tried!
Feeling her eyes on him, Gideon looked right back at Hermione, her open-mouthed candour making him smile. Raising a single eyebrow at her, he flashed her a half-smile and then went ahead to cheekily wink at her. Caught in the act of staring and surprised by the outright wink, Hermione immediately shut her mouth and urgently looked around, just then realising only Harry, Sirius, the Prewitts and herself remained.
Wondering what she was to do, as neither Sirius nor Mrs Weasley had given her any explicit instructions, Hermione looked around awkwardly.
"You can stay if you like, it's your choice," the same man who had just emptied the dining hall single-handedly and then cheekily winked at her, now spoke kindly to her. "What is happening outside, is something anyone who wants to know should know about. So, if Sirius and Potter are alright with it, you can stay back."
It disconcerted Hermione how he went from authoritative to cheeky to kind all in under a minute but she decided to keep that thought aside for now. She looked at Harry and smiled, "No, I think Harry and Sirius need to have this talk alone. I'll be in the library for a bit before going to bed," she said to Harry and with a smile encompassing them all, she walked out too.
The Prewitt twins watched her walk out before looking at each other and standing themselves. "Holler for help," Gideon said to the duo that remained seated and the twins traced the young witch's path.
"So, there was this interesting book I saw in the library the other day. I wanted to show it to you. Come along?" Fabian asked his brother, innocence dripping from his face and tone.
Gideon only raised a brow.
This time Fabian grinned cheekily back at him with an added wink. "Now that you've finally broken the ice, brother dear, time to make some proper introductions with your witch." Saying that Fabian pulled at Gideon's hand and led him to the library skipping two steps at a time. Not that Gideon wanted to be anywhere else anyway.
…
Hermione was sitting at the table in the library with a large and heavy tome spread open in front of her.
"Good evening Miss Granger," the twins greeted the young witch, their soft words making her jump.
"Did we scare you?"
"Are you alright?"
"You scared me!"
Echoed in the room, before the trio chuckled together.
"We never got a chance to thank you for saving our lives," Gideon murmured softly as he took the chair opposite Hermione's taking care to scrape it back, well away from the table, for him to be able to stretch and yet remain at least two feet away from Hermione's stretched out legs.
Fabian, having no such qualms, pulled the chair beside his twin's and simply sat down.
"You know?" Hermione asked wide-eyed.
"Was it a secret?" the twins cross-questioned.
"No. It's just that… the two of you weren't in a good shape so I just assumed you didn't realise who it was," Hermione blushed bashfully as she answered.
"And our not coming to speak with you didn't help matters, I'm sure," Fabian said, looking pointedly at his twin to Hermione's confusion.
How am I to answer that? Hermione wondered. "No, that's not it Mr Prewitt, I…"
The twins snorted in sync. "Fabian," the wizard on the right brought his hand out to take hers, shaking it and keeping it engulfed in his large warm ones as he continued, "and that's Gideon at your service, ma'am. Please don't call us Mr and Mr Prewitt."
"Makes me want to turn around and check for our old man," Gideon agreed with a slight mischievous quirk to his lips.
Hermione stared at the set of twins in front of her, studying their blue eyes, flawless skin, long, aristocratic noses and cataloguing their similarities and differences in her mind.
She was staring so intently at the two, that the wizards looked at each other before masking their confusion and looking back the witch that had saved their lives.
"Don't be alarmed," Fred piqued as he entered the library.
She's just studying you so she can tell you apart," George seconded as the two made their way towards Hermione, flanking her chair.
"Hates not knowing something, our bookworm," they chorused together.
Hermione dropped Fabian's hand like a hot cake, forgoing her manners and skipping the handshake with Gideon altogether as she practically covered the book laying open in front of her with her arms and upper body.
"Relax," Fred said looking amusedly at Hermione's actions.
"We're not here for that one," George elaborated.
"Really?" the Prewitt twins asked, cutting the banter between the youngsters.
"You guys think she can tell us apart?" Gideon leaned forward in his chair with interest.
"We're identical. Even mum, dad and Molly couldn't spot the difference most times," agreed Fabian.
"So are we," George shrugged.
"Mum can't tell us apart," Fred added.
"Our bookworm can," they said together, each grabbing her shoulder and pulling her in, making one of their uncles narrow his eyes where their hands still lay on Hermione's shoulders while the other one smirked, murmuring, "Oh, this should be good," to himself.
Clearly misunderstanding their Uncle Fabian's statement, the twins smirked in unison. "Wanna bet, Uncle Fab, Uncle Gid? Our darling Hermione here will tell you apart starting tomorrow."
"You're on," Fabian put his hand forth.
"Fifty galleons," Gideon removed the required gallons from his money pouch.
The younger twins eyes boggled. "Don't let us down, love," they said to Hermione and collected the money.
Quickly plucking the book they had come to collect from its shelf, the younger set of twins left, already planning on what they'd do with the extra money they had made.
"Shouldn't you two have checked to make sure they had the money to repay you if they lost?" Hermione asked confused. As far as she knew, that was not how betting worked!
"They want to start their own business, we don't mind helping," Gideon said, shrugging his broad shoulders.
"If we win, we have ways to collect the debts owed, so don't you go worrying about that, little dove," Fabian finished.
"Little dove?" Hermione parroted back, looking right into Fabian's eyes before her eyes darted to Gideon's. What was wrong with that generation? At home, her father called her his bunny, here, Sirius called her kitten, the older Weasley boys called her their bookworm – a habit the twins were annoyingly picking up, and now it looked like Fabian was joining the group with his little dove! "I don't like nicknames," Hermione scrunched her nose to show her distaste.
Fabian looked gleeful enough to make Hermione wonder if Christmas was coming early that year. "What?"
Fabian went to open his mouth just as Gideon's hand hit him hard on his chest. "Nothing," he said instead of whatever it was he was planning on saying, while rubbing his smarting chest and scowling at Gideon. But then he turned back to Hermione and flashed her a dazzling smile. "You and I are going to be great friends, little dove," he said, a true smile gracing his face.
Not really understanding what was happening between the three of them, Hermione looked from one twin to another before huffing and putting her book back on the shelf she'd taken it from. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have some sleep to catch up on. Good night," she nodded and left her sanctum with the older set of twins still occupying it.
"She is such a little prissy," Fabian said with a chuckle, shaking his head when he saw Gideon's eyes following her exit. "A born lady, Mum would've said," he smirked.
Gideon just rolled his eyes and stood up, pushing the vacant chair back under the reading desk.
…
He wasn't sure what he had expected, but he wasn't really surprised when next morning onwards Hermione looked them in the eyes, one by one, and greeted them a good morning suffixing it with their correct names.
The little witch just kept leaving him impressed somehow.
He chuckled, seeing his brother trying to pull a prank on the other twins and Sirius, with Harry in tow, knowing Hermione had helped them with it. Little dove, Gideon chuckled, shaking his head, it didn't work for him. He needed something more to the tunes of my little tigress-love….