Like it or not
The Easter holidays came with a mountain of work for the sixth years. Although NEWT exams were not until the seventh year of school, the teachers were piling on study and revision as if they were next week. Fifth years also had it bad, as their OWLs were looming ever closer, and only the Gryffindors had Hermione to help them get organised. Whether they wanted her to was a different matter all together. She seemed to have taken it on as a personal goal to get all Gryffindor fifth years as many OWLs as she could, which meant that, on top of all of her own work, she was almost as stressed as she had been in her third year.
Harry had found Ginny rather difficult over the past few weeks, as her mood changed so frequently, sometimes in no more than a matter of seconds. The pressure of exams seemed to be getting to her, and whenever Harry tried to help, he just felt useless. One evening, he saw her sitting at a table in the Gryffindor Common Room, struggling to keep focused because Ron and Hermione were bickering again at the next table. Not wanting Ginny to give up and go to bed, he went to join her.
“Hello there,” he said as he sat down beside her.
“Oh, hi Harry,” she replied, looking up from her parchment. “All right?”
“I just came to ask you that actually.”
“I’ll be fine, I’ve just got to finish this revision timetable.”
“Hasn’t Hermione offered to help you yet?” asked Harry.
“She did,” Ginny explained, “but I told her I’d rather do it myself.”
“She can make each square a different colour, you know,” he told her.
“So can I.”
At that moment there was a tap on the window, and Harry looked up to see Errol perched on the ledge. He let the owl in and detached the parcel, which was slightly too large for such an old owl, from its left leg.
“Looks like Easter eggs,” called Ginny, as Errol took flight and Harry sat down again.
They opened the box together, and sure enough, it was filled with brightly coloured chocolate eggs. Harry passed one each to Ron and Hermione, then unwrapped his own and started to munch on it.
“So,” he said to Ginny as he swallowed his first mouthful, “what’s the real problem?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you seem a little stressed at the moment, that’s all.”
She rolled her eyes.
“Honestly, Harry, I’m fi “ “
“You’re not fine, don’t give me that. I want to help if I can.”
Ginny stared at the table and frowned.
“You’ll think it’s really stupid,” she muttered.
“I don’t care, just tell me.”
“Well I “ I guess I miss having Fred and George around, and I’ve been trying to think of a way to get to see them.”
Harry gaped. She couldn’t seriously be thinking of going to Diagon Alley?
“Right,” he said unhelpfully.
“You think I’m mad, don’t you?” said Ginny with a smirk.
“Not mad,” answered Harry, “just crazy.”
Ginny smiled and pushed him affectionately.
“Well, I was thinking Floo Powder,” she continued.
“Floo Powder?”
“Yeah, to their shop. Nobody would have to know.”
“You do realise that if you just asked McGonagall, she’d probably give you permission,” said Harry.
Ginny looked outraged.
“Where’s the fun in that?” she squeaked. “Where’s your renowned sense of adventure gone to?”
Harry hesitated.
“Um “ “
“Come on, Harry. My life has been stuck in a rut for too long now. I need to do something interesting, or I’ll spontaneously combust,” said Ginny. “And anyway, I don’t care if you approve “ I’m going whether you like it or not.”
“I guess I don’t have much choice then,” said Harry.
“You’ll come with me?”
“Yeah, I will, but don’t let Hermione find out. She’d go mental.”
“Don’t let me find out what?”
Harry jumped at Hermione’s voice, and looked up to see her standing over them, a puzzled expression on her face.
“Oh, noth “ “ started Harry, but Ginny interrupted him.
“How long have you been listening?”
“Long enough to know that you’re planning to do something you shouldn’t be doing,” said Hermione.
“So what if we are,” said Ginny coolly. “It doesn’t affect you in any way.”
Hermione looked slightly taken aback.
“It does if two of my best friends are going to get into trouble,” she said, sounding bothered.
“Well your two friends are not planning on getting caught,” answered Ginny.
“What exactly are you going to do?” asked Hermione, eyeing them suspiciously.
“Us?” replied Ginny innocently. “We’re not doing anything. It’s those two friends of yours that you want to be keeping an eye on. Anyway, got to go. Cheerio.”
And she got up and walked away, pulling Harry with her, and leaving a very confused-looking Hermione behind them. She dragged Harry up to his dormitory and started to hunt around in his trunk.
“What are you doing?” he asked, reaching forward to stop her, but Ginny had already found what she was looking for.
She pulled his Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder’s Map from beneath his school robes and dodged his outstretched arm.
“Come on, we’re going now,” she said, taking hold of his arm and pocketing the map.
“Now?”
“Yes, now,” and she flung the cloak over them both and marched him down the stairs.
“Shouldn’t we tell someone where we’re going,” Harry whispered in her ear as they left the Common Room.
“Tell someone?” she hissed back. “Seriously, Potter, what’s come over you? You’re being all… moral.”
Harry didn’t know whether to stop her or not, and ended up tripping over his feet in this moment of confusion. He started to laugh at himself for being so ridiculous, but Ginny turned and glared at him which shut him up. A moment later, she had thrust the Marauder’s Map into his hand.
“Check it,” she whispered.
Harry carefully got out his wand and tapped the yellowy parchment with its tip.
“I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
The inky lines started to spread and tiny moving dots began to show themselves. One of these dots made Harry gasp so suddenly that he started to choke. Ginny’s eyes shot daggers at him again, and she shoved him sideways into a well-placed cupboard.
“Are you trying to get us caught?”
“Shut up, Snape’s coming,” said Harry.
It was extremely cramped and Harry had had to pull Ginny in close to enable them to shut the door properly.
“Well, this makes the trip a whole lot more interesting, doesn’t it?” whispered through the darkness.
Harry sniggered, but stopped promptly as footsteps came to a halt just outside the door. The two teenagers held their breaths and waited, expecting the worst.
And they got it.
The door opened suddenly and Severus Snape’s shadowed face glowered right at them. Forgetting that they were in fact invisible, Harry opened his mouth to say something, but Ginny stamped on his foot abruptly to stop him. Snape lifted his wand and lit it, so that the light was shining right in Harry’s eyes. Squinting, Harry watched the Potions Master reach out slowly, his fingertips getting closer and closer to the back of Ginny’s head. Harry held her as close as he could, but soon enough they were as squashed as was possible, with no way out.
Just has Harry had given up all hope of an escape, he felt Ginny take his wand out of his pocket ever so carefully and give it a little flick. There was a crash in the next room which sounded like a whole cabinet had just fallen to the ground, and Snape whipped round as Ginny made another flick with the wand. There was a second crash, prompting Snape to march off in the direction that Harry and Ginny had came from.
With a sigh of relief, Harry let go of Ginny and they ran off down the corridor. It was at this point that Harry realised he had no idea where they were going. Just as he started to ask her, Ginny gave him another huge shove through a door on their right and shut it behind them.
“Shouldn’t we lock it?” asked Harry.
“No,” said Ginny, looking at him as though he were completely stupid. “It wasn’t locked to start with “ it would be obvious that someone had tampered with it.”
“Oh,” said Harry, “how silly of me.”
He looked around at where they were, and realised that they were in Professor Flitwick’s office.
“How come “ ?”
“He never locks it,” interrupted Ginny. “Too trusting.”
“He’s obviously never met you,” muttered Harry, who was watching Ginny warily as she waved her wand around muttering various incantations. “What are you doing exactly?”
“Checking for Stealth Detectors and the like,” she answered distractedly. “Well, it’s all clear. I’ll go first.”
She took a pinch of Floo Powder from the pot on the hearth and threw it into the fireplace.
“91, Diagon Alley,” she yelled.
Harry followed her, falling forwards a few moments later in a shower of ash and soot, coughing a little on the dust and trying to straighten out his glasses. He stood up and brushed himself down, then looked around, trying to take in what he saw.
It was incredible. Every wall seemed to be a different wild colour, and on almost every surface was some kind of odd mirror, which made you look anything from incredibly small to immensely overweight. There were shelves and shelves of interesting products: items of clothing, suspicious-looking sweets and all sorts of other everyday objects which looked perfectly ordinary, but would probably try to eat your face or something similar.
“Wow,” stammered Harry.
“Fred and George are really doing well for themselves, aren’t they?” said Ginny, looking gobsmacked.
The heard footsteps overhead, which then began to get louder as someone descended the stairs behind the counter.
“You have told them you were thinking of coming haven’t you, Gin?” asked Harry, suddenly aware of how odd this could look.
“Er, not exactly,” started Ginny, but one of the twins had just reached the bottom of the stairs and was watching them with a confused look on his face. “Hi, Fred.”
“Where did you come from?” he asked.
“Came through the Floo Network,” said Ginny.
“From school?”
“Yeah,” said Ginny plainly.
“Nice one. Flitwick’s office?”
“Of course,” answered Ginny.
“Alright, Harry?” said Fred, turning his attention to the second guest.
Harry was slightly disconcerted at how normal Fred was finding all of this.
“Er, yeah, I’m alright thanks,” he said unsurely.
“Cool. Well, come upstairs and I’ll find George.”
They followed him up the wooden staircase, of which every step flashed a different shade of green when you stood on it. Harry almost fell over in surprise when the stair he was about to step on totally disappeared, and he had to hop over another because it seemed to be made of some kind of quicksand.
“Nice stairs,” said Harry as they reached the top and emerged in an odd-looking lounge.
“Thanks,” replied George, popping up from behind a lurid pink armchair, “and welcome to our humble abode.”
He grinned broadly, then offered them all chairs and took a seat in his own pink one.
“So, what brings you to Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes?” asked Fred.
“Just thought we’d pay you a visit,” said Ginny.
“I see,” said George. “Do you want to stay?”
Ginny looked at Harry with pleading eyes.
“Gin, we really “ “ started Harry, but she started to bat her eyelashes at him, so he gave in rather sooner than he had hoped. “We leave to be back at seven tomorrow morning, and no later.”
Ginny grinned and hugged him tightly around the neck, parking herself nimbly on his lap.
“Great,” said Fred. “You can stay in “ “
He was cut off mid-sentence by a noise which sounded like Crookshanks when he had just had his tail trodden on.
“Excuse me,” said Fred, standing up. “I’ll just get that.”
It turned out to be someone ringing at the doorbell.
“I just want a quick word with George,” Harry heard a frighteningly familiar voice say downstairs. “George, come down here, I want a word!”
“Bloody hell!” hissed Ginny, jumping up and suddenly looking assertive. “It’s Mum!”
A/N: So, there it was you guys. I don't know about you, but I feel that I've been rather good with updates recently. I hope all you Fred and George fans liked that chapter.
Only 4 chapters left to go! Exciting!