The next day at breakfast, the twins and Lee were lost in such deep conversation about how they planned to get past the three headed dog on the third floor, that they almost didn't notice Angelina and Alicia slip into seats opposite them.
"I suppose we could ask Hagrid, he'd know where to get some," said Lee thoughtfully.
"Get some what?" asked Alicia, dolling out some bacon onto her plate before offering them to Angelina.
"Large bones… ow," Lee rubbed his ankle that had just been kicked by George under the table.
"What do you need large bones for?" said Angelina adding scrambled egg to her plate, before reaching for some orange juice.
"Because small ones just won't do," countered Fred waving his fork in her direction.
"And why won't they do?"
"Because they are too small."
"Too small for what?" clarified Angelina.
"To be called large bones," stated Fred.
"You three are so weird," sighed Angelina shaking her head as she mentally reminded herself to refrain from ever expecting a serious answer from the twin.
"Hey," complained Lee pointing at the twins, "I'm not as weird as them."
"Nobody is as weird as them," agreed Alicia.
Before either of the twins could come up with an objection, a swarm of owls flew into the Great Hall bringing with them the morning post. Most people's eyes were drawn to one particular elongated package which had to be carried by six large screech owls. Eventually the birds managed to lower the parcel in front of a student sitting further down the line of Gryffindor's table. The group of third years craned their neck to try and see who it was who'd received the item, but since practically everyone else on the table was doing the same it was next to impossible to work out who the recipient was.
It only became clear a few moments later when a rather excited looking Harry Potter scurried passed where they were seated, carrying the long brown package. The twin's younger brother, Ron, was following close behind him.
"It must be his 'you-know-what'," said Alicia looking knowingly at the three boys and nodding.
"Ah yes, the 'you-know-what," agreed George tapping his nose, he paused for a moment before adding, "and that is…?"
"His…" Angelina leaned close and mouthed the word 'broom'.
"It's an odd shape for a balloon," frowned Lee leaning back and watching the retreating form of Harry.
"Not balloon," scolded Angelina, lowering her voice into a whisper, "his broom."
"Oh…that's makes more sense," nodded Lee.
"I take it back," said Alicia, "you are definitely as weird as them."
"I wonder what he got," said George thoughtfully, "probably a Cleansweep Seven."
"We'll find out later on tonight," admitted Angelina conversationally, "Woods' taking him out to the pitch to explain the rules and see if he is as good as McGonagall says. I'm sure he'll tell us all about it."
"Yeah, whether we want to hear about it or not," added Fred, picking up a letter from the pile that had been dropped in front of the group. In all the excitement over Harry Potter's new broom they'd almost forgotten that they'd received their own post.
"Brilliant, mum says you can visit over Christmas if you want," exclaimed Alicia as she read from her letter.
"Really? That's nice of her," admitted George, "are you sure they'll be room for all of us?"
"Not you, I meant Angelina," Alicia clarified.
"What? You mean Angelina said we could visit over Christmas? Thanks Angelina," beamed Fred.
"You two have got to be the biggest idiots I have ever met," sighed Alicia rubbing the bridge of her nose.
"Come on Alicia," said Angelina picking up her plate of food, "there's some space further down. At least we'll be able to eat breakfast without any moronic comments coming our way."
The two girls grabbed their letters and stuffed them into their pockets before flouncing off to a more peaceful section of the table, which realistically could have been anywhere else.
"They can be so touchy sometimes," said George shaking his head. He tore open one of the two letters the twins had received and passed the other to his brother, "ah, it's from mum. The usual stuff really, 'hope we're behaving ourselves', 'had two letters from McGonagall about our conduct', 'found a toilet seat hidden under Ginny's bed', wants to know if we know anything about that last one. Pretty much the same old thing, well apart from the toilet seat. What about you? Who's that one from?"
Fred didn't answer him straight away; instead he was reading the other letter intensely with a frown etched onto his face. Finally he looked up from the parchment to see his brother and Lee staring at him expectantly.
"Good letter was it?" asked Lee, nodding towards the paper in Fred's hand.
"It's from Enoch," explained Fred, "he says he's in trouble."
"What's new?" shrugged George.
"That's what I first thought," admitted Fred handing the letter over to his brother, "but read down further, it says we could be in trouble too."
Hiya Lads,
Enoch here, writing you a quick letter to tell you to keep you eyes out for anything suspicious. I've been trekking through South American for a while now, and every now and then I would get the unmistakeable feeling that I was being watched, and a number of times I thought I actually saw someone following me. At first I put it down to me just being paranoid but it turns out I was right.
Some associates and I arranged a little excursion deep into the rainforests to investigate a lost temple from an ancient civilisation. Anyway I was investigating some old ruins; they were supposed to be safe so my guide and the rest of the group I was with in stayed back at the camp. So I'm wondering through these ancient ruins, minding my own business and next thing I know I'm being attacked by someone.
Whoever this guy was, he was good; only just managed to survive the first attack. I ended up having to barricade myself into a small chamber in the ruins. I was safe enough inside but I could hear him shouting at me to come out and face him like a man. (A bit of a cheek seeing as he tried to ambush me.)
Anyway, this is the bit that concerns you, luckily for me the ruins were made of stone which had natural magical resistance. That frustrated him somewhat as no matter what he tried he couldn't get to me, unfortunately I couldn't get out but all I really had to do was wait for the rest of the camp to wonder where I had got to and come looking for me. So to try and get me to leave, he started telling me what he was going to do if I didn't get out which included saying he'd be forced to move onto his secondary targets; you two. Normally I would have put this down to desperation on his part, but what concerns me is that he actually referred to you by your names.
Let's face it, even without Dumbledore, Hogwarts is probably the safest place in the world to be, but keep your eyes and ears open for anything weird happening in your neck of the woods… well weirder than normal anyway. I'm going to try and investigate things over here. It was probably just a lot of hot air from the guy trying to get me into the open but just on the off chance it wasn't – be careful.
Hi to the rest of the family and all my old students,
Enoch.
"What do you think?" asked Fred as George passed the letter over to Lee for him to read.
"I agree with Enoch, it's probably nothing," shrugged George.
"Yeah but he knew our names," Fred pointed out.
"So? Who hasn't heard of the famous Weasley twins?" replied George puffing his chest out. He exhaled out a lungful of air and adopted a slightly more serious tone, "look, if anyone looked into Enoch's family history then they'd easily come up with any one of our names. He probably could have just as easily said Charlie or Percy."
"True I guess," agreed Fred, "still, I hope Enoch's okay."
"Ah he'll be fine," said George dismissively, "you know what he is like, always getting into trouble but manages to get away with it every time."
"Now that sounds familiar," said Lee.
"Yeah Lee," agreed George nodding, "you do manage to get away with a lot of things."
****
"Did Oliver tell you to wait up for him as well?" asked George flopping into a squashy armchair by the fire.
"Yeah," nodded Angelina, looking up at the clock in the Common Room. It was quite late, the sun had since disappeared over the horizon and the only occupants of the room were the members of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. The fire had died down, now leaving only a smouldering pile of embers which occasionally threw up a spark or two.
"Where is he anyway?" asked Alicia stretching her legs out so her feet rested on the table in front of her.
"I saw him just before seven," Fred stifled a yawn against the back of his hand, "he was heading down to the Quidditch pitch to meet Potter."
"I forgot about that," said Katie scooting down into her seat and getting comfy, "I wonder if he is any good."
"Well obviously he is," George frowned as he looked at her, "why else would he have been made Quidditch Captain?"
"Not Oliver you idiot, I meant Potter," muttered Katie, she looked sideways at Angelina, "are they always like this?"
"For as long as I've known them," admitted Angelina sympathetically, "you'll either get use to them or end up beating them to death with their own shoes."
"So how long did it take you to get use to them?" wondered Katie looking at her team-mate.
"Who says I'm used to them?" asked Angelina flashing an evil smile.
As Fred and George shuffled their feet back under their chairs, just in case, the portrait of the Fat Lady swung open allowing Oliver and Harry to enter Gryffindor House. They were carrying their brooms slung over their shoulder and both seemed to be pretty pleased with themselves.
"Hiya Oliver. Harry," the group greeted new arrivals in turn. The girls sat forward a bit to show they were ready to hear what Oliver had to say to them. Katie who, as a new member of the squad, was especially eager to appear attentive looked like she was sitting in class. Fred and George, on the other hand, remained steadfastly slouched in their chairs, which to be fair also meant that they too looked the same way they did in class.
"Hello guys," said Oliver while Harry acknowledged the group with a nervous smile. "Everyone this is our new Seeker Harry, Harry this is the rest of the team. I think I'm right in saying you already know the twins."
"Yeah," nodded Harry, smiling in relief at the two familiar friendly faces, "hi guys."
"And these three are our Chasers," said Oliver pointing at the girls. "That's Angelina, Alicia and Katie; she's new this year like you."
"Hey," Harry waved awkwardly at the girls, well aware that their three sets of eyes had flickered up towards the scar on his head.
"Anyway," said Oliver as the girls continued to stare expectantly at the new Seeker, "I've decided on three practice sessions this year instead of the normal two; Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays."
"Three practice sessions?" asked George looking annoyed as he finally sat forward.
"I know," Oliver nodded sympathetically, "originally I planned to have five but I just couldn't manage to book the pitch for all of them. Maybe next year though."
"Oh good," muttered Fred, "that'll be something to look forward to. Why don't you add some morning practice sessions in too while you are at it?"
"That's exactly what I thought," beamed Oliver looking thoroughly pleased since he'd initially thought the team might complain about too many practice sessions. He mentally reprimanded himself for ever doubting the team's commitment, "anyway, that'll have to wait until next year, although I'll try and see about those morning sessions. This year we'll be concentrating on the basic skills for the first few weeks before we start practicing some of the new formations I've been playing about with over the summer."
"Over the summer?" asked Alicia raising her eyebrows, as George punched his brother in the arm, "don't you ever take a rest from Quidditch?"
"Why would I do that?" replied Oliver clearly confused.
"You really do treat Quidditch as if it's a matter of life and death," Angelina counselled carefully.
"Merlin's Beard no," said Oliver shaking his head dismissively, "it's much more important than that."
"With a capital 'K'," muttered Fred under his breath.
"Well unless I am needed for anything I'm going to head off to bed," said Harry politely, "nice to meet you all."
He left the Common Room under a hail of 'goodnights' and headed off the spiral staircase to the boys' dormitories. The team watched him disappear from sight and as soon as they felt he'd dropped out of earshot the rest of the team turned to Oliver.
"So, is he as good as McGonagall said?" asked Angelina eagerly leaning forward.
"Better," grinned Oliver almost looking giddy, "it was too dark to try out with the Snitch, but he caught every one of those gloff balls I threw for him, didn't miss a single one."
"What's a gloff ball?" asked Fred.
"One of these," said Oliver taking a golf ball out of his pocket and handing it to the Beater, "it's some weird game muggles play."
"Not bad," said Fred examining the golf ball, "these would be pretty hard to spot, but catching a ball is easier than catching a Snitch."
"Yeah I know," agreed Oliver solemnly, "but it was only his second time on a broom and he flew like he'd been doing it all his life. I bet he'll be really good by the time he learns the game properly, maybe even better than your brother."
"Percy is useless on a broom," admitted George.
"Well Quidditch skills not always guaranteed to run in a family," replied Oliver sympathetically, his natural immunity to sarcasm working over time as it generally did around the twins.
"A good Seeker," said Angelina wistfully, "that's all we were missing last year, I think we have a chance of walking away with the Quidditch Cup this time."
"We had a good chance of walking away with it last year," said Fred, "but Filch caught us and made us return it to the trophy room."
"We'll call that plan B then shall we?" said Alicia stretching out and yawning.
"Actually I think it's plan C at this point," George corrected her, "I think we all agreed that plan B involved poisoning the other team so they couldn't compete."
"I thought plan B was to wedge something into each of the hoops so no one could score," Fred added.
"No, that was plan D," George pointed out.
"Did the rest of us miss the day that these plans were thought up?" asked Angelina looking between the two boys.
"It was decided at the last team meeting," Fred informed her
"There was a team meeting?" piped up Oliver looking concerned, "I haven't called a team meeting this year."
"Well it wasn't so much a team meeting as it was me and George talking the other day at breakfast."
"Lucky for us then," admitted Angelina, "for a moment there I thought I'd missed something important."
"Hey, one of these games we'll put one of our plans into action and then you won't be mocking us about them," countered Fred.
"No, we'll probably be too busy laughing as you… I don't know… pull Mrs Norris from inside your top and throw her at the opposing 'Keeper," Katie snorted sarcastically.
"That's actually not bad," said George looking impressed, "we'll call that one," at this point he did a bit of mental calculation, "plan J, I think that's about right."