Everybody Party Till the Gasman Comes

"What are you doing?"

I glanced up quickly at the sound of the familiar voice and caught the brown-eyed gaze of one of my best friends, then looked back down. "Hi, Fred," I mumbled, not replying to his question.

Fred pulled the chair across from where I sat out from the table and sat down. He pulled the parchment from under my quill, causing a long black streak of ink to fill most of the page that hadn't yet been written on. I looked up, mouth already open to form a complaint, but he held up a finger. His eyes scanned the page and his eyebrows rose up his forehead. "This," he said, pointing at the essay, "is why I don't take Ancient Runes."

Rolling my eyes, and silently cursing myself for doing so, I snatched the parchment from his hands. "No," I replied. "The reason you don't take Ancient Runes is because you have better things to do than decipher...ancient runes."

"Oh, that's right," he laughed, earning a quick shush from the librarian. "I have much better things to do." He folded his hands together under his chin. "Why are you working on that anyways? The First Task's tomorrow; we haven't got any classes."

"Because-" I swatted Fred's hand away from my bag, which was sitting on the table between us "-I don't wait until the last moment to get my things done, like some people. I may hang around with you and your brother but I don't risk not getting my homework done."

"Speaking of my brother, he's looking for you."

"George is looking for me?"

He nodded. "Yep."

"Why is George looking for me?"

Fred shrugged. "I don't really know. He was muttering something about you having stolen something from him when we parted ways after leaving the common room."

I snorted. "I didn't steal anything from him."

"You didn't? He seemed pretty distraught-"

"He only thinks I stole something from him," I said, trying not to let on.

Fred's face contorted in confusion. "So you've hidden something from him."

I shook my head. "Nope."

"I feel like I'm missing something."

I grinned, but it was quickly smacked off of my face when I felt a pair of hands grasp my shoulders. A scream escaped my lips and the hands quickly covered my mouth. It was too late, though, because Madam Pince walked over and shooed us all from the library. I gathered my things and left with Fred and George Weasley on either side of me. I smacked the latter of the two. "Now I'll never get my essay done."

"Yes you will," he said. "You always do."

"What do you want, Weasley?"

He frowned. "You know, it's really impolite to call me by my last name like that all the time, Sammy."

"I only do it when I'm angry at you."

"Which seems to be quite a bit lately." He raised an eyebrow.

Fred broke away from our little group. "I'll just leave you two to whatever's going on here. See you later."

We watched him walk down the hall from us.

"You told Fred that I stole something from you?"

"Right." George turned back to face me. "And I'd like it back."

A smile spread slowly across my face. "I don't have a clue what you're talking about, George."

"Oh, don't you?" He took a step towards me.

I took a step away from him. "I would never lie to you."

"Wouldn't you?" Another step forward.

Another step back. "Never."

This went on a lot more quickly than should have been possible. After only a few more steps, and even less minutes, I'd been backed up against the wall and George was so close to me that his torso was touching mine and I could feel his breath messing the top of my hair. I looked up at him, attempting a smile, but his own eyes were serious.

"Sam, give it to me."

I shook my head. "I don't have anything."

He grasped hold of my arm. "Really?"

My head nodded almost imperceptibly.

He leaned his forehead against my own. "Why are you lying?"

And there it was. I could always fib around with Fred. He could never tell whether what I said was truth or not. George, on the other hand, could spot if I was lying immediately. I hadn't meant to take it. I saw it on top of his nightstand in his dormitory, a letter. I was only curious as to what it was. I knew it was from Arthur, and thought that I would only read it and put it back. But Lee had walked in and I'd stuffed it into my jacket pocket.

"I'm sorry," I said. I took the parchment from my pocket and put it in the hand that was clamped around my arm. "I didn't read it."

"Were you going to?" He leaned away from me and I stared down at the floor. "Please don't ever go through my things like that, Sam."

I looked up at him with contempt. "I thought best friends didn't keep secrets from each other."

"And I thought best friends didn't go through each other's things without asking." His voice was harsher than it had ever been and I wondered what could have been in that letter that was so worth this.

"I guess we both thought wrong," I whispered, staring back down at the floor. My voice broke and for the first time in a long time of stealing things from my friends, I felt guilty. It was the most horrible feeling and for a moment it consumed me.

But then George stuffed the parchment in his pants pocket and released my arm. He cupped my face in his hands, forcing me to look up at him. "I'm sorry I got angry."

The guilt melted away at the look his eyes held. "I'm sorry I took your letter."

He placed a kiss on my forehead. "C'mon," he said, taking my hand in his. "You need to finish that essay."