*Anne's Prov*
I make my way through the dark corridors, praying that no one catches me. It's way after curfew, but I find myself needing George's help once more. My whole body shivers and despite my fight the whole day, the thoughts grew unbearable at night.
That's why I snuck out of the dorm, using the shortcuts George showed me and making my way to the portrait of the fat lady, repeating the password in my mind over and over again. They have a weird password, but I mean they also change the password every year, sometimes every month. We have the same password for decades now and I wouldn't consider Pureblood as a good password honestly.
When I arrive at the portrait, I say the password as loud as it is manageable without being too loud. Her eyes flatter open and she openly glares at me, wanting to monologue me, I say the password again, to cut her off. With a scoff she has to open for me. That are the rules.
I make my way inside. No one's inside the common room. There is just some blaze left in the fireplace, occasionally you can hear the remaining wood and how it burns. I carefully look around, it's so different than to my common room. So much more comfortable.
I walk past the sofas and stand in front of the stairs, which George told me to use should I ever seek him out in the night. Just which door again? I take a shaky breath and make my way upstairs, opening one door to a room. Even the rooms are so different to ours. Even at night they have enough light coming from the outside and their furniture looks so different.
Then someone opens their eyes and I quickly close the door shut. I hope this first year hasn't seen me. I make my way further upstairs. Maybe the rooms are chronologically? Like first year, then second, so that must mean the last door is their room. Let's give it a try. Just is it the left or the right side now? I really don't want to mess this up.
Nervously I push a door open and flinch when it creaks a little under the impact. I look around, there are just four beds occupied out of five. I narrow my eyes to see better and breath out when I see red hair. Nevertheless, I look around for another pair of red hair, otherwise I could run up to Ron and George told me how easily he can scream at night. Don't want to risk that.
Luckily, there is another one lying very interesting in his bed. I tip toe over to one red head. I feel like some creep watching them sleep. Should I really do this? I mean I already came this far. I let go another breath and shake the person in front of me, jump slightly back when he turns to the other side.
Pressing a hand to my hammering chest, I shake the boy again on the shoulder. He grumbles: "Sod off George." My eyes widen and I freeze in place, hoping he would fall back asleep. Should have known this is Fred. Letting go a relieved breath I slowly go to the other twin. The moment my hands lies on his shoulder and I whisper a quiet George, his eyes flutter open.
"Anne?," he sits up abruptly, wiping the remaining sleep out of his eyes.
"Can we- can we talk?," I whisper.
"Sure just not here, wait outside, I'm with you in a minute."
I nod and go outside again.
'Come on, do it. That's the only way you gain control'.
I close my eyes, digging my nails in my skin again. Maybe that could ease this voice finally. Praying that George hurries, and he does, I try to calm me. I already leave traces on my skin with my nails, I just need to add more pressure and maybe-
"That bad?," is all he says when he comes out of his room.
When he sees my nod he leads me into their common room and settles me on a sofa in front of the fire plays, adding more wood so it starts to burn again.
However, his eyes narrow at my arms when he sees the way my nails move along it.
"Why are you doing that?"
"I need to do it," I press, not daring to look at him, just settling further into the pillows.
"You don't need to do that," he replies calmly.
"You don't understand, I go crazy if I don't do anything," almost managing to cut something open, from how often I let my nails trail over my skin in the last fifteen minutes, I grow more and more scared. Will I be able to prevent this from happening again?
"Focus on something else," George advices: "On some story you read or a funny memory. Just try to distract you from whatever lets you do this."
"I don't know if I be able to do this George," I whine.
Then he grabs my hand, stopping me from my movement and my arms starts to shiver again, already missing the impact of my fingers.
The boy does something I would have never expected. He presses small kisses on each of my fingers than onto my palm.
"Looks like I have to kiss it better then."
He proceeds further to my wrist, being careful and gentle. My eyes trail after him, I feel the way his hand holds softly onto my arm and the little pressure of my other hand in his.
My eyes follow him after he reaches my shoulder, before straightly staring into his eyes that screamed home for me, so many times before. Neither of us says a word, just his presence here beside me, even if it is the Couch in the Gryffindor common room, says more than every world could have. His eyes tell me everything before he kisses my neck, moving up to my jawline until he reached his destination- my lips.
My arm still clasped ins his hand, stops more and more to shiver, the more he carefully pushes me into the pillows of the couch. His other hand let go of mine and helps him settle more comfortably on top of me, still giving me enough space.
My eyes flutter shut, taking in every little detail of his lips, of his taste, of the way his hands leave a huge impact on me. Without realizing it, one desire replaces the other and my free hand moves to his hair, demanding to be used than just lying useless around.
Then we hear the portrait opening and George stops, making me open my eyes and watch him closely. He lowers himself onto me and we both hear a boy and a girl discussing their next patrol schedule before both of them going separate ways. Those must have been the prefects, coming from the last rounds. When both of them, without spying us, which honestly seems like a miracle, go upstairs, George grins proudly and moves so he can look at me face.
"We have two options. The first would be that Nate comes down after realizing I'm not in my bed anymore and finds us, or he is too tired to see that. I hope the latter."
Running my hand through his hair, I watch him burying his head into my boobs.
"Most comfortable pillow I ever had in my life," he mumbles making me smile despite my protests.
"Good that they have some use, and I thought they never come in handy," I say.
He starts to chuckle.
"We have another DA meeting tomorrow evening," he says quietly.
I watch as his eyes fall shut a bit, how he tries to keep them open.
"Same time as usual?"
"Yes, same time as usual. I can pick you up again?"
"Not necessary, I believe I'm able to find the way there now."
"But you still need someone that lets you in. Your skills on asking for something of that room are terrible," he snickers.
"Haha, very funny. Not my fault the room doesn't do what I want him to do."
"You need to be a bit friendlier towards it. I mean you can play with me that way, but not with that room," he grins when I hit his head slightly.
"George?"
"Yeah?," he opens his eyes again.
"Do you believe a fight will be necessary one day?"
"Honestly, I hope not. The thought of having to deal with something again that cost many their lives is scary. I don't want to wake up one day and realize that one of my family died way to soon. We are a big family, but we just work with the other, that's how it always was. With a fight approaching you'll never know what will happen."
It doesn't feel right to answer his statement, so I settle for silence.
---
„And then she showed me different brochures that could be useful for the direction I wanted to go," George explains as we walk down the corridor from the charms classroom.
We currently discuss how our head teachers dealt with those career lessons.
"What about Snape?," Fred asks from the other side.
"Well that's a bit difficult. He reacted different to each student. Some, who already knew what they wanted and what they need to achieve, he dismissed early not even discussing anything with them, claiming it's a waste of time to keep them longer. Then those who knew what they wanted to do, but didn't know how to gain their goal, he explained some basic facts they needed to know, scaring some through the process. Then those who had a few interests, but couldn't settle on one, he dismissed straight away, telling them to come back when they knew what they wanted, not bothering to deal with that. Last but not least, the ones who didn't have a clue what they wanted to do. He always tried his best to get every student to know at least a direction where to go, some interest they could focus on, an idea you could say. Therefore, people, who had trouble finding something for them or finding a particular interest, he ordered twice into his office."
"Twice? Really?," Fred asks disbelieving.
"Yes twice, in my case it was two times. Cole was so clueless to what he should do later that Snape ordered him a third time, but Snape helped him a lot with finding the best future job for him. As for me, I had finally a direction on what I want to achieve. Not the job though, but it was the right step, because honestly without that push I don't think I would have cared much about O.W.L's. "
"Well we didn't care much either and have a bright future in front of us," Fred grins.
"Not to mention this," George shakes a bag full of Galleons.
They really have to wipe it under my face, how much money they already made.
"This won't help you in every situation," I retort, being able to finally tease George again, which is a very good sign.
Since a few days I started to feel better and very slowly going back to normal. My urge to cut was sometimes still there, but not as big as it used to be and I finally found a way to divert the urge into something else.
Others would start to draw to distract them, others would dance maybe to ease the pressure on them, to find something different that helps them to let go for a short amount of time, to calm the urge down. Me? I fully invest myself into my schoolwork. Maybe not the most fun activity, but certainly helpful with my grades.
And as of lately, the urge wasn't so big that I needed to seek out George, so I finally didn't bother him for some time. No matter how often he claims I don't bother him, I'm sure that somewhere he asks himself why it was like this. Why I was like this and honestly? Sometimes I don't even know the answer myself, I just know that my constant working on a better mind place helped me a lot. And George of course. And George.
"It's a really nice day today," George grins: "Shame that you still have lessons."
"Oh does the little Annie, have lessons," Fred mocks and pats my cheek, I throw him a glare.
"Oh come on, smile," he continues to tease, just annoying me more and more. "You're cute when you're angry," Fred sings songs.
"Oh really?," I say: "Well then I'm about to get real fucking adorable then."
Fred stops in his tracks and starts to run. I don't know why he did that, I'm really not the sport type, so I just walk beside George and watch Fred run. I mean I don't even run away from my responsibilities sometimes, that's how lazy I am.
---
Because it is it such a beautiful day Logan, Christine, Cole and his friends as well as some of the girl's friends sit outside with me in front of the lake after our final lessons. Waiting for the time to arrive for dinner.
I lean against a tree, loving the shadow I get from the branches and write in my block, trying to learn, although it is more or less doodling since my mind isn't really focused and drifts off constantly, leaving me with an unwanted feeling again.
"Anne, do you think Umbridge wants us to do harmful spells during our defense N.E.W.T's?," Logan turns to me.
They have been discussing what will be on the finals and what wouldn't.
"I guess so, I mean it's part of the curriculum, she can't just change that."
"But," Christine says: "how are we supposed to show them? We never learned them this year"
"She will give easy one's?," I suggest.
"If you say so?," Cole chirps in beside me not really convinced.
I nod slowly. Maybe I feel this positive about all of this because I'm part of the D.A. Maybe that's why I'm not freaking out like the rest. Best thing George ever got me to do. Speaking of the devil himself, he makes its way towards us. Well I'm assuming it's George, but on the other hand, why would Fred be looking for me?
I sit up a bit, what does he have in mind? It's crazy to approach two Slytherin at once, yet alone a whole bunch of them. Cole gives me a look, not really annoyed but one that is saying do you have to bring him here.
I mutter under my breath for him to hear: "I didn't order him here!"
"Hey," a shy smiles leaves my boy when he stands in front of us.
"Hey what's up?," I ask looking up to him.
The others watch us too. Ever since they found out we are a couple they are way too curious how this constellation worked out.
"I was looking for you," is he a bit nervous around them?
"No shit Sherlock," Cole's friend Danny mutter earning laughs from the others making George just even more nervous.
"Come here," I say and pat the space beside me.
He hesitates a bit, not knowing if he wants to join or not. I raise an eyebrow. He looks stupid standing there like this, if he is smart he should sit down.
*George's Prov*
The way they all look at me. I don't know what it is but it makes me want to not mess things up. These are the people she hangs around with, if they don't like me, would she even consider going on with our relationship? I look from face to face, all of them give me an annoyed expression, the only face that comforted me was Anne's. She pats the place beside her again.
I wanted to spent time with her, why not here? I move up to her and sit down beside her. She moved a bit, so I can have more from the tree behind us and as soon as I feel comfortable sitting, she swung her legs over my lap, leaning with one side against the tree, doodling in her book, placing it on her lap.
The others go back to their conversation as if nothing of importance happened.
"What are you drawing?," I whisper looking at her movements.
"You?," she says shrugging when I see the word idiot written on the right corner of the page. I smile a bit, seeing how she got better over time and being overall more relaxed.
Seeing her that down, like she was the past few months, nearly broke my heart. She deserves to be happy.
"Wow you're so mature," I tease shaking my head and take the book from her.
She doesn't complain so I guess it's alright to look through it. She rests her head a bit on my shoulder and watches me closely.
I read through some of her notes when Malfoy and his company walk past the tree. When they see us they stop.
"Weasley, didn't I make myself clear that the new rule means no touching between Girls and Boys?"
I look up, me and Anne are really close and I guess this means detention again.
Anne moves her head and the rest of them does too.
"Draco:" Anne starts:" Let me guess with the information you gained now yo-" and to my surprise all of them said in unison: "Your father will hear about this?"
Malfoys face turned slightly red. Normally you wouldn't even recognize such a change of color, but considering how pale he is you can clearly see it.
He searches for words, finally spitting a: "Ten points from Gryffindor" before walking off offended.
The others start to laugh. I stare at them, Slytherin's joking?
"What?," Christine looks at me.
"Nothing," I quickly dismiss.
"Since when is that asshole allowed to take points from other houses?," Cole asks confused.
I really start to like them.
---
The next day the corridor is filled with students, seeming stressed over getting to their next lesson. Fred and I have all time of the world and sit on the floor, feet outstretched, gaining some complaints by students, watching in clear amusement.
"They all need to calm down," I suggest.
"We never made such a fuss about coming to lessons," Fred says.
"Hey is that Minnie?," I point towards McGonagall: "Do you see to whom she is talking to?"
"Some third year, Ravenclaw."
"Does she looks in a good mood?"
"Nope"
"A shame," we chuckle.
Then I hear a groan from Fred and soon Anne settles between us.
"It's also nice to see you Fred," she rolls her eyes having something in her hands.
"What is that?," Fred takes it from her hands.
"This is a slingshot," she responds, watching him playing with the string and hitting himself accidently.
"Where did you get it?," I ask.
"Some first year had it, he wanted to throw paper at me and so I took it from him. Serves him about right."
"That's not nice little Annie," Fred teases and laughs when she snatches the slingshot from him, but soon he hisses in pain when she uses the string to hit him against his skin. "Good Godric, fuck you."
"What's that?," she ignores Fred and points at a bag I have next to me.
"That are color bombs, fresh on the market, leave temporary color on anything you hit with it. They aren't that big, so you could easily throw them, but some of them could actually create some mess."
"That's amazing," she grabs into the bag, watching one closely. A pink small bomb. "How did you manage to do them?"
"Why should we tell you? Last time I checked you were just a side chick," Fred shuffles away a bit again, seeing the way she raised the string again.
"It took some time perfecting the charm behind it. Maybe I'll show you one day," I say.
"Why are you even here?," Fred asks her.
Still playing with the slingshot and the bomb she looks at the crowd.
"I have a free period and thought, if I need someone to ruin my day, I need to see Fred Weasley asap."
"Great that you finally come to realization that I'm the best at everything," he jokes.
I move the bag a bit for someone who walked closely past us, before seeing Anne shifting a bit in her seating position.
I raise curious an eyebrow, then she gives Fred the Slingshot again.
"Here hold it, I need to go. I'll see you later," with that she stands up, grabs quickly her bag and disappears in the crowd of students.
Fred looks still at the tool in his hands, just where is the bo-, nevermind. McGonagall is coming up to us, with a seeable pink colour on her hat and parts of her face.
"Mister and Mister Weasley!" Oh boy she doesn't look amused.
She does not look amused.
"Your girlfriend is the worst," Fred mutters, before grinning at the professor: "Looking good as always professor, decided to go for a new look?"
Her mouth gets into a thin line.
"Detention?," we both ask.
"Detention," she replies earnestly.
---
Fred, Lee and I move the full boxes from the room of requirement to our hide out place. Today marks the day we have successfully managed to rebuilt everything we had. In addition, we even got new ideas and if everything goes alright for us, we will be able to produce them before we have to leave.
Being careful we walk around the corner and disappear in a secret passage that leads towards the Shrieking Shack. There we place all of our products and there we will get them when our store is finally ours. There were some little complications with the contract, however we managed to solve even that and now we just need to wait for the key. Then we can discuss everything else.
That should be in one week. One week and everything will be different. I open the door and climb up the unstable latter with to boxes flowing after me and place them carefully down on the others. Our fireworks carefully stashed in a corner where nothing can accidently light them up.
"Are you guys not suspicious that someone could come in here and steal your products?," Lee asks placing his boxes down.
"No, people are too afraid to come here," Fred says.
"And if they would dare to come into this lovely building," I say turning towards him.
"People will assume that the noise and reputation comes from us. Great advertisement."
I high five my brother and after making sure everything is stashed away safely, we make our way back to the castle.
---
"Somethings wrong with Anne, isn't is?," Lee whispers in my ear as we stand in the room of requirement for our next DA meeting.
Since that incident in the broom closet, he still feels guilty about not telling her that it was him. He didn't want to harm her, he certainly didn't expect for her to react that way. Lee was so convinced that nothing can scare Anne and that something as simple would bring that reaction out of her made him reconsider a lot of stuff.
I look over to her, not really practicing or trying to defend herself from Neville's spells and when she does fire back, it isn't like it should be. She isn't focused the way she should. Somethings occupying her mind again and I have a sad feeling what it could be.
"She's just not feeling well today Lee, no need to be concerned about that," I give him a smile and a thankful pat on the shoulder for his concern, but I know that Anne wouldn't appreciate it if I talked to others about her well-being and as I said before it is okay to not feel okay sometimes. It's necessary to appreciate the highs even more.
"Good Job guys," Harry calls out, stilling every movement: "Now that we all know a lot of defensive charms and spells, I want you to be able to use them all together in something that might be a duel. In the real world out there, you have to fight others in a way where more than one spell could hit you in a short period of time and you need to be able to deal with each and everyone of them. I want you to know the counter spell and how you should attack. For that I want you to go together with your partner and we make place in the middle. Just those two will duel and the others will watch until everyone took a turn. Alright?"
We nod and I take my side next to Fred, just then when we made space for the dueling pair, the other twins, Neville goes up to Harry.
"I- I'm sorry Harry, but is there any possibility that I get another partner?," Neville clearly feels uncomfortable saying that.
"Why? Somethings wrong the one you have?," he eyes Neville and then Anne, who watches the interaction with curious eyes and defensive manner.
"Well, I- I'm, I-It's just, I'm not that good myself and I have the feeling that," he lowers his voice a bit: "That she isn't the best partner for me. I don't want to die Harry."
Anne shakes her head and looks towards me with a sigh.
"Neville, I'm sorry, but everyone else has already their partner and-"
"I take him," I say, moving up to him, he looks at me hopeful: "I will duel with him today."
"What?," Fred says.
"And who will Fred duel with?," Harry asks.
"Anne of course," I grin back at Fred and Anne who both look like they want to kill me in an instant: "I believe they are going to be fine."
"If I have to duel with her, I can already say I'll win, the way she threw spells today," Fred says making a ridiculous movement with his wand.
"I did not look like that," Anne rolls her eyes.
"How you did look like that!"
"Okay," Harry talks louder: "So Neville and George you are next."
I move to the opposite of Neville in the room and we bow before moving back to the ends. I wait for Neville to throw the first one and to my surprise I don't need to wait long. He really learned hard and got better and I can feel it, nevertheless after a short amount of time, some defensive spells from me, I was able to disarm him.
"Great job Neville," Harry reassures him and asks the next one's in the middle.
---
"Now the last ones. Fred, Anne," Harry gestures for them to come into the middle.
Neither one of them looks amused. They bow and move to the end, I'm entertained I can say. Both of them lift their wands, watching the other closely.
"Oh come one, little Annie," Fred teases: "Too scared to actually make a move? Or aren't you capable of doing a proper one today?"
He makes her movements from before where she didn't concentrate on Neville and got hit by a charm of him. Anne watches him closely, nothing reveals what she might feel or what she might do. Her face blank, even though the others laugh at Fred's representation of her.
"Little Annie, is something the matter, do you need a little push?," my brother grins and throws the first spell.
She blocks it perfectly and then instantly throws a spell at him, without opening her mouth. She looks fierce and Fred not expecting for her to use non-verbal magic, got caught off guard and is frozen for a little. However, he reacts quickly and blocks the next hex that she hits his way.
And without saying a word he throws one back and it feels like everybody is frozen in the room, eyes glued to the two. No duel was full with that much Energy, even though non of them say a word. Both concentrated to bring the other down, throwing one massive spell after the other on the person opposite of them. Anne's hair gets loose in her bun and some of them fall onto her back. Fred's face slightly starts to get red from the intensity of their fight. No one dares to move, scared they could break the fascination of the spectacular.
And then, suddenly both of them raise their wand at the same time, ready to throw the final hex, light lines come out of their wands and react to each other. We all step a bit back, making more room. Both of them hold their wands with both hands, looking extreme. I have never seen something like that. They kind of created a connection with their wands and a light point is played between them two.
Neither Fred nor Anne wants to break it, determined to win. I know Fred, he doesn't want to loose this battle, especially not when it's with a Slytherin and I know that Anne's pride is in her way. Sometimes I wonder if that is the reason they both don't come along when they clearly have a lot in common.
"Enough," Harry says after Hermione let go a shriek when we heard a sound coming from the wands.
"I said enough!" He points his wand at Anne and disarms her, throwing both her and Fred backwards.
They lie on the floor, breathing heavily and shaking from exhaustion of their battle.
"What was that?," Hermione asks.
"That is called a Priori Incantatem," Harry explains, looking at all of us: "That happens when two wands have the same core. Anne and Fred have twin wands. Which means that they have a connection and their wands will detect each other's spells and will react to them. The wand will react to the other one without the owner having to properly use it."
I help Fred up and make sure he's okay before I move over to Anne where Luna already bends over her and helps her up.
"You okay?," I ask when I reach her side.
"I guess," she looks disorientated and tired.
"Just to make this clear," Fred says looking exhausted as well: "That means we didn't really duel and just our wands?"
"No you did duel, but in certain situations your wands can take over and create a connection as you just saw. If you would have kept it longer, some spells would have gone reverse."
Anne and Fred stare at each other in shock.
"I don't want her to have my twin wand! I already have a real twin," he points at me making me and other chuckle.
"I'm sorry Fred, but certain things you can't choose."