I know it has been an awfully long time since I wrote on this story and I am sorry for anyone still waiting and reading. Thanks for sticking with me.

We left Icera confronting her father, Sirius, about her relationship with the twins and after a very heated debate, Sirius recognizes her mother's fire in their daughter. She wins, of course.

I didn't have to stand up to my father again. He respected me and my decisions and eventually he grew to recognize the love between me and my twins. He hated the thought of us together, but he knew I couldn't find anyone else who loved me that much.

God that was a long time ago. Ages and ages ago.

CHAPTER SIX

I used to stare my father down fearlessly and eventually he would give in to my mismatched eyes: equal parts him and my mother.

I used to watch my twins bent over designs for pranks or lists of ingredients and measurements for their latest creation. I watched them fly through the air, protecting me from bludgers and Slytherin chasers. I used to watch their faces light up when they laughed, when their pranks went just right or they got something extra out of their plans. I used to watch the way love filled their faces and poured out from their souls when they watched me.

But no more. Now I watch a blank, black canvas on a dark, black world. I won't ever see their smiles again.

Occasionally they pull me out of my memories. They tried to reach me through the darkness. I tried my best but it was imprisoning and I did not have the key.

"Ice, how are you feeling today?" "I'm still in pain. My body still hurts." "Madame Pomfrey said that was to be expected. You broke every bone in your body, you know?" "I remember."

I can't see but I knew from long familiarity that they shared a glance between them—speaking with their eyes. They spoke of my despair and how they might help retrieve their lost friend.

"Would you like us to fetch her?" "She can give you a potion for the pain." "No; I don't want to be drugged anymore. I can't see and I prefer my other senses undiluted." "We don't want you to be in pain Ice." "We are anxious to get you back on your feet." "That is a long time in coming Fred. My other senses have yet to make up for my loss of sight which has not been helped with the forcing of various potions down my throat."

"Madame Pomfrey knows what is best." "No she doesn't. I am not a quivering child begging for the pain to go away. In order to overcome my weakness I must face it—endure it." "All right O Stubborn One." "You don't even want to go outside and put your feet in the lake, feel the sun on your face? It will be nice. We haven't gone out together in a long time." "The two of you may enjoy such trivialities but I will not."

"Would you like to go see Bear?" "No." "He misses you." "Where is he?" that was one thing that could get to me—my wolf was not allowed in the infirmary now that I was known to be recovering and I did not go to him. "Hagrid has him chained up outside his cabin." "He has chained Cerberus?" I bolted upright at the horror of my companion in chains.

"It was the only thing he could do." "Cerberus kept trying to get into the castle and find you." "Professor Umbridge won't allow him anywhere near. She swore to have him executed the next time he set foot inside." "She will do no such thing lest she wishes her own death to come more swiftly." "I think that is what she was worried about." "Bear growled at her—would have bitten her but Hagrid grabbed him in time." "Bear doesn't like that toad any more than we do." "I don't care if he uses her throat as a chew toy that bitch isn't doing anything to my dog."

I swear they were smiling. The radiance of their happiness was a being of substance. I could feel it beaming down on me.

"What?" "Nothing." "Don't be like that; I know very well that you are smiling like idiots." "It is just that" "That was the first time since the accident you've shown any emotion." "You didn't even cry before." "Now you want to kill the toad again." "We are just happy."

"I'm sorry. I know you are worried about me; don't be. Being blind won't kill me." "It seems to be doing a number on your spirit." "We aren't worried about your life Ice. We are worried because you have locked away the beautiful, intelligent, marvelously funny girl" "We love"

"I suppose it was foolish of me to hope you would not notice." "Of course it was you idiot." "We love you and we know the difference between the bird and the cage." "Since when are you a philosopher?" "Since we lost ours to the darkness." "What do you know of darkness?" "Only what you tell us in your dreams."

I can't believe I didn't realize sooner. Of course I spoke in my sleep. I had since I was a child. They teased me about it when I first began to sleep curled up in their arms.

I had my own dormitory at Hogwarts and we often retired there, the three of us, to plan our next act of mischief.

But they always returned to their own beds. But in our fourth year I became dreadfully ill with Unicorn Fever. There was nothing Madame Pomfrey could do for me and so I stayed in my dorm to sleep it off. When the twins found out they came to me and pampered me.

I had a twin on either side of me. Fred stroked my hair and George held my hand. They fell asleep surrounding me, curled into my sides identically as I imagine they were in the womb.

When I came out of the fever they were smiling at me. They hadn't moved from my side and when my eyes opened they curled closer. George threw his legs over mine and Fred pulled my face into his chest.

"What are you two doing here?" "You don't remember?" "We came to watch over you yesterday." "How did you know I was ill?" "Professor McGonagle told us when we showed up for her lesson." "Rather unexpectedly apparently."

"Well you rarely attend class when I'm there to make you." "This is true." "Do you always talk in your sleep?" "Yes I do." "Do you mean what you say?" "Aren't dreams supposed to be your innermost desires and fears?" "I have heard that." "What did I say?"

"You were rambling like a mad woman. We thought it was the fever but you were pretty soundly asleep by then." "You talked about a hippogriff and a dog being in love with a cat." "Wow. That is strange. I don't remember dreaming any of that."

They never got tired of teasing me about that. But they stayed with me more and more.

"It is way past time to go to bed. We have been working on this for eight hours. I am exhausted." "Oh all right Ice." "Let's get the bed cleaned off." "Why thank you, Fred." "Though I am more than happy to do things for you Icera, I must admit that it is because I don't favor the floor." "Or walking all the way to our dorm."

"So you guys are sleeping over again?" "If that's okay with you." "Sure but there are no jeans allowed in my bed and I'm not curbing my pajama choice because of the two of you."

I swear they lit up like the fourth of July and chimed in with "Doesn't bother us."

This was before we told each other our feelings and I blushed before I came out into my bedroom in my pajamas. I never had been one to sleep in just anything. I liked my silk nighties and matching undergarments.

So I came back from my personal bathroom in a silver gown that ended at the top of my thighs and showed my matching lacy panties and a see-through robe that came to my knees.

The boys were in their boxers and tried really hard to hide their open-mouthed shock at my appearance. Apparently fourteen-year-old girls who were their best friends were not supposed to look like I did that night. But I warned them.

It was awkward for the first ten minutes. They couldn't get comfortable. They couldn't stop staring at me. They wouldn't look at me at all. They kept squirming.

"If the two of you don't stop moving you have to get out of my bed." "Sorry" "We can't help it." "What's the matter? You never have a problem sleeping when we just pass out." "We are all wearing very constricting clothes when we just pass out." "Now you are wearing that" "It is a very awkward sort of torture. We are guys after all."

"Well the two of you are in your boxers. How do you think I feel having two half-naked men in my bed?" "Don't you have something else to put on?" "Yes I do but this covers the most." "Oh Merlin" "Why did you have to get hot all of a sudden?"

"Why is this awkward? We are best friends. We go swimming in the pond behind your house. You have seen me in less than this. Stop making it weird. We are sleeping in the same bed like we have done countless times before. You didn't have this issue when I was sick." "When you were sick we were wearing clothes." "We didn't worry about scaring you with our massive dicks." "George that is so crude." "You knew I was when you let me stay over."

"Fine. You don't try anything and I won't get offended when the inevitable happens." "How do you know anything about what is inevitable?" "I spend a lot of time in the library and I grew up without a mum or dad to explain things to me. I got curious."

They burst out laughing at the thought of a younger me curled up with a book in the library explaining sex and sexual organs. It wasn't all that farfetched an idea. That is, after all, how I learned everything else my grandfather was too embarrassed to teach me.

After that it was no big deal. They teased me about how I tortured them with my sex appeal. I teased them about how they were always horny: anything with breasts turned them on.

And nearly every morning after that I woke up wrapped in my twins' embrace.

alright lovelies, you know what to do if you want more