Disclaimer: Any characters, places etc. that you recognise belong to J K Rowling. I'm just a humble writer who likes to play around and write love stories.

A/N: I'm so glad people are enjoying this story and reviewing. You people, quite simply, rock.

IIIIIII

I decided, perhaps wisely, not to mention to the twins that I knew they'd lied. Even though I felt a little wounded at not being trusted to know what they were talking about, it was up to them to tell me when they were ready, and me pushing them wouldn't do anybody any good.

Ginny kept casting me curious looks, which I attributed to my odd questions about the mirrors. Three days had past since then, and I felt rather proud of myself for not bringing up the subject with the twins, both of whom seemed to have returned to normal. Or, well, as normal as they ever were.

Which wasn't exactly very normal.

We now sat outside ( the twins and I, that is), talking, and occasionally throwing an apple at each other from the nearby tree. I was just about as good as it as I was with flying, meaning that more that once I lunged backwards dramatically to catch it, and more than once hit one of them in the face with my wild throws. They realised after a while not to throw it to me, and excluded me from the game.

They then decided, unceremoniously, to exclude me from the conversation as well by talking about their plans for joke products. Whilst I was up for a good prank as much as the next person, their talking of their plans over and over again did get somewhat tiresome.

Humming to myself, I lay on my back, hoping to feel content with watching the clouds go past. To my annoyance, there was a perfectly blue sky. Sitting up, I swung my hair out of my face, picking a daffodil from the grass and throwing it (rather perfectly, if I do say so myself) into Fred's face.

He and George looked at me, exasperated, and I sighed heavily. "I'm bored. You invited me here, it's your job to make sure I'm entertained."

When they merely stared at me, I clapped my hands bossily. "Get to it, then. Entertainment. Now."

"Sorry, I'm not in the mood for strip teasing today," Fred yawned, standing up. I smirked, and clambered to my feet, George doing the same beside us. "However, if you want to play catch - without smacking us in the face - I'm willing."

"Sure," I grinned, jogging backwards to get a good distance from them. They shared a look, sniggering, and spaced themselves out, George tossing an apple up and catching it. He threw it to his twin, who caught it smoothly, in turn throwing it at me.

Determined to prove to them, and myself, that I could in fact catch, I ran sideways wildly, and only just managed to catch it with by the tips of my fingers, falling onto the grass as I did so. Somewhat smugly, I stood, lobbing it back at George, who caught it easily.

The game went on for fifteen minutes or so, as I gradually got better and better, before my throw went a pathetic distance, landing about five feet away from me. George laughed, ran forward to pick the apple up and threw it - bloody hard - back at me. The small gap between us and my slow reflexes meant that my hands didn't exactly catch it.

My face did, though.

"Shit," I muttered, staggering back, as the twins let out a much worse expletive in unison. My vision swam for a few seconds, as I blinked back the water rising in my eyes, and as I blinked in shock. Gingerly, I raised my hands to my nose, finding it painful and for some reason rather wet.

Fred reached me first, the blood having drained from his face, causing his freckles to be even more pronounced. His mouth hung slightly open as he stared at me, before he shook himself and raised a tentative hand to my face. His fingers making contact with my nose made me squeak with pain and back away - but the sight of blood on his withdrawing hand made me freeze.

"Oh God," I mumbled, feeling nausea rise up in my. Whilst hardly girlish and squeamish about most things - I'd face spiders, standing in front of a large group of people and small spaces gladly - but when it came to heights, and blood, I was a complete and utter wimp.

"Look, don't panic, Claudia," Fred said slowly, biting his lip and wincing at his own words. I let out another terrified squeak, going rather light-headed. He blanched - evidently his words weren't having the effect he'd intended them to. "Look, no. It's just. It's just a bit of blood, okay?"

"No, it's not okay!" I said, shrilly, feeling the blood drip down onto my lips, and spitting it out violently. George reached us then, looking horror-struck. Fred hit him, hard, on the upside of the head, scowling, but George just stared at my nose.

"It was only an apple!" he exclaimed, sounding almost impressed. "Who knew I was such a bloody good shot?"

"Shut up, George!" I screeched, taking a moment to be alarmed by this new pitch of voice - I hoped it wouldn't stick - before all thoughts were replaced by blood, blood, blood and doom! "Just - oh god, it's - it's just a bruise, right?"

"Well, does it feel broken?" Fred asked, looking concerned. I stared at him in horror, mouth falling open.

"Oh God, my nose is broken!" I cried, clutching at it and trying to ignore the horrible feeling of the blood against my skin. "George, you bastard, you broke my nose!"

"I didn't!" he retorted, taking a step back from me, just in case. "You wouldn't have thought it was broken if Fred didn't ask about it!"

"You broke my nose!" I exclaimed indignantly, ignoring him. As I pulled my hands from my face and saw the red on them - darker than I expected, stickier - the dizziness took over and I staggered over a little. Fred was quick on his feet, and quickly grabbed my arm, steadying me.

As he half-carried me towards the house, I gave George my filthiest look, that told him in a second he had earned himself a slow and painful death, and there was nothing he could do about it.

IIIIIII

"It's broken, isn't it?" I whimpered, wincing as the cold flannel was pressed against my nose. Mrs Weasley smiled, in a tired sort of way, and shook her head, a few strands of her red hair falling into her freckled, friendly face.

"Of course not, dear, it would be much more painful if it was. You've just got a nosebleed, and a bit of a bruise, but I can get rid of that in a moment."

"You're sure?" I pressed, anxiously. "It looks broken. Fred, it's broken, isn't it? You said it was."

"No, I didn't," he said from my side. Rather predictably, yet still annoyingly, his concern had passed into sheer amusement, and he seemed to be struggling to keep a straight face as he answered me. "It looks fine. It was wonky anyway, wasn't it?"

I swiped at him, but he ducked, easily, unable to keep the laughter in. Mrs Weasley, now siphoning off the blood from my face with her wand, sighed and sent him a disapproving frown. "Fred, really, it's not funny. George could have really hurt her. What were you doing, throwing apples in each other's faces?"

"S'not my fault Claudia can't catch," came George's huffy voice from the sink, where he was being made to wash up, again, as punishment for hurting me. "I threw it fine, she's just incapable of --"

"Shut up," I moaned, grimacing as a thick, orange paste was dabbed onto my nose by Mrs Weasley. "You're a monster, you've scarred me for life. Is my nose really wonky?"

"Of course not," Mrs Weasley replied, absentmindedly, before taking a step back and admiring her work. "There. Good as new. It doesn't hurt anymore, does it, dear?"

Slowly, a pressed the tip of my nose with a finger, desperately relieved to feel it back to normal. Grinning, I shook my head. "Thanks. I dunno what I would've done without you, Mrs Weasley."

She smiled at me, and I turned to glare at George, ready to rip him to pieces, when the door slammed open and none other than Percy ran in. His hat was askew atop his red hair, his glasses lopsided, his cheeks red, breathless, and he had large beam across his face. We all raised our eyebrows, as stopped short, breathing heavily and smiling widely at us all.

"I've been given a really good job! I've been promoted!" he said excitedly, and I saw Fred and George share a look. "Mr Crouch's assistant! Can you believe it? I'm fresh out of school - that's a really good job! Mr Crouch?"

"Mr Crouch being Barty Crouch?" I asked, interested. He turned to me, nodding, evidently eager for some kind of recognition. "Oh, my dad sometimes has him round for dinner. Isn't he the head of the Department of International Magical Cooperation?"

"Yes!" Percy enthused, his face lit up and his tone bright. "Isn't he wonderful?"

Seeing Fred and George share another, smirking look, I faltered. I wouldn't describe the man as exactly wonderful - he'd always seemed normal, if a bit boring, to me - but I couldn't quite bear to let the excited boy down. "Er - yeah, yeah he's - um - he's pretty wonderful, I guess."

"I'm glad you agree!" he laughed, then turned and kissed his mother on the cheek hurriedly. "I had better get back, I'm sure Mr Crouch wants to give me an assignment - I just had to rush home and tell you all!"

"I'm very proud, dear," Mrs Weasley smiled, and she looked it, too. "We'll have a nice dinner for celebration. But you get back to the office, you don't want to keep Mr Crouch waiting."

"No, of course not," he said quickly, seeming to almost skip out of the door. "Goodbye!"

"Oh, I'll have to go and write to Bill and Charlie, he's so pleased," Mrs Weasley sighed, fondly, and left the kitchen, her footsteps soon to be heard heading up to her room. I turned to talk to the twins, but they were already muttering in the corner.

I raised an eyebrow, wondering if they were going to be all secretive again, before they murmured one last thing each, then grinned at me. Upon me narrowing my eyes suspiciously, Fred cleared his throat, somewhat pompously.

"We have a plan!" he announced triumphantly. "It'll cheer you up, honestly. It's just, we need you, or it won't work. It'll be fun, I swear."

Sighing, exasperated, my hands materialised to my hips. "And what will it involve, exactly?"

IIIIIII

The dinner was, as usual, filling and scrumptious. We were eating fairly early, at five o'clock, for Percy said he just had to go and get his first report done. It was due in in a month, but I guessed he planned to get it in to Mr Crouch within the week. A large, congratulatory banner had been spread above the table, and a feeling of cheeriness was upon the family.

I, however, was feeling far from cheery, regretting my agreement to the twins very much. As usual, I was to be used as a decoy in their pranks, and I was most definitely not looking forward to it. For one thing, I had no idea what I was going to do.

When, at half past five, Percy stood up, thanked his mother and left to do his work, Fred and George sent me meaningful looks, and the three of us stood up. A little sulky at what I had to do, I spared a glare at the two of them, before smiling at the rest of the Weasleys. We excused ourselves from the table, and made our way up to the second floor.

"Right," Fred whispered, once we were in the safety of their room. "You go and do whatever it is you have to do to keep him preoccupied, and we'll get going."

He and George picked up their 'goods' and rushed over to the window, which they opened, inspecting the side of the house. I bit my lip, feeling more than a little anxious. "I - what if you fall? Be careful, won't you?"

They simply rolled their eyes, and slowly lowered themselves out of the window, resting their feet - I assumed - on bricks that stood out of the house. I rushed over to the window, glaring at them both. I could barely dare to look how far up we were, even from inside the house. "If you both fall and die, how am I supposed to explain it to your family?"

"I dunno," George laughed, not sounding worried in the slightest.

"Why can't you just use broomsticks? And why d'you need me - can't you just get Percy to close his curtains?"

George rolled his eyes. "We've been through this! To get the broomsticks we'll have to go outside, and everyone will see us doing so, and Percy'll still hear the noise, so we need you to distract him. Okay?"

"Fine," I gave in, but then bit my lip as they started to move. "Oh, don't. You'll fall!"

"Oh, Juliet," Fred laughed, as I leant out of the window to ensure they weren't about to topple to their deaths, my head just higher than theirs. "We'll be fine, honestly."

"Juliet?" I echoed, raising my eyebrows. "How d'you know Shakespeare?"

He merely smirked, and I sighed. To my complete and utter surprise, he leant up, kissed my cheek and grinned. "Your Romeos shall be fine, I promise."

Feeling my cheeks go a little pink, I cleared my throat. "Just be careful, alright?"

Fred nodded, then - making my heart almost still - he seemed to lose his balance and wobble dangerously, almost plummeting into the garden below. I let out a little scream, reaching out for him, but then I realised he was laughing and my cheeks flooded red.

"You idiot!" I yelled, absolutely fuming. "That wasn't funny! I thought - I thought -"

"Shh," George scolded, looking rather irritated at us both. "When you two have quite finished, we have a Percy to prank."

"Yes, Sir," Fred laughed, moving along the wall carefully. Our eyes met, and he smiled, a little more softly. "Off you go then, Miss Paisley. It's distraction time."

I groaned, but obidediently walked away from the window towards the door, but made sure to shout "Be careful!" as I did so. Shutting the door behind me, I hurried along to Percy's door, which I knocked on a couple of times, feeling moody. I heard him call for me to come in, and so did so, closing the door behind me quietly.

Percy's room was a little smaller than the twins', and conversely very neat. He stood up from his desk as I entered, looking extremely surprised, and raised his eyebrows, pushing his glasses up his nose. "Claudia! To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Behind him, I could see the twins at the window, setting up the prank and grinning at me. My job was to keep Percy's attention away from them, and so I smiled warmly at him. "I just wanted to congratulate you again."

"That's very kind of you," he remarked, sounding surprised. I frowned for a moment - was there something surprising about me being nice? "Well then, thank you."

"It's alright," I smiled, before realising that I'd already run out of things to say. By the look of it, Fred and George weren't even nearly done. "So, er, Mr Crouch then! How did you get a job with him?"

Much to my relief, he launched into an enthusiastic description of his new boss, and his new job, leaving me to block it out and make sure the twins weren't falling to their deaths. I felt like I was out there, standing so high up, the way my heart was beating as I watched them.

After a minute or two, Percy finally finished his rant, and smiled, seemingly with a finality. Evidently, he had no idea why I still stood in his room. With a glance at Fred and George, who seemed to be arguing about something now, I smiled at their older brother, clutching at straws. "I - er - what report are you writing then?"

"A preliminary piece on the relationship between Britain and America, and the illegal trading that sometimes happens," he explained, and I nodded, trying to seem enthralled. "I mean, I'm sure it sounds very boring to you -"

"Oh no!" I said, loudly, as he turned to glance at his papers. "No, it's - it's fascinating, really. Do tell me more."

Taken aback, he did so, and I glared at Fred and George around his back. Fred winked at me, and mouthed 'two seconds!'. Percy finished once more, and drew himself up, smiling at me in a rather bemused manner.

"Well, I had best be getting on with --"

"No!" I cried, as he turned around. He glanced at me, alarmed, and I noticed Fred and George motioning for me to keep him distracted. Racking my brains in a split second, I lunged forward wildly and kissed Percy Weasley on the lips. He let out a small noise, most likely of terror, and I pulled back, wiping my mouth and wincing.

He had gone bright red and stared at me as though I'd gone mad. Fred and George were also staring at the pair of us, open mouthed, their expressions a mix of outrage and shock. Then, as I made a wild gesture with my hand to get them to hurry, they did so - edging away from Percy's window and assumedly towards their own.

"I - er - well done on the promotion then!" I laughed - a nervous, almost hysterical laugh - and ran all the way out of the room and into the twins (but not before dropping the small prank 'accessory' in Percy's bedroom, as the finishing touch). They hoisted themselves into the room, and stared at me in silence.

I pushed my hands into my pockets, feeling my cheeks go warm, and scuffed the worn carpet with the toe of my shoe. When no one spoke, I sighed heavily, and looked up at them both. "So, you managed to set it up?"

"You kissed Percy," Fred said, rather unnecessarily, I thought.

"Well." I gave a small, nervous laugh again, regretting kissing him already. "Yeah, it was pretty gross. But I had to buy you time somehow."

"Not like that you didn't," George said, bluntly. "You could've hit him instead."

"Oh, very practical," I snapped, now thoroughly ashamed and so lashing out in the process. "What's the big deal? It worked, didn't it? He didn't see you two!"

"You kissed Percy!" Fred said again, having gone a rather odd colour, not quite red but not quite purple either. I stared at him, before George spoke again, making me glare at him instead.

"Not a big deal? Of course it was! It was ridiculous!"

"Fine!" I shouted. Admittedly, I was acting rather dramatic, but at the same time they were acting like I'd killed somebody. The kiss had been quick, clumsy, and merely a distraction for them. I didn't understand why on earth they were taking it so badly, and not teasing me. "Fine, we'll, next time you need a bloody decoy you can ask someone else!"

I turned on my heel and slammed out of the room, ignoring whatever it was they were shouting after me. I also ignored the angry noises coming from Percy's room as I passed it - evidently the prank was in motion - and instead stormed down the stairs, into the living room, and throwing myself into an empty chair.

Mr and Mrs Weasley, Ron and Ginny all looked at me from their own seats (they had been talking among themselves, with the radio on), and each of them raised their eyebrows. I smiled, albeit sheepishly, and shrugged. "Those twins!"

IIIIIII

I lay on the sofa, drowsy and very close to sleep, the rest of the family having gone to bed and the twins not having shown their faces yet. Percy had ran down about five minutes after me, showing that the prank had indeed worked. I had dropped a small capsule Fred and George had been developing, that heated up the room it was dropped in. When Percy had opened the window to let in the cool evening, dung bombs had been arranged to fall upon him, dousing him.

He hadn't been entertained.

It also seemed he suspected my part in it. Though he hadn't said anything outright, he'd merely told his parents what he suspected the twins of doing, shot me a rather dirty look, and had gone upstairs for a bath. It had been rather hard to keep an innocent face, especially when Ron and Ginny were sniggering loudly.

Now, however, I was being resolute and not going to my normal bed - Fred and George would be in there, the ungrateful sods, and I didn't want to be in a room with them before they apologised. Nestling into the settee, I sighed lightly. The room was warm … the sofa cosy … my eyelids extremely heavy …

Polly was stood before me, laughing manically, and in her hand was the Sorting Hat. Out of it she pulled Dumbledore, who beamed cheerily at me, took the Sorting Hat and pulled from it a legion of squirrels, who leapt upon me and bit me wherever they could, squeaking absolutely terrifying squeaks …

"Wake up!" came an urgent voice from somewhere above me, making the squirrels scatter and reality somehow coming back into my life. I blinked, blearily, and found myself gazing up into the face of Fred Weasley. He smirked as he saw me, his red hair tousled - evidently he, too, had just woken up.

I sat up, yawning, and ran a tired hand over my face. Fred had on his red dressing gown over his pyjamas, and was blinking sleepily, though stared at me, a single eyebrow raised. "Bad dreams, eh? You were muttering in your sleep."

Remembering the squirrels, and how pathetic it would seem if I told him, I simply nodded, trying to seem sincere, and even throwing in a scared-looking pout. "Yeah, yeah, it was terrible. Horrific."

He patted my shoulder sympathetically. "Know how that is."

I grinned, having successfully lied my way out of that one, and yawned again. He studied me for a moment, before asking, tentatively, "You're still mad at us, then?"

"Um." I tried to remember why I would be mad at them, then remembered their overreaction to my 'distractions' earlier, and shrugged. "Nah, not really. You're not still mad at me, are you?"

"Nah," he mocked my phrasing, a wicked glint in his eye. "You're free to snog Percy any time you like."

"Shut up," I mumbled, going red. "I didn't want to, I was doing it to save you two, in case you'd forgotten."

"Don't worry about it," he said, bracingly clapping me on the shoulder. "Anyway, I just woke up - it's about half two, if you want to know - and realised you still hadn't come up. Thought I ought to get you to bed, you don't want to be all achy in the morning, do you?"

Rather touched at his sentiments, and feeling myself going even more red, I responded with rather pathetic humour, by pushing him in the side, winking, and asking, "You want to get me to bed, eh?"

He laughed, quietly, and I stood up from the settee, stretching. He smiled at me, and we made our way out of the room and up to his. Rather ruining the sweet and friendly air, however, Fred grinned at me as we walked up the stairs. "You know, you have awful hair when you've just woken up."

IIIIIII

A/N: Just so you know, there's no actual romance brewing between Percy and Claudia. There'd be no chemistry there at all, heh. Oh, and please review!