Blueberry Blues™
Leigh didn't expect something big and...tall...to stand in her way as she turned left after walking down the last steps of the staircase leading from the Headmistress' office.
She stopped straight in her tracks, only centimetres away from the obstacle in front of her. She looked up, only to be faced with the view of Fred Weasley looking down at her. God, he was tall. The white shirt cladding his upper body was surprisingly white, even up close. Fred raised an eyebrow as he gazed down at her her. "Not looking where we're going, are we?" He said in a soft, yet melodic tone.
Leigh cleared her throat and aptly took a step back, using the palms of her hands to straighten out her robes, as if they for some reason had gotten wrinkly in the kerfuffle. Heat rose to her cheeks as she realised she had stood way too close. "Sorry," she mumbled before quickly stepping aside to walk past Fred, and George who stood a few metres to her right.
However, as she started walking down the corridor the two of them followed, walking on each side of her. "You're not trying to avoid us, are you?" George spoke, studying her with playfully squinting eyes.
Fred hummed in agreement to her left. "Staying with McGonagall longer in the hopes we would have left."
"Not to mention attempting to rush away from us right now," George chipped in.
Leigh sighed, yet not stopping in her tracks. It felt ridiculous walking around the castle with the two of them towering at each side of her. "I wasn't rushing." She insisted.
George looked over at Fred, "She wasn't rushing she says. What do you think Freddie? Do we believe that?"
Fred shook his head, again looking down at her. "Not for oooone minute."
She stopped in the middle of the corridor, placing her hands on her hips, her notebook still in hand. In hindsight it felt unnecessary to bring - no notes had to be made in that short (and frankly, disappointing) meeting.
"What do you two want?" She huffed as she eyed them suspiciously. She had never been able to read them properly. Although she doubted few people could.
"Oh nothing really..." George trailed off, eyes drifting off down the corridor before his gaze returned to meet Leigh's. "Just your ultimate approval and promise that you won't rat out our best products to McGonagall."
Leigh rolled her eyes. "I will be doing no such thing. Some of your products are straight up dangerous and they don't belong on school grounds at all."
George looked like he might say something truly stupid next, and her suspicions turned out to be correct at he out of nowhere shoved his bottom lip out in a pout. "Pleeease." He insufferably dragged out the word. As he saw Leigh's unphased and unimpressed expression he stopped the act, and looked at his brother in defeat. "Wasted a perfectly good pout for nothing."
Fred responded in an equally ridiculous manner, by clasping George's shoulder in his hand, bowing his head as if supporting and grieving the loss with him.
"Merlin's sake," Leigh muttered as she rolled her eyes, and once again started walking forward. The twins were quick to follow suit, once again positioning themselves on each side of her.
A moment of silence passed where no one spoke, the only sounds accompanying them being the thuds of their shoes on the stone floors.
Fred was the one to speak up first. "You'll come to like us soon enough, you know. We are quite likeable if I say so myself." George nodded in agreement.
Leigh huffed. She hadn't been the victim of their pranks more than anyone else, but to call them untrustworthy was an understatement. "You once turned me blue. Right before my potions exam."
A moment of silence ensued, and for a second Leigh thought the twins were reflecting and experiencing regret. Soon enough she found out that was not the case, as both of them abruptly started talking simultaneously.
"I knew it was something!" Fred exclaimed. "I've been raking my brain trying to figure out what it was. The Blueberry Blues prototype! Brilliant!"
"You truly did look hilarious!" George corroborated the story.
Leigh frowned. "One of you gave me one of those pastilles before my Potions O.W.L! Said I looked stressed and it would help."
Slowly, Fred raised his hand with an expression of guilt. "Oops," he spoke softly. "Sorry sweetheart. Although I'm sure potions wasn't the most worrisome thing on your mind in that moment. So in a way..." he trailed off.
"It did not help!" Leigh huffed. "I got all flustered and messed up the exam, and Snape made fun of me about it for weeks."
She could see the twins fighting to hold back their laughter. "Well to be fair, Snape probably really needed that laugh, the miserable git he was."
"Yeah, so you could say it was a very compassionate thing to do."
Again, Leigh rolled her eyes. She decided against disclosing that one time they had in some mysterious way hampered with her vocal cords. For a full two days every single sound she made came out as a chicken squeak. She figured they would have way too much fun with that information.
She soon realised that they had followed her all the way to the painting which marked the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. No other students were in sight.
"Ah, our old quarters," Fred spoke as he and George approached the entrance to the common room.
"So many successful pranks being schemed and planned inside these walls," George said dreamily, leading Leigh to scowl behind them.
Fred hummed in agreement. "I do miss it, you know? Common room, quidditch...". He looked at his brother before glancing at Leigh briefly, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Legend says that Oliver Wood still lies in the showers. Still trying to drown himself after that one Hufflepuff defeat."
George nodded, placing a hand on his chest. "R....I....P." He said slowly.
The fat lady, who was currently looking at herself in a pocket-mirror, looked up to acknowledge the company. At the sight of the twins her eyes widened. "Not you two pranksters!" She erupted, although Leigh could see the blush rising to her cheeks as she looked the two men up and down, probably surprised to see them wearing something decent.
Leigh could imagine how many times the poor woman had been startled with pranks, or been witness to the many times the twins had sneaked out in the middle of the night.
"We know you secretly miss us," George told her with a wink, and she huffed in disagreement, yet remaining quiet as she abruptly turned back to focus on the mirror in her hand, making a satisfied grin spread on his face.
The twins turned around to once again face Leigh. Fred leaned against the wall on the side of the painting, looking at Leigh before his eyes trailed down her form to her hand, which still grasped her notebook.
"Did a lot of note-taking, did you?" He said with a knowing grin, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he awaited her reply to his teasing remark.
Leigh rolled her eyes, again. "Ha-ha, very funny. I thought the meeting was going to be on something worthwhile. Turned out I was wrong." She raised her eyebrows and gave him a shrug.
George stood by Fred's side, and chuckled at her comeback. Fred seemed equally amused, and a hint of excitement gleamed in his eye. Leigh was hoping he would show signs of defeat, but, to her disappointment, he looked even more intrigued.
Instead of replying, Fred uncrossed his arms, reached out his hand and grasped the notebook at Leigh's side. The notebook looked surprisingly small in his hands as he turned the pages in it in the search for a blank one. Once he found what he was looking for, he scribbled down something before looking up at Leigh again and holding his dress-shirt-clad arm out in front of him to return it to her.
"There's a note for you," he said playfully, giving her a cheeky grin as Leigh accepted the notebook. "Looking forwards to working with you."
With that, Fred pushed himself off the wall and walked past her, George starting to follow suit. "See you around," George said with a playful wink before moving down the corridor.
Leigh was left standing alone in front of the painting. She was so annoyed she felt like stomping the ground like a toddler, but refrained from doing so. She couldn't believe she would have to stand spending time with the twins throughout her last year. She knew they weren't horrible people, but god were they annoying. For a second she considered pulling out of the whole thing; she could tell McGonagall that her studies ended up being too overwhelming after all, and she wouldn't have time for anything else.
With a sigh she realised that wasn't an alternative. She owed it to herself to make the best out of the last year, even if that included putting up with the Weasley twins. How bad could it be?
She grumbled to herself as she feared the answer to the question, and reluctantly mumbled the password to the fat lady before moving in through the common room. It wasn't too late, and the room was littered with students enjoying their first day back at Hogwarts.
She spotted her friend Nova on the couch, chatting with Silvia Moor, a student in the year below them. For a second Leigh felt like sneaking past them up to the dorm, but was immediately hit with the feeling of being a bad friend if she did so.
In her moment of hesitation, Nova spotted her friend and smiled as she gave her a wave. Leigh smiled back before moving towards her and dropping down on the couch.
Nova immediately turned to face her friend completely, and Silvia seemed to notice it would be a conversation between the other two friends as she stood up and moved over to another friend group by the window, returning the small, polite smile delivered her way by Leigh.
"Oh my god, you have to tell me how it went! How was McGonagall? I'm sure she proposed a super interesting project, didn't she? I knew it!"
Leigh chuckled, both at Nova's premature reaction and at how incredibly wrong she was. "Hold your horses there." She started, and Nova looked at her expectantly. With a sigh, she told her everything, leaving out only a few details - most of them being dress-shirt related.
"You're kidding me. McGonagall know how hardworking and clever you are. The least she could've done is give you an important project," Nova huffed, and Leigh appreciated the sentiment - but she could also see there was something shining behind her eyes. They sat in silence for a minute before Nova spoke again, still facing forward and avoiding meeting her friend's gaze. "At least they're quite good-looking..." she trailed off, "Or at least so I've heard."
Leigh rolled her eyes and immediately slapped Nova on the arm. "Not helping!" She exclaimed, and Nova broke out in giggles.
"I'm not wrong!"
Another eye roll. "Remind me to never tell you anything ever again."
Nova laughed, shrugging her shoulders as she defended her statement. "I'm just saying! If you're going to spend hours upon hours with someone, at least it's a good thing if they turn out to be hot."
Another slap on the arm was delivered. Leigh huffed and faced away from her friend. "Keep your thoughts to yourself. I'm not interested. Definitely not interested."
"Fine." Nova chuckled while looking at her friend with a smile. "I'm sure you'll make the most of it." She said softly, placing her hand on her friend's arm, and Leigh looked over at her with an appreciative gaze, thankful for Nova's understanding. Nova spoke again, quieter this time "I know I would..." she trailed off while wiggling her eyebrows, and Leigh groaned at her friend, swatting her hand away before moving to stand up from the couch to go to her dorm. Nova couldn't contain her laughter.