With some clever navigation on Fred and George's part, the three miscreants made it back to Gryffindor Tower without incident. Fortunately, Fred had the foresight to find out the new password from Percy before their adventurous night had begun, and so they were able to relax for a couple of hours before their presence was required in the Great Hall for breakfast.

Although George assured Rook that sleeping for an hour would be worse than not sleeping at all, Rook insisted upon retiring to her dorm room, and shortly after watching Rook disappear up the staircase, Fred spoke. "So... You don't waste time, do you, mate?"

George grinned sheepishly. "Any reason I should?"

"I don't know. She's weird, right?"

George collapsed onto his back on one of the softer sofas and placed his arms comfortably behind his head. "She's unique, for sure. Don't tell me you're done for the night?"

"Ah!" Fred exclaimed. "Right you are!" Fred withdrew several whoopee cushions from the pocket of his robes, along with a handful of other novelties he had found in the muggle shops in their village. He inflated the whoopee cushions and began concealing them strategically about the common room. "But isn't 'unique' just a nice word for 'weird', anyway?" he persisted.

"I like weird. I've put up with you my whole life, haven't I?"

Fred looked up at his brother, a false Salvador Dali mustache now firmly affixed to his visage. "Whatever could you mean by that? I obviously fall under the category of 'eccentric'."

George rolled his eyes. "Just a nice word for 'weird', then?"

"Sounds about right, yeah. Ron usually sits here, doesn't he?" George nodded and Fred arranged a handful of fake spiders in the various nooks of the squashy armchair. "It's just... It seemed like she was avoiding talking about her home and all. Not friends, not parents... Maybe a little about her alleged 'twin', but that's a little fishy too, isn't it? That she just happens to have one. Don't you think she's hiding something?"

"Come on, Fred, we just met her. There's a difference between hiding something and not telling us every detail of her home life. Have we told her how poor we are?"

"We told her we're related to Percy. That's as embarrassing as it gets."

"She's entitled to her privacy. And you can't act like you don't like her. I was in that broom closet too, you know."

"So what?" Fred snapped, causing George's eyebrows to raise insinuatingly.

"So... You told her you like her."

"Oh, don't look at me like that! It's nothing compared to all the flirting you were doing."

George shrugged dispassionately. "Whatever you say, Freddy." George had a faraway look on his face that Fred could not fathom. Fred always found this disconcerting. It was indeed a rare occurence, but the thing that really got to Fred was that he doubted it was a mutual occurence. Fred was fairly certain that George knew everything about him. George could often discern Fred's more convoluted thoughts and feelings before Fred himself. Furthermore, George knew when Fred did not know what he was thinking, and consistently apprised Fred of his inner musings in an attempt to alleviate the sensation of inadequacy he knew afflicted his brother.

And so Fred sat on the arm of Ron's favorite chair and watched his brother expectantly, hoping that he could correctly guess what George was thinking before he volunteered his thoughts to Fred, but knowing that he would not.

"Fred..." George spoke at last. "Do you remember when we were five and you had to stay home from our beach holiday?"

"What do you think the spiders are for, mate? I still can't believe I got punished for something I couldn't help."

"I know I told you this before, but I cried the whole trip, and when those dementors came into our compartment, I kept thinking about things like... like that time Aunt Muriel called us useless good-for-nothings in front of the entire family, and that time when mum cried because she couldn't afford the birthday gifts we wanted... and that trip, too. I felt that loneliness like I was five years old again. I couldn't even tell myself you were right behind me, and I started to panic.

"Then she grabbed my hand, and I suddenly remembered I wasn't alone. I just can't get over it; a stranger, taking my hand like that. I'm sure she was just scared. I'm sure she didn't know what it meant to me. Even so..."

Fred was back in the loop. If George had told him before about what had happened with Rook, he would have understood perfectly, and it bothered Fred that George had kept it to himself for so long.

"You really like her then, eh?"

"I've only said it a hundred times. You figure this one out yourself, Detective."