Ok, still not entirely sure where this is going, but I think it's shaping up rather well so far. Thank you so much to those of you that have added me to your favorite stores and alerts list! Now if I could just get some reviews I'd be a gooey puddle of happiness. And now, here's chapter 4.
It really was immensely strange to be entering these walls as students again, thought George as the twins settled into their seats at the Gryffindor table and nodded a hello to Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione seated next to them. Ron looked at them with unabashed surprise.
"I still can't believe you two agreed to finish school" he said, shaking his head in disbelief.
"Well we couldn't very well give up our wands-" said Fred with a look of disgust.
"- or our shop." added George.
"Now could we?" they finished together. Ron looked as though he were going to say something sarcastic but quickly closed his mouth when Hermione shoved a not-so-subtle elbow into his side. Ron gave her an apologetic glance. The twins snickered.
"I think it's wonderful you're finishing your education" she told them, a proud look on her face not unlike Mrs. Weasley's when they had told her their plans to return.
The twins rolled their eyes but grinned good naturedly.
"Of course you do" they chorused. Fred shot George a pointed look.
"I think Granger is going to get along fabulously with our new friends George, don't you think?"
George pretended to ponder the statement. "I dunno Freddie. Just because they both love school and have both read Hogwarts, A History..."
Ron stared at them, astonished. "You two made friends that like school?"
The twins put on an affronted look.
"We make all kinds of friends, I'll have you know, Ronniekins" said Fred.
"And they're American" added George.
"Americans?" asked Hermione excitedly. "We've never had Americans had Hogwarts before! And they've read Hogwarts, A History?" She seemed giddily excited at the very prospect.
Her exclamation was met with rolling eyes and snorts of laughter.
"Yes, Americans" confirmed George.
"But for now, they're our Americans" added Fred. And with that, they propped their feet up on the seats opposite them so that they would be saved- just in case- and let the gleeful chatter of the students wash over them as they waited for the Sorting to begin.
They didn't have to wait very long. Within ten minutes, Professor Flitwick came bustling into the Great Hall, the top of his point hat barely visible he was so small, and a hush fell over the students. They had never seen such a strange Sorting procession. The tiny first years up front were nothing new, but the tall, obviously older Americans following behind them caused an upswell of hushed whispering.
George noticed Izzy standing near the front of the group, her eyes sweeping rapidly around the Hall and he waved a little. Her wide eyes found him amidst the sea of others and she sent him a weak smile and tiny wave back, barely a waggle of her fingers. He thought she looked awful nervous.
He turned to Fred, who was giving Shawn an encouraging smile as she stood at the very end of the line, shifting nervously on the balls of her feet. Shawn flashed him a tiny smile back and took a deep breath before turning her attention back to the front of the Hall.
Professor Flitwick levitated the Sorting Hat and its stool, as it stood a full foot above him, to its proper place in front of Professor McGonagall, seated in the throne-like Headmistress's chair.
The rip at the brim opened wide and began to sing its welcome song, something about triumph through unity and how accepting different people only strengthened them. George assumed it was talking about the new Americans waiting to be Sorted, but he was only half listening, too intent on finding out which house his new friends got put in. He thought it odd that they were allowed to do so at such an advanced age, but with an internal shrug he figured that with war comes change and allowances must be made.
Finally the song was done and Flitwick began to call them up one by one. The hat cried out its decision for each one and they hurried to their seats, though there were very few additions to Slytherin this year. Fred gave a grunt of impatience.
At last (it seemed like an hour already since they'd entered the hall) Flitwick called out "Lyon, Izabelle!"
Izabelle started forward, all trace of nervousness gone as she visibly steeled her back and breathed in sharply. She sat on the stool and Flitwick floated the Hat to rest on her head. For a few moments that seemed to last an eternity to George the hat remained completely silent and Izzy sat expressionless, staring straight ahead of her, unseeing. It looked as though she were having an argument with the hat.
This possibility did not surprise George in the slightest. He may have only known her for a few hours, but he could already tell that she was the kind of girl who got what she wanted- he could see it in the set of her shoulders, the glint in her eyes, and the way she seemed to effortlessly ignore everything around her, completely immersed in her 'discussion' with the Hat.
Finally, finally the rip at the brim open wide and George felt a small tingle of anticipation run through him.
"Gryffindor!" it shouted firmly and both twins let out a joyous whoop.
Izzy's eyes refocused, directly on Shawn, and she gave a satisfied smile. Obviously, whatever the argument had been, she had won. She lifted the Hat off her head, slipped off the stool, and swiftly made her way towards the Gryffindor table, which was full of people clapping politely and shooting her curious looks. All except Fred and George, who were waving enthusiastically towards the seats they had saved.
She plopped down in the seat across from George with a heaving sigh of relief and beamed at them both.
"Damn thing tried to put me in Slytherin, can you imagine?" she whispered to George, who looked appalled at her announcement as another American sat on the stool, looking terrified. "It caved pretty easily though, after we had a few words." The smirk of triumph on her face made George's stomach do a weird flippy thing. The smug look slipped off her face a few minutes later though when Flitwick cried "Vulpis, Shawn!" and her back went as straight with tension as it had in her corset.
George nudged her foot with his under the table. "Don't worry so much" he whispered, again reminded of the fear of his and Fred's Sorting. She shot him a grateful smile for an instant, but her attention never wavered from where Shawn was having the Hat placed on her head, an expression of determination on her face.
The Hall was quiet. Izzy's lips were moving rapidly in what George realized were pleas to a higher power. His lips quirked up in amusement. Fred looked at her and snickered quietly for a moment, but fast as anything his attention was just as firmly riveted on Shawn as Izzy's was.
"Please say Gryffindor, please say Gryffindor" she chanted over and over almost inaudibly.
Thankfully, the Hat didn't take much longer. Only three seconds later the rip was opening, and its cry of "Gryffindor!" rang through the hall. Shawn hopped off the stool with a relieved look on her face and Flitwick levitated it away.
Shawn arrived at the Gryffindor table and took her seat next to Izzy to whoops of excitement from Fred and George, politely curious looks and clapping from the Potter gang, and a bone crushing hug from Izzy.
"I thought you'd go to Ravenclaw for sure!" she said happily, posture now fully relaxed and with a Cheshire cat grin on her face.
Shawn shot her a smug smile of her own. "It tried" she said. "But after you went Gryffindor I couldn't bear the thought of it. It didn't take very much to talk it round to my way of thinking."
She turned abruptly to Fred. "When does the food get here?" she asked bluntly, all fear and nervousness obviously forgotten. "I'm absolutely starving!"
He laughed at the completely serious expression on her face. "Just about…"
"now!" said he and George together with a grin as the tables suddenly groaned under the massive weight of the food that magically appeared, every dish giving off a scintillating aroma. Shawn immediately grabbed several dishes and spooned herself small portions of each.
Izzy's wide eyes scanned up and down the table in disbelief, as though she had never seen so much food in all her life. Her eyes stopped their swift movement on a dish right next to George's right elbow and her whole face lit up like a Christmas tree.
"Shepard's Pie!" she exclaimed in utter delight. George stared in amazement as she stood and bent almost completely over the table, grabbing the dish of Shepard's Pie and plopping it next to her plate. She served herself a huge portion and without any further ado tucked into it. George didn't think he'd ever seen anyone so excited at the prospect of food besides Ron.
Fred, Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione were all staring at her, but she seemed to have forgotten that anything existed besides what was on her golden plate. Their eyes swiveled as one towards Shawn when she gave a snort of laughter between bites at their expressions.
"She doesn't eat when she's nervous, and she's been nervous about this for days." she explained. "I may be starving, but she's ravenous, and she really loves her food."
This explanation seemed to satisfy everyone because they all gave grins of understanding (especially Ron, who's mouth was also stuffed full) and turned their attention towards loading their own plates.
Quiet reigned throughout the Hall as everyone gorged themselves on the Hogwart's house elves' delectable creations.
Half an hour later, Izzy stopped inhaling her second helping of shepard's pie to drink from the until now ignored golden goblet in front of her. She took a deep gulp from it and suddenly her eyes screwed up, her nose wrinkled, her mouth twisted in disgust, and she glared at the goblet as though it had deeply offended her. The expression was just so adorably hilarious George couldn't contain himself and burst into uproarious laughter.
"Ughh! What is this stuff?" she looked wildly at George for an explanation. She had to wait until his laughter had finally subsided to get her answer.
"It's pumpkin juice" he said, clutching the stitch that had formed in his side. He hadn't laughed this much since before the War.
"Well it's awful!" she announced. She brought her wand up and performed a complicated little figure eight kind of motion. Cautiously she picked up the goblet again and sniffed at its contents. A pleased smile appeared and she quickly took a slow but steady drink.
"That's much better!"
George looked curiously into her goblet, but couldn't really see anything.
"What did you just change that into?" he queried.
"Wine." she said, looking pleased with herself. George understood why- it was a rather complicated spell that he and Fred had never quite managed to get the hang of, even with their extraordinary talents.
"Really?"
"Taste for yourself" she said confidently and handed him her goblet. Sure enough, when the liquid hit his tongue, it held the sweet tangy taste of a rather fine white zinfandel.
"Wicked!" he exclaimed, eyeing her with deep admiration. "That's a tricky bit of magic, that is. Oi! Fred! Come taste what Izzy's done!"
Fred was about to make a comment about how truly dirty that sounded out of context but before he got the chance, George had thrust the goblet into his hand and begun raising his hand to his mouth for him. Thinking it was better to just go with it rather than attempting to fight his brother off and possibly choke, he allowed George to control his movement and took a small taste from the cup.
Immediately his eyes widened and he took a bigger drink, eyeing Izzy with a look of admiration that mirrored his twin's.
"How did you learn to do that?" he asked in awe. "We've been trying to master it for ages!"
Shawn answered for her as Izzy had just stuffed another forkful of pie into her mouth. "She taught herself in our sophomore year."
"That's fifth year, for you Europeans" she explained at their confused faces. "Anyway, she'd been harping on and on about how she was sick and tired of drinking milk and soda with dinner, so she started trying to turn it into wine. She'd only been at it for a week or two when the teachers found out and of course they forbade her from continuing her…experiment. Which of course got Belle's feathers all ruffled and she said 'screw you, I dare you to stop me', learned how to do it within another 3 days and proceeded to turn her water into wine at every meal. Thought it was gloriously funny. Oh they were pissed when they eventually found her out! Gave her a month's worth of detention- again- which of course had no effect whatsoever." Shawn gave a sigh of exasperation, but her expression was fond when she turned to look at Izzy, who swallowed her food and gave a wide unrepentant grin.
Hermione looked over at Izzy for moment and opened her mouth as though she couldn't decide whether to ask how'd she'd managed it or scold her for creating alcohol inside school walls, but was saved from having to decide by Harry, who pulled her back into their huddled conversation.
Fred rolled his eyes at them- always the same, those 4, whether they were in danger or not it seemed. The war was over but they were still as thick as thieves and secretive as ever. The only difference was that instead of the Golden Trio, Ginny had made it the Golden Quartet.
"Told you I had issues with authority" Izzy was saying to the twins, still looking remarkably pleased with herself. George gazed at her in near adoration, his mind whirring with the possibilities of what the four of them could accomplish together if they had a talent for magic and rebellious streak to match his and Fred's, as it so seemed.
The feeling only intensified as Izzy began her retribution to Shawn's tale by bringing up a time Shawn had apparently gotten a week's worth of detention with her when they'd been found breaking into a teacher's office in search of some confiscated items.
Shawn didn't look nearly as pleased as Izzy did to have gotten in trouble, but there was a small smirk on her face nonetheless, as though at least the memory was precious.
Fred looked over and noticed George looking at him, and they shot each other face cracking grins.- these girls had definite potential.
'Maybe" thought Fred, 'There'll be two Golden Quartets running around Hogwarts this year.'
He met Shawn's eyes as they stared at him over her cup and they smiled at each other at the same time. He was discovering that being forced to come back to school was gonna be a lot more exciting than he'd originally planned.
Grinning at the thought, he heartily tucked into the delicious looking treacle pudding that George had just dropped onto his plate.