Many many eyes were staring back at her, widened in various looks of disbelief. Potter was the first one to speak again.

“Like, some distant cousin that has just come out of the woodwork, right?” He turned to Sirius now, his eyes desperate. “Right Sirius? She’s just some distant relative right?” Dvona was surprised at how much it hurt when Sirius didn’t say anything at all. Just continued to stand there, refusing to verify that she was much more than a distant cousin. It was the man identified as Remus who spoke.

“She’s his daughter.” Again. The silence. It was getting more and more difficult for her to remain standing, and she wouldn’t have been surprised if her lips were beginning to turn blue. She continued to try and suppress her shivering, however. She didn’t want them all to see how weak she was. But even as the thought passed through her mind the headache she thought she had escaped came back with a vengeance, and her stomach rolled. Suddenly she regretted all that fire whisky the night before more than anything else.

The twins, recognizing the tell tale signs of a hangover, glanced at each other for a moment. Seeing that nothing was going to be accomplished in the hallway like this, they both moved forward, surrounding her with one on each side.

“Since you all seem to be having a problem picking your jaws back up off the floor-“

“We’ll be taking the freezing girl upstairs for a hot shower before she catches hypothermia.” Dvona was surprised at how warm they were on each side of her, and she couldn’t help but relax a bit, not even noticing that her hands had begun to shake when she stopped keeping so much tension in them.

“Yes, that would probably be a good idea. We’ll get everything sorted at dinner.” That was Remus again, and Dvona was beginning to see that he was the voice of reason in the group.

“Dinner! Yes, yes I’ll get right to making dinner. Ginny, help me will you?” It was the older woman again, and the young red headed girl followed her into the kitchen obediently. The twins didn’t wait for anybody else to say anything, they simply each wrapped an arm around her and turned her around, leading her back down the hall. Nearly as soon as her back was turned she heard a swell of whispered questions flying about, but the twins didn’t let her turn back around to see who was questioning her existence.

“Just ignore them.”

“They’re in shock.”

“Everyone will come around.”

“You’ll see.” She felt dizzy, hearing the same voice coming so quickly from both sides of her, and she didn’t bother to try and reply. She just let them lead her down the hall and upstairs. At one point the one on her right had stooped and caught her bag with one hand, but the warmth was against her side again almost immediately. As the adrenaline of the whole confrontation began to wear off her whole body started to shake.

“Are you ok?” They both asked this one at the same time, and her head spun once again, causing her stomach to lurch.

“C-c-cold.” Her teeth had begun chattering and she leaned more heavily against the twin on her left. “Hung-over.” One of them made a sympathetic sound, and suddenly the one on her left hooked one arm under her legs and lifted her up.

“Don’t argue with us.” She had only started to open her mouth before they stopped her protests.

“We live on the fourth floor-”

“And that’s just far too many stairs-”

“When you’re hung over.”

“Believe us.” That last bit was spoken by them both, and she couldn’t help but smile. So her father seemed to hope she was just a hallucination, but at least these two didn’t seem horrified by her existence.

“I’m Fred, by the way.” That was the one carrying her bag.

“And I’m George.” The one who was carrying her. Looking up at him, and then over at his twin, she saw no way to tell them apart. Even their freckles seemed to match perfectly.

“So how do I tell you two apart?”

“I’m three minutes older.” That was George, and she nearly laughed at his reply.

“Thanks for the tip.” At that they both broke out in wide, identical grins.

“Best we can do.”

“Nobody can tell us apart for sure.”

“Not even mum.”

“It’s great fun.”

“If nobody can tell you apart, how do you know you are who you are? I mean, for all you know, when you were two or something, your mom got the two of you mixed up. George, you could really be Fred, and Fred, you could really be George.” The twins came to a dead stop at that, staring first at her and then at each other with wide eyes.

“My God.”

“She’s right!”

“What if you’re the one who hates carrots, not me?”

“And you could be the one who had a broken arm when we were seven!” Shaking her head Dvona muttered under her breath, just loud enough for George to hear her, causing him to burst out laughing.

“Hey now, what’s this? What did she say?” George couldn’t seem to find his voice, so Dvona took it upon herself to answer.

“I just said that I hadn’t meant to cause an existential crisis for the two of you.” Breaking into a smile Fred shook his head, trying not to laugh.

“You can’t be too hung over if you can use words like ‘existential’ you know.”

“Yes, I think I’d better put you down. You should have no problem managing the next two staircases.” But Dvona was having none of that. She had finally stopped shivering being wrapped in George’s arms, and she tightened her arms around his neck and buried her head in his shoulder.

“Nope, I’ll pass out for sure.” It was a slow trip the rest of the way up the stairs, as every few steps one of the twins would stop and argue about which one of them had made Ron’s hair turn purple for a week, or which one of them could successfully bake a loaf of bread. By the time they reached their room they were utterly convinced that they were, in fact, the wrong one. At least, that was how they put it. Trying to follow their conversation was just confusing Dvona to no end and she regretted saying anything about it, funny as it was.

“Here we are.” George set her down gently, keeping one arm around her shoulders to steady her. Almost immediately she began to shiver again and he pulled her a bit closer. Fred opened the door and led them into a warmly lit sitting room with a plush couch and a couple of equally comfortable looking chairs. A large table sat along one wall completely covered with curious looking objects. Seeing her gazing at their creations, the boys both began speaking animatedly.

“We’re opening a joke shop-“

“That lot there are just the things we’ve though up recently-”

“The rest of our inventory is in the next room-“

“Boxed up and ready to go.”

“But we’ll tell you all about that later.”

“The bathroom is the middle door there-“

“Towels will be in the closet in there.”

“Have a nice hot shower, you’ll feel better.”

“And I’ll have George here make you his famous hangover remedy.”

“Works wonders every time.” They both stood there, smiling their wide, trusting smiles and she couldn’t help but smile back.

“Thank you guys. If not for you I would still probably be standing down there with everyone just… looking at me.” Fred, who was still holding her bag held it out to her, and she took it gratefully.

“Think nothing of it. The lot of them can be a bit dense sometimes.” George’s eyes sparkled as he said that, and with one last grateful look she turned and entered the bathroom, not bothering to lock the door behind her, she trusted them.

As quickly as she could she stripped out of her wet and muddy clothes, kicking them into a pile in the corner. After a bit of fiddling she got the water turned on, and after just a few moments steam began to fill the room. Stepping into the glass shower she had to bite her lip to keep from crying out at the hot water. She refused to turn the temperature down, however, and forced herself to bear it until it was no longer scalding.

It only took a few moments to wash the mud off of her arms, but she wasn’t ready to get out of the shower just yet. Not only was the water heaven upon her chilled frame, as long as she stayed in this room she wouldn’t have to go downstairs and face everybody. It wasn’t that she had expected an incredibly warm welcome, but she had expected something at least. Somebody waiting to let her in. Though, really, that could be excused since it was the American Minister’s fault they hadn’t received the letter warning them about her. But even so, her father had seemed to hope it was all just a bad dream. ‘Well, if he doesn’t want me here that’s fine.’ She could easily rent a flat somewhere in London. Or, really, anywhere she wanted. Money was no problem now. She was of age, they couldn’t force her to go to Hogwarts or take the tests for her diploma. It would just be a whole lot more convenient to stay here. God knows Voldemort was sure to show up with Potter around. And as much as she despised it, a small part of her wanted her father’s approval. She had never been able to make her mother happy. Never been able to do anything right for her. Part of her couldn’t help but hope that it might be different with her father.

As the hot water began to cool she was pulled roughly from her thoughts, and she quickly turned it off and climbed out of the stall. A couple of quick drying and cleaning spells and her clothes were once again dry and wearable. The last thing she wanted to do was try to search for something to wear in the mess of the bag sitting on the floor. However, the t-shirt she had chosen that moment left her shivering, and she did indeed have to open the bag. She knew what she wanted was right on top, however, and sure enough the faded blue sweatshirt was the first thing she saw. Pulling it out she immediately put it on, fingers tracing the familiar ‘Erisons’ on the front. She knew it was going to invite questions, but she didn’t care. She needed its familiarity right now.

Zipping up her bag once more she pushed the door open and glanced around the room, finding George sitting on the couch. She knew it was him, as he had been wearing a black shirt whereas Fred had been wearing green. A quick glance around the room showed the other twin was nowhere to be found.

“He went downstairs to see how long it will be until dinner is ready.” As if he had read her thoughts George answered her question before she even got the chance to ask it. “It probably won’t be very long.”

“Ah.” It was all she could bring herself to say as she settled herself on the couch next to him.

“How’s your head?” She smiled ruefully and crossed her arms in front of her stomach.

“It’s been better, to say the least.”

“Here.” Reaching behind him he grabbed a potion vial off of the table and held it out to her. “My amazing hang-over cure. It tastes terrible, but it’s well worth it.” She didn’t pause to smell the concoction, just tipped it down her throat as quickly as she could, but she couldn’t hold back a grimace. He was right, the stuff was terrible, but even as she thought that she felt her stomach settle and her head stop throbbing.

“Wow, I’m impressed. That stuff is amazing.”

“Told ya.” They were silent for a moment before George spoke up again.

“They’re going to give you the third degree you know.”

“Yup.” They sat in a comfortable silence for a minute or two before George started in again.

“Ginny probably won’t say much of anything. She’s pretty shy.” Seeing her look of confusion he explained that Ginny was his little sister, the red headed girl. “Charlie won’t pester you, but he’ll probably want to know a few things. That’s the one who was in the kitchen with us. He’s my second oldest brother. Ron though doesn’t know when to keep his big mouth shut. And if Harry or Hermione are upset at all he just acts like even more of an idiot. The three of them have been best mates since their first year at Hogwarts. If even one of them doesn’t like you or doesn’t trust you, they’re all going to feel the same way. And most likely Ginny will follow along with them. Her and Harry have been dating for a bit now.”

“And Ron and Hermione, are they together? There seemed to be something there…” Fred burst out laughing at that and Dvona wondered if she had stumbled into something.

“The two of them have been dancing around each other for years. Everybody but them can see it, but they are both just too stubborn to even look. I mean, the fact that you only met them for a few minutes and even so you noticed it just proves my point all the more.”

“And what point is that, exactly?”

“That they are idiots.” Dvona couldn’t help but laugh along with him at that.

“So who else do I have to worry about?”

“Well, you never know with our mum. If you’re on her good side then you’ll be fine. But if not, she can be rather…”

“Irrational.” Fred had just come back into the room and once again finished George’s sentence.

“Yes! That’s the word I was looking for! Well then, that just leaves Remus and Sirius. Remus you won’t have to worry about, he always seems to know just the right thing to say to smooth over any situation.”

“And Sirius?” They both looked a little surprised that she didn’t call him dad, but she couldn’t. He had been Sirius to her for her entire life. Such habits die hard.

“The man is completely unpredictable.”

“Yeah, we’ve no idea how he’ll be.”

“Either way, they sent me back up here to tell you dinner is ready.” They both fell silent, looking at Dvona with concern. Forcing a smile she leapt up, catching George’s hand and pulling him up as well.

“Let’s go then, I’m starving.”

A/N: I was going to include the dinner in this chapter, but I wanted to get something posted. If all goes as planned, though, then the next chapter should be up tonight as well. Also, thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed! They make me want to write constantly!