Rebel Rebel (A Fred Weasley fanfic)

1

Stevie Nicholson was known for three things. The first was her baking skills. The second was that she would move heaven and earth for her cat, Cat Benatar but it was the third thing that folks knew her best for - her lateness.

It was the first day of her fifth year and yes, you guessed it, she was running late. She made it onto the Hogwarts Express by the skin of her teeth, managing to give her trunk to the conductor and hope onto the train just before he blew his whistle.

"Made it," she pants, peering into her cat carrier to see two yellow eyes glaring back at her, "Oh, I'm sorry Benatar. I know you hate it in there but I'll let you out as soon as we find Ribh and Kaye. I promise."

She stumbles slightly as the train pulls out of the station, knowing that she'd better find her friends and thankfully, it doesn't take her long at all, finding them in a compartment towards the back of the train.

"You made it!" Kaye cries as soon as she steps inside and Stevie stumbles back a few steps when her friend practically throws herself at her.

"Of course I made it!" she laughs.

"Cutting it a little close, don't you think?" Ribh speaks up from her seat and Stevie gasps when she looks at her.

"Your hair!"

When they had left each other for the summer, Ribh was sporting rather lovely long black curls and now, she'd gotten an almighty chop and it was now just to her shoulders and was a stunning blonde.

Ribh runs her hand through it, giving her a small smile, "Do you think it looks alright?"

"I love it!" she whispers, "You always said you were going to do it!"

"That's not the only thing that's new this year," Kaye nods and it's only then that she notices that their friend is already in her Ravenclaw uniform and pinned to the front of her robes is...

"You got Prefect!" Stevie cheers, throwing her arms around Ribh's neck "I knew you'd get it. Didn't I, Kaye?"

Kaye nods once more, sitting back down in her spot while pulling a book from her bag.

Out of the three of them, Kaye was the quietest in the friend group but really, she fit in perfectly with Stevie and Ribh. With her large round glasses and mousey brown hair, the Gryffindor was always there to reign in her two friends if need be.

"So," Stevie pulls her friend down to sit beside her, putting Benatar's carry case down so she can let him out as promised and she's quick to leap up onto the overhead storage area, "Who's the other Ravenclaw Prefect?"

"Marcus Turner," she frowns, "I don't really know him but I've to go to a meeting a bit later."

"What do you think you'll be doing?" Kaye asks, looking over the top of her book just briefly.

"I suppose we'll be patrolling the train," she shrugs, "Looking out for any troublemakers. Same for at school too, patrolling the corridors at night."

Kaye snorts, "Good luck in controlling some of the people at this school."

"Like who?"

"Oh, I don't know, the Weasley twins?"

Ribh grins and leans back in her seat, "I'm actually looking forward to it. I'm going to be all like Weasley, ten points from Gryffindor! and Weasley, detention!. Oh, it's going to be so good!"

The other two girls share a knowing look.

"Can't you just let it go?" Stevie asks, "I mean, it was back in third year and it was only a little bit of water."

"A little water?" she repeats, "A little-Stevie, I was soaked. Not only that, we were heading to double potions and Snape wouldn't let me leave to change so I had to sit, in his freezing dungeon for two hours!"

"I'm just saying-"

Kaye quickly does what she always does, stepping in to stop them from escalating into a full-blown argument, "So, Stevie, how was your summer?"

The teasing smile that had been on the young witch's face fades and she toys with a stray thread that's sticking out of the seat, "Same as always really. Quiet. Mum and dad were gone for most of it."

"They didn't take you with them?" Ribh asks and Kaye give her a look.

Both girls know that there was a bigger chance of Hell freezing over than there was her parents taking her travelling with them.

Another thing that people knew about Stevie was who her parents were - they were both rather high ranking in the Ministry of Magic and well, she can't be sure, but she thinks that they might have been involved with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named back in the day.

See, her whole family had been sorted into Slytherin. It had been that way for generations and everyone, including Stevie herself, had expected her to also join the noble house of silver and green.

You can imagine her -and the rest of the hall's- surprise when the Sorting Hat had announced that she'd be going into Ravenclaw.

You can imagine her parents' reaction too. She had known that they were probably upset when she didn't get any letters or means of communication from them for the whole of her first year but she hadn't expected for the hostile welcome she got when she returned for that summer.

Let's just say that in the eyes of Giles and Arabella Nicholson, they no longer had a daughter and so Stevie was left to spend the long days of summer alone in that big old house of theirs.

Really, she should have known that she was different from the others in her family. She didn't have the same cold exterior that came to be known for the Nicholson's. She didn't see pure-bloods and half-bloods, didn't care about Muggle-borns coming to study magic.

"I hate your parents." Ribh mutters while Kaye rests a supportive hand on her knee, "They're such arseholes. You should have written! You know that mum and dad wouldn't mind you coming to stay with us!"

She gives them both a smile. She knows that her friend's parents would welcome her with open arms but if she's being honest, she doesn't really mind spending time on her own. It gave her time to read through her father's extensive library,

"How about you, Ribh?" she asks, wanting to stop the pitying looks they're giving her, "What about your summer?"

She relaxes back as her friend launches into her story of summer, welcoming Benatar when she jumps down onto her lap. She may have liked being alone but she wasn't going to lie, she was rather glad to be going back to Hogwarts.