Sparks Fly || A George Weasley Story

Year 4: Double-Sided Secret

I had only made it through about twelve Defense Against the Dark Arts chapters before the bell sounded, signaling dinner. I tossed my bag in my room, hearing it bounce off the bed and fall to the floor as I shut the door behind me. I hoped that none of my ink bottles had shattered, but I was a bit too hungry to turn around and check.

I hurried up to the great hall which was already filled with chattering students, all pumped up from their first day of classes. There were some, clearly older, students who didn't seem all that excited, but instead exhausted and near-death. I was sure that they were stressed thanks to their upcoming N.E.W.Ts. Merlin knows that I would be, I was worried enough about O.W.L.s. N.E.W.T.s were what determined what jobs you could and could not get in the world outside of Hogwarts.

My eyes searched the room, first falling on the smiling face of Luna Lovegood from where she sat at the Ravenclaw table. There wasn't anyone sitting around her, but she didn't seem to mind. She waved at me as she scooped food onto her plate. I waved back at her before I looked for my other friends.

Fred and George were waving me over to the Gryffindor table, and I hesitated. You didn't sit at other tables during dinner. Breakfast and lunch, sure, that was fine. You'd get a few odd looks, but nothing beyond that. But dinner, was something else entirely. You sat with your house and nowhere else.

But they would probably make a bigger deal if I didn't go over there and sit with them, so I decided to deal with the odd stares if it meant that I wouldn't have to listen to them shout my name across the great hall while I went to sit at my own table.

I crossed the room, and sat across from the twins at their table, eager to hear what was so important.

"What are you two going on about?" I asked, trying to ignore the confused glances and whispers from the other Gryffindors.

"Did you hear the someone cursed two upperclassmen today?" Fred asked.

"Yeah, they shook them up something awful, they won't even say who it was." George laughed.

"Really?" I asked, pretending that I had no idea what they were talking about.

"We'd say that we did it, but I don't have the heart to lie to you about it." Fred said, shaking his head.

"Did they say anything about what happened to them?" I asked, genuinely curious.

"All we know is that is was because they were bullying a first year and the person stepped in, threw around a couple curses and then walked away," George shook his head.

"That's quite strange," I said, shocked at the boys amazement.

"Juniper, are you alright? Normally you'd have more to say on something like this," Fred said, his brows scrunching together in suspicion.

"Yeah, I'm fine!" I said, probably making it very obvious that I'd been a part of it, "It's just that it shouldn't really come as a shock to anyone that they got cursed when they were doing something so awful to begin with."

"You know who did it, don't you?" Fred asked, his brown eyes wide with excitement.

"Come on, Juniper, tell us! We promise we won't snitch!" George begged.

"I don't know anything about it, okay?" I shrugged, twisting the ring on my middle finger as I spoke, "I left Lockhart's class and went straight to my common room."

George's eyes shot down to my hand and then back up to my eyes. I forced myself to stop playing with the ring, knowing that it was a dead giveaway. I did it when I was anxious, and more often then not, when I lie, I get anxious.