Chapter Ten

As October rolled through the castle and the coursework became more grueling, Vanessa was grateful that it had been a particularly casual year so far. It was still too early to say so, but she was becoming more and more at ease with the fact that Harry did not seem to be in any danger so far this year and was beginning to let her guard down some.

Additionally, Tori was so busy with her own homework and Quidditch practice, she hardly had any time for her usual antics with the twins. Though Nessa had found her snogging Eddie Carmichael in an empty classroom one afternoon so she was obviously finding some form of time within her schedule to blow off steam. The twins were also keeping a rather sharp eye on her after Quidditch practice which Nessa assumed meant she had taken back up in flirting with Wood and they didn't want to give her any opportunity to succeed in entrancing him, something Nessa found particularly amusing.

As they got further and further into the month and the weather became chillier, Nessa spent the majority of her time outside of class in baggy sweaters with a blanket over her shoulders in an attempt to keep warm within the castle. Wizards may have found a way to get by with magic, but Nessa felt that Muggles had the upper hand in keeping themselves warm while indoors.

When the twins and Tori sought her out that Friday evening, a couple of weeks before Halloween, that was exactly how they found her — in a corner of the common room, a blanket pulled up to her chin as she poured over her Transfiguration textbook, grumbling about how much she hated the subject.

"You look cute all bundled up, munchkin," said Fred with a grin as he took a seat next to her.

She huffed at the use of the nickname that he had taken to calling her in the last several weeks, but largely ignored him. She was employing a technique of pretending that the nickname did not bother her to see if that would diminish his desire to use it. So far, it had not been working.

"Tori tells us that you aren't going to Hogsmeade tomorrow," said George, sitting on her opposite side. Nessa glared over at Tori, but continued to say nothing. "No better way to celebrate your birthday than Hogsmeade, love."

"The Dursleys didn't sign my permission form —"

"Because you didn't ask them to —" interjected Tori, crossing her arms petulantly. This was a repeated argument they had been having in the last week and she was quickly running out of patience.

"They wouldn't have signed it anyway, and you know it —"

"- and I already told you the twins can get you to Hogsmeade regardless."

"And I told you that I am not sneaking out of the castle and getting detention on my birthday."

"You've really chosen the wrong friends if you never want to get detention," said Tori seriously.

Nessa paused in scribbling on her parchment with a thoughtful expression, as though she was just now coming to the same realization.

"That's probably true, but it doesn't really change my answer," she said with a shrug after a moment's consideration. Tori threw the twins a look of irritation and sat back expectantly.

"You know, I thought you had more nerve than this, Nessa," said Fred with a smirk. Nessa snorted.

"That's very cute, Fred, but that's not going to work," she said amusedly.

"She's right," said George, sighing sadly and leaning back in his chair with his hands behind his head. "We're going to have to try a different route, Fred,"

"Don't start, George," she warned, rubbing her eyes in frustration, both due to the people bothering her and also because no matter how hard she tried she could not explain the theory between turning a teapot into a tortoise.

Why would I even need to turn a teapot into a tortoise anyway? She thought bitterly. George smirked at her obvious frustration and leaned over to look at what she was writing.

"The size of the object doesn't have any impact on whether you can transform an object into something living, by the way," he said, pointing at a part of her essay that she had clearly crossed out a number of times. "And your posture is more important than imagining the tortoise you're trying to create."

Nessa snatched her essay from him in frustration, finding the amused look on his face far more irritating than the fact that he was pointing out her obvious errors.

"What is it going to take to make the three of you go away?" she grumbled, slamming her book shut and wadding up the essay she had been half-heartedly attempting to write for the last two hours.

"You could sneak into Hogsmeade," said Tori, grinning cheekily.

"Why can't you go alone and irritate Fred and George instead of me for once?" said Nessa in irritation. Tori rolled her eyes and continued grinning at her.

"She's been doing that her entire life, munchkin," said Fred, earning him a kick to his leg and a glare from Tori. "It's time you two shared the honor. You know, now that you aren't cowering from us anymore."

"Cowering?!" said Nessa indignantly, sitting up straighter to glare at him. George placed a placating hand on her shoulder and sent his twin a pointed look.

"What Fred meant to say," said George firmly, smiling at her kindly. "Is that we would like you to come to Hogsmeade with us because we've grown rather fond of you and no one deserves to be in the castle doing homework on their birthday."

Fred rolled his eyes and muttered "Sap," and Nessa sat back, crossing her arms with a pout, her glare softening slightly as she looked over at George, who ignored his brother and raised his eyebrows expectantly at her.

"That's very sweet, George, but I really do not want to take the risk," she said, biting her lip anxiously. "And besides, I really have to finish this Transfiguration essay before Monday."

George smirked conspiratorially.

"You won't get caught. Fred and I have been sneaking into Hogsmeade for some time now and they've never seen us." he said, leaning back casually. "Besides, you could clearly use help with that essay and I happen to be very adept at Transfiguration. If you sneak out, I'll help you with it."

"I don't need help with it," she said, rolling her eyes and refusing to admit that she was tempted to take him up on the offer. "I can do the essay on my own."

Tori snorted.

"Please, Vanessa," she said with a smirk. "Your tortoise had a spout for a head. You could use all the help you can get."

"I'm never helping you with Potions ever again, Tori," she said petulantly as the twins laughed.

"Come on, love," said George with a grin as he leaned forward to make eye contact with her. She hated the cocky raise of his brow about as much as she hated the Transfiguration essay. "You can't be such a goody-two-shoes all the time. "

"You'll drive yourself as batty as Percy if you keep up like this, " said Fred, grinning as cockily as his twin. "Rules are meant to be broken and we're very good at breaking them —"

"No safer hands than ours if you're looking to learn, darling," George finished with a tilt of his head.

"I wasn't looking to learn," she muttered to herself but did not take her eyes off of George as she considered.

She really did not enjoy the idea of sneaking into Hogsmeade at all, if she were honest. She wanted to go, of course, because it would be interesting to see an entirely magical village, but she didn't think that it was really worth it to get detention — or likely several detentions — just for a day away from the castle. She had been prone to breaking rules on a few occasions with Tori and had even turned a blind eye to the twins and Tori's discretions, but sneaking around the castle after curfew and drinking in the confines of her dormitory where no one would see her seemed far less intimidating than strutting into Hogsmeade when she wasn't allowed. She was not entirely sure it was a risk worth taking.

Even knowing how dreadful it would be to work on the Transfiguration essay the entire day instead. Of course, having George help her with the essay seemed an easier option than writing it herself and would certainly make her day much less taxing. And Tori was absolutely correct that she could use all the help she could get in Transfiguration. The fact that she had such a hard time in the subject when all of the others came to her so easily without even needing to study was something she greatly despised.

She could see Fred open his mouth to say something out of the corner of her eye as she continued to consider, but George held up a finger to his brother without looking away from her. Even within the short amount of time that she'd spent with him, he had become quite accustomed to waiting for her to think through every possible angle to quell her anxieties, and he seemed to understand that being patient with her inner turmoil was the best way to get her to come to her own conclusions without overwhelming her further. She found this both endearing and extremely irritating at the moment.

She sighed heavily and decided that giving in was likely the lesser of two evils. Tori grinned before she even opened her mouth.

"Fine," she said finally, ignoring the pleased hum George made in response and his knowing wink after. "But if I get detention, I'm taking every single one of you down with me."

Fred clapped his hands together in agreement of the deal and George leaned back into his chair and made himself comfortable with a grin.

"We'd expect nothing less."

-o0o-

Nessa stared wearily at the statue of the one-eyed crone that the twins had indicated had a secret passage that would lead her straight to Honeydukes cellar. She was beginning to think that she should not have agreed to do this. If she didn't show up to Honeydukes at the time she had promised Tori and the twins though, she was sure she would never hear the end of it. So summoning up all the Gryffindor courage she had, she took out her wand and tapped the witch's hump whispering "Dissendium!"

The hump opened up immediately to allow a fairly thin person to slip through. She looked up and down the corridor a couple of times before groaning quietly and trying to climb the statue enough to slip through. She grumbled to herself because the twins had not advised her she would need to climb into the passage and she was short enough that it was considerably more difficult than she had expected. She nearly screamed when she finally was able to pull herself forward and unexpectedly slid headfirst down the passage until she had reached the end of the slope.

She stood, still muttering to herself in irritation, and brushed off the dust from her sweater and jeans. Using her wand to light the passage before her, she followed the twists and turns until she met the end where a trapdoor indicated she had arrived at her intended destination. Her feet ached and she was sweating and panting from the exertion — the twins had conveniently also failed to mention the hundreds of stairs and the deep slope she'd have to climb to get here.

Getting out of the cellar unnoticed was perhaps the easiest part of the adventure and she looked around for her friends once she had reached the main floor of Honeydukes. The store was so packed full with Hogwarts students she was hardly able to move, but she spotted the twins' bright red hair toward the back of the shop. Pushing herself forward, she finally managed to reach them where they were watching Tori bemusedly as she stacked as much chocolate as she could carry in her arms.

"What took you so long?" Tori queried as she came to stand next to her. "I half thought you'd changed your mind."

"Yeah, well, I should have," grumbled Nessa with a roll of her eyes. "I'm much shorter than you lot. It took me ten minutes to climb that stupid statue to get into the passage." Lee snorted and Nessa shoved him playfully away from her before eyeing Tori in amusement. "Tori, I think you've got enough chocolate. You're going to clear them out."

"This will be gone by next week and you know it," she muttered, tilting her head to determine if she'd prefer the nougat stuffed chocolates or the peanut butter. "The non-chocolate candy is over there," she gestured half-heartedly in the opposite direction. "For weirdos like you who think it's disgusting."

"You don't like chocolate?" said Lee indignantly, eyeing her as if she had sprouted two more heads. "What kind of person doesn't like chocolate?"

Nessa rolled her eyes — people were always so dramatic about her dislike for the confection. She had a preference for white chocolate or caramel and pointedly grabbed a giant bar of white chocolate from the bin next to her and stayed well clear of anything else surrounding her.

George smirked and pulled her by the elbow to the area Tori had pointed to earlier just as Tori had begun to shove things she couldn't carry into Fred's arms, who looked decidedly annoyed at her insistence on buying any chocolate she could get her hands on.

"Before she starts making me carry her arsenal of candy too," he said with a grin when Nessa eyed him questioningly.

He grinned widely when she became suddenly enraptured by the shelves upon shelves of candy before her. She eyed the treats in front of her in excitement as she passed. She had never seen a place with so many sweets in all her life. Shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, honey-colored toffees, Every Flavor Beans, and a large barrel of Fizzing Whizbees, levitating sherbet balls. She grabbed some toffee and Fizzing Whizbees and made her way down the store with George following some ways behind her, though she was hardly paying him any mind at this point.

Along another wall labeled 'Special Effects sweets' she grabbed Droobles Best Blowing Gum, Peppermint creams that were shaped like toads, a package of sugar quills, and some exploding bonbons. Despite George's attempt to get away from Tori so he didn't have to carry her treats, he only chuckled when Nessa began shoving things into his arms so she could continue to grab more boxes of candy. She scrunched her nose in distaste when they reached a wall labeled UNUSUAL TASTES and came upon the blood-flavored lollipops. George chuckled again.

"Vampires," he said in amusement.

"And those?" said Nessa in horror, pointing at a jar of Cockroach Clusters.

"The daft have to eat too, love," he said, shrugging and laughing when she grabbed his arm and pulled him in the direction of their friends again in an attempt to get away from the offending candies.

When Fred noticed his brother carrying a stack of candy of his own, he rolled his eyes and muttered "Women," as Tori dragged them along to pay. Once they had reached the chilly air of the outdoors, she allowed the twins and Lee to explain to her the sights of the village. They dragged her around to the Shrieking Shack and tried, unsuccessfully, to convince her to jump the fence and run to touch the door. They then dragged her to Zonko's where they spent an inordinate amount of time stocking up on prank items and eyeing the newest products in interest. She had suspicions that it was merely to scout and determine how they could make something even better as George had taken to muttering to himself for quite some time, but did not buy anything.

She was grateful when they had pushed their way into the Three Broomsticks and found a table to sit for the rest of the trip. Her feet were still aching from her trip through the passage and all of the walking had not helped matters. Fred and George returned with a round of butterbeer for the table. Nessa was surprised by the sweet taste of it — creamy and rich with a hint of cinnamon and it somehow seemed to warm her insides immediately.

"And to think you were going to do homework today," said Fred, grinning smugly.

Nessa rolled her eyes and took another sip.

"Don't look so smug, Fred," she said. "There's still a chance I'll regret this. George could end up getting me a zero on my essay."

It was George's turn to roll his eyes.

"You can always do it yourself instead if you're having doubts." he said in challenge. He smirked when she glared at him in response and said nothing.

"I thought you were supposed to be nice to people on their birthday." she said with a pout.

"They usually prank people on their birthday, so be grateful they haven't done that to you." said Tori with a grin.

"Last year for my birthday they replaced my shampoo with a hair loss potion." said Lee with a shudder. "I do not look this attractive with no hair, I'll tell you that."

Nessa hid her grin behind her glass as the twins snickered.

"There's still time for us to prank Nessa," said Fred grinning. "The day's hardly over yet."

Nessa pushed her glass of butterbeer away from her immediately which made Lee and Tori laugh. She looked over at George to see if Fred was merely teasing her, but the twinkle in his eye was just as devilish as his brother's, so she couldn't really tell. She sighed heavily.

"Just don't let it be one of your untested Wheezes," she said heavily. "I've no interest in spending the rest of the day with my nose bleeding until I pass out."

"How about a Canary Cream then?" said George diplomatically.

"Won't turn you into a canary, but it'll give you a very cute little beak." Fred grinned.

"I'll pass, thanks," Nessa said, laughing lightly. "Tori's birthday is next week, you can give it to her instead."

"Absolutely not," said Tori, hastily. "Fred has already insulted my nose once this year. We'll leave it at that."

"We've got something special for her this year, anyway," said Fred.

"What does that mean?" said Tori, a mixture of fear and weariness crossing her face. Neither twin answered her and she sent a panicked look at Nessa before eyeing George with increased desperation. "George, what does he mean?"

"Can't tell you," said George, shrugging innocently. "It'll ruin the surprise."

"I don't even like surprises! No surprises!"

Nessa and Lee made eye contact with each other before bursting into a fit of laughter. Tori continued to badger the twins relentlessly for the rest of their time in Hogsmeade and was nearly distraught by the time Nessa waved them off to make her way back to the passage in Honeydukes.

Her entire walk back to the castle all she could think was that she really hoped the twins did not really have plans to prank her.

-o0o-

She had gone the entirety of the day without any signs of mischief from the twins. Part of her was comforted by this knowledge and another part of her was growing increasingly weary that they were just waiting for the most opportune time. It wasn't even really that she would mind that much if they did prank her because she had a fairly good sense of humor and not much offended her. But the anticipation of a future prank was even worse than if they'd actually chosen to just do it and get it over with.

She tried to remind herself that the twins were fairly harmless, but she had still jumped a mile when they had joined her on the couch after dinner that evening where she had been finishing her translations for Ancient Runes. They had grinned at her so mischievously that she'd nearly gone to bed right then despite the fact that it was only eight o'clock. It was only the reminder from George that she needed to get her Transfiguration essay done before Monday that she had chosen to stay.

As ten o'clock rolled around, she was still sitting around the coffee table with her parchment and ink littered around her. George was next to her on the floor, sitting so close to her that his entire leg was pressed against her and the odd mixture of gunpowder and cinnamon permeated her senses. As it was, it took all of her effort not to blush every time his hand brushed against hers and she was both confused by the reaction and extremely grateful that he seemed to be so focused on helping her that he didn't seem to notice her reaction to him.

The essay had, thankfully, been completed an hour prior, but George had insisted she work on trying to transfigure the teapot again now that she understood the theory a little better. Theory, apparently, was not enough for her to get the spell to work, however, as her tortoise was still mostly metal. Despite her increasing frustrations, George was surprisingly patient with her ill attempts and refrained from mocking her which she was thankful for.

"I'm losing it, George," she said ten minutes later, glaring at her teapot. "I'm serious. I'm going to throw this stupid teapot out the window."

Fred, Tori, and Lee had since gone to bed and she and George were among the few stragglers left within the common room. He laughed and pulled her back up to a seated position, as she had thrown herself back into the couch dramatically.

"You're doing fine, love," he said, bracingly. "You're just thinking too much."

"I'm always thinking too much," she muttered with an eye roll and muttered the incantation again with a wave of her wand. She was shocked to see that this time her teapot had turned to a tortoise, but with spouts as legs.

"You're nearly there," he said, grinning at her surprised face. "You just need to make the wand movement a bit more…brutish."

"I have no idea what that means," she replied honestly. He waved his own wand to demonstrate that the movement needed to be jerkier.

"You're too graceful with the movement," he said when she crossed her arms with a glare at his perfect tortoise. "It's a bit more sloppy than that."

She huffed and resisted the urge to bang her head repeatedly into the table. She attempted again and was slightly mollified by the fact that this time her tortoise only had its two front legs as spouts this time.

"What," she said slowly. "Are the chances that I can convince McGonagall that this is, in fact, a very rare species of tortoise?"

George grinned at her, his eyes twinkling.

"Might work on Lockhart, but Minnie's too smart for that. One more time, love."

She took a deep breath and took comfort in knowing that even if she did not manage to transfigure it this last time, she would at least be able to take a break for the night. It took her several moments after muttering the spell for her to realize that she had successfully managed to transfigure it. She stared at it, slack jawed.

"Shhh," she said in a whisper when a grinning George opened his mouth to congratulate her. "Talking might make the magic go away."

He laughed and pulled her into his side.

"I think you're safe," he said, laughter still evident in his voice. "You can try again tomorrow, but I think you've got it now."

She rubbed a hand over her face and felt herself relax a little.

"Thank you," she said genuinely, exhaustion evident in her voice and posture as she sank into him. "It would have taken me twice as long to figure that out on my own."

He acknowledged her with a hum, leaning his head back against the arm of the couch with his eyes closed. She poked him in the side, making him jump.

"You can't sleep here," she laughed. "You'll get a crick in your neck. C'mon, let's go to bed. I feel like I'm going to fall over."

She made to stand and collect her things, but he stopped her with an arm around her wrist. She eyed him inquiringly as he reached around the couch and pulled out a square, pink box with a white ribbon around it. He held it out to her with a smile.

"What's this?" she said, eyeing him in surprise, but accepting the box anyway.

"Well, you know, on birthdays, it's traditional to give people gifts —" She pushed him over with an eye roll at his sarcastic tone. He laughed. "Just open it."

She hesitated only a moment before pulling the white ribbon from the box gently. Lifting the lid, she grinned at the cupcake inside decorated with white frosting and with a single candle, enchanted, she assumed, both to remain lit and to prevent it from destroying the box it came in.

"I asked the house elves in the kitchens to make one," he explained when she looked at him in question. "Good thing Tori mentioned you didn't like chocolate today too or that would have been a horrible failure."

She laughed and pulled the confection out of its box gently. Somehow the simplicity of the gift was even better than the fancy, white-feathered quills she had received from Harry or the rarest apothecary set in the Wizarding world that she had received from Tori.

"I'd have appreciated it all the same," she said kindly and closed her eyes to blow out the candle. "Thank you, George. It's very sweet."

"What'd you wish for then?" he said, grinning as she ran a finger through the icing and placed it in her mouth gleefully.

"I can't tell you now can I?" she said, eyeing him in mock sternness. "Or it won't come true."

"Well, I hope it was better Transfiguration skills because you could really use some of those." he said teasingly. She narrowed her eyes at him, but she was smiling.

"You're a brat, George. I was going to share this with you, but I don't know if I will now."

She made to take a bite to punctuate her point before suddenly realizing who had given it to her and eyeing him wearily.

"I can eat this, can't I?" she said suspiciously. "It's not going to explode or turn me into a giraffe is it?"

He put a hand over his mouth to suppress the laughter he was tempted to release.

"You wound me, love," he said with a hand over his heart. "Here I am, just an innocent bloke, trying to do something nice for his friend —"

"George," she said, laughing and giving him a gentle push.

"It's not going to turn you into a giraffe," he said sincerely. "Seeing you jump every time we came near you was enough amusement for us. Now eat it."

She eyed him a moment before seeming to believe him and happily took a bite of the cupcake. It was heavenly. She was grateful herself that Tori had mentioned she didn't like chocolate today because the house elves had really outdone themselves with the strawberry cake.

She tore the cupcake in half and handed the uneaten side to him, staring at him hard when he appeared like he was going to protest. He caved with a grin.

"Are you actually planning on pranking Tori for her birthday then?" she said after a moment's silence as she savored her treat.

"Of course," he said with a grin, taking another bite of his half of the cupcake. "You only get a free pass this year, I'm afraid. On account of the fact that we didn't want to scare you away from us again."

She rolled her eyes.

"As if either of you would let me stay away for that long at this point," she muttered. "I'd have better luck getting away from the Giant Squid."

"I'll take that as a compliment," he said with a wink before looking sullenly at his last bite of cake. "I should have asked them to make a dozen."

She laughed at his expression, but silently agreed.

"I didn't know you even knew how to get into the kitchens."

"I can get into everywhere." he said in mock offense. She eyed him with a challenging eyebrow and a smirk. "Got you into Hogsmeade, didn't I?"

"Yes and conveniently forgot to mention the number of stairs and the height of the statue, but I suppose we can let that pass."

"Just go on and admit it, Potter," he said, leaning forward with an impish grin. "I've successfully made this the best birthday you've ever had."

"You know, Fred did help me get into Hogsmeade as well, so I'm not entirely sure you should be hogging all the credit."

"Ah, but he didn't get you a cupcake, now did he?"

"I suppose that does tip the odds in your favor, doesn't it?" she said with a laugh. "Although he did get me a screaming Yo-Yo and I have a hard time believing that wasn't because of you."

He laughed and pulled her into his side again.

"I would never betray you like that."

Nessa rolled her eyes and made a noise of suspicion, but said nothing.

They sat in companionable silence for some time after that and she just stared into the fire in front of her, letting her mind wander. It was odd to her how much more comfortable she was around George than his twin. She spent a lot of time with them together now, but she was very rarely alone with Fred, for which she was extremely grateful. Despite their similarities, George was a bit more empathetic than his twin and did not seem as bothered by her sudden bouts of silence. Fred could spike her blood pressure in a single moment, but George tended to balance him out enough to bring her back down to the ground.

After several minutes without either of them making a move to go to bed, she wondered briefly if he had fallen asleep. She could feel her own exhaustion setting in again, but she was entirely too comfortable tucked into his side to move and let her eyes begin to droop. She jumped when he finally spoke again.

"I thought we weren't supposed to sleep out here," he said, quietly, but never opened his eyes.

"Not sleeping," she mumbled. "Just resting my eyes."

He made a contented noise and tightened his hold on her before lifting her with him into the chair next to him and causing her to squeal at the sudden, unexpected movement. He chuckled and stretched his legs out so that they were resting on the table in front of him and moved his arm to sit around her shoulders.

"More comfortable up here," he grinned when she shifted uncomfortably.

It made no sense that this seemed more awkward than if they'd fallen asleep on the floor, and it wasn't as if she had not seen Tori and Fred in the same position hundreds of times before this and had hardly thought anything of it then. He smirked at her as if he knew what she was thinking and pulled her back into his side again before she could formulate an excuse to protest.

"Happy Birthday, Vanessa," he said, softly, meeting her eyes suddenly.

She had no idea why the simple words ignited a flutter of butterflies in her stomach. Maybe it was the way he was looking at her so sincerely or the way he was smiling gently at her or the way her full name rolled off his tongue in a way that sounded surprisingly intimate. Whatever it was, she felt herself start to blush in response.

"Thank you, George." she said before letting her eyes flutter closed again.