AN: One shot for Maya, AKA SHINeeWhiteRose. I'm not really happy with how this turned out, but if Maya and others like it, I'll add another chapter.
"One last applicant," George said to his twin as they closed the door on the crazy girl they had just interviewed. "You want to take her, or should I?"
"Her?" Fred asked, suddenly interested. "I could take her, I know how hard you've been working."
"Funny," George said. "Be my guest, but if you hire her, do me a favor and don't ask her out. And if you ask her out, don't hire her. Working with a girlfriend is just going to cause trouble."
Fred rolled his eyes. "Just because you broke up with Emily for being a complete bitch and she quit, doesn't mean it's going to happen to me. Don't take your frustrations out on me."
"I'm just saying," George said innocently, and he stuck his head out the door and called, "Brittany! Come in here!" Then he turned to Fred. "Did you notice that all our applicants were girls? Are we really that popular amongst the girls?"
"I don't know about you, Mr. Holey, but I am. Girls love me. Why Emily chose you and not me is a mystery only Sherlock Holmes can solve. Well, maybe him and Scooby Doo."
"Maybe it's that attitude of yours," George was about to say, but was interrupted by a high pitched, excited voice squealing, "I love Scooby Doo! I never thought I'd meet someone else in the wizard world that does!" George turned around, and Fred looked around him, to find a girl standing there, all excited. She had long brown hair and very blue eyes, which were watching Fred warily.
George turned back to Fred and snapped in his face. "You alright there? You're staring."
Fred blinked and shook his head, then turned back to the girl. "You're Brittany, yeah?"
The girl looked offended. "Who's Brittany? Your blind date?"
"N-no!" Fred stammered, flustered. "She's the-"
The girl laughed. "I'm teasing you. Yes, I'm Brittany, and who might I have the pleasure of meeting?"
"Fred Weasley, co-owner of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Fred replied.
Brittany nodded. "I know. You're kind of famous around here."
"Here as in the shop, or here as in Diagon Alley? Or here as in the world?" he asked teasingly.
Brittany shrugged. "I don't know about the world, but most people I talk to know who you are. You're like, a celebrity! Coming back from the dead like you did, not to mention going on to open a shop that's threatening to put Zonko's out of business! How did you do it all?"
Fred put his hand up. "Hold on, I'm supposed to be interviewing you." He looked around for George for confirmation on this fact, but he had apparently slipped out of the room unnoticed. "Oh. I've been ditched."
"Okay, fine. Answer my questions and I'll answer yours. We'll take turns," Brittany reasoned.
"Have you ever been to a job interview before?" Fred asked skeptically. "You said you've had jobs-"
"I'm just fascinated. Your whole story is a mystery to me. I mean, sure, I've heard it, but I'd like to hear your side. Besides, a place like this doesn't need a proper employee. Someone who will sit still for eight hours a day while doing monotonous paperwork and complaining about her boss in her free time. A place like this needs a fun employee. So I think normal interviews won't really work."
Fred was shocked. He had made this exact point to George a few days ago, and had been using it as a test. Most applicants wouldn't agree with his methods, and the fact that Brittany had caught on and agreed so quickly made him think she was the right girl for the job. Still, he wanted to see how she did in this interview.
"So Brittany," he began. "Why do you want to work with us?"
"You're not going to answer my question first?"
"Me first, I'm the interviewer."
"Fine. I want to work here because it seems like a fun, completely not stiff atmosphere and I love the shop."
"So not because you'd have two 'celebrities' as your bosses?" Fred asked skeptically.
"No. My turn. How didn't you die? I mean, you were dead, yeah?"
"No. Just a concussion from the fall. But in the heat of battle, no one really had time to check. I could have just been asleep for all they know! But they all freaked out, and my name was put on the dead list. When I woke up they forgot to take my name off, so I was literally living and dead at one point, until they realized their mistake. So that is how you can be the living dead," he summed up, laughing.
Brittany nodded. "Your turn," she informed him.
Fred looked down at his list of things he had to know about each applicant before hiring him/her. Then he tossed it aside. "Why don't you tell me about yourself?" he suggested.
"What do you want to know?"
"Anything. Just talk."
"Um...okay? Well, I just recently finished my studies at Hogwarts last May. I moved out into my own flat with some friends in June. My best classes were Defense and Potions, and I'm the only person in the history of Hogwarts to make Snape laugh."
"What?" Fred asked, shocked. "How did you manage that?"
"I will never reveal my secrets," Brittany said, smiling evilly.
"I will never give up until I find out!" Fred replied just as easily.
"I look forward to it," Brittany said, still smiling evilly.
"You're scaring me. But in a good way," he made sure to add quickly. "I think it's your turn?"
"It is. How did you do this? I mean, tell me the story of this shop. If I'm going to be an employee, I'm going to have to know."
"Well," Fred began, "our sixth year of Hogwarts, we ran into some money, our donor would prefer to remain nameless, and so we worked on our prototypes for our project all our seventh year. You were in Hogwarts at that time, you would have been a fifth year?"
"Sixth," she corrected. "It was only a year ago! I remember that. You guys set off all those fireworks and escaped. You know Filch kept like a corner of the mess, in remembrance of you guys."
Fred smirked. "I knew he secretly liked us." Brittany laughed before Fred continued. "Well, we left and used the rest of the money to rent a small place down the street, and when our shop became bigger, we built this place you're sitting in right now. That's the story. My turn. Has anyone ever told you that you have very pretty eyes?"
"Yeah, like, everyone says—" she cut off. "Wait, we are in the middle of an interview."
"Right. So…I don't know what else to ask you. I know you're better qualified for the job than anyone else who we interviewed. I know you're a hard worker, if your past job experiences have anything to say." He looked over her list of past summer jobs, a job every summer since she was 14, sometimes two at once. "I think we're going to give you the job, but I want to give George a chance to talk to you first. Come with me to find him?"
"Sure," Brittany said and followed him out of the room. They searched around the empty shop (it had been closed for the interviews, giving the brothers the opportunity to only focus on the applicants), and couldn't find him.
"So, how do you look in a bikini?" Fred asked, throwing a casual arm around her shoulders.
"What does that have to do with the interview, or me getting the job, or looking for your brother?" Brittany asked, but Fred noticed she didn't move away from his touch.
"It doesn't, but George and I were planning on going to the beach this weekend, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come."
"Fred Weasley," Brittany scolded him. "Are you asking your new employee on a date?"
"Only if she says yes," Fred teased back, grabbing her around the waist and staring into her eyes. She playfully pushed him away, knowing what he was thinking.
"Not until the second date," she said, winking.
"This weekend, then?" he said. "I assume that's when that will be?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Now, you never answered my bikini question?"
"Oh," Brittany said, "you can have that answer later when you see me."
The flirting couple walked into the back storage room and almost backed right out, if the snogging couple hadn't pulled away from each other at that moment. When George's apparent girlfriend, a girl about Brittany's height with short brown hair and glasses, turned to look at who interrupted her temporary amusement, she looked shocked.
"You?" she said.
"Hey, Emily," Fred said to get rid of the awkwardness a little. It didn't work, George was shrinking into the corner, and Emily was still staring at them, but it took Fred a minute to realize she was only staring at Brittany.
"I thought I got rid of you at Hogwarts!" she said in disbelief.
"Nope. I'm impossible to get rid of," Brittany said, but anyone could tell she was just as shocked to see Emily as Emily was to see Brittany.
"I know. I spent 7 years trying to ditch you in the Ravenclaw common room."
"Wait, wait, wait," George said, "what's wrong with her?"
"She's annoyingly perky," Emily replied as if that were a legitimate reason for hating someone.
"And she's some sort of emo, antisocial—"
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" Emily snapped at Brittany.
"About as many times as I've called you that?" Brittany replied.
The two girls glared at each other, and Fred and George looked worriedly from the girls to each other, wondering if they should break it up. Until the two girls hugged as if best friends, smiling and laughing.
"What?" Fred and George asked at the same time, unable to form a better question.
"We're best friends, we were only playing," Emily explained, and Brittany nodded in agreement.
"Emily and I are back together," George announced suddenly. Emily nodded slowly.
"Welcome back, Em," Fred said. "Oh, and I just hired Brittany, and she's coming to the beach with us this weekend."
"Me too!" Emily squealed, seemingly out of character for her, and Brittany hugged her around the neck.
"Well…that worked out perfectly," George commented. "A little too perfectly."