October 31, 1993
It had been approximately one year to the day that I had began to actually have feelings beyond that of friendship for Fred Weasley. It had also been a year to the day that I had freaked out when he hugged me, blushed a horrid shade of red, and ran down to the hospital wing because I believed myself to be having an allergic reaction… oh the tragedies of young romance…
Of course a lot has changed since then… Fred and I had gotten together despite my attempts to avoid him and put everything aside trying to keep our friendship from getting screwed up, the ever quiet Julia had been added to our ranks, and Sirius Black has escaped from Azkaban and broken into the Gryffindor Common room… destroying the third year boy's dormitories… Wonderful thing to return to after the feast 'eh? I couldn't help but notice that something happens every Halloween. Last year the Chamber of Secrets had been open… and Filch's cat petrified. This year Sirius Black decided to attack Gryffindor tower… and of course poor Harry always had the anniversary of his parent's death on this day as well. Poor kid, everything happens to him; this year Sirius Black wanted him dead… last year the chamber, oh and when he was a first year he went after the fabled Sorcerer's Stone. He seriously needed a break…
Now of course we weren't allowed to sleep in our dormitories because of Black so everyone had been herded into the Great Hall where we were now sleeping under the starry ceiling… I couldn't help but marvel at that ceiling, ever since my first day I had been transfixed by it. It would be pretty cool if I could learn how to do that… I would always know exactly what the weather was the first thing in the morning…
"Allison… hey Allison…" I felt someone shake my arm and I turned my head to find myself face to face with Fred.
"What?" I asked as I covered my mouth to stifle a yawn.
"Just wondering of you had fallen asleep with your eyes open that's all love." Fred smiled
I let my eyes narrowed, "I sleep with my eyes closed thank you very much."
"I'll have to commit that to memory." He grinned and I felt myself flush.
"You know we haven't had much time together since we've gotten back… how about we go together on the next trip to Hogsmede?"
To be quite honest the idea of going t o Hogsmede had completely slipped my mind with the OWLs coming up… the last trip had completely slipped past me unnoticed. "Fred… the last trip to Hogsmede was last week… we'll have to wait until Christmas…"
"Oh how soon you forget that we have outside sources…" He smiled, the light from the stay ceiling highlighting his features.
I laughed quietly, "Right… sorry… I'm just sleepy that's all I guess it just strayed from my mind…"
"It's amazing…" Fred mused as he flipped over onto his back and stared back up at the ceiling.
"What's amazing?" I asked in a whisper
"How seriously you're taking your studies this year." He replied with a grin
"It's our OWLs year…" I sighed
"So? George and I already have a plan on how to Exceed Expectations on all of our OWL's…" Fred grinned
"Oh really? What are you going to do, cheat?" I asked
"No… we'll just exceed expectations by showing up…" he smiled
I laughed, "Alright Fred… keep dreaming…"
He turned over onto his side and looked at me, "I will…"
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked confused
"George and I… we figure our OWL's won't even matter…"
"What?" I hissed, "Fred our OWL's are really important!"
"So? We have a plan…" Fred smiled as he turned to look at me, "The idea really just hit us a couple of weeks ago and we have been planning to tell you…"
"It's so touching that you and Miss. McGonagall are making plans for your next romantic getaway but I'm afraid that some of the other students are trying to sleep." Snape's snide voice spoke down at us, causing some Slytherin's across the room to giggle.
Fred and I turned a bright shade of red.
"So would you both just shut up?" Snape asked as he turned to walk away.
Once Snape was out of earshot I spoke "We really should be getting to sleep…"
"Yeah…" He sighed as some of his ginger hair fell into his face, "We should… good night Allie."
"Good night Fred…" I sighed back as I snuggled into my pillow, "See you in the morning…"
November 2, 1993
Julia didn't talk much… but she was still nice to be around. When she did speak she would often make a very thoughtful comment, or mention something interesting that she had learned in class. Often I found it hard to believe that she was the same girl that pulled all those pranks that had gotten the twins and I into loads of trouble… that's why it surprised me when she let out a groan and said, "I'm bored… do you want to go prank someone?" her voice was extremely quiet.
"You know… just because were in the library doesn't mean that you have to talk so quietly…" I sighed.
She shrugged, "I'm sorry… it's just… well I finished a long time ago that's all…" we had a long way to go if she ever was going to talk above a whisper…
"Well…" I mumbled, "If you help me finish my potions essay we can go and put some Nifflers in Snape's classroom…"
Her eyes lit up, "B-brilliant, here…" she passed me her essay.
I took the paper gratefully and began to write down some of her key points, twisting them around until you could barely tell they came from her essay. "Thanks… come on; let's go get Fred and George… Hagrid has some Nifflers outside his hut…"
"Right… Fred, George…" she mumbled
"What? Is something wrong with them?" I asked confused
"Well…"
"Did they come on to strong?" I asked with a sigh
"Well… the first thing they did to me was drag me down the halls by my arms…" She whispered.
I honestly couldn't believe that she had formed such a long sentence, "Well it's not like their mean or anything… they're really quite sweet… even if they are loud." I shoved my books into my bag.
"…you'd say that… you've been together since first year…" Julia mumbled, "You're biased."
"Am not, they're really nice guys… not like those perverted Slytherin's, they're horrible."
"… I just…"
"Look, there's nothing wrong with Fred and George. You need to assimilate yourself and learn to get along with them." I sighed as I headed for the door, she followed behind me.
"Al-alright…" she whispered.
I turned to look at her, opened my mouth as if to ask her something then stopped. Sighing, I shook my head, "Good… see you in a half hour, at the stone circle?"
"Er…"
"You have to go over that big rickety bridge…"
She gave me a look of confusion.
"It's on the way to care of magical creatures..?"
She nodded, "Right… I'll see you then..."
"See you then." I smiled before I turned and headed towards the grand staircase…
"So Julia isn't even warming up to you?" Fred asked as we walked down the halls towards the courtyard.
"Define warming up." I muttered
"Does she talk any louder than she did when we met her in the hallways?" George asked as he appeared beside me.
"If you remember correctly we met her on the train…" I sighed, "And no, she doesn't talk any louder than she did then."
"Well then, does she speak in complete sentences?" Fred asked as he threw his arm around my shoulder, pulling me closer to him.
"Occasionally." I smiled up at him
"Well it's a start." He smiled back down at me.
Some Slytherin's passed by us whispering fervently to each other and laughing in a suspicious and sneaky manner.
"What do you suppose..?" I asked as I raised my eyebrow and glanced behind me.
"Don't know, but Slytherin's always act like that… it's probably nothing to worry about…" George sighed
"Exam pressure getting to you yet?" I asked as we headed out into the courtyard.
"Nope." Fred grinned
"Well… you never did tell me your plan." I sighed as the semi-chilly air brushed against my face.
"Only because Snape called us out…" Fred replied
"So, what is the plan? What are you going to do to prevent yourselves from becoming a bunch of beggars?" I smiled
"We'll probably move in with you." George joked.
"Why me?" I laughed playing along.
"Because, living with mum 24/7 would be torture." George laughed
"Yeah, instead of the usual 'you boys stop making all that noise up there!' We'd be getting 'You boys go get a job or I swear I'll throw you out on the street!'" Fred laughed
"Therefore, we'll end up moving in with you to prevent ourselves from further harassment by our mother." George smiled.
I laughed a bit before I continued with a now serious face, "No really, what's your plan?"
"Alright you know all that stuff that we've been inventing over the past few years?" Fred asked
I nodded.
"Well, were thinking about opening up a jokeshop…" he smiled
"That's a great idea!" I smiled
"We know." They said at the same time.
"Came up with the idea over the summer when we were in Egypt we did." George smiled
"Yeah, Mum wouldn't stop talking about our OWL's… said we'd better come up with a career plan." Fred continued
"So we thought about it for about three seconds before we decided…"
"To open up a joke shop, and sell everything that we've invented over the past couple of years."
"That would be brilliant!" I smiled as we headed towards the big rickety bridge.
"Of course, all of our idea's our brilliant." Fred winked
"Right…" I laughed as we came up to the stone circle to find… Julia, the only thing was that she was standing talking to some Slytherin's and by what I saw things weren't going over to well. We came to a halt.
"Hey, you ugly little four eyed bitch! If you don't give us the notes for our next Transfiguration essay were going to get you…" a big ugly brute growled, I recognized him as one of the Slytherin's beaters.
"N-n-no…" Julia stuttered and I saw her hand move slowly towards her wand.
One of the trolls caught sight of this movement and grabbed the wand from out of her pocket, leaving her completely defenseless.
"You were going to try to hex me weren't you?" the beater grunted, "Well, how would you feel if we snapped your little wand right in two?"
The troll that had grabbed her wand held it up. Before he could snatch it however my hand flew towards my pocket and with a mighty swish of my wand he flew into the air sending it flying.
"Accio!" Fred said quickly and it flew down into his waiting hand.
"It's that McGonagall twerp and the Weaslebees!" the beater shouted, "Get them!"
They all drew their wands but before they could shout a single enchantment I shot the beater with a blue light, turning him into a hideous toad. His cronies eyes widened, "Expelliarmus!" Fred and George shouted sending two of the remaining minions into the stone walls. The only one left was the one that I had sent flying into the air earlier, and with a panicked look he turned and ran towards the bridge.
Once the two boys that Fred and George had disarmed took off and left we walked over to Julia to see if she was okay.
"Th-thank you…." She stuttered, "Really, I'm quite glad…"
"Here," Fred smiled as he handed her her wand back, "Next time you go to attack someone though I suggest you move a bit more quickly, like you did on the train."
"Right… I will…"
"Come on then, let's go we should get the Niffler's before it gets to dark out… with the dementor's and all we shouldn't be out to late." I said as I looked up at the sky, which was now being painted in red's and oranges.
"Yeah, we should be going…" Fred smiled and with that we headed down to Hagrid's hut, eager to set our newest prank in motion…
Happy new year everybody! I updated a little later than usual, but then again I added on another chapter on Monday so I don't think I was too shabby… Anyways I hoped you enjoyed! And please tell me what you think of Julia, I'm anxious to know… of course you'd have to review to do that!