Before anyone knew it, Halloween was upon them. The feast was cheerful as always, but as they left the Great Hall, the horde of students came across a horrific scene: Harry, Ron, and Hermione standing in the hallway. Filch's cat hung from the wall in front of them, appearing to be dead. A message was written on the wall in what appeared to be blood:
THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS HAS BEEN OPENED
ENEMIES OF THE HEIR, BEWARE
Shortly after Filch's cat was petrified, Muggle-born students began to be petrified as well. From then on, students were advised to travel in pairs or groups to avoid future attacks. It was easy enough to travel in groups to classes as everyone was headed in the same direction, but far less convenient for spending time with students of other Houses, as they'd have to walk one another to the common rooms. Luckily, Fred and George were kind enough to always walk Eli back to the entrance to the Hufflepuff common room. As George so kindly joked the first time they offered, "It's close to the kitchens, and we were already on our way to grab a snack, so might as well make sure you don't get murdered on the way there."
Eliot was slightly worried. The only people who had been petrified were Muggle-borns, and technically, Eliot was a half-blood. But as far as anyone was aware, Eliot's parents were both Muggle-borns. He wondered if that made him a target. He wondered if all of his Muggle-born friends would be okay. He worried about them constantly.
Luckily, Quidditch continued despite it all, which was a good distraction from the anxiety. The old Quidditch Captain graduated and was replaced with Anna, the other Beater from the previous year. She had Eliot try out again, but didn't hesitate for a moment in choosing him. She was much kinder and more helpful in her suggestions than the previous captain had been, and the Hufflepuff team was much happier with her at the helm. As long as Quidditch was around, Eli was content. Things were never quite normal at Hogwarts, but they were as normal as they could be, considering the circumstances.
As Eliot was now a third-year, he was permitted to go to Hogsmeade. Fred and George invited him to spend the early December visit with them, and Eli was more than happy to oblige. He had a bit of money saved up from the occasional bet with his friends or coin he found on the ground, and though it wasn't much, it was enough for his purposes. He intended to use it all to buy Remus a small gift, and desperately wanted to go to Honeydukes to choose it. Spending time with Fred and George was always great fun, too. There was no reason not to go to Hogsmeade.
The three boys tramped out of the castle and into the snow as Fred excitedly chattered about all the places he wanted to show Eliot. Fred was speaking so fast without pausing that Eli wasn't sure how he was still breathing. "You're gonna love Zonko's, Eli, believe me, they've got everything you could ever want, it's where we get all our stuff, and Honeydukes is grand, and we have to hit the Three Broomsticks—"
"You know he's already been once, right?" George asked. "There was a visit in October."
"Aw, you ruined his fun!" Eliot laughed. It was true, he had gone to the first Hogsmeade visit with a group of Hufflepuffs in his year. However, he was quite enjoying Fred's excitement and was a bit disappointed to see it end.
"Er — I may have forgotten about that," Fred said, his cheeks turning pink. "Nevertheless, a trip to Zonko's without us is like, er — it's terrible, is what it is."
George and Eliot laughed as they continued through the snow. Fred threw a snowball at Eliot's face, and Eliot yelled, "HEY!", then tackled Fred to the ground. George stood there watching, cackling, as they wrestled in the snow and giggled. Some people rolled their eyes as they walked by, others laughed, some cheered one of them on; all knew that this was just how those boys were, and there was no use in saying anything to try to get them to stop. They paid no mind to student nor prefect. Though Eliot had enough respect for any professor to calm down in front of them, only one person could stop Fred and George.
Eliot thought he might be winning, as he'd been on top of Fred for a while, but suddenly Fred flipped him over with all his might and landed atop him. Their faces were mere inches from one another, their lips slightly parted as they gasped for breath, noses nearly touching. Fred leaned a bit closer. Eliot thought he was going to headbutt him, so he rolled over again, shoving Fred deep into the snow.
Their fun was cut short by the sound of someone clearing their throat behind them. Eliot looked up to see Professor McGonagall and jumped to his feet.
"Hello, Professor!" Eliot squeaked, his voice cracking inconveniently as it often did in those days.
Fred grabbed onto the hem of Eliot's jacket in an attempt to pull himself out of the snow, but only pulled Eliot back down with him. The two boys climbed to their feet clumsily as George stifled his laughter. Eliot looked over at Fred, who was brushing snow off of his coat. His face was a shade of red that nearly matched his tousled hair. He was breathing heavily, though a goofy grin was still spread across his face. For a moment, Eliot thought he looked quite beautiful that way, and he started to wonder why he would think that when he was interrupted mid-thought.
"I believe you three were heading somewhere, were you not?" McGonagall asked.
"Sorry, Professor. Got distracted," Fred said as he fixed his hair.
"As you so often seem to be around Mr. Black." She chuckled. "Enjoy Hogsmeade, but please leave each other in one piece." And with that, she was gone.
"NO PROMISES!" Fred called after her. He threw his arm around Eliot's shoulders and they walked the rest of the way to Hogsmeade without incident. As they walked, Fred and George discussed everything they would need for an upcoming prank in hushed voices, as if it was a secret that they were behind the plague of pranks.
They hit Zonko's first, of course. As soon as they were inside, George immediately ran off to grab a bag of Dungbombs while Fred hung back with Eliot. "My friend, we have reached the motherland of joke shops. All your little heart could desire is before us."
Eliot grinned. He had one thing he actually needed to buy. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to afford it, and it definitely wasn't from Zonko's. But that wouldn't stop him from having fun in the shop. Fred and George dragged him around the store, explaining the uses of the different joke items and how they had successfully used them in the past. The three boys spent what felt like minutes but was closer to hours picking out the most devious joke products for their schemes, ending in Fred and George spending a decent chunk of money that was entirely worth it.
"Where to next?" George asked as they stepped out of the shop, bags in hand.
"Could we go to Honeydukes?" Eliot asked.
"Great idea." George grinned.
"Excellent choice, really." Fred grabbed Eliot's hand and rushed off in the direction of the sweet shop, George rushing after them. Eliot found it odd that Fred and George kept darting in different directions that day. The two always seemed to be attached at the hip at any other time. But he supposed Fred and George knew each other as well as any two people could, and if anything was actually off, it was probably on his end.
They squeezed into the packed candy shop and Eliot pushed his way to the chocolate section, Fred and George following close behind. But as Fred and George and everyone else went from place to place, grabbing some of this and some of that, Eliot stood in place staring at the chocolate wall for a long while. There were more options than he had expected. Remus's preference for milk chocolate narrowed it down a bit, but there were still at least a few dozen options: A box of chocolate frogs, a giant solid milk chocolate bar, Chocolate Cauldrons — wait, did Remus even like Chocolate Cauldrons? Eliot couldn't remember ever seeing him eat one, but after looking at the price he thought that might've been an explanation. After forty-five minutes of deliberation, he eventually settled on several fancy-looking chocolate dragon's eggs that cost all the money he had in his pocket, save for one sickle.
"Why so much concern over the chocolate?" George asked as they left the shop.
"It's for my — er, the man who raised me. Scraped together the money for some semblance of a Christmas present," Eliot explained. "I wish I could do more, but... y'know. We're not very well off, it's all I could do."
George shrugged. "I think it's nice of you to get him something, even if it is just chocolate."
Fred nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Eli, I doubt most people would do that for their actual parents."
Eli's face turned bright pink and he looked down at the Honeydukes bag in his hand. He wanted to say, It's really nothing when you consider all he's done for me,but he felt that perhaps he'd already said too much. Instead, he looked back up at his friends and grinned. "What else does Hogsmeade have to offer?"
The twins instantly went back to their usual selves. Fred led them down High Street, explaining why the majority of the shops weren't worth visiting. They were interrupted several times by a number of people they knew — Quidditch players from both of their teams greeting them joyfully, Professors warning them not to get into trouble, a Hufflepuff girl in Eliot's year offering to take a photo of them ("I'm just learning and need practice, and I'll be sure to give you all copies!"), Katie Bell asking them what they had planned for the rest of their day, and the twins' older brother Percy scolding them for throwing snowballs at one another in the middle of the street. It was quite a long walk when all was said and done. They were cold and damp, but the day was still young.
"What do you say we go warm up with some Butterbeers?" George suggested, nodding in the direction of the Three Broomsticks.
"Er — I actually... Um, I... I—" Eliot stuttered. One sickle wasn't enough for a Butterbeer, he knew.
Before he could manage the rest of his sentence, George interrupted with, "No worries, we've got it." He gave Eliot a kind smile. Eliot looked down at his feet, his face suddenly hot.
"C'mon. It's cold out here," Fred said. They walked into the pub. Fred suggested that George and Eliot go on the quest for a table as he went to get the drinks.
Fred winked as he placed a mug of Butterbeer in front of Eliot, who blushed and stuttered out a "T-th-thanks." A wink? Was he reading too much into things? He shook the thought from his mind. he was definitely making it up. He and Fred were just friends, and Eliot figured that Fred probably wasn't gay. Just charming and handsome and — never mind.
"Anything for you." Fred grinned, sliding into the booth and nonchalantly placing his arm over the back of the seat behind Eli.
Eliot choked on his Butterbeer.
That night, Eliot lay in bed and played the day's events back in his head. Surely he didn't have a crush on his other best friend, too. It definitely wasn't Fred being weird. Fred was just being weird because he thought Eliot was being weird. But was I being all that weird?, Eliot asked himself. Friendship was far too complex for him. He felt as if he was always either missing things or overthinking them, but in this case, it felt as if it were somehow both.
He wondered what might've happened if he leaned up to kiss Fred when he was on the ground. He wondered why he wondered that.