It's Better If You Do

Rose laughed quietly at Fred's transparent attempt to make conversation, and shook her head before saying ruefully, "I wouldn't know to be honest. I keep as far away from the Skiving Snackboxes as possible."

Bellamy nodded vigorously in agreement, while George scoffed, asking, "Why? It's just a little blood and vomit. Sometimes people faint, but other than that-"

"It seems you would have been suitable as a healer, then," Bellamy said coolly, raising an eyebrow. "But I don't prefer it."

George shrugged, and said, "Nah, we wouldn't have made good healers. We'd end up with more patients dead than alive."

Bellamy rolled her eyes dramatically, while Fred continued, "And we only made three O.W.L's each. They require Outstandings in a lot of fields, and that'd be mental to try."

"You only got three O.W.L's? Wait- What about your N.E.W.T's?" Rose asked, slightly shocked, and her eyebrows raised. The boys were quite obviously clever, and extremely well in dealing with business and money; they should have made quite better grades and she had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn't the only ones who thought so.

They shrugged simultaneously, but George said, "We left before we could take them. We knew from an early age that we wouldn't become coorporate drones at the Ministry, so why bother?"

Rose nodded, understanding completely. "What O.W.L's were they?"she asked curiously, tilting her head slightly as she watched the brothers smirk at each other. It was a rather mischevious and rebellious look, but not an uncommon expression for the pranksters.

"Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts," Fred said nonchalantly, still smirking. "The rest we didn't feel quite... inclined to pass."

"Inclined," Bellamy muttered darkly under her breath, shaking her head. Rose heard her and grimaced slightly, knowing this wasn't the best topic to be on, especially Charms and Transfiguration. Bellamy was as touchy about her magical abilities as she was about Julian, and especially about O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's.

"So, Rosie, how many did you get?" Fred asked, before finishing off the rest of his stromboli. Rose saw her older sister's eyes flash quickly before she composed herself, merely settled on a stoic expression. Rose bit her lip, and looked down sheepishly, shaking her head. "Oh, come on. We told you ours."

"I got..." she trailed off, murmuring the last word too low for anyone to hear. Fred and George glanced at each other, then spared a quick look at Bellamy, who seemed a bit unhappy for reasons they couldn't quite grasp. Fred remembered Rose telling him something about Bellamy being a bit sour about her magic abilities, but he hadn't paid too much attention after the fact.

"Beg pardon?" George asked, leaning forward to hear her. Sighing heavily, she ran her hand through her hair nervously, avoiding their gazes. This was not something she wanted to discuss, more for the fact she knew it hurt her sister's pride than her own modesty.

"Eleven," she said clearly, looking down at her plate. It was silent once more, and when she looked up the boys were staring at her as if they hadn't seen her properly before. Percy, the prat, had made twelve O.W.L's, and even more N.E.W.T's. But, Rose didn't seem to be on the same level of obsessiveness as they had. Fred frowned slightly, his eyebrows furrowed.

"I thought you said you weren't an academic," he said slowly, watching her carefully.

"I'm not," she said quietly. "It was all easy for me. But just because I passed all my subjects doesn't mean I was amazing at all of them. I merely passed where Bellamy excelled."

Giving her sister a small smile, the brunette shook her head, saying, "You're being modest. Most people can't get that many and you know it." Rose shrugged, looking very uncomfortable. Standing quickly, she began to gather up the dishes off the table and headed for the stairs, not waiting for anyone to say anything else. She hated all the hype and fuss about O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's, especially after she had made such good grades. Running the hot tap, she pulled her wand out of her waistband and began pouring bubbles from it into the water.

Downstairs, Fred and George were trying to avoid eye contact with each other and Bellamy, because the tension was so thick they could have cut it easily with a knife and still had more to cut. She was scowling at her plate, her eyebrows furrowed while her red lips were pursed until you almost couldn't see them. If they had known her better, they would have realized she felt guilty for having made her sister feel like she had to downplay her achievements because of her own downfalls in her wizardry.

Hesitating, George debated on whether or not to ask what Rose's problem with her O.W.L's were. It seemed unnatural for her to be unhappy about such good results. "What's her problem?"

Bellamy sighed heavily, chewing on her lip slightly. "It's something I've done. I've been stupid... If you'll excuse me," she said quietly, pushing back her chair and quickly walking up the stairs. George looked at Fred beseechingly, who simply shook his head.

From behind her, Rose heard Bellamy's heels rapping on the hard wood floor of the stairs and her soft voice, "Rose?"

"I'm in here, Bellamy. I'm just washing the dishes," she said quietly. Bellamy quickly came over to help, drying the dishes swiftly. Her expression was something that Rose could not easily place, but she knew that Bellamy would say what was on her mind soon enough. She only had to wait about a minute or two, when the brunette turned to her, her light brown eyes full of apologies.

"Je suis dés-" Bellamy began, but Rose quickly cut her off.

"Je ne veux pas l'entendre. Il n'y a pas quelque chose à présenter mes excuses, et même s'il y avait, je vous ai déjà pardonné." she said with a small smile, clasping her sister's hand warmly. The older sister merely nodded, and bit her lip softly.