Graceful Insanity- Chap. 3

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Ron rolls over in bed, trying to ignore the sunlight pouring through his opened bed curtains. Mentally, he scolds himself for leaving them open the night before. It's just too early…

He can hear the other boys in his dorm waking up and going through their morning procedures. ("Just five more minutes, Mum…" "Ladies, ladies…there's enough of me to go around…WHA? A dream! Curses!")

"I wonder if Neville's managed to lose his toad yet," he thinks sleepily, turning over onto his other side to avoid the light. He doesn't have to wait long for the answer. Ron is suddenly jolted-or rather jumped-awake as Neville throws himself across the bed. "AAAAAArrrrrh!" Ron screams, abruptly sitting up. "NEVILLE …what?!"

Neville grins sheepishly as he lifts his hand from the where it's stretched to the opposite side of Ron's bed. "I found Trevor," he says, displaying a rather disgruntled toad.

Ron groans and kicks Neville to the floor. "What a wake-up," he complains. "I think that, when Hermione visited this summer, I prefer her nagging to being ambushed."

Neville grins once again, even broader, irritating Ron, so he heaves himself up out of bed and walks to the bathroom down the hall to brush his teeth.

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Meanwhile, Hermione struggles to read a textbook propped up against a vanity while brushing the great mass of tangles known as her hair. She's just not a multi-tasker, unlike Gala, who's managing easily to read several books and twist her hair into two little French braids at the same time.

As soon as she's done with her hair, she pulls out her handy-dandy (Oy, too much "Blues Clues"…) purse and dumps the entire contents over the top of the vanity, knocking half the books off. Hermione raises an eyebrow as she looks down at the piles of make-up and nail polish that have crowded onto her side. She glances over at Gabbi, who just shrugs. Whatever. Then, Gabbi reaches down among the many eye-liner pencils and compacts and somehow manages to extract a little bottle of lip-gloss, which she quickly runs over her mouth before giving her hair a final pat and going to search her backpack for something to wear before pulling on one of Hermione's robes.

The other girls in the Gryffindor fifth dormitory have, of course, taken notice of Gabbi and Gala & questioned, rather bluntly, as to just who they are and whose beds they are going to sleep in, unless they're planning on conjuring them up on their own. Hermione's managed to cover up for them marvelously by telling the other girls (in very low whispers at the back of the bathroom so to be sure that everyone in Gryffindor Tower will know the next morning) that Gabbi and Gala's parents have died recently and that they've come all the way from America just to escape their haunted past, so would everybody please mind not to say anything that might upset them & bring back those sad memories? It's working so far.

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About twenty minutes later, down in the common room, Harry checks the new watch her got for his birthday for the fifth time before giving an anxious glance to the stairway that leads to the girl's dormitory. Gabbi and Gala * still * haven't come down.

Hermione's perched up on the armrest of Ron' chair, telling him a very cute story about how Gala tried to put make-up on her, which explains why she came tearing down the hallway like a madman, scaring her friends half to death. ("I thought she was going to use the whole lipstick tube on me!")

Fred takes a glance at Harry's watch (his, he lost) and, after doing a double take, says to Hermione, "I think you better go check on those girls.

They're taking forever!"

"Okay." Hermione, somewhat reluctantly, pushes herself off the armrest and heads over to her dorm, only to find Gala and Gabbi vainly trying to cram all the make-up back into Gala's one small purse.

Gala looks up as Hermione walks in the door. "Oh, hi," she says. "Could you give me a hand w/ this thing?

Hermione crosses her arms and purses her lips in annoyance. To think they kept them waiting all that time just for this! Ron must be starving by now…

Hastily, without a word, she yanks the purse from Gala's hands, pulls out her wand, and mutters a spell. Then, she hands it back to Gala looking calmed.

"Hey- what'd you do?" Gala asks, staring at it cautiously.

Gabbi reaches inside tentatively. "Gala- the purse-it has no bottom!"

"You're kidding!" Gala puts her hand inside it too, and sure enough, she finds that the purse is, indeed, bottomless.

"Come on!" says Hermione, impatiently. "They're waiting for us!"

"Oh; they are?" Gabbi and Gala dump all the make-up back into the renovated purse, and race each other down the hall, Hermione trailing behind them, her arms still crossed in frustration.

"Fred and Ron already split," Harry explains as the girls show up, surprised to see only two boys waiting at the foot of the stairs.

"Typical Ron," Hermione mutters, but follows the others to the Great Hall in silence.

There, they eat with the few stragglers that woke up late, and, though Gabbi and Draco take turns shooting death glares at each other, and Gala playfully sticks her tongue out at him, breakfast passes uneventfully.

Hurrying down the vast corridors of Hogwarts to his next class- Defense Against the Dark Arts- Harry wonders whether Gabbi and Gala will be able to get back to Gryffindor Tower all right. But all thoughts of that are wiped out of his mind as Ron wonders out loud, "Who's going to be our Defense Against Dark Arts teacher this year?"

Hermione adds to that, "I didn't see anybody new at the staff table last night, so whoever it is mustn't be very punctual. Perhaps Dumbledore already fired him."

"No," says Harry. "Dumbledore wouldn't do a thing like that. And, besides, Hermione, Ron, has it ever occurred to either of you that there just might not * be * a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher this year?"

They all fall silent, thinking about this. Finally, upon reaching the classroom, Hermione says in her bossiest voice, "Okay. On the count of three, let's walk in. One…two…three!"

Hermione yanks open the door and all of them dash in, eyes scanning the room for any unfamiliar objects & of course, their new teacher. But, besides their fellow classmates, there's nobody there.

"Hey! Where's our teacher?" Ron asks, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Seamus, sitting on a nearby desk, answers, "Who cares? Maybe there isn't one this year. Or maybe he's just late or chickened out at the last minute." The Defense Against the Darks Arts job is said to be cursed.

"Seamus!" Dean calls from across the room. "Catch this!" Using his wand, he sends a parchment-made airplane flying towards his friend, emitting sparks along the way, but it goes too far and is about to hit the door when a long thin hand intercepts it, and a young woman steps inside the classroom.

Everyone freezes on spot. The woman, not even bothering to pretend that she doesn't notice their stares walks to her desk & sets a large heavy briefcase on top of it. Tossing her long red hair over a shoulder, she hitches her navy blue robes up to her knees and, using the chair as a stool, climbs up on top of her desk. The class is shocked.

"Er….Professor?" Hermione timidly raises a hand.

"Yes?" The teacher's eyes fix themselves on her student, intent & ready for whatever she might have to say.

"My name is Hermione Granger. Would you like us all to sit on our desks?"

"Why yes, I would. Thank you Miss Granger. And, my name is Miss Aoide." She reaches into her briefcase and pulls out a short, thick wand. Harry squints at it, trying to see the label, but there is none. Without having to recite any spells, Miss Aoide neatly writes her name in the air above her head, then lets it go around the classroom several times before finally settling down, folded, inside her briefcase. By this time, everyone else has perched themselves onto a desk and some of them are holding back laughs. Hermione looks a bit disapproving, but says nothing.

Miss Aoide lifts out a stack of leather-bound books from her briefcase and carefully opens one, wrinkling her nose as dust pours out. She gently sweeps some of it onto the floor, then flips the pages (emitting a cloud of dust that pretty much obscures her) until reaching a certain one, then stops, begins to read out loud; "Wizard scientists have long puzzled over magic its origins. Since the early days of our kind, we've learned to put it to use for ourselves, but only recently have we actually come close to understanding it." She closes the book w/ a snap. "This year, I have been hired to teach you kids about the different kinds of magic how we can most efficiently put it to work for ourselves. If-" She is cut off by Parvati.

"But I thought this was Defense Against the Dark Arts, not 'Study of Magic.'"

Miss Aoide lets out an impatient sigh. "As I was about to say, Miss Patil, if we can understand how the magic we are using works, we can control it better. By the end of this year, you will be able to efficiently create more powerful spells than before and move on to higher levels of spellwork faster. This will, no doubt, increase your capability of performing defense spells, which will also be a major part of this curriculum. Now, any questions?" As soon as she says this, at least 50 hands shoot up in the air, and it takes the rest of the class period to call on them all.

Leaving the class, Hermione looks puzzled, an unusual sight during school hours, and Ron notices. "Hey bookworm- what dares to escape your vast understanding?"

Hermione gives a small I'm-a-teenage-girl-and-you-simply-won't-understand-but-I'm-going-to-tell-you-anyway sigh and smoothes out an invisible wrinkle in her robes before answering. "It's Miss Aoide- there's something not right about her. I dunno what it is, but I keep getting this feeling that there's way more to her than we're supposed to know, like with Moody.

"Hhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmm….That's odd," says Harry. "I feel the same way too- about females in general. And to be honest, I don't want to know any more than I already do."

"Yeah," agrees Ron. "Girls are so mysterious. Once you think you actually know them, they turn around and do something that surprises you. I-"

"Ahem!" Hermione interrupts the conversation. "Believe it or not, boys, I myself am a girl and I would prefer it that you study animal magnetism on your own. Okay?"

"Fine." Ron grins down at Hermione & ruffles her hair like she's a four-year-old. "We'll only discuss homework and other important things while you're around."

"Thank you," Hermione replies, her voice slightly sarcastic. "Your efforts are greatly appreciated."

Ron and Harry laugh, and soon, Hermione joins in, so by the time they get to Potions class, not even Snape's cold glares can keep them from smiling.

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Meanwhile, Gabbi and Gala rampage Gryffindor Tower…

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By the time Hermione, Ron, and Harry come up to inform Gabbi and Gala of lunch, the fifth year girls' dormitory looks like a heard of Hippogriffs came through. As the trio walk in, they stop in total confusion. Ron can do no more than raise one eyebrow and scratch his head at Gala who is bouncing on the bed, pretending to be a flying tortilla. Harry stares at them both of them in a kind of wonder, and Hermione sighs with frustration.

"C'm on!" Ron says, "It's time for lunch." But, they don't hear and continue their activities until Lavender, looking nothing short of malevolent, appears in the doorway.

Slowly and deliberately, Lavender walks towards the bed, glowering coldly at Gala, who quickly stops her bouncing. Gabbi, startled by the sudden silence of the room, glances up from the book she's reading (Hogwarts, A History,) looks back down casually, freezes, looks back up, and dives under Hermione's bed, book and all.

Gala slowly begins to step off the bed, cautiously eyeing Lavender, whose icy expression holds a cruel smile, completely unlike her normal, sweet self. Hermione almost can't believe that her roommate could be so mean, but try as she might to move or intervene, Hermione finds rooted to the spot.

And then, it happens. Gala, too busy watching Lavender to really pay attention, catches hold of a blanket with her foot and begins to fall. Lavender whips out a wand and catches Gala lightly in a bubble just before she hits the floor. The bubble begins to rise, higher and higher until it is just above Hermione's head, Gala looking very confused and even more frightened than ever inside. Frantically, she starts pounding the thin, translucent walls, but it is to no avail. The bubble might as well be made of brick.

Harry closes his eyes in pain, trying to ignoring the intense burning of his scar. What does this mean?! He wants more than ever to move, to do something, for to stand there and watch but not be able to do anything is terrifying, but his limbs won't move. Ron and Hermione are in the same condition as him, but neither know what he is going through. It's the scar. The pain continues, becoming more intense, until, from Harry's forehead, there emits a hot bright white. But, it is Gala's scream that breaks the spell.

Nobody knows how, with the kind of magic that's in control of the room, Gabbi manages to jump out from under the bed, screaming like mad. Her hand on the book, she pauses just a moment to take in a breath of air before throwing it with all her might at Lavender. She has no idea as to just what she's doing, but instinct tells her it'll ward the enemy away. And, surprisingly, it does. The book hits Lavender neatly on the cheekbone and breaks her concentration. For a split second, all is still. Even the air is motionless. And, as if to relieve itself from the half second of stillness, everything lets go. Harry, Hermione, and Ron can feel the power previously binding them let go and they collapse under the sudden weight of themselves. The bubble holding Gala up bursts and she falls to the ground with a sickening crash, the pieces cutting into her legs, blood splattering everywhere.

Gabbi completely loses it for a moment, but she finally opens her eyes again to reveal a dreadful scene. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Gala are all slumped against each other, covered in cuts from the broken bubble, whose shards are spread across the floor.

Lavender, standing the midst of it all, looks vaguely annoyed, and almost sad at the same time. She takes a moment to pull a small sundial in a chain from around her neck & her face turned from evil to horrified. She muttered a stream of obscenities, then everyone began to notice and something strange, as in stranger than usual. Her face was re-shaping itself!!! The thin eyebrows thicken and angle out to resemble the blade of a curved dagger. She squeezes her eyes shut as they begin to change. "Lavender" takes a small vial of swirling reddish liquid and throws it to the ground, creating a loud explosion. A cloud of blood colored smoke fills the room and begins to encircle her until it appears to be a miniature cyclone.

And finally, with a final shriek, the person inside the twister disappears. The smokes continues swirling, but gets smaller and smaller until it is carried away by a light breeze, making its way through the room.

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Meanwhile, Fred and George under the order of Filch and Snape in detention. Fred is in the dungeon with Snape cleaning out used jars without the aid of magic. "Clean it again Weasley; I don't intend to put frog intestines in a jar that holds remnants of Skrewt feces."

Fred screws up his face at this unwanted remark.

"Careful now, Weasley, you wouldn't want your face to get stuck that way; would you?"

Unfortunately for Fred, it does. In the process of muttering the counter-curse with his misshapen mouth, he gets himself stuck in a full body bind.

Of course, this would be the moment when Snape could conveniently look at his wrist-sundial watch and say in his

I'm-trying-very-sarcastically-to-be-nice-voice "Oh look at the time I really must be on my way- ta ta Weasley."

George is having no better luck with Filch, of course. As students head down the halls and pass Filch's office, they can hear cries of, "Get me Down you bloody git!"

Graceful Insanity- Chap. 4

Gabbi paces the wreck of a dormitory restlessly and jabs her hands into the pockets of a pair of designer leather pants. She, Gala and the other girls have spent the better part of what was left of lunch, dinner, and the afternoon trying to clean it up, but the mess is overwhelming. Luckily, everyone's been very understanding, though neither Dumbledore nor any of the teachers know about it yet.

"Don't you ever wear anything that could be classified as normal?" Parvati asks dully, picking up a small shard of glass and tossing it away, looking disgusted.

"Like what?" Gabbi replies, still pacing and looking down at her outfit.

"Like…oh, say…robes or something. You don't need to show off yourself so much ya know. Hogwarts isn't a walking flesh exhibit…"

Diana Moon, another fifth year Gryffindor with pale white skin and curling locks of dark hair, cuts her off. "Lay off her, Parv- she had a tough day; we all have. And I don't think even Dumbledore could have prevented that attack."

"Yeah," puts in Hermione, who's sitting on her bed, using spellotape to mend the ripped pages of Hogwarts, a History. "What we need to concentrate on right now is how to solve our problem." She stands up. "I'm going to the library. Is anybody coming with me?"

Gala groans from her spot by the vanity, where she's been heavily supplied with cushions on which to lie on as she dabs globs of ointment over all of her cuts. "I don't think I have the strength to walk anywhere. Gaa-bii! C'm'ere- I need another backrub!"

Gabbi stops pacing & rolls her eyes emphatically. "Why don't you get your dear boyfriend- George- to do that for you? I'm not your personal slave, ya know."

Gala is about to respond when Ron walks in.

"Hey- Hermione," Ron says giving a sidelong glance to Gala. "Is there any of that healing cream left in the tube? Harry just used up the last of ours."

Hermione sets down her book and the roll of spellotape. "Lemme see," she answers, rummaging through the drawers of her nightstand. It doesn't take her long to find her tube of ointment in such a neatly organized drawer, and soon Ron's purpose for walking into a girl's dormitory completely out of the blue to ask for a tube of cream is fulfilled, but he doesn't seem anxious to leave. "Er, so I guess you've explained…the, er, incident, to them?" He motions towards Parvati and Diana.

"Well, we had to," Gabbi answers. "How else were we to explain the mess in here?" She pointedly bends down to pick up a piece of glass and tosses it into a trashcan, missing very badly so that she has to walk over and drop it in correctly, looking slightly sheepish.

Ron snorts and turns to leave the room. "Thanks for the cream," he calls over his shoulder to Hermione. "By the way…" he stops and turns around.

"Have any of you seen George or Fred anywhere?"

"I thought they had a detention," replies Parvati.

"Yeah, I even saw one of them- Fred, I think- walking towards the dungeons with Snape after dinner," adds Hermione.

"And knowing Snape," Diana says. "Poor Fred will be busy for a long time."

"Yeah…ok." Ron walks out the door.

"He's really gotta learn to knock," Gala comments after Ron is out of hearing range.

"Uh-huh," Hermione answers absentmindedly, going back to her book. "But I wouldn't really mind if he'd help us clean up this place. I've still got a lot of homework to do…ya know, being a Prefect and all."

Parvati sighs and rests her face in her hands. "I'm going to go check on Lavender," she says. "She's been hiding in Moaning Myrtle's bathroom ever since she found out that…monster took her shape. I think she feels guilty about it."

"Bye…" every one calls to Lavender's back as she walks out the door.

A few moments later, Sally-Anne Perks walks in, blushing and giggling to herself. She doesn't seem to notice as glass bits crunch under her boots, and falls to her bed with a graceless, dreamy sigh. Hermione rolls her eyes, Diana smiles knowingly, and Gala finds a box of chocolates in the deep recesses of her newly…er, enlarged purse and passes it around.

"Hey- Hermione?" Gabbi asks, cramming two very large chocolates into her mouth and stuffing a couple into her pockets. "Could you please perform that spell on my purse? I've got a lot of stuff in it too." She pauses, in thought. "Or, perhaps you could try the enlargement charm- ya know, just make it a little bigger on the outside. But, then there's always the gargantuan potion…" she trails off.

"Wait a second!" cries Hermione. "Did you really read my textbooks? How did you know all that…stuff?"

Gabbi blushes and cracks her knuckles and Gala laughs. "Gabbi, here," she says. "Is kinda a study freak. She's gotten straight A's in every school we've been to, and all her teachers just adore her. It's nice 'cuz I can always get help on my homework, but everyone wonders why I'm not the same."

Gabbi grins and pretends to be modest when she says, "Well, not straight A's. There was that one time when I made an 89.47%, but Mrs. Grisby was generous enough to round it up, even though-"

"Oh, shut up," Gala commands, but Hermione is ecstatic.

"Is what Gala's saying true?" she demands. "You're as serious about school as I am?"

"Yup."

"Wheehee!" Hermione pumps her fist into the air. "That'll show Ron! Gryffindor's can be studious too!" And with that, she leaps off the bed, and runs away, calling out something about sweet revenge over her shoulder, and slamming the door very hard.

"Well," says Diana. "That was interesting." And all Sally-Anne can say, after finally snapping out of her dreamy reverie, is "What just happened here?"

Late that night, Gabbi and Gala are the only girls still up, for by this time, everyone's finished (or gotten at least half-way through) their homework and gone to bed to rest and prepare for another day of classes. Crawling on her hands and knees, Gabbi picks up the remaining shards of glass while Gala holds out a heavy canvas book bag for her to put them in. Finally, the clock on the wall reads, "If you're up at this time, you're crazy," and Gabbi lets out a loud yawn. "Gala," she says. "I'm tired. Let's go to sleep."

But, all she's answered by is Gala's s chainsaw snores (not that Gabbi is any quieter.)

"She's got the right idea," Gabbi thinks to herself, smiling down at her sister. She gets up to change into her nightclothes, but no sooner has the star-patterned material slipped over her head when there is a knock at the door. In her mind, Gabbi battles the strong will of her curiosity against the cautiousness Hermione has warned her of, and, after a few more knocks, curiosity wins her over. "Who is it?" she asks, opening the door a crack so that light from the hallway streams in.

"Harry," someone answers, but there is nothing to be seen outside the room, save a small portrait of Professor McGonagall.

Gabbi, getting suspicious, braces herself for any kind of fight, and grabs Parvati's wand from where it's lying on the floor. "If you- whatever you are- are really Harry Potter, then which twin am I?" She grins triumphantly, knowing that the only people who have gotten close enough to her and Gala to notice their one small differences are Hermione, Harry, Ron, Fred, and George.

"You're Gabbi," comes the voice from the other side of the door. "Now, do you believe I'm Harry?" With that, he grabs the invisibility cloak off his back, and brings himself into full view.

Gabbi gasps, stumbling backward. "H-Harry! It is you!" Then, she recovers herself, and jumps up, hastily stuffing the wand into her nightshirt. "You scared me so bad!" she scolds. "I swear, if-"

Harry puts a finger to his lips and motions toward all the other sleeping girls. "You gotta be quiet," he says. "Or we'll get caught."

"All right." Gabbi crosses her arms in front of her chest and looks at Harry crossly. "But why did you come up here in the middle of the night?"

"George and Fred still haven't come back from their detentions," he answers. "Ron and I are worried about them, what with the uprising of Voldemort and all…" he trails off, lost in his own thoughts.

"Who's Voldemort anyway?" Gabbi asks. Harry and co. have conveniently "forgot" to explain the current terror of Voldemort and the fact that Harry Potter is a teenage celebrity.

"Oh…nobody," Harry answers, nervously rubbing his scar, and avoiding Gabbi's penetrating stare.

Gabbi raises her eyebrows, but chooses to say nothing else on the topic. "So, what are we gonna do about Fred and George?" she questions, changing the subject.

"Well," starts Harry, looking somewhat relieved. "Ron and I were hoping one of you would know. But, since you obviously don't, I'll just go back to my dorm and-"

"Hey!" Gabbi grabs Harry's arm as he begins to turn away. "You can't just leave now! Not after you've gotten me all worked up over this! What if I can't sleep tonight for fear that Fred and George are being consumed by a dragon at this very moment? It'll be all your fault, and I'll…I'll.." She cuts off her speech, trying to think up a threat harsh enough to scare an armed wizard.

Harry laughs and has to cover his mouth. "Well, then, what do you propose I do?"

"You," Gabbi says, choosing her words carefully and crossing her fingers behind her back. "Will take me with you around Hogwarts, and together, we'll look for Fred & George."

"And what will we do if we don't find them?" Harry asks.

"We'll drink a lot of coffee and be happy for our free tour!" comes a small voice from the floor.

Gabbi and Harry look down to see that Gala if fully awake, and grinning up at them cockily.

"You didn't honestly think you could do anything w/out me, did you Gabbi?" she asks and places her hands on her hips. "For shame, dear sister, for shame."

Gabbi sighs, but smiles happily. "So, then, I guess you'll just have to take the both of us," she says to Harry.

"I'll have to?" Harry pulls his cloak protectively towards him and takes a step back.

"Harry, boy, you really don't have a choice."

Fifteen minutes later, Gabbi clumsily stubs her toe onto one of the armors in Hogwarts' many vast corridors. "Damn," she mutters, rubbing the sore spot. Gala giggles, but stops suddenly as Peeves rounds a corner comes zooming towards them. The all freeze, waiting with bated breath as the mad poltergeist flies over their heads, singing a song about what sounds like bouncing rubber bagels. As soon as he's gone, Harry and Gabbi exhale sharply, but Gala giggles again and begins to repeat his song:

"Of all the delicacies for dessert,

You pick the one that is the worst;

Lemon drops & gumdrops, & raspberry tea,

But bouncing rubber bagels are for me!"

She and Gabbi fall to the floor in heaps of laughter, and Harry has to drag them into an empty classroom before they shut up.

"You've got to stay low!" he warns them. "If anybody else catches us, we'll be the ones in detention!" Gabbi and Gala calm down, and after a few minutes, they're back on track.

Pretty soon, they come across Filch, leading his well-despised cat, Mrs. Norris. "Do you see anything, my pretty?" he coos softly to her. "Is there anyone else we can put into detention besides that dratted Weasley? Good thing I have him chained up in my office; he can't make trouble for us now!"

Gabbi and Gala's eyes grow wide at the sound of this, but Harry only looks grim. "Great," he mutters after Filch & his cat are safely out of hearing distance. "Just great. McGonagall must've been so mad about the twins turning her hair turning purple that she let Filch do whatever he wanted with George."

Gala grins and tosses her red-brown hair mischievously. "So that's what they did. Sounds like a pretty good trick to me. I only wish I'd done it." Harry turns to stare at her, but Gabbi only grins, creating a perfect (well, almost perfect) mirror image between her and her sister.

After a few more minutes of walking, bumping, and most often, tripping down the halls, they finally reach Filch's office, which is locked tight. "Ok, hold on a second," Harry tells them. He pulls out his wand from his back pocket, but Gabbi gets in the way. "Let me try," she says.

"All right- but I don't think Muggles can do spells." Harry steps aside.

Gabbi takes Parvati's wand in hand and gulps. Then, slowly, pronouncing each word carefully, stressing each syllable correctly, she recites,

"Alohomora," and waits. What happens next is totally unexpected. Gabbi, her eyes growing wide with shock, begins to shrink. Not only that, but soft little reddish brown hairs sprout up all over her body. Her pupils turn to slits in the dim torchlight, and her fingernails meld into sharp claws until what once was Gabbi Julie Smith is now a cute, cuddly little kitten.

Harry would most certainly laugh, except for the bad occasion, and Gala just stares at her sister with mixed amusement & horror. "Well, there you go, Gabbi," she says. "That's what you get for showing off."

Harry bends down and picks Parvati's wand off the floor and pockets it. Then, with his own familiar comfortable rather smudged holly-made wand, he performs the unlocking spells & dashes into Filch's office. Gala, following behind, carries her sister in the palm of her hand. What they see inside makes them double over with laughter. George is indeed chained- to the ceiling by his ankles!

"Gosh- George!" calls Gala from below. "How'd you get up there?"

George makes a face and thrashes about in his chains, only making everyone else laugh even harder. "Could you give me a hand here?" he asks.

"Maybe," says Gala. "But, I think you're in greater need of a foot."

George is getting quite irritable, despite the merriment of his friends, but soon, they let him down, and now, four friends are barely hidden under the invisibility cloak.

"Hey," George asks, when safely on his feet. "What's up with the cat?"

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"Where are we going now?" Gala asks, shivering as they head down to the dungeons.

"To Snape's classroom. I figure Fred might be in there still."

"Does it have to be so cold?"

"Ssh! I think I hear someone coming." The three stand stock still as a pair of students comes walking up a nearby staircase, hand in hand, whispering furiously to each other, and pausing to laugh every few moments. Harry can recognize one of them as Morag MacDougal, a fifth year Slytherin, but the girl, he can't place. Just as they round the corner, a faint, but high-pitched yelp reaches their ears from deep in the dungeons.

"Come on! Let's go!" Speeding up to a run, George, Gala, & Harry can barely keep the cloak about themselves as they go down several flights of stairs, and past a vast number of winding corridors to get to Snape's particular chamber. At last, they stop before a heavy iron door, and, using all their strength, push it open to reveal a very agitated and cranky-looking Fred.

"Fred!" George greets him. "What happened to you?" He walks over to him & places a freckled hand on his brother's shoulder. "Hey- wait a minute! That git didn't put you in a full body-bind, did he?"

Fred makes a few inarticulate noises through his teeth, and everybody has to stifle back chuckles. "Innervate!" Harry cries, and Fred is free.

Ah, thanks," he says, licking his dry lips & shaking himself about. "My joints are all stiff & I don't think I've ever had to use the bathroom so bad, but other than that, I'm all right."

"Man," says George, pounding a fist. "Filch & Snape are gonna pay for this. I swear, one of these days, I'm gonna…"

"Hey! Who's the cat?" Fred interrupts.

At this comment, everyone breaks down into a fit of giggles, and it doesn't take Fred long to figure it out. "That's Gabbi?!" he asks incredulously.

"Is that really Gabbi? How did she get that way?!"

"Why don't I explain it as we walk?" Gala asks, placing a thin hand on George's arm & grinning at both of the twins.

So, crowded under a single invisibility cloak, five friends make their way back to Gryffindor Tower, laughing, whispering, stumbling, and at all costs, trying to remain hidden, until they're safely tucked into their beds, and dreaming of little kittens doing magic and the day to come.