Sunshine and the Twin Trio
"This summer is going to be awesome!" the young man cried, wind blowing his dark blond hair into his face. Pumping his fist into the air, he quickly brought it down again when the broom under him swerved, almost running into the only other male with him.
"If we make it in one piece, Nik." The male said, rolling his eyes as he straightened his own broom out, immaculate hair not out of place even as they sped through the clouds.
"Don't listen to Keane, Niki." The only girl called from behind them, where she had swerved to keep from being plowed into. "He's just upset that the office made him take a vacation." The cheerful blonde swooped back into place beside her younger brother, hair pulled back into a messy braid as she easily guided her broomstick with a single hand, the other propped on her hip.
"So says the one that got fired for calling her boss a yellow-bellied, poor excuse of a turd." Keane snorted.
Nikolai turned to his sister with wide eyes, who in turn rolled her eyes.
"Why'd you call him that, Margo?"
"He forgot to spell the dragon cage shut, and when the Ridgeback broke loose, blamed me for it, after I cleaned up the mess and got the dragon back in." Margo replied.
As Nik turned back to Keane to defend her for calling her boss something that went into the sewage, Margo stayed quiet, mind replaying the events that had played out when the fully grown dragon had escaped its confinements before it was able to be shipped back to Romania after being illegally brought over by some black-market wizards.
The entire building had been torn down because of her boss's mistake. Luckily, it had been during the weekend and only the ghost shift of the Wizarding Black Market unit had been there, and most of them were out catching the person who'd brought the dragon over to America. But there had been three people down in the dungeons with her as they fought to subdue the dragon. And only two had walked out.
One of Margo's teammates had to be side-Apparated to the hospital, four gashes threatening to spill his intestines out along the stretcher.
Margo had only worked there for a month.
"I think I see it!" Nik's giddy yell broke through her thoughts, and Margo focused on the distance, where a clearing in the middle of a swampy field held a lop-sided house.
"Good eyes, Nik!" Margo praised her younger brother and patted him on the head, earning herself a scowl from the sixteen year old.
"I saw it a few minutes ago." Keane said dully. Margo scowled at the eldest sibling as Nik's face fell. "But still, good job." He added on with a sigh.
Margo rolled her eyes, but let it go when a smile appeared again on Nik's face.
Ever since Keane started working for the International Ministry of Magic, he'd become a strict rule keeper, and as the head of their house, less likely to see the humor in a situation. Which was unfortunate, since Nik was a prankster at heart.
As the trio circled around the homey building, even Keane couldn't help but smile as a sense of excitement grew, and Nik whooped with joy as their feet finally touched the ground.
"Ahoy the Weasleys!" he yelled, stumbling as he got off the broom and hastily unlatched the small rectangular box from the back before rushing to the door.
Margo's grin grew even wider as she heard the answering cheers and calls from inside the house.
"THE COUSINS ARE HERE!" – "FINALLY!"
Nik has just reached the door when it swung open and about three sets of arms reached out and pulled him into a bone-crushing hug, Keane close behind. Margo was happy to see that the familiar easy-going smile was back on his face.
His boss was right to insist on this vacation.
Only when the door was shut again and the voices muffled did Margo realize that she was the only one left outside, with all the trunks, all back to their original size.
"I HAVE LAZY SLUGS FOR BROTHERS!" she called, and knew that they had heard her when there was a roar of laughter, only was cut short by the familiar voice of Molly Weasley scolding her children.
Mrs. Weasley counted the Sterling children among her own, being Keane's godmother, and their mother's closest friend before she died.
Huffing, Margo squared her shoulders and grabbed the handler of her own trunk, dragging it over to where Nik and Keane's were. This was nothing new. Every time they visited their British 'cousins', Margo was always left to find a way to get all their belongings in the house. Now that she was older, it was, of course, much easier to do so than it had been when she was ten and fifteen and all gangly with no muscle to speak of.
"Did they leave you with the trunks again, Sunshine?" a deep, amused male voice called from behind, and Margo froze, dropping the handle of her trunk before whirling around.
Laughing brown eyes, fiery red hair cropped close to his head, yet still managing to be shaggy in the front, familiar lop-sided smirk on plush lips…
"Charlie!"
Laughing delightedly, Margo ran at him, wrapping her arms around his neck, hanging on as he twirled her around, his own deep laughter in her ears.
If Margo had to admit, under duress, who her favorite person was other than her brothers, it would be Charlie.
He'd been the one who, countless times, had saved her from the teasing clutches of Fred, George and Nik, or the boring lectures of Percy and Keane when she'd been caught retaliating against a prank. He had taken mercy on a bored school-girl, caught between two brothers, and taught her how to ride a broom and how to play Quidditch.
His passion for Dragons had passed to her. The many hours they had spent holed up somewhere with a book, talking and imagining all the adventures they could have were a fond memory for Margo.
It never seemed to matter to Charlie that she was a few years younger, he always treated her as a peer.
"You've grown up, Sunshine." Charlie said after he'd stopped spinning her and placed her back on the ground. Margo clutched at his shoulders as she waited for the world to stop spinning.
"I couldn't stay a twiggy fifteen year old, now could I?" Margo laughed as the world settled, and she took a second look at the man standing in front of her, his hands on her waist.
No longer was he a lean eighteen year old, still filling out. The muscles were thick on his arms, one bearing the tell-tale scar of a dragon burn. His shoulders weren't so stooped anymore, now they were a broadness of someone who was confident in himself and his abilities and wasn't afraid to work and prove others right.
All in all, he was devastatingly handsome.
"Just like you couldn't stay a skinny eighteen year old." Margo teased, easing back so she could poke him in the arm, blinking to herself when her finger met hard muscle.
Mentally shaking her head('This is Charlie, our FRIEND.'), Margo stepped back.
"And to answer your question: yes, the slugs that I call brothers left me with the trunks yet again." She sighed dramatically, placing a hand to her heart as Charlie chuckled. "They do this every time!" Faking a sob, Margo couldn't help but smile as Charlie let loose a guffaw and threw an arm around her shoulders.
"Still a drama queen, Sunshine. That much hasn't changed." He told her, poking her in the cheek with a finger as he led her back to where the trunks were haphazardly laying. "Come on, I'll help you." He said, letting her go with a wink. "Next time, you're on your own."
"Yeah, yeah." Margo muttered, loud enough for him to hear, a grin on her face as she once again grabbed the handle of her trunk.
He'd said that last time she'd been left with the trunks, and the time before that.
Once she had a good grip on the handle, she turned around, only to almost drop the trunk yet again.
Charlie had a trunk on a shoulder, the other under his arm.
"You alright there, Sunshine?" he asked, oblivious to her staring, before heading towards the front door and kicking it open, carrying both trunks with ease.
"Show off." Margo grumped as she lugged her trunk behind her.
As soon as she stepped into the house, a chorus of welcome cries hit her ears, and Margo had to drop the handle of her trunk again as at least three pairs of arms wrapped around her waist and shoulders, sending her to the floor with a grunt.
Instead of getting angry at being knocked to the floor, Margo just laughed and tried to hug as many people back as she could. As far as she was concerned, these people could do anything they wanted, and she would still love them to death.
Even over all the voices, she could still hear Charlie chuckle as he finally used magic to send all the truck to their respective rooms.
"Kids, let the poor girl up!" Mrs. Weasley scolded with a smile on her face as she reached through the pile of bodies and found Margo's hand, pulling her up into a hug. "Look at you dear, all grown up." She said, patting Margo on cheek fondly. "A little skinny, but nothing I can't fix." She grinned, letting her go with a pinch on her cheek. "Mr. Weasley will be home for dinner, and he'll be glad to see you lot made it safely."
"Nik was just telling us that you got fired from your job. What happened?" One of the twins said, grabbing her arms and swinging Margo around so she was facing them, nearly making her hit the cauldron that was hanging from the ceiling.
Glancing at Nik, who shrugged a shoulder in a 'what-did-you-expect?' manner, Margo laughed and rolled her eyes.
"I did, but that's a story for another time." Margo said, and when both brother and cousin groaned. "But you should ask Nik about the time he turned Keane's hair green, right before an interview with the Minister." She grinned, cackling on the inside as she saw Nik wince and Keane smack his forehead with his hand.
"What?!" Both twins rounded on Nik, who they called their third twin.
"Come with us, young one." Fred said, Margo having caught sight of the mole on his neck, right under his ear which was the only thing that set him apart from his brother.
"Tell us your ways, and we will share ours." George said, and they grabbed Nik by the arms and frog marched him up the stairs. The sound of a door slamming had Mrs. Weasley jumping slightly from where she was madly waving her wand in the kitchen.
"Come, sit." Ginny's soft voice interrupted Margo's moment of gleeful revenge, and her youngest cousin grabbed her wrist and towed her, with surprising strength, towards the living room where a set of mismatched couches and a couple of armchairs sat in front of an empty fireplace. Margo knew that as soon as the sun set, there would be a roaring fire, and she looked forward to it.
The English weather was cooler than what she was used too, and she entertained the thought of running up to her trunk and grabbing a sweater, but then Ginny pushed her down onto the sofa beside a sprawling Charlie, and then Ginny herself sat down on her other side.
"I've missed you." Ginny said with a laugh as Margo mock scowled at the feet that appeared in her lap before she pushed them off and stuck her tongue out at their owner, who just gave the typical male Weasley smirk.
"I missed you too, Gin." Margo replied with a sigh, letting her body relax after the four hour long broom ride. "We've got to stick together, you and I, the only girls in a family of boys."
Ginny laughed again, and leaned her head against the blonde young woman's shoulder.
While Charlie was her favorite person, Ginny held a special place in Margo's heart. They used to team up and pelt the boys with chestnuts or un-ripe figs from the garden when they wouldn't let Ginny play Quidditch with them. Charlie had been on the receiving end of their wicked aim a few times himself.
"Did you travel the whole way by broom?" Charlie asked in the lull of conversation. Opening her eyes from where'd they closed as she relaxed, Margo turned her head to face him.
"Nope." She said, then struggled to suppress a yawn. "Keane got permission to use a Portkey to cross the ocean, then we had a four hour ride."
"Woah." Ginny's eyes went wide at that. "Four hours of flying with your brothers? No wonder you're tired. Trolls, the lot of them." She said, and Margo turned her laugh into a snort.
That girl was a gem.
"Well, sleep now, we'll wake you for dinner." Charlie moved a little, then a large hand descended on her shoulder, gently pulling her towards a warm, strong chest.
Margo didn't fight it, and as she curled up into his side, eyes drooping shut, she felt Ginny rearranging herself so that her head was in Margo's lap, with her feet dangling over the edge of the sofa.
With her head against Charlie's chest, Ginny curled up in her lap, Margo dozed off, hearing snippets of conversation and bursts of laughter as the oddly named Twin Trio traipsed through the living room on the way to the kitchen to do Mrs. Weasleys bidding, or pieces of an argument between Keane and Percy, both in the Ministry and working for their own Ministers of Magic.
The days passed by, and before Margo knew it, they had been at the Burrow for a week. A week full of laughter, mid-night Quidditch games as the World Cup steadily approached and time spent relaxing on the bed in the room she shared with Ginny.
Margo was doing exactly that at the moment, relaxing. Ginny was downstairs, chasing George with a broom in one hand and a feather duster in the other, and Margo could hear Nik, Ron and Fred crying with laughter in the living room. Keane and Percy were holed up in Percy's room, muffled conversation drifting through the walls. Charlie was probably in the kitchen, being bullied into helping Mrs. Weasley prepare dinner.
Throwing an arm over her eyes, she sank down onto her pillow, willing her tense shoulders to relax.
She'd had another nightmare about the disaster with the dragon again, instead this time, she was the one who got caught by the Norwegian Ridgebacks tail, not Lyle. All of the other nightmares were just flashbacks of what had really happened.
The yelling, the flying spells, the sheer terror as the dragon's huge head turned to look right at her, barely able to latch a hand around the broom she'd summoned earlier, swinging onto it mid-air, just as a jet of fire hit where she'd been standing.
"Oi!" something hit her right on the hip bone as a voice yelled, breaking her haze.
Sitting up, she picked the crab apple up off the bedspread with two fingers and raised an eyebrow at the hovering figure outside the open window.
"Really?" she asked, and Charlie grinned unrepentantly, body at ease on the broom he held steady with a light hand, the wind molding his simple shirt to his chest, outlining every muscle formed by hard-work.
"You looked like you were asleep." Was all he said by way of explaining, before nodding his head in the direction of the open field. "Come on, the twins challenged us to a game of Quidditch."
"Quaffle only?" Margo grinned, and Charlie just nodded. "Excellent." She muttered to herself, pulling her wand out of it's custom-made sheath on the underside of her forearm. "Accio broom."
Leaving the window for a moment, she grabbed a beanie from her trunk and jammed it on her head over her ears and braid. Her ears always got cold when she was flying.
Stepping onto the window sill, she winked at Charlie, who was waiting with a hand outstretched, as if to help her onto her broom, before jumping off, feet first.
"HEY-!" Charlie's outburst was cut off as Margo zoomed off under him, her laughter fading as she raced to the pitch, blonde braid flying out behind her.
Quaffle-only Quidditch with the twins was just the thing to distract her.
"Hey boyos." Margo greeted the twins with a wave as she arrived.
"Ready to lose?" they both asked at the same time, passing the blood-red ball between them with ease.
"Are you?" she taunted back as Charlie stopped right next to her, eyes wide.
"What was that?" he asked, and the twins paused, curiosity evident on their faces. "Jumping out of the window like that?"
Fred and Gerorge glanced between at her and Charlie as they spoke, confusion etched on to their faces.
"That?" Margo shrugged a shoulder. "I do it all the time at home. I knew the broom was going to be there."
"Sunshine's turning into a daredevil." George nudged Fred in the ribs after they had closed their mouths, tossing the Quaffle to his brother.
"But how much of one, I wonder?" Fred replied slyly, eyebrows dancing in a dare as he caught the ball and returned it in a single motion.
Turning to face Charlie, who's face was now creased with confusion, Margo grinned and winked before spinning around and swooping over the twins, grabbing the Quaffle mid-pass and tossing it through one of the three hoops, the boys reaction time slowed by the suddenness of the action.
"Point one for my team, I think." Margo said as she twirled the ball on a finger as she passed them slowly, then tossing the ball to Charlie, who barely managed to catch it, he was laughing so hard.
"Oh, it's on." The twins chimed, mischievous grins on their faces.
Catching Charlie's eye, Margo grinned, unable to help the joy she felt at being able to get out of her head and out into the real world, playing what would turn out to be a ferocious game of Wizards Catch and Release. Charlie grinned back, and tucked the ball under his arm, flying off with the twins hot on his tail.
"Where did you learn to fly?" Fred panted as he staggered into the kitchen, helping a madly giggling George stay upright.
"Charlie taught me some." Margo replied between gasps of laughter, adjusting George's other arm over her shoulder, faltering slightly as he tripped over the edge of a rug. "Then I learned some at school and work."
"Work taught you broom handling?" Charlie asked, coming in behind the trio, closing the door. She could just hear the raised eyebrow.
"Mandatory." Margo replied shortly, grunting as Fred dropped his brother's arm to move shoes and cauldrons out of the way.
"What happened to George?" Mrs. Weasely cried, bounding up from her armchair, dropping her knitting, which kept on going without her.
"Fred tried to get Margo with the Endless Giggles spell , but she moved and it hit George instead." Charlie replied, rushing forward to grab the dropped arm before Margo and a helpless George toppled over.
"FRED WEASLEY!"
"It's alright Molly." Mr. Weasley tried to pacify his wife. "Quite harmless, the Endless Giggles."
Margo barely caught the snort that threatened to escape her mouth, instead turning into a cough. It wasn't safe to incur the wrath of Molly Weasley when her fuse was already lit.
"NO IT'S NOT HARMLESS, LOOK AT HIM! IF THEY SPENT AS MUCH TIME MAKING UP SPELLS AND THEIR TRICK WANDS AS THEY SPENT STUDYING, THEIR O.W.L'S WOULD HAVE BEEN MUCH BETTER!"
Catching Charlie's grimace, they swiftly deposited the still giggling George on the sofa and escaped up the stairs.
"I gather she found another trick wand, eh?" Margo asked as she flopped onto the spare bed in what was now Charlie and Bill's room. (Bill was due to arrive the day after tomorrow, effectively kicking the twins out of their room.)
Closing the door on his mother's yells, muffling them, Charlie sighed.
"Yeah, that's why they challenged us to the game." He ended with a groan as he too fell onto a bed, this one parallel to the one Marge was on. "I expect they were trying to give her time to cool down."
"Well, it didn't work to well." Margo winced as Mrs. Weasley's voice rose again.
Charlie just grunted and punched his pillow into shape under his head.
Silence fell between them. As Margo pillowed her head on her arms, she mused that this wasn't one of those awkward don't-know-what-to-say silences. This was a comfortable quiet. They knew each other well enough to not care about keeping a pointless conversation going.
Looking over at the quiet man, she noticed that his profile was being highlighted by the setting sun, its gold, orange and red rays coming through the window and setting Charlie's ridiculously long eyelashes ablaze.
It really was no fair, Margo whined silently, that guys got the perfect eyelashes, while some women barely had any. She herself was lucky to have long eyelashes, thanks to her mother, but Charlie's were close to being obscenely long.
But they somehow suited him, she thought absently, humming lightly to herself without knowing. They gave his weather roughened, work hardened body a sense of softness, a gentleness that was hidden under the layers of dragon-lore and teasing.
As Charlies eyes fluttered open, Margo grinned to herself, glad her arms hid it from curious eyes. She was probably the only one outside the family that knew just how gentle and soft the Dragon Keeper was, the memory of large hands holding a dead bird as smaller ones dug a shallow grave, then those same hands wiping away a child's tears.
The same child had wiped away a mortally injured man's tears as she promised to figure out what had happened. And who set it up. Their boss couldn't have been the only forgetful one. Not many people knew, but it took two people to spell a dragon cage shut.
"You're staring at me." Charlie muttered, the visible corner of his mouth twitching into a grin and Margo blinked, the memory vanishing and her mind once again returning to the here and now.
"Just wondering just how, in all that's magical in this world, your nose isn't a deformed mess after all the times its been broken." Margo teased lightly, a chuckle her reward for her attempt at lightness.
"Margo…" Charlie trailed off, and she sighed. He knew that she was avoiding something.
"Worried about work, Charlie-boy." She whispered. "A good man was hurt because of someones carelessness, and I got the blame. I was fired for something that I had no part in."
"Do you know who?" Charlie asked, turning his head to look at her in the almost gone sunlight.
"No." Margo admitted. "But I aim to find out."
"Just be safe, little Sunshine." Charlie cautioned, then said nothing more, for which Margo was grateful.
Letting a sigh loose, she rolled over on to her side and curled up into a ball, hugging herself tight.
All she had to do now was figure out where to start.
Here be my brain child.
Comments and questions welcomed!
c-mllh