An American At Hogwarts: Book Three

Chapter Sixty-Five

The school was absolutely buzzing the next day, filled with students telling and retelling the story of the twins' departure. It got more and more outlandish every day despite the fact that most of the school had seen it with their own eyes, but that's probably what the twins would've wanted.

For me, everything continued to be bittersweet. Watching Peeves turn the school into a constant boobytrap in honor of the twins was amazing to see, but it made me miss them even more. The swamp the twins had dropped was extra special, since no one had been able to remove it. McGonagall or Flitwick probably could've, but neither of them seemed to want to. Instead, it stayed where it was, and Filch had to act as a boatman, ferrying students across the expanse to and from classes. I never thought a swamp would become a special, nostalgic place for me, but this one quickly did.

My family was able to help add to the chaos with a Howler, wishing me luck on upcoming AP testing. Umbridge hadn't even been in the Great Hall to hear it because she'd been trying to do damage control on a thousand different pranks at once, but I got some fun glares from the Slytherins on the Inquisitorial Squad as a nice consolation.

Unlike the rest of the school, I'd spent most of the short time since the twins had left buried in work. My last ever round of AP testing was just around the corner, and N.E.W.T.s would be shortly behind. And, maybe most importantly, I still needed to reach out to the mermaids. I planned to do it before AP testing, and losing myself in that project helped a lot with keeping my mind off the twins. Still, without them, I felt like I was going through life without my right arm. I kept looking around or standing up to go tell them things before remembering they were gone and feeling that loss all over again.

None of my remaining friends would quite let me get away with completely disappearing into my work and feelings, however. Jackson hovered in the library with me under the pretense of helping David, and Cedric joined us to do his own work, sitting shoulder to shoulder with me. Not two days after the twins had left, Lee completely waylaid me in the corridor with a massive grin before I even made it to the library.

"I have a prank I need your help with," he said with no preamble, absolutely beaming. I sighed, fingers twitching on my school bag.

"...What is it?"

"Come with me and I'll show you," he said, grinning and not bothering to wait for my response before heading off down the hallway. I glanced towards the library, then sighed again and followed Lee.

We made it all the way back to the Gryffindor common room without Lee giving me any explanation. He glanced around furtively, then motioned for me to follow him up to the boys' dorm. I hesitated. I didn't really want to see the place cleared out of all the twins' stuff, but after a moment I pushed that thought down and followed Lee anyway.

"Lee, seriously, why didn't you just ask me to make a sling portal-"

"Oh don't worry, you'll have plenty of reason to do that soon."

I frowned, but he just grinned again and flung the door to his room open. My eyes flitted to the untouched beds of the twins, but I forced my gaze away before that could overwhelm me like it was threatening to. I don't really know what I'd been expecting to find, but it definitely wasn't the little niffler staring at me from Lee's bed.

"Lee... what-?"

"His name's Weasley. I named him. Figured we could use a sling portal of yours to release him into a certain pink-themed villain's office."

Despite myself, a smile started slowly growing on my face as I took in Lee, grinning proudly, and the little niffler running around next to him.

"Honestly, Lee? I think that's a great idea."