As Fred and George's escape was spoken of for the next few weeks, I could tell it was going to become a Hogwarts Legend. In the first couple of days, many people spoke about copying them.
A few times every day I'd hear people in the corridor say things like: "Sometimes I want to jump on my broom and leave this place" or "Ugh, another lesson like that and I might do a Weasley."
They weren't going to be forgotten soon. They hadn't given instructions how to get rid of the swamp, so it just stayed on the corridor roped off. I was almost sure McGonagall or Flitwick could have gotten rid of it, but liked watching Umbridge struggle.
People were also trying to be the next Fred and George. Alia was doing a great job at it, selling their products on the down low and almost always casually dropping stink bombs outside Umbridge's office.
Filch and the squad tried to punish people, but there were so many that nobody could be caught. Mysterious things kept happening to the members though, some sprouting antlers, some had strange skin with the same apperance as cornflakes.
On the other hand, Draco and I weren't completley talking after a few weeks. We'd awkwardly smile and say hi if we passed in the corridor, but neither of us had actually made the move to make things better. It sucked, but there were more important things than my love life at the moment.
One of the best things that happened after Fred and George left was the huge figure of snackboxes they'd sold. In almost every class of Umbridge's, people would start throwing up, having nose bleeds and fainting.
She didn't seem to appreciate it when Alia dubbed the third year's illnesses as 'Umbridge-itis' a name which spread around the school quickly.
One of the best things I witnessed was when I was waiting for Sam and Arthur by the hall one day. I saw McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn I heard her tell him, “It unscrews the other way.”
But one bad thing was that Montague hadn't recovered from being in the vanishing cabinet incident, and his parents were seen entering the school one morning looking angry.
“Should we say something?” said Hermione in a worried voice, pressing her cheek against the library window so that she could see Mr. and Mrs. Montague marching inside. “About what happened to him? In case it helps Madam Pomfrey cure him?”
“Course not, he’ll recover,” said Ron indifferently.
“Anyway, more trouble for Umbridge, isn’t it?” said Harry in a satisfied voice.
Harry, Ron, Hermione and I were in the library with Arthur, who was attempint go help us with charms work.
Ron’s cup grew four very thin spindly legs that hoisted the cup off the desk with great difficulty, trembled for a few seconds, then folded, causing the cup to crack into two.
"You're almost there, Ron, you just need to make better movements." Arthur said, poking the broken cup.
“Reparo,” said Hermione quickly, mending Ron’s cup with a wave of her wand. “That’s all very well, but what if Montague’s permanently injured?”
"There is that--what if Fred, George and Ben get in trouble?" I wondered.
"I don't really care to be honest." Arthur said, surprising all of us. Arthur was very forgiving and kind, he wouldn't wish pain on someone.
"Because he took points of our hosues?" Ron asked.
"No, I don't really care about that--even though it was unfair." Arthur shrugged. "But when Ben and I came out he was a real homophobic prat. ."
"Well he can stay like that then." I decided. "Nobody can help who they love."
Arthur lowered his head as his cheeks flushed, looking touched. "Uh, thanks Rory."
"If you want to worry about anyone, Hermione, worry about me!” Ron exclaimed.
“You?” she said, raising an eyebrow. “Why should I be worried about you?”
“When Mum’s next letter finally gets through Umbridge’s screening process,” said Ron bitterly, now holding his cup up while its frail legs tried feebly to support its weight, “I’m going to be in deep trouble. I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s sent another Howler.”
“But -”
“It’ll be my fault Fred and George left, you wait, “ said Ron darkly. “She’ll say I should’ve stopped them leaving, I should’ve grabbed the ends of their brooms and hung on or something… yeah, it’ll be all my fault.”
"Well that'd be stupid." Arthur said, pushing his glasses further up his nose. "They were saying to me and Ben weeks before that they had somewhere set up if we wanted jobs once we graduated."
"Are you back with Ben then?" I asked curiously. "You've mentioned him a lot recently."
Arthur rolled his eyes. "I'm not with anyone, since Eloise Midgen is a moron. And Ben and I are just friends, there is this radical things called 'staying friends with your ex'."
"I wouldn't know." I shrugged. "Anyway, away from Arthur's love life."
"Yes, let's." Arthur huffed. "But I want to know where they got the money from. I mean, they couldn't have made that much from the products."
“It’s a bit dodgy isn’t it? They’ll need loads of Galleons to afford the rent on a place in Diagon Alley. Mum will want to know what they’ve been up to, to get their hands on that sort of gold.” Ron added.
“Well, yes, that occurred to me, too,” said Hermione, allowing her teacup to jog in neat little circles around Harry’s, “I’ve been wondering whether Mundungus has persuaded them to sell stolen goods or something awful.”
“He hasn’t,” said Harry curtly.
“How do you know?” said Ron and Hermione together.
“Because --Because they got the gold from Rory and me. We gave them the Triwizard winnings last June.”
"Did we?" I asked. "I don't remember?"
"You told me you didn't want the money, so I gave your winnings with mine." Harry frowned. "Don't you remember?"
"Don't worry about my memory, my sanity was wearing thin during those weeks." I said with a forced smile, picking at a hangnail.
“Oh, Harry, you didn’t!” Hermione exclaimed.
“Yes, I did,” said Harry mutinously. “And I don’t regret it, either. I didn’t need the gold and they’ll be great at running a joke shop. Not to mention Lacey and Hollie can get a home now.”
“But this is excellent!” said Ron, looking thrilled. “It’s all your fault, Harry - Mum can’t blame me at all! Can I tell her?”
“Yeah, I suppose you’d better,” said Harry dully, “specially if she thinks they’re receiving stolen cauldrons or something.”
"Well I wouldn't put it past them, you do what you have to do." Arthur said absent mindly, rubbing at his glasses lens.
“It’s no good nagging me, it’s done,” Harry said firmly to Hermione. “Fred and George have got the gold - spent a good bit of it, too, by the sounds of it - and I can’t get it back from them and I don’t want to. So save your breath, Hermione.”
“I wasn’t going to say anything about Fred and George!” she said in an injured voice. Ron snorted disbelievingly and Hermione threw him a very dirty look.
“No, I wasn’t!” she said angrily. “As a matter of fact, I was going to ask Harry and Rory when they're going to go back to Snape and ask for more Occlumency lessons!”
I was hoping she would have dropped this, but apparantley not.
“You can’t tell me you’ve stopped having funny dreams,” Hermione said now, “because Ron told me you were muttering in your sleep again last night--and Rory I heard you as well.”
“You were only muttering a bit,” he mumbled apologetically. “Something about ‘just a bit further’.”
“I dreamed I was watching you lot play Quidditch,” Harry said brutally. “I was trying to get you to stretch out a bit further to grab the Quaffle.”
"And what was I muttering?" I shot Hermione a look.
"You were saying 'I can end this'." Hermione said with a straight face.
"Well that could refer to either killing a dragon or finishing a long game of monoply." Arthur said, and everyone turned to look at him. "What? Monoply can get intense."
Last night, I had been running through the department of mysteries, ending up in the room with the glass spheres. I had been on row 97, I could remember that. And I had seen a sphere calling out two names to me... But then I'd woken up in a cold sweat.
“You are both trying to block your minds, aren’t you?” said Hermione, looking beadily at Harry. “You are keeping your Occlumency?”
"It's very rare if I do have a dream, honestly." I lied. "I'm keeping up with it."
This was a big, stinking lie. I wanted to know what was in the spheres, and who's names it was calling. The names seemed so familar, but the barriers around my mind wouldn't let them through. I almost considered not saving my memories to reach it, but I thought it wasn't worth the risk of forgetting things.
“You know,” said Ron, whose ears were still flaming red, “if Montague doesn’t recover before Slytherin play Hufflepuff, we might be in with a chance of winning the Cup.”
“Yeah, I s’pose so,” said Harry, glad of a change of subject.
“I mean, we’ve won one, lost one - if Slytherin lose to Hufflepuff next Saturday -”
Arthur started laughing, and we all stared at him again. "I'm sorry, but Slytherin won't lose to us. Number one, we have better players, and number two: we'll find the snitch before them. Hufflepuffs are extremley good finders."
* * *
The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May.
Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff in their last match (a fact Sam and Arthur wouldn't shut up about), Gennie wasn't hoping for a victory, because of Ron's abysmal goal keeping (not that anybody would tell him that).
“I mean, I can’t get any worse, can I?” Ron told Harry, Hermione and I grimly over breakfast on the morning of the match. “Nothing to lose now, is there?”
"Any idea where Gennie is?" I asked Alia, who had red and gold streaks in her hair for the occasion.
Alia scanned the hall, and suddenly a huge smile appeared on her face. "There she is!"
I looked in her direction to see Gennie walking into the hall, with a lanky boy in Gryffindor Quidditch gear--Cole. They both sat down opposite us, and Alia leant across the table to give Cole a quick hug.
"Good to see you, mate." Ron said, clapping Cole on the shoulder. "But why are you here?"
Cole rolled his eyes. "Oh come on, you missed our cuddles," Ron turned bright red. "But basically I'd been practicing Quidditch in the hospital, and when I said I had a match coming up they said I could go. Get used to this mad house again."
"So does this mean you're back for good now?" I asked, unable to keep the grin off my face.
"As long as he wins the match for us." Gennie smirked, and Cole nudged her with his shoulder. "Oh come on, I love you really."
"Who doesn't love me?" Cole exclaimed. "I'm a lovable person."
"I don't love you, you're a dork." Sam's voice came, as she suddenly appeared from the Hufflepuff table, ruffling Cole's hair. "So, have you finally decided to grace us with your presence?"
"Only if I win the match apparantley." Cole said, sticking his tounge out at Gennie. "I was expecting a much more warm welcome. Confetti, applause, bear hugs."
"If it makes you feel better, if we were in a book the readers would be over the moon. They'd be grinning like those cats from Alice in Wonderland and having feels."
"What the hell is a feel?" Cole raised an eyebrow. "Sounds terrifying."
"It makes you happy, but also destroys your life." Gennie said. "You would only know if you've read fanfiction."
"I heard fanfiction is a dark and scary place, is that true?" Cole asked.
"It is if you ever read the hat fic." Alia said, shuddering. "Appart from that it's fine."
Gennie clapped her hands together. "Enough discussion about this, let's go win ourselves a house cup!"
She raised her voice so that the whole of Gryffindor could hear, and cheered in response. We got up and after saying goodbye to Harry, Sam, Hermione and Alia we headed off to the pitch.
We met up with the rest of the team in the changing room, who all looked nervous. Gennie stood on top of one of the benches, to make herself appear taller.
"Right, this is the match we've been working towards. The final one, the one that could change everything."
"Way to be dramatic, Gennie." Ron muttered, and Gennie shot him a withering look.
"Anyway, I know this isn't the same team as we started with. We've lost some good players, but gained even better ones," She looked towards Cole, Ginny and Jack Sloper. "And Ravenclaw might be good, but we're even better. So we go out and win our final match together."
"Final match?" I asked. "But we have next year."
Gennie gave me a smile. "I'm only being Captain this year. It's been a stressful enough year without having to manage you lot."
"Sorry about that." Cole said sheepishly, waving a little. "Won't happen again."
"Better bloody not, you scared everybody out of their minds." Ron muttered, hitting his shoulder against Cole's.
"And basically, I would just like a quiet sixth year, but of course that won't happen because of my friends." Gennie shot a look towards me with a fond smile. "But I'm not quitting the team, no way. I sold my soul for this team."
"That was beautiful, Gennie, I might cry." Ginny smirked.
Gennie rolled her eyes. "Good, that was my intention. So, what team?"
"Gryffindor!" We all shouted together, shoving our fists into the air.
We all grabbed our brooms and headed out to the cheering stadium. My heart pounded excitedly, as it always did when I played Quidditch. I took my usual posistion between Gennie and Katie, waiting for the whistle to blow.
"And here's the reformed Gryffindor Quidditch team!" Lee Jordan bellowed. "Lupin, Bell, Potter, Sloper, Wilde, Weasley and Weasley!"
Cheers went up from the crowd, and I held onto my broom tighter, determined to win. Lee went through the names of the Ravenclaw team, and then the whistle went off.
Unfourtunatley Davies grabbed the quaffle before any of us could interveine. He shot down the pitch, dodging Katie and I who tried to block or tackle him.
To my dismay he dodged Gennie as well, and was in the streak to go straight for the goal. He was going to shoot, come on Ron--but he scored.
Predictably, Slytherins on the other side of the stands began to sing: “Weasley cannot save a thing He cannot block a single ring…”
The match carried on with us scoring, Ravenclaw scoring, me possibly breaking my nose again on a bludger (with blood attractivley dripping down my jumper) and more renditions of 'Weasley is our King'. The only thing that seemed to be vaugley hilarious was Cole's reluctance to hit people with the bludger.
"Cole, the Ravenclaws are over there!" I shouted to Cole as I shot past, as the bludger went in the general direction of Ravenclaws but not close enough to disturb them.
"I don't want to maim anybody thanks!" Cole bellowed back.
But at some point in the match, something changed. Ron suddenly began to save the goals, and we were blocking more and more goals.
And then cheers went up through the crowd. Ginny and Cho were neck and neck as they soared towards the ground, in the direction of something golden. I held my breath, if Ginny could catch the snitch, we would win.
"AND GRYFFINDOR WIN!" Lee Jordan shouted, and the stadium erupted in cheers.
We soared to the ground, jumping and cheering in a tight-knit group hug. Cole and Gennie began snogging in the middle of the pitch, until McGonagall came onto the pitch with the Quidditch cup held high.
She handed it to Gennie, and we all held it high into the air, cheering as we did so. Then somebody thought it'd be a great idea to lift Ron up in the air, and start a new version of 'Weasley is our King' that I really liked.
“Weasley can save anything, He never leaves a single ring, That’s why Gryffindors all sing, Weasley is our King.”
I began following my team back to the castle, when I felt somebody tap my arm. It was Draco, who was looking sheepish but smiling.
"Congrats on winning." He said. "You deserve it."
"Only because I wasn't playing against your team." I said breezily, applying a bloody cloth to my nose, which was now throbbing.
"Let me," Draco said, and reminsicent of third year, he dabbed at the blood around my nose. "I am sorry you know, I've just been too scared to confront you."
"I kinda guessed that." I sighed, brushing his hand away. "I'm sorry as well, I just want you to know that I have different views from you, and that I'm going to stick to them..."
"I should have told you about being forced to work with Umbridge, I just thought you'd be real mad..."
"I wanted to tell you about the D.A, okay? We need to trust each other if this is going to work."
Draco nodded. "Fresh start?"
"Fresh start." I nodded. "I'm too happy to be mad at you right now anyway."
And Draco smiled, closing the gap between us, our lips touching for the first time in weeks. And as the feeling of happiness rose in me, I realised that everything was finally falling into place.
- - - - - - - - -
A/N *UNEDITED* I meant to upload this yesterday, because Halloween but my internet connection was awful. This chapter was uneventful, but it had Arthur in, and I love him so much he's adorable.
Only 9 chapters left (including epilouge)!!! I'm so excited for this, as the next few chapters are going to be action packed and literally there are so many plot twists.... I'm going to sign off now, see you in chapter thirty four!
P.s Don't read the hat fic. Just don't.