Within You, Without You

"Thank you very much!" I called to the house elves as the portrait that led to the kitchens closed. Me and Fred were carrying out full plates of delicious looking food. The elves were so happy that we came down and bombarded me with questions (I hadn't been down there since the start of the term). They also greeted Fred as a known friend, which didn't surprise me really.

"So you're pals with the house elves?" Fred asked as we walked down the hallway trying to find a decent place to sit.

"Yeah. Over the summer if I didn't sit in the Great Hall with professors or ghosts while eating I'd just go down to the kitchens," I told him, looking around.

"Professors? Over the summer? What I'd give to see them like that..." Fred mused, and I laughed.

"Well I don't really have anything to compare them against so I wouldn't really know what to tell you they're different about except the obvious that they aren't as stuffy and professional over the summer."

"A non-professional McGonagall, that is not possible," Fred said laughing.

"I'll have you know that I saw her with her hair down once or twice!" I defended, and we both laughed. I pushed the thoughts of the oncoming conversation away and let myself soak in the laughter. Eventually we found a little nook that was right in front of a huge window and we decided to use that for our dinner time location. We sat cross legged facing each other, and Fred put a levitation spell on our plates and goblets, to float right in front of us, as if at a table. I took two of the closest candles and put a spell on them so they would float as well, so that we weren't just going after our food in the dark. Taking in our first bites, I smiled at the food. I was hungry, and the food was good.

"So," Fred started off in between a bite.

"So," I responded with.

"So would you like to talk about how you fell into the fire?" I hesitated, and the two of us just stared at each other for a bit. "You can trust me," He told me.

Trust.
It's been a while since I've done that. "It's not that I don't trust you, Fred. I just...I just don't want to burden you with my burdens. I don't want you to feel like you have to listen to me and have to be my ear. It's a pretty long pathetic story and I don't want you to feel like you have to listen to it."

Fred smirked at that. "Have to? Blimey, if I had to listen to it, I wouldn't want to. Just ask any of my professors who have tried to make me listen to anything. I want to. I want to know." He took a bite and washed it down. "If, if you don't want to tell me... I understand I just-"

"No it's not that. You want to know?" I asked again and he laughed and nodded. "Alright. Not exactly dinner conversation material but I guess it'll do." I took another bite, bided my time. "I fell into the fire because I was lost in a memory of my parents being killed in front of me. I was six," I told him, bluntly. He choked a bit on his meat pie but quickly took a sip of water and stopped it. I took a bite and decided that I'd go a bit more into the story now that that was out. "My parents and I moved from London when I was a two year old little pup to the States in hopes to outrun some people that they made into enemies. We lived well enough; they homeschooled me in muggle education and taught me the ways of witches and wizards...at least a bit, considering my age. And then there was a night when two people knocked on the door. It was in December, and the two of them opened the door...I think my parents knew the people who were there, but it didn't matter. There was a green flash and my parents fell to the floor, dead. The two strangers looked at me and laughed and left.

The police were called because of the screams. They had me pack all my things up and took me out of there, had me be psychoanalyzed, and within the week I was in a foster home," I summed up quick, and both of us were finishing our dinner. Right then, a house elf came running toward us carrying a plate. "How was your dinner then miss and mister?" The house elf squeaked. This one was smaller than the others, and our very presence seemed to frighten him to the point where he didn't feel right using our names. Still, he was friendly and helpful.

"It was great, thanks," Fred responded, and the little house elf smiled and handed us the plate he was carrying. Upon it was lemon cakes for our desert. Once we took hold of the plate, the house elf snapped and all of our dirty dishes went into a neat stack in his hands. He quickly stammered that we were to just leave the lemon cakes plate where we were sitting and they'd pick it up, bowed awkwardly at us, and scampered off.

The two of us laughed a bit and Fred had the plate of lemon cakes float between the two of us and we each took one to nibble at. "So. You were brought to a foster home....?" Fred prompted.

I smiled at him. "Oh no no no. That is another story for another time, Fred. I have to keep some of my mystery."

"Oh, and you're just such a mysterious woman," Fred mocked, and we both laughed.

"Well look at it this way: you know more about me than anyone else here."

"I'll take it."

We finished our lemon cakes and placed the plate down between the two of us. "Time to go back to the Gryffindor tower, eh?" Fred asked. I nodded, taking the candles and putting them back where they were originally. As we walked, I felt a bit lighter. It felt good to let someone in. To trust in someone else. I've been going through this world as a give nothing of yourself to anyone for a tad to long. Perhaps within these castle walls I could soften my heart again. What I told Fred, it was nothing big. But then again really, it was huge. I have been living in a world where people don't believe in magic and witches and wizards. The police couldn't figure out the reason for both of their deaths and just left it saying it was poison. I've had to just live for years now being little orphan Lucy with the poisoned parents. I don't have to be that here.
And that was....nice. It was nice.

As we walked towards the tower I couldn't help but stare at my hands most of the while. They were bandaged, but I knew what was underneath. I felt stupid for getting so caught up in my memory. Would my hands ever be the same again? If I still was living in the muggle world, I know for a fact that I'd be in the hospital for several days and have permanent scars on both my face and my hands. It was a great thing to be a witch. I felt a squeeze on my shoulder and looked over at Fred who was smiling at me. I blushed, realizing that I've just been staring at my hands for most of the walk. "Sorry," I muttered.

"Just cheer up kiddo or I'm going to have to do something drastic like call Peeves out."

I laughed. "Oh don't you dare. He's been avoiding me this past week. We were having a sort of prank war during the summer and I think he's afraid that I won." We both laughed at that. "But I wasn't saying sorry to that."

"Oh no?" Fred asked.

"No. I was saying sorry that I'm going to beat you to the tower!" I shouted and continued running up the moving staircases. "HEY, YOU CHEATER!" He screamed after me and I laughed. I ran as fast as I could, the staircases all seeming to move at just the right times for me. I felt something hit my feet and then suddenly I couldn't move. "What the-" was all I could get out before I was tackled by Fred.

"Ow," We both said, and laughed. Fred stood up, and gave me his hand to help me up to. I stood up, tried to take a step, and started falling again. Fred laughed again, and did a spell that got rid of the goo that was on my feet. "You cheated!"

He smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't want to lose. But now we have a truce."

"Oh do we?" I asked, as Fred helped me up again and we continued up the staircases at a walking pace.

"Yes. Because I have more of that stuff to stop you in your running again if I wanted to," He told me. I 'hmmmphed,' and he laughed at me.

"What is that stuff anyway?"

"Experiment gone wrong. George and I are working on some different things, like we told you yesterday. This, instead of what we wanted it to do ended up just turning into a goo when it made contact with everything."

"You could always just sell it as a 'cheat-in-a-race-by-throwing-this-goo-at-your-opponents-feet' product."

"That's a really great name. Really. You should be our company's name maker," He said dryly, and I just flashed a smile at him.

Finally, we made it up to Gryffindor tower, with no more goo incidents, mind you. We gave the password, crawled through, and ended up in the common room. A bunch of people were milling about the area, given it was just after dinner on a Saturday night. And all of them turned to the two of us and I saw a lot of peoples eyes turn down to my hands. I quickly pulled the arms of my sweater down to hide the bandages and looked away. There ended up being a person in the common room when the incident was happening, and apparently a good amount of people saw when Fred carried me to the Hospital Wing for the story to fly between mouths. People looked away quickly enough, and Fred just put his hand on the small of my back to direct me to the couches over to where Lee and George were sitting. I jumped over the couch and sat on the right end, leaving no room for Fred. He stood there looking at us, and just smiled ever so sweetly, and let his body fall across the three of us.

"Oi! You aren't made of feathers you know!" George yelled.

"Geroff me, you nutter," Lee added.

I was laughing too hard to comment, and tried to shove him off of me. His head was in my lap, and he kept forcing himself to stay on top of the three of us, insisting it was the most comfortable for all of us and to just calm down. Finally after a good ten minutes of squirming, Fred squeezed on the couch in between me and George. It was a rather tight fit, but it was better than just having that lanky ginger spread out amongst us.

"Man, I'm still bummed that there's no Quidditch this year. Even if the Tri-Wizard Tournament is coming around," Lee said.

"Quidditch?" I asked. Silence fell between the three of them and they all just stared at me. "I'm sorry I've lived with muggles for almost ten years now I'm sorry I'm not up to date with your magical world!" I tried to hide behind the pillow.

Fred took the pillow from me. "You've never played Quidditch?"

"It's a sport?"

"That's it. Tomorrow. We're playing. Get up bright and early. Get ready. And we all meet down here and go out and are teaching you how to play."

"Early as in noon Fred?" Lee asked, and George snickered.

Fred was about to retort until I noticed that someone approached us. I looked up and saw that it was Hermione Granger, one of Fred and George's little brother's friends. "Hi, Lucy?" She said to me. I nodded and she smiled. "Well...I was just wondering...you lived in the States before this?" I responded yes and she kept on going. "How is the Wizarding school in America?"

"I wouldn't know. Long story short I've been in muggle schools since I was six when my parents died. They taught me some things, homeschooling, but I never went to Wizarding school there."

Hermione looked at me shocked. "Never went to Wizarding school? But you're fifteen and a fifth year..."

I smiled. "Yeah. I came here during the summer and had three exhaustive months of catch up."

Ron Weasley came over at this point. "You mean to tell me that you played four years of catch up in three months?"

"Well I knew most spells and charms....I have all my parents' old school books that I used to read a lot...but I guess basically, yeah."

Ron smiled at that and looked at Hermione. "Looks like you have some brain competition."

Everyone laughed, even Hermione (eventually). The rest of the night was spent with the three guys. Later on Alicia Spinnet and Angelina Johnson came over, apparently girl players of the game of Quidditch. They were shocked that I never played as well, and then the five of them got into talking about a World Cup that I half listened to, until eventually I went up to bed. I thought I'd need sleep on account of sporting tomorrow. I grimaced, hoping that I wouldn't be horrible at it. I guess I'd find out soon enough.