DISCLAIMER: THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER BELONGS TO JK ROWLING.
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" Children get up, we have to get ready!" yelled Mrs. Weasley the following morning.
Everyone started to get dressed and so forth. Stephanie got up from Fred's embrace, putting on some clothes she left for the bathroom. As she entered it, she saw Laura already there brushing her teeth.
" Sleep well?" asked Stephanie.
" Uhh… yeah. Surprisingly very well." Said Laura turning around to hide a little smile, " And you? George was in your bed this morning, where were you?"
" I—uhh, I slept in the twin's room…"
" Oh, and did you sleep well?"
" I—hemm—yeah, uh, I did…I am feeling very relaxed…" said Stephanie as she smiled widely and added, " Good morning to you." as she laughed and went to take her shower as Laura left the bathroom. Once on the other side of the door, away from each other's eyes, both girls smiled to themselves…
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" Well, I guess this is it then." Said George, while they had all gathered in the front hall about to leave to KingsCross.
They all bustled out of the house, as many some members of the Order accompanied them. Mad-eye, being one of them, kept looking at both girls; Stephanie thought that Dumbeldore had probably confided of their situation. Surprisingly Sirius came too, as a dog of course, much to the pleasure of the teens, who laughed as they watched him run around. Fred and Stephanie were holding hands towards the back, both with a certain distinguishable twinkle in their eyes whenever they looked at each other.
" Take care of yourselves." Said Lupin.
Stephanie gave him a hug, which took him by surprise, and in his ear she whispered, " Thank you for everything. Really." She let go and smiled like a daughter would for her father, and she noticed his eyes shone as if they contained extra moisture. Laura bent down to say goodbye to Sirius. All of a sudden he sat very still as she pat his head. She gave the dog a hug, and kissed his black nose as he wagged his tail. The girls kissed Mrs. Weasley good-bye, and promised to write.
They all boarded the train, as the famous trio found their own compartment, Stephanie, Laura and the twins set off for their own. Before Laura followed however, she looked behind her shoulder, giving the handsome black dog on the platform one last kind look.
" Finally you made it!" exclaimed Lee suddenly opening a compartment door almost brutally.
" Hey Lee! Oh it's so good to see you! We have so much to tell you!" said Stephanie hugging him.
"… well that's better…" he said as she hugged him, and laughed.
As they sat down in the compartment, Stephanie and Fred next to each other, their fingers entwined, they told Lee of all that had happened with the dementors.
" AND YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!"
" well…yeah. You know you're the first person we told." Said Laura.
" I feel honored. And as a close personal friend, let me tell you this," he got this very grave face on, before braking into a grin, " that must have been bloody wicked!"
George started laughing, and took out some of the joke stuff they had brought along.
" Well, let's go get some clientele."
" George, what are you going to sell?" asked Stephanie.
" Oh, just 'stuff', so my associates, would you care to join me?"
Fred and Lee got up cackling as they left the compartment, no doubt looking for first years to buy their inventions.
" Mind if I take a nap? I didn't get a lot of sleep last night yawn I'm a bit worn out." Said Laura as she arranged her sweater as a pillow, leaning against the window.
" No go for it, I'll go and mingle." Said Stephanie, who got up and left the compartment. She hadn't 'slept' much either, but she didn't feel a bit tired. After all, it was the night she liked best.
She started walking down the corridor, peering in compartments occasionally, and chatting up a bit. She stopped behind a familiar blonde head, and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around quickly with a frown, but he relaxed his eyebrows at the sight of her.
" Hi. I got your letter. Pretty ingenious." Said Stephanie smiling.
Draco didn't say anything. Stephanie saw Hermione and Ron coming up behind him, and waved to them as he turned to see who it was—" Weasley, Mudblood, they've made you two prefects! Splendid, me too." he said coldly.
" Draco." Said Ron his hand twitching above his wand, all he would need was a provocation.
" Uhh—Hermione, when do you have your prefect meeting?" asked Stephanie looking from the blonde slytherin to Ron.
Hermione looked at Stephanie suddenly, as if just noticing her there, " we were on our way now--"
" That's right Granger, wouldn't want you to be late now would we?" interrupted Draco.
Stephanie put her hand on his arm and he flinched at her touch, and said, " What has gotten into you?"
" Stephanie, this is a Malfoy, it's in their blood to be prats." Said Ron.
Draco moved aside to let Ron and Hermione walk by, as Hermione raised her eyebrows. Ron however did not notice this unusual act coming from Draco, to let them walk by without a fight, and simply muttered it was because he was a Prefect now, and that meant respect.
Once Ron and Hermione had left, Stephanie looked at Draco as her hand was still on his arm, " Why do you act like that?"
He removed his arm from her touch, and looked defiantly into her hazel eyes, "Why do you care?"
" Aah, the famous' answer a question with a question routine,' all right, two can play that game, why do you act so differently around everyone? Are you that afraid to be yourself?"
" And how the bloody hell would you know who I am?" he spat out insolently.
" Right, you know what Sir Draco, you're right, I have no idea who the hell you are, except that you're a fake. See you around, Malfoy." Said Stephanie coldly.
She walked right passed him, a sneer on her face, and made her way to the front of the train. She was fuming, confused as to what he was playing at. She decided the perfect antidote would be chocolate to soothe all her troubles. She brought back some chocolate frogs to her compartment and saw that the boys had come back, jingling a little bag of money happily, and apparently George was trying to tickle Laura's sleeping nose with a feather, as she wiggled her nose probably thinking it was a fly.
" Ahh chocolate!" said Fred as he took one of the chocolate frogs.
" Yup, the best thing in the world." Said Stephanie who seemed to push Draco at the back of her mind when she was with Fred.
" I don't like chocolate actually." Said Lee.
" Since when! You are like the biggest candy eater I know!"
" I've decided to reconsider. I hear it can give you pimples."
Stephanie looked at George quickly as he was sticking the feather up Laura's nose, at which point she woke up and smacked his cheek. " I think George is rubbing of on you. You guys used to never care about you appearances."
" Ahh yes, but that was all well before we were introduced to the wonderful species of females." Said Lee dreamily.
" What are you talking about, me and Laura have always been around. Are we not worth your ' handsome face'?" she said exaggeratedly.
" You're a girl?" asked Lee full of wonder, " SINCE WHEN!"
" OWW—I was just kidding," he said rubbing his arm where Laura had hit him, " see, you're so forceful and manly—OOWW!—ok ok I'll stop…well if you must know, I've joined the big leagues, and am now an official boyfriend." He said proudly.
" DESERTER!" yelled George.
" since when?" asked Fred mischievously.
" Uhh—well, since we went out dancing, remember Chloe, yes well, we wrote a bit and one thing led to another, and so …"
" DESERTER! TRAITOR OF THE BACHELOR CLAN!" George roared again, and turned to face the window, and would not speak to anyone until they were seated in the great hall. Even there, he never addressed any of his friends directly, probably feeling left out, since he was undoubtedly single, and his advances towards Tonks had proved fatal.
" Ron, pass the salt please." Said George during dinner.
" It's next to Lee, why don't you ask him"
" Fine, I will eat my potatoes unsalted then."
"…right…"
" Come on George, you can't be mad at us forever." Pleaded Stephanie.
Fred didn't seem to care too much, for he knew that at the end of the day, even if he and George had been in a row, they were the WEASLEY TWINS 'till the end.
" I hate hearing flies buzzing!" George said his nose in the air.
" Ok George, what if I told you that I had a crush on you in my first year…"
" What! You did! How come I never knew?" he exclaimed turning towards Laura, joy recognizable in his voice.
" Well, I found so devilishly handsome and witty, I dared not let you know of my devoted feelings I had towards you, for fear you would not like me." Laura finished looking sincere, as Stephanie, Lee and Fred lips twitched of amusement.
" I understand." Said George solemnly." I probably intimidated you. I can be rather intimidating at times. I understand Laura. I understand that for a first year I probably seemed like a dream…"
" …Seems he forgot it was Laura who made his clothes invisible so he would walk around naked, and it was me and Laura who gave him potion to sprout breasts…all in our first year…" said Stephanie in an undertone as Lee and Fred laughed.
When the feast was over, everything was back to normal, and George was back to his teasing, funny self. They walked to their common room, and had just settled on a couch when Stephanie realized she had left her playing cards in the Great Hall, as Fred had been showing them magic tricks at the end of dinner.
" I'll be right back." She turned to go retrieve her cards, but when she entered the Great Hall, the table had been swiped clean, and no sign of her cards. "Shit."
She heard voices outside the Great Hall, and went to see who it was. The Prefects had just had a meeting, and were going on their first patrol of the corridors. She slipped through a nearby door, as to not risk detention for her wandering out after hours. Her feet guided her to the dungeons, and when she realized she was at the entrance of the Slytherin common room, she made to retreat quickly before meeting anyone unpleasant.
Unfortunately, she came face to face with Pansy Parkinson. " Hey , there! Stop, I'm a prefect and could give you detention!" yelled Pansy after her. Stephanie smiled and turned around, "All right, you caught me, so when's my detention?" she said very sarcastically.
" Don't mock me, I could very well take points from you. As a matter of fact, 5 points from Gryffindor!"
" Is that all you can do? Come on, I dare you to take more." Stephanie said coldly advancing on her.
" You don't scare me! I know what they say about your mother and father, both good for nothing. They died didn't they? Left you all alone."
" What the bloody hell would you know about my parents?" asked Stephanie, fury suddenly mounting.
" A disgrace to all the purebloods…" Pansy lowered her voice as to provoke, " blown to smithereens on a muggle aircraft. Shameful and low."
Stephanie was shaking with rage, she knew that's not how her parents had died, well she had never been told, but that was preposterous.
" You know what Pansy, you are nothing more than vermin, worthless, pathetic. The scum of this earth. You disgust me." Stephanie said slowly, audibly, cruelly.
Pansy looked outraged, and before Stephanie could draw breath she raised her wand, " SUSPENDESERAS!"
Stephanie was whammed against the wall, as if suspended on strings, her head had hit the wall pretty badly, and her eyes were out of focus. She saw Pansy raising her wand again, but someone was coming behind her. Someone lowered her wand, but she could not focus who it was, as her head throbbed and hung limply.
"Finite" said the voice, and Stephanie was caught before she hit the ground in a pair of arms, then lowered to the ground. She caught the whiff of a familiar smell, like wood bark, the smell of the air when taking off on a broomstick, and then that same person who smelled so familiar put one hand behind her nuke and raised her head.
" Can you see me?" they asked.
" Yes"
It was Draco, looking worried as he tried to make her come back from her semi-consciousness.
" Malfoy?"
" Pansy, get out of here before you make me report you!" he bellowed as she scampered through the Slytherin Common Room door.
" Are you all right?"
" Yeah…peachy, I just thought I would ram my head into the wall you know, I was getting bored…" she said sarcastically as she sat up and rubbed the back of her head as he let go of her. " damn bitch, doesn't know what's coming to her"
" What did Parkinson do to you?" asked Draco as he was still kneeling in front of her checking her with his eyes, to get an assurance that she was ok.
" The usual, wanted my famous cupcake recipe, and when I refused she got violent. You know how people can get when they get hungry."
" Do you always joke at times like this?"
" Times like what?"
" Times when you are hurt or in danger."
" Let's not get overdramatic. Look, thanks for you help, don't know why you did it,
probably to puzzle me; no doubt—"
" Look Stephanie, don't judge me, not just yet."
Stephanie peered intently at him, then brusquely stood up, but had to lean against the wall, as she was still woozy.
" I am just going to go."
" Here let me walk you back."
" Why? So your other self can reappear as soon as we see another Gryffindor? No thanks." She said uncaringly as she turned, but he took her arm, as he saw she still needed support and replied a bit edgier, " No, because you can't walk straight or by yourself, you've got a nasty bump on the back of your head, but if I suggest going to the hospital wing I know you won't, so just let me walk you back."
Stephanie tilted her head towards him and couldn't help smiling at that last comment, her not going to the infirmary, because it was true, she always toughed it out when she could.
" Ok"
They walked in silence, as he held her arm for support, they got to the Gryffindor staircase, and Stephanie softly said, " thank you, back there, and now…"
He didn't say anything. He wasn't used to showing his emotions, so he just nodded.
" Well I better go on alone here."
" Rite"
" See you around."
'See you around,' that's what she always seemed to say to him when they left, the last words they spoke. Ironic perhaps, but he loved those three words. He watched her go up the stairs and turn the corner, and only once she was out of sight did he turn and leave himself.
" Blimey Stephanie, did you decide to go on a trip?" asked Fred as she finally came back in.
" No, had a lovely little chat with Pansy Parkinson though." She said touching the back of her head that was still very sore.
She told them what happened, skipped over the Draco parts, and as they all were outraged and feeling mutinous she said, " I think it's time for some pranks, and I think I know who they're going to be played on."
" Sometime I really think they should have put you in Slytherin." Said George with mockery.
Stephanie just smirked.