Tough Love

In reality it had been a long week, starting with the Halloween feast. It hadn’t taken long for Anya and Isabel to get back to the common room and get ready for the feast, leaving plenty of time for Isabel to relentlessly question Anya about George.
“Why does he have to be so aggravating?!” Isabel ranted, “I mean, I know that his twin was depressed because you were too crazy to say yes to him, but that didn’t mean he had to bother me!”
“Okay, I’m not that crazy. I’m just too nice,” Anya replied, plopping down onto a plump couch in the common room and opening the Daily Prophet, “ looks like they still haven’t caught Sirius Black,” she commented.
“Really? I would’ve thought that they would’ve caught him by now. And stop trying to change the subject!!!”
“Who, me?” asked Anya innocently, “Why ever would I change the subject?”
Isabel just glared at her in response, gaining a smirk from Anya as she dove back into the paper to see if the Ministry had had any leads recently, or if they simply were trying to make it look like they had some kind of control over the situation.
Isabel plopped down next to her with a huff, Fred had seriously pushed her buttons the wrong way this time. To keep her mind off the annoying red head, she started reading the paper over Anya’s shoulder, “Wait, this says that the most recent sighting of Sirius Black was not too far from here.”
“I noticed,” Anya replied grimly, “do you think he’d try to get into the castle with all those demonic dementors floating around?”
“I highly doubt it, but you never know,” Isabel answered, “I mean, he did break out of that prison and has avoided the ministry all this time, so I guess he’s just a tad unpredictable.”
“Just a tad?” Anya asked, amused.
“Yep, just a tad,” Isabel answered.
“Of course you’d say that.”
Isabel grinned in response, although her distracted state was short lived, seeing as how the twins had just re-entered the common room covered in mud. “Oh great, you’re back,” Isabel grumbled before stalking off to the girls’ dormitory.
“Well, that went well,” Anya noted from over the paper.
Fred just shook his head and stalked up the stairs, shortly followed by his chuckling and equally muddy brother. “It’s going to a long night,” Anya muttered as she headed up the stairs, “and now I’m talking to myself, great…”
“You know that that’s a sign of insanity, right?” Isabel commented from the desk in the corner.
“Yes, because we all thought I was sane to begin with,” Anya replied sarcastically, flopping on her bed, “so, what are you up to?”
“Writing to Anne, my friend back in France; what are you up to?
“Staring at the ceiling.
“Sounds fun,” Isabel noted, looking up from her letter.
“Very… What’s Anne like? I mean, she’s obviously amazing since she’s your best friend, but you haven’t really told me anything about her.”
“You know, she said the same thing about you in her last letter,” Isabel told her, “Basically she’s this amazing, kind, loving, funny, random, slightly insane person who’s crazy enough to be my best friend, not to mention one of the best tutors I’ve ever had. You know, now that I think about it, you two have a lot in common.”
“I hope I get to meet her someday, it sounds like we’d be good friends. And for the record, I’m choosing to ignore the comment about our level of craziness.”
With a laugh, Isabel put the finishing touches on her letter before tying it securely to her owl, Penny, and sent her out into the ever gloomy sky, before flopping on her bed next to Anya’s. “So, what do you want to do now?” she asked Anya.
“Umm… We can go get the guys and head down to the Great Hall,” she offered.
“Well, that’s better than just sitting around.”
“Yep,” Anya replied, dragging herself off of the bed and heading out the door and over to the boys dormitory.
“Why don’t they ever come and visit us?” Isabel asked, “Why can’t they come to us for once?”
“Knowing them, they would if they could, but unfortunately for them there’s an enchantment on the stairs that stops any male from entering the girls’ dormitory, yet we can easily get into theirs.”
“Well, that’s convenient.”
“Yep, and it makes it really easy to hide too,” Anya added while pushing open the door to the fifth year boys’ dormitory, where the twins were sprawled across their beds, similar to the way the two girls had been just a few minutes before.
“Hey,” George said, lifting his head off the pillow as they walked in.
“Hey,” Anya said back, plopping down on the end of his bed, “what are you guys up to?”
“Not much,” Fred replied, “what about you guys?”
“Not much either,” Isabel responded when Anya didn’t answer him. “Are you ready to go? It’s about time for the feast to start.”
“We’re ready,” they answered together, much to the annoyance of Isabel, who promptly walked out the door and down the stairs to the common room.
“Well, that went well,” Anya noted, hopping off the bed and heading towards the door, “if you don’t tell her soon, she may just behead you.”
“I know,” Fred said miserably, dragging himself off the bed and out the door, just as Isabel had, with Anya and George hand in hand right behind him. At the base of the stairs, they found Isabel waiting for them, and the four continued down to the Great Hall which had been decorated with carved pumpkins the size of houses, live bats circling the rafters, and candle sticks floating around the heads of the students. The four ate their fill of the specially made Halloween treats, before heading back up to the Gryffindor dormitory where they were met by a horrendous sight, the portrait that guarded the entrance to the common room had been shredded. Dumbledore was called and the Fat Lady found, as she told it, Sirius Black was in the castle and had wanted to be let into Gryffindor tower.
“Prefects, kindly escort your house back to the Great Hall, Heads of Houses, please collect your students and join the Gryffindor house there,” Dumbledore called out to the crowd calmly.
Soon, the entire school had been re-gathered in the Great Hall, the tables had been cleared and rows of sleeping bags and pillows which were arranged in rows by house colors. “You all will remain here tonight for your own safety,” Dumbledore announced, “while myself and the staff search the castle and the grounds for Sirius Black. Lights out will be promptly at eleven-thirty, sleep tight,” he announced before following a group of teachers out of the door, which magically closed behind him.
“Well, this should be fun,” George noted, snagging four sleeping bags near the doors to the Great Hall.
“Yeah, loads of fun,” his twin agreed, “just like camping, only indoors with a couple hundred of our closest friends, plus the Slytherins.”
“At least we get an amazing view,” Anya noted, laying down on a sleeping bag and gazing up at the starry ceiling.
“True,” Isabel agreed, laying down on the bag next to Anya’s, “I used to lay out and watch the stars all the time back when I lived in France, my best friend and I used to…”
“Used to what?” Fred asked cautiously, “I mean, only if you want to tell us.”
“No, it’s okay,” Isabel said, looking at him curiously, “we used to lie out on the lawn of our school and just look at the stars. Why did you want to know?” she asked, confused by his request.
“Because, talking about your old school and Anne make you happy, and I want you to be happy,” Fred replied, blushing, “I’ll be over there if you need me.”
“No, you don’t have to leave, I’ll tell you more stories about France, or at least I will until your other brother yells at us to go to sleep,” she offered.
“I’d like that,” Fred told her, settling down onto the spot next to hers with a smile.
“I’m glad they made up,” Anya told George, wrapping her arms around his waist, “life was just so much more complicated before.”
“True, I’m glad he’s finally happy, that they both are. But you didn’t seem to have a problem with complications before we made up,” he told her, gently kissing the top of her head before releasing her and lying down on the ground next to hers, so the two girls where now between himself and his twin. The four told stories about their pasts until Percy brusquely told them all to go to sleep and to stop their blabbering for the night. Leaving the four to dose off with a dazzling view of the stars overhead, Anya was the first to drift off, her hand wrapped in George’s, who followed her shortly after. Isabel, however, lay on her back, gazing up at the heavens, when Fred tentatively reached over and wrapped his fingers around hers. Slightly shocked, she turned her head and met his gaze with a smile; soon after, both drifted off into a peaceful slumber.