I've changed their ages in the Prologue. They are now 21. (: Enjoy, and yes it's been a while. Hopefully you like this chapter. Next one flows from it, so be on the lookout within the next week or so, hopefully. XD

Chapter Six

Finally alone in their new living quarters, newly built adjacent to the Gryffindor common room, with secret passageways moving from their chamber to the other 3 houses, Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke finally unwound from the excitement in the dining hall and were allowed time to relax.

"What do you think about that Umbridge woman?" Sakura asked casually as she stripped out of her ANBU wear, and pulled on her pyjamas; plain black track pants, and one of Naruto's plain white tees over the top. Naruto and Sasuke followed her movements with their eyes but found they were just too tired to do anything. Then they too changed out of their ANBU gear and into their respective boxers and plain tees; Orange for Naruto and Black for Sasuke.

"She seemed suspicious. We should keep an eye on her, just in case." Sasuke spoke as he slipped into the bed beside her and mixed a leg between hers, snuggling into her neck to keep warm. Naruto slipped in on the other side of her and wrapped an arm around her, snoring lightly in seconds.

"We can start the night shifts tomorrow surely?" Sakura asked lightly as she too felt sleep taking her.

"Tomorrow sounds good," and that was the last thing she heard before she felt the heavenly touch of sleep take her under.

Sasuke awoke to feel a heavy pressure on his abdomen, weighing him down. Looking down he saw pink hair, and that was all he needed before he let a smirk grace his face as he stroked said hair, looking around to see where his other bed-mate disappeared off to.

"Mnnnn, Sasuke," Sakura stirred, lifting her head from its place on his chest and, too, looked around for her blonde haired team mate. She wiped drool from the corner of her mouth, and hoped it went unseen by the dark haired God underneath as she sat up, the sheet pooling at her thighs.

"Naruto?" She called lightly as she got up and stretched, mussing her hair even more than it was, and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The cold hit her like a tonne of bricks, but she braved it out. She wasn't Konoha's strongest kunoichi, and on all the bad guys' bingo books, for nothing.

Loud shouts coming from the Gryffindor common room, only a wall away, had Sasuke cocking a brow at Sakura in question. Simultaneously they walked towards the door, wanting to know what was causing the commotion.

Swinging open the portrait of a drunken headmaster from years before that hid the secret passageway, Sasuke and Sakura poked their head around to see what the noise was for. Sakura's hair was still sticking up in her bedhead look, while Sasuke's was in his perfect duck-butt style. Emerald and Onyx took in the scene in front of them with wide eyes. Their teammate was currently playing a game of chess, where the pieces seemed to be… fighting each other? Naruto's whoops of enjoyment went unnoticed to them both as they crept closer, their mouths agape with their attention focused entirely on the chess pieces still at war with one another.

"Wanna play?" A laughing voice behind Sakura had her turning to see a red-haired gangly boy of about 17 standing with a set of twinkling blue grey eyes aimed in her direction.

"Maybe you can play better than your friend here," a similar voice from the right had their attention focused on him instead. A mirror image of the boy they had just seen stood with his hands behind his head, obviously Naruto's opponent in what looked like a chess set, but with moving chess pieces.

"Twins, right?" Sakura's melodious voice asked, slightly husky from sleep. Both sets of eyes widened slightly at the sound, but quickly stemmed their growing blush and simply nodded concurrently instead of speaking as they didn't trust their voices at that moment.

"Alright. I'll give it a go," Sakura smiled, nudging Naruto across so she could take a seat on the sofa next to him. She gazed expectantly up at the twins now standing side by side, staring at her. "You already know of me, but I don't even know your names." She spoke calmly, trying not to let her annoyance show at their staring.

"Mademoiselle, my name is George Weasley." The one on the left bowed jokingly, the trickster twinkle once again glittering in his eyes.

"And I am Fred Weasley, and I will be your opponent this fine Monday morning," and thus commenced the Wizards Chess game.

10 minutes later two loud feminine laughs filled the slowly filling common room as the game came to an end. Hermione and Sakura had their heads thrown back in laughter as the Weasley twin's stared hopelessly down at the board, as if asking it why it betrayed them. Hermione had been occupying one of the common room chairs when the three ninja's had entered and had soon gravitated towards their corner of the common room after Sakura's first whoop of victory at taking one of Fred's bishops with a good sword swipe from one of her own knights.

"Beginner's luck?" Naruto offered to the twins as he too laughed at their expressions.

"Bu-but you said you didn't know how to play!" Fred exclaimed, trying to soften his humiliation.

"I have never played this, what do you call it, chess? We have a game reasonably similar to this in our own culture, called shogi. I am a master at playing that," with a wink Sakura hopped off the couch and slung an arm around Sasuke's shoulders, dragging him behind her grudgingly. "If you boys don't mind, we're going to change and head down to breakfast."
"We'll see you there," Hermione called after them, waving at their backs before giggling once again at the twin's hopeless expressions. "She's a professor, what did you expect?"

"Nnnhn, what's going on?" Harry mumbled, stumbling down the boys dormitory staircase and collapsed in on the sofa recently vacated by the ninja's.

"Where's Ron?" Hermione asked, already knowing he was still in bed even though they only had a half hour left before their first lesson began. History of Magic with Binns followed by double Potions with Snape. They didn't have martial arts until before lunch. Luckily for them, the Weasley twins had the class first up.

Harry pointed up the staircase and gave her a slightly condescending look, as if to say 'do you really need to ask?' With a sigh Hermione ascended the stairs. A minute later a loud thump and a shout of surprise had the Weasley twins and Harry shaking their heads and wondering when they would both just snog and get it over with.

Lunch came with a lot of hardly repressed sighs as the fifth years trudged wearily into the Grand Hall after a gruelling potions lesson. The Draught of Peace? More like The Draught from Hell, Harry thought as he plonked down in his seat. He didn't know Snape was so hateful towards him, so what if his Dad and him had hated each other, it had nothing to do with him and yet Snape insisted on treating him like he was something under his shoe needing to be wiped off.

"That was really unfair," said Hermonie consolingly, sitting down next to Harry and helping herself to shepherd's pie. "Your potion wasn't nearly as bad as Goyle's; when he put it in his flagon the whole thing shattered and set his robes on fire."

"Yeah, well," said Harry, glowering at his plate, "since when has Snape ever been fair to me?"

Neither of the others answered; all three of them knew that Snape and Harry's mutual enmity had been absolute from the moment Harry had set foot in Hogwarts.

"Well, well, what's with the long faces?" Two familiar voices cheerfully spoke before the occupants sat on either side of Harry, facing the other two.

"Potions." Ron stated dully as he picked at his chicken chipolata's.

"Ahhh, the dreaded subject. Oh well, chin up chaps. You have Martial Arts now." George spoke, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

"How was it?" Hermione asked curiously, leaning forward in her seat, nearly knocking over Ron's drink as he glared at her.

"Let's put it this way – "

" – that class is one of a kind," Fred finished as George nodded.

"You can't give us more than that?" Ron asked irritably.

"Be ready for a whole lot of physical labour. My muscles still hurt and it was 2 hours ago," George spoke, rolling his shoulders.

"Oh it wasn't that bad, don't be such a baby," A melodious voice spoke as they passed by. They all turned to see Professor Haruno turn to them and wink before she made her way up to the teachers table with her two co-professors in tow.

"Oops... I think she heard us," Fred said sheepishly before digging into his mashed potato.