LUCY:

The twins never stopped talking the whole walk to the castle.

"Harry and Ron told us you stood up to Professor Snape in your very first lesson — "

"And that he told you that you don't belong in Gryffindor — "

"Which is obviously the biggest load of dragon dung we had ever heard — "

"If Neville is in Gryffindor, bless his fragile and easily frightened soul — "

"Then you definitely belong here too!"

"And then we heard from Percy that you had sleepwalked into the Forbidden Forest — "

"And honestly, we were surprised at first — "

"I mean, your brother is so perfect — "

"Never gets in trouble, never does anything unexpected — "

"Honestly, we feel guilty ever pranking him because he's just such a good chap — "

"We almost couldn't believe it was actually you, a Diggory, who wandered into the Forbidden Forest — "

"But then, we remembered! Lucy Diggory, the one who stood up to Snape!"

"We kept trying to visit you in the Hospital Wing, but only Percy and Cedric were allowed in."

"Then we heard you were in your dormitory — "

"And tried to get Hermione to convince you to come down so we could congratulate you on not dying and all that — "

"But she said you were busy studying and told us we would be a distraction! The nerve! Us, a distraction?"

"We had about given up hope of ever getting to talk to the elusive Lucy Diggory, Sleepwalker Extraordinaire — "

"Then all of a sudden, there you were, watching our practice!"

"And then there you were, shooting up into the sky!"

"Oliver didn't strap one of the Bludgers properly, so when it realized someone was still on a broom — "

"Off it went! Chasing you!"

"The two of us jumped on our brooms and started chasing it — "

"But we were so surprised we almost didn't catch it!"

"But then we did, and we looked up, and there you were — "

"Doing a Wronski Feint in reverse!" they finished in perfect unison.

I laughed. "Now that you mention it, that was pretty similar to a reversed Wronski. I've always been too afraid to attempt a real one. Have you tried yet, Harry?"

"What's a Wronski Feint?" he asked, looking equal parts baffled and amused by the rapid-fire conversation.

"It's one of the boldest Quidditch plays there is," I explained, gesturing with my hands to illustrate my point. "If you remind me, I'll show you the edition of Seeker Weekly where they did a whole feature on it. Basically, the Seeker of one team pretends to see the Snitch waaaaay down here, then he or she dives straight downward, hoping the other Seeker follows them. Then, right before they would hit the ground, the Seeker shoots back up into the air... at least hypothetically. If you're not fast enough, you faceplant into the ground."

He winced. "Has anyone ever died doing that?"

"Probably!"

At that point, we had reached the Great Hall. Harry and I exchanged a look when we saw that Ron was sitting by himself, glaring daggers at Hermione, who was sitting between Lavender and Parvati, who were glaring daggers at Ron.

"I think I'm going to sit with Ron," Harry said, "but you three have fun."

"Yeah, good luck with that," I replied, assessing the situation. "I think I'll stay out of this one."

I found myself wedged between the twins. They sure did have a lot to say, and often at the same time. Harry and Ron came to sit with us after a couple of minutes.

"Got tired of the glaring," Ron grumbled. "But welcome back, Lucy," he added in a much happier tone, consoling himself with a massive bite of mashed potatoes.

"Fair enough," I said with a shrug after I downed a rather large spoonful of my own. "And thanks! Good to be here."

"You do know the best way to eat mashed potatoes, right, Lucy?" the twin on my right asked. I still couldn't quite tell them apart, but I was trying.

I glanced over at his plate and sighed. "Don't tell me that's pumpkin juice."

"It is!" the twin on my left exclaimed. He had done the same to his mashed potatoes. "Fred and I swear by it. Try it!"

"No, don't," Ron moaned. "Spare yourself."

I hesitated.

"You know you're curious now," Fred said. "You've got to try it."

I screwed up my face. "Do I really have to?"

"Well, no." George shrugged, trying to look innocent and passive. "But you really should. It's revolutionary."

I glanced toward Harry, who merely laughed at my predicament.

"Alright, alright, fine," I relented. I reached for my goblet and drizzled a small amount of pumpkin juice over my mashed potatoes. It was at this moment Percy Weasley glanced over.

"Are you two poisoning the minds of the first years?" he asked in his best prefect voice, but I detected a hint of amusement lying beneath it.

"Only one way to find out!" Fred crowed. "Try it, Little Diggs!"

"Little Diggs?" I asked.

"We'll figure out a better nickname," George said dismissively. "Just try it!"

I did. I swallowed and laughed. "That's actually really good!"

Percy smiled and rolled his eyes, returning to his conversation as Fred and George cheered.

The next morning at breakfast, I wedged myself between them again. "I couldn't sleep because I had a super important question for you two."

"Shoot!"

"Yeah, what is it?"

I wiped the smile from my face, assuming my best serious expression. "Do you pour pumpkin juice over pancakes, too?"

"Oh heavens no!" Fred (the one with the rounder face and wider smile, I had realized) exclaimed.

"You see, Lucy," George said, "pumpkin juice just makes the pancakes soggy. At that point, you may as well have pumpkin pancakes."

"Ah yes, of course, silly me," I replied. "How could I be so stupid? Enlighten me, though. What do you put on pancakes?"

"Butterbeer, of course!" they said in unison.

I furrowed my brow. "You lost me. Explain how it's better than pumpkin juice."

"You have to pour very small amounts of it, mind — "

"But a little bit goes a long way."

"It's best if it still has the foam on top, too."

I laughed. "Noted. I'll have to try that sometime."

"We couldn't sleep because we had questions for you, too."

"Oh? Humor me. They're about the Forbidden Forest, aren't they?"

They nodded excitedly. "We've only managed to sneak there a couple of times. What was it like?"

"I don't remember much, to be honest," I lied with a shrug. "But wait — you've gotten there? More than once? And lived to tell the tale?"

"We weren't there a terribly long time." Fred almost sounded disappointed. "One time, we had to waste a perfectly good Dungbomb to escape a Red Cap's hole."

"Dungbomb? What's a Dungbomb?"

Their jaws dropped in unison.

George was the first to recover from his shock. "That's a dangerous question to ask."

"Yeah," Fred agreed. "Now we have to demonstrate when you're least expecting it."

I cringed. "Sounds great. Is it something from Zonko's?"

"You bet! Best store out there!"

"Sounds like I need to go there someday."

George threw an arm around my shoulders. "Oh, Lucy, we have so much to teach you."

I giggled. "Might as well start now."

The two of them launched into an enthusiastic discussion of the many, many joke items sold at Zonko's.

"Sorry to cut you off, boys, but I should probably head off to History of Magic," I said as I rose. "But talk to you more later?"

"Sounds like a plan," George said with a nod. "We have a lot more to teach you."

"And be careful," Fred warned, glancing at his twin brother. "We haven't forgotten about that demonstration."

I smirked. "Neither have I. Don't you worry."

I slid into my seat next to Hermione at the last second, stepping over the game of Exploding Snap already happening in one of the aisles.

"Where have you been?" she hissed. "You were almost late!"

"But I wasn't," I replied with a smile. "I was just talking to Fred and George."

She sighed heavily and focused her attention on Professor Binns, who was sound asleep on his desk. I glanced over my shoulder at Harry and Ron to see if they had overheard our interaction. Harry offered a sympathetic shrug, while Ron shuffled through his bag for something.

"Hey, Lucy, do you want to see my Chocolate Frog cards?" the redhead asked. "I heard you collect them."

I nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, I do and I do! Who's your best card?"

"I've got two Artemesia Lufkins," he said, flashing one for emphasis. "How about you?"

"My best is probably Ptolemy," I replied with a shrug. "Got that one on Christmas last year."

"Lucky," he groaned. "I've never gotten that one, or Agrippa."

"I don't have Agrippa either," I sighed. "Cedric does, though. I hope he stops collecting them soon so I can have his."

"I wouldn't bet on it," Ron said with a smile. "Charlie still brags about his collection, and he's already graduated."

"Darn! Well, we'll have to just keep trying, I guess."

"Yeah, for sure. We need to help Harry start his collection, too!"

I nodded emphatically. "Definitely. I have plenty of duplicates I can give you to help you get started, Harry," I offered.

"Will you shut up?" Hermione snapped, whirling around in her seat. "I'm trying to pay attention."

Surely enough, Professor Binns had started teaching while we were talking, in such a monotone drone I had mistaken it as just a part of the general sounds of conversation already filling the classroom. Nobody took the class very seriously — Professor Binns was too boring. Hermione and I generally did, however, so I offered an apologetic look to Harry and Ron.

"We'll talk later," I said softly before turning around and dipping my quill into my inkwell. But Hermione wasn't done.

"Honestly, Lucy, I expected better from you," she whispered. "You know, I've heard your brother is a stellar student who always pays attention and never gets in trouble. But look at you! You're behind on notes and talking while a professor is trying to teach. About stupid cards, no less! What would Cedric say?"

She had struck a nerve, perhaps unknowingly, but it smarted nonetheless. I bit my lip and scrambled to catch up on the notes. She wasn't wrong.

What am I doing?

As soon as lunch came, I grabbed my bag and quickly made my way outside. I walked until I found a tree large enough to hide me from the castle and settled down with my Transfiguration textbook. It was my worst subject so far, and one of Cedric's best. If I wanted to be like Cedric, really wanted to be like him as I had always said, Hermione was right. I needed to act like it.

It was nearly time to head to class when two upside-down heads popped into my field of vision.

"Hi, Lucy!" Fred said.

"Want to hang out with us tonight?" George asked.

"Hopefully not literally?" I asked with a laugh, noticing that they were in fact hanging from the tree with their legs looped around a branch.

They shrugged.

"If that's what you want," George said nonchalantly, "but that's not exactly what we had in mind."

"What did you have in mind, may I ask?"

"Well, Skye wanted to ask you this question during lunch today, but since you weren't there, we volunteered to find you and ask ourselves. Alright, I'm getting down, this is uncomfortable." Fred swung down onto his feet, and George soon followed suit. "Anyway! Skye said she wanted you to come down to the Pitch tonight after Hufflepuff practices. You see, we don't have any reserve players, and she wants to see how you'd hold up with different positions."

"Really?" I fought to keep my voice even, but my excitement was skyrocketing.

They nodded excitedly.

"We weren't the only ones impressed last night," George said.

I bit my lip. "Only problem is that I don't have my own broom since I'm a first-year, Harry's the only exception. I'd have to borrow someone's."

"That won't be a problem," Fred said. "You can just have the broom of whoever you're subbing in for, if you even ever have to sub in."

"And for tonight, you can borrow one of ours," George offered. "Or your brother's, since Hufflepuff will be practicing. His is probably better anyway."

I nodded. "I'll ask him during dinner." I couldn't hold back a giggle. "Merlin! All this just because Oliver Wood didn't strap the Bludger in properly."

"Just between us, mate, he might have done it on purpose," Fred muttered. "He's fixing to be Quidditch captain next year, and he's as competitive as Skye Parkin herself. He knew you were a Diggory, so I reckon it was an impromptu test."

I felt my face growing hot. "Well then, let's hope I don't disappoint tonight."

🩵

Skye had a rigorous set of drills for me. The whole team had come out, so I transitioned back and forth between the different positions during the scrimmage. My weakest position by far was Beater, since Cedric and I had never owned bats or Bludgers, but since Fred and George were such strong players, nobody was too concerned. Seeker wasn't the best, either, but since even Harry had been struggling to find the Snitch, nobody was too concerned about that either.

Chaser was my favorite, and my best. It had always been the position I dreamed of playing.

"Stop going easy on me!" I shouted at one point to Fred as he intentionally sent a Bludger far over my head. "Nobody else will! Especially not Slytherin!"

"You asked for it, then!" he laughed, chasing the Bludger and winding up for round two.

Angelina Johnson passed me the Quaffle as soon as Fred let the Bludger rip. I rolled out of its way, clutching the Quaffle tight to my body, and made my way to the goal hoops, sending the ball flying clean through.

"Nice one!" Skye called. "Take his spot as Keeper now!"

I nodded, swinging my broom around and tightening Cedric's borrowed helmet under my chin. I had borrowed everything from him, from the broom to the pads to the helmet, so everything was rather large on me. Just the same, I shot him a grin — he had insisted upon watching it all from the stands. He flashed a thumbs-up in response, beaming with pride. I hunched myself over my broom and watched the play unfolding before me.

George tried to be sneaky and hit a Bludger my way, but I caught it squarely and chucked it back at him. He grinned and beat it away toward the Chasers, who were closing in on the goal hoops.

Skye. Angelina. Skye. Alicia. Angelina. Skye.

Skye wound up and sent the Quaffle flying towards me. I reached out and kicked it away, right back at her. She smiled, somewhat stunned, as she caught it.

"Not bad, kid," she called. "You're done. Everyone, fly down!"

We congregated in the center of the Pitch, breathless at first. I took my helmet off, and my sweat-soaked braids flopped against my neck.

Skye surveyed the team, smirking. "What do you think? Have we got ourselves a reserve player?"

When everyone nodded, I smiled so hard I thought my face would tear open.

"It's settled, then." She turned to me, grinning. "Welcome to the team, kid. We'll need you to come to every other practice, and we'll do what we did just now, swapping you out for different positions. But," she said, her voice growing serious as she addressed the group again, "we need to keep this hush, unlike what happened with Harry. The whole bloody school knows about him. But Lucy? She has to be our secret weapon. She won't see any action this year anyway, unless someone is stupid enough to get hurt, or die, or anything like that. Any questions?"

Nobody asked any, so she dismissed us. Cedric was waiting outside the changing rooms, and I practically jumped into his arms in my excitement.

"I'm the reserve player! I did it, Cedric, I did it!"

"I knew you could, Lu!" he replied, picking me up easily, gear and all, and swinging me in a circle. He set me down, smiling. His smile was genuine, but I noticed something empty in his eyes. He looked troubled. "I'm so proud!"

"Thanks for loaning me all of your stuff on such short notice," I said, handing him the broom. "Give me two minutes to change, then you can have it back."

"Just put it in my locker. We can share a locker until you get your own broom. Are you going to talk to Professor McGonagall about it?"

I shook my head. "If I end up playing, I'll borrow the broom of whoever's missing, as long as you don't mind if I borrow your broom for practices with everyone."

"I don't mind at all. I'm just proud of you, Lu, I know you love Quidditch more than just about anything else."

I nodded emphatically. "This is the best thing to happen here so far."

"Hey, Lucy!" a voice called from behind me. I turned to see the twins coming toward us. "Want to head up to the castle with us?"

"In a minute!" I shouted back. "Aren't you two changing?"

They exchanged a glance and shrugged.

I wrinkled my nose. "Ew. Well, I'm going to! I'll be right there." I turned back to my brother. "See you tomorrow, Ced."

"See you, Gryffindor Reserve!"

"Oh, and Skye wants it to be a secret," I said as he walked away.

"My lips are sealed!" he called over his shoulder.

I giggled and disappeared into the tent to change before heading back to the castle with the twins, who never once stopped chattering about how fun that practice had been.

"But remember I'm a secret," I said softly as we climbed the stairs.

"Oh, of course," they said in unison.

I laughed. "You two do that a lot, don't you?"

They shrugged in sync, smirking. "Sometimes," they said, once again in unison.

That night, I was just about the happiest I had been since arriving at Hogwarts. Hermione's comment had been forgotten in the euphoric adrenaline of the evening.

The next morning, however, that euphoria was replaced in an instant when an owl dropped a letter on my empty plate at breakfast. Fred and George weren't there yet, and Hermione was still upset with me, so I was sitting by myself. I scanned it quickly, my heart sinking lower with every word.

Dear Lucy,
   Now that you have recovered, your mother and I will be coming to Hogwarts tomorrow to speak with the Headmaster about the most recent incident. We are afraid it is as we have feared since your very first transformation as a child — it seems Hogwarts is simply too dangerous for you, and you are too dangerous for Hogwarts. Cedric will be in attendance as well. We have decided that the meeting will take place after your last class tomorrow.
   Best regards, Dad

I struggled to keep my composure. What did my parents have in mind?

It wasn't my fault. I had been attacked. I hadn't done anything wrong.

"What's that, Lucy?"

"Fan mail already?"

I crumpled the letter in my hands in panic, offering a false smile to the twins as they sat on either side of me. "It's nothing. Sorry, I need to go talk to my brother."

I jumped up and walked to the Hufflepuff table before they could ask any questions. I tapped Cedric on the shoulder, and the second he saw my face, he seemed to understand.

"Did you get a letter?" he asked. I nodded, involuntary tears swelling in my eyes. He grabbed a piece of toast off of his plate and took me by the shoulder. "Let's go talk in private."

I didn't say a word until we had reached the bench where I had my wolfsbane potion. There, I let a tear spill down my cheek. "Are they angry, Cedric?"

"What? No, no, of course not, Lucy."

"Then why are they coming?" I was crying at that point. "What do they intend to accomplish?"

"I don't know, I'm sorry, but I'm sure it will all work out."

"Will I need to leave?"

He shook his head firmly. "I won't let that happen."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

I trusted Cedric, but I still couldn't shake the dark clouds of anxiety that hovered over my head all day. I dismissed Fred and George's concerns by simply saying that my parents were coming to talk about the Forbidden Forest incident and laughed in all of the right places in the conversation, but my heart wasn't in it. It wasn't surprising when I couldn't fall asleep that night. Sometime after midnight, I gave up and wandered out to the common room. It still hurt somewhat to walk, so I opted for a window instead of trying to get all the way to the courtyard. The sky was somewhat overcast, but a couple of patches of stars still shone through. I let my mind wander, wondering what it would be like to walk on top of the clouds and see nothing but sky and clouds for forever.

"Lucy?"

I turned to see the twins halfway to the portait hole. "What are you doing awake?"

"What are you doing awake?" George asked.

"I asked first."

"I asked second."

"And I'll ask third," Fred interjected. "What are you doing awake? There, two questions beats one, so now you have to answer first."

"I couldn't sleep," I said, smirking because I knew they wanted a more interesting answer. "Your turn!"

"We were, uh, just... going for a walk?"

I gasped. "You were on your way to prank someone, weren't you?"

They exchanged a glance.

"I knew it!" I jumped up from the window seat. "Who were you pranking? Can I come?"

"Oh, uh, well," George stammered. "Maybe we shouldn't head out after all, seeing as you're troubled by something. Why couldn't you sleep?"

"Who cares?" I smiled. "This will be much more fun than stargazing. Where are we going?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Fred said, holding his hands up. "There is no 'we.' George and I will just do this tomorrow night. For now, want to talk about why you can't sleep?"

"No, why would I want to talk about that? Who were you planning to prank?"

"Nobody."

"Oh, so you were just scouting for a place to set up a prank?"

George nodded after a moment's hesitation. "But that can wait until tomorrow, honestly, I don't even really feel like sneaking out anymore. I'd hate to get you in trouble if you got caught with us."

"Yeah," Fred piped up. "You see, we're experts when it comes to sneaking around, and we would hate to get you in trouble the night before your parents come. Or the morning of, as is probably the case."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, I'm the perfect person to bring along with you. I got out to the Forbidden Forest, didn't I?"

"You mean, you didn't sleepwalk?"

I hesitated. That was enough of an answer for them.

The twins exchanged a look I couldn't read. "Wicked."

"No! It's not — I didn't — "

"Don't worry, Lucy, your secret's safe with us," Fred said, winking.

George nodded. "Trust us, of all people; we'd never snitch."

"Do you want to come with us? We're trying to think of a good corridor to plant a Dungbomb in."

I struggled to find words to say. But I really did want to go out with them. I figured it would be a good distraction from whatever tomorrow held. I smiled. "I'd love to go with you. But maybe you two should follow me."

They cocked their heads. "Why?"

I smirked. "If I'm sleepwalking through the corridors and you happened to see me leave, wouldn't it be the decent thing to do if you followed me and tried to bring me back to the common room?"

Slow grins spread across their faces.

"You know, Lucy," Fred said, "for someone who's never been to Zonko's, you sure do have a brilliant mind for things like this. Let's go."

It was another hour before I finally fell asleep that night, but when I passed into my dream world, the meeting with Professor Dumbledore was the furthest thing from my mind.

The second Professor Dumbledore said Cedric and I were free to go, I barely made it to the door before I began to sprint away from everything and everyone.

"Lucy, where are you going?" Cedric called after me.

"Please don't follow me!" I called back, running faster.

I ran all the way to the Quidditch stands and hid in the stairwell, finally letting all of my emotions manifest in the form of tears. Fragments of the meeting replayed in my mind, like Quidditch plays through a pair of Omnioculars.

My father's angry voice. "If the potions brewed here are ineffective, why should she stay? She belongs at home with her mother and myself!"

"Mr. Diggory, Professor Snape is the most careful man I have ever met, and he worked alongside one of the most brilliant Potioneers to ever pass through this school, Miss Penny Haywood. She was a friend of Cedric's, I believe. Lucy said the potion had the intended effects — she was thinking clearly and in full control. The only unfortunate side effects were as a result of her dittany allergy. If you don't mind, Mr. Diggory, I have a question of my own: why would this potion have caused such adverse effects when you claimed she had been taking it for years with better success?"

"I've been wondering the same thing," Cedric admitted. "I can confirm she's taken it before with success, so I'm not quite sure why we didn't know of her dittany allergy sooner."

Dad had grown visibly upset and looked to my mum for help, but she kept her face a careful blank.

My mind skipped ahead a couple more minutes of the meeting.

"What about the next transformation? And the one after that, and the one after that? How can we sleep at night knowing Lucy is so far away and in such danger?"

"Mr. Diggory, we have all already apologized for the harm done to your daughter, but I can assure you it will not happen again. She can choose to spend her transformations in the Shrieking Shack. Madam Pomfrey will escort her to the entrance to the tunnel that leads to the Shrieking Shack, and she will meet her there again when the sun rises. The Shrieking Shack is very safe, I assure you. A previous student transformed there all seven years without incident, and we would be happy to do so again."

"But what if she wants to come home? You do want to come home, don't you?"

I regretted the way I flinched under my dad's gaze as I shook my head.

"Well, why not?"

I regretted the way I had struggled to find my voice.

"I'm not as afraid as you are, Dad."

"Not as afraid!" he spluttered. "I fear with good reason, Lucy Everlin Diggory! You were nearly killed!"

"Then shouldn't it be my decision to make?"

"Not when you're making the wrong decision! I am your father!"

"And I'm her brother," Cedric said, reaching for my hand, which I eagerly accepted. "And I think Lucy should make her own decision."

"What do you know about this?" Dad snapped, his words dripping with venom. "Are you the magical creatures expert?"

"No," he answered softly, "I'm not, but I do love my sister, and I've seen firsthand how happy she is here."

"Were you not happy at home?" Dad's gaze was back on me.

"I was." I held tighter to Cedric's hand. "But I'm happy here, with Cedric. With my friends."

"Have you heard the fantastic news yet, Mr. Diggory?" Professor McGonagall inquired suddenly.

Dad blinked and backed away from Cedric and I, turning to face her. "Pardon?"

"Just Monday night, Lucy was added to the Gryffindor roster as a reserve player, for any position."

"Oh, um..." He paused. Dad had never been that much of a Quidditch fan, but he knew Cedric was. Every professional match we had gone to was because Cedric had asked. Dad could never say no to Cedric. "I hadn't heard. That's great."

But it wasn't enough. He kept arguing that I didn't belong at Hogwarts. When it was proven that Hogwarts was not too dangerous for me, he changed tracks and began to argue I was too dangerous for Hogwarts.

"Why should Lucy have to choose between poisoning herself with dittany or endangering her classmates when she can come home and have a potion that works and no one to endanger?"

"If you tell us how her potion at home is brewed, we will replicate it as closely as possible."

He had frozen in his tracks again. "I don't know how it is brewed differently."

"Additionally," Professor Dumbledore continued, "she will pose no danger to her classmates from the Shrieking Shack. It worked for seven years for a prior student without incident, and I have faith that the same will be true for Lucy, potion or no potion."

My dad had nothing to say to that.

It was eventually decided that I would not take the wolfsbane potion for the month of October since I was still recovering. Because I wasn't taking the potion, I would spend the night of the full moon in the Shrieking Shack.

"You are free to go, Lucy and Cedric," Professor Dumbledore said when we had all agreed. "Professor McGonagall and I will see your parents off castle grounds."

"If one more thing goes wrong, Lucy, there will be no meeting. Your mother and I will bring you home ourselves, no questions asked and no arguments allowed."

I was still a Hogwarts student, but for how long? I couldn't go home, not anymore. Not now that I was finally feeling, well... like I was a part of something great. Or could I?

Maybe my dad was right. Maybe I was a danger.

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the door to the staircase opening.

"Lucy?"

I glanced up to see two heads of red hair start climbing up the stairs. I wiped my eyes quickly and cleared my throat.

"What's wrong?" George asked the second he saw me.

"Yeah, what happened?" Fred echoed as they sat on either side of me.

I rested my chin in my hand. "Have you ever heard of a witch being homeschooled before?"

"What? No, that won't happen."

"Yeah, we won't let that happen."

"We should brew polyjuice potion so that if anybody comes to take you away, they won't know which one of us to take!"

I raised an eyebrow. "What's polyjuice potion?"

"Oh, we've wanted to brew it for years, it would sure make a brilliant prank. Basically, if you drink the potion and it has, say, a strand of someone's hair inside it, you transform into that person temporarily."

"I mean, Fred and I cause enough confusion by there being two of us. Can you imagine how fun it would be to have seven or twelve or twenty-three of us running around? I bet you every professor would have a heart attack."

I giggled. "So if someone tried to take me home, you'd turn into me?"

They nodded emphatically.

"Besides, you can't leave now," Fred said, "we had a question for you. A proposal, really."

"A proposal? I'm listening."

"Well," George began, "Freddie and I have been wanting to turn the Gryffindor common room into a haunted house for Halloween since we were first-years, but we haven't been allowed to. But Percy said a very reluctant yes this year, and we were wondering if you'd like to help us."

"We've noticed that Hermione and Harry and Ron seem to be caught in some sort of feud," Fred added, "so if you'd like people to hang out with, we aren't the best option, but we're available."

"Oh, shut up, I've had a lot of fun with you two," I said. "You're sure you wouldn't mind a dumb little first-year helping?"

"Only if that 'dumb little first-year' is you! Lucy Diggory, the one who snuck into the Forbidden Forest and fought a... well, what did you fight?"

I sighed. "It's pointless trying to keep a secret from you two. I don't understand how you keep finding me no matter where I go. Well, I don't know what I fought, exactly. Some type of cloaked figure. I tried running, but whoever it was caught up to me, and cast a nonverbal spell on me. I..." I bit my lip. "If anything like that happens again, my parents said they will just take me away on the spot, and I fear they would just hide me in the house, where nothing could ever get me again."

They absorbed my words in sympathetic silence.

"I'll tell you what, Lucy," George said after a moment. "If you help us with the haunted house, we'll help teach you some defensive spells so that if you ever, ah, sleepwalk again and get into trouble, you'll be able to stand up for yourself."

"And I know what you're probably thinking," Fred cut in quickly. "What would we know about defensive spells? Well... neither of us like talking about the circumstances surrounding it, but our first year, we joined a secret organization of sorts. Adalyn Benson started it, and we all learned defensive spells and the like from each other. And we'd love to help you learn the same things."

"What do you say, Lu?" George asked, grinning. "Do we have a deal? You help with the haunted house, we help you learn how to better defend yourself?"

I smiled back. "Deal."