1.1
Harry may have only just arrived at Hogwarts for his fifth year, and yet he was already tired of all the whispers about his "insanity" and how he was an "attention seeker" who needed to deflate his ego. Sitting down at the Gryffindor table opposite Ron, he tried to ignore the stares he was still getting. It had been a lot worse at the welcoming feast last week , but unfortunately, no-one seemed to have anything better to do than talk about Harry or stare at Harry or start rumours about how he and Hermione had just broken up after their steamy summer romance (that one was from a couple of 3rd year Ravenclaws who were holding a collection of romance books, Harry wasn't sure were appropriate for 13 year olds). He just needed something normal....
"Hiya, Harry!" Fred sat down on one side of Harry, George plopping down on the other.
"Me and Gred here,"
"Were simply wondering,"
"What on earth,"
"That toast ever did do to you?"
Harry looked down and realized he had viscously been attacking his breakfast , and sighed.
"Maybe it called me a liar and has been defacing me and everyone I have ever come in to contact with for the last six months?" Harry spat then immediately felt guilty, "Sorry, you didn't do anything wrong, I'm just tired of this."
"Hey it's fine Harry," Fred grinned,
"Yeah , personally I like to work out my aggression by imagining punching Umbridge right in her ugly mug but, hey, whatever works for you, mate."
Harry grinned, he had barely seen the twins this summer as they spent most of it at their adopted dad's and had left for there soon after Harry had arrived at Grimmuland Place, and had missed them. He opened his mouth to reply, just as Hermione pushed herself in next to Ron and Dean Thomas and pulled out that day's edition of the Prophet.
"Hello," Harry said to Hermione, earning a wave in response, "Anything to do with Vol..." -This earned him a sharp kick in the leg by Ron -"Fine, You-Know-Who?"
"No ," Hermione replied , "But there is a fascinating article by Rita Skeeter."
"Skeeter? " This earned gasps of disbelief from everyone sitting in their group, and a bug-eyed stare from Ron.
"Hermione , don't tell me you believe anything that crone tells you?" Ron questioned, while a sinking horror was in growing in Harry's gut.
"Of course not," Hermione said, offended at the very idea, and Harry breathed a little easier, " The woman is a liar and deserves to be thrown in Azkaban."
"Then what..?" Harry was extremely confused- it seemed the only thing Skeeter wrote about lately was him.
"I was talking about her writing a page about the Umbrella Academy!"
The effect around the table was immediate - Ron grabbed the paper immediately and started scanning frantically for more information, George seemed to be seized by a sudden coughing fit, while Fred patted his back, looking in shock himself. Harry remembered the Umbrella Academy- Everyone in his primary school had been obsessed with the idea of superheroes their age, and everyone had a lunchbox or action figures at the time. The Dursley's hadn't allowed anything to do with those "freak children" anywhere near the house, so consequently Harry didn't know much about them, but everyone had heard at least a little bit. 10 siblings in the academy with powers beyond imagination - but no one knew anything about them. Even their name' were secret , the public knowing only numbers, though some nicknames were given. Betty Green spent a whole year claiming to be Number Five, despite living over 3 hours away from the academy, and never leaving their town.
"Really? " Fred said, seeming to have regained speech, "Weird, no one really likes to talk about them because, well, you know ..."
Harry did not know.
"Why?" Hermione questioned, clearly just as clueless as Harry , "They're wizards aren't they?"
"But that's the thing 'Mione," Ron said , finally looking up from the Prophet, "They're not."
"But..."Hermione stammered , "They have magic, don't they?"
"No," Ron grinned " Have you ever seen a wizard or witch who can do anything like they can without a wand? Or with the little effort it takes them to to do things that would exhaust full grown wizards? Plus they're way too specialized - they can only do like one or two things each."
"Well, what are they then?" Harry asked, even more confused than he was previously.
"No one knows." Ron said, "It's why they are such a big deal even in the wizarding world- neither of you would've heard about them before because even the ministry don't understand them, and therefore don't like them. You don't just go yelling about them- it's a sure way to get some bad attention. Mum and Dad still sometimes told us stories though , and they obviously still make newspaper's- they're just too interesting not too."
"Anyway, Hermione, " George said , "What does the article say?"
After Hermione had read the article, Fred and George had both gone pale, Fred's head in his hand , and Ron was frowning.
"Jeez, " He said, " She really doesn't like them , does she ?"
"Who doesn't like who ?" Neville asked as he arrived and sat next down on the other side of Ron.
"No one!" Fred said quickly, causing Hermione, Harry and Ron to share confused looks, "Right, Georgie!"
"Uh... Yeah ,Freddie , It was nothing important anyway." The twins seemed a little less synchronized than usual which caused even more confused looks.
"What are you two on about?" Ron exclaimed ," We were just talking about, HEY!"
Fred appeared to have kicked Ron under the table and was now glaring at him.
As Neville seemed hurt, Hermione passed the newspaper to him, ignoring the frantic looks the twins were giving her.
"Why shouldn't he read it?" Hemione asked, "It's cruel ,yes, but nothing to hide from."
The twins clearly disagreed , and for whatever reason, they seemed to be right, as Harry watched Neville's face pale the more he read, and by the end Neville looked utterly miserable.
"Ah, " Neville mumbled, "I just remembered, I left my Charms book in the dorm, I better go get it..."
They watched as Neville walked out of the hall, Harry turned around to see George making a gesture to follow him, but Fred shook his head.
"What the bloody hell was that about then ?" Ron exclaimed, and then tactless as ever, " Bloody weird wasn't it?".
"Shut up Ron." The twins said, before storming out of the hall themselves, Fred taking the prophet with him.
All three of them exchanged a confused look before following them.
=================================
It was slightly harder to find them than anticipated, especially as the majority of the great hall seemed to choose that moment to leave. After searching for almost an hour, they had given up and just gone about their day. After dinner however, when their was still no sign of any of them , until Hermione heard two voices yelling in an abandoned classroom- one was obviously one of the twins (Fred?, he thought), but he couldn't quite place the other. They edged towards the classroom, and saw their was a crack in the door, which allowed someone to see in.
"Who ought to look do you think?" Hermione whispered, gesturing between the three of them.
" Me , obviously!" Ron hissed, looking annoyed at the question, "My brother is in there! "
"Well , yes, but you're not very good at being sneaky are you?"
"What the bloody hell do you mean by that?"
As Ron and Hermione bickered behind him, Harry sneaked over to the entrance , and looked through the door. He could see Fred and the edge of the mysterious person through the crack.
"What were you thinking..." The other person went to quiet for Harry to hear him, but whatever he said, Fred looked incredibly annoyed, and whispered something back.
"I don't care what Granger did! Why would you even let him near the damn thing?" He shoved Fred back a bit, and in doing so came in to the crack in the door. Harry's jaw dropped. As the Slytherin quidditch captain, Marcus Flint, glared at Fred, he merely rolled his eyes.
"Probably because I'm not his bloody keeper am I? It's been a year , Marcus , you can stop acting like One,"
The emphasis Fred put on One, made Harry feel like this was something important, but he couldn't understand what he meant. Flint, however, clearly did as he stalked towards Fred. He snarled something intelligible , and grabbed his wrist. Harry felt his heart rate spike and was worried he would have to intervene when Fred shook him off and glared at him.
"Let's just go find the others." He muttered, and moved towards the door. Harry startled, and quickly moved away ,dragging Ron and Hermione behind a corner.
"Oi, I was just going to look." Ron said, annoyance written on his face.
"Bit late," Harry muttered, as Fred and Flint marched down the hall, thankfully, in the other direction.
"Harry?" Hermione asked, seeing the confusion on his face, "What did you see?"
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"Flint?" Ron exclaimed, for the 5th time after Harry told his story, "Why would Fred be talking to Flint? They don't even interact except for quidditch, where they hate each other , so why would they be talking about something Neville read?"
"To be fair they didn't seem to be getting along brilliantly at the time," Harry muttered darkly, "Doubt they're best friends or anything."
"Probably the same reason Fred and George knew it was a bad idea for Neville to read the Prophet today when no one else did." Hermione reasoned, ignoring what Harry said , "Do they know each other somehow?"
"I don't think so," Ron said, "I don't know what they get up to when they're at their Dad's but why would they pretend not to know Neville? Flint yeah, I get, but then I don't understand why they would talk in the first place."
"Clearly they're hiding something." said Hermione, "And we can figure out whatever it is in the morning. Or better yet, leave them to their business , but I know that's not going to happen."
Soon after Hermione headed to bed , Neville came in to the common room , followed by Lavender Brown, who smiled at him as she walked past.
" Hey, Neville!" Ron called out, "Can we talk?"
Nervously, Neville edged his way over and sat down opposite them.
"Look, if this is about earlier I can explain-"
"Brill-"Ron cut in,
"No," Harry said firmly," Neville if you don't want to tell us you don't have to."
"Thanks Harry," Neville said, "but it's not that big of a deal, when I was young my Grandmother was very against the Umbrella Academy, and wasn't happy I liked them , so I kind of just avoid them as much as possible. Plus, I always hate to read anything which attacks other people who can't defend themselves .The twins know because they caught me on a bad day last year and I spilled everything to them."
He said this all very quickly like he was reading from a book, but Ron seemed to buy it, though Harry still had a question.
"Look , we just saw Marcus Flint- you know the Slytherin Quidditch captain- and Fred Weasley arguing about it and wondered if you knew anything about it, as they were talking about you and all..."
A brief look of panic passed across Neville's face , before he schooled his face in to calm, something Harry didn't even know Neville could do, before he answered "No clue Harry, I'm not sure what Flint has to do with anything. Anyway, I'm awfully tired and want to head to bed now, if that's okay?"
" 'Course Neville. G'night." Harry said, and Ron waved as he walked off.
Nothing was wrong with his story, Harry thought, so why couldn't he shake the feeling Neville was lying to him?