บท 38: THE TWINS

The past week at the Weasley's went by in a blur. It was as the most amazing week I had in both my lives.

Though there was no additional drama or life threatening chases or magical upheaval, this was something i always wished but could not achieve. A normal week where I did not have to look over my shoulder wondering if there was a plot in the shadows to either torture or use or kill me.

Yes, my time before hogwarts was peaceful and hermione was there for support and companionship and I had been in correspondence with Daphne a fair bit, but there was no sense of family near me.

From the moment I opened my eyes once again I was in a constant battle with time. I had been in constant search for ways to handle the upcoming wars as well as to better utilize the time that I had for personal growth. Somewhere between this I seemed to have forsaken any sense of the one thing I had strived for, Family.

Upto the point that I had breakfast with the weasley's on the first day I had somehow convinced myself that it was foolish of myself to think of normalcy before both dumble's and voldi were out of the picture.

The first day after we had our breakfast everyone else moved to their respective chores or rooms and I too had planned to follow the twins to the garden outside for the punishment that Mrs. Weasley had given the boys but instead I was asked by her to accompany her in the kitchen. The twins gave me a look of sympathy and moved outside in a speed like they were about to miss a quidditch match.

As I entered the kitchen I could already see her putting away the ingredients used in the breakfast and making space for the next meal. I could also see the ever amazing household spells in work, with the dishes cleaning themselves out and being dried and ready to be placed by her in their respective places. These small spells for me were the best ever invented. It was always a delight for me to watch magic being done not just magnificently but mundanely.

Without even turning her head to look at me she voiced for me to help in placing the dried dishes in the rack next to the sink and i happily obliged. I figured this was just to give me a simple task so that I do not get bored while the rest are busy and so I did it quietly. Well my previous childhood experience had been mostly rotating around these so it was not like I had forgotten it after two years of leisure.

I took a cloth to once again dry the utensils before placing them like any dutiful maid would know how to.

As I was not expecting a conversation I did not start one but surprisingly, Mrs. Weasley did. She began so suddenly that I interrupted asking whether she was speaking to me. She paused the work on hand turned around and thanked me suddenly and I was once again confused. Seeing the confusion on me she explained that since the middle of this year she had witnessed a remarkable change in the twins and thus she had made some enquiries with their friends as well corresponding with her friend and our house head about the sudden change.

She continued to narrate how since their first year there has not been a single month where she had not received letters from the school informing her of their constant pranks on every creature in the school, be it the students, the teachers, the caretakers or the ghosts themselves, and how the house head herself had complained that the boys were remarkable if only they set their minds but they had made sure to misplace their priorities at every turn.

She was so glad and disappointed at the same time because she thoroughly believed that each one of her children were exceptional and till now they all have proven to be so in one way or the other, becoming her pride, but now even though the house head had given the twins praise but they instead turned their brilliance into an unrewarding endeavor like pranking instead of living to their potential.

She had seen them grow, and while they were not old enough to attend Hogwarts it was as if they were the life of the house and she took it that they were happy and once they start attending they will understand its importance by seeing their brothers excelling and follow their footsteps. But when they began it was as if they had not fully grasped the difference home and school and behaved exactly the same just on a larger scale.

It was as if the small house had been a restriction to their glorious pranking career and school gave them wings to fully embrace their potential. She had been worried sick and when the kids returned for the first christmas after the twins began attending Hogwarts she made Charlie, Bill and Percy each give separate talks to the twins using their own experiences and understanding on how effort during the school life was the path to follow.

The kids behaved for the first and last time during that christmas and she began to think that everything would be good but the very next day when the children returned to hogwarts she received a letter from the school regarding a prank that they played, only this time it was not a single person but the entire first year of slytherins and how professor snape had been furious and given them detention for the rest of the year.

After that she had basically limited herself to scolding them for small things. Her one salvation had been that even after all their unseriousness they did not fail in any subjects till now and that was the major factor on why they were being left alone. She knew that they were not performing like they ought to but still it was acceptable.

In their second year they carried on being crazy and negligent towards their studies but they also made it into the quidditch squad and if everyone was to be believed they had the makings of prodigies and just like everyone predicted they had opted for the position for the beaters. She was happy thinking that even if studies was not their calling quidditch could be, but her hopes were crushed on that front too when the twins informed her that though they do enjoy it, it was not something they would pursue.

Till the third year began she had lost all hope and left them to their devices. Just as she lost hope letters regarding their complaints stopped coming for three straight months which made her very concerned instead of happy. She began feeling that something happened to them, like one their pranks going too far and they did something irreversible. This was the only explanation she could think of for their never before seen silence.

She immediately corresponded with their head of house and the answer she received shocked her.