11| THE TWIN JESTERS
Gemini sat on one of the highest and sturdiest branches of the beech tree at the edge of the Black Lake, leaning her back against the thick bark of the tree as one of her legs dangled from the branch while the other supported the book she was reading. Warm sunlight filtered through the apertures in the tree's shade, making the Sunday afternoon more enjoyable for her.
Moreover, she had put her record player on another branch of the tree which was near enough for her to hear the music that softly played from it and drifted around her. With the lake glittering in front of her and the distant chirping of birds, Gemini found it all impeccable. The Giant Squid seemed to share her spirits as it basked in the shallows and occasionally raised one of its tentacles above the surface to wave at people the same way it had greeted her.
"Hey Jude, don't let me down
You have found her, now go and get her
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better."
Gemini found her lips softly tracing the words.
'Hey Jude' by The Beatles was one of her most favourite songs. It was the perfect song for cheering someone up; the way it went from a slow, sad tune to a more lively beat.
And it was exactly what she needed at the moment.
She would never admit it to herself, let alone someone else, that the response that Dumbledore had enlightened her with had stung her a bit. She knew that her expectations had been too high, but what the letter read was the complete opposite of what she had wanted.
She could feel his distaste at the knowledge he had received from her, written so plainly in ink. Gemini's mind was conflicted with itself. Part of her was filled to the brim with hope — something she was already regretting allowing herself to have. The other was an ocean of pain that sought to drown her right to the bottom.
But she had resolved to hold onto this ray of hope, not for her own good, but for the sake of others. Gemini knew she was too far gone to pray, the normalcy of life had left her when she was but a child.
The mere thought of it made her shut her eyes and block her resurfacing memories. When her eyelashes fluttered open again, there was nothing but silence and the smell of old parchment surrounding her. She looked over to the player to see that the disc had stopped spinning. She sighed and put the disc back in her bag with a swish of her wand.
"Listening to a little music, are we?"
Gemini looked down and found the Weasley twins staring up at her with an identical mischievous gleam in their eyes.
"What are you two up to? Stalking people?" she responded, swinging her left leg over the branch to enable herself to sit properly, both legs now swaying from the branch.
"Wish we could." Fred sighed with a longing look.
"Miss your map, do you?" she asked them slyly.
"Sometimes..." George shrugged, but then his eyes widened as he comprehended Gemini's words properly. "Wait! How do you know about that?!"
Fred simply had his mouth open, unable to form words that could express his shock completely.
"I know a lot of things," she smirked evilly. "And if you want to know how I found out, you'll have to come up because I'm not coming down anytime soon."
"But — that's so high! How did a tiny thing like you even get up there?" Fred managed at last.
"Tiny thing?" Gemini gasped, looking very offended. "You just made it personal."
Gemini believed she was quite tall for someone her age, unlike other girls of the same age (such as Pansy) who were — for the lack of a better word — midgets. She was only an inch or so shorter than Draco, who was quite tall.
"Gemini Ophelia Delmar! You get down here right now —" said George.
"That's not my middle name," said Gemini, tilting her head to the side, looking confused.
"We know — it's just trial and error," said Fred. "But that doesn't matter; you get down at once!"
"Now, why would I do that?" she grinned innocently.
"Fred, George!" a voice suddenly interrupted them.
As the twins turned to look at the source of the sound, Gemini swung her legs atop the tree branch again and quickly cast the disillusionment charm on herself. She silently looked down and a big, bushy head came into her view.
"Thank goodness I found you two here." Hermione Granger sighed, wiping a thin layer of sweat off her forehead. She had a box of tin in her hands which jingled every now and then when she moved. "I wanted to talk to you about — what are you looking up for?" She looked up at the exact spot where Gemini was sitting.
"Where'd she go?" said Fred, looking around.
"Who are you talking about?" asked Hermione.
"No one," said George suspiciously. He and Fred slowly turned back to Hermione.
"Right," she brandished the badge pinned to her chest at them. It was a pleasantly light-coloured badge that distinctly read the letters 'S.P.E.W.'
"Spew? What's that?" asked the twins in sync.
"S-P-E-W!" she said hotly. "Not spew. It's an abbreviation for the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare."
"I don't remember studying about this in Binns' class," George muttered to Fred, "then again, I don't believe I'm awake for most of it."
Hermione rolled her eyes as Fred snickered. "You haven't studied about this yet." She added extra emphasis on the 'yet'. "But you will someday, I can assure you." She looked very proud of herself as she said these words, and there was a certain fiery, determined look in her eyes.
"No, thanks." the twins were quick to reply.
Hermione sighed impatiently and ignored their comment, continuing, "S.P.E.W. is an organisation I recently formed, that seeks to abolish house-elf enslavement —"
"Blimey, Hermione, have you lost it?!" said Fred in disbelief. "You want to abolish the only source of living of those elves —"
"You didn't let me finish!" Hermione interrupted. "That is one of our long-term aims. The short-term aims include securing house-elves fair wages and working conditions."
Fred and George blinked at Hermione, unable to hide their bafflement.
"Stop spewing nonsense, Hermione," said Fred, very seriously. George tried to disguise his laugh as a hacking cough.
But Hermione caught his joke and shot them a furious look. "It's not a matter to make fun of. Elf enslavement goes back centuries — I told Ron the same thing — honestly, someone needs to make a stand for elf rights. Clearly, you didn't see the way Mr. Crouch treated his elf, Winky at the Quidditch World Cup after the dark mark had been conjured."
"Hermione, it doesn't matter what you think as long as the elves aren't ready to accept your goals. They like being enslaved," said George.
"Dobby doesn't." she said and upon observing their flustered faces, elaborated, "He was the Malfoys' former house-elf. They treated him horribly until he was unintentionally freed. Harry told me about him. He said Dobby was happy to be free."
"There's the occasional oddball in every breed," Gemini spoke up, and as the words left her mouth, the charm faded away, revealing her in plain sight.
Hermione jumped, her eyes widening to a considerably large size as she spotted Gemini.
"Aha! So you were eavesdropping on us, were you?" exclaimed Fred.
"Eavesdropping? Me? Never." Gemini grinned, her dimple showing as always. "Why, I was here before you."
"What do you mean by occasional oddball?" said Hermione, after she had scrambled up enough of her wits to speak to Gemini.
Gemini's eyes flickered toward her. "Dobby isn't like the other elves," she said. "His ideas are vastly different from what the elves generally believe should be their livelihood. You may find one or two more elves like him, but the majority will evade you like they evade Dobby."
"That's because they've always lived like that. If they knew that there can be more to their life than just working miserably —" started Hermione passionately.
"Exactly, Granger, they don't know. And the moment you introduce these 'goals' of yours to them, they'll avoid you like the plague." said Gemini.
"But you healed that elf during the World Cup, you should understand —"
"I do understand," said Gemini, with a sharp look at her. Hermione seemed to shrink a bit. "I've met them. They don't want any payment and they love working because it's part of their tradition and livelihood, as it has been for centuries. Have you ever talked to one, Granger?"
"No," she answered feebly.
And then, without blinking an eye, Gemini swiftly jumped down from the tree. A chorus of terrified voices screamed her name.
"Arresto momentum!" she said, whipping out her wand, and came to a stop mid-air just before she hit the ground. She then undid the spell and landed on the grassy ground with a soft thud, internally patting herself on the back for wearing stockings under her skirt.
Fred, George, and Hermione were too shocked to utter a single syllable.
"I suggest you do," Gemini told Hermione, who slowly moved her hand away from her mouth. "What do you have in that box?" She walked over to Hermione.
It took Hermione a while to find her voice. "Erm, just a few more badges. I thought I'd give them to people who wanted to join..." Hermione stammered as Gemini came to stand right in front of her, a book clutched in one hand.
Fred and George giggled to themselves at seeing Hermione become so shy.
Gemini took the box from her, their fingers brushing lightly and Hermione vaguely noticed how very cold her fingertips were. "It's two Sickles to buy a badge," she said.
"Hmm..." Gemini mused, opening the tin lid and pulling out a green-coloured badge with her slender fingers. "I'll keep this," she said, tossing the badge in the air and catching it again. She put one hand in her pocket to fish for money, but pulled out her watch instead, huffing. "I'll pay you later. And I'll wear this badge the day your organisation succeeds in its ambition." She handed the box back to her.
Hermione gently took it and found herself conflicted. She felt exhilarated that someone had bought her badge — especially a student as popular and influential as Gemini Delmar. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Hermione had secretly always admired Gemini in most aspects. But the condition she had put on the use of the badge greatly disappointed her.
"Uhm — yes — of course —" Hermione stuttered, unsure of what to say. Gemini's lips curled into that oh-so-familiar smirk she always carried, and Hermione clamped her mouth shut to stop embarrassing herself any further.
"It's not entirely a bad idea, Granger. But change isn't easy," said Gemini. She then abruptly turned around to look at Fred and George expectantly for a moment before speaking. "Well, I'm down here..."
They seemed to come to a mutual realisation that she had been standing there for nearly ten minutes, unguarded, and exchanged frantic glances.
"GET HER!" Fred called to George as he started galloping over to her, his long legs pounding on the grass. George followed obediently. Gemini gave a wicked, devilish cackle and ran over to the other side of the tree. Hermione appeared to be startled by this capricious behaviour.
They circled the tree twice before Fred and George sensibly split up and came at Gemini from both sides. She gave them a diabolic grin before she raised her wand in the air and with a simple incantation, "Ascendio!" she shot up to the same branch of the tree where she had been sitting prior to their arrival. Clinging tightly onto the rough wood, she pulled herself up with a grunt.
When she looked down at the cross expressions the twins were wearing, her grin returned. Fred, seeing the pleased look in her eye, conjured a bunch of ripe green grapes and threw one at her. Gemini deftly caught it in her mouth.
"Thanks, Frederick!" she said pleasantly.
Hermione snorted at the name and even George struggled to keep a straight face.
Fred scowled and shot all the grapes at her with a swish of his wand. Gemini stopped grinning and quickly grabbed her bag, positioning it such that all the grapes fell directly into it. As the last grape fell into the bag, Gemini put it aside for eating later.
"As nice as a treat that is, you need to improve upon your delivery methods!" she called to him.
"Just tell us already!" George shouted back to her, biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from laughing at the murderous look on Fred's face.
Hermione turned quizzically to George. "Tell you what?" she asked him.
"Yeah, tell you what?" said Gemini loudly.
Fred picked up a stone and threw it straight at her. She dodged it quickly as George burst into a fit of giggles.
Hermione sighed. "Never mind," she mumbled to herself. "So — George, Fred, would you like a badge?" she asked the twins hopefully.
"No," they answered crisply and turned back to Gemini to try and convince her to tell them whatever she was hiding from them.
Hermione frowned at them and turned on her heel, starting to walk away. But then she remembered that she hadn't got Gemini to sign on her list of S.P.E.W. members and fetched it from her box as she asked her just that.
Gemini gave her a smug look and placed her chin in her palm. "You know, Granger, you didn't have to think up an excuse if you wanted an autograph..." she winked.
Hermione felt heat rise in her cheeks at how flirtatious the wink was. "I don't," she said firmly. "It's purely for listing your name down — and I thought it'd be best if you signed it yourself —" Hermione stopped when she saw Gemini staring at her with both eyebrows elevated slightly and that small smug smile on her lips. She shook her head, trying to act like Gemini's intense gaze wasn't making her nervous. "Just — just sign it." she blurted out at last. She thought she'd never been more embarrassed in her life.
"Accio!" was all Gemini said, but she couldn't bite back that little smile at Hermione's red-dusted cheeks. The paper zoomed into her hands, leaving her trio of spectators surprised at how perfect the charm was, and she reached over to another branch to pull out her quill from her bag.
Hermione glared scathingly at Fred and George, who had burst into a fit of giggles again. Then, as Gemini waved at her to signal that she was done signing her name on the list, Hermione summoned the paper back to herself. She looked down at it to find Gemini's name written in very elegant cursive with the drawing of a little gemstone beside it. There was also an animated image of a snake wrapped around a lion's neck, squeezing it and killing it as its muscled body tightened around the lion.
No wonder she'd taken nearly two minutes.
Hermione glunched at the snake and the lion, feeling quite offended.
"Hope you like the art, Granger!" Gemini grinned.
"What art?" said the twins, bustling over to Hermione at once. They gasped once their eyes landed on the derogatory doodle. "Gemini you little minx!" they hollered.
"But wait —" said George, his finger suddenly landing on the gemstone. "Did she just make a joke with her own name there —?"
Fred looked back at the page, not having noted that little detail. "Wow, she did," he said in realisation. Then he and George started laughing, looking up at Gemini, who was casually leaning against the tree once more and popping grapes in her mouth, enjoying the sun.
Hermione exhaled emphatically at the rather silly joke. She snatched the paper from Fred's hands and pocketed it. Then as she spun around to really leave this time, Gemini called to her.
"You're not staying, Granger?" she said deliberately and cheekily.
"No, thanks," said Hermione in a polite but flat sort of voice before she proceeded towards her common room to find Harry and Ron.