Love Birds Will Fly

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"It's not going to work," Hermione Granger announced, her head buried in her book as the Weasley twins revealed in the glory of their latest hare-brained scheme. Fred and George had run into the great hall carrying two vials of bubbling potion. Since the arrival of the Triwizard Tournament at Hogwarts, it seemed that entering the competition had been all the twins and many other underage wizards could think about. They had spent hours trying to figure out ways to put their names into the Goblet of Fire and win eternal glory. But as usual, Hermione had her doubts.

"Oh yeah?" said Fred, kneeling down beside her.

"And why is that, Granger?" George chimed in taking the opposite side.

"You see this?" Hermione pointed to the golden glowing line encircling the goblet. "That's an age line. Dumbledore drew it himself." The twins' eyes followed to where she was pointing and they smirked.

"So?" George replied sarcastically.

Hermione snapped her book shut and sighed in exasperation "So, a genius like Dumbledore couldn't possibly be fooled by a dodge as pathetically dim-witted as an ageing potion."

Fred smirked, "But that's why it's so brilliant."

"Because it's so pathetically dim-witted." George continued. They laughed and got up from the bench, a crowd had gathered to watch their attempt. The twins approached the golden line, Lee Jordan close behind them watching from a distance. With their sips of paper in hand, the twins shook their vile of potion vigorously.

"Ready Fred?"

"Ready George."

"Bottoms up," they said in unison, intertwining their arms and downing their potion in one. Leaping from where they stood they soared over the glowing line and paused waiting for something to happen. But nothing did. Both of them grinned uncontrollably with their premature success.

"Yes!" they shouted and the crowd cheered wildly. They bathed in applause until the crowd fell silent as they approached the cup.

"Ready?" Fred asked and they dropped their names into the Goblet. The blue flame ignited a little but then settled to its usual state.

"Yes!" the twins exclaimed and the crowd went wild again cheering and clapping.

Blue flames shot from the cup flying across the room narrowly missing Harry by inches. Two flames struck the twins and threw them back across the entrance hall. The crowd laughed gleefully as the twins had suddenly sprouted thick grey beards and their hair had turned from a lovely shade of orange to a dull grey. They rose from the floor looking at each other in horror as their replica's hair began to grow more and more.

"You said!"

"You said!"

It was unclear which twin jumped on whom first but they both threw themselves at each other tossing and turning in a mixture of black and grey.

"Oh, right, you want a piece of me?!"

"I'll tear your ears off!"

The crowd gathered around them again and were in hysterics at the scene. Harry and Ron were soon both in stitches.

"Now you're making me laugh."

"Take this! Come on!"

"Fight! Fight! Fight!" The crowd began to chant, clapping along to the rhythm. Hermione sighed rolling her eyes in distaste at the scene. She sat back down and continued reading her book. She had to smile at herself though, she had always liked the twins, and they had always been kind to her. Fred and George had always seemed to make her laugh despite never admitting it because of her goody-two-shoes appearance. They could always make people laugh even in the gravest of circumstances.