(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

02

The twins were entertaining, but a little intrusive and -as I discovered not without relief- a year above me. They asked hundreds of questions and often enough so simultaneously that I had to wonder if they could somehow communicate with each other.

Why didn't you come until now? - My father's work.
Where are you from? - Before, we lived in France, but I was born in Switzerland.
What does your father do for a living? - I don't really know either. We have to travel a lot for that.
Do you play Quidditch? - No, I don't care much for sports.

I kept my answers short, even though they both tried their hardest to get as much information out of me as possible. But what good was that when I might be gone in a few months? My parents had been very tight-lipped about how long we would be staying here this time.

We reached the portrait of a fat woman in a pink dress. "Password?" she drove at us imperiously. She sounded almost like my great grand aunt.
"Smoke and mirrors," I replied after finding the note. The twins had been lurking, waiting to see if they had to step in, but I didn't want to rely on their help any more.

As the portrait swung aside, a girl with black hair and brown skin was just coming toward them. "Oh!" she groaned.

"Oh!" the Weasleys mimicked her in sync. "We've done your work for you, Madeline."

The girl paused for another second before taking a few steps back and letting us in. "You must be Camille." She held out her hand to me. "I'm Madeline Bell. I'm terribly sorry I was late. I had -" She gestured behind her, but paused in mid-sentence. "Fred, George, shouldn't you be in transformation! McGonagall will rip your heads off!" She shooed the laughing boys out.

"You're my tutor," I remembered how I knew the name Madeline Bell. It had gotten a little lost among all the information.

She came back into the lounge disheveled and straightened her uniform. "Yes. I'm really sorry you had to meet the twins first, of all people. They are full of mischief!"

"That's okay. They were actually pretty nice." I looked around and ran my fingers over the thick cushions of the chairs and sofa. It was a comfortable room, I had to hand it to Gryffindor.

"Nice, pff," Madeline groaned, holding out the card Fred had taken from me. "And that's why they're playing with the school's orientation spell today, of all days?" The map suddenly showed me exactly where I was standing. In the Gryffindor common room. "I bet they wanted to catch you so they could tell everyone about you later. Did they question you?"

I pulled up one corner of my mouth, caught. "They tried."

*

Madeline was the perfect partner for me. I had explained to her that in the 15 years of my life, I had already lived in seven countries and three of them alone had been in the last two years. She understood that I wanted to focus on my education rather than on making close friends.

It worked better than expected. I did my homework in the library or in empty classrooms to avoid my classmates and stuck to Madeline in class, who was very exemplary and striving.

The usual bustle about new students starting in the middle of the year died down after just a few weeks. And I had established my reputation as stuffy and boring. That, too, was something I had learned after so many school changes. If you bored the others, they quickly gave up trying to get to know you.

At least, it had always been that way until now.

"Good morning, Renard," the Weasley twins approached. No matter what I did, they wouldn't let up.

"I thought I'd have my peace from you until noon," I sighed, lowering my fork. The constant intrusiveness spoiled my appetite. It might have been funny at first, and perhaps a little flattering, that two actually quite handsome boys were competing for my attention. But the letters from my parents were worrisome and made me put my school supplies in my suitcase every night instead of on the little shelf I was assigned.