The Potter Twins and the Philospher's Stone [COMPLETED]

XLII

When I arrived at the common room, the four of them still hadn't returned. I hung around in there for a few minutes, looking like a lemon and getting some funny stares from the older students coming and going, and was thinking of going upstairs to crash on my bed when the portrait swung open and Harry, Ron, Hermione and Will stumbled into the room.

"Did it go well?" I enquired, waggling my eyebrows at them.

"What do you think?" Harry huffed. "She basically told us that we were incapable of doing anything and to get out of her office."

"Well," I said, with a tone of superiority, "I saw Snape."

A flurry of questions were immediately thrown at me, but I held my hand up to stop them speaking. "Snape came in but went out again almost immediately, and didn't even enter the room with Fluffy in it. The trapdoor hadn't even been touched."

"So what was he doing there?" Ron demanded, and I shrugged. "Beats me. What are we going to do? Dumbledore's out, McGonagall hates us, and Snape's probably going in already."

"It must have been because it's still light," Hermione declared. "I expect when everyone's in bed, Snape will be there in no time."

"Then we'd better get down there before he does," Will suggested.

"We have to take the invisibility cloak, remember," I put in. "Good job I rescued it from the astronomy tower, eh?"

Harry looked at his feet and muttered something else inaudible.

"So that's settled then," Ron said finally. "We go in after dark. Harry, didn't Hagrid get you that wooden flute for Christmas? You can use that to get past Fluffy."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. "So later? Are we just gonna sit around?"

"Hermione can do the planning," I said cheekily, and winked at her. "Harry and I need to have a talk, don't we?" I glared at him, and he sighed. "Yeah. Sure."

We walked shoulder to shoulder up the staircase, the silence wholly uncomfortable. Harry slumped down on his bed and I started to talk. "Look, I get that you're angry for me not telling you, but I apologised right? Why are you being such a prat?"

My twin glared back at me as he brushed some hair off his forehead. "We agreed we'd never lie to each other. We share everything, Sam. Faces, clothes, a cupboard under the bloody stairs, sometimes even thoughts, ok? Remember when we agreed each other we'd always tell each other everything? If I can't trust you, my brother, who can I trust?"

My heart leapt to my mouth as I recalled that conversation that we'd had not that long ago, locked in our cupboard.

"They never tell us what's going on," I grumbled to Harry, who was led with his back on the far wall.

"Well we can listen," my brother said optimistically, "and if I find something out, I'll tell you." A flash of a smile graced my lips. "You go to the door first. I'm tired."

"You've got to tell me if you hear anything," Harry bartered back, never one to let go of an agreement.

"Settled," I confirmed.

"If no one's going to tell what happened to mum and dad, we'll find out ourselves," said Harry, full of his own nine-year-old confidence. "No lies?" I asked, gripping my mattress as the scar on my forehead flashed with pain.

"We'll never lie to each other, right?" Harry added.

"Got it," I grinned back, shaking my twin's hand in formal agreement.

"No lies," I remembered, as Harry looked at me sorrowfully. "We said we'd never lie to each other."

"Look," I said, "I'm sorry. I got caught up with it all, knowing the secret, and the detention, that I didn't want to tell you until everything had calmed down. That was wrong, I know. But it turned out-" I gave a short bark of a laugh - "things aren't back to normal yet."

A hint of a smile pulled at the corner of Harry's mouth. "What's the betting they'll never be back to normal?"

"Are things ever normal for us?" I laughed back.

"So," said Harry, slightly hesitantly, "are we good?"

"Well, that depends on whether you've forgiven me," I said, with a slightly teasing tone.

"I guess I could forgive you," he mused, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

I held out my hand. "Sorted?"

"Sorted."

i've got my mocks right now, so this is a bit short, but i'll try and get another one out fairly soon.

wish me luck!

rosie x