AN: Hello, my dearests. Hopefully you know who I am and what you're about to read. If not: I go by 'cowriter', and I authored the story 'Witches for Weasleys', the AU story of Fred and George Weasley's time at Hogwarts through their eyes and the eyes of their friends Cas and Jo (OCs). WFW covers their first three years, and Whims of Witches tackles the next three. If you haven't read the first series yet, please go do that, as a favor to yourselves. If you're all caught up, I'm proud to present:

Whims of Witches

Year 4 Part 1

POV George

I've done some stupid things in my life, alone and with Fred. This one idea alone could summarize my entire life- I'm never going to change. I'm proving it right now; probably topping myself for stupidest and most life threatening scheme too. Yet none of this is actually relevant, at least not next to the conversation taking place behind me.

The four of us- Fred, Cassidy, Jo, and I- we're in my dad's magically enhanced muggle car. By magically enhanced, I mean that it can fly. And by the four of us, I actually mean five- Ron's here too, but he's not actually doing much except trying to help keep Fred driving in the right direction. We're on a rescue mission, the target: Harry Potter, location: I'm not actually paying enough attention to know specifics like that. What I do know is that Mum is more than likely going to kill my brothers and I when we get back to the Burrow…that is, if we get caught.

"We're going to get caught," Cassidy mutters from behind me. I'm in the passenger's seat next to Fred, and Cassidy is right behind me. Jo is behind Fred, and Ron is in the middle of them. I don't know how we're supposed to fit another body in here, but that's a problem for when we actually procure the final body. For now I'm just focused on Cassidy's comment.

"The only way we get caught is if someone tells, and knowing you, Cassidy, you're the most likely candidate for blabbermouth," I tell her. I can't see her face, but I assume it's probably a funny sight right about now, even in the dim hours before dawn. She kicks the back of my chair with what I assume is as much force as she can muster, which probably isn't much more than what Ron could have done.

"No one's spilling the beans, and no one's getting caught, alright? Let's just focus on getting Potter," Jo says, a little roughly. She's tired- we all are. Fred and Ron and I left the Burrow not long after sunset to go pick up the girls, and then began the journey to Harry's place. No one's actually done much talking during all of this time so far, but no one's slept either- least as far as I can tell.

"Oh yeah, Mrs. Weasley surely won't notice three new people at her breakfast table in the morning," Cassidy replies sarcastically.

"It already is morning," Fred says, "and we're all tired- how much longer, Ron?"

"Another few miles- we have to move fast once we get there- the way Harry describes his aunt and uncle, I think I'd rather be living with trolls. You didn't see the one in the Dungeons last Halloween, but bloody hell, I'm really saying something when I say I'd rather be raised by trolls," Ron tells us.

I turn my neck and make eye contact with Jo- she smiles conspiratorially, and I notice Fred has the same look on his face. I can't see Cassidy but I assume she's pouting, if she's paying attention at all. We all remember our run in with the troll. It was a surprise to Fred and I when Ron let slip the adventures he'd been on over the course of last year with Harry and a girl named Hermione. They'd run into the troll in the girl's bathroom when it attacked Hermione- I felt a little guilty hearing she got attacked, knowing it was technically us who led the troll there. But besides the troll the trio had met a three headed dog, played life sized Wizard's Chess, and apparently Harry fought the Dark Lord. We were a little skeptical that the Dark Lord resurrected after like ten years of, well, being dead, to come to Hogwarts and get killed by Harry all over again, but the story checked out when Dumbledore announced Quirrel was gone again. Apparently he was hosting the dark Lord underneath that ridiculous turban he always wore. Fred and I had nearly died when we realized that over Christmas Holiday we had at one point charmed some snowballs to follow Quirrel around and hit him on the back of that turban. So if Ron's been telling the truth, Fred and I had technically fought and defeated the Dark Lord in a magical snowball fight.

Fred swerves the car around and we all get flung around as we pull up to the window of what I can only assume is the house the great Harry Potter is staying in. From the outside it doesn't look like anything to complain about- pretty big, well kept, nice in every way I can see…except one little flaw: bars on the windows. Not all the windows, just the one we flew up to. Just on Harry's room.

Fred leans out the window of the car and raps on the bars a few times with his fingers. After a minute the curtains are drawn back, and a little beaming face pops out. We all smile and make our hellos, and Ron climbs up as far as he can to explain that he's there to rescue Harry. I shove him back into his place while Harry prepares his things to leave for the year. A few minutes later we're all ready to go, except for the problem of the bars. Harry may be thin, but he can't actually climb through them.

"Just have him come out onto the lawn," Cassidy suggests, but Harry explains that his door is locked, and if we hadn't come his family would not have let him come to Hogwarts at all this year. Jo makes a little gasp and pulls a cable out of her knapsack. We all stare for a moment, but Fred eventually just shrugs and hooks the cable onto the bars and the back of the car, revs the engine, and we rip the bars right off of the house. Harry tries to climb in, but yelling erupts from the house, and a fat hand grips the boy by the ankle- his uncle, trying to pull him back into the house. Everyone is screaming and grunting, when Cassidy leans onto her belly, hanging out of the car, and bites the pudgy wrist of Harry's uncle. He wails and releases Harry, and Fred floors it. Cassidy is shrieking a bit as we go, trying to get her top half and Harry's bottom half safely into the car. It does happen, and everyone sits in silence for a good five minutes.

"You…bit him," Harry finally says, deadpan. Cassidy huffs, as if annoyed, and the rest of us erupt in laughter.

After that there's no tension. Ron and Harry are in their own little world talking and catching up, leaving Fred, the girls, and I to do the same. Eventually and none too surprisingly the conversation turns to Quidditch, and this year's upcoming matches. Gryffindor won last year, the first time after a long era of Slytherin domination. I bring up the teams and tryouts and the usual stuff, but Jo gets real quiet.

"You alright?" I ask her. Even Fred turns his head off the…sky…to see what's the matter. It's not like Jo to get quiet during Quidditch talk.

"I'm fine…I guess I just don't really wanna talk about Quidditch right now…" she whispers. The car stops suddenly, and everyone lies forward. I glare at Fred, thinking he stopped the car in shock, but I realize we're home. He lowers us to the Burrow and we park the car, unload, and try to sneak into the house.

Admittedly, Cassidy was correct in her prediction of the situation, although that was in no way helpful when Mum is screaming at the top of her lungs at me, Fred, and Ron about all of the laws we broke and a long list of things we risked, including life, limb, and expulsion. Jo, Cassidy, and Harry sat on the couch silently; Jo watching everything play out, Cassidy looking into her lap, and Harry looking around the house in awe.

Eventually we calm Mum down, and she switches from scolding Mum to nurturing Mum, honing in not on any of her children, but mostly on Harry. Hearing about his plight at his uncle's house had tugged on her heartstrings, and seeing just how scrawny a child he is probably sent her into overdrive. She called down the rest of the family and set places for everyone at the table and started to feed us all. Once we were all into the meal she finally came to her senses enough to ask me and Fred to properly introduce our friends. By properly, she probably meant she wanted a detailed life history. Knowing Jo, she'd get a detailed life history; there just wouldn't be any truth to it. Knowing Cassidy, she wouldn't even get a proper full name.

"So loves, tell me all about yourselves- and tell me what kind of trouble the twins are getting into at school," she asks them. Cassidy, who's eyes haven't left her lap since entering the Burrow, shyly turns her head to Jo, who looks at my mom smiling.

"No trouble at all, Mrs. Weasley. I'm Jolene, but call me Jo. I do Quidditch with George, I'm also a beater," she says with a very un-Jo like composure.

"Beater, Jolene? Don't hear about too many female beaters these days. Congratulations! Tell me, what do you think of Oliver Wood not that he's captain?" My dad asks. And, returning to a more familiar version of Jo, she begins blushing uncontrollably, but for no apparent reason other than the question, which wasn't really even about her.

"He's- erm- he's very good. But I really miss having you around, Charlie," she replies, stumbling through the whole sentence. Cassidy turns her head again, this time in a bit of shock. Charlie laughs and makes a few comments, filling Jo in on his new job.

"But really, tell us about Oliver. Should I be sending him a strongly worded letter against driving the team into the ground with daily practices and outrageous drills?" Charlie asks Jo, and again she's at a bit of a loss for words.

"Well, whatever he's doing, it's obviously working, right? I mean, Gryffindor beating out Slytherin for the first time in what, decades? Wood's obviously doing something right," Cassidy blurts out. All eyes go to her, and I notice she pales slightly, but not dramatically like the way Jo blushes.

"You're Slytherin, aren't you dear? With Fred?" my mom asks her. She gives half a nod before breaking herself out of her odd shyness.

"That's right, ma'am. It's a wonderful house, and you've got a wonderful boy in Fred- not to say your other boys aren't fantastic, but I'm a little biased I guess," she says with a small smile. She's trying to be funny? Fred and I shared a look for a second before aiming our gazes at her, but she just looks back into her lap.

Fred and I fill in the gaps for the oddly quiet Jo and Cassidy, and the rest of the meal goes normally. We clean up, finish packing, and before we know we're on our way to Diagon Alley and Hogwart's Express. Cassidy recovers from her acute-onset introversion once we get to Diagon Alley. She never gives us a real explanation for her behavior, but we're sort of too busy to care anyway. Jo, on the other hand, is getting weirder and weirder the closer we get to our departure time. We don't exactly have much time or energy to confront her about, and Fred and I secretly decide to do it on the train, as soon as we get the chance. I assume Cassidy will be on board- she seemed to be as surprised as Fred and I. Something's going on, and I'm far too curious and meddlesome not to find out what it is.

AN: Yes, so annoying, me again. I apologize for double dipping in the direct address apartment. Just here to say I hope you enjoyed the chapter and will continue reading as I continue to update, which I promise I will (though I don't have a schedule yet figured out).

Until then,

-cowriter