Christmas and Valentine all in one! Sorry it's late.
Disclaimer: If I owned Harry Potter...well, no, I just don't own Harry Potter.
"This is enough you two!" Percy screamed, again. His voice was beginning to grate, even on Katherine who used to get on with the Prefect, "You can't keep treating this as a joke! This is a serious matter and people are in danger!"
"We know that Perce," Fred scowled, "It's not like we're running around screaming, 'die fools die'. It's just a laugh."
"It's not a laugh! You're making light of a really dangerous situation! Ginny is terrified! I can't believe…!"
"Percy, I hate to interrupt," Katherine sighed, looking up from the essay she'd been trying to write, and failing abysmally due to the Weasley screaming match, "but have you noticed anyone else getting riled about the twins' actions? I haven't heard any complaints and you'd be surprised how many people come to me to complain about these two. Fact is their making it easier for everyone to deal, particularly Harry. Just lay off a bit."
Percy gaped, giving Katherine a betrayed glance before turning and storming out of the Common room, which was somehow empty. Katherine rolled her eyes and returned to her essay. The twins both blinked at her, she didn't normally get involved with family disputes. After a moment Katherine threw down her quill and pressed her face into her hands.
"He knows I'm right," she sighed, looking up at them, "That's why he left. He wants to argue but knows he can't, everyone in your family is so stubborn."
"You all right," George asked, both boys sitting down either side of her.
"Yeah," Katherine sighed, "I've got a headache is all. I'm not getting any more homework done right now."
"Oh good, let's play exploding snap," Fred grinned, pulling out a pack of cards. Katherine smiled and packed up her homework. It really was one of her favourite things about the twins, they had an amazing ability to make people feel better when hard scenarios came up.
"Snowball fight!" Fred and George yelled. Instinctively Katherine ducked and just managed to dodge getting a cloak to the face. On further investigation it was one of her own cloaks.
"How did you even get this?" she asked, snorting as she saw Lee trying to wrestle his of his face. The other three girls had ducked as soon as they saw something flying towards them. Quidditch reflexes.
"We have our ways," George said mysteriously.
"Now let's go! We want to have a snowball fight before everyone disappears for the holidays!" Fred demanded, pulling Katherine from her chair, Katherine however, was frowning.
"What do you mean disappear for the holidays? I'm staying here," she informed them.
"Fair point," George nodded.
"Everyone else won't so let's go!" Fred countered, pushing them out of the Common Room.
"There's hardly even any snow!" Alicia snapped, refusing to be pushed around.
"She hasn't finished her potions essay yet," Katherine explained, "And there's hardly any snow out their anyway. Just wait, I promise to have snowball fight with you over the holiday when there's more actual snow."
"Fine," Fred huffed, flopping down onto the couch.
"You know that essays due tomorrow right?" Katherine asked with a raised eyebrow. Fred opened his mouth to argue, then frowned slightly and turned to George who gave a small shake of his head.
"Bollocks," Fred cursed, looking up at the roof, then, "Kaaatherine?!"
"I'll read over it and do corrections," Katherine rolled her eyes, "Honestly your impossible."
"Only when I want to be," Fred grinned, and was promptly hit in the face with Katherine's cloak.
…
When one is friends one gets a very good sense of when to duck, and, fortunately for Katherine, when you climbed trees a lot you got a good ability to catch yourself.
"Can we have a snowball fight that doesn't involve me breaking bones falling out of a tree?" Katherine asked, hanging upside down from the tree. The boys merely laughed, pointing at her as they doubled over, Katherine crossed her arms at them.
"It was an impressive save though," Fred pointed out, now bending sideways to put his face upside down as well.
"Thank you," Katherine sighed. She was hanging from her legs, which were wrapped around the tree branch. When she'd dodged the snowball she over balanced and had only just managed to stop herself colliding with the ground. She wasn't a hundred per cent sure she could get back up or down on her own. At least she wasn't sure if she could do it without looking like a complete idiot. She'd so far not mentioned this to the twins.
"So, c'mon," Fred said, "You agreed you'd have a snowball fight with us."
"Not when you knocked me out of a tree!" Katherine snapped.
"Technically we didn't," Fred pointed out innocently.
"You can't get up can you?" George asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I've yet to try," Katherine replied with a frown.
"Do you want a hand?"
"No, I'll manage," Katherine huffed, starting to swing slightly. The twins watched her gain momentum before she swung up enough to grab the branch, immediately letting go and landing agilely on the ground. Katherine was rather proud of that, it could have gone much worse. Then she received a snowball to the face.
"Fred!" she snapped, Fred just stood and laughed. Katherine glared at him before she jumped to grab the branch again, causing the snow caught in it to fall with a sudden 'fwump' and bury Fred. George, for his part, merely stood and laughed at his brother.
"You realise two against one is totally unfair," Katherine asked him, ignoring the shifting of the snow pile Fred was buried in.
"You're the one who wanted to have the snowball fight after everyone else left," George shrugged, "You set yourself up for this."
"What if I can get us a fourth player?" Katherine asked. George raised an eyebrow.
"You've asked your brother to come haven't you?" he asked, already knowing the answer.
"Indeed I have," Katherine grinned, "He's been setting up a base while I waited for you two to start."
"You're maniacal."
"And Fred's predictable," Katherine countered, whipping out her wand and causing the snowball Fred had just thrown to turn and smack him in the face, "No magic during the snowball fight. We commence now!"
With that she took off across the snow covered grounds with Fred and George staring after her, Fred having wiped the snow off his face.
"Well, that's an unexpected twist," George commented.
"They have a head start," Fred noted.
"Indeed, best get going then." The two boys grinned at each other as they ran off to find a hiding place for their base.
…just over an hour later…
"C'mon, I saw Nott running in here," Fred said, George nodded and carefully followed his brother into the small burrow. Somehow the simple 'snowball fight' had turned into something like a game of 'capture the flag', with each team attempting to infiltrate the others base. There wasn't really a scoring system, but if there was they'd all be fairly even. All of them had amazing aim and a knack for sneaking around, Katherine and Theodore were faster, but Fred and George had stronger throws and more practise.
All in all it had to be one of the least snowball fight-like snowball fights. Really it was more like Guerrilla warfare.
"Looks good," George nodded as the passageway widened out into a snow cave, but he was frowning slightly.
"Yeah, something looks off," Fred nodded at his expression, "C'mon, lets head back out."
George nodded, leading the way this time as they exited the carefully made hide out. Stepping outside both twins stretched. Then were promptly bombarded with what seemed like a mountain of snowballs, each hitting its target with careful precision despite their speed. There boys gave surprised yelps at the sudden onslaught, then heard familiar laughter coming from a little ways away. Looking towards the noise they found Katherine sitting in a tree laughing hysterically at them. She still had a decent sized pile of snowballs beside her.
"We win," she announced with a grin, once the laughing had subsided. The twins blinked at her for a moment, then glanced at each other, before taking off in the direction of their base. Katherine leapt down from her ambush position and took off after them, catching up easily and running along beside them as she didn't actually know there they were going.
The twins stopped – having reach their base which was actually quite well hidden among some bushed behind Hagrid's hut – at the sight of Theodore lazily juggling three of the emergency ammunition snowballs they'd had lying around. Fred scowled and George cocked his head to the side while Katherine just laughed, somewhat breathlessly.
"How did you find it?" Fred demanded.
"Why do you know how to juggle?" was George's question. Fred glanced at him, back at Theodore, then gave a slightly irritated nod and shrug, agreeing that that was a decent question.
"Taught myself," Theodore shrugged, "And I tracked your footprint, after, of course, leading you to the false base and covering the back exit as I slipped out, all while Katty patiently waited in ambush."
"You're evil," Fred grouch, then glanced at the still grinning Katherine, "Both of you."
"So I've been told," Theodore grinned, glancing at Fred before tossing all three snowballs he'd been juggling at the red head and moving to give Katherine a hug, "I should head back in before I'm missed."
"Ok," Katherine smiled, returning the hug, "Make sure you don't catch a cold."
"Look who's talking," Theodore laughed, already walking away, "I'll leave you to show them the base."
"Oh, that's a good point," Katherine nodded, hitting the bottom of Fred's hand so that the snowball he was preparing to throw bounced out of it, "Don't be a sore loser."
"We didn't lose, you cheated," Fred pouted.
"How did we cheat?" Katherine asked, raising an eyebrow dangerously.
"Err," Fred answered intelligently, watching her wand hand warily. Katherine merely rolled her eyes at him.
"C'mon," she said with a roll of her eyes, "I'll show you where our actual base was."
The trio chatted amiably as they walked across the grounds, grinning as it started to snow lightly. Katherine easily stepped past a few tree, it was just hidden from sight but nowhere near deep enough in the trees for it to be dangerous. The twins gaped up at it, totally speechless.
It happened to be a ginormous ornately designed ice castle. There wasn't a moat but there was a draw bridge, chains and everything. There was also a plaque, though still made of ice, which read Nott Nest. Katherine just grinned at the twins' faces, making a note to attempt drawing it later.
"What happened to no magic?" George finally managed to get out, Fred made some incomprehensible noise of agreement.
"Well, it's not like he actually made it during the snowball fight," Katherine shrugged, "And there aren't wards around it or anything, so it's within the rules, really."
"Yeah, well…" Fred grumbled, Katherine raised an eyebrow, still grinning.
"Want to see inside?"
"Merlin, yes."
…
"Hey," George asked as they walked back inside, "Why was it called the Nott Nest?"
"No idea," Katherine shrugged, "I think it was just the first thing he thought of that sounded good."
"Well, that's significantly less impressive then I thought it'd be," Fred snorted.
"Well I like it," Katherine shrugged, "Besides, when you think about it, nests are pretty amazing. Those birds are skilled."
"Wierdo," Fred chuckled. Then he gave a quiet sneeze, rubbed his nose and chuckled again. Katherine glanced at him with concern, even more so when George did the same a little later.
…
"Aachoo!" Fred sneezed loudly, sitting down with a flop the morning after their snowball fight.
"You didn't use warming charms did you?" Katherine asked with a sigh, George gave a slightly pathetic sniff.
"That might have been a good idea," he managed to mumble, despite the runny nose.
"C'mon, let's go get some Pepper up Potion from Pomfrey," Katherine sighed, smothering the grin that threatened when Fred gave her puppy dog eyes that implied he didn't want to get back up, "You'll feel better for it."
He sneezed again in response.
"I mean, c'mon, it's suspicious isn't it?" Lee demanded, curiosity clear in his voice.
"I fail to see why," Katherine replied calmly.
"Hermione's muggle born, but their wasn't the same level around the other victims," Lee argued, Katherine sighed, immensely glad she'd gotten the twins to drop the issue before everyone else had come back. She was still pretty sure they had been discussing it with Lee, which would explain why George was having a very animated conversation about Quidditch tactics with Angelina and Fred was refusing to look at her as he gave his food a look of deep intensity. Once Katherine had informed them that she was certain Hermione hadn't been attacked the girls had all accepted it, possibly because Katherine was a little closer to the second year as they were sometimes study partners.
"Look," she huffed, "Don't you think that if Hermione had been attacked Harry and Ron would be in a bit more of a state? We're at a magic school, things go wrong, it's a given. Some things are just more complicated to fix. We've been in those situations, other people can too."
Lee let it drop. Katherine rolled her eyes when she caught him and the twins muttering to each other between classes but didn't bother getting involved. It'd been quite a struggle to convince both Hermione and Pomfrey to let her in to see the younger witch, and even longer to wheedle the story out of Hermione. Hadn't that been an eye-opener? She was beginning to think she'd gotten off easy with the twins. Not that she'd tell them that. Ever. She wanted to graduate from Hogwarts, thanks very much, which would be hard to do if it was accidentally demolished.
"Seriously though, where do you even find those spells?" Alicia asked, having just watched Fred and George make a number of balloon animals chase each other around the halls.
"And where'd you get the balloons?" Katherine added with a raised eyebrow. The twins just grinned mysteriously, though they continued to make jokes as the group walked down to breakfast. As they were nearing the Great Hall, much to their surprise, Katie ran out, looking slightly frantic and she glanced around. When her eyes landed she immediately rushed over, ensuring a fair bit of space between them and the entrance.
"Hi guys," she greeted over excitedly, "How are you? Everyone sleep well? You wouldn't believe how noisy it is in there today. Who wants to go to the kitchens? We should totally have a picnic breakfast. I was getting a migraine just sitting in there."
Katie was clearly trying to herd them backwards and her eyes kept flicking between the group, Katherine and the entrance. Unfortunate, Katie was the smallest of their group and Katherine dodged around the other girl easily, ignoring her panicked squeaking noise and the grabbing hands that probably belonged to one of the twins, both of whom seemed to have made some translation of Katie's gibberish. Sure, Katherine knew she was bad, but she wasn't that bad. When she got to the entrance though, she froze. She blinked a couple times in an attempt to make the sight before her change because…that was just wrong, even if she didn't absolutely hate Valentine's day.
The walls were all covered with large, lurid pink flowers. Worse still, heart-shaped confetti was falling from the pale blue ceiling.
Maybe she was that bad, she decided, turning sharply on her heel and walking away without a word to the other, who were all gaping at the hall.
"I'm calling a sick day," she announced determinedly, once the twins had caught up with her, "I can study on my own, and we don't have Potions so the worst I'll have to deal with would be McGonagall."
"Are you really going to skip classes?" Fred asked uncertainly, with was probably a reasonable reaction.
"No," Katherine sighed, leaning against the wall, "This is absolutely ridiculous."
"No kidding," George snorted, "But on the bright side, did you see Snape's face?"
Katherine blinked, remembering the scene, and then burst out laughing alongside both the red heads. Once the laughter finally subsided Fred grinned at Katherine.
"Just grin and bear it," he advised, "And imagine all the hilarious things we can do to Lockhart when no ones watching."
Katherine laughed again and grinned at the two boys, "Ok, I'll go to classes, now you get to spend all day wallowing in self-loathing."
"…Why?" Fred asked bemusedly.
"You just convinced me not to skip class," Katherine grinned, "Now c'mon, lets run down to the kitchens before charms."
Fred and George both made faces at each other before they shared a grin and followed after her.
…
That afternoon Angelina found Katherine hiding out in the dormitory, which was found to be the only safe place after one of the gnomes invaded the library, much to the irritation of all those who were studying. Fred and George were in detention due to the fact that they'd set up balloon animals to chase people away from the delivery drop off area. Apparently one of the gnomes had shoved some chocolate into their hand for that, but other students didn't seem to appreciate being chased by balloon animals.
Katherine was laying on her stomach, sketching in her notebook, which was lent up against the pillows on her bed, and picking a chocolate out of a little box beside her. Angelina couldn't help but grin, for all Katherine hated Valentine, she loved her chocolate.
"Get another one?" she asked amiably.
"Every year," Katherine shrugged, "You got to admit they're consistent."
"And your just a little bit two faced," Angelina pointed out lightly, Katherine smiled back ate her, recognising the teasing.
"Hey, I don't like the whole idea that everything has to stop on Valentine's day just so girls can gush and giggle while guys sweat and panic," Katherine shrugged again, "But I like chocolate and if their just giving it away…"
"That seems amazing in its simplicity," Angelina replied thoughtfully.
"Doesn't it?" Katherine grinned, then she lifted up her sketchbook to show Angelina the image of Fred and George gaping at the Nott Nest, "What do you think?"
Angelina glanced at the image, then promptly burst out laughing. "Oh, that's priceless," she gasped, "I wish I'd seen that."
"It was pretty hilarious," Katherine nodded, grinning as she popped another chocolate into her mouth.
Sorry again it was late. I'm going to try to fix that.
R&R please!