Look up the song: (Luma - Video Game Music Box) and play it when (~ ̄▽ ̄)~ appears.
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Weren't much of a hassle for the twins, who were used to their hellish schedule of mundane classes and martial arts training. After their little demonstration in the morning, Flitwick handed them their Schedule, telling them that the heads of houses decided to put them with the Gryffindor first years as they were already on 'good terms' with a few of them.
They didn't have any trouble navigating the halls thanks to Axel mapping them beforehand. Their first day in classes were, interesting, to say the least. In transfigurations, they had picked a table and removed two of the chairs, before creating a bench as they sat down. When they looked to find Professor McGonagall, they saw her in her tabby transformation sitting on her desk watching them.
She nodded to them, and John winked back, not letting the rest of the class know that the Professor was there. A few seconds after the bells had rang signaling the start of classes, Ron and Harry had burst through the door, panting and trying their best not to fall over each other.
"Great the Professor's not here. technically we're not late." Ron said, as he decided to sit on the same table as the twins, as Harry sat next to them.
"I wouldn't be to sure Ron." John said as he nudged Harry and motioned to the tabby when he looked at him. Harry looked at the tabby, not sure what John meant, until he saw the cat seemingly jump to nothing, only to transform into a stern-faced Professor McGonagall.
"That's two points for coming late to class Mr. Potter and Mr. Weasley. I expect you to be on time as I don't plan on repeating my lessons." She said, as Ron groaned before she continued. "I can teach you many things, and I expect you to all keep up with what I teach you. Transfiguration is as complex as it is dangerous, and anyone who chooses to play in my class will be sent out."
She then flicked her wand, and her desk turned into a boar, before switching back into her desk. It roused the students excitement, only for it to be killed when they realized that they wouldn't be able to pull that trick just yet. They took notes over the subtleties of transfiguration, before she gave them a match each and told them to turn it into a needle.
Most of the class didn't get anywhere, with Ron turning as red as his hair in concentration. The twins knew that the Professor wanted to test their knowledge in transfiguration, so they decided to go a little overboard. They waved their hands around the match, and a pair of silver knitting needles appeared, one for each twin. Oriana had made hers with a green jade snake head on the top of it, while John had made his to have a ruby-eyed wolf on his.
The Professor walked over, and studied the needles. She was astounded at the skill shown in such a simple transfiguration, as the snake looked like it might bite, while the wolf looked breathtaking. She congratulated the twins, and showed their needles to the class, much to the ire of Hermione, who had yet to get it colored correctly.
While they waited, John pulled out a spool of yarn from his bag, before starting to knit. The click-clacking of needles was a background noise to the students, who felt calmed by it, and started to show some signs of improving in their efforts to transfigure their matches.
Oriana started to help Harry and Ron as John continued knitting. By the time class had finished, Harry, Ron, and a few other students had managed to make needles, while most of the rest had managed to get partial transformations. Hermione and a few other students didn't manage to make any improvement however. Aside from silvery sheens and pointy ends, they weren't able to do much. John gave the needles to the Professor, put his knitting in his pocket, and left for their other classes.
They went to History of Magic, where more than half the class managed to fall asleep to Professor Binns voice, who to no surprise to the twins, was a ghost. Their Uncle had told them of how he had fallen asleep one day, only to wake up the next morning and teach without realizing he was a ghost! The twins decided to sleep as well, leaving Rowan, the Mackenzie Valley Wolf^(3) out in the class to absorb the information. Binns only looked up from his lectern, saw the wolf, paused, seemed to mentally shrug, and continued with the lessons. The twins left that class well-rested.
When they went to Charms, Professor Flitwick was seen sitting atop a pile of books on his chair so that he may reach his desk. He called roll and nearly fell off his desk when he called out Harry's name and the twins. He explained to them the concept of Charms, and how most of them help in life, as well as how dangerous some of them were should they be used in the wrong way. He then taught them 'Wingardium Leviosa', the levitation charm. He then gave feathers to the class to use the charm on it. (~ ̄▽ ̄)~
John and Oriana smiled and conjured a few mallets. John gripped the mallets to a marimba, and started to play a simple beat on it. His feather had started to move slowly, rising from the table, as Oriana joined him, playing a slow melody while her feather started to dance in a slow swirl with John's. The music had drawn the attention of the students once more, and Professor Flitwick watched their feathers dance.
A few other students showed success in making their feathers float to the twins', and Flitwick watched them start swaying along to the song as well. Hermione was vehemently trying to get her feather to float, only to fail, and stare in anger at the twins, who had finished their song. Their feathers floated down to their table, while everyone else's had stopped moving and remained in the air.
Flitwick snapped out of his stupor, and congratulated the twins in the same manner as Professor McGonagall did, before everyone was startled by a small explosion near Flitwick's desk. A boy had somehow managed to make his feather explode, leaving him with a blackened face, and no eyebrows. Everyone in the class started laughing, including the boy himself. The bell rang, and they left for another one of their classes.
Professor Quirrell's class was the most interesting by far to the twins, who had felt something was off the instant they walked into class. They ignored it until his attention was drawn elsewhere, where they slightly shifted their bodies to get a good sense of their surroundings. A long, forked tongue flicked out of Oriana's mouth, while a snout appeared on John's face. They scented the air for a bit before they resumed their regular appearance.
Harry had seen them do this and looked at them with a confused expression. The twins noticed, and John mouthed 'I'll tell you later, not right now'. Harry just nodded and focused on the lesson, if you could call it that. Quirrell stuttered every sentence to the point that it was nearly unintelligible, a waste of time from Oriana's point of view.
They gladly left that class, and moved on with their schedule, reaching Herbology, taught by Professor Sprout and the only one outside the Castle. She taught them about many magical plants and fungi, before bringing them to the greenhouse in order to get some hands on experience. They left that class with dirt-smudged, grinning faces.
A few more days had gone by, but the twins had noticed something seemed off about Quirrell. It wasn't until Oriana started feeling for his presence in the room that she realized that his memories were lying there, so she started to read them, only to be shocked at what was there. Harry asked to talk with them during their free period when he noticed Oriana grimace, only for John to follow a second later.
"In private Harry, this is something that shouldn't be spoken out in the open." Oriana said, a slight flash of fear showing upon her usually impassive face. Harry noticed this, and motioned for them to follow him as he lead them up the Shifting Stairs. He reached a Portrait of a lady in a pink dress who was chatting with some company that had brought some tea. She turned to them when Harry cleared his throat to catch her attention.
"Password?" she asked, looking behind Harry to see the twins.
"Caput Draconis." Harry said.
She looked away from the twins, and seemingly grumbled before saying, "Dears, next time you don't need to have a password, the Headmaster told me that you two have access no matter what." Her portrait then swung open on unseen hinges as a hole was revealed in the wall behind her.
Harry gaped at the twins as they passed him. John said as he closed Harry's mouth, "We'll explain that too, take us where you think we can speak."
Harry shook his head and followed them along through the hole in the wall. When the twins reached the other side, they were greeted by a horrible clash of red and gold. It was on the walls, the furniture, tapestries, and curtains. John let his eyes turn into that of a bat's, and let his sense of hearing go up. Oriana just grew a second set of eyelids and closed them over her eyes, muting the colors to a more tolerable degree, while letting her tongue grow slimmer and forked.
Mind you, they were blinded by the colors to the point that they weren't able to see the other students who populated the room. When they entered, the place had gone as silent as a morgue. Until Harry entered, which just signaled to everyone that they were invited, causing the previous bustle to return to the common room.
Harry looked at the twins, and noticed John's dulled eyes and pointed ears, along with Oriana's closed(?) eyes and forked tongue flickering every few seconds. "What's wrong?" he asked, wondering why they were like this when they were perfectly fine a few seconds ago.
"[The color palette,]{It's blindingly horrendous.}" They said in turn.
"Well, yeah. It takes some getting used to, I'd rather just left the red for furniture, and gold as the accents. Using brown as a neutral color in order to tone the both of them down as well as tie them together would've been the best thing to do as well." The twins stared at Harry as he made his assessment of the colors. "What? Do I have something on my face?" he asked when he noticed their gaze.
"{You'd be good for interior design.}"
"A-ah, well, I'm used to seeing colors fit together, like a puzzle. And most of the time they are very visually palatable." He stammered.
John grinned at him, before getting serious once more and asking him where he wanted to talk. Harry jumped in realization before leading them up a set of stairs and to a room with five beds and two boys. John grabbed Harry's shoulder when he noticed the other two boys, and motioned for him to step out with them into the hallway, which he obliged.
"What's wrong?"
"[I think it best we talk in our room.]"
Harry was surprised, but nodded, and followed them both out of the Gryffindor common room and around the winding halls of the school to their room. John opened the door, and let Harry in. Harry was awed at the fact that they had their own room, and looked around, only to see mattresses on the ground and the bed frames on the sides with an extra sheet going over the both of them.
"Why are the mattresses on the ground?" he asked, as the twins walked forward while letting their familiars out. He jumped when he felt the bear nuzzle its face against his hand as it walked by. He then looked back and saw the the twins letting the last of the familiars out as they walked by him and sat on the mattresses with them. John motioned for him to join them on the spartan bed.
Harry tentatively sat down, only for the tree crocodile^(3) to nestle itself between his thighs. "{Don't worry, he's just looking for heat. Just let him be.}" Harry nodded, and slowly relaxed. "[So you wanted to ask us some questions?]"
Harry nodded, and started by asking, "Why did you shift in Professor Quirrell's class?"
John started talking first. "Oriana and I have slightly heightened senses of smell, and we could smell something other than the overwhelming scent of garlic in his classroom. So we shifted to increase our sense of smell, and we could smell something akin to a rotting corpse coming from Quirrell."
"Then why did you both seem to really dislike the smell today?" Harry asked.
"I don't think we can tell you that." Oriana said, looking at John.
"Why not?" Harry asked, feeling the situation to be unfair.
"Harry, I can see the future, but we both cannot interfere with it." John said. "Should we change the future so drastically by revealing it, it could spell disaster for us all. It's like a code to seers, we can prophesize and read futures, but we cannot give a straight answer about it. All I can tell you, is that Snape will help."
"Snape? SNAPE!? He hates me! The first day of classes he yelled at me, don't you remember!?" Harry yelled, only toning down his voice when the crocodile on him started to shift positions.
"I know he doesn't like you, but believe it or not, he will help, just don't expect straightforward help from him." John said, coaxing Harry as Oriana grabbed the croc that was scaring him.
They got up and pulled Harry to his feet. "Look we'd love to tell you the future, but that could change for us all if I tell you, so that's all we can say about the situation. So for now, goodnight, because we could really use a nap." They pushed him out the door and closed it behind him, leaving him in an unknown corridor.
"Where the bloody hell do I go from here?"