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BOOK SIX: CHAPTER THREE

"Fred! George! It's time to go! We're going to be late!" Veronica took the stairs two at a time up to the second floor and knocked on the twins' door. After a moment, when she hadn't gotten a response, she announced that she was coming in and slowly opened the door. To her surprise, their trunks were sitting in the middle of the room, but the twins were nowhere to be found. "Fred? George? Where are you?"

As she looked around wondering where they could be, Veronica remembered that they always spent a lot of time with the ghoul in the attic, and she wondered if perhaps they had just wanted to say goodbye before they left. She was about to begin making her way up the winding staircase when she heard muffled voices coming from the floor below. The only rooms on the first floor belonged to Charlie and Ginny, so she was confused as to what they were doing down there, but she could only assume they were trying to prank her. Cautiously making her way down the steps, she slowly opened Ginny's door first, half expecting something to fall on her head. When the coast was clear, she made her way over and stood in front of Charlie's door. Throwing it open while standing in the hallway, she allowed the door to open fully before slowly going inside. Of all the things she had been expecting, what she saw wasn't even on the list.

The boys were sitting on their brother's bed with one of Bill's old Gryffindor scarves in their hands. He had given it to them before he left, and with the way they were staring at it, it almost looked like they were hoping it would talk to them. The twins always had the biggest smiles on their faces, so seeing them so upset hurt her heart, and she desperately wanted to fix whatever was bothering them.

Kneeling down in front of them, she placed a hand on their knees, and the pair jumped as if they had only just realized she was there. Veronica's eyebrows furrowed. "What's going on? What's the matter?"

"Oh, it's nothing."

"Hey... don't do that. You both know you can talk to me about anything. What's bothering you?"

Fred sighed as he whispered, "what if we don't get sorted into Gryffindor? Our whole family have been Gryffindors for generations... Mum, Dad, Bill & Charlie... even Percy! They're all Gryffindors. It's a tradition in this family, but what if we're the exception? Mum and Dad would be so disappointed."

Veronica furrowed her eyebrows again and narrowed her eyes. "No, that's not it. You two have never cared about other people's opinions. And you know that your parents will accept you no matter what house you're in. So there might be a little bit of anxiety around that, but it's not what's really bothering you. Tell me."

The twins glanced at each other, and George nodded. Fred turned back to Veronica and expressed their fear in the smallest voice she had ever heard him use. "What if we get split up? What if we aren't sorted into the same House?"

Veronica's shoulders dropped and eyes widened as she nodded. "Look, you two. I know how stressful the sorting ceremony can be, especially when there's one outcome that you want more than anything else. In your case, you both want to be Gryffindors, but more importantly, you don't want to be separated. And I completely understand that. You've been attached at the hip your whole lives, so it's normal for you to be scared of change. But just look at me and Charlie. I was worried at first that us being in two different Houses would divide us, but it just made our friendship stronger. We have to make a conscious effort to spend time together, and it lets us show each other how much we care. But we also get to enjoy being apart. I have my Ravenclaw friends, and Charlie has his Gryffindor friends. We get to spend time in our own Common Rooms and meet new people. And at the end of the day, our friendship is better off for it. So I know the idea can be scary, but it might do the two of you some good to have a little bit of independence from each other."

Fred and George stared at her with wide eyes that were brimming with tears. "We don't want independence! We want to stay together!"

"Okay, okay, please don't cry. Listen, I'm going to tell you something that I haven't told anyone... not even Charlie. But you have to promise to keep it a secret. Can you do that?" The twins nodded excitedly. "When I first went to Hogwarts and it was my turn to be sorted, the Sorting Hat had a hard time deciding which House to put me in."

Fred gasped. "Really?"

Veronica nodded. This was the first time she was reliving this memory, and it made her anxious just thinking about it. "Mhm. It had told me that I would fit well in any of the Houses, but it seemed to be leaning the most towards Slytherin." The two youngsters' eyes widened and jaws dropped. They had heard many stories from their parents and older siblings about Slytherin, so they were having a hard time believing Veronica could have been one. "I know. That was my exact reaction too. Charlie had told me all about Slytherin on our train ride to the school, and while I didn't think it was fair to assume that all Slytherins were evil, I knew that your brother believed that, and I was terrified that he wouldn't want to be my friend anymore if I was sorted into that House. So I begged the Sorting Hat not to put me there. I didn't specifically ask to be put in Ravenclaw, although it probably knew that's where I wanted to go. I only asked for it not to be Slytherin."

George was shocked. He had never heard of the Sorting Hat listening to a student before. "It really listened to you?"

Veronica nodded again. "It really did."

"You never told me that."