The Only Exception

Chapter One: Grumpy Guts

"I'm not even going to try to talk you out of this," said George. "How about you ask your dad and see what he has to say about it."

"Watch him say yes," I laughed. "Just you watch."

"That's the day Mum gives us her full support in the joke shop," said George, "and Fred and I become prefects."

Before I could reply, I caught sight of a huge man making his way through the crowd. As I dragged Fred and George closer, I saw none other than a very dirty Harry Potter walking next to him. When the twins and I were close enough, I grinned at Hagrid.

"Hi, Hagrid!" I called.

"Nora! Haven' seen you since summer began!"

I laughed and tried to hug him. My arms barely reached his sides.

"You should come by and visit! It would be fun, and the neighbors totally wouldn't notice."

"Yer father might have somethin' differen' to say 'bout that."

"Eh, he can deal with it." I turned and ruffled Harry's hair. "Hey, kid. Heard you've had an eventful morning."

"Floo doesn't work too well for me," he said, downcast.

"That's alright. Ended up in Knockturn Alley, did you?"

He nodded, and Fred put his arm on my shoulder.

"We've always wanted to go down there," he said wistfully. "Mum'd kill us though."

"Don' you three be gettin' any ideas," warned Hagrid. "Knockturn Alley innit the safest place for a couple o' troublemakin' teenagers."

"What about Knockturn Alley?" said a new voice behind us. We turned and saw Hermione Granger standing with her hands on her hips, a stern expression on her twelve-year-old face.

"Harry decided he was too good for Diagon Alley," I told her, grinning, "so he Floo'd to Knockturn instead."

"Really?" said Hermione, instantly distressed. "Oh, Harry, I've read about how dangerous Knockturn Alley is. They say - "

I decided not to stick around for her lecture. I loved Hermione, I really did, but sometimes she was a bit over the top. So I waved a goodbye to Hagrid, and with the twins, set off down the road. A minute later, we spotted Aunt Molly and Ginny walking together, their eyes scanning the crowd.

"Did you find him?" said Aunt Molly as she hurried over to us. I smiled and pointed back to where we'd come from.

"Yeah, in front of Gringotts. Aunt Molly, if you don't mind, can Fred, George, and I go off and do our own shopping? I think we're mature enough by now, don't you think?"

She narrowed her eyes.

"You might be, but the boys, on the other hand . . . "

The twins broke out into identical innocent grins.

"We're plenty mature, Mum," said George.

"Absolute angels," Fred agreed.

Molly Weasley was not convinced.

"Really, Aunt Molly, we'll be fine," I said. "You should go to Harry. We'll behave ourselves."

"Keep them in line, Nora," she said. I nodded, and she took off down the street, dragging Ginny along beside her. As soon as she was out of sight, the twins and I quickly began discussing future plans for our joke shop. Fred and George had had the idea last year, and it quickly became something we were seriously thinking about.

"You do realise," I said as I opened the door to Gambol and Japes, "that only like half of this stuff is legal anymore? Biting Betties and any knockoffs were banned like three years ago after someone lost a hand and bled to death."

They didn't look swayed.

"Nora, when have we ever cared about the rules?" said George. I sighed.

"These aren't rules, mate, they're laws. A bit different."

Fred shrugged.

"Technicalities."

I didn't even try to protest. Instead, I spotted Lee and dragged the twins over to him. The dark-skinned boy's face turned up in a grin when he spotted us.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" he said, draping an arm around me and ruffling my rainbow hair.

"Nora seems to be having a momentary crisis." Fred nudged me.

"I'm just saying that I'd rather not get thrown in Azkaban as a teenager, and something tells me that you three wouldn't enjoy it very much either."

"Dunno, love," said Lee, wiggling his eyebrows at me. "Anywhere would be bearable with you at my side."

"Give it up, Jordan," I laughed. "You've been at this since we were eleven."

He backed away from me, faking a look of heartbreak. "I'm hurt, Nora. I really am. I thought we had something special."

"I think the only special thing here is you," said Fred, mock-soothingly.

We all laughed heartily before getting down to business. Lee took my side on the whole legal thing, which I suspected was only to keep up the act that he was in love with me. Still, we managed to convince Fred and George that we should scrap some of the ideas we had for products.

We wasted away an hour in that shop before Lee realised he had to be back at the Leaky Cauldron five minutes ago. We waved a goodbye to him outside the joke shop before going on our own to collect our supplies for school.

"So what's up with all the Lockhart books?" asked Fred as we approached Flourish and Blotts.

"No idea," I said. "Dad doesn't like to talk about new Defense Against the Dark Arts professors, so I'm as in the dark as you are."

"Guess the new teacher's a fan," said George as we fought our way inside the store. I received several elbows to the face and sides before we settled with the rest of the Weasley family, Harry, and Hermione.

"What the hell is going on in here?" I said to Ginny. She grinned at me, her eyes sparkling.

"It's Gilderoy Lockhart!" she said excitedly. "He's here to sign books!"

Sure enough, no sooner had the groan left my lips than the crowd hushed and none other than Gilderoy Lockhart stepped out into view. His grin made my stomach churn.

I distracted myself with looking for my schoolbooks. I was vaguely aware of Harry being pulled up and standing with Lockhart. I was very aware of groaning loudly when Lockhart announced that he'd be the one filling the post for Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts.

When Harry was finally released from Lockhart's death grip, I gave him a teasing smile. He glared at me.

"Well look what we have here," said a snide voice over the titter of the dispersing crowd. We all turned around only to come face-to-face with the single most annoying child in existence.