o.o.o.o.o
Considering the fact Arthur slept in an armchair beside a dead fire for the rest of the night, he slept surprisingly well.
Thus it was a well rested Arthur who eventually sleepily woke up and stretched his arms over his head with a yawn.
"Well, well, well – look who finally decided to wake up."
Arthur's eyes snapped opened and stared in shock at the two red-haired, slightly older boys who stood in front of him.
They were obviously twins, and Arthur's newly awaken brain somehow managed to remember they were Ron's older brothers Fred and George Weasley.
The pranksters Jack told him about during the welcoming feast.
"It looks like a snake got trapped inside the lions' den, brother dear," Fred, or George - Arthur didn't know who – answered his brother.
Both of them were grinning down at Arthur, who still sat in the armchair and could only open and close his mouth in shock without any sound coming out.
Shit… What was he supposed to do about this? Arthur nervously threw a quick a glance towards the exit, but the twin brothers seemed to know what he was thinking about.
"Ah, I wouldn't try to run if I were you. Unlike you we have two pairs of healthy and uninjured legs, while you only have one," the first brother told him.
"Wha- How did you know-?"
"Our brother and the rest of you weren't exactly quiet when you came back," the second brother commented with a grin and a shrug.
"Just be happy we decided to do our youngest brother a favour and cast a few silencing charms around you five so you didn't wake up the whole tower."
Arthur swallowed nervously. He was beginning to hear barely audible shuffling somewhere on the floors above, and with some panic rising in his chest Arthur realised the rest of the Gryffindors were beginning to wake up. If he didn't get out soon Arthur would need to deal with with all of the Gryffindors, and he doubted they would be happy to see him in their tower. Admittedly Arthur wouldn't have been very happy to see a Gryffindor in the Slytherin common room either, but it wasn't like he wanted to sit here and wait to find out what the reactions of the other Gryffindors would be. Unfortunately the only way Arthur would be able to leave the tower now was if the Weasley twins let him, and that didn't seem very likely at the moment. So imagine Arthur's great surprise when Fred and George looked up to the roof with frowns of annoyance, as if the rest of the Gryffindors waking up was a bother rather than a good thing.
"Well, it looks like we're almost out of time, so for now we should get you out of here!"
Without any warning the twins heaved him up on his feet, (Arthur's left leg protested a little against the sudden movement, but to his relief it at least didn't hurt any longer,) before they immediately hooked their arms in his, dragged Arthur off towards the exit and completely ignored his sounds of confusion. Once outside the common room they then speeded through a few empty corridors and stairs before they shoved Arthur into an empty classroom and closed the door after themselves once they also were inside. Arthur narrowed his eyes, feeling trapped with the twins between him and the closed door, but took a deep breath and prepared himself to fight in case he would need to.
"Now when we're away from prying eyes I think it's about time we introduce each other," the twin to the left said and gave Arthur a dramatic bow before he stood up again.
"My name is Fred Weasley, and this is my twin George."
"I'm Arthur Kirkland," Arthur answered cautiously with a frown, unsure of what they wanted to do with him.
"We know, and this just happens to be your lucky day," Fred – no, George – continued from where his brother left off, although Arthur had a hard time to see how all of this could be considered lucky.
"You see, normally we're not very fond of snakes, but you've caught our interests!"
Arthur wasn't sure if he considered that a good or a bad thing.
"After we saw-"
"-and heard-"
"-our dear younger brother sneak off with his new friends we decided to stay up for a while to see what he was going to do, and for once he didn't disapoint us!"
Fred pretended to wipe away a tear. "We're so proud – there is still hope for him!"
"To think he and his friends would dare to let a Slytherin inside our tower. I wish we had thought of that," George added with a laugh.
"Wait, the whole thing was an accident, and Ron was not-"
Arthur wasn't even sure why he tried to defend Ron – the other boy didn't even like him.
"We know, we heard the whole story when you and Granger talked after our brother and the others had gone to bed," Fred inturrupted Arthur with a grin.
"Oh," Arthur blinked in surprise. He hadn't expected that, although maybe he should have. "What will happen now then?"
"Well, nothing really," Fred replied with a light shrug. "We just wanted to ask you a question, and then you're free to go."
"What kind of question?" Arthur asked them warily.
"Well, we want to know-"
"-a few details about the forbidden floor and the three-headed dog."
Fred threw a quick glance towards his brother before his eyes returned to Arthur and continued to explain.
"You see, we have tried to open the locked door to see what's hidden behind it ever since Dumbledore's speech, but we have been unable to do it."
George nodded in agreement. "None of the normal spells worked, so how did you guys enter it?"
"Eh, Hermione just used the unlocking spell, and it worked," Arthur answered in confusion, not understanding why they would even want to enter the door.
"Are you sure?" George asked with a frown.
"Yes, Ron and Harry didn't know the spell, so Hermione shoved them aside and unlocked the door by saying Alohomora," Arthur answered with a glare, as if to dare them to accuse him of lying.
George shrugged. "Just making sure. So was it really a three-headed dog?"
Arthur hesitated just a moment. Should he really tell them? In the end he decided it was best to tell them the truth.
"Yes, and to be honest I'm surprised we didn't die, but it was a close call."
"Amazing, a three-headed dog here in school…" George grinned, as if he hadn't heard a word of what Arthur said after "yes".
"Well, that was everything, so you're free to go now," Fred grinned with his brother and made another dramatic bow towards Arthur.
"Right now Peeves is on the first floor around the classroom for History of Magic, so you might want to take another way down. It's almost seven o'clock too, so you should go directly to the Great Hall for breakfast instead of going back to your own dorm. We'll see you around!"
Without another word both of them turned around, opened the door behind them and left the classroom. Arthur blinked in utter confusion.
What the hell just happened? Was that really it? It felt too easy. Were they waiting for him to let down his guard or were they just saving it for blackmail?
Somehow he doubted it, because they hadn't even hinted at what they would do with the information. Arthur shook his head to clear his mind.
They were probably only letting him go for their brother's sake. If the rest of the Gryffindors found out Ron, Harry, Hermione and Neville let him – a Slytherin – sleep in the Gryffindor's common room Arthur knew he wouldn't be the only one in trouble.
Deciding to not think too much about it for now Arthur walked over to the door and exited the classroom. They had a point though – he really should hurry down to the Great Hall. If he arrived to breakfast before his friends and fellow Slytherins he could just say he wasn't able to sleep if anyone asked where he had been. With his decision made Arthur quickly walked down the closest stairs and made sure to avoid the classroom for History of Magic, although he couldn't help to wonder how they even knew Peeves was there in the first place…
o.o.o.o.o
Fred frowned slightly as he walked beside his twin. It was still a little too early for breakfast for both their tastes, so right now they just walked around the castle aimlessly in silence. Well, that was until Fred decided they were far enough from the classroom for it to be safe to talk.
"Do you reckon he told us the truth?" Fred eventually asked his brother.
"Yes, he even sounded surprised at our question, and when I asked him if he was sure he looked annoyed. We could ask Ron to confirm it, but I believe the Kirkland-boy spoke the truth," George answered thoughtfully.
"That gives us another question though, doesn't it?" Fred sighed in annoyance. "Why didn't the normal unlocking spell work when we tried it?"
George shrugged. "No idea."
They walked down another staircase.
"Why did you change the plan though?" Fred now asked instead after a short silence. "I thought the original plan was to ask him about the glow around his leg."
George shrugged.
"I doubt he was even aware of it himself. Didn't you notice? That faint golden glow only began to surround his leg after he fell asleep, and then it stopped just before he woke up again. When we dragged him out of the tower Kirkland didn't show any sign of pain either, so I can only conclude his left leg no longer hurts."
"Wait, do you mean you believe his magic unconsciously healed his leg? That would be seriously advanced healing-magic, George. The Kirkland-kid shouldn't be able to pull something like that while not even being aware of it."
They stopped to walk and faced each other.
"Well, that's the interesting part, isn't it?" George grinned. "That kind of spells needs an incredible amount of magic too. Kirkland hasn't even been at Hogwarts for a month yet, so considering how powerful he already has to be to pull of that kind of spell unconsciously... Just imagine how strong he will be in a few years when he can use that kind of magic whenever he wants to."
Fred's face broke out in a grin as well. "I can't wait. I think we will need to keep a close eye on Kirkland."
"Indeed."
o.o.o.o.o
Once Arthur was down in the Great Hall he quickly realised he was one of the very first to arrive for breakfast, and even though it didn't take long until everyone else also began to arrive Arthur was still almost done with his breakfast when Jack, Jade and Katlyn finally arrived.
"We know you like to get up early, but this is almost ridiculous," Jack snorted in amusment and sat down next to Arthur while Jade and Katlyn took the seats on the opposite side of the table.
"Couldn't sleep," Arthur shrugged and hoped they wouldn't press for details. He felt bad for lying to them, but this time it was necessary.
Arthur sat with them until they finished their breakfast, and then walked back to the common room together with them to gather the books they would need for their first class. Since it was Friday he and Katlyn were going to have Potions with the Gryffindors again, but despite the fact Professor Snape was the head of their house Arthur couldn't bring himself to look forward to the class. Hopefully this lesson would at least not go worse than their previous one, which had sent him and Neville to the Hospital Wing. Arthur really didn't want to spend his third time in the Hospital Wing already, thank you very much.
According to Katlyn and Hermione his cauldron had, on top of everything else, also literally grown legs and hidden under Professor Snape's desk after the incident. Since Professor Snape refused to do anything about it – telling Katlyn that Arthur would have to come down to retrieve his cauldron by himself - Arthur would need to begin the lesson with trying to find and retrieve his cauldron. Joy… With his luck his cauldron was probably still (literally) running around.
After they picked up their books and bags in the dorms Arthut and Katlyn continued to follow the corridors in the dungeon to the classroom for Potions, while Jack and Jade took the stairs up to have History of Magic. (Of course Arthur warned them Peeves might still be nearby). With the exception for Hermione, and two other Gryffindors Arthur didn't recognize, he and Katlyn were among the first ones to arrive. It wasn't until only a few minutes before the lesson would begin his fellow Slytherins and the rest of the Gryffindor arrived, including Malfoy, and Arthur did his best to ignore the quick glances Malfoy sent him with narrowed eyes. Neither did it escape Arthur's notice Hermione pointidly ignored both Harry and Ron when they showed up.
When Professor Snape finally opened the door to the classroom and let them inside Arthur and Katlyn followed Hermione to the front of the classroom and sat down in the front. Meanwhile Neville, who seemed to have grown fearful of Snape since last week, hurried to choose a seat near the back of the classroom together with Harry and Ron. Just like their previous lesson Professor Snape then began the lesson with taking their attendance before he instructed them with a sneer on his lips about the potion they were going to make. When Professor Snape was finished with the instructions everyone immediately began to prepare their cauldrons and ingredients for the potion, with the exception for Arthur who instead stood from his seat and walked over to Professor Snape's desk to ask about his cauldron.
"The instructions are on the board, Kirkland. Unless you can't read I don't see why you haven't begun with your potion."
"I only came to retrieve my cauldron, sir," Arthur explained and had to force himself to not bite back something impolite at Professor Snape's suggestion he couldn't read.
"Ah, yes, the running cauldron was yours. You can find your cauldron under the cupboard with the acid, where it has been since it ran away from my desk."
'Why am I not surprised even cauldrons dislike being close to you,' Arthur thought, but didn't say aloud.
"Thank you, sir," Arthur instead forced himself to answer before he walked over to the cupboard Professor Snape pointed at and eyed the cupboard wearily.
Arthur still refused to end up in the Hospital Wing for the third time in two weeks, and getting drenched in acid would make sure he would, so Arthur made sure to be extra careful to not even slightly bump into the cupboard as he sat down on his knees and bent down to take a look below the cupboard. How his cauldron had managed to squeeze itself under the cupboard in the first place – all logic said the space between the floor and the cupboard should have been too narrow - Arthur had no idea. However considering the fact he was currently at a school for magic Arthur probably was overthinking this, so instead of continuing to wonder about it he reached out his hand and grabbed his cauldron. It was with a big amount of relief Arthur didn't feel any movement from his cauldron, so this hopefully meant whatever the potion had done to make it able to (literally!) run around had worn off by now. When Arthur finally managed to wiggle out his cauldron from below the cupboard he hurriedly went back to his table to begin with the potion, which he now was slightly behind at.
'If I just hurry a little I should still be able to finish the potion in time though,' he thought to himself with a nod, put on his protective gloves of Dragon Hide and then set to work.
Just like their last lesson Professor Snape walked around in the classroom and watched them all like a hawk. It seemed to be Professor Snape's new mission to criticize everything about Harry's potion as much as he could and scare Neville half to death, while Malfoy was one of the very few who received any praise at all. Meanwhile Arthur was just glad Professor Snape hadn't reached his table yet, because he was pretty sure something must have gone wrong with his potion. Hermione's potion looked absolutely perfectly the way it should at this point with the colour of light blue with just a tint of purple. Katlyn was also doing well, although her potion seemed to miss the purple tint and was of a slightly darker blue than Hermione's. Meanwhile Arthur's own potion didn't look nearly as perfect, or even okay.
It was bright orange.
"Kirkland, what exactly is this supposed to be?"
Well, Arthur knew he wouldn't be able to avoid Professor Snape's criticism forever. That didn't mean this was any less embarrassing though – even Harry and Ron had managed to make their potion take on a dark blue, almost black, colour - and Arthur could practically feel how his face was beginning to heat up.
"My potion, but I think something went wrong," Arthur answered with a thankfully steady voice while he tried to ignore the snicker he could hear from Malfoy's direction.
"This potion is so badly made it rivals Longbottom's pitiful attempt," Professor Snape sneered back.
Well, that was a little unfair. At least his own potion wasn't shifting between the colours of black, yellow and red or look like it was boiling, unlike what Neville's potion currently did in the back of the classroom. As Professor Snape spoke an ominous-looking, brown and green smoke even began to rise from Neville's cauldron. Perhaps Professor Snape guessed what Arthur was thinking, or maybe he was just in the mood to make his students miserable, because without warning Professor Snape took out his wand and pointed it at Arthur's cauldron. After a few muttered words Arthur's cauldron was completely clean and empty.
"Re-do, and this time I suggest you try to not make a complete fool of yourself," Professor Snape then sneered to Arthur.
It was probably a good thing Professor Snape turned around and walked away from Arthur's table after that, because Arthur didn't think he would have been able to control his anger much longer. With his hands shaking in wrath Arthur angrily began to chop up a new set of ingredients for his potion and ignored the looks of pity he received from both Hermione and Katlyn. His second attempt to make the potion didn't go much better than his first one though, and the fact Arthur still tried his best to put a lid on his boiling anger certainly didn't make it easier to concentrate on the task. The only real difference was that his potion at least this time eventually turned into a dark, blood-red colour. Arthur wasn't sure if it was better than the earlier bright orange colour, but he was beyond caring at this point.
SPLAT! The mashed eye of a baby Acromantula, which had been around the size of a big tarantula before it fell victim to Arthur's anger, landed with a repelling squelch on the table next to the cauldron instead of inside it. Thank goodness he wore his protective gloves of Dragon Hide, because this was DISGUSTING. With a frustrated growl Arthur quickly cleaned away the mashed eye on the table and then mashed a new one which he dropped into the cauldron. Next up he needed to add three small pinches of ash from an Ashwinder, and unless Arthur wanted his potion to blow up in his face he would need to be careful with this part. Since he still didn't want to end up in the Hospital Wing for the third time in two weeks Arthur therefore took a deep, calming breath before he added the first pinch of ash while he stirred the potion and watched it turn from red into a dark, grey colour. He turned around to his bag of Ashwinder-ash and took the second pinch before he stepped back and added the ash into the cauldron. The potion turned into slightly lighter grey than before.
'Wait a minute.' Arthur was just about to turn back to the bag of Ashwinder-ash for the third pinch of ash when he stopped dead in his tracks and eyed his cauldron in suspicion. He never stepped away from the cauldron to reach his second pinch of ash, so why did he need to take a step to get back to his cauldron? Without looking away from his cauldron he searched blindly with his left hand for the bag of Ashwinder-ash, but was distracted for just a moment when he heard Professor Snape call out they only had 10 minutes left to finish the potion.
That moment was enough.
Without warning Arthur's cauldron decided it was tired of standing still and jumped down on the floor, after which it (literally!) ran off on it's small legs along the right wall towards the back of the classroom. Arthur gaped in shock for a second before anger took over. His cauldron was running away with his potion!
"GET BACK HERE!"
Arthur set off after his running cauldron, which was surprisingly fast for being- you know, a cauldron – while his classmates hurriedly stepped out of the way from the fleeing cauldron with shouts of surprise.
"Kirkland, stop fooling around this instant!" Arthur heard Professor Snape angrily shout, as if Arthur did this on purpose.
Arthur's cauldron reached the wall and made a sharp turn to the right and then turned right again, with Arthur closely behind, making them run in the empty space in the middle of the classroom which led up to Professor Snape's desk.
'Oh god, please, no!' Arthur thought and lunged after his cauldron to stop it from doing anything to Professor Snape's desk. Too late. Arthur only managed to get ahold of his cauldron after he in desperation threw himself after it while his cauldron was in the middle of it's attempt to jump up on Professor Snape's desk, and Arthur watched in absolute horror as his unfinished potion flew out of his caught cauldron like in slow-motion and drenched Professor Snape's entire desk, including all of the papers and potions on it. No one in the classroom said a word, barely dared to breathe, as they all both heard and saw how the potion melted the desk and it's contents. With wide eyes Arthur swallowed in fear and slowly stood up from the floor where he previously had been laying after he threw himself after his, now completely empty, cauldron. He clutched the still weakly struggling cauldron close to his chest and saw with fear-mixed-fascination how the only thing left which soon was left of Professor Snape's desk was a black-brown liquid with spots of white on the floor where the desk previously had stood.
"Kirkland."
Professor Snape's voice shook dangerously in barely held back fury, and even though Arthur really didn't want to he still slowly – oh, so very slowly – turned around to face the wrath of his Professor.
"Detention. Tomorrow, 6 o'clock in the morning. Don't be late. Now, GET. OUT!"
With his cauldron still clutched tightly to his chest Arthur didn't waste any time and ran back to his table, hurriedly packed all of his things, fled from the classroom and didn't stop running until he was outside the castle and almost at the greenhouses for their Herbology lessons.
Well, at least he hadn't ended up in the Hospital Wings again. Yet. He still needed to survive the detention.
. . . He really can't catch a break, can he?
o.o.o
o.o.o. ( End of Chapter 10 ) .o.o.o
o.o.o
Sorry for the late chapter - my life outside of the internet-world got a bit in the way there. ^_^;
I had a LOT of fun writing this chapter though! Haha, poor Arthur. He really can't seem to catch a break. xD
Alright, time to answer your wonderful reviews! \^w^/ Really, thank you so much for all of them - they mean a lot to me, and they let me know you actually want to read this fanfiction! I'm going to write this story for my own sake, but it's always fun to know if/when people actually like the stuff I write, so THANK YOU!
o.o.o.o.o
Now:
MedusaLegend: I hope this chapter at least partly answers it. ;)
Well, the twins didn't show up for long, but don't worry. This isn't the last you guys are going to see from them.
MoonyLitt-Tears: Please don't be so harsh on your own writing. You're good, and in the future you will become even better than you already are.
All it takes is practise - because that's the best thing about writing. You can always become better than you already are.
So strive for it, and don't give up! \^w^/
TardisBlue88: Thank you! There are many possibilites and things which can and will happen, but I should probably warn you now everything will not be revealed already in the first book. (I'm planning to hopefully write for the first seven books).
Thank you so much for your review, and don't worry - I like both long and short reviews! \^w^/
Gwtan12: Thank you so much for your review! It makes me happy to hear when people seem to like what I write.
invicibleBritishFishandChips: Thank you!
Murbyss: Thank you so much for your review!
o.o.o.o.o
Now, the next chapter will be about Halloween, so let's see if I can manage to write chapter 11 before our real Halloween, shall we?
I can't NOT promise anything, but it would be fun to upload the chapter about Halloween during the real one. \^w^/