Torn Between Three Me's

14 - Potions

Later that morning, after tossing and turning for several more hours, I got up and put on my uniform. After struggling with the tie for half a second, not having the patience this morning to figure it out myself or ask Angelina, I flicked my wand at it and watched as it tied itself. Satisfied, once I was all ready to go, I grabbed my books and headed downstairs towards the common room.

Sitting side by side on one of the couches were identical ginger boys with faces I knew better than my own. As soon as they saw me, they shot up and hurried over to me as I continued for the portrait.

'Addy, come on,' Fred begged.

'It's been how many days?' George asked.

'Since you got that letter?'

'And...he's arrived.'

'And radio silence.'

'We've told ya and told ya.'

'We're sorry,' they chorused.

I turned to them before I reached the portrait hole, hugging my books to my chest. 'Picture...you had been told your whole lives that Ginny had died.' I said sternly, raising my eyebrows at them. 'For ten whole years, everyone you knew told you she was dead. But then it turns out...she's not. She was fine the whole time. And you lost all that time with her and so now she doesn't even know who you are!' The twins looked at me sympathetically, at a loss for words. 'How am I supposed to trust anyone after that? You're my best friends, or you're supposed to be at least. We tell each other everything. Where was this bit of information?' I swiftly turned and exited out the portrait hole as they followed me.

'Ads, look at it this way,' Fred insisted as we made our way towards the Great Hall.

'If we'd told ya, you still wouldn't have known where he was,' George said.

'So you would have just been wondering about him.'

'Without actually knowing him.'

'So which is better then?'

'Not knowing and being blissfully ignorant?'

'Or worrying about him all that time?'

I stopped in my tracks as the twins stopped to face me a second later. I paused to think and then looked up at them. 'I honestly don't know.' We started to walk again, down the moving stairs.

'You don't know?' They gawked.

I sighed. 'Yes, I would have yearned for a relationship with him had I'd known he existed. But also...do you know how lonely it was thinking I was the only Potter left?' I shook my head at them. 'I know you two care, and thank you. But you just don't get it.'

'We don't get it, we know that,' Fred said.

'We're just trying to help.'

'And be there for ya.'

'We know this is hard.'

'Cause even if this isn't about us.'

'It's about you.'

'And we care about ya.'

They stepped in front of me as we stood down the corridor from the Great Hall.

'We've done everything together for 5 years,' George said.

'And we're gonna help you get through this...together,' Fred insisted.

They look at me intently, waiting for an answer. I bit my lips and nodded. 'Okay,' I muttered, giving in and flashing a thin smile.

They put their arms around my shoulders and we walked into the Great Hall for breakfast. Finding a seat at our house table, I glanced over and saw Ced sitting with his friends at the Hufflepuff table. He usually sat facing our table but his back was turned to me, like it had been all this week and last. We found an open section to sit at towards the middle of the table. I sat with my back facing the Hufflepuff table and the twins sat across from me. I grabbed some toast and put it on my plate, with the boys seeing how tense I was.