If You've Got the Nerve

The day started off boring as could be. A class with the Ravenclaws, class with the Slytherins, then, finally, Divination.

I’ve always had a slight interest in the subject, though I really hadn’t been taking any of my lessons that seriously except a select few that I really enjoyed.

But as I stepped up through the circular trapdoor right after Ron and in to a thick cloud of smoky perfume, images flooded my minds from the World Cup.

A few people nudged me and groaned about getting out of their way as I froze with my hand resting on the wooden floor to hold myself steady.

“Keep moving, some of us actually like this class.” Lavender Brown hissed at me. I shook the flood of blue flames out of my thoughts and moved to take a seat towards the back of the room.

The class went on with the discussion of stars until we were all handed a complicated looking chart. I stared at it for half the time in an attempt to work things out in my head.

“Bloody insane, isn’t it?” the boy next to me asked. I looked up at him.

His hair was smooth and brown, though his bangs fell in a mess over part of his dull green eyes. After a few seconds, I recognized him as Vinny True, a boy in Gryffindor who was part Russian. He had kept the heavy accent that I’d heard him declare as a trait from his father. His mother was a regular old London girl. You would never be able to tell he had any Russian blood in him until he spoke.

I nodded silently as he looked up from giving his map a horrified look to giving me an expectant one.

“Quite fascinating when you think about it, though,” I added quickly after turning to begin work on my own chart.

Let’s see…if I was born in November then Saturn would be somewhere at an angle of –

“You’re the girl who’s always hanging around with those Weasley boys, aren’t you?” I closed my eyes in frustration as the heavy voice interrupted my calculations.

“Yeah, I suppose I am. They hang out with other girls though.”

“I know. You’re just more noticeable.” I eyed him carefully as he shrugged with his eyes fixed blankly on the parchment in front of him. Was he…?

“Your angles are all wrong,” I said with a small sigh. I leaned over to scoot his paper closer to me. “and you've got three Saturns. All lined up too. Are you trying to kill yourself before you’re even born?”

I made a note of the grin he gave me as he all too willingly handed over his paper and scooted his seat closer to “help me examine” his work. I had to resist rolling my eyes, but I couldn't help the small smile on my face.

Usually the only attention from boys I got was at the Weasley house and when I studied with Lee. This was nice.

Professor Trelawney made her swooping rounds, being sure to stop at her favored students’ spots. Incidentally those favored students happened to be the few who favored and believed her.

After we were assigned a heap of homework, Vinny chose to accompany me down towards the Great Hall. I happily agreed and we set off.

We were in the middle of a discussion about the last lesson when a familiar person stepped up quickly beside me.

“How were classes?”

“Who’s this?” I rolled my eyes. Should have expected they would find me.

“Fred, George, this is Vinny. He’s in my Divination class,”

“And her Care for Magical Creatures class,” I cocked my head to the side at this but shrugged it off.

“Vinny, this would be ‘those Weasley boys’,” I said with a smile that he returned, “Fred and George,” I gestured to each in turn. “Hello,” they both chorused. Vinny looked like he had just met his doom. Though I didn’t know if it was because he was convinced he’d never be able to tell them apart or if he had heard the hundreds of rumors about the two. Maybe a bit of both.

“Don’t worry; they’re not as bad as people make them out to be. And I’ll help you with identifying their ugly mugs.” I whispered to him with a wink. This seemed to comfort him and he smiled lightly at me.

Fred looked ready to say something when a loud and obnoxious voice broke out across the entrance hall.

“Weasley! Hey, Weasley!” Instinctively, the twins and I all looked up causing Vinny to look in curiosity.

There was an audible groan from our group. Draco Malfoy was strutting over with a grin and the newest edition of the Daily Prophet. He flipped it open to the front page with all too much glee stamped on his pale face.

Fred and George shoved through a group of people to get a little closer and I followed in case they got any ideas.

“Your dad’s in the paper, Weasley!”

I saw Fred and George physically tense and suddenly remembered seeing them both huddled over a copy of the paper at breakfast.

My stomach sank as Malfoy read the article aloud to the entire listening crowd that now stood there. It was all about the Ministry’s screw ups at the Cup and in other areas and, after a while, focused on Mr. Weasley himself. Or, as the Prophet called him, “Arnold Weasley”.

The boys tensed up with every sneer on Malfoy’s face until they finally snapped in to movement at the mere mention of Molly coming from the rat’s face.

I held them both by the back of their robes before they could make it out of the ring of kids surrounding the scene. They yanked themselves free from my grasp but didn’t make another move to break through the line. It was easy to tell they were in one of their rare moods where smiles just weren’t going to happen.

Then there was a sudden BANG.

Everyone jumped and a few people let out surprised shrieks. I blinked away the dots from my vision and looked around frantically. There was a rough shout and suddenly Fred and George were laughing again.

I blinked a few times then ducked out from behind the two to see what everyone was staring and pointing at.

I saw a frantic Crabbe and Goyle and a silver-blonde ferret being bounced around by Moody himself. Wait…

“Is that Draco?” George could only nod through his laughter. I was grinning widely.

“Professor Moody!”

I think the twins had a sixth sense to straighten up and act innocent whenever they heard that familiar, stern voice.

“Go, go, go. She’ll find some way to blame us!” Fred urged and pushed me towards the door to the Great Hall. I laughed all the way and the twins kept their smile.

It wasn't until we made it halfway to our seats that I looked back to where we’d come from.

“Where’s Vinny?” I asked curiously. The two boys shrugged and I figured he had scampered off with one of his friends.

Somehow, the familiar three friends had made it to their seat before us. Probably because we got distracted by Angelina and Katie on our way. Hermione had already gone, but Ron and Harry were still stuffing their faces.

“Moody!” Fred exclaimed as he took a seat. We were joined a moment later by Lee who must have heard the name and came to join.

“He knows, man,” he was exclaiming when I faded from the conversation as I made myself comfortable lying down on the bench with my head in Fred’s lap. He either didn’t mind or didn't notice for the first few seconds because their conversation carried on until Ron gave out his disappointed exclamation over his schedule for Moody’s class.

“How amazing is he?” I asked Fred with more than a little curiosity slowly building.

He only grinned at me as his fingers ran through my hair. I was content with that answer.