Another chapter – not very exciting, but as soon as twins find time for mischief there'll be more craziness – I'm just giving them some worry-free year before the Philosopher's stone…
I have a question – should I keep the story like this – describing life of "ordinary" student at Hogwards – with some family drama and pranks, or do you want me to speed up and let Jade grow up faster?
Reviews are greatly appreciated! thank you Ellie, Dragonslayer101, Cookie05, and guest for reviewing and also thanks to the guest reviewer who pointed out some of my typos - I'll fix them as soon as I find some free time.
thank you guys, I'm happy you like it so far.
Enjoy!
Jade woke up suddenly. The back of her tee (which was actually Bill's old Quidditch tee) was all sweaty, sticking to her skin.
It was dark outside, but the sky was slashed in half with bright lightning.
Great, another storm was starting.
But it wasn't thunder that woke her up. It was a nightmare.
They finished their horror stories around eleven and went to bed, tired and stuffed with all the snacks Jade brought.
The story was quite scary and Katie told it in low hushed voice with loud "BANG" at the end. It scared all the girls at first but they laughed about it before they went to bed.
Jade's nightmare wasn't about vampires under her bed – like in the story.
No, her bad dreams were the same like always.
She was standing by the gate, watching Weasleys having picnic in their backyard. They looked so happy together, and Jade wanted to go to them and sit on the ground and maybe play with Ginny in the mud, or just cuddle close to Molly, just like Ron did.
But every time she was about to make the first step, the Weasleys suddenly looked her way. Twins with disgust, clearly portrayed on their faces jumped up and watched like Arthur walked over to the gate and shut it closed in front of Jade. Then without looking at her he walked back to his family and pulled Ginny up into his arms, lifting her off the ground, they all together walked inside.
And Jade was left alone again.
That's when she usually woke up screaming. Luckily this time she couldn't wake anyone up because of the charms that were placed on her bed.
She felt tears slowly falling down her cheeks and she wiped them angrily with her hand but that didn't stop them from coming.
Jade wasn't really awake yet, still a little bit confused from the dream, and still scared.
What if she did something bad and Weasleys wouldn't want her anymore, what if…
And then she remembered the letter. It was almost finished and she meant to ask Fred or George where the school owls were, but she forgot.
Molly asked her for one thing, one single thing and she couldn't even do that right.
He climbed out of the bed and grabbed the letter from her trunk, slowly walking out of the room.
She run downstairs and put the letter on one of the tables in their common room, looking at it and trying really hard to think about something really nice and interesting to add there.
It already had the description of her room and new friends, she even added signature on the bottom of the page, but it seemed boring. And Jade was sure Molly wouldn't be interested n such boring letters. But she couldn't think of anything, and those stupid tears started to fall again.
She pulled her knees up to her chin and hugged them , burying her face in soft flannel of her PJ pants.
Fred woke up suddenly. He had no idea as why, but something was off. Like always, when one of the twins woke up, the second brother didn't stay asleep for long, and George was already awake shuffling through the mess on his bedside table looking for wand.
"What's wrong?" he asked sounding really groggy.
"Jade." Whispered Fred, not sure why, but suddenly he knew something was wrong with Jade. He pulled out the marauders' map they were hiding under his bed and George pointed to it, whispering quietly.
The lines started to form on the old parchment, but Fred didn't wait for the title to show, he went through the pages, easily finding the map of Gryffindor's tower, and there she was. Tiny little dot with Jade's name next to it.
George cursed under his breath, knowing that something had happened and followed Fred out of their dorm room, pulling on his sweater from last Christmas.
They run down the staircase only to find Jade curled in ball, silently sobbing, face covered with her light brown hair.
She didn't look up, sensing it was them. She knew the sound of twins' running down the stairs, she remembered it from Burrow. Burrow… she started to cry again, shaking violently.
"What's wrong?" asked Fred, sitting next to his little sister from the other side, George already occupying the spot on her left.
"It's… nothing." She choked out between sobs and even managed small smile before she broke again.
"Go to sleep…you..need to get up…early tomorrow." She tried to push Fred away, back in the direction of bedrooms.
"No way. We're staying." Announced George after confused glance from Fred.
"Did you have another nightmare?" asked George, guessing, it could be the reason.
Jade nodded yes.
"Will you tell us about it?" tried Fred. She never told them about her nightmares, before and this time again she whispered a soft no.
"it's nothing, really… go back to bed." She insisted.
"We're staying." Repeated Fred and stood up, looking around the common room.
"Do you want to sleep in here for the night?" he asked matter-of-factly.
"Yeah, just like the good old days when you used to wake us up at home." Laughed George, nudging Jade to her side. She laughed shortly and wiped her face to the hem of her oversized shirt.
"You sure?" she asked, hiccupping a little.
"Of course we're sure, now, come on." Fred pulled her out of the chair, pointing to the two sofas, which were still pulled together, from the previous evening when boys played exploding snap there. They formed a nice double bed, wide enough for three kids to comfortably fit in there.
Jade climbed over the back of the couch and Fred and George snuggled close to her from each side. They tried to squish her which was followed by a short giggle before She turned to her side, hiding her face between George's shoulder and the cushions.
"Go to sleep." Whispered Fred and pulled a quilt which was covering the back of the second couch over the three of them.
At six in the morning a polite coughing, discrete, but loud enough to wake them up, echoed over the sleeping children.
Fred and George were sleeping with one leg over the back of the sofa (one of them on each side), lightly snoring, while Jade's hair was barely sticking out from under the blanket.
"Oh, good morning professor." Yawned George, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, while Fred stretched his hands over his head, the short white tee pulling up slightly.
"What a nice surprise to see you this early in the morning." Added Fred.
Jade was just sitting in-between her brothers, feeling well rested and confused.
"A house elf informed me early in the morning that they found three students sleeping in the common room. Two boys and one girl. I don't have to tell you this is against school rules, you are supposed to sleep in your rooms." She started without as much as good morning.
"It was my fault professor." Started Jade, "I…I had a bad dream and George and Fred found me here and… it always helps at home when I don't have to sleep alone after nightmares so…It's all my fault." She tried to explain.
"Well Miss Mraz, if you need any sleeping potion, our school nurse will give it to you so you don't have to …camp out here on the sofas, and as for you two, she turned to the twins, I think you have Quidditch try-outs today. Our team could use some talented players this year, so don't give me any reason to give you detention today. Do you understand?" they all nodded and climbed out of their makeshift bed.
"I hope this won't happen again." She said coldly but before she walked out of the common room she turned around and wished boys good luck at the try-outs.
"Uff that was awkward." Laughed George.
"I'm sorry, it's my fault." Apologized Jade again, feeling guilty for causing trouble in the morning of the try-outs.
"Nah, we wanted to stay, it's much more fun to have a sleep-over with you…" started Fred,
"Than sleeping in the room with Lee who's snoring louder than werewolf." Finished George.
"We should go get ready for the day." – added Fred
"You're still coming to cheer for us right?" asked George before disappearing up the stairs, without waiting for an answer.
"Sure I am." Smiled Jade to herself and jogged up back to her room.
It was cold, dull morning, all sunny summer days were gone.
When Jade looked out of her window, she could see Hagrid with Fang slowly walking to their home, probably coming back from early morning check up of the school grounds.
The grass was sprinkled with dew and it looked almost silver in the daylight.
No sun for now, sighed Jade and grabbed a long-sleeved shirt from the dresser.
She was glad Molly packed her wellies and a pair of hand-knitted legwarmers, and a sweater-vest with short sleeves to cover her shoulders.
It was week-end, no uniforms for two days.
Jade skipped down the corridors, clearly remembering the way to the Great Hall for breakfast.
It wasn't even seven yet, but she was hungry, and decided she wouldn't bother with shower this morning because she showered yesterday after the swim in the lake and besides, the morning felt too cold for taking showers.
Deric was already waiting for her at the entrance.
"Hey!" she exclaimed and run over to give him a hug, a habit she picked up from Weasleys. Jade was never a hugger per-say, before.
"Hi, I like your wellies." chuckled Deric looking at Jade's outfit. She was wearing cut-off jeans again, because she didn't like to stuff long pants in her rain-boots and legwarmers kept her knees warm enough.
"Well, thank you kindly sir." Laughed Jade and spun around to give him a complete view.
"Let's get some breakfast and then we could go and see the try-outs if you want. I asked Fred and George and they say it's public event, everyone's invited, although I'm not sure if there'll be many people out there because of the weather." Chatted Jade as they walked over to the tables.
"Mine or your place?" joked Deric.
"Let's see, your table has plum jam, and we only have raspberry here so it's definitely your place." Decided Jade and pulled him over to the Huflepuff table.
Fred, George and the whole Gryffindor team, dressed in quidditch uniforms, plus a couple more boys and girls walked in, sitting close to each other behind the table and talking loudly about Quidditch teams and brands of brooms.
The twins waved in Jade's direction, and smiled widely, before sitting down and joining the conversation.
"Alright, let's go." Said Deric and got up from the table, offering his arm to help Jade get over the bench, when the Gryffindor's walked out of the hall.
Jade and Deric climbed up to watch the try-outs from the tribunes.
They were the only ones, apart from a fan-club of Oliver Wood – a group of girls giggling about how cute the captain was. Luckily they choose to sit on the opposite side.
Wind was blowing really hard today and half of the students who came to get a place in the team were literally blown away in the first round, when Wood asked them to fly as fast as they could around the pitch.
Fred and George were excellent flyers, Jade knee that, but now, compared to the rest of the students they looked even more skilled and she cheered loudly, followed by a "whoa – wooo!" from Deric who also clapped and jumped with her when twins flew next to them.
The try-outs continued, with different groups of students, applying for different positions, and while Jade waited for her brothers to fly, she talked to Deric about everything that happened, and about her plans for the week-end.
"We're going to study with girls after the try-outs and then, after lunch, Hagrid invited me and Fred and George over. He has this really big, cute dog. I'm sure he would love it if you came too." She added, looking hopefully at Deric. She really wanted to hang out with him and get to know him better, because she knew they'd be great friends but with her brothers and roommates, there wasn't much free time left.
"No, that's ok, we're going to play football with boys from my room, two of them are muggle-born and they promised to teach the rest of us, it should be fun." He said, sounding proud that his roommates wanted to include him in their plans.
"Sure! I loved playing football when I was in London, you'll love it!" she said cheerfully, "but maybe we could hang out some more tomorrow?"
"Yeah, that would be great." Agreed Deric and cheered as Fred flew close to them, holding what looked like short baseball bat.
There was a laud crack as he hit a heavy black ball, with perfect aim sending it over to George who smacked it and send it back to his twin. It looked like they were having fun, even sending the two balls through the circles at the end of the pitch.
Jade glanced over to Oliver Wood who was watching them with raised eyebrows, clearly impressed with the skills and coordination of twins. They were born to fly, and they could work together really well, gaining them both a place in the team.
Jade was so happy, she run down from the tribunes and jumped on her two brothers, hugging them around their necks.
"You were the best!" she exclaimed. "oh I wish I could fly around for a while." She said dreamily.
"Thanks for coming and cheering for us" said Fred and he together with George, they kissed on each side of her head.
"We'll see you later, Wood wants us to wait for the end of the try-outs and go over the rules – just boring stuff." Explained George.
Jade waved at them for the last time, still smiling wide, proud of her brothers.
"We have this essay about History of Magic, to write." Groaned Jade on the way back to the castle.
"There's this awesome book in the library, it's called Brief Magical History, and you can basically just copy the introduction for the essay. We have the same homework." Said Deric. "We went to the library yesterday with Jack."
"Could you show me where it is?" asked Jade excited. Library would be perfect place for hanging out with the girls and do homework, and if they had that book in there, they could finish the essays in no time.
"Sure, let's go. I still have some time left before I'm supposed to meet the guys." Said Deric and pulled Jade by her sleeve.
It was awesome to have friends, life felt almost normal, well, as normal as it can be with Fred and George and their next prank with which Jade was supposed to be helping them.