Through the Pages of Time: Joey’s Hogwarts Tale

Ryan sprinted to the Quidditch pitch, his umbrella long forgotten. The heavy rain drenched him, but he didn't care. All he could think about was his sister, Joey, lying in the mud. When he finally reached her, he saw Fred lying beside her, both covered in mud.

"Joey! Fred!" Ryan shouted, his voice cracking with panic. Normally, such a display of emotion would have embarrassed him, but he was too worried to care.

Joey, hearing Ryan's voice, sat up and cried, "Brother! Is Fred dead?"

Ryan knelt in the mud, pulling Joey into a tight hug. "Joey, you're okay! Thank Merlin!" He had been terrified, convinced that Joey might have died. The Forrest siblings had a tendency to assume the worst.

"Brother, check on Fred! Please!" Joey pushed Ryan away, her voice desperate.

Ryan, still shaken, leaned over Fred and checked his breathing. "He's alive. Just unconscious."

By then, others had arrived. Sirius rushed over, followed closely by George on his broom. Cedric appeared with a stretcher, and together, they carried Fred to the hospital wing.

Joey stayed behind, sitting in the mud, her mind racing. She couldn't stop thinking about how Fred had appeared out of nowhere to save her. She wasn't afraid of getting hurt—she knew magic could fix almost anything. But the thought of Fred being hurt because of her made her heart ache.

Her tears mixed with the rain as she sat there, her leg throbbing with pain. Ryan, noticing her distress, crouched beside her. "Joey, what's wrong with your leg?"

"It might be broken," Joey sniffled. She hadn't noticed the pain until now, too focused on Fred.

Ryan's face paled. Without hesitation, he picked her up and carried her to the hospital wing.

---

That night, Joey and Fred lay in adjacent hospital beds, both drinking Skele-Gro to regrow their broken bones. George sneaked in, carrying a pot of Devil's Snare, which he had mistaken for a harmless plant.

"Surprise!" George whispered, popping out from behind the pot.

Joey and Fred both jumped, startled. "George! What are you doing with that?" Joey exclaimed, pointing at the Devil's Snare.

George looked at the plant, confused. "What? It's just a vine... Oh no! Is this Devil's Snare?" He dropped the pot and backed away, frantically checking his head to make sure the plant hadn't eaten any part of him.

Fred laughed, wincing as his ribs protested. "Your ears are still there, don't worry."

Joey giggled despite the pain in her leg. "You're lucky it wasn't fully grown, or you'd be missing more than just your ears!"

George sighed in relief. "Well, at least I'm still symmetrical. Two eyes, two nostrils, two ears—perfectly balanced!"

Joey's laughter faded as a strange feeling washed over her. She felt like she'd heard those words before, but she couldn't place where.

The conversation turned to the Quidditch match. "We lost," George said, his tone somber. "Angelina's been crying all day. She thinks it's her fault."

"It's not her fault!" Joey insisted, sitting up too quickly and wincing. "If I were stronger, I could've knocked Shafiq out of the sky!"

Fred and George exchanged glances, imagining Joey as large as Hagrid. "You're fine the way you are," Fred said quickly.

"Yeah, otherwise you wouldn't be able to ride your Nimbus 1700," George added.

Joey sighed. "I guess you're right. I'd rather keep my broom."

---

Meanwhile, in the Slytherin common room, Shafiq sat alone, ignoring the celebrations around him. He had won the match, but he felt no joy. The image of Joey falling from the sky haunted him, and he couldn't shake the guilt.

Flami, sitting across the room, was lost in her own thoughts. She had secretly followed Joey to the hospital wing, only leaving when Madam Pomfrey assured her Joey was fine. She told herself she didn't care about Joey, but the worry in her chest said otherwise.

---

As the semester continued, the Quidditch match became a distant memory, replaced by the stress of endless essays. The only teacher who didn't assign homework was Sirius Black, who had become a favorite among the students.

Despite Professor McGonagall's insistence that the students address him as "Professor Black," Sirius begged them to call him by his first name in private. "I hate that surname," he grumbled during lunch one day. "It makes me feel awful. Just call me Sirius."

"But it's your name," Joey said, mouth full of ribs. "You can't just get rid of it."

Sirius sighed. "I'd rather not have been born a Black."

Fred leaned in, grinning. "Then you wouldn't have been friends with Savior Harry's dad."

Sirius's face softened at the mention of Harry. "Don't call him the 'Savior.' He's just a kid who lost his parents too soon."

The group fell silent, knowing how much Sirius missed his godson.

"So, what are your Christmas plans, Professor Black?" Joey asked, changing the subject.

Sirius groaned. "Don't call me that! And I'll be staying at Hogwarts. Dumbledore won't let me visit Harry."

Joey nodded. "I'm staying too. My parents are going back to the States for Christmas. My grandpa threatened to send them dung bombs if they didn't."

"Your grandpa sounds amazing," George said, laughing.

"He is," Joey agreed. "I get my personality from him."

Fred's eyes lit up. "Then let's do something fun for Christmas! Remember last year? How about we go back to the Forbidden Forest?"

Joey and George exchanged excited glances. "You mean the place where we almost turned unicorn tail hairs into dung beetle chocolate?" Joey asked.

Fred nodded. "Exactly! I heard unicorns shed their hair on the branches. We could collect some and make something cool."

Sirius, overhearing the conversation, leaned in. "Count me in! I know the Forbidden Forest like the back of my hand."

Joey grinned. "You're probably the only teacher who breaks school rules with students, Professor Black!"

Sirius laughed. "Then I'll go down in history! And stop calling me Professor Black!"