Hand Me Downs.

“How could she do that?!” I spat, any others students in the hallway instantly moving aside as we three stalked through them, “She has no right, no right whatsoever...overthrowing McGonagall... that dirty fucking...”

“Quidditch!” George was ranting under his breath, less vocal than myself, “How the hell can she ban us from Quidditch, life-long ban...”

Harry was silent, his face hard and I forced myself to stop speaking, taking a deep breath.

Umbridge had burst in unannounced, gone over McGonagall’s head with enough of her ridiculous amendments, and she had taken their brooms, banned them from Quidditch whilst they were at Hogwarts.

Although she had used the term ‘for life’... this included Fred, who had done nothing.

Malfoy deserved it, from what Katie had said he deserved more, badmouthing Molly and Arthur like that, the sneaky little bastard. I bit down on my lip, my feet now slamming up the stairs.

McGonagall was helpless, overruled by her. A Quidditch ban for them, another weeks detention for me, that I knew was going to be barbaric, all topped with a little grin and giggle from her.

I felt sick at how upset they both looked, how angry I still was.
Not just at Malfoy, not at her punishment.

I was angry at how much control she had, the Ministry were not just checking out Hogwarts, keeping her to spy...they were taking over. How long would it be before Dumbledore was fired? Before we had ministry officials ruling the school, still blind to the real danger, still blind to anything logical.

Dumbledore’s army had never been so important.

“How are we going to tell everyone, what are we going to tell Fred?” Harry said quietly eventually, once we were standing outside the Common Room, the fat lady even sympathetic for once. I shrugged, pitying them both, all three lived for Quidditch, all three had true talent, they all enjoyed it.

As for Fred and George I was fairly sure it was the only reason they still bothered coming to school each year.

I shook my head, muttering the password to the fat lady and stepping in, separating myself from them quickly as they made their way to the rest of the Quidditch team, minus Ron who sat silently in an uneasy circle.

I sat heavily next to Leanne, who even looked bothered and affected by the mood, “What happened, I thought McGonagall would have gone easy on you?” She asked, obviously informed by the others who were all looking at me.

“Umbridge came in, she has more power than the teachers now,” Ryan scoffed, before he saw how serious I looked and the grin dropped, “She banned them from Quidditch,”

“No way!” He practically roared, the exclamation mirrored from Fred who had no doubt just been told of his punishment, “How can she do that?!” His face was red, he, although never particularly good at it adored Quidditch.

“Because the Ministry is slowly moving in to Hogwarts.” I said blankly, staring at my left hand where, after tomorrow, deep cuts would reside. “Umbridge is taking over.”

Katie came over not long after, her face deadpan as she quickly spilled into the sofa next to me.

“I hate her.” She declared, shocking me slightly. It was very rarely that Katie said a cruel word about anyone. I pouted slightly, moving my arm so it was around her lightly.

Quidditch was her life, not to say she wasn’t a well rounded person but that was her passion, playing professionally was her dream and now her team was ruined. There was no chance of them winning the cup, and I know that seeing that cup glinting in McGonagall’s office was the highlight of each year for her.

“Let’s go to bed,” I muttered and she nodded, dragging herself up, waving blankly to the other three.

“I’ll wait down here a while,” Leanne said quietly to me, and I nodded, smiling at her, before ruffling Dale’s hair.

“Don’t let Ryan go too mental,” I said, and he in turn nodded, Aaron agreeing also.

We reached the steps at the same time as Fred and George, both glowering in a way I had never seen. “Night,” Katie mumbled, running a hand over her stressed face, they both muttered back, Fred and Katie heading up the first step when I felt an arm around my wrist.

George turned me around, glancing down at me, his face still hard, “Thank-you for what you did to Pansy.” I shrugged, my stomach bubbling with excitement that he was talking to me.

“I’m sorry for what Malfoy said, and you know it’s all bullshit.” He nodded, still frowning.

“Goodnight.” He murmured, I said the same, following Katie up the stairs and preparing myself to do whatever I could to cheer her up.

I hated seeing them all so upset.


“This is why we have the DA, this is just Umbridge, and you know she’s a sadistic bitch. When she’s gone, when the Ministry realise what idiots they are they’ll be reinstated...but...until then, you guys just need to find some new players and plough on.”

She nodded, her head on the pillow next to mine, the covers drawn and Muffliato used as it grew late. We heard Sarah come in, mumbling to herself about the mess and quickly making her way to her own bed.

She didn’t even look at us anymore.

Apart from disagreeing over Harry I was unaware at to what we had done.

But sadly, and as horrible as it sounds, it wasn’t a major loss in my life, and it irritated me how un-loyal and false our friendship must have been.

“I know we’ll sort something out, I just...she has so much control now, and to not punish Malfoy at all is just..” she let out a kind of roar, having sat up as she spoke and slamming her head back down on the cool pillow.

“I feel sorry for Ron,” I said, moving so I was under the covers, my legs growing cold, “I mean...I know he isn’t good, but... he’s decent and he tries, this is going to completely fuck up his confidence.” She agreed, mimicking my movement.

“As a Quidditch team we’re screwed...and I’m beginning to think as a school we are too... I hope Hermione plans another meeting soon. You’re... You’re completely right, we need to be able to defend ourselves, seeing as our own ministry is more concerned with letting Umbridge fuck students over.”

“I love if when you admit I’m right,” I teased, waving my wand and putting out the fire in the centre of the room, the light died instantly, no longer creeping through the cracks in the curtains.

“Yeah, don’t get used to it. she retorted, moving so she was comfortable. “You staying in my bed then?” She asked, already thick with sleep just a minute later.

“I can’t be bothered to move,” I yawned, causing her to giggle slightly, “And everything will be better in the morning...” I smiled lightly to myself, all thoughts of Umbridge pushed to the back of my mind, “George spoke to me.” I whispered, receiving only a light snore in response from Katie.

I think I fell asleep smiling.



“You still owe us a time as a test subject,” I looked up from my breakfast, still tired from staying up so late talking to Katie, “What?” I mumbled, turning back to my toast as he sat next to me,

“You.Still.Need.To.Test.One.Of.Our.Products.” he spoke slowly, dragging each word out like I was stupid, by the end of his sentence I was awake, my toast was laid back on my small plate and I was preparing to stand up, leaving him flabbergasted.

“Wait, Amelia.” I stood, practically storming from the Great Hall, for once not caring how George Weasley felt.

“Wait a second, what the hell?” He asked, cornering me in the main hallway.

“What?” I asked, shaking my head, “You think you can ignore and make me feel shit for three weeks and then suddenly talk to me like nothing happened?” He frowned but shrugged slightly.

“I just want us to talk again.” I sighed, glancing up at him.

“Well pretending nothing happened isn’t the way to do that.” He ran a hand through his short hair.

“Well I don’t really want to talk about it.” I bit the inside of my cheek, my arms crossed over my thick jumper.

“Yeah well I do.” I said, pushing past him as he remained silent and heading back up to the common room, only to be gently grabbed once again and pushed down onto a nearby bench.

“I don’t know what to say,” he admitted honestly, “I...” he swallowed, “Who the hell tells someone they have feelings for them the day after they’ve slept with someone else.” I growled lowly, resting my head, and regretting bumping it hard, against the stone behind me.

“Because in a stupid way it made me realise, I mean... I’d felt it, the whole butterflies, jealously at when you spoke to that stupid bimbo in Hogsmeade...”

“She was very nice actually,” he muttered, wincing as I hit his arm and continued.

“And... I had a really bad night, and I was upset about that, and Dale’s got shit with his Dad and we just got drunk which you always said was so stupid, and it was because then we had sex and I felt like absolute shit...” Now he was silent.

“That’s why I told you, I couldn’t bear the thought of you hearing it off someone else and I just... I felt so bad because I just realised how much I fucking like you and I was throwing it away before you even knew so... “ I sighed heavily, “Yeah...that’s my side.” He nodded mutely, staring intently at his hands, his thumbs tapping against each other.

“I...” he sighed before speaking again, “I’ve liked you for fucking ages.”

“I realise that now, and I realise I was the same.” I said almost coldly, once again aware that by forcing this conversation I was jeopardising everything... I just... I couldn’t have him acting completely normal without everything being resolved.

“I don’t know what I thought, I didn’t know if you were trying to hurt me to make some kind of point or..." I made a sound similar to a squeak, my eyes instantly filling with tears that he could think so lowly of me, he glanced up at my face, instantly backtracking.

“I know, and believe me I know it would never be something like that... but I just couldn’t believe what you said, that if you had feelings for me you would be fucking others guys.”

I held myself back from correcting him.

“I was just upset, upset that, and yeah I figured it was that... that it took you sleeping with someone else to realise there was more than a friendship here... it didn’t feel genuine.”

“What would I have to do to prove that I meant it?” I asked quietly, shivering slightly at the cold, the castle always made everything feel damp, not helped that during the night we had had the first heavy snowstorm of the year, corners of the hallway puddles of ice.

He shrugged, and I pulled my legs together, my hands pulling the arms of my jumper around my knuckles.
The conversation was beyond awkward.

I knew I fucked up, I wanted to fix it, yet...I completely understood everything he was saying. It was ridiculous, working out you had feeling for one of your closest friends after sleeping with another.

“It’s like Eastenders.” I complained, leaning back and regretting it as the cold pierced through the back of my jumper. “That muggle program...” I confirmed after George shot me a confused look, turning back around and nodding to himself as he remembered.

The silence started again, finally broken as students started to head past us, back up to the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor common rooms, most likely to spend their Sunday doing the homework they neglected throughout the week.

I nodded or offered gentle waves to those I recognised before finally a much more familiar face strolled past, stopping with a roll of the eyes at both of us.

“You,” he started, point at me before moving his long finger over to George, “You...Me...anyone else we can find. Snowball fight.” I smirked slightly; it was a tradition, the first time it snowed, even if it was just a centimetre of slush the two tried to throw a Gryffindor wide snowball match.

Fred crossed his arms, huffing dramatically at both of us, “Can you guys just make up now, the day is passing, every second we wait is a second closer to death we grow.” I snorted and George stood, shaking his head at his over energetic brother,

“That’s bloody cheery Fred.”

“About as cheery as you two have been lately...” he looked more seriously suddenly, holding my eyes, “You two alright?” I opened and closed my mouth mutely, but it was George's that opened, turning round to me and nodding, a slight smile on his face.

“Yeah, we’re fine.” I sent him a light smile, wincing as Fred leapt forward, almost ripping my arm from its socket as he pulled me up and into his side, flinging one arm around my shoulders and the other’s around George as we loudly made our way up to the Common Room.

“Standard rules apply, you pick a team of five, we meet by the old oak tree...” he continued to ramble and I lifted my gaze from the floor, catching George looking at me. He grinned sheepishly and I did
the same.

How old were we twelve?
___________________________________

“This isn’t making me cheer up!” Katie squealed, pulling a clump of snow from her hair.

I giggled, pulling her quickly behind the tree. “Everyone else has given up or gone in. We’re the only hope against them.”

“We’re the final frontier against the Weasley’s and Ryan?” I nodded severely, keeping my voice grave, “If we allow them to defeat us, to shove snow in our face, to make us so cold we give in...God knows what could happen.”

“The free world as we know it could fall.” She mused, rubbing her gloved hands together and dropping the accent we had been using, “Do we know where they are?” I shrugged, moving and glancing around the tree.

“Last time I saw them they had split up, but they were down by the lake.”

“We need to find them before they find us,” She said, in a far better mood, even if she claimed otherwise.

It was funny how playing a very overdramatic game of war, with snowballs as the ammo made people forget about their shitty day.

I agreed, “You know they won’t give up.”

“Oh God no. Together those three are some kind of deadly trio.”

“Why yes, we are.” I froze, preparing to run when I was knocked heavily down onto the floor, snow burning as it was rubbed all over my face.

“Ah, I give! I give!” I screamed, spitting snow from my mouth as I pulled myself up, glowering at Ryan who knelt over me, Katie had made it a bit further but was in a similar position with Fred.

“You guys take this far too seriously.” I spat, rubbing the snow from my face, he leant back, letting out an evil laugh before standing,

“Don’t be a sore loser.” I mimicked him, pulling a face as he helped me up. “You guys lasted until,” he checked his watch, “Half three...that’s a good hour longer than usual.”

“Next year you’re going down Ryan.” He grinned, teeth gleaming in the setting sun, “Frickin’ vampire” I muttered, screaming as I was once again hit into the snow, my face planting into it.

“I am the King!” I heard him yell, pulling me up roughly.

“You, George Weasley, are an idiot.” I said, once again wiping my face, pulling a chunk of snow out of my fringe and wiping it on his face. He winced at the cold but smiled lightly, his nose tinted red from the cold.

“Being a sore loser is not an attractive trait Amelia.” I shoved him gently, Katie and Fred catching up, her face smeared red from where the snow had attacked her sensitive skin.

“Your face isn’t an attractive trait,” I murmured, causing him to laugh.

“But, mummy always said we were beautiful!” George retorted, pulling a face.

“She was just talking about me mate,” Fred joked, winking at us as we trudged through the snow back to the tower, more specifically the warm common room where everyone else who had given up hours ago was no doubt warm and dry.

“I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry.”

“Well before dinner, let us not forget who lost a certain bet with me... one she has not done her side of the deal for,” Fred cut through the bickering, grinning widely at me.
I looked at George for help but he shrugged.

“Fair is fair.”
_________________

And as I spent the majority of the evening with no visible head (another wonderful twin invention, hats that made your entire head invisible that funnily enough they hadn’t quite worked it out yet.)

I remembered that little phrase and made a decision.

Fred Weasley was going down.