Title: Being Helpful
Characters: Angelina Johnson, Fred and George Weasley, Lee Jordan, Alicia Spinnet and mention of other minor character.
Summary: Sometimes help can be a good thing, sometimes it's bad. Angelina finds herself being helped in several ways.
Warnings: cliches? Mild language
Rating: PG13

Chapter 2

When Helpfulness is Thwarted

Weaselys' Wizardly Wheezes, Diagon Alley, November 1996

"Good timing, as always, Jordan."

"Thanks, I do try."

"Next time, a bit of a heads up, you know."

Angelina groggily blinked her eyes open. Her vision was initially burry, but with each successive blink, she managed to clear it a little. After a second she mumbled, "Bloody bludger," and tried to lift her head up so she could recover a bit.

As her vision cleared she was not confronted with the sight of the stern, blonde team healer, who always dealt with the knocks and bruises they got on a daily basis. Instead she was surrounded… by two redheads and the familiar dreadlocks of Lee. None of them were looking at her, and neither of the redheads looked pleased. Lee on the other hand had a dopey grin on his face, the wanker. The events of the last half hour flooded back to her and she flopped back down to the floor, closed her eyes and sighed.

"If she wasn't so tall it would have missed her face entirely. How was I to know that someone would be walking in at the precise moment that I was demonstrating the new and improved punching telescope?"

She opened one eye and peered up at them, her head clearing suddenly. She sat up fully then and her sudden movement called their attention.

They stared at her and said nothing. She got annoyed. "What the bloody hell was THAT?"

One of the twins held a long cylindrical object towards her and she winced and protected her face with her arm.

"What are you doing pointing that at me again? I think being knocked unconscious once a day is my limit."

"Err… right, sorry about that."

She looked under her arm to see that one of them was offering her a hand. She took it and hauled herself up off the floor. As she was rising, she caught a glimpse of herself in the reflective packaging of the Weasley products. When she had fallen, her head wrap had come off and slightly damp hair had ballooned into a disturbingly curly afro. Her eye was starting to turn a dark shade of purple and she looked a right mess. She felt along the back of her head gingerly but there was no pain there. Apparently the cushion of hair had protected her head when she had fallen.

"Well done AJ. You took that punch a lot better than George did the first time. He was out for near half hour when I tried it on him." Fred smirked at her.

She scowled back and held her face gingerly. It had started to smart. She hoped that it would soon go numb. "I suppose you think that's a compliment," she muttered, looking around for her hair wrap. It was quite embarrassing having it off. Hardly anyone ever saw her hair out of braids. Why hadn't she just said sod it all and done the drying charm on her hair back in the locker room? True it made her hair look frizzy and made the braids not hold as long, but this really wasn't worth it.

Lee's hand reached into her peripheral vision, holding the scrap of fabric. He now looked genuinely contrite. She grabbed it from him and attempted to tie her hair back down again.

George offered her a pot of ointment. "This should help with the eye."

She accepted the offering and opened the pot, smearing some of the goop on her face. It tingled a bit and her eye felt suddenly cooled. She shuddered a bit at the sensation. When she looked at the shiny package reflection again, she was relieved to find that the bruise had disappeared.

'Thanks," she mumbled as she returned the pot to George's hand.

Then they stood there, staring at each other as an uncomfortable silence fell around them. It had certainly been a long time since she'd last spoken to the two redheaded pranksters. Honestly, she had wondered if she would ever see them again. They were both staring at her, George with a bemused look on his face and Fred with an unreadable blank look. Lee was the first one to break the silence.

"Now this is just silly. You haven't seen each other in ages. You must have something to talk about."

Angelina looked away from them, a bit embarrassed, and took the time to look around the shop. She and Lee had obviously arrived near closing time as the shop was empty and the outside light display was currently off. Honestly, she had expected their joke shop to be a hit, but she was impressed by the enormity of the project. It wasn't just some sad little store, but bursting and filled with clever little oddities and witty, colourful signs advertising their latest products.

Fred cleared his throat. "So, how do you like the place?"

Angelina wandered over to the sign that advertised the 'Pygmy Puffs' and looked down into the enclosure that housed the tiny balls of colourful fur. She turned back to look at the three boys… no men, staring back at her. The Twins were both wearing magenta robes that clashed horribly with their hair that had some sort of triple W insignia on it. Lee was looking rather anxiously back and forth between them as if willing them to act like more than distant acquaintances.

"It's rather brilliant actually. Not that I think you are surprised by that."

George gave her a wide grin. "Yes, we've had similar responses from others." He put the ointment down on the counter and the curtain leading into a back room pulled apart and a young blonde witch in magenta robes matching the twins' own stepped out into the main shop.

"I've finished restocking Mr. Weasley, Mr. Weasley."

It was as if the little spell that had made her forget that she was still in the real world had been lifted. Angelina turned to face the Pygmy Puffs again.

"Oh, thanks Verity. Are you in tomorrow?" one of them asked.

"Ah, no sir. It's my day off, remember, every 3rd Saturday in the month."

"Well, we'll see you on Monday then."

"Will do." There was a pause. "Er, sirs? Is she alright? I mean, she did take quite a punch from that telescope as far as I saw."

A throat cleared nervously. "Ah, yes, she'll be fine. She's tough girl. She's taken much worse than a punching telescope to the face and come out fine."

She only turned around again when she heard the storefront door open and close again. She didn't even know exactly what she was doing here. She walked over to Lee and linked her arm with his, needing to feel a little more stable. Lee looked at her and smiled.

"Now really Lee, what are you two doing here? It can't just be a friendly visit." Fred started, walking around the counter to the other side of the register. He started to prepare what were obviously the day's sales for counting.

"Ech… you've got me Fred. Obviously I can't bring old friends round to visit without being completely suspicious. It's not like you haven't known each other for years already." Lee started sarcastically, slipping his arm from hers and leaning against the counter. Angelina shook her head in disbelief and looked around for somewhere to sit. She spied some boxes off to a side and pulled one over to sit on. She sat, elbows resting against her knees and her chin propped up by her elbows, watching the exchange between Lee and his best friends.

George had wandered over near to where she was sitting and replaced a set of boxes into a shelf. "Don't be a prat, Lee. Something has got to be up for Angelina to let you drag her here without fuss. I don't see a black eye on you anywhere."

At this, Angelina had to interject. "Excuse me?"

George snorted. "Well you are a bit of a bully."

Angelina's eyes went wide and she stood up from the box. " ME! A BULLY? Pot calling cauldron black? What is this? Weasleys' World of Denial?" With that she walked over and stood in front of him with her arms crossed and glaring down at him.

George laughed. "Talk about denial. Do you see this? She's trying to intimidate me as usual."

A low growl emanated from Angelina's throat. She looked fit to kill him. She hadn't even noticed that Fred had come up behind her until she felt his hand on her shoulder. Immediately her body reacted and she jerked her shoulder away from him, stepping away from the two of them, looking very confused.

"Lee, I don't know why you brought me here. It's obvious that they don't want me here, and honestly, I can't tell you why you'd think they'd want to see me. I'm just going to go."

Lee had watched the scene unfold in front of him and finally he shook his head and sighed. "You three are just too stubborn for your own good, you know that? I mean. You used to be friends. I still don't really understand what really happened between you. What? Did you all shag each other and regret it or something? Please tell me this isn't something as stupid as that because honestly, regretting a good shag is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of!"

George snorted. "Does your mind always turn to sex, Jordan?"

Lee shrugged. "What can I say, I'm seventeen. I think about sex roughly 59 times a minute, and seeing as you are the same age as me, I'd suspect that you did as well." He pulled himself to sit on top of the counter, leaned back on his hands and let his legs swing down in front of him. "Well? Are you just going to continue being prats to each other?"

Angelina hadn't moved from the spot. She was staring at Fred.

Fred on the other hand was looking everywhere but at her.

She stepped forward and reached out towards him, a little timidly and very unlike herself. Angelina Johnson was not known for her emotional openness.

And at last he looked at her.

And just like that, she had forgiven him.

She spoke up suddenly. "It hurt when you left without saying goodbye."

Fred's jaw was still set, but he kept meeting her gaze. "Yeah well, it hurt when you told me you didn't want to marry me."

And with that, George scowled at them and Lee fell off the countertop.

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