The Trials of Life, Love...and Mischief

Fred gazed casually across the table at the girl sitting in front of him. He had met her only a few weeks ago, and yet he felt as if he had known her forever. They had met earlier that summer in an ice cream parlour in Diagon Alley, where she had sat at a table in the corner looking scared and practically near tears. He still didn't understand what had drawn him to her then, a perfect stranger, but he guessed it was the strong feeling of compassion and sympathy he had felt for her.

As he approached, she looked up at him in surprise. It was then that he got his first good look at her. She seemed very pretty from his perspective, with long, dark, wavy red hair, startling green eyes, and full lips that puckered into a natural pout. He began with a simple introduction. "Hi, my name's Fred, what's yours?"

Without replacing the look of surprise, she shyly answered, "Devian"

"Mind if I sit?"

"No, go ahead."

As Fred sat, he spoke again, "I noticed you looked a little upset about something. I know you don't know me or anything, but would you care to talk about it?"

"Alright then... but it's kind of a long story, are you sure you want to hear it?"

" I have all the time in the world, go ahead."

She took a deep breath before talking again, " Well, first of all, I'm not even from here, I'm from the U.S. I ran away, and was hoping to transfer to the school here."

"What about your family?" He asked with concern.

"They won't miss me, I have been moved into three different foster families within the past two years,and there wasn't much chance for me to get to know any of them very well," at this she looked down, her eyes filling with tears, "I've never known my real parents, although I have been told my mother died giving birth to me, and my father... well I think he might be living here, although I don't know his name or anything. That's part of the reason why I came here, the only thing I know about him is that he supposedly is living around this area. I don't really have much hope of finding him, though, mainly I just want to start a new life."

"Wow." He was at a loss for words now, "umm... you came here to go to school, that means your going to Hogwarts, then?"

She nodded silently.

"So where are you staying until school starts?" Fred asked, desperately trying to keep the conversation going.

"Well, that's the problem I'm having right now. You see, I came here with my boyfriend, and we were going to live together, we had it all worked out until last night, when he took all the money and left me. I guess I should have listened to my friends when they told me he was a loser. Now I have no place to go, and it's still another month and a half before school starts! I just don't know what I'm going to do," she finished, looking deeply depressed.

Fred tried to think of something he could say, anything that would make her feel better. He was at a loss for words, not possibly being able to understand how she was feeling, having himself come from a large family who had always loved and supported him. Finally, said the only thing he could think of, and it had seemed like a good idea at the time, although he knew his mother wouldn't exactly be pleased about it. "Hey, Devian, I'm really sorry about all the stuff that's happened to you, and your boyfriend, he sounds like a real ass," Devian laughed dully at this, "but I think I might be able to help you...you could come live with me and my family for the rest of the summer if you would like."

"I would love that!" she exclaimed. " But are you sure you want me to? Because I basically am a stranger to you."

"I want you to live with us. Besides, it will give us a great chance to get to know each other before school starts."

"And your family, will they be okay with this?"

"Well, they may be a little shocked at first, but they are all caring people, they would never be able to turn you away."

As they made their way back to the Burrow, Fred had told her a little about his family. "lets see...my dad works for the Ministry of Magic, my mum is basically a house wife, and I have five brothers and one sister. The two oldest, Bill and Charlie, don't live with us anymore: Bill works for Gringotts in Egypt, and Charlie works with dragons in Romania. Next is Percy, he only graduated from Hogwarts two years ago, he works foe the Ministry with dad, and he still lives at home. Then it's George, who's the same age as me because we're twins. Ron is the youngest boy, two years below us, and finally, Ginny, my sister, the youngest of us all, is a year below Ron. I think that's all of them," he said, grinning.

"Wow, you have a big family. It must be nice having so many people around you."

"Yea, sometimes, but mostly it just means that I never even get an ounce of privacy," he said, and suddenly stopped, for they had reached the front door of the house. As he pushed open the door, Fred glanced back at Devian, who looked slightly nervous. He gave her an encouraging smile, which she returned, and they proceeded together into the house.

It had not been as bad as he had thought it would be, thinking back on it, his mother had actually expressed as much compassion for Devian, and it wasn't long before she and everyone else truly felt that she fit in.

"Hey, Fred, are you done eating yet? It's almost time to leave!" Devian said, snapping Fred out of his flashback. It was clear that she was excited about her first day of school, as she had been rushing aroung all morning making sure she had everything she was taking, and even offering to help everyone else pack.

"Yea, I'm done. Is everyone else ready to leave?" he asked, looking around the table as everyone nodded.

They took taxis to King's Cross station, where they would be catching the train that would take them to Hogwarts. Soon enough they were all on the train waving good bye to Mrs.Weasly as it pulled away.

Fred, George, Devian, Ron, and Ginny were soon joined in their compartment by Ron's two best friends, Harry and Hermione. As they were introduced, Devian suddenly felt that she shared some kind of connection with Harry, although she knew this was absurd, she had never met the boy before. They passed the time by playing games and laughing and joking around with each other, Fred and George mainly keeping them all entertained.

Sometime after lunch, they were interrupted in their frivolities when the compartment door opened and a tall boy with blonde hair walked in. Devian normally would have thought he was cute, but there was something about him, maybe in the smug smile he wore, or the patronizing look in his eyes as he surveyed them all, that told her he was definately not a prospective new friend. As he opened his mouth to speak, she noticed that an increasing amount of tension was filling the room. "Well, I see nothing has changed over the summer, all the Weasleys, still as poor as ever, along with Granger and Potter, the mudblood and the hero," he said this last bit with definite sarcasm and extra hatred.

But then he turned to look at Devian, and she saw something change in his expression; he obviously hadn't noticed her on the first glance around the compartment. The coldness in his eyes flickered, and she actually thought she saw a small smile start to spread across his face before Harry spoke, gaining everyone's attention. "Why don't you just save your breath and leave, Malfoy, we're not going to fight you, and I know that's all your looking for."

And, to everyone's great surprise, Malfoy said nothing, but turned around and left, but not before sneaking one quick glance at Devian. "Who was that?" Devian asked as soon as the door was shut.

"That," replied Fred, "was Draco Malfoy, and I suggest that you stay away from him, he's evil, only cares about causing trouble for other people," he finished, rather vehemently. He too had noticed the look Malfoy had given Devian, and was none too thrilled about it.

As the train finally pulled to a stop, they stepped outside to find that it was raining. They made their way through the crowd toward the carriages that would take them to school, but Devian suddenly slipped, and had begun to fall, when she felt two hands grab her from behind and pull her back up. She whirled around to see who had saved her, and found herself face to face with Draco Malfoy, who was still holding her by the waist.

"You'll want to watch where you step, it looks rather slippery around here," he said, casually.

"Ummm...thanks."

"Don't mention it," he replied with a grin, then turned and walked away, quickly disappearing into the crowd.

The rest of the night passed by uneventfully; they had watched the sorting take place, eaten, and went to bed. (Devian had also been ssorted and was now in Gryffindor).

The following morning brought the first day of lessons. Devian was pleased to see that her first class was potions, which had always been her best subject. Fred and George had potions as well, but they didn't seem as happy about it as she did. Her good mood was deflated as they explained to her that the potions professor was the meanest in the school.

As she descended the steps to the dungeon, a feeling of dread started to form in the pit of her stomach. It didn't help that despite the hint of warm weather left outside, there was a slight chill in the lower part of the castle that made her shiver.

"You okay? You look kand of sick," Fred said, glancing sideways at her.

She hadn't even noticed that the twins had caught up to her. She smiled inwardly to herselfas she thought how much the resembled body gaurds at the moment, stading on either side of her, both with identical looks of concern on their faces.

"Yea, I'm fine, just a little nervous about the firsy day of classes. What you told me about Snape doesn't exactly help, either."

"Well, sorry about that, just thought I'd warn you, instead of letting you find out the hard way."

"I'm sure he can't be that bad," she said, thinking that what Fred had said about Malfoy hadn't exactly been proven true yet.

"Look, you haven't even seen Malfoy at his worst," Fred seemed to be reading her thoughts.

Frowning, she was about to reply when she was cut short by the sudden presence of a tall man with dark hair and a permanent scowl. This was abviously Professor Snape, she thought. Although she had pictured him as scary and old, the man standing in front of her fit neither of those characteristics. It was true he did look mean enough, but she thought if he would just smile, he might actually be handsome. That thought alone was enough to help her make it through the grueling potions lesson.

As Devian sat with Fred and George to eat lunch, she had the feeling she was being watched. She looked up and straight across the room to find Draco gazing fixedly at her. As their eyes met, he smiled and gave a little wave, which she surprisingly found herself returning.

"What are you smiling about?" Ron asked Devian, sitting directly in front of her and blocking her view.

"Huh, what? I was smiling?" she asked, snapping out of her trance.

Ron turned to see what she had been staring at, and found nothing but Malfoy, who was still looking in their direction. "Oh My God!" he exclaimed, finally catching on, "you fancy Malfoy, don't you?"

Devian quickly looked around to make sure that no one was listening before replying. "Promise you won't tell anyone, okay?"

"Ugh, why did it have to be Malfoy? Alright, fine, I won't tell anyone," he finished, after Devian had given him a threatening look. "You know what? I reckon he fancies you, too."

"How do you figure that?" she asked, in what she hoped was a casual tone.

"Well he hasn't insulted you for one," he said, grinning," I saw the look he gave you on the train, and he's probably still staring at you," at this, Ron turned around to see, "yep, I was right, he is still staring at you. How much more proof do you need?"

Devian didn't reply, but finished eating quickly because she had wanted to go the library to look something up. She had made it out of the great hall and was about to go up the stairs when someone spoke. "Done eating already?" She didn't have to turn around to know that the voice belonged to Draco, but she did anyway.

"Yea, I was just going to go to the library for a little bit, there were some things I wanted to look up."

"Wow, what a coincidence, that's just where I was heading," he said.

"Really?"

"No, I just wanted a chance to speak with you. But I guess that means I'm going to the library anyway, now it's just not a coincidence."

They walked together in silence to the library. As Devian wondered through the isles looking at the books, Draco decided to break the silence. "So what are you looking for?"

"I just had Care of Magical Creatures and Hagrid gave us a report on Unicorns."

"Ugh, I hate that class."

"I thought the Unicorns were pretty! How can you not like those creatures?"

"I guess I'm just not a 'pretty' kind of guy."

"Well, I think your pretty!"

"Uhhh...am I supposed to take that as a compliment?"

"Yes," she said, blushing at the comment she hadn't meant to make.

As they continued to peruse the many shelves of books, Draco noticed a look of frustration come across Devian's face. "What's wrong?"

"Well, I found the book I need, it's that big pink one the whole way up there, where I can't reach."

He looked up at the bright pink book on the top shelf, Unicorns and Such by Ivanna Humpalot, and realized he couldn't reach it either.

"You can use one of those ladders over there," he said, pointing.

"But aren't those off limits to students?"

"That's never stopped me before," he said with a smirk, as he retrieved one of the ladders and placed it in front of Devian for her to use. "Go ahead, climb up, I'll hold it for you."

As she slid between him and the ladder, she found herself close enough to notice that he smelled of cinnamon and musk, which she found comforting. When she got to the top of the ladder and reached for the book, a loud noise from the next isle startled her, causing her to lose her footing and fall right into Draco's awaiting arms. Fortunately, she had grabbed the book before falling. But at the moment the book was far from the first thing on her mind. Their faces were less then an inch apart. She could feel his heart racing, and wondered if he could feel hers as well. It seemed that neither person wanted to move, and very slowly their lips came together in a kiss that started slow, but soon became passionate and heated.

Suddenly, they were interrupted by a loud, disgusted sqeal coming from the end of their isle. Simultaneously their heads turned in the direction of Hermione, who was standing with one hand over her mouth and a horrified expression on her face. After a few seconds of uncomprehensible babble from Draco and Devian, they were cut short by the bell to end lunch. As they hurried past a very confused Hermione, Devian whispered to her, "Look, I'll explain later, just don't tell anyone right now, please."

As Draco wallked her to her class, Devian asked with a sly grin, "So what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Well, I kind of already got my point across, although it didn't exactly involve talking," and at that, he leaned in quickly and gave her a soft kiss before leaving for his own class.

She got in the door just as the late bell rang. As she sat next to Fred, he noticed that she looked flushed, and rather pleased about something.

"Where have you been?" he whispered, trying not to be overheard by the teacher.

"In the library!" she exclaimed with much enthusiasm.

"And that's exciting why?"

"Uhhh...the books are rather interesting this time of year..."

Fred gave her an unconvinced look of suspicion as they returned to their work.