The Weasley Family.
The wind swept across Ottery St. Catchpole, sending leaves into the air and over the roofs of the small houses of the village. Men and women were walking through the cobblestone streets on the particularly blusterous August afternoon. A frail looking woman stepped out of the sweets shop carrying a small gift bag with golden lettering on it. She looked down at a piece of paper in her hand and the wind had picked up, sending her small pink hat off her head and over the shop she just got out of. The hat swirled through the air, leaves flying besides it, surfing the gust of wind all the way to an empty field far beyond the village. A microscopic light was flickering like a candle in the distance. A quiet pop disrupted the natural silence of the countryside. Two figures appeared out of nowhere, the smaller one spoke.
"Mum, why do I have to go with? I don't know them." The girl said, looking up at her mother.
"Molly has children your age, love. I want you to make new friends. They'll go to your school when you go next year." Amelia Fitch grabbed the hand of the girl and walked her along the small dirt path. They made their way up to a rather large, ram shackled looking house. Another strong gust of wind flew by, making the house creak and shake.
"It looks like it's gunna fall on us.. I don't want to go inside!" she persisted, tugging at her mother's hand.
"Lena, don't be like that. You know how Mum and Dad can do magic?" The girl, Lena, nodded and stopped tugging. "Well they can too, it makes this house safe."
"I want to be able to do that!" Replied the girl animatedly.
"When you start going to Hogwarts and learn to control your magic you'll be able to do it too. Now come on, it'll be getting dark soon." Lena held her mother's hand tightly, squeezing with all the might a ten year old can, which is a surprising amount. Mrs. Fitch knocked twice on the door, a gnome ran quietly behind them, chasing one of the many chickens in the yard.
"Oh! They're here! Percy, get the door, will you?" A rushed female voice came from inside.
"Yes, Mum." A male voice replied. Lena heard someone walking down stairs and across a wooden floor. The door opened and a smiling pre-teen boy with flaming red hair took its place.
"Hello! Mrs. Fitch, right?" She nodded and they shook hands. "And this must be Lena." He shook her hand professionally. "I'm Percy Weasley." He stood back up let them both inside. "Welcome to the Burrow."
"Well, aren't you adorable?" Lena's mother smiled and hugged the boy, to his surprise. "I remember when you were just born. Rarely ever cried, you were the quietest baby in this house!" Percy looked flustered.
"Oh, I don't recall that. Anyway, Mum should be down in a minute, Ginny got out of her dress again. I'll go tell her you're both here." He clamored up the stairs, the back of his ears red.
They were standing in the kitchen and there was a large wooden table in the middle. Twelve chairs were surrounding it, almost none of them matched. Books were stacked on two of them, and a wooden highchair sat near the center of the table. Pictures and paintings covered the walls, and there was a large clock to the right of Lena. There were nine hands on it, each with a different picture of a redheaded person on it. All of them were pointed at the same place, home. Lena smiled, even young as she was she could tell there was a comfortable air to the Burrow, and home was definitely the right word to describe it.
"Oh! Amelia! Alright? Hope the trip went well!" A plump redheaded woman stepped down the stairs; she wore a colorful robe that looked like it was handmade, and was smiling so widely her eyes crinkled in the corners. The woman walked forward to embrace Mrs. Fitch.
"Wonderful, Molly! I'm so glad you invited us over, sorry Dan couldn't come. You know how he is, non-stop Healing all the time since he got that promotion." She smiled and hugged the woman tightly. Lena looked down at her hands; she didn't know what to do without her mother's hand in hers.
"That's just fine, dear. I understand, Arthur's almost never home now that the Ministry has finally seen his potential. Oh, Lena!" The woman named Molly let go of her mother and looked down at her. "You've grown so much; soon you'll be getting your wand and hexing boys for stealing your potion ingredients, just like your mother!" Mrs. Fitch lightly hit the red-haired woman on the arm and laughed, her cheeks turning slightly pink. Lena remained silent but smiled awkwardly, she didn't enjoy meeting strangers.
"That was so long ago! I almost forgot!" Mrs. Fitch laughed.
"That doesn't make it any less true, dear! Oh where are my manners, do you remember me at all? I'm Mrs. Weasley, one of your mother's oldest friends." She smiled at the child and hugged her, Lena stood awkwardly in her arms. Mrs. Weasley held the girl away from her, looking her over. "You're very tiny, you are. Good thing you'll be staying for dinner. Never has someone left this house not feeling full and happy!"
"How about we introduce her to your children and then catch up?" Lena grabbed her mother's hand once again and held on tight.
Mrs. Weasley led Lena and her mother up the rickety looking stairs. Being as small as Lena was, she didn't exactly enjoy climbing up three stories to get to a destination. It seemed never ending to her, although her mother didn't seem to notice how many steps they had to take. She and Mrs. Weasley chatted animatedly about 'old times', as they called them, and didn't see how Lena nearly tripped over not only the loose boards she was stepping on, but once a rather large grey rat. She never let go of her mother's hand once while she climbed the stairs, nervous about meeting people she hadn't before.
"Here we are; Fred and George's room. They just turned ten this April, so they're only one month younger then you, love." Mrs. Weasley said, like that one month made a different to Lena.
"Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." She replied, trying to hinder stepping through that door. "But I'd rather stay with my mum.."
"Don't listen to her, she's very shy." Mrs. Fitch squatted down and placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "Now Lena, you listen to me. These people will be in your life for a very long time, and I want you to know that you have friends wherever you go. Molly's family was the closest thing I had to a home after Grandma passed. I want you to have that same sense of comfort, alright?"
"Okay. I'll go in." She sighed and held her head high. The two women smiled at her affectionately and Mrs. Weasley opened the door.
Lena was definitely not expecting what happened next. When the door was opened there was a great gust of smoke that filled the hallway. Mrs. Weasley, Mrs. Fitch, and Lena all coughed and waved their hands, trying to regain their vision. Amongst the clouds were two young children, both with amazingly bright red hair. The closer of the two was standing right in front of the door; his face was frozen in a suspicious determination. His twin was holding a large, brown and white, owl. It was moving rather violently against the boy's grip. Finally, the redhead released the struggling creature, this caused it to fly up and hit its head hard on the ceiling, sending it onto the floor with a loud thud. Mrs. Weasley's mouth was ajar; Lena assumed she was inexplicably angry with the boys. Her eyes focused on something in the closest boy's hand. It was a wand. The curtains that hung on the windows were in tatters, pillows lay on the floor with feathers seeping out of them, and colorful books with pictures were torn up and spewed all around the room.
"WHAT ON EARTH HAVE YOU DONE NOW!" Mrs. Weasley screamed, making Lena and the boys all jump at the same time. She then composed herself, remembering they had company, and closed her eyes. Both boys were scarlet, and the wand dropped to the floor. Mrs. Weasley looked down at it and anger flushed into her face once more. She snatched it imminently.
"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY!" She shouted, making Lena run behind her mother. "YOU STOLE YOUR FATHER'S WAND AGAIN!" The twin closest to them had backed up to where his brother stood, both staring fixedly at their mother. Red sparks flew out of the wand, and Mrs. Fitch put her hand on the flaming woman's arm.
"Molly, calm down. I'm sure they didn't mean any harm." She said in a soothing voice. Mrs. Weasley lowered the wand and took a very heavy breath. Lena walked out from behind her mother.
"Clean this up. Now. I don't want to ever see you with a wand until you're eleven and have your own. Do you understand?" She said through gritted teeth. Both boys nodded simultaneously, and looked up at the woman with bright, shining eyes. Her face softened and she walked over to her troublesome children, kissing them each on the head. "I swear, I hope this is just a phase. Like when Bill threw garlic in all of the lampshades because he read about Vampires in Defense Against the Dark Arts.." She tutted her tongue and smiled wryly at Lena
"Well, these are my boys. Fred," she pointed at the boy who had held the owl. "and George." She pointed to the boy who had the wand.
"Not exactly, Mum." 'Fred' frowned and looked at his mother. "I'm George." He turned to face Lena. "George Weasley. And this-" He gestured his thumb towards his twin. "-is Fred."
"What's your name?" Fred asked, grinning at the girl. Both boys acted awfully casual for kids who had not two minutes ago destroyed their room and gotten shouted at.
"Lena Fitch." She answered and let go of her mother's hand.
"Are you going to Hogwarts, too?" George asked her.
"Yeah." She stepped into the room and looked around. Mrs. Fitch and Mrs. Weasley smiled at her once last time before retreating down the stairs. "Are you guys going to clean this up?"
"Nah, I'll ask Charlie if he'll help." George answered, "Be right back." He walked quietly out of the door, looking around to make sure his mother didn't catch him.
"What were you guys doing with that owl?" Lena directed to Fred, he looked about an inch shorter then George was. His eyes were a glistening icy blue.
"Trying to transfigure him into a phoenix," Fred answered, smiling amusingly. Lena couldn't help but grin too; his smile seemed to be contagious. "Charlie told us how Dumbledore has one. We wanted our own!" He sat on the edge of one of the two beds in the room, casting a few stay playing cards onto the floor.
"Isn't that really advanced magic? I heard transfiguration is the hardest class at Hogwarts!" Lena said admirably.
"But doesn't it just sound brilliant? Your own phoenix!" Fred's voice was full of excitement. "Bad timing that you guys came in when you did, we almost had it. Errol ripped up our room too, it wasn't even our fault. No idea why Mum had to freak out on us like that."
"That's what mums are like, mines the same." Lena leaned down to pick up a page of a book. "Your owl ripped up The Tales of Beetle the Bard. I love this book." She flipped the page over and threw it onto the floor again.
"That's rotten luck, that is. Dad reads Babbity Rabbity every night. George's favorite. Don't tell him I told you that, he's really embarrassed about it." Fred jumped off his bed and started collecting the pages together, setting them under his pillow. "I'll ask Dad to fix it when he's home, best not trust Charlie with it, just in case." As if on cue George walked back into the room, followed by a much older boy with the same red hair.
"Hello, I'm Charlie." He greeted Lena and pulled his wand out of his jean pocket. "Lena, right? George was telling me he and Fred had a guest; only reason I'm doing this, by the way." He added to the twins. "Girls shouldn't have to be in a room as filthy as yours. Don't you dare tell Mum, It's against the law you know." He flicked his wrist and waved his wand.
"Whoa," Lena exclaimed, looking around the room. Pages of books, ripped fabric, and small toys and blocks were moving. The curtains repaired themselves, pages flew back into the spines, and all the toys jumped into a large box in the corner. Charlie shoved his wand back into his pocket and looked around at his work.
"Better and better every day. I never clean by hand anymore." He looked down at the twins. "If you tell Mum I'll never let you touch my broom again." With that he swept out of the room.
"Of course we won't, she'd skin us alive if we didn't clean it ourselves." One of the twins announced.
Fred and George looked at Lena with curious eyes.
"I wonder-" George started.
"-if Lena might want to join us-" Fred continued.
"-in pulling a prank?" George finished, his face bright.
"A prank? Like, what?" Lena looked from one boy to the other; she was forgetting which was which now. Fred was shorter, but with them both sitting on the bed, it was harder to tell Fred from George.
"Have you met Percy yet?" One asked, and Lena's mouth turned upward and she nodded.
"Exactly," The other said.
The stationary twin stood up, he was slightly shorter; Fred. She noticed how his hair was parted to the left, while his brother's was to the right. "I'm thinking about those dung bombs Bill gave us."
"I was thinking the exact same thing Freddie." George grinned. "How 'bout it Lena, want to join us?"
Lena thought this over; her mother would be mad if she found out, but isn't this what she wanted, her daughter to befriend this family? And pranks? Well, there was nothing wrong with that in Lena's eyes; she loved nothing better than a good prank.
"Alright, but dung bombs might be a bit childish, don't you think? I happen to have some exploding bonbons with me." She pulled a small box out of her pocket and showed it to them. "Always carry it, for just this occasion."
"Lena Fitch, I think I'm in love with you." Both Fred and George said at the same time, making Lena laugh. They sat in a circle on the floor, with the bonbons and dung bombs in the middle of them, planning.
Fred and George felt like family to Lena after that day, and never again would be nervous walking into the Burrow. After Percy accepted the Exploding Bonbons from Lena he said he would never trust her, claiming she had been corrupted by the twins. Fred and George introduced her to their younger siblings, Ginny and Ron, both of which took to her right away. Ginny was convinced she was her sister, and Lena didn't want to correct her. After all, she felt like a part of the Weasley family already.