A New Year's Encounter

Chapter 3

"Hogwarts?" Mary clutched the back of George's robe and looked at him, wide-eyed. "Is something wrong? Did something happen to Penny?"

"No it's nothing like that," George responded as he grabbed her hand, yanked her off the bed and dragged her towards the open window. Mary was grateful she had fallen asleep in her clothes, otherwise George would have her running through Hogsmeade in her pajamas.

George climbed onto the sill and then dropped down from the window. Mary heard a loud thump, and George's muttered complaints as he picked himself out of the dirt, where he had landed face first. Mary instinctively tried to reign in the chuckles to be kind. However, when she rethought the fact that it was George and his burr-in-the-backside personality, she let it rip with renewed vigor. After one of her particularly obnoxious snorts of laughter, George rolled over and sent her a death-glare. Mary briefly wondered if the phrase 'looks could kill' was true in the wizarding community, but Penelope would have mentioned it, right?

"Oh please," Mary responded once she assured herself she was safe from lasers shooting from his eyes. "You are always the first to laugh at another's misfortune. Therefore, you have no room to disapprove."

"The one hundred galleon phrase is 'another's misfortune,' quipped George. "I am never too keen on my own... what fool is?"

"Relax. Who knew George Weasley couldn't take a joke? It was funny enough last night when it was me. Now we are even. Just be thankful you're not glowing green."

Mary sat down on the windowsill and dangled her legs outside. She was still giggling as she waited for him to move out of the way so she could jump down; all the summers spent climbing trees with her cousin had made her comfortable with heights and Mary was pretty sure she could make it to the ground without a repeat of George's debacle.

"Oh, so you think this is funny," George asked as he stood up and walked over to the window, which put him eye-level with Mary. She shook her head silently, but bit her lip hard. George placed his mud-encrusted hands on the window next to Mary's legs, one on each side.

"Well, my lady, allow me to offer my services," George said. Mary's eyes got huge and she didn't have to hold back her laughter. It wasn't funny anymore. She hurriedly tried to climb back into the room, because she had no intention of finding out what exactly his services were. However, she was too slow. At first Mary thought he was going to face-plant her in the mud as well. George's hands were on her waist and he was lifting her down. When her feet touched the ground he said, "We wouldn't want you to repeat yesterday's experience."


"One what?"

"I get one point for sweeping you off your feet," he said importantly.

"Oh bro-ther," someone yelled from the bushes, "it doesn't count if her feet were already off the ground."

George kept eye contact with Mary, but he yelled over his shoulder, "It's my game. I make the rules, and I get to keep score."

Which probably means I can assume he is going to win, Mary thought to herself while craning her neck to see around George's chest. "So what's the point of this game anyway?" she asked.

George smirked, "I'll tell you when I get to five."

Mary rolled her eyes and squirmed out of George's hold; her earlier decision to give him a second chance was quickly evaporating; and if her elbow accidentally slipped and punched him in the ribs, it was his fault for standing so close.

Mary stepped around him to reveal Angelina and Fred standing in the bushes.

Angelina rushed forward and gave Mary a quick hug. It made Mary a little uncomfortable. She wasn't sure if it was wizard custom, or the fact that she was on the other side of the globe, but these people seemed to be awfully affectionate. She scowled in George's direction; only with some it was more annoying than others, she thought.

Angelina continued talking, "George mentioned he was bringing you to Hogwarts tonight and I insisted on coming. I figured you might feel a little more comfortable sneaking in if someone you knew was here."

"Sneaking in? We're going to have to sneak in?" Mary asked; her pitch building to a crescendo in proportion to her dawning astonishment.

"Of course we have to sneak in," Fred answered. "We're not dressed in all black for a funeral, you know."

Mary looked at Fred for the first time. Interestingly enough, teasing from him bothered her less than when it came from George. She found herself relaxing slightly and even quipping back. "Well, you three do look like you sing backup for Johnny Cash."

Mary was treated to three blank stares. It took a confused "Huh?" from George before she realized her mistake. "Um, it's a Muggle thing," she mumbled as an explanation. Well, so much for witty comeback, Mary thought to herself. Now I just feel stupid.

***

Mary stared into the dark cave, wondering how they were going to see when Angelina pulled out her wand.

"Lumos!" Angelina said.

Thank goodness, Mary thought to herself as Angelina entered the tunnel and lit it up. Fred followed, and then Mary and George. The two girls missed the meaningful look George gave Fred the second before Fred grabbed Angelina's wand and took off running.

Angelina bolted, after him. "Fred! Give me back my wand!"

"Fifty-six bottles of beer on the wall, fifty-six bottles of beer," Fred's reply echoed back to the entrance to the cave. (He'd been singing that stupid song ever since they started towards the Shrieking Shack and it was really starting to grate on Mary's nerves.) Unlike the noise, the light did not reach them and Mary and George were thrust into darkness as Fred disappeared around a corner.

Mary would have backed up and out the door, only it was already closed and she had no way of knowing how to open it from this side. And she couldn't go forward if she couldn't see! Mary's palms started to sweat and her breaths were quick and shallow (she hated the dark and still slept with a light on). Her nerves were wound so tight, that she gasped loudly and jumped when George leaned forward to tell her something.

Hands reached out from the darkness behind her and grabbed her arms at the elbows. George stepped closer to her from behind and she found his nearness oddly steadying. He leaned down and said into her ear, "Relax, Mary, it's just me." His breath tickled her neck.

"Do I make you nervous?" George asked.

Mary reigned in her fear. "No, but being trapped in a dark cave does."

"Do you want me to light my wand?" Mary heard the humor in his voice.

"Yes," she added, "but you still can't point it at me." Mary felt his left hand leave her arm as he reached for his wand.

"Lumos."

Mary gasped loudly and jumped once again as the blinding light burst forthright in front of her face! George had wrapped his wand arm around her body and was holding his wand in front of Mary's face in much the same way a suitor would surprise a girl from behind with flowers. "That's two," he said.

***

The groups exited the tunnel and Mary barely had time to look around before they got diverted.

"Two bottles of beer on the wall, two bottles of beer. Hey look! Here are the kitchens." Fred tickled a picture of fruit on the wall and a door handle appeared. "Come on, mates, I'm hungry," he said, then he and George disappeared into the chamber.

Mary closed her mouth; it had fallen open when Fred first started talking. She yelled after them, "TWO BOTTLES OF BEER! YOU'RE STOPPING WITH TWO BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL?!"

Fred and George turned around and walked backwards. They said in perfect unison, "Yeah, it just drives you batty, doesn't it?"

Mary followed the twins. She'd always been partial to red-headed boys because of her old lab partner, Calvin, but after meeting these two she was thinking of switching to blondes.

"Stop!" Mary paused from her musings to shout a warning to her antagonists; they were still walking backwards and didn't see the pumpkins in their path. Unfortunately (for them) they mistook her meaning. "Hey Mary, if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!" words cut off as he tripped over the produce and went sprawling. Fred followed a second later and landed on top of his brother.

Soon all four of them were on the floor, as Mary and Angelina had also fallen from laughter.

***

"Misser Wheazies!" Another body was added to the pile on the floor when a bright green creature joined the twins. "Yous came to visit Dobby," it said when it wrapped one arm around each of the twins legs and squeezed.

After they disentangled themselves from the creature, Mary finally got a good look. It was an elf! Penny talked about them incessantly, but Mary had never actually gotten to see one. The first thing she noticed was its bright green color. At least she wasn't the only thing glowing green in this area, she thought. Then she noticed the huge eyes and large floppy ears. Mary looked around; the kitchen was full of them, several of which came over to the visitors and ushered them to a table that instead proceeded to fill with food.

Mary noticed an elf by the fireplace drinking from a bottle Mary recognized from the night before. It was something called Butterbeer. She leaned over to Angelina and whispered, "Why are those two wearing clothes and none of the others are?"

Apparently she didn't whisper quietly enough, because at her words, every elf in the entire kitchen froze. They all stared at the foreigner, their faces reflecting differing levels of horror. Immediately Mary felt remorse for pointing out the quality of their attire. She was about to apologize to the group of them when, just as quickly as the silence started, it ended; the clothed elf by the fireplace erupted into tears. Sobs racked the tiny body and Mary knew she'd done something horrible; but why was this one upset instead of the others?

Finally George came to the rescue. He walked over to the fireplace and folded his body into the tiny chair across from the elf. "Winky," he said to get her attention. She looked up through her tears and he continued, "A terrible thing has happened to you. But when life does something like this, there are a couple of things you've got to remember. You've got your health, right?"

"Yes, Misser Wheazy, sir."

Fred also jumped into the conversation and added, "You can still walk, can't you?"

The elf nodded.

"Great! Go get me a glass of water."

Mary gasped and looked at Fred. How could he be so rude?! But apparently he did something right because the elf jumped up and raced out excitedly. When Angelina saw Mary's questioning look, she felt obligated to explain the situation with the house-elves.

Mary was in the middle of a tirade on how slavery had been abolished that customs on this side of the globe seemed barbaric when Fred interrupted her. "Just give us a chance," he said. "I know once you get to know us, you'll like us."

Angelina laughed, "Why would she? I mean, I'm dating don't like you."

Fred continued looking at Mary as he waved Angelina off haphazardly. "You just say that."

"Repeatedly!"

Mary noticed that Angelina placed her hand on Fred's knee under the table and squeezed it. She envied the other girl's ability to joke with her boyfriend and to take his jibes so light-heartedly. Actually all three of her escorts were rather carefree and Mary was starting to suspect she was slightly uptight. She resolved to try harder to take everything less personally.

Mary looked at the meal on the table while trying to think of some way to make conversation. Now that she'd decided to enjoy everyone, she suddenly had nothing to say. Finally she noticed something about the meal. "I don't know if it's custom over here or not, but where I live we always eat black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Years Day."

Angelina started to move her hand up Fred's leg. He jumped up and yelped, "Blimey!" He blushed and tried to cover his slip, "Uhhh... black-eyed peas and cabbage? What for?"

"Well," Mary bit her lips to hold in the laughter; she didn't want them to know that she'd witnessed their interplay. She said, "The black-eyed peas are for luck. You have to eat three hundred sixty-five of them: one for each day of the year. And the cabbage is for money; the more you eat, the more money you get that year."

"In that case..." George started as he placed one hand on Mary's back and leaned forward importantly. He raised his other and gestured to the Let's get some over here then."

Fred jumped across the table and slammed his brother's hand down, where it splattered into some sort of red sauce. "Trust me Mary, you don't want George to eat that," he said.

Angelina burst out laughing and added, "Here! Here! You serve that Weasley cabbage, and in ten minutes he'll be skywriting."

Mary choked. She looked at George and noticed his face had gone pink. Thankful that she wasn't the only one being teased, Mary looked at George and said, "I think Angelina should get a point for that one."