this side of paradise II george weasley.

i. the rivalry.

FLASHES OF royal blue, crimson and gold passed through the halls of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, airy laughter echoing off the ancient stone walls as students hurried to their common rooms after a long day of classes, each of them eager to relax with their friends. Mid-October sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting a kaleidoscope of colours across the colourful portraits and rusting suits of armour. It seemed the castle was alive with the magic of its students.

Amongst it all, a tall and nimble fifth year student with wild, unruly chocolate curls bouncing on her back was lost in thought, dragged down by the weight of the stack of books in her arms. Evren Langdon was entirely oblivious to the swarms of younger students flooding the halls to catch the last rays of autumn sunlight before the days grew shorter and darker and the grounds were thick with frost so they couldn't lay out in the grass. Instead, Evren was thinking about the long list of homework she would have to complete that night, and how the year seemed to be whizzing past and in no time at all, she would be completing her O.W.Ls and the thought made her throat dry with nerves. She had no idea how she could do it, especially with the unique distraction this year.

Professor Dumbledore had announced the revival of the Triwizard Tournament on the evening of the student's return, explaining to them the retired tradition where champions of three magical schools would represent their schools and compete for 'eternal glory'. The whole thing had lost its glamour to Evren when Dumbledore had mentioned 'dangerous' and 'deadly' tasks. The announcement had sent most of her fellow fifth years -as well as the seventh years- into a panic, few of them appreciating this distraction during their O.W.Ls.

Evren was trudging up the steps towards the Ravenclaw Tower, where she wanted nothing more than to curl up with her cat, Hermes, when she spotted the first sign of danger.

A small, neatly wrapped, and colourful candy.

Evren stopped in her tracks, noticing that the hallway she had found herself in was completely deserted. Or at least it appeared that way. She took a hesitant step toward the candy and narrowed her eyes warily at it, as though she expected it to explode in her face. Given that this was Hogwarts, she wouldn't rule that possibility out entirely.

She glanced up and down the hall and suppressed a groan when she noticed another candy, placed precisely in the centre of the hallway a few feet away from the first. And then another, and another until the trail disappeared around the corner. Evren held her breath so she could listen carefully to the unusually silent hallway. She listened for only a few moments before her mouth curled into a smirk at the hushed whispers carrying through the empty space. Silently, she turned on her heel and began to creep back the way she came. She retraced her footsteps and stopped when she reached a dusty tapestry depicting the beheading of some witch or wizard and she pulled it back to reveal a dark hallway. Evren ducked inside, letting the tapestry drop against the wall behind her and her heartbeat began to drum against her chest at the thrill of outsmarting the Weasley twins.

Again.

Evren hurried down the secret corridor and pushed back another tapestry quietly and carefully. She stepped out into another deserted corridor that was exactly around the corner from where she had been when she had discovered the first candy. She crept to the edge of the corridor, peering her head around it and smiling in satisfaction when she noticed two heads of long ginger hair crouched behind a suit of armour, facing away from her and whispering to one another with excitement.

"This is going to be epic, Freddie," one of the ginger boys whispered, elbowing his twin in the side.

"We'll get her this time," Fred responded confidently.

Evren took a delicate step out from her own hiding place, enough to see what they were watching and her jaw went slack in surprise. At the end of the hall was a slimy, black beetle the size of a hippogriff. As disgusting and grotesque as it looked, Evren had to amit the poor creature looked confused to suddenly be more than ten times its normal size. It was clicking its pincers together frantically and spinning in all directions, though it seemed to be unable to more from its spot. Recovering from her shock, Evren slipped her wand into her hand and raised it towards the beetle that she was sure had been intended to scare her.

"Reverte!" she shouted, drawing the attention of the twins who jumped in surprise out of their hiding spot and their heads spun in unison to find the source of the sound.

Fred and George quickly glanced at her before looking back at the beetle, which was quickly shrinking back to its normal size. When it was back to the size of a thumb, it scurried off. The twins looked back at Evren, who was smiling proudly. The twins, on the other hand, looked defeated.

"Seriously, Evren? Can't you just follow the candy like a normal person?" Fred cried in frustration.

Evren shrugged and slipped her wand back inside her robes.

"It's not my fault you failed to remember that I know these halls just as well as you do," Evren told them.

They walked in long strides to meet her at the end of the hall and her dark eyes darted between them nervously, anticipating another attempt to prank her.

"Can't you just... pretend to fall for it? For us?" George asked, his eyes soft and pleading.

Evren laughed lightly and shook her head.

"Not a chance, Weasley. I'm too smart to fall for your tricks," she teased.

It was true. Sometimes, Evren would forget where this childish rivalry began. She would just find herself darting around corners or dodging exploding cakes and simply take it in her stride and smile in satisfaction when she outsmarted them, which was every single time. 

But if she really thought about it, she remembered that it began the second she walked into the Great Hall in her first year, her knees knocking together as she walked between the long house tables with her year level towards the sorting hat. It was at that moment, the Weasley twins, who were in their second year at Hogwarts, vowed that they would prank every single first year that came through those doors. Like a sort of initiation. It proved to be more difficult than they originally thought. Of course, their pranks were brilliant and creative and they had managed to prank every single first year by the time Christmas break rolled around.

All of them except for quiet, witty Evren Langdon.

Fred and George thought it would be easy since Evren preferred to spend her time alone so she was a solo target. And even if she was a clever Ravenclaw, they had managed to prank all her classmates, so how hard could it be?

But Evren was onto them as soon as it began. No flash of light or mysterious trail of candies could fool her. It drove the twins nuts but admittedly, she was the motivation for their pranking skills to grow. So a rivalry was born and now the three of them glared at one another as they passed in halls and snarky remarks were shot between them and the rivalry showed no signs of stopping until the twins finally fooled her. It got to a point where, besides their brothers and sister, Evren was one of the few people who could tell them apart. 

"What exactly was the plan with the..." Evren trailed off, waving her hand in the direction the giant beetle had been standing.

The twin's faces illuminated with pride that instantly made Evren regret asking.

"Well, we charmed it," Fred started eagerly.

"It was going to explode-"

"With slime-"

"As soon as you got near it!" George concluded, his brown eyes shining as though he was expecting praise.

Evren merely shook her head at them in disbelief and ran her hand through her tangled knots. She sighed deeply in irritation before shoving past the two boys, desperate to escape and finally get to her common room. This whole detour had taken precious time that was supposed to be devoted to her Charms homework.

"Better luck next time, doofuses!" she called over her shoulder as she hurried down the corridor.

"You should try the candies!" George shouted after her as she disappeared around the corner, earning a snort from the younger girl.

"Not a chance, Weasley!"

♦ word count: 1463

♢ i'm sorry this is a pretty short chapter for the first chapter, the majority of them will be a lot longer than this but i just wanted the first chapter to give a sense of evren (my baby) and her history with the twins. it'll get very interesting very fast though!

thank you for reading!