Pretty Kitty (completed)

Chapter 37

"What's going on?" Harry demanded to know as he was lead up the stairs to the twins dormitory. They said nothing, both set in stony silence as they opened the door.

Lee was sitting on his bed, reading a book, and looked up when they walked in. Harry waved hesitantly at him, and Lee grinned back. However, when he saw the looks on the twins faces, he promptly stood up.

"I'll just leave you lot alone," he said, walking past and patting Harry on the shoulder before exiting the room to escape the quite tense atmosphere.

Once the door swung closed, Harry was promptly guided to sit down on the nearest bed, Fred's. The twins stood still for a moment, before George sat stiffly beside him, and Fred began pacing. Harry frowned, looking between the two tense young men.

"What happened?" he'd been around the twins most of the day, apart from in lessons. And Fred had been fine before Malfoy had collided with them. "What's wrong?" Their continued silence was setting him on edge.

"Something... happened," George finally said, clenching the covers beneath him, staring moodily at Fred's moving form. Harry frowned.

"Well, that was obvious. What?" He really wished the twins wouldn't act so serious, a change from his usual hope that they would actually try and act more serious than annoyingly mischievous. However, at that moment, he'd give anything for the pranks to come back.

"Umbridge," Fred nearly spat the name out. Harry gulped audibly – any collision with the twins and Umbridge wasn't good. Especially after just last night. Their vendetta against her had increased tenfold.

"She held us back after her lesson," George said when it seemed Fred couldn't go on, too worked up. Harry turned to George, scooting up on the bed so he was fully sitting on it with his legs crossed, and took one of George's hands in both of his own.

"What did she say?" With Dumbledore gone, there was no telling what she'd said. What she'd threaten them with. There was no one to stop her.

Harry hadn't thought of that before, and the realisation suddenly hit him. Dumbledore was gone, Dumbledore, his safety net. The Ministry was in control of everything, not good for people like him who tended to go and get in as much trouble as possible. Harry didn't go looking for trouble, it came to him.

But the twins? They went actively looking for trouble.

"The bitch... she fucking..." George's hand tightened around his. Fred stopped pacing, flopping down on the bed heavily behind Harry and resting his head on his back.

"She knows. All about us. Malfoy, that little bitch," Fred snapped. Harry groaned, feeling a chill crawling down his spine at the words. Umbridge with information equalled chaos. "She's known for months, couldn't really do much, though. That threat we had on her was pretty effective, because Dumbledore would be there to help. But now..."

"But... she wouldn't allow what she did to be exposed, would she? Ministry wouldn't listen to something like her harming students," Harry said. He had wrangled the story of the threat made on Umbridge out of the twins a few months ago. He wasn't happy, but it was useful.

"It's useless. Threats are useless. The Ministry is in control of everything." George reminded him gently, finally looking at Harry, who was looking down, ears drooping quite pitifully. George reached out and cupped Harry's chin, pressing a soft kiss to his lips. Fred wrapped his arms around Harry, resting possessive hands on his stomach and hip.

"But... will she tell anyone? Does it even really matter? It's legal, even me being with you is legal," Harry exclaimed, making his point by lifting up his robes to expose his arm, which only had very faint traces of the marks, just a shade darker than his skin. Fred took his arm, raised it, and kissed it gently, watching as the marks darkened at the action.