The Muggle Intruder

Chapter 5: The Twins

"Or angel," George added, flapping fake wings.

"You know, I do have a life off the Quidditch pitch," Oliver argued as we continued to descend down a different set of stairs. 

"Sure you do," the twins said in unison.

"Okay, stay low and follow us." Fred opened a door I hadn't even noticed and ducked inside with George right behind him.

Oliver motioned for me to go through after them. Not wanting to hang around in what looked like the dungeons, I quickly ducked inside after them. As soon as Oliver shut the door behind us, we were in pitch-black darkness.

"Where did they go?" I asked, unable to see anything at all. 

"There's no telling with those two," Oliver replied. "This is probably a bad idea. If we get caught, we'll lose three players in our next match."

"Come on!" the twins voices echoed toward us. "This way!"

"I can't see where I'm going," I admitted.

"Lumos." When the tip of Oliver's wand lit up, I realized he was standing right in front of me, his face extremely close to mine. "Do you not have a wand?" he asked.

"No, I... I left it on my bed, thinking I'd be right back."

"Oh." He eyed me for a few seconds, causing my heart to race, again.  "Well, I'll light up the way."

"Okay." I stayed close to his side, thankful I had an excuse to. "Where did they go?"

"Oh, this is an old passage under the school. It was rumored to have collapsed. I think Fred actually started the rumor to keep people out." He reached his hand out. "Here, there's some loose rock up this next incline."

I took his hand without hesitation. "Thanks. That's all I need is to fall, again." Even after we got past the loose rock and the incline started to level out, he continued to hold my hand. "How much farther is it?"

"Not much. See that light up there?"

I only saw the light from Oliver's wand. "No."

"Nox." We were plunged into darkness, again, but it did allow me to see a faint light ahead. "See it, now?"

"Oh, yeah. I see it." 

For some reason, the darkness made me hypersensitive to the way Oliver's fingers were intertwined with mine. How his strong grip contrasted against his soft skin. The rough line I could feel on the back of his hand with my thumb, which felt like a scratch that had scabbed over. As the light got brighter, I waited on his hand to slip from mine, but it didn't.

"What took you two so long?" Fred asked once we got to the end.

"Oh, I see what took so long," George teased when he saw Oliver holding my hand. "We can go on ahead without you."

"Give you some more time alone," Fred added.

Oliver let go of my hand. "Let's go before someone sees us."

I looked around to see where we were but had no idea. It looked like we had emerged out the side of a small hill that had a fence lining the top of it. As I stepped back far enough to look beyond the fence, I could see Hogwarts. Seeing it all from this distance for the first time was mesmerizing. 

Oliver stepped closer to my side. "This is my favorite view of Hogwarts."

"I can see why," I admitted. "With the mountains in the background, it's perfect."

"And you get an uninterrupted view of the Quidditch pitch from here," he said with a grin. 

"Are you two lovebirds going to stand around here all day or are we going to get a move on?" one of the twins asked.