Sparks Fly || A George Weasley Story

Year 3: Perfect Prefect Percy

We had spent almost two hours out in the cold, either falling into the soft snow or having it flung at us the entire time. Naturally, that meant that we were covered, head to toe, in it. Clumps of it stuck in our hair, on our jumpers and to our shoes while small singular snowflakes held onto our eyelashes and eyebrows for dear life until they melted away into nothing. The most notable thing about the snow sticking to us, however, was just how unbearably cold we were.

I had lost feeling in my fingertips soon after Harry and Ron had been pelted with snowballs after their air assault on the twins and I, and the snow that had gone into my boots had quickly melted and my toes felt as though they had frozen together (I wasn't too convinced that they hadn't with the way I was feeling). I couldn't feel my nose on my face unless I was touching it with my hand and then it didn't even really feel like a nose, it just felt cold. I was completely frozen through.

I had told the boys that I would be heading back to my common room to get all warmed up before dinner, but they weren't having that. Especially not after they found out that all of my dormmates had left for the holidays. They absolutely refused to let me go sit there by myself, and I was a bit afraid to say no to them if I was being completely honest.

So here we were, slinking through the corridors and trudging up stairs, leaving a trail of snow and dead grass behind as we went. For a few moments, I felt bad knowing that someone would have to clean it up, but then I remembered the magic exists and with the wave of a wand, someone could have every staircase in the castle clean if they wanted.

We came to the painting of the Fat Lady, which I had never actually seen in person as I didn't really ever need to be on this side of the castle, and surprisingly never ended up here during one of my book fueled wanderings. She grinned at the boys until she caught sight of me.

"Trying to sneak in someone who isn't Gryffindor, huh boys?" She asked them, but never took her painted eyes off of me.

"We weren't planning on sneaking her anywhere." One of the twins said.

"Yeah, we were just going to bring her in, you know, in full sight of you and whoever may be in the common room." The other shrugged.

"Let's just hope it's not Percy." Ron sighed, "He'll be awful cross with us if he finds out we brought someone from another house in here."

"Don't worry about Perfect Prefect Percy, if he says anything to us about bringing in a friend, then it's simply because he's jealous that he doesn't have any." One of the twins laughed.

"There is no need to make fun of Percy, just because he takes his job a little too seriously," The Fat Lady said, trying to stifle her laughter.

"You'd think that he had been promoted to the Minister of Magic the way he walks about," a twin said.

"And he hasn't taken that bloody badge off once since he got it. I swear he sleeps in it." the other sighed.

"Well, whether Percy is inside or not, I need a password to let you in, oh and dear," she said, looking to me again while motioning that I cover my ears.

I clasped my hands over my ears so that I couldn't hear what they were saying. I didn't care to hear what the Gryffindor password was, besides, it would only help me over holiday and then they'd change it again anyway. I heard that the Gryffindor password is constantly changing. I honestly don't know how they keep up with it all the time. I had a hard enough time as a first year remembering which barrel to knock on.

I was drawn from my thoughts of how many times I had been doused in vinegar because I knocked the right pattern on the wrong barrel, by the portrait swinging open and revealing a rather dimly lit common room. I pulled my hands away from my ears and followed the four boys into their home away from home as the portrait swung closed behind us.