Lumos

Silly, Helpful Twins

Mom-

Life at Hogwarts isn’t what I expected, but everything’s okay so far. I’ve made some friends and the first week wasn’t too bad, except some of the classes were disappointing. The potions teacher is extremely unfair and bullies students who aren’t in his house (Slytherin), but the other teachers seem nice enough.

I’m getting along with my schoolwork, but I struggle with Transfiguration and History of Magic. I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, but I can’t transfigure anything at all! I can’t even turn a match into a needle. Do you think my magic is just weak?

Things with Sebastian aren’t going well. We aren’t getting along, but I don’t want Uncle Markus to be mad at me. I gave him several chances, but he just won’t I don’t think I can be friends with him. What more can I do? I just don’t know what to do about it.

Hope you and Felix are doing well. See you at Christmas!

Love, Felicity


“How does your mom feel about owl post?” Ulric asked, his hands in his pockets as he strolled easily next to Felicity.

“I haven’t asked,” answered Felicity with a shrug as they began to climb the steps to the owlery. Ulric stood in the doorway, cringing at the smell, while Felicity picked an owl and attached her letter to its leg.

When Felicity turned around, Ulric was leaning against the door, blocking her exit. “So what really happened the other night? I heard you were wandering around the kitchens.”

“From who?” asked Felicity indignantly.

“Neville.”

“Where’d he hear it?”

“Blimey, Felicity, I didn’t ask for a courier list!”

“What’s a courier list?”

Ulric rolled his eyes. “It someone who transports packages or documents. But don’t change the subject.”

“It was nothing,” Felicity said, trying to pull the door open. With Ulric’s weight against it, it wouldn’t budge. “How are you this heavy?”

“Felicity,” said Ulric, leaning his temple against the door and looking meaningfully at her. “Just tell me. Aren’t we friends?”

Felicity sighed, crossed her arms, and said as fast as she could, “Sebastian asked me to meet him by the kitchens, so I did, but he’d set me up and Filch almost caught me but George Weasley saved my ass.”

Miraculously, Ulric seemed to have caught every word and his eyebrows rose so drastically that they seemed to vanish beneath his hair. “Are you mad? Sneaking out at night to meet a Slytherin in one of the farthest corners from our common room? Of course it was a trick! Think of all the points you’d have lost if you were caught! Or what if he’d jumped out of the shadows and hexed you?”

“He wouldn’t hex me,” said Felicity hotly.

“No,” Ulric said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “No, he’d just set you up for detention or possibly even expulsion. He just wanted to cost Gryffindor house points. That’s all they care about, Felicity - the House Cup! You can’t be friends with a Slytherin!”

“Not all Slytherins are the same!”

“Yes, they are! You’re just blinding yourself because you think it’s what your family wants!”

Felicity glared at him. “What do you know about my family? I have to live with him in my life. When I go home to my family, I have to see him. It’s not as easy as him being a Slytherin and me being a Gryffindor. And who are you to lecture me on family, anyway?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ulric demanded.

“You’re smart - figure it out!”

Felicity shoved Ulric’s arm and, to her surprise, he stepped away from the door. He followed silently as she stormed back down the stairs and toward the grounds, where they had their first flying class in fifteen minutes.

The walk gave Felicity time to calm herself down. She knew she’d been wrong to snap at him (he’d guessed the truth so quickly!) but she didn’t know what else to do or say. But it wasn’t right of him to judge all Slytherins to be the same...even if it’ was true in Sebastian’s case.

Slowing her pace, Felicity allowed Ulric to catch up to her. When he had fallen into step beside her, Felicity said, “Sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you.”

“I’m sorry, too,” said Ulric gently. “I just wish you’d told me what you were planning. I might’ve gone with you, for support.”

“I’ll remember that.”

The grounds were warm and bright, the sun beaming down cheerfully. A short distance from the castle, two rows of broomsticks were lain out. With a groan, Felicity realized some of the students gathered around the brooms were sporting green - they were sharing the lesson with Slytherin.

Moments after Felicity and Ulric joined the group, the flying instructor, Madam Hooch, fixed them all with her hawk-like yellow eyes and barked, “Well, what are you all waiting for? Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up.”

Felicity took a broom between Ulric and Neville, who looked a little green. He managed to have enough accidents on the ground - the thought of being in the air must’ve had him scared stupid. For once, Felicity felt confident - this was something she’d had a small amount of preparation for, thanks to Sebastian. The thought made her feel a little guilty for being so willing to ignore him. But what was the truth? Had he set her up or not?

“Stick out your right hand over your broom,” called Madam Hooch, “and say ‘Up!’”

“UP!” everyone shouted.

Felicity’s broom rose halfway to her hand and then dropped back to the ground. Down the line, Harry’s had jumped straight into his hand. Neville’s hadn’t moved at all and Ulric’s just rolled over lazily.

It took a few minutes for everyone to get hold of their brooms - Ulric stooped and grabbed his when Madam Hooch wasn’t looking - then Madam Hooch showed them how to mount their brooms and corrected their grips. Felicity and Ulric bit back sniggers when she told Malfoy, who liked to brag about his skill on a broom, he’d been doing it wrong for years.

Next came the difficult part. Madam Hooch looked at them all sternly and said, “Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard. Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle. Three, two-”

Before she could so much as put the whistle to her lips, Neville - already jumpy to begin with - pushed off early and began to rise rapidly.

“Come back, boy!” Madam Hooch shouted, but still Neville rose. Twelve feet, twenty feet…

Felicity was about to kick off and try to rescue him, but then Neville had slipped sideways and, with a crack and a thud, landing on the ground and didn’t move. His broomstick, caught on a breeze, began to drift toward the forest.

Madam Hooch hurried to Neville’s crumpled form and, helping him to his feet, muttered, “Broken wrist. Come on, boy - it’s alright, up you get.”

She turned sternly to the rest of the class and said, “None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you’ll be out of Hogwarts before you can say ‘Quidditch.’ Come on, dear.”

Dropping her broomstick, Felicity hurried after them, taking Neville’s arm and helping support him. Madam Hooch looked like she would protest for a moment, but then just shook her head and kept walking.

Felicity stayed with Neville while Madam Pomfrey mended his arm like it was nothing. She tried to cheer him up, but his spirits were dangerously low. “Of course I fell off my broom,” he’d said gloomily. “I suppose they’ll be transferring me to Hufflepuff any day now.” No matter what Felicity said, he remained stubbornly melancholy. She left him at dinnertime to go down to the Great Hall.

Just as she was leaving the hospital wing, however, Felicity was slammed forcefully into the wall. She could hardly breathe, she was being held so tightly. All she could see was a curtain of blonde hair as a venomous voice whispered in her ear, “Stay away from my boyfriend or you’ll get what’s coming to you, Muggle-lover.”

Katrina stepped away from her, smirking and brandishing Felicity’s wand for a moment before throwing it as far as she could down the corridor. By the time Felicity had found it and turned around with a good jinx in mind, Katrina had disappeared.

If Felicity had done anything properly in her short time at Hogwarts, she’d most certainly made a good enemy.

. . .

“Selwyn did what?”

The common room was crowded, full of loud chatter and laughter. Felicity and Ulric had claimed a table in the corner, where Felicity had just relayed her run-in with Katrina to Ulric.

“Report her,” Ulric suggested.

“I don’t have any proof,” Felicity said dejectedly, pushing her Transfiguration homework away and laying her head on the table.

“You need a teacher to catch her in the act. Could you maybe...I dunno, bait her in front of one of the professors?”

“She’s too clever for that.”

“Right you are, James,” chimed one of the Weasley twins, both of them popping up on either side of Felicity’s chair.

“What you’re dealing with,” said the other twin, “is a first-class bully.”

“Image is everything.”

“So I need to...embarrass her?” Felicity asked. “How do I do that?”

Fred and George grinned and said identically, “Leave it to us.”

“You’re gonna get in trouble,” Ulric warned.

“Ric, old pal, you’re talking to the pros,” said the one Felicity suspected was Fred. She wasn’t sure why, but she felt reasonably confident.

“He’s got a point,” Felicity agreed. “They are the masters of mischief.”

“Masters of Mischief,” George repeated, grinning.

“I like it.”

“Quite catchy.”

“What’re you going to do to her?” Felicity asked curiously, leaning closer to George. He grinned, reached into his pocket, and withdrew a small candy bag. He took her wrist in his long-fingered hand, turned it over, and placed the bag in her open palm. “So I...give her candy?”

“Genius. Why did I think of that?” said Ulric sarcastically.

“No, that’s just so no one knows what it is,” Fred explained. “If anyone asks you to turn out your pockets, it just looks like candy.”

George smirked. “But it’s actually a dung bomb.”

“Right. So if that Slytherin girl-”

“Or anyone else, really.”

“-give you any trouble, you just throw it in their face-”

“And run like hell,” George concluded.

Felicity looked worriedly at the candy-wrapped disaster in her hand. “Won’t I get into trouble?”

“That’s why you run, I suppose,” Ulric said flatly.

“Oh. Right.”

“Just remember to keep a lookout for any teachers,” Fred warned.

“And make sure you get rid of any evidence,” George added.

“Throw the wrapper away.”

“Wash your hands.”

“And do try and look innocent if anyone starts asking questions.”

“Thanks,” said Felicity, still a bit worried as she put the disguised dung bomb in the pocket of her robes. “Now I really need to work on this homework for McGonagall.”

“You still haven’t done that?” Ulric asked incredulously, leaning around to look at her nearly-blank parchment. “It’s due tomorrow and we have Astronomy in an hour.”

“I know,” Felicity moaned, laying her head on her arms. “I just can’t understand any of this.”

“What, this?” Fred peered over her shoulder. “That’s easy.”

“There are three subtypes of Transfiguration,” George chimed in.”

“Human-”

“Switching-”

“And Trans-Species.”

“H-S-T.” George cocked his head, thinking, then said, “Huge Stinking Toads.”

Fred laughed. “Have to Taunt Slytherins.”

“Hate Tasting Slugs.”

“Gross,” said Felicity, grimacing.”

“Gross, but efficient.”

“Now, what are the subtypes?”

Felicity groaned, then tried, “Er, Human. Sub...no, Trans-Species and, er...H, T...S? S is, uh…”

“You’re terrible at this,” Ulric hinted.

“...Switching?”

“You’ve got it,” Fred grinned.

“Brilliant,” agreed George.

“Now just copy that down-”

“Fifty more times-”

“And you’ll have it for sure!”

“Thanks,” Felicity replied sarcastically, copying down the three subtypes and adding her own abbreviation - Silly, Helpful Twins.

“Oy! Lee!” Fred suddenly exclaimed, having spotted their friend, Lee Jordan, across the common room. Both hurried over to him, leaving Felicity and Ulric to their work.

“Silly, Helpful Twins,” Felicity muttered. “S, H, T. Switching, Human, Trans-Species.”

“Now define each of the subtypes,” Ulric said, pointing to the next question. “Astronomy’s in forty-five minutes.”

Felicity groaned and dropped her head back onto the table - it was going to be a long night.
♠ ♠ ♠
Thanks for commenting!
@GetOnYourKneesBro