A/N: While I realize many of you (the readers) are too busy to comment, please review, even if it's just a line. I would like to edit some things and explain them. Since it is now 2010, I may occasionally include references to objects, styles or people that did not live or had not been invented in the year that J. K. Rowling intended Harry's generation to live. This modest (and quite bad) story was not written by J.K. Rowling and is therefore a slightly AU compared…. I also added some objects to illustrate more clearly what I was thinking… anyway, you'll see in this story…..

DISCLAIMER: Do I look like J.K. Rowling?(don't answer that, that would be creepy) This story was written by J.K. Rowling and all characters belong to her. With the exception of Scarlett, Stella and Alli...

I have skipped ahead to the beginning of third year, because that is where the action starts...muahahahaha

~passes around gigantic everlasting tongue coloring lollipop in various colors~

Chapter 8: Birthday Girl Gone Goth

Fred POV

"Scarlett… George, where-"

"-is she? I don't know, Fred! For the hundredth time, she'll show up already, the train can't leave without her, remember?" my twin replied, looking at me with an impatient manner, resembling my brother Percy more and more by the minute (AAH!).

"Gosh. I was only asking, because Stella looks like she's going to puke any minute if Scarlett doesn't show up. Wait, Stella, why do you care so much?"

"It was Scarlett's birthday four days ago, you nitwit. Which you would know if you bought her a present." Stella hissed at me, narrowing her almond shaped blue eyes at me in frustration. I looked at her, aghast that she had the guts to hiss at me and then smirked handsomely, in a manner that has yet to not make girls blush or swoon. True enough, Stella frowned at me, but I couldn't help but notice that her rosy plump cheeks were slightly pinker then they had been a second before.

"I bought her a present. It's just… it still hasn't….. Umm… arrived yet….." I said, lost for words, trying to remember what I had, if I had, gotten Scarlett for her birthday. Oh yeah… the toffee Mum made…

"Hello, is this compartment free?" A skinny, long legged goth girl wearing a short black checkered denim mini skirt, leggings, a black top and dark eyeliner and lipstick with curly strawberry blond hair in a side pony tail, came into the compartment looking very self conscious. Chewing on her lip, she looked at all of us, Stella, Lee, Alicia, George and me. Finally, when she was finished eyeing us in a manner resembling Professor McGonagall's she caught Alicia's eye. Alicia looked at her inquisitively and then suddenly jumped up and hugged the girl, gushing in a very girly fashion. Seriously, what was up with that?

"Oh my gosh… Wow! Where did you get those leggings? That looks so cool. Come in, luv," Alicia smiled as the girl came over and sat next to me putting her arms around her knees and grinned at me, revealing slightly crooked teeth and braces. Who did she think she was?

"You don't know who I am, do you? Or do you? Do you? Or do you just think you do?" the girl started talking to me in a sweet melodious yet hyper voice. In an instant I recognized who it was… Only one girl could drive me crazy just by repeating the same line three times… WHAT? I was checking her out… I composed myself, slowly and very difficultly…

"Scarlett, happy birthday!" I said seriously, attempting to keep a straight face but laughing anyway when I saw Scarlett's facial expression: her usually scrunched up nose was scrunched up even further in a cute but obnoxious way, her eyes were crossed and her tongue was lolling out. She rolled her eyes.

As soon as we calmed down I asked Scarlett the question that had everyone waiting on the edge of their chairs.

"What did you do?"

Scarlett looked at me, strangely, and then noticing my wandering eyes, whacked me in the head with a Charms book she was studying from. Typical: studying outside of school…

"Well, it was my 13th birthday Friday, as I'm sure all of you know, and I decided I wanted to try out something new. Plus, my grand mum came…uggh… and she was driving me crazy complimenting my style, the way I do my hair and that I don't wear to much black… voila. Last but not least, I got black leggings for my birthday and I couldn't wear them with color, because…. It's just not right!"

I snorted inwardly at her presentation, standing up in front of us and motioning, and her ending statement about fashion. Heck, some days if I didn't tell George not to, he would wear his socks with his sandals…. It also seemed like a better summary for Scarlett's apparel was 'I'm Scarlett. I do this sort of thing. A lot.' I had dozed off in my own amazingly dreamy boy way when I heard Scarlett scream my name. I snapped out of it, fast.

"Ahem… FRED! Where's my birthday present? Remember last year…?"

And I did…

Memory from First Year, around May…. Scarlett POV again

I was sitting on George's bed, next to Fred, Lee, George and a narrow faced boy called Tony. It was almost midnight and we were playing Exploding Snaps and occasionally Truth or Dare, in the boys' dormitory. Girls were allowed into the boys' dormitory, boys weren't allowed into the girls' dormitory, logical right? I was sitting next to Fred, on George's foot, and we were just talking and I was failing, epically, at Exploding Snaps.

"Scarlett, mum just wrote to ask when your birthday is. She said she would make you toffee... she also said I should ask you since I've known you so long and you know embarrassingly many more things about me than I do about you," Fred said to me, grinning his charming twin grin at me. (Even in that year he could get any girl to do stuff for him… that is, any girl except me.)

"Guess… I dare you." I smirked.

"Umm, well Katie's is in May, because we had that amazing birthday party where we tried Firewhisky and Stella's is in June and you're probably younger than both of them, right?" Fred spoke unsurely, looking at me with a lopsided smile.

"Why do they look older than me?" I said laughing at him, daring him to say what I know he would…

"So, your birthday is in August, then. Well, they're both kind of older looking…"

"Yes, my birthday is in August, on the twenty-eighth, but stop changing the subject. That was a really lame answer by the way. Duh, they are older looking, but really Fred… why?" I spoke again, pushing him closer and closer to the edge of the bed. He tried to resist, but I was stronger. Years of hard work swimming had finally paid off…

"You're kind of less..."

"Less what? I dare you…"

"You're kind of less matured physically…But you're ten times cuter…" Fred added as an afterthought, smiling at me in a matter, that would have made most girls melt like butter under a hot knife. "You're also way more immature than them in general, but…" He whispered under his breath.

A pillow flew his way. He frowned at me evilly and I could hear his devious brain whirring awake…

"Pillow fight!

"Did you even get me one? After all the work I put into getting you two those Argentinean fireworks and the Peruvian Dungbombs... " I shouted and looked at Fred and Lee closely. Fred looked to his brother for help, but George was too busy flirting with Katie to notice. Lee was looking out of the compartment door, pretending to be searching for the trolley.

Ooh. You're a real toughy. LEE! Focus...gosh, children...

"You're only thirteen this year though. I'm turning fourteen in two or so weeks… do you have a present for me?" Lee piped up, trying to weasel out of the situation... wimp.

But you didn't get him a present, did you? ( sly smirk)

"Anything from the trolley, dears…" Lee jumped up from his seat and skidded eagerly to the food trolley lady who was looking worriedly at the situation. I leaped up, too, pulling myself up to my full height, a centimeter or so beneath the top of Lee's head. He glared at me and I pushed myself past him.

"Hello. Could I have that bag of licorice wands and…" I turned around to look at how many people were in the compartment. My gaze flickered right past Fred and Lee, looking as innocent as puppies, as I counted the number of people in the compartment. "-and seven of the Everlasting Tongue Coloring Lollipops?"

How can you punish puppies? Especially with those eyes... those beautiful eyes...

"Aren't you Jenny's little girl? Jenny Winterbourne's?" the trolley lady looked at me closely, scrutinizing my every feature. I smiled at her and noded.

"Yeah. That's my mum and you are? Wait a minute. Aren't you my aunt, Julia's, best friend? Didn't you attend the Norwegian School of Magic with her?" The newly recognized Ms. Mason gave me a bag of licorice wands and ten of the lollipops. I handed her a 10 Sickles and a Knut. I reached out to give her three of the lollipops she had given me by accident, I presumed.

"Happy Birthday, darling. Take the lollipops, they're free. Send my love to your aunt and your mother won't you? Anything else from the trolley?" the trolley lady said, smiling at me warmly and looking at Lee, who was standing behind me. I shrugged past him and gave Alicia, Stella and George, each a lollipop. Then I took one for myself. It was a really deep blue color and tasted like fudge.

Fred grabbed a lollipop out of the bunch and I attempted to rip it out of his hand, but in the end, he got the stick and I got the candy. He tossed the lollipop stick at me and it got caught in my hair. I ripped it out forcefully and a chunk of my hair came out with it. I groaned and Fred smirked at me lazily. UGGH!

My hair~! You are never going to be the same again...

"Give me a present and I'll give you the lollipop." Blackmail is sweet.

To my immense surprise and displeasure, Fred stood up and reached up to retrieve the luggage he had stowed up there. I rolled my eyes and put in my head phones. Soon the beautifully pulsating beat of the song I was listening to, but honestly can't remember the title of, filled my head. Finally, Fred had heaved his luggage down and got out a large package wrapped in silver paper. Then he heaved it back up and tossed the package on to my lap.

"What the bloody hell is in here?" I said for the thousandth time, unwrapping what must have been the millionth layer of wrapping paper. Don't you hate it when people wrap it like that? Still cursing, I took off the last layer, a plastic wrap. It was toffee!

Sure, I really do like toffee a lot. Even though it's basically just sugar. Basically just being sugar doesn't really mean anything, because half of the things that are made of almost just sugar taste great enough to stuff into your face like a slob and get high off. Kind of like helium. Having really high voices is amazing! Anyway, the toffee was really beautifully made and I could tell that Mrs. Weasley had been slaving in the kitchen for quite a while to perfect it. But, it was obvious that Fred hadn't really worked hard to get it. First of all, can you imagine Fred Weasley in an apron? Definitely not. Secondly, when you worked your butt off to even have a little money and then spend all of your money on Peruvian Dungbombs and Argentinean Fireworks, you can't help but expect more than just handmade toffee that you didn't even make yourself. I sighed.

The Sorting had already finished when Fred, George and I sneaked into the Great Hall. The prank was perfect. It was spontaneous enough that all the students would know we had done it, yet would still seem relatively normal to all of the first years. First years were always slightly nervous and it took them a while to notice whether something, such as a portrait of a mad wizard, was normal or whether it was just another trick that the magical building was trying to fool them with. I noticed Ron was trying to stuff mashed potatoes into his face while eating a chicken leg and I laughed at him. He stared at me.

"What? The food isn't going to run away, you know that right?" I said to him as he stuck out his tongue.

"You are SO annoying! I don't get why my brothers hang out with you," Ron said to me, his voice muffled by the mashed potatoes. "Oi! Pass me the gravy!"

I poured some gravy into his open mouth and he looked at me blissfully. So much for not getting why people hang out with me...

He has a point with that you know...just saying.

"You do know how wrong that looks, ickle Ronnie-kins, right?"

"But, that was perfect! How you knew exactly that I wanted gravy in my mouth?" Ron stared up at me in complete awe.

"Umm. I think, Ron, that's just because I've known you too long... and because you are related to George….."

"You do know how sordid your eating habits are?" a girl with bushy brown hair and brown eyes said imperiously looking at Ron, clearly disgusted.

"Trust me, you'll get used to them, some time… or rather, hopefully not," I told her, smiling at her. She looked at me, surprised.

"I'm Hermione Granger. I'm muggleborn. I had one question about this school that the book Hogwarts a History didn't answer. Is it true that there is a curse on the Defense against the Dark Arts position? It wasn't mentioned in the book the Great Wizarding Schools of All Ages, either." Whoa. Overeager beaver, much? My inner Percy alarm was in frenzy. I kept my cucumber when answering though.

Don't you mean the saying: I kept as cool as a cucumber? Never mind...

"Well, two years ago the teacher was Professor Puddlemoor and he retired afterward, even though he wasn't very old, though I guess you could blame the Hair Vanishing Potion, Fred, George and I replaced for his shampoo. Last year, our teacher was a complete lunatic called Eva Price and she almost got her own office demolished when she taught us how to repel Bombarda Maxima. So yeah. I guess you could say that we haven't had a teacher for more than one year."

"Could you pass the pumpkin juice, please?" I looked away from Hermione's astonished face and to the person who was talking. It was the one, the only, the- Harry Potter. He looked tired, but very happy and gestured to the salt one more time, till I realized I had been staring at him for the past minute.

"Oh, gosh. I'm so sorry. I just froze up there, a terrible first impression. Well you noticed that didn't you? Now, all I seem to be doing is blundering like an idiot." I passed the salt to the thin, scarred, black haired kid and smiled at him, in what I hoped was a reassuring manner. He giggled in a very un-Harry Potterish fashion and I smiled.

"May I have your attention?" I glanced over to the speaker, Professor Dumbledore, his clear blue eyes twinkling as he announced that we should go to our common rooms. After finishing with some final, and very unusual, words, he stood up and chaos erupted. Well, mostly. The first years stood up to follow Percy and I caught Lee's dark eyes. I bit back a smile as we hurried ahead, to see what commotion our prank had caused.

First years were looking about, unsure about their present situation and the rest of the student just stood there, either laughing at an unsuspecting victim, or glaring at the sticky mess. Honey covered the whole stairway and the portrait of the Fat Lady, and the entrance to the Gryffindor common room was illustrated with a mustache made entirely of feathers and a diaper made of toilet paper. Luckily, the lady had not noticed yet and was too busy gulping down bottles and bottles of mead with her friend Violet to notice. Last, but most definitely not least, Percy stood in the glibbering honey, right at the top of the stairs and was shouting at the Fat Lady to open the door.

Finally, the prank was at an end, as brisk footsteps approached and the tart voice of Professor McGonagall could be heard conversing with the voice of a first year girl. It was Hermione. She looked like a miniature version of Professor McGonagall as she hurried to us before the professor and looked at Lee, Fred, George and me disapprovingly. Quickly, with less than a minute to spare, Lee and I used a Vanishing Spell to get rid of the honey, while Fred and George were busy tackling off the toilet paper with a jinx.

"WHAT HAS BEEN GOING ON HERE?" thundered Professor McGonagall, as she saw the very confused first years standing there and caught sight of the four of us, standing there conspicuously.

"But… what? You… they- I- it was-there- what?"Hermione stood there all alone, trembling and furious at us. Her eyes glinted maliciously and then she composed herself.

"It must have been a mistake." Hermione lied confidently. I could tell that Professor McGonagall didn't believe her and rushed forward to help. Fred, Lee and George stood there as still as dummies

"Peeves. We came up here to find that he had put toilet paper all over all the portraits so we helped clean up. Hermione wasn't sure what to do so she came to get you, but we found we cleaned up well enough on our own. Thank you though, for getting help." I composed perfectly, like a speech before a class and all this, only because the supposed 'real' pranksters can't cover for their actions. Trust me, if I weren't part of their pitiful prankster gang, all the brains would be gone.

Professor McGonagall left without another word, however, I couldn't help but notice the smallest hint of a smile etched on her face. Hermione, still red faced and nervous stormed up to her dormitory after thanking me profusely. (Na. I'm just kidding. She never said thanks.)The Fat Lady still had a mustache and the guys really really owe me big time now.

A/N:

Hello Reviewers, Readers and Non-reviewers,

I am having immense difficulty continuing to write this story, due to the fact that I have writers block, and the scene that I had in mind when I started this story is at the very end, so…..

Review! Please offer me any suggestions you have, along with ideas on how to continue this story. ALL COMMENTS ARE APPRECIATED!

If you approve of me restarting my story, any name suggestions? What year should I start in? Any help is appreciated, really…

~bluebookbutterfly