A/N: Ok, so I feel bad now, I've just succeeded in proving to myself how easily distracted I am, so much for updating this fairly regularly as I had planned. :-/ In my defence I have been really busy and then when I have had time I've had major problems making my words go on the paper (well, computer) in a sensible order, but anyways, I'll stop rambling, here's chapter 3.

As always I own nothing except the crazy person that is Faith :P Enjoy :D

Chapter Three: An Eventful First Week

Faith woke early the next morning, far earlier than she would have done usually at home. Opening the long curtains on her four poster bed she peered around the tower room which she shared with the three other first year girls who had been sorted into Gryffindor the previous evening, noting that all three were still sound asleep. This did not deter her from getting up though and soon she was dressed and heading down to the common room with a book in her hand (before she did something clumsy and loud and ended up in trouble for waking the other girls).

Despite an overwhelming urge to run up into the boys dormitories and wake the twins immediately Faith instead decided to wait in the common room, as she realised that their roommates were unlikely to appreciate her bursting into the room (and besides that, the last time she had woken Fred up early in the morning he had threatened violence if she was ever to do so again). The idea of waking the first years she had befriended the day before had also occurred to her; however she figured if she planned on staying on friendly terms with them this probably would not be the best of plans. So, these thoughts in mind, Faith settled down on a couch in front of the common room fireplace with her book, to wait as patiently as she could manage for any of the boys to arrive.

When Neville, Dean, and Seamus emerged from the boys' staircase nearly an hour later Faith was on her feet and bounding across the common room at top speed before they had even reached the bottom step.

"At last!" she exclaimed "I thought you lot were never gonna get up!"

"It's not even half eight yet" yawned Seamus "And why have you got so much energy this early?"

Faith waved away his protests, dismissively saying "I've been up ages though."

"Yeah, that's 'cause you're weird" Seamus told her, sticking his tongue out.

"Hey! I'm not that weird!" Faith protested "There's loads of other people up already, well, some, a few."

At this point Dean joined the conversation before Seamus could respond, "Is it breakfast time?" he asked "I'm starving."

"Me too" Neville agreed "but, er, does anyone remember how to get to the Great Hall?"

"Down the stairs?" Faith supplied 'helpfully'.

"Um…we're in a huge castle, there's a lot of stairs" Neville pointed out.

"True" Faith started "Um…"

"We'll find it, c'mon, we'll be fine" Dean assured them.

"Famous last words" Faith said, grinning.

"Yeah, now he's done it!" Seamus added.

"Oh shush you two!" Dean scolded "C'mon, are we exploring this castle or not?"

The other three nodded and with that they set off on a hunt for the Great Hall and breakfast.

Over the next few days they did rather more exploring than they had planned on doing, getting themselves completely lost multiple times a day. On one such occasion they tried to ask a nearby portrait of a knight for directions, only to be greeted with various challenges to a duel, ten minutes later the knight was still following them through portraits, yelling insults and challenges, but no directions.

Faith soon discovered that it was a good idea to stick with either Fred and George or Dean (who had a great sense of direction and by the third day could find his way around fairly well) whenever she wanted to get somewhere fairly quickly. She also discovered that when she and Neville were left alone to find their way anywhere they spent more time lost than they did at other times, as it seemed they didn't have a sense of direction between them. By the end of the first week however the first years were beginning to get to grips with Hogwarts and even Faith could just about make it down for breakfast without getting lost, Neville it seemed might take a while longer.

Faith spent a lot of her time with Neville, Dean, and Seamus, soon becoming close friends with all three boys. She also spent a lot of time with Fred and George, as they had promised her, and through them became friends with Lee Jordan. This time with the twins prompted a lot of nagging from her other friends, especially Seamus, as they were all eager to meet her 'brothers'.

"So, when are you going to introduce us to your brothers?" Seamus asked Faith, for about the hundredth time as they followed Dean back to the common room after tea on the Wednesday of their first week in the castle.

Faith pulled a face "You've been asking me that about ten times a day since we got here!" she exclaimed "And besides, you've met them, I saw you with Ron earlier when they, er, attacked him."

"Aye, well I don't think witnessing one of them get Ron in a headlock and then listening to them wind him up for five minutes really counts" Seamus said.

"Yeah, what's the matter Faith, you afraid they won't approve of your new friends?" Dean teased.

"Yes, clearly" Faith said sarcastically "I'm afraid the two boys who spend most of their time in trouble from either their teachers, their mother or my mother will think three innocent first years are a bad influence on me."

"Oh, we're innocent now are we?" Seamus sniggered.

"In comparison, yes."

"Well maybe that's exactly why they wouldn't approve" Neville pointed out, joining in "We're gonna, um, turn you into another innocent first year?"

"Exactly!" exclaimed both other boys.

"Aww, c'mon Faith you know you wanna introduce us!" Seamus whined, as Neville and Dean nodded, all three appealing to her with their best puppy dog eyes.

"Alright! Alright! I give in! The minute we get to the common room I'll find them!" She told them, moving past Dean in an attempt to storm back to the Gryffindor tower and soon stopping when she realised she didn't know which way to go.

"Ok, that's all we wanted" Dean grinned as he caught up to her "C'mon then, it's this way."

Five minutes later the little group of first years had arrived in the common room, where Fred and George were sitting in the far corner with Lee, looking (as usual) rather suspicious.

Faith bounded across the busy room, the boys trailing rather more slowly behind her.

"Hiiiiii!" she sang as she flung her arms around Fred's neck from behind, peering over his shoulder "What'cha doing?"

"Plotting to take over the world" George deadpanned.

"With the aid of an army of house-elves armed with bows and arrows" Fred added.

"Ah, exactly what I thought" Faith nodded, her head still resting on Fred's shoulder "So, have you got five minutes to spare for your little sister?"

"Oh I dunno, we're pretty busy" George started.

"Weapons to order, attacks to coordinate, that sort of thing" Lee added.

"World domination plans don't come about overnight you know" Fred finished.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure" Faith grinned "Just I thought you'd like to meet my new friends, you know those ones you were gonna tell off for bullying Sage?"

"Hey, the owl started it!" Seamus piped up from behind her.

Faith rolled her eyes, "Uh huh, well, anyway, if you're too busy..." Faith lifted her head off Fred's shoulder and made to step back, just as the twins each caught her by a wrist.

"C'mon then, introduce us to your friends" George grinned.

"Weeeell if you really want me too."

"Just get on with it Faye" George smiled, shaking his head slightly.

"Or we may be forced to use our knowledge of you and our army of house-elves against you!" Fred added.

"You wouldn't dare!" Faith glared playfully at him.

"Ooh, so you dare us do you?" Fred smirked, his voice taking on a dangerous, taunting tone.

"Yeah, that's exactly what I said" Faith stated sarcastically.

"Faith, Get on with it!" a voice with an Irish lilt grumbled from behind her.

"Alright, alright! Geeze, what's with all the nagging today?"

With that she turned slightly, so she no longer had her back to the three first year boys.

"Fred, George, these are my friends, Seamus, Neville and Dean." She gestured to each boy as she said his name.

"Guys, meet my brothers, Fred and George, and their friend Lee" again she gestured as she said their names.

The boys all smiled and greeted each other, then: "So, house-elves? I'd have thought something like Leprechauns would be better?" Seamus grinned.

"Well you would say that" Dean pointed out.

"Hmm, Leprechauns…" Fred seemed to seriously consider the idea "Nah, far too obsessed with gold, and not half as funny as house-elves with bows and arrows" he grinned.

"C'mon, pull up a chair you lot" George said.

"Yeah, we could do with some sensible ideas around here" Lee grinned "Deadly house-elves, honestly."

"Hey! It could work!" Fred objected "And hang on, did you just say sensible? Faith?"

"Yeah, you're looking in the wrong place there mate" George chuckled.

Faith stuck her tongue out at him and then, while Fred and Lee started a seemingly serious debate about how effective a house-elf army would be, Faith and the first year boys pulled more chairs into the little group and settled down. The seven of them spent the rest of the evening talking and laughing (mainly discussing what would make the best army for world domination).

It didn't take Faith's little group of friends long to find out which subjects they liked and which they didn't, in many cases they had decided this by the end of their first lesson in each subject.

The subject which quickly became Faith's favourite was Charms, this class was always loud and somewhat chaotic as the students learned spells to manipulate inanimate objects, for the first few lessons to make them fly (or in Seamus' case blow up, much to Faith and Dean's amusement). Faith revelled in this chaos and also enjoyed learning spells which would, she hoped, come in useful at some point in pranks. The boys all had different favourite lessons to Faith, hardly surprising in Seamus' case considering he had managed to singe his eyebrows trying to make a feather fly. For Seamus and Dean it was Defence Against The Dark Arts (a class Faith also enjoyed, but not as much as Charms) and for Neville, Herbology.

One subject that by the end of their first lesson all four agreed they did not like was Potions. This decision was largely due to their teacher, Professor Snape, Head of Slytherin, with a disliking for anyone in Gryffindor.

"You know what Professor Snape reminds me of?" Neville said, as the four of them sat in front of the common room fire on the evening after their second potions lesson.

"What?" Faith asked curiously.

"A bat" Neville said, shuddering slightly "A huge, bad tempered bat."

The other three laughed slightly at this.

"Yeah, I can see it actually" Dean sniggered.

"Aye" Seamus nodded.

"Well, maybe he is" Faith said, looking thoughtful.

The boys exchanged quizzical glances, which Faith caught.

"Don't look like that! It's not that farfetched. I mean, you know those muggle vampire legends, well…"

"What, you reckon Snape is Dracula?" Dean asked.

"Maybe," She shrugged "Stranger things have happened."

"Yeah…" replied Seamus unsurely "Apparently a lot of them happen in your mind."

Faith stuck her tongue out at him.

Neville still looked confused "What, muggles think vampires are bats?"

"No, that they turn into them" Faith explained "Well that and various other strange things."

Neville nodded.

"Hey, d'ya reckon you can see Snape in mirrors?" Faith asked, with a grin rivalling that of the Cheshire Cat.

"Next you'll be telling us to bring garlic to potions!" Dean smirked.

"It's possible, we're taught by a ghost, so why not a vampire?"

"Um, the whole sucking the blood thing maybe" Seamus pointed out.

"Well I still say it's entirely possible" Faith protested.

So, from this moment on the little group of friends saw Potions class as entering the lair of a vampire. Although they all knew this was nothing more than fantasy it at least made the class seem a little more fun, although, admittedly not by much.

One other thing that Faith learned fairly quickly was that hanging around Fred and George for any longer than an hour was bound to end in detention or at the very least a loss of house points. By the end of her first week at Hogwarts Faith had already managed to lose points on at least four occasions (although as one of these was when Professor McGonagall overheard her referring to Snape as a vampire she couldn't blame the twins entirely) and earn herself her first detention. The fact that Faith had managed to land herself in detention so early amused her friends.

"You don't even know your way around the castle yet!" Dean had chuckled when she told them "How have you managed to end up in detention?"

"Hey, I know my way around, kinda, I can find the Great Hall anyway."

"Yeah? So why did we have to stop you walking the wrong way from Transfiguration earlier?" Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I wasn't! I was, er, taking a shortcut?" Faith quickly invented.

"Whatever you say Faith" Dean grinned "So anyway, how did you get detention?"

"Well, I blame the twins entirely" she started "They decided they had to start the new year off with a bang, literally."

"Sounds interesting" Seamus grinned.

"Yeah, you'd think so" Faith started "Actually I dunno how you missed it, it made enough noise, and mess."

"We didn't" Dean explained "We saw you looking like a rainbow, only we weren't sure what had happened."

"Yeah" Neville nodded "We saw McGonagall march you off too."

"Aye" Faith grimaced "I think she might hate me already."

She then went on to explain to them exactly why she would now be spending part of her first weekend at Hogwarts in detention.

The twins had indeed decided it was necessary for them to start their year with a bang, the only problem being they hadn't planned this 'bang' quite as well as they could have done. They had planned a prank which, as George put it, was meant to "start the year with a bang and brighten this place up a bit". He meant this quite literally, through the use of dozens of packets of dye, which the twins planned on enchanting to explode loudly and with a lot of mess whenever anyone walked under them.

The problem was the prank never really got past the planning stage. The twins and Lee had enchanted the packs (the spell for doing so was beyond Faith) and the four of them, with the aid of Fred and George's strange map, located an empty corridor in which to set up the prank, this was when the problems arose.

The twins apparently hadn't thought through what would happen when making the dye packets sensitive to movement underneath them. As soon as the four of them had levitated all the packs into place and tried to move away to hide, the whole lot had gone off at once, in a deafening, colourful explosion, covering the four pranksters in multi-coloured dye and attracting the attention of everyone in the surrounding rooms and corridors, which unfortunately had included Professor McGonagall.

The four trouble makers had tried to escape, but as there were crowds of people hurrying towards them in all directions to see what the commotion was this was impossible. So, when Professor McGonagall arrived it was clear immediately who was responsible, what with the boys all being well known mischief makers and with the four of them looking like tie-dye people. All four we're then dragged off to McGonagall's office and given a lecture on the childishness of their act, the appropriate way to behave in a school and, in Fred, George and Lee's case setting a bad example and leading first years into causing trouble (which amused Faith no end).

"But Professor!" Fred objected at this point "We didn't lead Faith into this, she was bound to end up in trouble with or without our help!"

"That's as maybe Mr. Weasley" the professor told him sternly "But Miss Higgins is still new here and you should be setting an example for her, not encouraging her to make mischief."

With that they were each given detention and sent to get themselves cleaned up. As soon as they were out of earshot of the professor Faith had burst out laughing and started mocking the others for being a bad example.

"See, it's all your fault I've got my first detention before even being here a week!" she chuckled.

"Clearly," Fred replied sarcastically "So I imagined you begging to join in with us then?"

"Hey, I didn't beg" Faith objected "I asked. And anyway, you two have clearly been a bad example to me since I was born" she grinned, sticking her tongue out.

"Oh, I'm so hurt, how could you possibly say that" George feigned hurt.
"We've been nothing but good brothers to you" Fred continued.

"Training you in the ways of the world"

"Making sure you didn't grow up to be like Percy"

"Teaching you our secrets"

"And I have to say Faye" Fred told her, draping his arm over her shoulders "We couldn't be more proud of you."

"Detention within your first week" George continued through mock tears of pride "You've learnt so well!"

Faith grinned and rolled her eyes.

Lying in bed late that Sunday night Faith reflected on her first week in Hogwarts Castle. It had been a good week all told, alright so she had been in trouble on multiple occasions already, but it had been worth it. She had made some great friends that week and had a lot of fun, Hogwarts had so far been even more amazing than she could ever have imagined.

Faith was pretty sure that her first week was a good example of what was to come, after all within the space of that week she had spent a lot of time exploring the castle (admittedly not always intentionally), helped the twins with a prank (albeit a failed one) and reached the conclusion that one of her professors was obviously a vampire. So, all in all she thought she had set a good precedent for the rest of her time in the castle and even helped her Head of House by identifying herself as an associate of the twins early on, thus saving McGonagall time later when hunting for the cause of trouble. She just hoped the rest of her time in the castle could live up to the excitement and fun this first week had brought.