Harry's Twin - Book One // Complete // Editing

Snow and Behold

Christmas was coming! You could feel the chill in the air, biting at your cheeks, freezing your fingers. One afternoon it was particularly chilly- that morning we'd woken up to a frozen lake and several feet of snow.

Harry and I are sitting in the common room, near the fire when Fred comes over. 'Come with me,' he whispers to us.

We climb out of the portrait hole, where George is waiting. 'This way,' he says. Harry and I look at each other, visibly confused.

We follow the red-haired boys down the deserted corridor. They do the 'ssh' sign and point around the corner. Professor Quirrel, the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher- who always smells strangely of garlic- was walking along, with big, fluffy white snowballs pelting the back of his head. Repetitively.

'Snow and behold!' the twins grin, pleased with their little pun.

'You two!' I laugh. Then I manage to make my face serious for a second. 'Why the hell did you think it'd be okay...' I pause, trying not to laugh at their shocked faces. 'To not involve me?' I finish.

They sigh in relief, while Harry laughs, watching Quirrel try to hit them away.

'Having fun, you four?' we hear a nasty voice snarl behind us.

Harry's eyes widen, as we all turn to face the owner of the voice. 'Mr Filch, we swear, the Potters had nothing to do with it! It was just us,' says Fred.

'Likely story,' Filch sniffs.

'It was us! We swear,' George argues.

'You know what they say, two twins means double trouble, but two sets of twins means 1000 times the trouble!'

'Uh, Filch? No one has ever said that, I don't think...' I point out.

He tells me not to question him and then makes the twins stop the snowballs. Fred smirks in his typical "I-have-a-plan" way... and not a good plan either. He grabs out his wand and flicks it at the snowballs. He pretends to try and force them out the window, but then makes them hit Filch in the face instead. 'I'm so sorry!' Fred says. I cover my laugh with a cough. It sounds so fake... whoops.

Filch glares at me. 'Are you okay, Potter?' he says through gritted teeth.

'Uh... um, yes, just a bit of a cough... probably because of the cold and all,' I say.

Next thing we know we're being dragged off to McGonagall. We all hang our heads in shame- not that Harry and I did anything. 'Lyds? Harry?' George whispers. I look over at him. 'We're sorry for getting you two in to this... we promise to try our best to get you out of it.'

'We promise,' agrees Fred. Harry and I nod.

'It's fine- don't worry, it's not the first time I've been in trouble,' I say. Harry looks over at me.

'Not serious trouble like this, don't you wor-'

'SHUT UP!' Filch yells, causing the four of us to stop in our tracks. Fred places a hand on my shoulder.

'Please, Filch, don't yell. You know, it's impolite to yell at a lady like that,' Fred smirks.

Filch looks extremely mad. He practically pushes Fred into McGonagall's office, causing the rest of us- especially George- to send him mean glances. McGonagall looks up and sighs. 'What now?'

-----

Once we'd finished explaining, McGonagall stands up. 'You shouldn't done that, no. I will of course need to take a few house points... how about 5 each?' she shows a hint of a smile. It's not such a little known secret that McGonagall hates Filch- and isn't exactly fond of Quirrel either. And there's the fact that I'm one of her "most promising students" (along with Hermione, naturally). So we get off, no punishment, unless you count a few house points taken off us. 20 points was all- sometimes the twins can get 100 off between them- although that's only happened once, and Hermione and I got about 75% of them back.

-----

Literally no one could wait for the holidays- not even the teachers, I think. Walking through the castle sucked- especially after walking out of the nice, warm common room or the Great Hall- because the corridors were so cold, not to mention the terrible wind blowing at the windows, rattling them. It was terrible in the classrooms above ground, but the dungeons... oh, Merlin, they were freezing.

In the potions classroom, you could see your breath rise in a mist in front of you. On a particularly cold day, in potions, we were all huddled right up to our caldrons. Hermione and I were working together, while Harry and Ron were on the next one. On the opposite side of me, there was Draco and Crabbe.

'I do feel sorry,' began Draco, rather loudly, 'for all those who are forced to stay at Hogwarts over Christmas, because they are not wanted.' He stares pointedly at Harry, who sighs and turns back to his potion. I wander over to Draco's table.

I tap his shoulder. 'There's more than one Potter, remember?'

He turns, with a guilty look on his face. 'I didn't... I meant. Well, uh, yeah. Sorry. I wasn't meaning you, obviously.'

'No...' I say, skeptically. 'But you were meaning my brother.'

Just then Hermione calls me over, telling me to help her. I bid Draco goodbye and walk over.

According to Harry, Draco had been even more of a pain in the neck since the last quidditch game. I had heard a few people passing on his jokes about a wide-mouthed tree frog replacing Harry- that stopped after I had a word or two with Draco... and there was also the fact that no one really found it funny. They were much too impressed with the way Harry stayed on his broomstick. I guess Draco got bored and decided to go back to taunting Harry about the family he didn't have. The family we didn't have.

Harry and I were staying at the castle for Christmas. There was no way in hell that I wanted to go back to Privet Drive before I had to. To be quite honest, it'll probably be the best Christmas Harry and I have ever had. The Weasleys were staying to- their parents were visiting Charlie (the dragon keeper) in Romania. Which meant the twins were staying! Christmas pranks anyone?

As my brother, Ron, Hermione and I walked out of the potions room, we saw a large tree up ahead. Well, Ron didn't, he almost walked into the end if- if only Hermione didn't stop him.

From the noise coming from behind it, we guessed it must be Hagrid. 'Need any help, Hagrid?' calls Ron.

'I'm all right. Thanks anyway, Ron,' Hagrid grunts back.

'Do you mind? Could you move out the way,' comes Draco's drawl from behind us.

'Draco,' I warn. He ignores me, keeping his eyes on Ron.

'What? Looking for some extra money, Weasley? Hoping to become gamekeeper once you've finished at Hogwarts?' He pauses smirking. 'Hagrid's hut is probably a palace compared to what your family has, Weasley.'

'Draco! No, Ron! RONALD!' I shout, but it's too late. Ron is already diving at Draco.

'WEASLEY!' Snape's cold voice rings down the corridor.

'He was provoked, Professor!' Hagrid says, putting his head through a gap in his tree.

'Well, even so, fighting is against the rules. Five points from Gryffindor, Weasley. Be glad it's no more than that,' Snape snarls at Ron.

Draco smirks as Snape sweeps away. I storm over to him. 'What the hell? Why would you do that? I thought we were friends- meaning you respect my friends!' I say, angrily. He opens his mouth to reply, but I hold up my hand, telling- well, showing- him to shut up. 'I thought you were better than this,' I sigh, in a sad tone, before turning and joining up with my friends (Hagrid and tree included). Ron gives my arm an appreciative squeeze.

'Thanks,' he whispers.

'You're welcome,' I give him a small smile.

'Come on, I'll show you all the Great Hall- it looks a treat!' Hagrid says, cheerily.

At the end of the corridor I glance back at Draco. He's leaning against the wall in a dejected way. But that's not exactly my problem, is it?