EviColt: Ask and you shall receive! Hopefully I'll be able to update every Sunday (depending on school :P). Thanks for reading and I hope you like the new chapter!

alphafoxxy: Cliffhangers are my poison of choice :) Hope you enjoy the chapter and thank you for supporting! :D

LeaValdez23: Enjoy the chapter! I hope you like it! Thanks for reading!


She looked at her watch.

11:24 p.m.

Did she dare adventure blindly to the address she got from the fox? Was it even a fox that visited her? What if someone was trying to lure her into a trap?

Tori had been sitting on the floor near her bed for hours, her mind ferociously battling itself. She couldn't tell whether the risks or benefits were winning. Her curiosity was a major factor, though.

What if Ren was trying to get in touch with her? The timing would have been perfect. The incoming letter and then a strange appearance from this fox. But the way Ren made it sound in his letter didn't make it seem like he was traveling. Knowing his mother, she wouldn't want him to leave the house at a time like this. She was always the overprotective one, especially after his father had died.

Tori reached up on the side table to read through the letter once again, but quickly rolled her eyes at herself. This wasn't one of those muggle spy movies that Ren's sister adored so much. No message was hidden between the lines of what had already been written. There wasn't going to be a sign that obvious.

Reading through Ren's words again, Tori could feel a tightening in her chest. Thinking of Ren and his family only made her miss home even more.

"Tori! Ren! Come inside for dinner!"

Ren chased Tori inside his house for the millionth time that winter. They were bundled up tight, snow falling from their coats as they shook themselves off in the doorway.

"It looks like you two have been running all over this place," Ren's mother commented, seeing how rosy Tori's cheeks were and how out of breath her son was.

"When someone's being hit with snowballs all day, running becomes part of the plan," Tori explained, shooting a look at Ren.

"I think all your time in the dormitories just made you slow," Ren teased. "You're a first year. You can't possibly have that much homework to do."

"On the contrary," Tori explained, moving inside and helping Ren's mother set the table, "I'm taking extra time in my studies."

"As any good Ravenclaw would," Ren's mother agreed, shooting a wink at Tori.

She beamed happily as she remembered that Ren's mother had also been in Ravenclaw.

"Whatever. Studying is boring. I'd much rather play Quidditch."

"And that's why you're always asking me for help in class. You're too busy day dreaming."

Ren stuck his tongue out at Tori as they sat down with his sister and mother for dinner.

"As long as you have each other and look out for one another, I think you'll be fine."

Ren and Tori shared a look with each other before nodding in agreement, smiles glued to their faces as they shared more about their time at Hogwarts with his mum.

Tori stared blankly at the letter in her hands as she recalled the memory. Ren's mother had been almost like her own mother, which her grandfather had been very grateful for. She had needed a woman figure in her life after everything that had happened…

A chill ran through her as Tori shook herself out of the memory. She was caught even more by surprise when she noticed the fox from earlier had reappeared, tucked under her arm and looking over the letter she was holding.

"Oi!" she shouted, scrambling backwards away from the fox. She dropped the letter in her attempt to flee, the fox immediately snatching it up in its mouth. "That's not yours to take," she growled at it. She stood up slowly with her wand drawn. For a moment, she was hit with a panic. Even with her wand, she still didn't know how to fight this thing.

The fox tilted its head to one side in curiosity at the witch before it. Without skipping a beat, it quickly sprinted towards the entrance and disappeared out of sight, taking the letter with it.

She looked towards the exit desperately. Cursing herself for dropping the letter, Tori went to kill the light in the lamp and jogged towards the door where she flung on her coat. Now she had no choice but to follow the fox and see what it wanted or where it would lead her.

She kept her hood close to her face as she started to roam through Knockturn Alley. She had to keep looking around for the fox, which was jumping in and out of buildings as if this was some kind of game. It had the letter held tight, Tori wondering how it could maneuver with a solid object through walls. People walking past her shot her an odd look whenever her gaze would quickly change direction with the fox. She wondered if they couldn't see it, which she figured would only add to her reputation. Why not add the characteristic of being crazy along side all of the others?

Soon she found herself back in Diagon Alley with no sign of the fox anywhere. The alley was even more cold and unwelcoming when Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes was closed which made Tori pull her cloak tighter to her small frame.

"Where'd you go?" she called out softly, hoping the fox would reappear.

Immediately the fox walked out from between her legs, looking up at her to instruct her to follow.

Tori looked around the alley once more, as if expecting someone to pop out from the shadows, then slowly started following the fox.

It jogged a ways ahead of her, then dropped the letter on the ground. Its gaze travelled back to her as if to say she wasn't walking fast enough.

"You've got to be joking," she sighed, looking up at the shop the fox had dropped the letter in front of.

The fox shared in her view for a moment, then disappeared into thin air.

Tori was left with so many questions as she picked up the letter and quickly stuffed it into her pocket.

This had to be a ploy from Fred. He was the only one to know she was around.

For a moment, nothing happened. She was just standing in front of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes like an idiot waiting for something to occur.

As the air grew colder, Tori decided that she had wasted her time and started to walk away from the shop.

Suddenly, she froze. Her heart dropped when she heard the front door of the shop creak open.

Closing her eyes, she fought with herself again. This was all too scary and her gut was screaming for her to just get out of there as fast as she could. Turning slowly towards the door, she could see the fox looking at her from inside.

"You're going to get me in trouble," she muttered to it, hesitantly accepting the invitation and walking into the shop.

A few steps in, Tori shrieked in surprise when the door closed and locked itself behind her. She quickly pulled out her wand and held it out defensively. "H-h-hello?" she called out to the dark room.

No one answered, but the fox reappeared on the stairs leading up to the twins' loft. Tori swallowed hard. She couldn't shake this feeling in her gut, but brought herself to climb each stair nonetheless. Her weight caused them to creak and complain, but surprisingly no one was coming out to see who had entered or why someone was coming up to the living quarters above the shop.

As she reached the top, she could see a warm living space before her. A tan couch faced the fireplace that was across from the stairs and an entryway to the left led into what looked to be a small kitchen. The right hand entrance led to a hall way where Tori could see light emanating from the end.

"Hello?" she called out again, slowly making her way further into the area.

The quietness that had greeted her was soon shattered like a glass pane. An explosion rang throughout the loft and Tori immediately ducked down to the ground to shield herself. She had covered her head with her arms as best she could, her mind racing like a thoroughbred in a championship race.

What if it had been all a trap? What if the twins were injured and it was her fault?

She glanced up from where she was on the floor and saw that nothing had really changed in the loft aside from some smoke that was floating from down the side hallway.

Swallowing hard, Tori gathered herself and stood up. Her wand was clutched tightly in her right hand and she immediately sprinted towards the source of the smoke. Her mind flashed with images of the twins hurt or killed, their faces etched with fear instead of laughter.

There was a room at the far end of the hallway. Its door was cracked open slightly which allowed the smoke to creep out of it. Tori had reached the door very quickly, to her surprise, and had kicked it open with her wand pointed at the people within. She didn't care who or what she had to face — she wasn't going to let the twins get hurt because of her.

On the other side, she found the men of the hour standing in front of a work table. They were high fiving each other with delight, looking down at the mess they had made. At the sound of the door suddenly opening, Fred turned to face Tori. His face was covered in black soot, goggles gracing his face, and his hair was slightly on end. George matched him almost identically.

"Brilliant! She's arrived!" Fred exclaimed triumphantly as he removed the goggles. There was a dark ring around his eyes that matched the outline of the goggles perfectly.

"What in the bloody hell is going on?" she questioned, wand still pointed at the twins.

"You might want to put that away before you hurt someone," George directed, wiping his hands with a nearby rag.

One flick of her wand and the twins found themselves with their own kitchen knives to their throats. They both froze in shock, not knowing what kind of fire had been lit inside of the sweet girl they knew from school.

Fred cast a glance over to Tori and saw that her hazel eyes had grown dark, scarred by the past few months of whatever she had gone through.

"Easy now," he said softly, holding his hands up on either side of him. "We just want to talk."

"How did you find me?" she demanded, her voice no louder than a whisper which somehow made her sound more threatening than if she had shouted.

Fred noted the wildness about Tori. Her hair was slightly disheveled. Her eyes were redder that he had seen earlier that day, and they were darting around in a bout of paranoia.

"I slipped one of our products on you today at Ollivander's — they're trackable if they're not purchased."

Her nose twitched slightly at the fact that something so simple minded had gone undetected.

"And the fox?"

"A patronus," George explained, "intended to bring you here."

"Why did you need to see me?"

Fred and George exchanged glances. "We wanted to help," they answered in unison.

Still unsure, she straightened up slightly. "Help? Help with what? How can I trust you?"

"To answer those questions in order — help with whatever it is that you're doing and…well…you can't I suppose," Fred admitted. The steel of the knife pressed further against his neck at his admission.

"That's true," George added, "especially considering how many times we made your charms backfire during class."

"I'm curious, though, can you actually tell us apart now?" One Fred's eyebrows began to rise quizzically, a small smirk forming on his lips.

"Or are we still 'Gred' and 'Forge'?"

The twins flashed their famous smiles to Tori, hoping to ease the tensions that they could feel latched onto her like vice grips.

With a deep breath, Tori hesitantly dropped her wand. With it, the knives both fell to the floor.

The twins shared a look with one another, as if speaking telepathically, then made their way towards the door. They both walked around Tori towards the dining room, but George hung back for a moment when she didn't follow. He nudged her arm slightly and she turned slowly towards him. He motioned towards the exit with his head and a reassuring smile.

Tori nodded as she reluctantly followed. She knew what was coming, and she knew the questions wouldn't be easy to answer.


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With Love,
sparrowlina