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Chapter 7: The Screaming Yo-yo
It was about two weeks since the start of term, and already, Mia, Fred and George had stopped counting their detentions (although Fred and George definitely had a lot more then Mia). They were already behind on homework (although Mia was a bit more behind then the twins, seeing as she had a lot more homework to do). And they'd already gotten on Filch's last nerve.
There was one thing, however, that had Mia feeling slightly unnerved. Whenever she arrived at breakfast in the morning, or whenever she caught up with the twins after they had a free period and she didn't, Fred and George always seemed unusually quiet. Once or twice, she was sure she saw Fred shoving a piece of parchment into his bag. She had kept asking about it, but they always brushed it off, returning to their normal selves within minutes.
This morning happened to be one of those mornings. She had arrived in the Great Hall near the end of breakfast with Angelina and Alicia. As she approached Fred and George, she noticed that they were hunched over a piece of parchment.
"I'm telling you Fred," George was saying, "its not-"
"Hey, guys, what's up?" she asked, sliding onto the bench next to George. The twins jumped, and Fred crammed the parchment into his pocket.
"Ok," Mia said, irritated, "what is it?"
"What's what?" George asked, uneasily.
"That bloody bit of parchment!" she pointed wildly.
"I don't know what you're talking about, Mia," Fred told her, smoothly.
She gaped at him. "I'm not stupid, Fred!" she told him.
"Well…" Fred smirked.
"Shut up," she told him, darkly. The smirk left his face. "What the bloody hell are you two always whispering about together?" she asked, shrilly, "and why won't you tell me?"
They were saved from answering, however, when Harry, Ron and Hermione sat opposite them.
Rolling her eyes, Mia huffed and pulled a plate towards her, throwing some toast onto it.
"Really, Hermione, it's no wonder you hardly have any members!" Ron said, rather harshly.
"Oh yeah? Neville joined!" Hermione retorted.
"Only so you'd stop bugging him!"
"Oh yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"OI!" Mia yelled at them. Ron and Hermione looked up at them, and Mia saw that Hermione was clutching a box. "What are you two arguing about?"
Hermione glanced at Ron, and then pushed the box towards Mia and the twins.
"Don't, Hermione," Ron warned. She ignored him.
"Would you three-"
"Hermione!"
"Like to join S.P.E.W.?"
Mia paused, confused. "Spew? What the hell is Spew?"
Ron sniggered, and Hermione huffed. "Not Spew!" she said, "S.P.E.W. It stands for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare. Its only two Sickles to join!" She looked at them hopefully.
Mia, Fred and George peered into the box, which was full of lots of colourful little badges, with S.P.E.W written on them.
"Um… what does it do?" Mia asked, picking up a badge and looking at it, before dropping it back into the box.
"I'm trying to get across the point that House-Elves are seriously mistreated! They are not paid! They do not have holidays! They do not get sick-leave!-"
"Sick-leave?" Mia, Fred and George exclaimed together.
"Why on earth would they want sick-leave?" Mia asked, incredulously. Hermione's jaw dropped a little.
"They're slaves, Mia!" she said, "Slaves! They should be fighting for their freedom! But their brainwashed, so they don't! Brainwashed! They're not educated! They're no-"
"Hermione!" Ron yelled, in irritation. Hermione stopped speaking, and looked at Mia expectantly.
"Er…" Mia said, glancing at Ron, who shook his head, "sorry, Hermione," she pushed the box back towards her owner, "but I think the House-Elves are fine with how they are…"
"But," Hermione, "They. Are. Slaves!"
"They. Are. Happy!" Fred said, mocking her tone.
"But-"
"Hermione, look," Mia said calmly, "No one wants a freed House-Elf! And a House-Elf doesn't really want to be free!"
"Hmph!" That was the only other sound Hermione made.
Harry, Hermione and on left around ten minutes later. And finally, Fred finished eating.
"Take your time," Mia muttered, as he finally pushed his bowl away.
Grinning, Fred stood up, followed by George and Mia, who stretched her limbs out.
"Right," she said, "what are we going to do today, then?"
"We could… annoy some Slytherins?" Fred suggested.
"Ugh, we did that yesterday," Mia moaned.
"Make some Ravenclaws feel stupid?"
"How?"
"Kill Mrs Norris?"
"Been there, done that, dint turn out so well"
"Kill Filch!"
"I am not going to Azkaban!" she slid her bag off her shoulder and went to switch it to the other one.
"Jeez, I was just joking… what 'bout-"
"Round the corner!" Mia pushed the twins through a tapestry onto a 'secret' staircase.
"What?" George hissed, peeking around the tapestry. "Ohhhhh…"
"Mmhmm."
"What's going on?" Fred whispered; he was behind the two so he couldn't see anything.
"Filch is there!" Mia muttered, pulling George away from the tapestry.
"So?"
"What happened last time he caught us wandering down some random corridor? He searched our bags and found whatever we were carrying around that day and we got deten-" someone covered her mouth.
"Shh!" George whispered into her ear
"Did you hear that, My Sweet?" Filch said from the other side of the tapestry.
"Get ready to run," Mia whispered into George's ear.
She knew it was impossible, the tapestry was too thick, but she swore she saw Filch's shadow loom above them. She clutched her bag tighter (no doubt she would get at least five detentions if Filch searched it), she hadn't managed to switch shoulders.
The three of them quietly backed up the staircase. Mia stepped on the strap of her bag and it fell from her hands, several objects falling onto the ground at her feet. One of those objects happened to be a Screaming Yo-yo. As she scrambled to pick everything up as quietly as possible, she grabbed only the string. The small circle started to shriek.
As Filch yanked back the tapestry, Mia yelled "RUN!" and the three rushed up the stairs, Filch at their tale. As they got to the top of the stairs, Mia threw the object she had in her hand over her shoulder: A Fanged Frisbee.
She heard a yelp as the Frisbee bit Filch, but she didn't look back. Mia and George rounded a corner, but Fred carried on running straight ahead.
"OI!" they heard him yell, but he carried on yelling.
"Sorry!" Mia yelled back, and they heard Filch round the corner after them.
"Great," she muttered. "Oh! Down here!" she grabbed George's hand and pulled him around a sharp corner, laughing when he stumbled.
"Oh, well done, Mia," George told her, as they both realised she'd dragged them down to a dead end.
"What… do we do?" Mia asked, panting. They looked around, listening to Filch gaining on them.
Suddenly, she felt George push her.
"Hey!"
"Shh!"
He closed a door an Mia backed up, stopping against a wall.
"Um… George," she said, still trying to catch her breath, "I think… we're in… a broom cupboard.
"Broom cupboard for a minute or detention for an hour?" George asked.
Mia rolled her eyes, but chuckled a bit.
"Where are they?" they heard Filch yell. After what seemed like forever, they heard Filch retreat.
"Whoa… that… was close!" Mia breathed, still panting heavily from running.
"Yeah." George replied.
George looked down at her, suddenly realising how close they were. She seemed to realise at the same time, because she looked very awkward.
"Er…" she said, licking her lips nervously.
Before George could say anything, they heard Fred calling them.
"Guys?" he yelled, "oi!"
George pushed open the door and jumped out of the broom cupboard quickly, emerging into the corridor.
Mia squeezed her eyes shut for a second, licking her lips again, before following him.
"What… were you guys doing in there?" Fred asked, with a confused expression on his face.
"Nothing!" Mia and George answered together, a bit too quickly. "Hiding from Filch," Mia added, for good measure.
"Um… well, he's gone…" Fred trailed off.
"Uh, ok…" Mia walked past George and wandered down the corridor.
Fred glanced at his brother, and noticed the slightly red tinge to his face. Before he could say anything, however, Mia turned around and called down the corridor to them, "well, come one! We've still got a whole day to kill!"
Well, can you figure out why Fred and George are acting a little bit strangely?
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