The Potter Twins and the Chamber of Secrets

XV

I'd decided to follow Fred and George's advice, against my better judgement. They'd lent me this map that I'd had to promise not to tell anyone about, and I had a very rigid plan of what was going to happen and where I was going to take Rose. Ok, I lie. I barely had a shred of a plan, but I was going to go with it.

So, on Saturday morning, I got up extra early, brushed my hair (which had no effect, as usual, but it's the thought that counts) and tried to decide what to wear. It was a weekend, so muggle clothes were usually what went. I eventually chose a pair of skinny blue jeans and my Gryffindor Quidditch team hoodie, which, amid much persuasion, Fred, George, Harry and I had managed to get Oliver Wood to place an order for at the end of the previous year. I'd always wanted to be in the sports teams, and I'd seen films where all the cool sportspeople wore hoodies that were just as cool as them. I imagined I looked like one of them as I headed down to the hall. In reality, I was definitely too small and too ginger to be anything like it.

Rose was waiting for me at the Ravenclaw table. She wore her hair down, which looked amazing, and she held a silver and blue bobble hat in her hand. Unintentionally, we'd matched on the jeans front, but she'd gone for a thick grey cable-knit jumper. "You look warm," I said with a smirk.

"Well, you look like an egotistical troublemaker," she shot back, and then smiled. I shrugged. "That's what I am, so you'd better get used to it." I stole her bobble hat and jammed it onto her head, covering her eyes. "Hey!" she spluttered. "Messing up my hair?"

Rose pulled the hat off and I eyed her hair. "Looks pretty good to me."

She whacked me on the arm and we started to walk. "Great start to the day," she frowned, but couldn't stop herself laughing. "You're such an idiot."

I bowed my head. "I pride myself on it."

"So, what's the plan?" Rose asked, as we passed Will and Ron on the staircase. They whistled, but I poked Will in the back with my wand. "Leave me alone."

"Have a lovely time!" Hermione called, from further down. Rose laughed. "Your friends are insane."

"They take after me," I agreed. "Well, I thought we could go for a walk."

"Solid choice."

"A tour of the castle's secret passages."

She stared at me. "Secret passages? Not so conventional."

I shrugged. "Hey, you signed up for this. No bottling it."

"I didn't say I didn't want to do it," Rose shot back. "I don't mind breaking rules."

You've found the right girl, my mind told me, but I just grinned. "Good. 'Cause there's going to be a lot of that going on here."

"Can't wait." She stared back at me, unyielding. I wiggled my eyebrows. "Let's get started, then." We started traditional; the passage to Honeydukes, but we wouldn't be going all the way to Hogsmeade. It wasn't a registered weekend, so if two students got caught there, there would be more than a little trouble.

As we sidled up to the one-eyed witch, Rose's eyebrows raised expectantly. "You expect me to fit through that?"

"No need," I said, and tapped the statue. "Dissendium."

The witch slid aside and I bowed, much like Lockhart had the day before in front of professor Snape, only I made it look much more extravagant. "After you, my lady."

"You're such an idiot," Rose replied, pushing me to the ground as she passed. I retaliated by grabbing her ankle and she hopped along for a while before tumbling over. "Ha!" I crowed.

Her eyes narrowed and she tackled me to the floor. We rolled along the dark and dusty passage for approximately one minute before I crashed into the wall and swore. "Ow."

"Serves you right," Rose grinned, and pulled me up, my hand in hers. Only, she didn't take it away. "This is a lovely old tunnel. So light and fresh!"

"Yes, yes, clever sarcasm," I grumbled, but didn't let go of her hand. It was warm. And fitted into mine. Nice describing, Sam. Primary school taught you better than that.

We walked along, holding hands for about five minutes before we reached the end of the passage. "Want to go to and buy some sweets?" I asked.

Her eyebrows knitted together. "From where?"

"Honeydukes," I said, as casually as I could.

"That does not lead to Honeydukes!" Rose accused.

I laughed. "Sure. Lift up the trapdoor and see. It's a passage into the cellar, so don't worry about getting caught."

Rose cautiously pushed her hand up and the unmistakeable waft of chocolate and sugar came drifting through the gap. "We can't go up there," she said. "They'd report to the school in seconds."

I shrugged. "We could always go back and get lunch when we're hungry from the hall."

"Yeah, that works for me." Rose gently grabbed my arm and looked it in hers. "According to you, there're more secret passages going on. Let's go."

The rest of the morning passed rather uneventfully, except from when we emerged from behind the one-eyed witch and Mrs Norris was staring at us. I turned into a Lynx and hissed at her, and she finally ran away. Rose grinned. "It's still so cool that you can do that."

"I quite like it," I admitted.

We headed up towards the third floor, where I showed Rose where we'd adventured the previous year, and then up to the Astronomy tower where I told her about Norbert. The tour of the secret passages had turned into a tour of the places where I'd gotten myself into trouble during the first year. After coffee in the hall, Rose showed me her favourite spots - a tiny cupboard-room on the second floor where no one went but gave a fantastic view of the grounds, and a room outside the library that was effectively an extra book store without Madam Pince breathing down your neck. Hermione would like that, I decided, just as my stomach began to rumble. "Lunch?" Rose asked.

"Lunch," I agreed, and we headed down.

Since we couldn't sit on the same table, we decided to call that a day. "Good walk," Rose told me, a genuine smile on her pretty features. Her face was warm from the constant movement as I let go of her hand. Her hair was still impeccable, and in the other hand she held her bobble hat, which she still hadn't put on. She jammed it onto my head, over my eyes. "Here. It goes with your hair."

It clashed horribly with my hair, as Will would later tell me, but I didn't care. I was too busy being speechless as she kissed me on the cheek and dashed off to the Ravenclaw table.

"Good time?" Harry asked me, as I sat down shakily. I nodded. "Yup. Good time."

———

taking a break from the main storyline with a wholesome chapter! this made me so happy to write. i like it when sam's happy, as i hope you all do.

anyway, got this one out on schedule. a bit short, but there we go. hope you enjoyed!