Chapter 12

It was a week later when I found myself sitting next to George and Fred once again. I was currently trying to avoid Harry and Ron. They've been constantly pestering Hermione and me to help them with their homework. I've been helping them, but I really didn't want to be pestered this morning. I had accidentally stayed up far too late last night reading a book, and I was now extremely tired.

As I was eating, I found myself watching Fred and George. I still couldn't tell them apart completely. Apparently the one time I got it right was a complete fluke. Ever since I've been trying to remember if there had been anything at all in the books or online that I had found. Nothing came to mind, even after a whole week of thinking it over.

Today, I decided that I would give it another go. I was going to watch them and try to pick out even the smallest difference. As they laughed and joked, I went over their faces starting at their red hair and traveling all the way down to their chins. I kept looking, deciding that there had to be something. I was going to keep looking until I found something.

As I compared their faces for what seemed like the fiftieth time, I was startled to find their brown eyes looking right back at me. I felt myself beginning to blush as the one on the right raised an eyebrow.

"See anything you like?" The twin on the left joked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

I rolled my eyes, fighting back my stupid blush. "For your information, I was trying to figure out a way to tell you two apart.

"And I'm going to find something," I quickly added. "Even if it takes me all day."

It was Saturday, so I supposed I really had all day.

"How about a deal?" The twin on the right suggested. "You help us with our brilliant series of pranks we have planned today, and we promise that we'll sit still for a while so you can try to find something."

All my plans for having a nap to make up for lack of sleep last night vanished.

"Deal," I smiled.

By the end of the day, I was even more tired than I had been this morning. It was worth it, though. I was able to sneak some frogs out of Professor McGonagall's class while I was pretending to ask her about some of the more complicated theories. Fred and George decided that she would never expect me to be up to something and it seems they were right. After all, I do the homework when I'm supposed to and don't talk. That's mostly because I'm next to Hermione and we're both too busy taking notes to talk.

Anyway, we were able to sneak the frogs into a pack of Ravenclaw 4th years. It was hilarious. They freaked out and as they scattered I walked through them all and picked one up to start petting it. That made them scream even louder. As I set the frog back down gently, I was barely containing my laughter. As soon as I got to Fred and George, we all burst into laughter. It was a great and a welcome break from all the homework I've been doing.

Now it was just about 45 minutes until dinner. Fred and George were now sitting in front of me in the common room as I once again study their faces. Fred was on my left and George was on my right. I knew that now, but I still wouldn't be able to tell them apart if I turned my back and the moved. I studied their faces for a full thirty minutes without finding a thing. George and Fred were definitely getting fidgety and I was getting frustrated. There HAD to be something.

I was getting ready to just give up and call it quits when I saw something. I couldn't be sure but I leaned in to see if I could be right. I quickly looked back and forth between their faces before I was sure. You couldn't tell unless you were looking for it, but George's lips curved down in the middle more than Fred. I leaned back with a smile splitting my face.

The moment Fred and George saw that they smiled back at me.

"Did you do it?" George asked.

"I believe I did," I announced triumphantly. "Just to make sure, I'm going to turn around. You two either stay put or switch places. Make sure not to tell me which. I want to see if I really have it."

I quickly turned around and heard them shuffling around. They called for me to turn around and I quickly tried to pick out the small difference I had found. I quickly glanced at their lips. The twin on the left had a more curved lips then the twin on the right. I smiled.

"You're George," I said, pointing to the twin on the left.

"And you're Fred," I said excitedly, indicating the one on the right.

I could tell from their shocked expressions that I had gotten it right!

"Blimey, how did you do that?" Fred exclaimed.

"I guess I just have a talent," I said, trying to hold back my excitement at finally doing it.

"You cheated!" George declared.

"I did not," I said indignantly.

"How about you two argue about that over dinner, because I'm starving," Fred cut in.

George and I agreed and we made our way down to the Great Hall.

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George and I were now stuffing ourselves with Fred, any accusations long forgotten. Of course, my meal had to be interrupted.

"Kendra," Ron called from farther down the table. "Where have you been?" He quickly scrambled up and came up behind me. "Hermione won't help me with our Potion's homework. I haven't the slightest idea what it's talking about."

I rolled my eyes and finished chewing my mouthful. I then turned to face him and said, "Have you tried reading the pages he assigned?"

"I tried that, but nothing stuck."

I sighed and glanced at my still very full plate. "I guess I can help you as soon as I'm done with dinner."

Ron's face lit up and his worried expression turned into a smile. "Thanks Kendra, you're a real life saver."

I sighed as I turned back to my dinner, but Fred and George seemed to sense my agitation and frustration at Ron.

"Actually, little brother," Fred said, just as Ron began to turn back to his place at the table. "Kendra already his plans for tonight."

George got the gist and quickly jumped in. "Yeah, Kendra already said that she was going to do stuff with us tonight."

I was quick to jump on board. "Oh, I totally forgot. I'm really sorry, Ron. If you still can't figure it out tomorrow, I'll help you then. I can't help you tonight though."

Ron's face fell, but he didn't argue. He went back to his seat and I turned to Fred with a grin growing on my face. "Thanks, I'm really not in the mood to go over homework again with Ron."

"Yeah, we could tell," George said. "We're just not sure how Ron didn't."

I shrugged and continued to eat my dinner. By the time we had finished, I realized that George and Fred had promised to do something with me tonight. We all go up together and began walking out of the hall.

"So, what are these great plans that you have planned for tonight?" I inquired, wondering if they were really planning on going through with it or if they just said it to help me out.

"Well, we said we were going to do something very important tonight with you, didn't we?" George said, looking at Fred with a smile.

"I suppose we can't make ourselves liars, can we?" Fred agreed.

Pretty much, we went to the common room and messed around. We just talked and joked around. I have to say, it was amazingly fun. It's amazing how something so simple can be just as fun as a super planned out event. It was getting late, but we were still up and talking.

Of course, something had to happen to ruin it. We couldn't ruin my run of having bad things happen to ruin happy moments.

"-Mum completely flipped out at that," Fred finished, as he and George finished yet another hilarious story. We were all laughing again and all was well.

"My mom would be so mad, she'd probably take all my books away for a month," I admitted.

George and Fred's attention immediately turned to me and looked eager.

"Enough about us, tell us something about you."

I looked at George and rolled my eyes. "I honestly have nothing to tell. I've had an extremely boring life."

"Well, we know you have one story," Fred said. "Tell us how you ended up popping into the Great Hall."

"As I said when I first arrived, I don't know anything.

"Come on, you must know something," George insisted.

"One second I was in my room, the next I was in one of the hallways. That's it. I had a boring, muggle life before that."

"Do your parents know where you are?" George wondered.

"Yeah, did Dumbledore send someone to explain it all to them?" Fred added.

"No."

"No to which question?"

"Both of them," I clarified, but really starting to feel agitated. "It is currently not possible for me to get any communication to my parents and they don't know where I am." I stood up, knowing that if this conversation kept up I was going to end in tears. "It's really getting quite late, I should go to bed."

"Wait-" Fred started.

"We didn't mean to pry." George quickly got up and tried to continue to apologize, but there was nothing to apologize for.

I quickly left without listening to anything they were saying after me. I know I should have listened, or at least told them it wasn't their fault.

But I didn't.

I ran away. Instead of facing the problem, I ran away. Just like I always do. I ran away to my bed, my books, to being alone. I got in my bed, made sure my curtains were closed securely around my bed, and cried silently.

I had perfected the silent cry. At home, there were many times where I was just so overwhelmed with everything, I cried alone in my room. I didn't feel like anyone needed to know, though, so I perfected my silent cry.

Now I was using it once again. I don't know why it was affecting me so much all of a sudden. Maybe it was complete realization that my family might never see me again. I might never them again.

Sure, sometimes my siblings were the most awful little brats that you could imagine. My parents were in no way perfect. At least a fourth of the times I cried, it was because of them. Even so, we still had good times. We were still family, and now that I realize that I will probably never see them again I can't handle it. So that night, I cried myself to sleep.

Again.