Fred and George were making their way to Care of Magical Creatures on Friday morning, an uncomfortably dull affair ever since Malfoy got lightly grazed by Buckbeak the Hypogriff and then spent an eternity whining about it. This had been a great disappointment following Professor Kettleburn who, though somewhat doddery, had had a passion for magical creatures that transcended such petty concerns as having limbs that are completely intact, and a lesson with him could never been described at boring.
Hagrid, on the other hand, had been preoccupied all year, always teetering between listless and agitated. Fred and George did their best to cheer him up whenever they got the chance, but pretending to enjoy the class proved to be beyond even their abilities.
"Come one, Hagrid!" Fred said impatiently as Hagrid prepared the familiar crates for the incoming Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. "We have exams coming up!"
"It'd be nice to know something other than the difference between a flobberworm and a wet sock," added George.
"You're way ahead of me," said Fred. "I couldn't even tell you that much."
"Yer not foolin' me inta thinkin' yeh care abou' exams," Hagrid retorted disapprovingly, though the corners of his mouth seemed to twitch. "And, as it happens, I have somethin' a bit diff'rent fer this lesson." He lowered the crate, revealing several stick-like creatures with beady black eyes and long, pointed fingers.
"Wow, sticks!" Fred exclaimed a little too enthusiastically to be convincing.
"Bowtruckles," Hagrid explained. "I know they're not the most excitin' creatures, but they will come up in yer exams."
It ended up being the most enjoyable Care of Magical Creatures lesson they had had since Hagrid had taken over the subject, despite him seeming somewhat distracted. If anything, this allowed the twins and Lee, who also took Care of Magical Creatures, to fool about, replacing Malcolm Preece's bowtruckle with an enchanted twig just to see how long it'd take him to realize what they'd done.
Once Care of Magical Creatures was over, the Gryffindors only had to walk a short way to the greenhouses for Herbology. Unfortunately, they also shared this class with the fifth year Slytherins.
"How can it smell so terrible in here when we haven't even gotten into the fertilizer?" Graham Montague commented loudly as Fred and George walked into greenhouse four before the start of Herbology.
"Can't you tell?" Cassius Warrington replied with a sneer. "That's the smell of the Weasleys' hovel. It never completely washes off."
"Good one, Warrington!" George said with a fake guffaw.
"If only your hand-eye coordination was as sharp as your wit, you might actually manage to get the quaffle past Wood," said Fred.
"You think you're real funny, don't you?"
"I mean, I wouldn't call it my defining feature, but I've been known to tell a joke once in a while."
"And I'm no stick in the mud, either," said George. "Although, sticks in mud? Not as unentertaining as you might think."
Fred and Lee chuckled. Montague and Warrington, who had no way of knowing that George was referencing their previous lesson, appeared confused before seeming to decide that, because they didn't understand the quip, it must be a further jab at them.
"We'll see who's laughing in May," said Montague, advancing on George threateningly. "All I'm sayin' is, you'd better watch your back, Weasley."
"Now you're really not making any sense," said George, unperturbed.
"How's he going to see who's laughing if he's busy watching his back?" said Fred. "You have to think about these things, Monty, or you'll end up held back just like Flint."
Fred heard laughter behind him and looked around. Rook had arrived during the twins' exchange with the Slytherin chasers. Fred grinned at her. Then, quite suddenly, he felt Montague's hands gripping the front of his robes.
"What on Earth is going on?"
Montague released Fred hastily. Professor Sprout had rushed into the greenhouse, a large, carefully secured basket in her arms. As Montague spluttered excuses at Sprout, Fred noticed Rook slide her wand back into the pocket of her robes as she glared at Montague.
After receiving a somewhat muddled account of events from the surrounding students, Professor Sprout took ten points from Slytherin and issued Montague a detention that ensured he would miss his next Quidditch practice. He spent the rest of the class shooting murderous looks at Fred and George, which Fred managed to ignore quite easily.
What was harder for him to ignore was Rook. For the past four days, she seemed incapable of behaving normally around George. She fumbled her words, she dropped things and avoided looking at him directly. It was impossible for George not to notice this, but he seemed to attribute it to whatever happened between them in Hogsmeade, the details of which he had not divulged to Fred.
"We're not exactly off to a good start this lesson," Professor Sprout said after she had guided the glass to several small trellises bearing thick growths of vines. "But it is imperative that you familiarize yourselves with the cultivation and properties of bloominets, as they will almost certainly be covered in your O.W.L. exams.
"Now, these perennial vines are extremely rare. Like many plants that thrive here at Hogwarts, bloominets tend to grow in areas with high levels of magical saturation, and they are very difficult to grow, say, in your mum's backyard garden. Regardless, I expect many here have seen them once or twice before. Can anyone tell me a characteristic of a bloominet?"
Patricia Stimpson raised her hand. "The flowers glow purple, I think."
Professor Sprout smiled, "They are bioluminescent, yes, but the color is dependent upon its caregivers. Five points to Gryffindor. Yes, Takagi?"
The tall, slender Slytherin lowered his hand as he said, "The leaves and flowers are used in sleeping potions and potions to combat anxiety, but the flowers are far more effective."
"Excellent. You're quite right; five points to Slytherin. Anyone else? Miss Selwyn, how about you?"
The black-haired Slytherin girl Rook had almost befriended on the Hogwarts Express looked up at Professor Sprout, looking extremely nettled at being called on. She crossed her arms over her chest as she answered, "You can use it to wean addicts off of things, like potions and muggle drugs."
Professor Sprout looked pleasantly surprised by this answer. "Yes, that is a lesser-known application of bloominets! Ten points to Slytherin."
"Well, I'm glad something good came out of my uncle's addiction to euphoria elixir," Selwyn said with a sarcastic smile.
Fred and George exchanged a look at this and there was a general awkward rustling throughout the class. The Selwyns were an old, proud wizarding family: the exact sort of people who would be appalled if people knew their cat were pregnant by a stray, such was their aversion to family scandals.
If Selwyn was hoping to shock Professor Sprout, however, it did not work. She merely smiled at the Slytherin girl and said, "It's good to look on the bright side, isn't it? Well, now that we know a few characteristics of bloominets," she went on, "I think it's time we get into how to properly care for them. The flowers themselves are extremely sensitive to the emotions of their caregivers, but they also rely on emotions to bloom, the key emotion being tranquility. Because of this, the flowers are rarer than the plants themselves, as many people are simply unable to coax them out.
"But it's valuable to know how to do it, as it requires the kind of mental discipline that is required in spellwork, particularly the more advanced spellwork you'll be tackling in your sixth and seventh years."
Fred's mind had been wandering as Professor Sprout spoke, but he tuned back in at "mental discipline," about the same time he realized he'd been stealing surreptitious glances at Rook throughout the lecture, who appeared rather distracted herself. Mental discipline was certainly hard to come by these days…
After giving them more precise instructions on how to properly care for the bloominet vines, Professor Sprout instructed them to divide into pairs, each pair to care for their own plant. George initially attempted to pair off with Fred, but the latter insisted he should pair with Lee, so as not to leave him out. Of course, this arrangement served an additional, unspoken purpose, as George was left to pair with Rook.
By the end of the lesson, no pair in the class had successfully coaxed their plant into flowering, but Professor Sprout told them not to be discouraged; they were to try again next lesson.
After leaving the greenhouse, they made their way to the Great Hall for lunch. Fred's scheming seemed to have had the desired effect on Rook, who seemed far more relaxed with George after they had spent most of their lesson working together. Though it was hard not to be envious, Fred couldn't help smiling as Rook told them a story about her and Luna in Defense Against the Dark Arts. She was back to her usual self.
"Lupin's teaching us about vampires, and Luna got into an argument with him about whether or not some Ministry official is actually a vampire."
"Which one?" George asked curiously as they made their way to the Gryffindor table.
"He had a weird name," Rook said, trying to remember. "Rufus Scrumgum, or something. He's in charge of the dark wizard hunters?"
"Scrimgeor?" said Fred. "He's been seen in direct sunlight enough times, I'd think."
"She says some vampires can walk around in the daylight!" she said, sitting between George and Alicia on the bench. "She says you can tell they're vampires because of a shimmer that comes off of them when they're in direct sunlight."
"A shimmer?" said Alicia. "You mean she thinks vampires sparkle?"
"Maybe none of them burn up in the sunlight," said George, "and they just avoid it because if people saw them sparkling, no one would take them seriously anymore."
"You know who probably is a vampire, though?" said Fred. "Snape."
"Yeah!" Lee exclaimed. "He covered Lupin's classes once, and he kept the room completely dark the entire time!"
"Or else we'd have Sparkly Snape teaching us about the Unforgivable Curses," Fred said with a grin.
"Thank you very much for those nightmares," said Angelina, laughing.
"Rosemary…"
The group looked around at the predictable and unwelcome sight of Spencer standing just behind Rook with a disgruntled expression.
"I need to talk to you," he said simply, clearly unwilling to say anything more in front of Rook's friends.
"Oh…" Rook hesitated, looking down at the plate she had just loaded with potatoes, rolls and carrots.
"Can't it wait?" said Fred. "We're sort of in the middle of something."
Spencer addressed Rook as though he had not heard Fred, "It's important."
"Right," Rook spoke meekly, standing. "Of course."
She followed him from the Great Hall, looking anxious.
"What was that about?" said Angelina, once they had vanished. "She hadn't even eaten yet."
"And she didn't eat breakfast this morning because she was up late last night," said Alicia worriedly.
"Yeah, because somehow, despite being out 'til just before curfew with her 'tutor,' she never gets her homework done and has to stay up all night finishing it," Fred spoke more savagely than he intended before realizing he was gripping his fork more tightly than was necessary. He speared a piece of roast beef on his plate as if it had done him personal wrong and tried to ignore the meaningful look that passed between Angelina and Alicia. "He's getting paid to tutor her, isn't he?"
"It is getting a bit ridiculous," said George. "She seems really… tired."
There was an unsettled silence between them all for a moment before Lee made a jab at Montague and the group spent the rest of lunch abusing the Slytherin Quidditch team and discussing their prospects. Once again, Fred was not wholly present in the discussion. He felt anger building inside him, not just at Spencer, but at Rook, and at himself for being angry at Rook.
There was something off about Rook and Spencer's relationship, and he was now confident that this was not just his jealousy talking. If Fred and George weren't in the same house as Rook, he was sure they would never see her. Spencer increasingly expected her to spend her every free moment with him. It'd be one thing if Rook was enjoying this arrangement, but it was clear that she hadn't been for a while. The last several times she rejoined the twins after meeting Spencer, her eyes were red and puffy, and no matter how cheerful she acted, it was obvious she had been crying.
Why didn't she just break it off already? What was keeping her with him if he was making her so miserable? An ominous thought occurred to Fred. Was it possible that she was afraid of Spencer? The thought made him slightly nauseated, and he put down his fork. Should he tell Rook that he and George would take care of Spencer if she needed them to? How did one bring something like that up?
They didn't see Rook for the rest of their lunch break, even though Fred and George stayed at the Gryffindor table after the others had gone elsewhere, on the off chance that she returned to eat. Fred used the time to discuss the matter with George.
"We have to do something," said Fred once he'd voiced his concern for Rook. "She's unhappy, we both know it."
George nodded, frowning. "But what do we do?"
"Do you remember that slug thing Malfoy did to Ron last year—?"
"Technically, Ron did it to himself, but I see what you're getting at."
They chuckled together at the thought of Spencer puking up slugs, but their laughter was short-lived.
"We can't do that, can we?" said Fred.
"We could, but it wouldn't help."