Roderick and Andrea came back to Hogwarts on just a normal wizarding train to Hogsmeade about two days before the new term started. Roderick was anxious to get back and spend some time with Sarah. They’d been owling each other daily throughout the holiday, but absence certainly makes the heart grow fonder.

After spending New Year’s Eve with Terry Boot at the Wood’s party, Andrea actually felt like they were friends, and it wasn’t as awkward being around Sophie and Terry. The three of them went to the library for their last afternoon before classes started. They found one of the few couches intended to let students from other houses have a comfortable place to mingle other than the outdoors or the Great Hall. Andrea sat in the big comfy chair next to the couch, reading a novel for her Muggle Studies course while Terry and Sophie began a game of wizard’s chess. She looked up when she heard Terry’s queen begin to brutally attack Sophie’s knight. Something caught her eye, and she looked over to see Fred and George Weasley and Lee Jordan looking at some books down at the other end of one of the nearby rows of books.

She kept tabs on them out of the corner of her eye, trying to focus on her book, yet not doing too good a job of it anymore. The twins and Lee moved to a different aisle, and she could no longer see them, but she did hear Lee laugh not too far off. Fifteen minutes later Fred and Lee left the library, but not George. Sophie had caught on to what Andrea was paying attention to, and softly said, “He’s down that row of books behind you. I can see him from here.”

“Who is?” Andrea tried to play innocent.

Sophie arched an eyebrow and Terry laughed silently.

They went back to their game and Andrea went back to reading. Five minutes later, Andrea snapped her book abruptly shut. “Okay, I’ve read the same page about nineteen times now and I still don’t know what I read. Maybe I should just go talk to him. Where is he?” she asked Sophie.

“Right behind you,” Terry answered quietly, not looking at Andrea.

“Who were you looking for?” she heard George’s voice right behind her.

“Blast! How long have you been standing there?” she whispered, eyes closed.

“Long enough,” George answered.

“I have the worst luck,” she groaned. The other three all laughed.

George put his hands on her shoulders, and bent down behind her chair. “Come with me,” he whispered so that she almost didn’t hear it. A shiver ran down her spine as she turned to look at him. He was smiling, and she smiled right back at him. He stood up, held out his hand, and she took it and followed him off around the corner, grinning back at Sophie and Terry. Sophie was beaming, and Terry gave her a wink.

“Where are we going?” she asked after about five minutes of wandering out of the library and down numerous corridors that Andrea didn’t even know existed. She thought after five and a half years of living in the castle, that she knew it pretty well, but obviously she was wrong.

“Just follow me,” he answered. Then he stopped abruptly and turned to face her. “You trust me right?”

“Within reason,” she laughed. He smirked and then turned around and started walking again, still holding her hand. They stopped soon, though Andrea had lost track of which floor they were on. There was a funny statue of a very confused looking wizard with his gloves on the wrong hands. It looked very familiar. “Who’s that a statue of?” she asked.

“Oh, that’s Boris the Bewildered.”

“Sophie has a picture of, no, she used to have a picture of that up next to her bed.”

“Really? That’s odd,” he laughed.

“Where are we by the way?”

“My and Fred’s Secret Lab,” he grinned mischievously. “Bill told us about this place, the rest of the corridor is dedicated to Prefect stuff, bathrooms, common rooms, study rooms.”

“Oh,” it now made sense why Sophie would have had a picture of Boris the Bewildered’s statue. All she’d ever really wanted was to be Prefect. George was standing next to a statue of a great warthog, he pulled down on one of the tusks like one would a lever, and an array of the bricks next to it sunk in to the wall and then slid to the side, opening up a passageway.

“Come on,” he took her hand again and pulled her into the secret lab. There were a few couches, a large supply of sweets and butterbeer, some crates in one of the corners, and then on the other side of the room a bunch of cauldrons and other things that she suspected the twins used to develop their inventions.

George walked over to one of the small tables and picked up a hat that was lying there. “Watch this,” he said. He put the hat on, and his head disappeared.

Andrea gasped and then laughed. “That’s brilliant!”

He took the hat off and his head reappeared, he was smiling broadly. He plopped onto one of the couches, and Andrea sat on the other end of it, facing him.

“How’d you do that?”

“Don’t tell Fred I told you.” He told her that they’d figured out the simple charm that would work while they were trying to develop an invisibility gum, which they were still working on. They continued to talk about many things, their Christmases, though George left out a lot of what had happened, like his dad being in St. Mungo’s after being injured working for the Order and the fact that they’d stayed at Sirius Black’s house. They broke out some of the sweets and butterbeers. Fred and George kept a good stock here so that they didn’t have to run off to Hogsmeade every time Gryffindor House needed to celebrate.

An hour later George and Andrea left the Weasley’s Secret Lab, deciding they were keenly interested in having some supper. Sweets and butterbeer can only be so satisfying. George gave Andrea a long look as they made their way to the Great Hall.

“What?” she asked him, smiling at him.

“I was just curious.”

“What about?”

“Well, when I came up behind you in the library I couldn’t help overhearing when you said you wanted to come talk to me. What was it about?”

“Oh,” she said, looking ahead again, her ears turning a bit pink. “Nothing really. I just wanted to talk to you.”

She could tell without even directly looking at him that he didn’t think this was quite a good enough answer. She sighed. “I missed talking to you over the holidays.” Her cheeks were now burning and she knew they must be completely red.

George halted and put a hand on her arm to stop her from walking as well. “I missed you too,” he said, barely loud enough for her to hear. She looked up from the ground to see that he had a silly grin on his face and she smiled back at him. They just stood there for a moment, smiling at each other. Then he leaned forward and gave her a kiss on the cheek. She slipped her hand into his and they walked the rest of the way down to the Great Hall.

Almost everyone was back, a few students still gone, arriving on an evening train. As they got closer to the Gryffindors, still holding hands, a few people seemed to notice and began whispering, but not too many. Most people were busy catching up with their friends about their Christmases. Neal called out to Andrea to come over and sit with him and some of the other fifth and sixth years.

“You wanna-”

“Nah, you go on, I’m going to go sit with Fred. Merlin knows I didn’t see enough of him over the holidays,” he winked.

“All right, see you later then?”

“Yeah, later.” She gave his hand a squeeze and then made her way over to Neal and the others.

When George sat across from Fred and Lee, they looked at him quizzically.

“What?”

“I think we’d better ask him.”

“I agree,” Lee said. “Who should do it?”

“I’m his brother, I’ll do it.”

George rolled his eyes. “What is it?”

“Where you in a broom closet somewhere with Andrea Benning?” Fred asked seriously.

“No! I’d like to think I’m a little more creative than that.”

“How is this going to affect the business?”

“Well, seeing as I don’t spend a good hour with different girls every night off in a broom closet snogging, I don’t think my actions will affect the business as much as yours do,” he smiled.

“Good point,” Lee laughed, as did the twins.

A little while later George watched as Andrea left the Great Hall, with Neal. He couldn’t help an icy feeling develop in his stomach. Fred and Lee hadn’t noticed anything and were surprised when George pushed his plate away and excused himself to go up to bed. He hoped he wouldn’t see Neal and Andrea as he made his way up to not his bed as he’d told Fred and Lee, but to the Room of Requirement. It was always a good place to think, or a good place to escape everyone else.

~*~*~

After looking over Neal’s Transfiguration essay and making a few corrections, and then practicing a few of the Charms she’d been having trouble with before Christmas, Andrea went straight up to the girl’s dormitories and went into her room, fully intending to drop into bed and fall asleep after a nice day. However, when she opened the door to the room she shared with Sophie and Hermione, Sophie was sitting on the edge of her bed, obviously waiting for her to come.

“You have to tell me everything that happened!” she demanded anxiously. “Where did you go? What did you do? Did you kiss?”

“What?” Hermione wheeled around on her stool in front of the vanity. “What’s all this? I didn’t know you had anything going on.”

“Well,” Andrea grinned, “It only just started right before we left for the holidays.”

“Hey, you didn’t tell me anything happened that night!” Sophie pretended to look hurt.

“Well, the two of you were asleep when I came up to bed that night weren’t you?”

Hermione and Andrea joined Sophie on her bed and Andrea launched into a modified story of what happened before Christmas, and then gave all the details of what had happened that afternoon.

“And he kissed you on the cheek? That is so cute!” Sophie sighed. They all were pretty giggly and giddy at this point.

“So you really like him then?” Hermione asked, a bit surprised, but in a good way.

“Yeah, I do. I mean, I thought it was only just a crush you know. But then at New Year’s I just realized that he really meant a lot to me, more than I thought.”

“How do you tell them apart though? They’re identical!” Sophie remarked.

“Yeah, sometimes even Mrs. Weasley can’t tell them apart, it’s rare, but it still happens,” Hermione added.

“Well, for one thing, George has this scar on the back of his neck. I guess a couple of years ago, when Oliver Wood was still captain of the Quidditch team, Fred and George were goofing off during one of his post practice speeches, and he whacked George with his broom.”

They all laughed, though Hermione looked a little concerned at such behavior. “But how do you choose one twin over the other? Physically isn’t the only way they’re identical.”

Andrea shrugged. “I don’t know. They are really similar, but they’re different as well. One time though, Fred was in detention and George just came over and asked if I wanted to play some wizard’s chess. That was a couple of years ago I guess, and we’ve just been kind of friendly toward each other ever since. One thing that’s a little different about the two is that, while they’re both really confident, George is a little more reserved about it. Fred is usually the one to speak when they’re together and talking to someone. I guess Fred’s a bit of a playboy too, obviously,” she laughed. It was now common knowledge that Fred was willing to snog any girl in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff as long as they knew there were no strings attached.

“It’s hard to describe, but as much as they’re the same, they’re also very different,” she shrugged again.

After a few more hours of chatting and catching each other up on what had happened during the holiday break, they finally retreated to their own beds and the lights dimmed.

“Andrea?” Sophie said curiously.

“Yeah?”

“Where’s your fairy? We’re missing the familiar little blue night light.”

“Oh,” Andrea laughed. “She joined the rest of the fairies on the Christmas tree this year, and then when we took the tree down and sent the fairies back to the forest near our house, Flet just kind of went along with the rest of them. Fairies aren’t too bright to begin with, and Flet was definitely not the smartest of her kind. She did just follow me home one day after all.”

They laughed quietly and then one by one, the three of them quickly dropped off to sleep.

~*~*~

Two weeks later it seemed there was only one thing on the minds of half of the Hogwarts female student population: the Valentine’s Day trip to Hogsmeade. Girls were snatching up dates here and there. Third year girls were batting their eyes furiously at their male classmates who were hopelessly confused.

Katie Bell even batted her eyelashes enough for Ed to get up the courage to ask her to spend the day with him.

When Angelina told Katie that she’d have to break off her date with Ed because the team would be having Quidditch practice that day, Katie had nearly cried. Evidently she’d been waiting for Ed to stop flirting and ask her out for about a year. When she told Ed the bad news, he looked like all of his hopes had been crushed, but then Katie had grabbed him and kissed him right there in the Great Hall.

Andrea was hoping for a date from George. Ever since they returned from holiday, they’d been spending a lot of time together. They usually ate their meals together. Andrea was invited to participate in a few of the twins pranks. They went for walks together, had a few snowball fights, and played games in the common room.

In fact, when she wasn’t being tutored by Neville, or studying with Neal, she was with George. They’d been growing really close, and while Andrea wished it was more than just friendship right now, she felt like there was still time for that later on.

Lately though, she wasn’t getting to spend as much time as she wanted to with George. Aside from her normal studying, she’d been assigned a group project in Muggle Studies. Their professor had assigned everyone into a group with a fifth, sixth and seventh year student in each group and then given them topics to work on from Muggle history. Andrea was working on the Golden Age of Piracy with Alicia Spinnet and Neal Thatcher. Neal was insisting that they spend a lot of time on their research. Andrea decided that even though Alicia didn’t seem to mind that much, she was not going to put up with this much studying. So, while they were waiting for Alicia to show up from Quidditch practice, Andrea decided it was time to give Neal a piece of her mind.

“Neal, I think we’ve got about four times more information than we need to do this project. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve actually developed quite a fascination for the subject, but I don’t like spending every other night in the library with you and Alicia when I could be doing other things.”

“Fine, you’re right, we do have enough information. But that’s not the reason I really want to study so much for this thing.”

“Well, then please give me a good reason why I shouldn’t just walk out of here right now.”

“You can’t Andrea!”

“One good reason, Neal, one good reason.”

He beckoned her to lean closer, took a deep breath, and then quickly whispered his reason in her ear. “I sort of have a really big crush on Alicia.”

Andrea laughed out loud. Madam Pince glared at her, and she sunk into her chair, stopping her laughter. “If you want to spend time with Alicia, then you don’t need me here to disturb you.”

“But you can’t leave me alone with her, I’d get too nervous. I just, I need you here so that I don’t mess things up. Just long enough that I can become good enough friends with her that I can actually think striaght. Please?” he begged.

Andrea rolled her eyes but smiled all the same. “How can I refuse a desperate friend?”

Neal exhaled in relief. “I really owe you big time.”

Just then Alicia strolled in, “Sorry I’m late. Angelina wouldn’t let up and kept us longer than I expected.”

“Oh, it’s not a big deal,” Neal said.

Andrea bit her lip to keep from laughing. It all made sense now. She would not forget this favor she was doing for Neal. Sacrificing time she could be spending developing her relationship with George so that Neal could get closer to Alicia might be worth it in the end. At least she was sure to get about two hundred percent on this class project.

~*~*~

By the time she came back from the library with Neal and Alicia, it was pretty late and most of the other Gryffindors had deserted the common room in favor of their warm beds. Andrea looked about for George, but he wasn’t there so she climbed the girl’s staircase and slipped into the fifth year’s suite. It was a Monday night, and she was completely exhausted. She didn’t know why, since she hadn’t really done anything particularly strenuous, but all she wanted to do was crawl into her bed. Perhaps it was her Monday schedule getting to her. All she ever wanted to do on Monday night was go to bed early now, but she had no such luck tonight.

“There you are!” Sophie said. “Studying awfully late tonight again.”

“It wasn’t so bad tonight,” she shrugged.

“You were with Neal weren’t you?” Lavender asked.

“And Alicia,” she added pointedly. Lavender and Parvati didn’t know much about George, so they were still holding hopes for Andrea to get back with the clever and handsome Neal Thatcher.

“Have you got a date for Valentines yet?” Parvati asked as Andrea plopped down next to her on the couch.

“No. Have any of you?”

“I’m going with Terry,” Sophie was first to answer.

“Big surprise there,” Lavender gigled. “But I’ve got a date! Justin Finch-Fletchley just asked me at dinner tonight!”

“Congrats, he’s a really nice guy,” Sophie said.

“I know, and so dreamy!” Lavender sighed.

They all laughed. “What about you Parvati?”

“I’m going with Seamus actually,” she blushed.

“Hopefully you’ll get a date too,” Lavender smiled at Andrea. “I can’t believe no one’s asked you yet. You’re definitely the prettiest girl in our year.”

“Yeah right,” Andrea laughed.

“I’m serious! Everyone knows it.”

“Well, it’s not that big of a deal if I don’t have a date anyway,” Andrea decided to brush off Lavender’s declaration that she was the prettiest girl in fifth year, it made her really self concious.

“Oh, but it totally matters!”

“Absolutely it does,” Parvati agreed. “Everyone knows that your status on Valentines Day with a guy shows how it will go the rest of the year.”

“My older sister went on her first date with this guy Andrew on Valentine’s day her seventh year, and now they’ve just gotten married,” Lavender said dreamily. “They had the ceremony this last Christmas. It was so beautiful!”

“My parents went to Hogsmeade for Valentines Day while they were at Hogwarts too,” Parvati added.

Lavender and Parvati continued to name off couples that had spent time together in Hogsmeade on Valentines Day. Andrea was starting to think that maybe this was really serious. She didn’t know if she wanted to marry George or anything, but she did know that she liked him a whole lot and would not object to having a relationship with him.

“But I’m sure someone will ask you,” Lavender concluded. “I’m going to go up to bed.”

“Me too,” Parvati and Lavender went into their bedroom.

“I had no idea that it was that big of a deal,” Sophie finally said.

“Neither did I,” Andrea was definitely growing more anxious about February 14th.