"Fifteen letters she sent," mumbled Ron as he and Harry passed Tessa's compartment. "Wouldn't even send mum fifteen letters."
Tessa stiffened her body as she glared at Fred and George. She whipped around and poked her head out of their cabin. "Didn't your mum teach you not to eavesdrop," yelled Tessa at the back of Ron's head. He mumbled something to Harry and pushed further into the ever growing crowd of students.
"You can't get mad at us Tessa," said Fred with a smirk. "Found out on his own."
"Don't say one word about it," said Tessa vehemently as she grabbed for Rosie's cage and speed walked toward the exit with the twins' laughter echoing behind her. She braced the wind and icy rain as she ran clutching the cage to her chest.
Fred and George caught up beside her and pointed at Lee waving his arms near a covered carriage. Fred ran passed her and opened the door. "Ladies first," yelled Fred as he bowed slightly.
"Thanks," shouted Tessa as she quickly leaped into an open seat, and waited for the twins who seated shortly after her.
"Something's happening I know it," said Fred to Lee once George shut the carriage door.
"Me too," said Lee excitedly. "That Malfoy prick was talking about something great happening in the changing rooms," said Lee annoyingly. "Mostly bragging about how he knows more than any of the other students." He rolled his eyes and shrugged as the carriage lurched forward.
"MY FATHER—," shrieked Tessa in a horrible imitation of Malfoy. The three boys roared with laughter that blurred the sound of the gale force winds and clapping of rain against the windows.
"My Father will hear about this Thornhill," roared George waving his wand around flimsily.
"Such a prick," chuckled Lee who leaned back into the seat holding his aching stomach.
Within minutes, lights illuminated the forest to show Hogwarts in plain view. Lee leaped out of the carriage first and sprinted to the entrance. "So much for chivalry," yelled Fred as he grabbed Rosie's cage and sprinted after him. George helped Tessa out of the carriage and grabbed her hand as the rain blinded both of them temporarily.
Tessa looked up from the ground when she felt stone steps underneath her feet and the from lack of ran soaking their robes. "Chivalry eh," said Tessa as she reached Fred trying to open Rosie's cage.
"I got the cat!," said Fred defensively as he finally pulled the latch free. Rosie sprinted out of her cage and up the Great Hall stairs. "Best be getting' a move on," said Fred as he motioned Tessa to look up.
She looked up at the ceiling to notice Peeve's looming behind a Gargoyle waiting patiently. From the shaking of his shoulders Tessa could tell that he was snickering quietly, with one hand covering his mouth and the other holding a bright red balloon. Tessa nodded and quickly followed the three boys into the Great Hall doors.
It was perfect timing. Tessa assumed, as she heard students screaming in the distance. She seated herself close to the front on Fred's right as George sat on the left with Lee sitting across from the three of them. She glanced over at the Hufflepuff tables and caught Cedric's eyes boring into her. He immediately averted his gaze turning a light shade of pink. Tessa glared at his profile as he began animatedly talking to a 7th year Tesa recognized from their Quidditch team.
Tessa jumped after hearing three girls diving into the doorway. Some of the students near the entrance laughed at the three struggling to get up and scurrying to the Ravenclaw table.
"Prick," muttered Fred that made Tessa smile and nudge him slightly.
"Look who's talking," said Angelina seating herself next to Lee as she smiled at Tessa. "Looks like we have a lot to talk about."
"Yes," said Tessa quickly. "There is."
Tessa watched each of the soaking students waddle to their respected tables. She watched Harry having a one-sided conversation with a younger student and glanced at Hermione ruffling her fingers through her frizzy hair.
"Don't worry so much," said Fred.
Tessa whipped around to see Fred staring at her. "I'm not," said Tessa quietly.
"You know you can tell me and George anything right," said Fred smiling at her.
"Yeah. We can talk about it later," said Tessa smiling back.
Fred took in a breath as if he was going to say more until the doors burst open to reveal soaked first years shivering towards the front of the room for the Sorting of Houses. Tessa felt a wave of relief envelop her as Fred's attention was diverted to the front of the room.
The next morning, Tessa looked into hallways before entering them. She ate earlier than the rest of her friends, and she made sure to steer clear of any hall ways that she knew Head students would patrol before the first classes of the semester.
She sighed as she looped around the castle once more time to see more students in the Great Hall. She was flooded with relief and jogged up the stairs to the Common Room to grab her things before Potions. She trudged up to her room and grabbed her bag off of the bed and walked down the stairs, out the door, and towards the Great Hall for the fourth time this morning. She rounded the corner of a staircase and saw the twins waiting for her at the bottom.
"Fourth time is it?" Asked Fred with a smirk on his face. Tessa rolled her eyes as she stopped in front of them.
"Ready?" George asked with a smirk on his face.
"Ready as I'll ever be," replied Tessa as she turned to follow the twins to the dungeon.
"You've really got to stop doing that," said George to Tessa quietly as the halls grew thicker with chattering students.
"I don't know what—,"
"No," interrupted George as he side-eyed Tessa. "It's time to face it." He watched Tessa grow rigid in her movements as she weaved through the crowd towards the class door.
"Fine," Tessa muttered as she opened the doors to the Potions classroom.
Fred and Lee sat down at a middle desk fit for four. George and Tessa followed suit and grabbed their cauldrons. Lee sat on the far left and Fred on the third chair leaving the far right seat open and a seat in between Fred and Lee. Tessa clutched her cauldron close to her body as she weaved through the ever growing crowd and decided on sitting in between Fred and Lee considering a group of boys, leering at the girls tucking their skirts in before carefully sitting on the high bar chair, were sitting across from them. Angelina luckily sat behind Tessa along with Alicia Spinnet and two Ravenclaw girls.
"Hey! Tessa," said Felicia Ansley as she placed her bag under the table. "Heard you had a great Summer with a certain Quidditch player." She winked at Tessa who grew bright red with anger.
"Wood was such a great chaser," said Alicia from over her bag oblivious to the tense girl in front of her.
"Yes he is," said Tessa quickly as he slumped into her chair and turned around covering her slightly.
"So how was your Summer Felicia," said Angelina enthusiastically averting the girls attention from Tessa.
"Oh it was great!," said Felicia quickly turning her body towards Angelina and Alicia. "My brother and I followed the World finals up to the Cup, so cool."
"Chill," muttered Fred as he nudged Tessa to look up at the as Snape glided in the classroom. His robes hit George's hair and a few students on the right side of the classroom that made Tessa stifle a laugh.
Snape whipped around towards the classroom looking for the laughter. In return, monotonous faces stared back at him waiting for the class to begin. Snape scoffed and whipped the blank blackboard around to reveal a detailed diagram of dates and assignments. "This is your syllabus for the first half of this semester," hissed Snape as he glared at the students who groaned at the vast list of potions. "Each of you will be working delicately on every single potion and accurately presenting them to me before this semester ends. Do I make myself clear?"
The class nodded slightly with a few angered students glaring at the extensive homework placed upon them. "Some of you," said Snape as he wove the syllabus around to show the blank board once more with much protest from students yet to finish copying the potions down. "Will be dealing with potions they've already have practiced on some students from my previous years." He glared at Tessa as he walked down the open aisle to the back of the class.
Tessa went stiff feeling his eyes still on her as he walked back to the front with a cauldron and a mass of ingredients floating behind him. "Today however we will be leaning Golpolatt's Third Law."
Tessa could feel the tension in the room suddenly relax as the students pulled out their books and began fluttering their pages. She scanned the table of Contents for the right page instead of flipping through her book.
"Miss Thornhill!"
Tess jolted in her seat that made some students laugh. She looked up to see Snape boring into her.
"Since you've hadn't moved in quite sometime from the same page perhaps you can tell me what I just said about the reasoning for Golpolatt's Third Law," seethed Snape in his monotonous voice.
"Would you like an abridged version," said Tessa curtly.
A few students snorted as they continued to scribble the notes on the already filled Blackboard before they were erased. "Abridged," snapped Snape which caused the students to scribble their notes even faster.
"Golpolatt's Third Law is the method of finding and creating antidotes to certain poisons," said Tessa quickly. "It uses a series of methods with one ingredient found in a single poison that can also be used to create the antidote. It depends on the concept of whether there is one or multiple poisons in one vial. This process help—,"
"That'll be enough," snapped Snape as he whipped around to erase the board once more. Tessa sighed and looked down at her blank sheet of parchment. "I will give you point I suppose," said Snape as he turned back to the class. "Now memorize the page you have turned to. You will be reading the entire chapter along with the potions I will be showing you today. You will then write an essay on each potion and why Galpolatt's Third Law is useful for each. Close your books."
Tessa slammed her book shut hard and placed it on the ground as did some other students. "Place your cauldrons in front of you, and get these exact ingredients and materials that I have placed infront myself and take them to your assigned seats," said Snape slowly.
Tessa left the table first and walked over to their supply lockers. Fred, Lee, and George followed as they watched her measure out ingredients for the four of them, and place them in her satchel. They walked past Tessa and grabbed the tools needed to crush, stir, and mix the ingredients in the cauldron.
They made it back just in time to see Snape beginning the lesson before even half of the class were able to finish retrieving materials. "This is going to get interesting," mumbled Angelina to Tessa as she and her table quickly placed their ingredients and materials in a disorganized manner to try and catch up to Snape's lesson.
The lesson ended with most of the class losing points rather than gaining them, and left most of the student supply closets bare. "We're gonna die," muttered Tessa as she and her peers walked out of the dungeons defeated.
"It's only first and second period, and I want to go take a nap," said Angelina sadly. The rest of the group mumbled their agreements and they parted ways to their respective classes. Tessa and Angelina trudged to ancient runes as the boys quickly walked towards the library and whispering in hushed tones.
"Figures," mumbled Tessa as she lost sight of the twins in the crowd. "They're so obvious with their plans."
Angelina nodded as she wove between a group of blank faced first years visibly lost. "I would try to do the same," said Angelina confidently.
"You're lucky you don't have to," mumbled Tessa enviously. "I do hope you get it though."
Angelina's walked picked up speed as they reached Ancient Runes and clambered in with the rest of the students. "This'll be easy," muttered Angelina as she chose a two-person desk in the center of the classroom.
"Are you free next period?" Asked Tessa quietly as more students sat in their chosen seats.
"Yes," said Angelina who began pulling out parchment, ink, and a quill.
"Perfect. Cedric has been ignoring me,even in school," said Tessa quietly. She watched her friends face change from anger to confusion and curiosity.
"I'll tell you later," said Tessa quietly as she caught the eye of two Hufflepuff boys seating themselves at the desk to the right of her and Angelina.
Angelina nodded in response as Professor Babbling strolled to the front of the class.
"Settle down," said Professor Babbling as she place her wide brimmed hat of the teacher's desk and turned to the massive blackboard. "Today will be somewhat of an easy day I suppose." She began writing words and numbers on the board with blank lines beside each one. "If you could pull out your Runes dictionary, and your Syllabry we shall learn what each of these words represents. You will be given approximately five minutes for this task."
"Shit," muttered Angelina under her breath as she copied the words down while Tessa flipped through the Dictionary quickly.
"I see some of you are working together," said Professor Babbling joyfully after a minute and a half or scribbling and page turning. "Five points to each house. I suggest the one whom are working alone should work with their desk partner."
For an hour this ensued until the end the class was given 100 terms to translate and write an example of how they would be used in a sentence for homework. Tessa and Angelina trudged out of Runes towards the library.
"No wonder we're given so many free periods," mumbled Tessa as they opened they doors to the library.
"Ancient Runes isn't until Friday, so I suggest Potions first," said Angelina quietly as they walked past students already studying for their classes.
"Sounds good to me," said Tessa as she placed her bag on an empty table. She quietly walked towards the massive index in the middle of the library and began looking for books on antidotes and their uses with poisonous counter-parts while Angelina set up their table.
Tessa walked back with an arm full of books to see the twins sitting with Angelina and talking quietly.
"Bout time you showed," said George jokingly.
Tessa rolled her eyes and place the book on the table. "And you should actually be studying," said Tessa as she snatched Fred's notes from the table.
"Manners!," said Fred annoyingly as he watched Tessa rummage through their notes from their previous free period.
"Aging potion. Nice," whispered Tessa as Angelina walked away from the table. She read the surprisingly detailed notes with some materials crossed out along with new materials written beside is. It wasn't as messy as their normal notes which would have been splattered with ink and merlin knows what, but that'll happen soon enough.
"I have all of this," said Tessa quietly as she read the ingredients.
"Could you help us," said Fred.
Tessa looked up at Fred staring at her with a grin. George and Lee acted like nothing was being said as they copied Angelina's notes from potions.
"Sure," said Tessa with a smile. "We have the same free periods so that shouldn't be a problem."
"So are you going to tell us about the asshole or not," said Angelina as she sat back down with a armful of books.
"He's ignoring me. Didn't respond to my owls and he still hasn't tried to talk to me here in person," said Tessa annoyingly.
"What a ballsy prick," said Angelina shaking her head.
"Yeah," said Angelina opening her potions book.
Tessa nodded without looking up from the copying a potion onto a crisp piece of parchment.
The rest of the free period was filled with homework, and less about extra curricular activities. All left the library for lunch that was also very bland in the circumstances of students complaining about their morning classes and the homework that came along with it. Arithmancy was relatively easy considering the class walked out with only one chapter to read along with fifty problems to solve, and even then that homework was the least amount of worry with finishing on time.
"When do you want to meet for Runes homework?" Asked Angelina as they walked into the crowded halls.
"Good, because we need your notes," said George jokingly as he opened the door to their DADA class.
There were already a few students that arrived early and sat in the front desks. They were quietly whispering among themselves and staring at the office on top of the stairs. "I wonder how the old coot's first day is going to be," said Lee quietly as Tessa sat next to him.
"Dunno," replied Tessa. "My parents told me stories about him when he was in his prime." The frantic whispers at the front of the room turned into deafening silence. Tessa sighed and threw her bag on the floor loud enough to jolt a ravenclaw girl to converse among her friends once more. The front half of the class dully filled with whispers once more and Tessa leaned back into her seat as she watched the rest of the filling quickly.
"Tell me later," whispered Lee as he watched some Slytherin boys shove their way to the 2nd row of desks to the giggling girls. Lee rolled his eyes and grabbed for his book underneath his table.
"You won't be need books today," said a raspy deep voice that caused Lee to drop the book quickly into his bag.
Silence filled the room except for the dull thudding of Professor Moody limping to the front of the class.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts," said Moody with seriously. "This class will not be a walk through the fields. You will learn the process of the Dark Arts and also learn how to defend it."
The class grew deathly silent as they patiently waited for Professor moody to speak again.
"Today we will learn about the Imperius Curse, and how to resist it," said Professor Moody as he pulled out a spider in a jar and placed it on the table.
"Shit," whispered Fred as he leaned forward in his seat.
"Up; up; up," said Professor Moody as he made the students form a line in the middle of the classroom.
Each student one by one tried to resist the curse and failed as they danced on top of desks or ran around the room.
"Thornhill," said Professor Moody as a released the curse on Lee whom found himself underneath two desk and tried ti wriggle his way out. "The famous hatstall of recent. McGonagall told me about you."
Tessa immediately felt a wave of energy hit her that made her feel euphoric and at ease.
"Run," said the voice in her head as she lunged forward slightly.
"That's not wise," thought Tessa to herself.
"Run to the window and back," said the voice. The fog in her mind grew thicker as Tessa pushed it away, and tried to keep her body still with some lack of her feet lifting up and down as if she was stepping in place.
"Finally," roared Professor Moody.
Tessa felt the fog lifted from her mind and she fell to the floor breathing heavily.
"One of you finally withstood! Well done Miss Thornhill. Ten points to Gryffindor!," said Professor Moody joyously.
The class clapped slightly as Fred helped Tessa to her feet.
"Here Miss Thornhill," said Professor Moody. He shoved a vial of bright pink potion in her hands. "Will give you a boost of energy you'll need it, and here's some water." He poured a glass of water from the pitcher he had placed on his desk.
"Thanks," said Tessa as she took the potion and the glass of water. "Alright next," said Professor Moody as Tessa sat in her seat and watched for the rest of the group to finish.
"That was so sick," said Lee as the four walked out of the classroom.
"I know right!," said George as he helped create a path to the great hall.
"You did great Tess," said Fred as he patted her on the shoulder.
"Thanks," said Tessa as she sipped on the last of her water.
"So about that proposal on studying tonight wanna meet after the…eh…you know," said Fred as his cheeks flushed.
"Yeah shouldn't take long," said Tessa non-chalantly. "I have to met her after dinner anyways."
The group walked into the great Hall just in time to reach an adequate seat before the room filled with students. Hermione sat at her bench seething until she saw Tessa sitting beside her.
"I'm creating a club," said Hermione immediately. She pulled out a piece of paper and a muggle pen as she shoved it in front of Tessa on the table.
"S.P.E.W.," said Hermione matter of factly. "It's—,"
"No one wants to hear about it," said Ron gruffly as food popped onto the table.
"This is what I'm talking about," said Hermione pointing at the food. "It's not right!"
She and Ron continued to argue as Tessa slowly pushed the paper back in front of Hermione. The twins chuckled as they watched Tessa click the pen and place it on top of the paper unnoticed.
"I can't believe you sometimes," said George joyfully.
"And what's that supposed to mean," replied Tessa jokingly as she reached for a stack of rolls in front of Lee who was to enveloped in a Fifth year girl that decided to strike up a conversation with him before they reached the great Hall.
"You're too nice," said Fred and he looked at Tessa intently.
"To our friends. I support anything my friends decide to do. Within reason," said Tessa as she glared at the twins who side-eyed each other .
"But our reasons are supportive too," said George. "Now that they actually are being put into action."
"Our pranks are for something bigger. We've been working all Summer," said Fred no longer able to hold his excitement,
"I don't—,"
"We'll tell you later," interrupted George as he glanced at Harry who quickly grew too fascinated by half empty food on his plate.
"Later it is," replied Tessa as she dug into the dessert that popped onto the table in front of them.
"I wonder how she's doing," said Fred as him and his brother left the Common Room and shut the painting behind them.
"I'm sure she's fine," said George for the second time that evening. He rolled his eyes as his brother continued into another scenario of Tessa's well-being. There are too many to count that he has already discussed with George in the past hour so there was no need to listen to this one.
"You know she's dealt with meaner guys than Cedric," said George annoyingly. "You need to see that she can take care of herself."
"I know," said Fred. He slumped slightly as they both trudged down the stairs. "I'm just worried." Fred glared at George before he could say anything.
"Yeah you are," said George as they saw Tessa enter the library as they turned the corner of the hall.
Fred mumbled something, but it was too quiet for George to hear.
"You'll figure it out soon enough," said George as he closed the Library door behind them.