Snitch

Chapter Four: The Favor

I found Fred and George in their usual corner of the common room. It was obvious to me that they were in the midst of formulating another plan, for they were crouched over the desk, their bright orange heads of hair very close, pulled together by a magnetic force that only the twins could have. If I hadn’t been so adamant about helping Harry at that moment, I would probably would have been a bit put out that I again wasn’t included. As if they sensed my presence, they both turned around and smiled with devious grins. “Good evening sister,” Fred said. “What brings you to this neck of the woods?” George asked. “Are you two busy?” I asked cautiously. “We’re always busy, Gin,” Fred said with a wink. George elbowed his brother. “But as you know, we always enjoy making time for our darling little sister. What’s up?” One thing about the twins, I never had to beat around the bush with them if I needed something from them. “I need a favor,” I said plainly, gaining more confidence. “A favor? From us?” Fred gasped, feigning shock. “Why Ginny, it’s been so long since you’ve needed a favor from us, I was beginning to think that you starting your own file in Filch’s office.” “Very funny, Fred,” I said, trying not to laugh through my attempted tone of seriousness. “But actually it isn’t for me specifically. It’s for Harry.” Fred guffawed and turned to laugh into his hand. George, biting his lip himself, had kept a cooler head about it, but his tone was still a teasing one. “Harry? I thought you were done trying to impress him.” “I am,” I said defiantly. “But you want us to do something for him?” “Yes.” “A friend thing?” “YES,” I said with a bit more emphasis. George suddenly dropped his teasing tone, and said brightly. “Okay then. What do you need from us?” I shuffled my feet anxiously, looking around for anyone who might be listening in. “Well, I was just talking to Harry the other night and he told me that he wanted to talk to—“ The twins leaned in as I paused, curious for more. “Sirius,” I whispered inaudibly, and the twins nodded their head in keen understanding. I glanced around the room again before I began speaking in a hushed tone. “But Umbridge is watching the Floo Network and now the mail as well. I can’t figure out how he could do it.” George looked at me with surprise, and glanced back to his twin, who was already smirking with amusement. “That’s all? We thought it was something difficult Gin, honestly,” he said in his teasing tone. My sarcasm defense went up. “Oh really? You have it all figured out then?” “Of course,” Fred said matter of factly. “Actually, we are working on something right now that would tie in perfectly as a distraction from Umbridge.” At this point, I was so irritated with them; I had to clench my fists in order to keep from pulling my wand and hexing them right then and there. Either that, or I would have ended up pulling them along by the ears the way Mum does in order to get information out of them. What is so damn special that they could no longer include me in their high jinks? “Another plan, without me?” I said angrily, “You’ve got to be kidding me! This is so unfair!” Fred waved his hands up and down to quiet me, for my minor tantrum was becoming audible. “Will you be quiet Ginny! Now is not the time for this!” “No I won’t, Fred! Now tell me what’s going on!” I said, through gritted teeth. Nodding to his twin, Fred suddenly swept me up over his shoulder and he, with George close behind us, were rushing out of the common room before I realized what happened. I could see the surprised look on the face of the Fat Lady as we left the common room into the corridor. And she had only raised a hand in objection to the scene before George could turn around and growl, “Not a word, you nosy old bird. This is family business,” as they set off with me down the corridor with nothing other than a huff of irritation from the portrait. Finally setting me down outside of Gregory the Smarmy, Fred looked at me with disdain. “Honestly sister, I think you’re much more trouble than you’re worth sometimes,” he said. Dusting myself off with disgust, I said, “Well if you two would start including me for a change, we wouldn’t have this issue, now would we?” George took me by the shoulders and shook me gently, gaining my attention. “That’s enough Ginny. This isn’t about not including you, dammit! We would really love to include you in this, honestly, but we can’t. The stakes are too high for this one, little sister. Besides, this is just something we have to do for ourselves. Understand?” “For yourselves?” I said sarcastically, resting my hands on my hips in my best ‘Mum Pose’. “When did that ever stop you before? Come on, I can deal with not being a part of this thing, but you have to at least clue me in onto what you have planned.” Sighing, George let go of my shoulders. “Fine. If you must know then, Fred and I have decided to leave Hogwarts.” I laughed at him. “Of course you are, you idiot. You don’t actually think McGonagall would want to keep you two here for longer than necessary, would you? I mean, to think of you two here—“ Fred stepped in. “We’re leaving the day after tomorrow Ginny.” WHAT? I paused for a moment, letting it all sink in, before I finally unleashed the infamous Weasley temper upon them. “You can’t do that! You haven’t finished school yet!” I yelped. “You haven’t even taken your N.E.W.T.S.!” Fred and George seemed unfazed by my reaction, and both stood there motionless, saying not a word. Desperate, I went with another route of reasoning. “I-I’ll tell Ron, he’s a prefect now. He and Hermione could stop you. Besides, Mum is going to kill you both! It’s bad enough Percy has ostracized himself from the family, now you want to also? You just can’t leave you know!” “It’s too late Ginny,” Fred said. “We’ve already made up our minds about this.” George continued. “And don’t worry about Mum. We’ve already have spoken to Dad about it. In fact, he’s helped us quite a bit. He’s set up a place for our new store in Diagon Alley and all. Besides, we don’t have to take our N.E.W.T.S. here. We can very easily finish up our courses and take the tests through correspondence. Mum can’t say a word about it.” “But why?” I said softly. Fred put an arm around me. “It’s high time Umbridge understand that just because she has become the new school bully, doesn’t mean that she can push everyone around anymore.” I gave my brother a sarcastic look. “Well actually, it does, Fred.” “Never mind that. Because after tomorrow, we will have given Hogwarts something they least expect.” “And what, pray tell is that?” I asked teasingly. “Hope,” Fred said proudly. “Hope?” George nodded. “Yes, hope. Tomorrow, not only will be able to stick it to Umbridge in front of the school, but it will be such a grand display, that even the teachers will want to back us up.” “Godric Gryffindor would be so proud,” Fred said, holding a hand up to his heart. “There has to be another way,” I tried to reason aloud, wishing my older twin brothers could understand my selfish pain. But George was right; it really was time for them to go. There was nothing to keep them here. Not to mention that the school really did need a morale boost of epic proportions. I sighed, “This is so unfair. What am I going to do with you two gone?” Arm still around me, Fred squeezed me into a shoulder-hug and mocked my concern. “Aw, is our wittle sister going to miss her big brothers? Don’t worry, she still has her ickle Ronniekins to look after whilst we are away.” Smiling, George patted my free arm. “Besides, you really don’t need us anymore. Not really. Fred and I both agree that you’ve earned the ‘Weasley Mischief-making Seal of Approval’ some time ago. You’ll do just fine keeping our legacy alive.” “I wish I could go too.” “No you don’t,” George said. “Unlike us, you do have reasons to stay.” Playing dumb, I asked, “Reasons? What do you mean?” Fred let go of me, and began chuckling away into his shoulder, but George pulled me away from earshot of his brother, meeting my eyes with such intensity that I knew that he was about to say something that seemed most important to him. “You know he needs you, Gin. You’ve always known that you have a part to play in all of this whatever it may be. You and Harry, you’re connected by You-Know-Who for better or worse. And your wizards’ bond is strong with him.” I must have opened my mouth at this point to object, but George cut me off before I could protest his epiphany. “Don’t deny it, either, Ginny. You wouldn’t have come to us if you didn’t still care about him. And for someone who seemingly has given up on the young mister Potter, you sure do go out of the way to help him. So don’t bother.” I closed my mouth, fighting back an onslaught of tears. Dammit. I really hate when he does this sometimes; he’s as perceptive as Hermione. George went on, “Now, I hate to admit this, but I’ve seen you two together, and whether he knows it or not, you two compliment each other in such a way that I’ve never seen in any other two people—except for Ron and Hermione, but they just remind me of Mum and Dad—sheesh!” he said, shuddering as though he’d just pictured them kissing like our parents in his mind, forcing me to smile through my tears. “So don’t worry about us okay. We’ll talk to Harry and make sure that he gets a chance to talk to Sirius. You just stay here at Hogwarts and raise some hell for us okay?” Jerking my head up and down quickly in a nod back at him, I choked out, “Okay.” I began to walk back alone towards the common room when Fred called back to me, “Hey Gin, one more thing—“ “Yes?” “It would be to your best advantage to stay clear of here around five o’clock day after tomorrow, all right?” “Right.” Like hell I would. Leave it to Fred and George to keep things interesting here at Hogwarts. And this was promising to make one spectacular show. I couldn’t possibly miss it. *          *          *

 

The word 'anxious' can't possibly describe how I felt for the next two days. I even was biting my nails (something in which I haven't done in a very long time) out of nervousness. Of course, I tried to get more information out of the twins, but as always, when about to pull a prank, they seemed to have mysteriously disappeared from the halls of Hogwarts. I even tried to snoop around the east wing, especially Gregory the Smarmy, going out of my way in hopes to catch a glimpse of a clue as to what they had in store. But all I could do was pick out a nearby corner in which to watch from without being noticed. After all, I am a Weasley, and if I was caught anywhere near there by Umbridge or her Slytherin band of bullies, I was sure to be questioned about it. After lunch on the first day of the new term, I had noticed that Harry seemed on edge as well. It was obvious to me that he was anxiously awaiting his chance as well to talk to his Godfather, only contributing more to my own anxiety of the day. I also noticed that Hermione hounding him. After all, it was her duty as a Prefect to warn him of the severe consequences he would have, if he was caught. Leave it to Hermione to be stressed out by the whole situation. Strangely, Ron seemed perfectly calm about it, and said nothing to Harry. I figured he assumed that Harry's mind was made up, and unlike Hermione, had given up on trying to talk him out of it. Leaving Diviniataion, I began my usual habitual route towards common room to put my books away before dinner in the Great Hall. I checked my watch. It was nearly Four Forty-five. Dammit! There was no time, I would be sure to miss it if I went back to the common room now. As I tried to hurry past the waves of students in the hallway, I noticed Harry walking up one of the staircases alone, without Ron and Hermione. And I wondered vaguely where on earth he would be able to talk to Sirius through the floo network, as the only floo that was not monitored was probably Umbridge's floo. Oh my God, he is going to sneak into Umbridge's office! Is he completely mad? You would think that I would have figured this out as the twins' plan at this point, but I was so preoccupied by Fred and George's own grand scheme, that I never gave it a second thought until now. Harry was going to sneak into Umbridge's office, using Fred and George's prank as a diversion, and talk to Sirius with her own floo. With a new race of panicked thoughts, I suddenly felt like Hermione. I can't believe this! This is totally nutters! What if he gets caught? He will be expelled for sure this time! I was torn. Should I stay to support my brothers, or should I go to help Harry just in case he needed it. I bit my lip. It took only a millisecond to make up my mind. Before I could get up to collect my books there was an very audible 'POP!' down the hallway, and I stepped back against the wall in shock. I heard a couple of screams down the hallway, and I took in a whiff of a peculiar, but faintly familiar smell. It was Stinksap. Peeking my head out of the corner I was shocked to see a tremendous amount of vines and swampy foliage quickly crawling across the floor and walls. As I began to step back from the greening walls and ceiling, I saw Harry on the other side of the corridor, hurrying in the opposite direction of the flow of students, now crowding towards the obvious diversion in hordes, and suddenly he was out of sight. Turning around to follow him, I suddenly felt the grip of long fingers firmly holding me back. "Let him go, Gin," I heard Ron's voice saying quietly. "He needs to do this alone." I closed my eyes, bowing my head in understanding. Ron was right. It was Harry's decision to go, and the repercussions were now on him if he were caught. If I were to go after him and help him now, I could very well make the situation worse. Turning around, I allowed my older brother to engulf me in a hug, tuning out the chaos around us for just a moment. Hermione’s voice behind Ron suddenly caught my attention. “The crowd is moving towards the Great Hall, Ron,” she said worriedly, “What are the twins playing at anyway? Don’t they know they will be caught?” Lifting my head, I said solemnly, “Not tonight.” Ron took me gently by the shoulders and pushed me away just enough to look me in the eye. “Gin, what are they doing?” I looked at my brother in astonishment. They didn’t know? Fred and George had kept their plan a secret from their little brother as well? “They’re leaving Hogwarts, Ron,” I said in disbelief. Ron’s eyes widened in horror, but all he could do was utter a swear into space that caused Hermione to exclaim, “Ron!” herself. But as I thought on it more, I figured it was perfectly understandable for the twins not to tell him. Ron and Hermione were now both Prefects, and being privy to that kind of information would have possibly forced them to turn them in. Not hesitating a moment further, Ron pulled me by the arm, and made for the stairs in a dead run, not even looking back at Hermione as he shouted, “Come on!” But by the time we reached the entrance hall, just outside the Great Hall, we were too late. We shoved past a group of Hufflepuffs to find Fred and George kicking off from the ground on their broomsticks in front of Umbridge, the Inquisitorial Squad, teachers, ghosts and the rest of the entire school. Fred shouted back at Peeves, who was watching the entire scene with awe, “Give her hell from us, Peeves!” causing him to give Fred and George a salute of honor himself, as my twin brothers both soared out the front doors into the free world.