Yo.

So, talk about procrastination...I've been channeling my inner Shikamaru lately (Yay Naruto!).

FIRST OFF I'D LIKE TO THANK ALL MY REVIEWERS - NatheRiver, DevilishAngel666, Moon's Lullaby, WolfGirl75, Guest, GrimmjowYaoi, Heatherisfire, and Idon'tKnow93 (-my sister).
You guys, I've got thirteen reviews, forty-two followers, and twenty-four favorites in all, and I love you so much for your support. Specifically Heatherisfire, for her (I'm assuming you're female based on your u/n) compliments, but more so for her criticizing because it helps me write better. :) As to what you were asking/telling me to fix: I think you're right about Harry being able to tell which twin is which, but I though it'd be more interesting if he slowly builds up to it, because he doesn't hang out with them as much, as opposed to just randomly being able to tell them apart when their own mother can't. Seriously, you'd have to spend a least a little bit more time around them.
I've read through this chapter a couple times and I didn't catch any misspells, but I'm kinda tired so it's possible that I missed something (I tried though!).
Lastly, Ginny's OoC-ness. I personally was trying to go for her being shy in the beginning and then once she sort of gets a little more used to him, then she'll start to flirt. But I LOVE your idea of her flirting with him just to piss off Snape...heheheh...I'll steal this for later, lemme put this in my bag...

Okay, with that out of the way, I've only got to say that I do not own Harry Potter, but since I like to write and I also hate world-building, I shall henceforth be playing in Rowling's proverbial sandbox. I only own my OC Kol Ashford, but it's not like he's amazing or anything (pshhhh).

Chapter Five

The next morning Harry slowly woke to the smells of frying bacon, eggs, and pancakes. The scents were enough motivation to make him raise his head off the pillow. He glanced lazily around the room, seeing the twins were still snoring lightly in their beds, but when Harry turned to Ashford's cot, it was empty. The blankets were rumpled and draped so they were half on the cot, half on the floor. It looked like someone had been trying to wake up and ended up falling down in the process.

Harry could hear the sounds of silverware clinking on plates downstairs. He decided that he'd better get up and grab some food before it was all gone; after all—Ashford could eat like Ron for all he knew. He didn't want to chance it.

He snatched his glasses off the tiny end table between the beds and walked down the stairs. He started to make out the voices speaking as he drew closer to the kitchen.

"—don't drink tea? Well what do you drink, dear?"

That was Mrs. Weasley's voice. She sounded bemused, as though she didn't know what to do with someone who didn't drink tea.

"Eh, well I—"

"Oh, but he's American, I'll bet you drink coffee, don't you?"

"Er, no I don't."

Harry walked through the doorway to see Mrs. Weasley, Sirius, Remus, and Ashford sitting around the table, the remains of their breakfast lying on their plates. The two older men looked like they had been up for a while as they were already dressed, but Ashford seemed to have just gotten out of bed; he was still in his sweat pants and t-shirt. His hair was flattened in some places, but stood up in others, and generally looked like something had been living in it. It seemed as though Mrs. Weasley and Sirius were interrogating Ashford about his tastes in drinks, while Remus just sat drinking his morning tea, looked distinctly amused.

"You don't like tea or coffee?" Sirius sounded incredulous. "What do you like, anyway?"

Ashford wrinkled his brow, "Hot chocolate?"

Remus let out a laugh at that. "I like this one, Padfoot, can we keep him?"

Sirius, no longer acting like a petulant child as he had been for the past couple of days; looked bewildered at the answer and turned to Mrs. Weasley. "Blimey, it's another Moony. We've got another bloody chocoholic on our hands."

Mrs. Weasley shook her head, sighing, "Maybe he'll grow out of it." She mumbled as she turned away to start up some more bacon.

Harry sniggered at the interaction, drawing attention to himself.

Sirius grinned when he saw him. "Prongslet!" He nudged the chair next to him. "Have a seat."

Harry smiled back and moved to take the offered seat, nodding at Ashford and Remus. "Mrs. Weasley, do you need any help?"

Remus and Sirius smirked.

"Oh no, dear; I've only just got this one to stop asking me that." She motioned to Ashford, "Poor boy's so polite I don't know what to do with him. He's so like you, Harry."

Ashford grumbled a bit at that. Harry raised an eyebrow, "Do I want to know?" He asked.

Sirius barked a laugh. "Apparently Snape's little brother is the only one in the family to have a decent set of manners." Ashford glared at him, but didn't say anything. Sirius either ignored it, or didn't see as he continued. "He almost wouldn't eat until he'd helped Mrs. Weasley in some way—of course she set him right in due time."

Remus chuckled a little. "I don't know about manners and families, but you yourself are quite different than your own family, Sirius."

Harry nodded his agreement. He didn't care for any of Sirius's immediate relatives.

Sirius himself looked thoughtful as he turned to the American. "That's right; we'll make a Gryffindor of you yet!"

Ashford looked slightly less enthusiastic about this plan, but continued to say nothing and allowed Remus to pat him lightly on the back with a sympathetic gaze, as though he knew how tactless Sirius could be.

Harry's pride was slightly pricked though; after all, why wouldn't he want to be in the House of the Brave? His relatively small amount of anger was soon deflated, however, when he remembered who Ashford was related to. He bet Snape wouldn't be above picking on his own family if they got into the wrong House. Come to think of it—why the hell was Sirius getting so chummy with the kid anyway?

Harry pondered this while he ate his breakfast, which Mrs. Weasley set down amid mutters of "—tried to teach them some manners, but do my boys pick them up? No..."

Remus was just asking Ashford about his old school when the twins stumbled down the stairs sleepily, followed soon after by Hermione. The twins seated themselves to the right of Harry and mumbled a slurred 'thanks' to their mother as she set down their plates. The red-headed woman smiled slightly, eyes flickering with hope; but it was quickly dowsed when their table manners where almost as sloppy as Ron's. She grumbled a bit, and gave Hermione her dish too, after firmly telling her 'no she didn't need any help, thank you,' much to Remus and Sirius's amusement.

When Hermione had taken a sip of her tea she turned to Remus, "Were you asking Kol about his school?" She asked curiously.

Remus nodded in return and they both looked at Ashford, who was shrugging nonchalantly as he replied. "It wasn't too bad, I guess. I passed through everything pretty quickly though, so I can't really say how easy or difficult the courses were."

Remus nodded, but Hermione asked. "Well what school did you go to? I've heard that the Salem institute's standards have fallen quite low in recent years, but I'm sure I read that it was the premier school in America."

Ashford shook his head. "No, it's just the oldest school in America—it's by no means the best." He smirked. "In fact, most of the other schools think it's a bit of a joke nowadays."

Hermione's eyebrows shot up. "Really? You said 'schools' in plural…how many schools are there in America? There can't be that many can there? In Europe there's only one school in Scotland, Germany, and France respectively."

Ashford nodded and ran a hand through his messy hair as he spoke. "Yeah, well that's because you guys have a weird fetish for boarding schools; in America there's only boarding schools in Salem, Texas, and Nebraska. For the most part, there are smaller schools set throughout the states that kids go to every day, just like a Muggle school."

Everyone seemed shocked at that—no boarding schools? This was a completely new idea for them to take in.

At this point, Fred and George were awake enough to contribute to the conversation. "So you have to stay with your family the entire school year?" One of them asked with a horrified expression on his face that was mirrored by his twin. His mother swatted his head with a wooden spoon.

"That's no way to speak about your own family!"

Fred (or George) cowered behind an upheld fork. "Sorry mum! It's just that there's more freedom at Hogwarts, you know." When she huffed at him, but retreated to the stove, he slowly lowered the eating utensil.

"Besides," The other ginger-haired twin said in a lower tone. "At Hogwarts you can sneak around the castle whenever you feel like it—so long as you don't get caught." The twins shared a twisted smirk with Harry, and Harry could see Sirius and Remus glance at each other with a slightly curled lip.

Ashford cocked his head to the side as he watched interactions at the table with a sort of lazy curiosity, not noticing Hermione subtly staring at him out of the corner of her eye. Harry though, noticed—and apparently so did the twins—and again, the three of them shared another evil grin.

In that moment, two more red-heads made their way into the kitchen. Ron sat next to Hermione and Ginny—blushing furiously—took the seat next to Ashford.

Mrs. Weasley served everyone their food and absentmindedly shoveled seconds onto Harry, Hermione, and Ashford's plates without asking if they'd wanted more. The three looked at their plates; Harry looking resigned, Hermione looking exasperated, and Ashford blinking in surprise.

Ashford opened his mouth—probably to decline the food—but Remus stopped him by tapping him on the back saying. "Yeah, she does that…and she won't let you leave until you've finished everything on the plate."

Harry and the Weasley twins stifled their laughs at Ashford's face when he glanced down and blanched and the sight of all that food. Hermione had much of the same reaction to the amount, but she already knew there would be no way out of it.

Ron and Ginny were remarkably silent throughout the meal, but for vastly different reasons—Ron because he was occupied with the food in front of his face, and nothing more (probably in an attempt to ignore the Ashford boy), and Ginny because her newly formed crush was so much that she seemed to have temporarily reverted back to her first year level of shyness.

Fred, George, and Harry found it all quite funny, discreetly trying to come up with ways to exploit this new development. Blackmail was the only feasible option that they had so far, but they were confident that they would think of other things.

By the time breakfast was finished, the whole table felt much more comfortable about their new house-guest (except for Ron), and all things pointed to having a good day. That is, it was until Harry realized something; Dumbledore himself had said that Ashford had finished school. This had been confirmed by both Snape (although not the most reliable source) and the mornings conversation. So what was Sirius talking about making Ashford a Gryffindor earlier? Was he being literal, or just making a joke? Harry couldn't figure out why Dumbledore would want to have a member of the Order in Hogwarts (why the hell does nobody tell him anything?) unless….no, it couldn't be that.

Harry brainstormed a bit about it before he mentioned it quietly to Fred and George to see what they thought about it.

"I'm not sure why he'd do that, Harry…" George said, shrugging one of his shoulders. "Sorry.."

"Wait!" Fred exclaimed, only to be shushed by the other two, and said in a lower tone, "What if Dumbledore's sent him to be your bodyguard?"

This earned him incredulous looks from both faces. "No, listen," He defended himself. "Harry's only just fought with You-Know-Who last year, and he's already been attacked by those dementors." George adopted a thoughtful look. "It'd make perfect sense to assign you a bodyguard, Harry."

George was nodding slowly. "That's true, Harry, it's what I'd do, if I was Dumbledore—"

"—Which you're not—"

"—no, of course not, I don't have the right face for a beard."

Harry shuffled his feet around a bit. "I dunno…don't you think that's a bit…I don't know—conceited maybe?"

The twins shook their heads. "Nah, Harry, everyone knows that You-Know-Who's after you—it's only logical to assume Dumbles would want to keep you safe."

Harry scratched the back of his head. "If you say so."

"We do." They replied in unison.

Harry chuckled, and then frowned. "The only thing…" The identical males looked at him expectantly. He sighed. "I just want to know why they wouldn't just come out and say that they were doing that in the first place."

Fred rubbed his chin with his knuckles. "When you put it that way—"

George furrowed his brow. "Maybe you've really got something going with this whole 'nobody's telling Harry shit' theory."

Harry's head bobbed up and down quickly. "I told you!" He said triumphantly-And was promptly slapped upside the head by two hands when his exclamations drew the eyes of everyone currently in the living room.

The trio threw glares around the room before they were left alone to huddle in their corner in peace.

"The only question is—" Started Fred.

"-If this bodyguard thing is true—"

"—Why do they want you to be clueless?"

They were unable to come up with any answers, but resolved to listen in on as many Order meetings as they could get away with.

Neither Harry nor the twins appreciated being kept in the dark. That was something the Order was going to find out.

Ta Da! There you have it. I'm tired now, and I'm going to sleep. Hope you enjoyed it!

P.S. - Pleaaassee R/R for meee ^-^ or F/F that works too.