The Potter Twins And The Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone

Chapter Nine: The Midnight Deal

A/N Hiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Later update than I intended, but here it is

I had some trouble with this chapter, if you couldn't tell. the beginning was very overdramatic and I ended up just deleting a whole chunk of the start... which obviously isn't a great thing to have to do. on the bright side, I started learning Norwegian on duolingo, so... god kveld og velkommen! jeg bor ikke i Norge. jeg vet ikke hvem jeg er. vi har ikke et eple og de har ikke en katt. okay I'm done, let's move on

k enjoy this shit my dudes

("quick" reminder/clarification (you can skip if you want): the mind link makes the distinction between the twins' minds a bit blurry by default when it's open. but there's also "mind-layering", which was introduced just after the sorting when harry basically experienced everything that percy was experiencing as if he was experiencing it first-hand. it's more immersive, I guess, than the normal mind-link, so the distinction gets even more unclear then and it can be disorienting, to the point that it can be unclear who's exactly doing what and whose thoughts are whose. this being said, it doesn't seem too bad for them since this isn't a new skill to them, it's just a fairly new skill to the story. also, I don't think I mentioned this, but even the mind-layering thing can be more or less disorienting at times, it just needs to be more-or-less unfiltered and more immersive than regular open mind link, so it's always disorienting to some extent, especially when initially doing it or when ending it (the transitions))

Why anyone thought it would be a good idea to combine Gryffindor and Slytherin for the first-year's flying lessons, the twins didn't know.

As much as Harry was grateful to have another class with Percy, he highly doubted that the class for learning to fly would be a good class for the good old Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry to make an appearance in. Not only for the obvious reasons, but also because just about any Slytherin — with the exception of Percy, of course — would be much more experienced than the muggleborn Gryffindors. Harry and Percy thought it would've made more sense to split it up by skill than by house for flying lessons — or at least put Gryffindor and Hufflepuff together, instead. (Then again, maybe flying wasn't as dangerous as it seemed?)

"Just what I always wanted," Harry groaned. "To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of the Slytherins."

Because with just the Gryffindors, Harry wouldn't have had to worry about getting teased or anything, at least not in anything but a playful way. With the Slytherins, that wasn't the case; his Percy-truce with Malfoy didn't really extend to all of them.

"You don't know you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably.

"It would be my first time on a broom," Harry responded glumly. "Of course I'm going to struggle, at least a bit."

"I dunno," Ron argued. "Potters are rarely bad flyers, and I heard your dad was an amazing one. Played for the Quidditch team, though I dunno which position."

"Are magical talents genetic?" Harry wondered.

"Genetic?" Ron echoed.

"Passed down in bloodlines," Harry clarified absently. "Or something you're born with."

"I mean, yeah," Ron said, like it was common knowledge (which, of course, perhaps it was). Harry didn't like it when he talked like something was obvious, but at least Ron never made it seem like he thought Harry was an idiot for not knowing something. He just always seemed surprised, but he still explained it to Harry. "You-Know-Who's Parselmouth is how we know he was related to Slytherin. And all of my brothers have played Quidditch — got it from mum's side."