I own nothing.
"Benny!"
I groaned groggily.
"Benny!" the voice said again.
"God Almighty! What do you want?" I yelled the way my father would.
"It's time to wake up sleepy pants!"
I opened my eyes fully and saw Ginny Weasley standing above me.
"You better get your robes on if you plan on eating breakfast." She pulled me up and led me to the stairs. "Oh, and George said that you can keep his blanket as long as you want."
"Huh?" I tilted my head.
"You fell asleep on the couch and George put his blanket over you." She clarified as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Now get going!"She handed me George's blanket and pushed me back into my dorm.
Ginny Weasley is the sister I always wanted. She's just the sweetest thing! Whenever I stayed at the Weasley's during the summer, Ginny would graciously let me stay in her room and even though we're three years apart, we clicked instantly. In fact, all of the Weasley clan treats me like one of their own. The other daughter Molly always wanted. Only with brown hair and minus the freckles.
When I got to the Great Hall, it was full of tired faces stuffing their mouths with food. I looked around for a place to sit. My eyes immediately landed on my two favorite red heads. As if feeling my gaze, Fred looked up and locked eyes with mine.
"Benny!" he waved to me and George shoved someone aside to make room so I could sit.
"Morning guys." I said reaching for a piece of toast.
"You better eat up!" Fred said piling food on my plate. "You'll need all your strength!"
"Yeah." George nodded adding to the pile. "Snape's going to be absolutely fowl this year,"
"And you know how much he loves having us, you and Kay in his class." Fred chuckled, finishing George's sentence.
I stared at the enormous pile of food before me. "Um, thanks."
"Anytime, dear!" Fred said with a wink.
I nudged him in retort. "By the way George, your blanket is in my dorm, I'll give it back to you soon."
He nodded. "No rush."
"Oh!" Fred dropped his butter knife. "Do you mean to say that you two already went on a nighttime rondezvous and didn't invite me?"
I laughed and went back to digesting the great mountain of food in front of me.
"I dare you to eat all of it." George taunted me.
I was about to say something incredibly witty in return, when Kay came running down the aisle and straight to us.
"Have you seen Cat?" she asked.
All out of three of us shook our heads.
"Oh, oh, oh!" her hand flew up to her face. "Where could he be?"
"Please, stop biting your nails before I curse your hand again." I waved my fork at her.
She kept on biting. "I'm sorry, but this is no time to worry about the welfare of my nails. Cat is missing!"
"You're poor cat is missing?" the voice of Markus Flint came from behind us. "What a pity."
Kay glared and folded her arms.. "And I suppose you don't know where my owl is?"
"Owl? You named your owl, Cat?" he said with a laugh. "What a nut job you clearly are. A bigger one than I thought!"
"God, Flint. Just because I turned you down back in fourth year, doesn't mean you can take it out on my friends." I said after swallowing my eggs.
His face fell. "You don't have to keep bringing it up, Summers."
"And you don't have to keep coming over here taunting us." George's said coldly.
Marcus gave us all one last glare then slinked off back to the Slytherin table.
"He knows where Cat is." Kay said.
"But why would he take Cat?" Fred asked pouring Kay some pumpkin juice. "That doesn't make any sense."
"Because he's an evil, owl hating fiend!" she said with an intense passion.
Hesitantly, I patted her back. "Why don't you go check the owlry again. Double check."
Kay gulped down her pumpkin juice and nodded. "Yeah, good idea. I'll see you guys later."
"I will never understand that girl." Fred remarked after Kay was out of ear shot.
"God, I need an intense nap." Kay groaned as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "Why can't they make a book for each chapter? Then maybe the students wouldn't have hunchbacks."
I shrugged. "Perhaps they figure the kids will pay more attention if they're being put through some strange and unusual transformation."
"Strange and unusual is right!" Kay cried. "Ugh! Torture!"
"You and your humor could have saved me this summer." I laughed. "Why didn't you kidnap me before you went to Russia?"
"Because I brought too many clothes and you wouldn't fit in my suitcase."
"I'm guessing you brought more than one suitcase?" I asked already knowing the answer.
"Duh! Russian boys!" she nudged me back. "I need to look my best! Always!"
"Russian boys don't know how to talk." Fred said appearing on Kay's side.
"Vut iz vat?" George mimicked stepping up to my other side. "Veu iz making vun ov their speech?"
I couldn't help but laugh.
"Hey!" Kay retorted. "I think their speech makes them adorable."
I had to shake my head at my boy crazy best friend.
"Yeah," Fred snorted. "as adorable as a prune."
Kay stuck out her tongue "I happen to like prunes, thank you very much."
He gave her a weird look. "You like prunes?"
She nodded. "I was kind of raised on them."
"Like a cow on a farm!" Fred twirled in front of us.
"And a tree in the ground!" George followed.
"A bee in a hive!" Fred went on.
"A-"
"We get it!" Kay screeched. She had reached her ultimate annoyance.
"How do we survive with her?" Fred asked as we watched Kay stalk away.
"Short tempers run in her family." I said calmly. "You know that.
"Fred nodded. "She'll be back to normal and apologizing to us anytime now."
"Yep."
"Shall we go sit by the lovely lake and attend to our homework?" George asked as he stretched.
I laughed. "When did you get so polite?"
"Whenever I am in the presence of a pretty girl." He answered.
I glared. "Ha, ha. Very funny."
"Benny!"
We turned to see Jeremy, my cousin. Son of my mother's sister and my only cousin, he was the apitemy of everything Hufflepuff. Though with my family's trademark blonde hair and blue eyes, he looked as if he were Josh's brother and not his cousin.
"What's up?" I asked.
"I'm not sure." Jeremy shook his head. "Kay just ran into me on the stairs holding an owl and the owl didn't look too good."
"Not Cat!" I said.
Fred's eyes widened. "And we're just about to do our homework!"
I elbowed him in the stomach. "Oh, for pete's sake."
"Was it Cat?" George asked.
Jeremy shook his head. "Oh, no! The owl's yours, Benjamina."
"No!" George said loudly.
"Was that supposed to be sarcastic or dramatic?" Fred asked his twin.
"You know, I'm not sure myself."
I elbowed them both. "My owl has DIED and you two are more concerned about how George tried to emphasis his wording?"
They glanced at each other, and looked at me. "Yeah that's right."
"Well he's not all the way dead." Jeremy clarified.
"Pardon?"
"I think he must have broken a wing or something."
"So," Fred held up his fingers to calculate. "Hairbrush broke her wing and you come down here and lead us to believe that he's dead? Well! By George do you have a terrible way of putting things."
"It's a good thing I'm not going to be a pubic speaker then." Jeremy said.
The three boys burst out into intense laughter and I could do nothing but shake my head. "Why am I friends with you all? Can anyone answer me?"
"Because you love us?" Fred asked.
"Goodbye!" I grabbed my book bag and left to go find Kay and my owl.
The story with Hairbrush the owl isn't a complicated one but it is kind of a stupid one. Hairbrush arrived to me only a few years ago from my mom as a Christmas gift. Naming the darned thing hadn't really been up to me. I remember asking for my hairbrush one day and the little brown puff ball came to me instead. I really do think that he chose his own name.
I finally found Kay next to the lake holding my bird in her hands.
"I didn't think he was going to make it." She said in her best dramatic voice.
Hairbrush chirped up at me and did his best to spread his splinted wing. I took him into my hands and stroked his head.
"Did you splint his wing?" I asked.
She nodded. "I actually remembered what you told me to do in case that ever happened to my blind Cat."
"It's good information to know!" I said. "Not to mention information I need to know for my future career."
All I wanted to do was finish up school and follow in my father's footsteps to work for Care and Management of Magical Creatures. I remember he used to bring home a new animal every week and give my brother and I a short lesson about the animal before he had to take it to a sanctuary. I remember a lot of things my dad used to do before he died. I don't usually think about him much anymore but with times like these, I can't help but wish he was still around.
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