Chapter Five: Laugh Out Loud
Zoey had a goal and that goal was to spend her seven years in Hogwarts under a metaphoric invisibility cloak. She didn't want to be noticed and part of being unnoticed was that none of the professors or staff members would take note of her unless she was to recite or actually talk to them. The Emeraude didn't want to be the student everyone was to be like or be the student the professors paid extra close attention to because she was flunking. Zoey just wanted to pass. She didn't want to win any spectacular amount of points and she didn't want to be the cause of her House losing points. The Hufflepuff prayed that Madame Pomfrey did not have the power to take away points and if she did, as selfish as the thought was, Zoey hoped it wasn't going to be from her.
The Emeraude watched quietly as Echo froze in her spot, her book just inches away from Fred's head and George's shoulder, before slowly turning her attention to Madame Pomfrey, her hand lowering in the process.
"I repeat," Madam Pomfrey said, placing her hands on her hips and giving each and everyone a hard look before returning to Echo. "What do you think you are doing?"
"Easy. I'm beating up Fred and George because they won't apologize." Echo said, resuming a causal position. "Does that answer your question?"
Unintentionally, the Emeraude let out a gasp, not expecting Echo to reply in such a way to a teacher. Was she allowed to talk to someone of higher authority like that? Zoey didn't think so. She hoped Echo didn't get into too much trouble. Beating people up with a book was one thing and talking back to a teacher was another. Zoey looked towards the twins and saw them inch away from Echo, taking refuge beside the Hospital bed.
Zoey frowned when she saw them nursing their bruised arms and rubbing their sore heads and necks. Echo showed no mercy. If she was that violent with a mere book, Zoey was afraid to see Echo in action with a wand.
"And why, may I ask, are you beating them up for an apology?" Madame Pomfrey asked, eyeing Echo and the twins.
Echo coughed, clearing her throat, and started to explain. "As Zoey Emeraude was going to her respective class with Fred and George Weasley, apparently, with a booby-trapped entrance, the Emeraude fell victim to the prank, which led me into snapping and shouting an argument with the twins. After which, I brought Zoey here and persuaded the twins to come here to apologize – which they won't do!" The Ravenclaw stomped her foot and crossed her arms. "Does that cover the question you asked?"
The room was silent and Zoey wondered if Echo was actually able to leave Madame Pomfrey speechless. The Ravenclaw sure knew how to talk back to a teacher. The Emeraude looked towards Madame Pomfrey and saw the witch looking right at her, brows furrowed and lips pursed. Zoey looked down at her feet and attempted to run a hand through her hair, fingers getting tangled in the mess instantly.
"And you think 'beating them up', as you put it, would make them apologize?" The woman said after another moment had passed.
Echo lowly grinned. " I no longer, as of this time, tolerate their nonsense when it comes to my friend."
"And I," Madame Pomfrey began, "never tolerated such nonsense on beating someone up for an apology."
"You would if you only have one friend worth protecting, right?"
Madame Pomfrey's lips formed a thin line. "I have half a mind to report you to the Head of your House." The witch paused. "But I see where you are coming from. However, I would not tolerate such behavior in my Hospital Wing. I don't want to see them –" Madame Pomfrey gestured to the twins, "Or anyone else coming in here because of internal hemorrhage from your book."
Zoey let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. It seemed that she was more worried about Echo's wellbeing and reputation, for lack of a better word, than the Ravenclaw was.
"And from what I gather," Madame Pomfrey continued, "Mister Weasley and Mister Weasley are your friends as well. Maybe they did not want to apologize because they thought that Miss Emeraude here was replacing them." The witch gave Echo and the twins a meaningful look before turning her attention to Zoey.
"Oh my, what happened to you?" The healer asked, having forgotten Echo's explanation.
"Uhm…I - err, got caught under a bucket of feathers and… glue," Zoey explained lamely, having thought that Madame Pomfrey had forgotten that she was in the room.
Madame Pomfrey tsk-ed and with a wave of her wand, Zoey was cleaned. The feathers disappeared into thin air and Zoey felt her body warm up along with her clothes. In a matter of seconds, it looked like she had never entered her Charms classroom and got caught in a prank.
"There we go. Good as new," Madame Pomfrey said with a smile. "Now, I don't want to see any of you here anytime soon."
Madame Pomfrey turned and left the students, hoping they got the message and would leave her Hospital Wing soon so she could go back to working in peace and quiet. She still had to replenish some of the potions in her shelves and had to create new antidotes just in case another student decided to taste one of his or her potions in class.
Echo groaned once Madame Pomfrey disappeared into her office and turned to the twins.
"Was it true, what Madame Pomfrey said?"
"I don't know what you're talking about –" Fred began to say when George interrupted him with, "So what if it is?"
The Ravenclaw took a step back. "I was not replacing either of you. It's only now when I found a new friend. If you did have the feeling, I suppose that you two can't just be my only friends." The twins remained silent, not knowing what to say. Echo took this chance to continue. "You remember, right? How many times I got backstabbed? The troubles I've had with trust?"
"Of course we remember," Fred began, his fists bawling and his cheeks turning a fiery red.
"How could we forget?" George continued, his voice filled with malice as he remembered the image of a young Echo crying. "You know we aren't like that. We would never hurt you."
"And neither would Zoey!" Echo exclaimed. "Why are you behaving like you're getting replaced by someone new when I've shared memories with the two of you!" The Ravenclaw fought, looking down at her feet, a single tear rolling down her cheek. "You aren't my parents. You can't decide whether Zoey should be my friend or not."
The Emeraude watched quietly from her place, seeing Echo's hands trembling and Fred and George looking guiltily at the Ravenclaw. It looked like they wanted to approach Echo, give her a comforting hug but couldn't find the will to move from their spot. What Echo said to the twins seemed to date back, long before Zoey knew any of them. She saw George take a step forward. The Hufflepuff thought George was going to approach Echo but she was wrong. The young Weasley twin did not move any further and his brother remained rooted.
Zoey wondered what was going to happen now. Were they all just going to stay still until someone spoke or until Madame Pomfrey realized they had not left and kicked them out herself? The Emeraude bit her lip and when it felt like hours had passed since George's action, she clapped her hands, not knowing what she was going to do next.
"Hey!" Zoey said, her mouth twitching from her forced smile. Jumping Jehoshaphat, she thought to herself when Echo hurriedly wiped her tears and the twins looked at her with confusion. Nice going, Zoey. What are you going to do now?
"Uhm, yeah," The Emeraude's voice was reseeding to a quiet tone. "We should probably… uhm… you know… leave?" She paused and laughed awkwardly under her breath. "I mean – I don't want to ruin the moment here… Well, I guess I already did when I clapped and… yeah… ruined it even more with my talking," Zoey was now hoping that someone would rush into the Hospital Wing with a giant iguana on his head or something to distract Echo and the twins. "Err – We should leave, yeah? Madame Pomfrey said she wants us to leave right? Or, uhm, she implied it I guess. Uh… I should… yeah."
The awkward Hufflepuff ran a hand through her hair, happy that it didn't get caught in her tangles, and hung her head low, hoping her hair hid her blazing cheeks, as she briskly walked past Echo and towards the door. Maybe if she picked up the pace, she would be out of the Hospital Wing in no time and if she was lucky, never run into the twins and Echo again. With her conversation skills, Zoey no longer had problems with wrapping her head around the idea of being friendless through her seven years in Hogwarts.
When the Hufflepuff was finally at the door, she held onto the handle with an iron grip and dared to look back at Echo and the twins. Maybe she had just imagined clapping her hands and spewing out word vomit. Maybe, if she was lucky, Echo still had her head hung low and the twins were still in their same spot, looking at Echo with their guilty expressions. Maybe, just maybe, Zoey had managed to make her way to the Hospital Wing's door with no trouble whatsoever.
Taking the risk, the Emeraude turned around and saw Echo sending her a small smile, brushing her bangs away from her face only to have them fall back like before. Zoey managed to return the smile, hers even smaller than Echo's, and when she turned to look at the twins, her eyes widened when she saw their hunched over figures.
Fred was kneeling on the floor, hand clutching the bed sheets, and George was now near the table Echo got her book from and was pounding his fist on its surface, his other hand clutching his stomach. Their faces were red and their eyes watering. It would have looked like they just ate a spoonful of chili if not for their grinning mouths and the laughter escaping their lips. Zoey felt her cheeks warm up again, knowing that the twins were trying their best to suppress the laughter that Zoey was so sure she was the reason for.
"That must be the worst – absolutely the worst case of word vomit I've ever seen!" Fred managed to say through his laughter, his breathing being cut short by his uncontrollable giggles.
"She – She was stuttering all – all over the place! And the clap? What in bloody hell's name was that?!" George added, his laughter just as loud and uncontrollable as his brother's. "I – I can't breath!" He added, falling to his knees, laughing still.
"Holy crap, Echo! Make it – Make it stop!" Fred was already on the floor. "Your – your friend. Look at her face! It's – It's absolutely priceless!"
Echo smirked and brought her hand up to her lips and Zoey could clearly see the Ravenclaw's shoulders shake from her own laughter. The Emeraude bit her lip as a smile tried to escape. Sure she was embarrassed by what she said but the twins' laughter was too funny to frown at. Their faces and ears were now so red that their freckles seemed to pop and their laughter was very contagious. Soon, Zoey found herself laughing along with them.
The Emeraude hoped that they could laugh like this forever, seeing as it was so much like the world in her picture. It was like when everyone was laughing, all their problems seemed to disappear.
Unfortunately, the quartet's laugh trip didn't last another minute for Madame Pomfrey heard their exploding laughter and kicked them out of her Hospital Wing.
Zoey still had a smile plastered on her face when she, Echo, Fred and George made their way to the Great Hall for supper. They had stayed in the Hospital Wing longer than they imagined and by the time they walked through the doors, dinner was already in full swing. Students from every House reaching towards the buffet in front of them, stuffing their faces until they could stuff it no more.
The Emeraude looked over to the Hufflepuff's table and by some miracle, found a vacant seat. She turned to make her way to the spot before it was taken when Echo took hold of her arm and dragged her towards the Gryffindor table. The Hufflepuff stumbled over herself and nearly tripped over her own robes when Echo pushed her to a seat and sat beside her. Zoey's brows knitted together and she nervously looked around, wondering if she was even allowed to sit at a different House's table. No one seemed to mind.
"Echo, I need to sit with the Hufflepuffs," Zoey said in a hushed tone, catching the eye of some Gryffindors.
The Ravenclaw waved Zoey off and pointed at Fred and George. "Before anything, you two still need to apologize."
"It's okay, Echo. They don't need to. It was a harmless prank," Zoey quickly said, her cheeks flaring at the thought of the twins having to apologize after all that has happened in the Hospital Wing.
"They still did it and they better apologize," Echo said, placing a bowl of mushroom soup next to her plate of salmon and chips. Zoey glanced at Echo's food choice with a bemused expression. "What? I do not want to get fat." Echo said simply, seeing Zoey's face.
"Too late for that," George joked, taking a bite off his pork chop.
"Shut up, George, unless you want a big mushroom stuck down your larynx," Echo glared as she violently shoved a piece of her salmon in her mouth.
"Alright, alright. Sorry," George held up his hands in defense, a teasing grin playing on his lips.
Without realizing it, Zoey watched George and Echo's interaction with a soft smile on her lips. Fred took notice of this and he set down his utensils before clearing his throat.
"Speaking of apologies," Fred began, catching Zoey's attention. "We, George and I, owe you a Weasley Apology."
"Weasley Apology?" Zoey repeated, confused.
Fred nodded his head and sat a little straighter, his face serious in a funny way, if that made any sense. George dropped his slab of meat and mimicked his twin's actions. "We're sorry for the prank we pulled. In all honesty, it wasn't exactly directed at you."
"Right," George exaggeratedly nodded his head, making Zoey giggle. "We are also sorry for being thickheads and not apologizing sooner."
"And?" Echo urged them to continue.
"Sorry that we needed to be hit – painfully and mercilessly, we may add – by a book just to apologize," the twins said in unison, shocking Zoey. Did they plan this or were they just so synced with each other?
"And?"
"And what?" Fred snapped his head towards Echo, slouching. "What else did we do?"
The Ravenclaw coughed, pushing her plate away from her. "What do you think of Zwei being my friend?"
"Well, I guess it's alright." George shrugged.
"It's alright," Fed agreed, slowly rising from his seat. George followed him and Zoey saw that the twins now held identical Cheshire grins. "As long as you…" Fred trailed off, launching himself over the table. "SHARE!"
The Emeraude let out a small scream when the twins tackled her, sending them flying to the ground. Zoey felt the wind get knocked right out of her but it didn't seem to matter when two laughing twins had their arms wrapped around you. Zoey felt their grips tighten and one of them had their face nuzzled in her neck, tickling her. Zoey let out a squeal of laughter and the twins wasted no time in poking her neck and sides, successfully sending the Emeraude into a fit of laughter.
"Do you forgive us now? Do yah? Do yah?" The twins asked, tickling the Hufflepuff with no mercy.
"Ye – Yes! Yes!" Zoey yelled out, tears pricking her eyes from laughing so hard. "You – You two are – are – Haha – Are forgiven!"
"YEY!" The twins cheered, standing up from the floor and taking Zoey's seat on the bench. The Emeraude slowly rose from her spot, and focused her attention on the twins and Echo, not wanting to make eye contact with the other students in the Great Hall. Without a doubt, they heard what happened and saw Zoey getting tickled. It was too embarrassing to acknowledge the existence of everyone else in the room.
"Zwei, you should get used to that every once in a while," Echo said, a small smile playing on her lips.
"I guess I do, don't I?" Zoey laughed.
HELLO.
AnimeFlowerGirl here :) Welcome to Chapter 5 of Crossroads, my first Harry Potter Fic!
If you are one of my old readers, the people who have read this fic when it began back in 2011, WELCOME BACK! Nice to see that you stopped by to see how things are going. Want to sit down, have some Butterbeer?
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Please, new reader, come join me and old reader :)
So yeah, new reader, this is actually a rewrite. My old reader/s was/were notified about my rewriting project in Chapter 86. So please bear with me. You can continue on if you want. I hope you enjoy :D
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