After changing into my pajamas, I stepped out of the bathroom and looked around. The normally loud and chaotic house was now at a neutral tone, nothing but the hum of magic in the background to keep silence from the air.
I walked into the common where I noticed the sofa had a neat blanket laid on top. There was a boy underneath. Though it was too dark to see who, I assumed I knew who it was, and crept past silently. I made my way over to the table in the room and searched for a notepad, or blank sheet of paper. I found a pile of line paper, so I took one from the bottom and left as though I'd never been there after borrowing an ink jar.
I sat down at the dining table with Draco's quill-- I brought it in my backpack of clothes-- and began to write back to him. My eyes had already adjusted to the darkness, so it was easy. I didn't feel like stealing an envelope from the kind, hospital family, so I just decided I would send it like I did last time-- By hoping my owl doesn't drop the letter somewhere random.
No-longer-dear Draco,
I'm doing splendid, thanks for asking! I'm staying somewhere for break now. A nice family, while thinking I'm Gryffindor, is allowing me to stay with them. And so you don't think I meant to write to you first, my owl stole that letter off my desk and flew away with it. It's a funny story, really.
Anyway, you should put live worms inside your father's coworkers' food. If he asks you about it, you can blame it on those idiots. Or something else, it's up to you, I'm just trying to provide some advice.
P.S just because you told me to, I'm not signing.
I folded the paper with a smirk and left outside through the front door. Once I felt the wind, I stood still and closed my eyes. It was refreshing, but the slight cold chill in return made me come back to reality. Putting two fingers in my mouth, I let out a whistle. It only took a few seconds of waiting for my owl to appear.
She landed on the Weasleys' mail box and looked up at me, waiting for an explanation.
"You oaf," I cursed. "I should be mad at you right now."
Mellow danced in the mail box as if happy I wasn't scolding her. I shook my head but still smiled at the bird.
"Take this to Draco, as you did last time." I sent her a glare, but handed her the letter anyway. She gripped it with her beak, which worried me, but she seemed to know what she was doing since she had done it before (against my will), so I let her. "Good luck, Cutesy." I petted her under her chin before patting her head and stepping away, signalling her dismissal.
She flew off and once she was out of sight, I turned and went back inside. Despite the nice weather out in the country, it was still drastically cold. Once I stepped inside, I saw that the boy previously laying on the couch had sat up while I was outside. His head snapped towards me when he heard the door, his eyes scanned me skeptically. The tension in the air was high, neither of us have ever liked each other. He took my silence as a sign to speak what was on his mind.
"So, you're the girl they were talking about?" Harry Potter asked.
"What do you mean?" I slowly walked in front of him with my arms crossed, as though I was interrogating him.
"Mrs. Weasley told me another girl would be staying with us."
"Oh. Then.. yes, that's me."
"That's so weird," He thought out loud. "And they trust you?"
"Sure, much more than I can say for yourself."
"What?"
"You trust me less than they trust me."
"Well, yeah. You're a Slytherin." He stood up, facing me head on. He was taller than me, but I wasn't intimidated.
"Stop bringing that up, you don't know me!"
"Which is exactly why I don't trust you."
"Fred and George trust me, their mum trusts me, Ginny too. What's so wrong with that?" I threw my hands up in frustration. I wasn't sure why, but this bothered me.
"Everything! You barely know each other." He stepped forward.
"How would you know? You've got your nose so far up Dumbledore's ass all the time that you have no idea what's going on around you!"
"Trust me, I know plenty."
I took a step forward to intimidate him, "Oh, yeah? Like what, the year Dumbledore lost his virginity?"
"Bloody hell, no! I know you're not who you say you are."
"You're right, I'm actually Merlin," I rolled my eyes. "But tell me, what do you think my actual identity is?"
"I don't know!"
"I thought you knew plenty," I scoffed
Footsteps made their way downstairs. Potter and I looked over to see three brothers-- George, Fred, and Ron. They seemed very confused.
"What's going on?" Ron asked, rubbing his eyes as if he had just woke up.
"Go back to bed," Potter and I said in sync. Our heads snapped back towards each other and we matched glares.
"No," Ron walked over and stepped in between us. "Not until you tell me what's going on." He looked at Potter, then me. He hesitated, but then looked back at Potter, "Explain."
"I don't like her."
I leaned over and looked to the other side of Ron at Potter, "I'm not particularly fond of you either, but I'm not crying about it."
"I--" He got cut off by his best friend.
"Stop arguing! Bloody hell, don't you two know what time it is?"
Fred and George stepped in behind their brother, finally deciding to join, but they didn't speak yet. I looked at the two who gave me a confused look, but I just shrugged.
"She started it!"
"I did not," I gasped. "You were the one all judgy when I come in."
"Yeah, from outside!"
"How is me being outside picking a fight? You're so--"
"--OKAY!" Fred cut in. "We get it. But why were you outside?"
"It's nice outside," I shrugged. "I enjoy nature."
Harry Potter scoffed, "She's a Slytherin!"
"DROP IT!" George's voice boomed. I took a step back in shock. I hadn't expected that from him, but it put me in awe. "You'll wake everyone. Harry, don't you have a date tomorrow?"
Hah, so does Ginny. Wait..
"Yes," He hung his head low. "I'll go to sleep, George. I'm sorry."
"Good," George spoke shortly. He then turned his head to me, waiting.
"What?" I asked defensively.
"As for you?"
"Oh, I'm not sleeping in the same room as him. He'll kill me in my sleep." I backed away from him with another step despite Ron still being between him and I.
"Fine," Fred cut in. "Sleep in our room."
George snapped his head toward his twin, "What?"
"She'll just have to be up before mum, or just give her some excuse like she had a nightmare," Fred reasoned.
I spoke up, "That's actually-- Yeah, I can be up before her. What time does she wake?"
The twins shared a glance, then they both shrugged as they turned towards me. "Guess you'll have to guess."
I sighed, "Alright."
"I'll go clean my bed," Fred went to walk off but George grabbed the back of his shirt collar. "Uh, no. She's not sleeping in your bed."
"I mean, I don't mi--" George shot me a look, so I shut up. He turned back to his brother, I could even sense his mood without seeing his face. It was scary.
"See?" Fred exclaimed, "She doesn't mind." He pointed at me as if my face would prove his point alone.
"Don't try anything," George glared at his brother, then me. "I sleep in that room too."
I smiled, "Noted! Let's go, Fred." I walked up to him, but he put his arm out in front of me and blocked my path.
"Let us clean our room first."
"Oh, please. I was in there earlier when I was hiding from you, hiding your under garments now will do no good."
Fred's face flushed red. He put his arm down and walked up the stairs without another word. George did the same, then Ron, so I followed behind them but not before saying one last thing to the jerk on the couch.
"Good luck on your date."
Then I left to the twins' room.