Singing Lessons

Monkey See, Monkey Do

"Hermione...!" Ginny screamed, running up to one of her closest friends...me. I turned around to see Ginny running down the corridor, out of breath.

"What?" I asked, curiously. Although Ginny could get overly-excited sometimes, there was always a story that go along with it; something that would be totally insane.

"Guess what I just overheard Fred saying! GUESS!!" Ginny was just about jumping up and down with excitement, but I was so used to it anyway and guessed away.

"Uhh...he said he came up with a new prank idea?" I asked uncertainly. I had absolutely no idea what Fred had said, nor why it was so important.

"No," Ginny said, watching me an waiting for me to guess again. I shook my head.

"Gin, just tell me won't you?" I sighed, giving up. Ginny really was jumping up and down now.

"He said, and I quote, 'Hermione is so brilliant! We were talking last night and she came up with an amazing hypothesis that I found rather interesting, and Percy the prat came and caught us past lights-out, she lied so smoothly and got up into Percy's head with his interests and got us out of trouble! I'm telling you George, she'd make an amazing companion if we ever needed to do something important. No wonder Ronnikins is always around her- without her he'd be dead!'" Ginny recited smoothly and with a smile.

"Okay, two things," I said, a little creeped out. "One: I've never heard Fred use words like 'hypothesis' or even one as long as 'companion'...are you sure it was him??" Ginny rolled her eyes. "Second: How in the name of Merlin did you remember EXACTLY what he said?!" I raised one eyebrow- a trick I'm thankful to have, sense it creeps people out so much.

"To question number one: Yeah, I'm sure. He surprised me too," Ginny smirked and moved on. "To question number two: I'm just smart. That's really ALL you have to say?!"

"Well...yeah, I guess," I lied, hearing a shake in my own voice.

"What? No 'Really? Fred said that about ME,' or 'He must've been talking about some other Hermione...'?" Ginny asked teasingly. I rolled my eyes and ignored her comment.

"No...he seemed rather amused last night. I don't feel like talking about it." I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks and I turned away.

"What...what'd you guys do?! Mmm Hermione, you guys aren't...together, are you?" Ginny asked, staring at me. I looked down, trying to hide my red face.

"NO! No, Gin, we were just talking, that's all." Ginny stared at me unbelievingly. I internally groaned. "That's IT Gin, really. We were talking." I started to walk again, towards the Great Hall, which was where I was headed before I was (*cough*cough* rudely!) interrupted. Ginny followed.

"What were you guys talking about, then?" She asked, still not believing we were talking. She raised her eyebrows at me and I groaned out loud.

"I can't say exactly Gin, really! We were talking something along the lines of the security at Hogwarts was all. We got caught up in the conversation and lost track of time. Is that what you wanted to hear?!" I was getting kind of annoyed with all of the questions she was throwing at me.

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows even higher and I sped up to get to breakfast.

"Really," I said, hoping it would end our conversation.

"If I asked Fred, he would say the same thing?" Ginny asked quizzically.

"Yes," I said confidentially. Merlin, I really hoped he would.

"Fine," She said, giving in. I sighed with relief. We took a few steps toward the Great Hall and opened the doors. I heard Ginny gasp, and I let my jaw drop in surprise.

The Great Hall was full of chocolate frogs.

On the wall, just above the giant pile of frogs, it said in big, capital letters:

A GIFT TO YOU

LOVE, TWEEDLE DEE AND TWEEDLE DUMM

Then, in parentheses and lower-case letters, it said:

(Dedicated to Alice)

All I could do was stare in horror. Suddenly, Ginny shook me rather violently, snapping out of my shock.

"Wake up! Dumbledore just said that all our food would be at our common rooms. Come on, I'm starving!" She whined. I caught sight of Fred out of the corned of my eye.

"I'll catch up with you later, Gin. Just go on without me." Ginny eyed me suspiciously, but left anyway. I went up to Fred with one eyebrow up.

"So...are you Tweedle Dee or Tweedle Dumm?" I asked, smiling.

"Tweedle Dee," Fred replied, smiling at me. "Because George is the dumb one." I laughed.

"So...trying to be the Marauders of the era, are we?" I asked, smirking at him, hoping I wasn't blushing too hard. He looked down and I could've sworn he blushed.

"Yeah, well, it was a genius prank, really..." He a answered, covering his embarrassment with a laugh.

"How do expect people won't figure who it is, though? I mean, there few people in the school who could and would pull something like this..." I trailed off as I found his eyes. They were were trustworthy...confident...full of laughter....

"Well, it's hard to punish someone without any proof, isn't it?" He winked and we began to walk toward the Gryffindor common room.

"So...where'd you hear a muggle fairytale?" I asked suspiciously. He laughed.

"Dad has been telling us quite a few muggle stories lately..." He said, smiling.

"Well, do you know the story of my favourite princesses, Belle or Mulan...?"

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Hey guys! Sorry if the X's don't line up where ever you're reading this, I'm typing on my iPod. In fact, that's the reason of my author's note. I'm really sorry if my chapters seem really small, they seem big enough on my iPod. I really do apologise and I'll try as best as I can to write plenty.

Also, in case you didn't know who Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumm were, they're the characters in Alice in Wonderland. I don't know about the Johnny Depp version, but the cartoon Disney version has them (I am yet to read the novel of the story but it's on my reading list). Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dumm were the two fatter red-heads Alice ran into in the forest who made squeaky noises and told the story of The Curious Little Oysters (Otherwise known as The Walrus and the Carpenter). That's why Fred and George dedicated their prank to "Alice". Hope that clears things up :)

xoxo TeenageAngel