A/N: Hey my loyal readers! I found this on my computer, completely forgot about it! It's just a cute little one-shot I wrote based on a little line from Half Blood Prince. If you want me to continue it, I can someday. But for now it's a one-shot. Hope you enjoy! PS: It's in the paper shop girl's POV if you couldn't tell.
"We're off to the village, there's a very pretty girl working in the paper shop who thinks my card tricks are something marvelous...almost like real magic..."
Wrapping my coat tighter around myself, I glanced at the snow drifting down from the sky. I still had half an hour until my shift started, so it couldn't hurt just to delay a little.
Pulling my mittens on tighter, I grasped a firm amount of snow in my hands and formed it into a good, round snowball. I hadn't thrown one of these since I was a kid! Hiding behind a nearby bush, I glimpsed through the branches until someone strode by, before hurling the ball at their back and hiding back beneath the bush. Luckily my coat was brown, so I blended right in.
The man turned, looked around for a moment, but was unable to find a culprit, forcing him to continue walking. Laughing, I wiped the snow from my mittens and waited another few minutes for the coast to be clear.
Standing up, I made my way to the local paper shop where I worked in our village of Ottery St. Catchpole. I had been given a few days off, but it was good to be back to work, I needed the money for Christmas.
Opening the door, I smiled as the bell jingled above the frame, letting the owner know I had arrived.
"Ah Eloise! You're here, great! I can begin cleaning the store room. Just tend to the customers today! Thank you so much, you're a dear!" And with that, Ms. Mason disappeared into the back room behind the cash register.
Smiling, I ditched my coat and bag quickly in the closet that was behind the register as well, and pulled on my apron and nametag. Ms. Mason had owned this shop for as long as I could remember, yet it appeared she owned it alone. My parents claim that her husband died many years ago, and she refuses to re-marry.
Clapping my hands together, I switched the 'Closed' sign to 'Open', and began my shift.
Rarely did we have customers throughout the year, but Christmas time it was busy, what with everyone in the village wanting wrapping paper and Christmas cards. But it would be a quiet day today, what with it being Christmas Eve and all.
And I just happened to be right. It was dinner time now, and I had only had two customers in the last four hours.
My hand rested under my chin on the counter, as my eyes drifted lazily open and closed, however I was surprisingly jingled from my sleep as the bell above the door shook.
Looking up, I had to grin. There in the door stood the set of twins that had been to the store the previous week and had entertained me with silly magic tricks. Hopefully they had come to talk to me again, as today I would bored out of my mind.
"Eloise! My dear, how lovely to see you this fine Christmas Eve!" said the one on the right. It was still impossible to tell them apart, I just knew one was Fred, the other George. But it couldn't be so bad, I mean they said even their own mother had a hard time telling them apart nowadays.
"Hey boys. Thought I'd never see you again! Speaking of which, how come I'd never ever seen you before last week?" So many questions ran through my mind as soon as I asked this. Like where did they go to school? I was in my last year at the only high school in town. I swear I would remember a set of identical ginger twins. Did they even go to school? How old were they? Did they have a family besides their mom? Where were they from? Where do they live, as surely I knew everyone in the village? Why are they only now showing themselves in the village? I could go on…
"Oh, you see we don't usually visit in the village. We shop elsewhere in London. Special place for us…" the other twin answered.
"Like where…the loony bin?" I joked.
"No. It's called Diagon Alley. Cool shops there. Even got one ourselves…" said the first. Wait, what?
"Wait…you own your own store. How old exactly are you two?" I exclaimed with surprise.
"Eighteen, aren't we Fred?" said the second. Ah that clears it up. OK George is the one in the red scarf. And Fred is wearing that odd hat.
"I believe so George. Yes, we own our own store. A Joke Shop we like to call Weasley's Wizard Wheezes," Fred replied. "Anyways, care for some entertainment? We were bored at home, watching our younger brother and his friend cut sprouts by hand. Ha, what a laugh! Bloody wanker tossed a knife at me, but mum got mad with him. Serves him right, so we didn't help them finish!"
I scratched my head a little in confusion. Don't people usually cut things by hand? Or like an automatic slicer? Well at least I knew one more thing, they had a younger brother.
"So you have a brother, eh? Any more Weasley siblings that I should be worried about?" I asked.
"Well yes, we have quite a few, you see. There's Bill – " began Fred.
"He works at Gringotts. Then Charlie – "
"Who works in Romania. Our non-existent brother Percy – "
"We don't talk about him. Our younger brother Ron – "
"He's usually gone to school with our only sister: the little squirt Ginny."
"Non-existent brother?" my eyebrows furrowed. These two were odd.
"Yeah well, he's gone off and become friendly with the Minister, who only wants to recruit Harry to show that the Ministry is 'supposedly' doing its job; when it's obviously not. And he sent back mum's hand-knit jumper at Christmas. Bloody wanker he is…doing that to poor mum…she nearly died." George shook his head.
"Hang on, what Minister? You can't mean the Prime Minister? That just doesn't make sense. And who's Harry and this Ministry you're always talking about?"
"No, no, not the Prime Minister. The Minister for M – "
"What my brother is trying to say is, is that we don't mean the Prime Minister. But we can't exactly tell you who we mean, right George?"
George looked hesitant, "Right."
"And Harry is the friend of our younger brother Ron we were telling you about. They have another friend as well, Hermione. But she's not with them for once. Odd, as usually the three are inseparable. Then again, she's practically in love with Ron, as he is with her – "
" – everyone knows that, except Ron and Hermione – " cut in George.
" – but now he's dating some coot named Lavender. It's apparently sickening – "
" – but we have yet to witness it, as we dropped out of school last year. Well that wouldn't even affect it now, as we would be graduated from seventh year – "
" – I hear she calls him her … heh, wait for it … her Won-Won!" The twins cracked up as I chuckled softly. That must be terrible for their brother.
"You guys dropped out of school? Why?" I asked, my curiosity getting the better of me.
"Well this old hag tried to take over our school. Then she banned us from Quidditch. Honestly!" George shook his head, but continued, "So we caused some mayhem, setting off some of our own personal fireworks in the school, and leaving behind one of our patented Portable Swamps. Oh what a laugh!"
I stared at them in shock. "What's Quidditch? And fireworks? Isn't that dangerous? There's like gun powder!"
Fred muttered something along the lines of, "She's a muggle George." Before turning to her. "They're special fireworks. No gun powder. Completely harmless. Just impossible to get rid of, and if you try, they multiply."
"And Quidditch is a sport. Kind of like American Football but more confusing," George piped in.
Rolling my eyes, I reached down behind the counter and pulled out a deck of cards. "Well boys as long as you're here…" I grinned slyly at them.
"Oh excellent, you want another show. I suppose we could give one – "
"Yes, I daresay we can. But on one condition – "
They both turned to me then, "Busy on your lunch break today?" they asked in unison. This was getting creepy, but I still found it funny.
"No, I'm not. I was just going to lounge in the break room."
"Not any more. You're coming with us – "
"To that cute little bistro down the road. We went there the last time we were in the village – "
"And their food is quite good – "
"Not as good as mum's of course – "
"OK seriously you two, stop that," I was getting annoyed now, and I was pretty sure that was exactly why they were doing it.
Fred grinned like the Cheshire cat. "So you'll come then?"
"Fine," I sighed, not wanting to let them know I had planned to agree anyways.
"Good!" George joined Fred with another creepy grin.
I slid the deck of cards over to them. "What trick do you plan to do today?"
"Just a simple one we learned back in fourth year," Fred said, beginning to shuffle the cards. George seemed to be fiddling with something up his sleeve, so I eyed him. He stopped immediately, grinning back at me as if he'd done nothing.
"So I want you to pick a card, any card."
Of course, the usual line. Reaching out, I grabbed one close to the middle that he had fanned out. Three of hearts, got it.
"Memorize it, then place it back in the middle of the pile," Fred took of his jacket as I did so, probably to prove he was hiding nothing. Picking up the pile once more, he shuffled it several times.
Fanning out the cards again, this time facing him, he grinned. Pulling out a completely random card from the middle he smirked, "Is this your card?" he asked.
What I saw nearly amazed me. It was my card alright, the three of hearts. But the card was now rainbow in color.
"Y-Yes!" I cried. "But how…?"
Turning the fanned cards around, I was shocked to see every card was a different color. How was that even possible? I stared in awe at what the boys had done.
"See you at lunch then?" All I could do was nod. "Bye El!" The twins left then, laughing amongst themselves.
Scratching my head, I stared bewildered at my now multi-coloured cards. Those boys would be the death of me, I swear!
A/N: If you liked it, review and let me know! If you want me to continue someday, let me know as well!