Jo

Jo shook her head. Those memories were worthless now. She didn't have time to mope around outside a hospital and frighten herself. Jo remembered she had some emergency money saved up under her mattress, and decided that this was urgent enough to get her out.

Could there have been a chance that the cash register hadn't burnt up completely? That some money could be left? Jo thought about it and decided to go back to the village to investigate.

Fortunately her apartment was quite close to the hospital and when she reached her hand under the mattress, she found a substantial wad of bills there. Jo left them there and decided to crash for the night.

The next morning she picked up the key to the cash register from her drawer along with a few pound notes from beneath her bed. She changed into a thick orange jumper with her jeans, and fuchsia gloves, scarf and hat. As fast as she could, she exited her building and caught a taxi to the edge of the village.

'Been quite an accident there, miss,' commented the driver. 'I'd be careful if I were you.'

'Yes, I will be,' replied Jo, distracted. She could make out the smoldering remains of the paper shop.

'I'll only be a couple of minutes…do you mind waiting here for me?' Jo asked. The driver shook his head. She pressed a pound note into the his hand as compensation and made her way through what little snow patches there were left.

The shop was nothing but a pile of burnt up wood, but she decided to go in anyway. She gingerly stepped over the piles of ash that used to be huge stacks of paper until she reached where the cash register was. To her surprise, the steel register was still intact, just a little bit battered. Jo reached out to make sure it wasn't too hot, and pulled out the key from her jeans. However upon closer inspection, she found the drawer unlocked and ajar. Her heart pounding, she looked closer.

There had been little business that autumn, so Jo hadn't been expecting too much money to be left. She was right. The trays were empty.

Tears of frustration and panic started welling in her eyes. Without looking at where she was going, she stumbled out straight into a short man. The pungent smell of alcohol and tobacco reached her nose and she backed away quickly, trying to breathe in some fresh air. That turned out to be a difficult task. The man looked at her for a moment, moving closer to her, and a look of dawning comprehension came on his face.

'Hey…..you're not - hic – from Hogwarsh, are you? Thash not righ'…,' said the man, his speech slurred.

Jo backed away slowly, as if frightened by a wild beast. The man was making no sense, and something about him was very weird.

'Ma…Moody! Hey Kingshley! I got - hic - summat here…Hey!' the man shouted.

'What is it now, Fletcher?' a gruff voice asked angrily. 'It'd better not be another bottle of ancient rum.'

'Nonshensh, Maddy…I got a - hic - Muggle!' the squat man said, pointing to Jo's slowly disappearing form.

'Hell you got a Muggle, you daft baboon. Who have you been robbing now?' the taller of the two asked glaring at Fletcher.

A bald black man came up frowning.

'A Muggle?' he said worriedly. 'There shouldn't be any sti…wait…look over there!'

He raised something long and pointy towards Jo. So did the other two.

'Stupe - hic - fy!' Fletcher yelled.

A streak of red light flew by Jo, missing her by several feet. Suddenly everything she'd seen earlier seemed very, very real.

She turned heel and ran as fast as she could back to the taxi. Several more streaks of red flew over the taxi and hit the trees around the village. Fortunately the driver had been napping, and only awoke when Jo had started the ignition and prodded him fiercely, telling him to get a move on. The situation made it seem like he'd been sleeping on the job, giving Jo an excuse for her harshness. The driver drove steadily onwards at a good speed until reaching Jo's apartment once more.

Fred

Fred and George spent Boxing Day making their store look as bright and cheery as it had before the school year at Hogwarts started. It took them most of the day, finally finishing in mid afternoon.

Fred still had his mind on Jo and wanted to go see her.

'Hey, George,' Fred started. 'I'm going out, if anyone wants me.'

'Okay,' his twin replied, looking in a Skiving Snackbox.

'Bye. I'll see you in a few hours.'

'Wait…where're you going again?' George looked up with a very knowing look in his eyes.

'None of your business, Georgie.'

'Ha! We know each others' business so well, if you went to the toi-!'

'I got the point!' Fred interrupted

'Well, anyway, I know where you're going.'

'Oh yeah?'

'Joooooooo!' George grinned wickedly.

'Well if you knew so well, why bother asking?' Fred said exasperatedly.

'Just to bug you.'

'I am leaving.'

'Wait!'

'What?'

'Tell her George says "Hi!"'

'George!'

'Hmm...,' George said, looking back into the box. 'Please….carry on with my message.'

'Shuddup!'

Fred Disapparated, smiling to himself. A moment later, he reappeared in a dark corner behind the hospital. He walked in and tried to blend in. He saw a sign pointing to the front desk and decided to start there.

'Hi, how may I help you,' the lady there said monotonously.

'Er…do you have a Jo with a broken arm here?' he asked, sounding stupid to his own ears.

Clearly the woman thought so too.

'We had a Josephina Auclair here yesterday, but she left that day itself,' she replied after a minute looking in her records.

'Oh.'

'Next!' the lady called to the small line behind him.

'Wait! Do you know where she lives?' Fred asked quickly.

'That's classified information,' she replied icily.

Fred took that as a goodbye and walked out, disheartened. Suddenly he came up with an idea.

He went back to Diagon Alley and headed to Eeylops Owl Emporium. George had sent Sirius, their owl, to the Burrow with a letter, so that wasn't a current option. If nothing else could reach Jo, an owl could; it'd probably be the least freaky mail delivery out of many Fred could think of.

After renting a barn owl for five Knuts, he walked back to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and started writing. Fred wasn't quite sure how to write a letter to a Muggle who thought he was a weirdo, but after many crossed out sentences and crumpled up pieces of parchment, he came up with a one-line letter:

Dear Jo,

Would you meet me at Cafe Manga on Westminister Bridge Road at 4:00?

Cheers,
Fred

Jo

Jo was enjoying a dreamless nap on her bed enjoying the warmth of her comforter on such a cold day.

Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap

'Not now,' grumbled Jo.

Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap

'I don't need room service!' she snapped.

Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap-Tap

'For the love of god! Would you stop that incessant tapping!' she yelled at nothing in particular.

When it didn't stop, she hauled herself out of bed and opened her door. There was no one there. It was only when she heard the crash of shattered glass that she whipped around and saw her window in pieces on her floor and a feathered bird flying around in her room. Jo shrieked. The bird, who'd landed on her desk lamp ruffled its feathers in surprise and gave her a reproachful hoot.

It was only then that Jo notices that the (she figured out it was an owl) owl had a piece of paper tied to its leg. She gingerly untied it, fearing the bird's sharp beak and read the short note. It was from Fred, telling her to meet her at the cafe a few kilometers from her place. At first it puzzled her, that he'd want to meet her, but then it struck her that he wanted to explain the happenings of the previous day. Well, maybe something will start making sense now...

But the thought seemed wrong. Jo had seen what Fred, George and the people at the village had done. Fred may have taken her to the hospital, but there was no way she was risking her safety by going to a cafe with a stranger. After thinking it over for some time, Jo decided to go. She couldn't really lose anything by going, but if Fred told her anything, it would be to her advantage. However, she wasn't about to deal with him in a completely friendly way. He'd left her stranded with no idea of what was going on. He was in for a rap from her. She packed up her purse with a bottle and a few pounds, but she secretly hoped that Fred would pay for her coffee, if she got any.

As soon as she left the building, a taxi drew up, as if expecting her. The ride only took about ten minutes, so she was there right on the hour. She walked into the cafe and scanned the room for any sight of Fred. In a second, her eyes landed on the back of a red head sitting on a swivel chair. He was sipping his coffee and flipping through a magazine. Stupid git. He didn't even wait for me to buy me a coffee,Jo thought angrily. She stomped up to him and turned him around, not even bothering to look at his face and started berating him.

'So, you think you could just leave me at a hospital to just pretend nothing happened? What were you thinking? You asked me to come here, and I will definitely not LEAVE until I get all the answers I need. If you try to worm your way out of this situation, I will kill y-!' she started saying fiercely until her voice raised almost to a shout when she realized she was giving death threats to the wrong person.

'Uhhhnnn,' the man whimpered, frightened by Jo's glare. She blinked and a look of completely mortified. She backed away slowly mumbling her apologies and saying she thought he was someone else. She turned around and walked straight into something hard. She realized it was someone's chest and resumed her mumbled apologies when she heard a voice above her.

'Now where would you be going?' asked Fred jovially.

Fred

Jo looked at him blankly for a moment and then started verbally abusing him.

'You prat! You think you could just leave me at a hospital and pretend nothi-!' Jo said heatedly, and then cut off, seeing Fred smirking at the number of faces staring at her exact same rant. 'Oh, forget it. Whatever I said to him,' she continued in an angry whisper, 'applies to you too. I will kill you if you try to "worm your way out of this situation!" I have my ways of stopping you...'

Fred had not really planned on telling her anything at the cafe - it would be too risky in front of so many Muggles. As soon as she saw Jo yelling at some innocent red head, he completely forgot about telling her anything, and decided to admire her and pretend this was a date. Fred, who'd been laughing at the onlookers stopped paying attention to Jo's rant and thought how pretty she looked when she was angry. He was busy getting himself mesmerized in the depths of her near black eyes when she stopped talking abruptly.

'...and you'd better watch out otherwi- why're you staring at my eye?' Jo said suspiciously.

'Hmmph...Oh, nothing. Have a seat, won't you?' he said, gesturing to a small table. The two sat down and Fred ordered two cups of coffee.

'So, I hope you're here to talk,' Jo said meaningfully.

'Of course. I'll start now,' Fred said cheerfully. 'So, what do you think of this weather, hmm. Nasty cold...I wouldn't want to hang around it very long, would you? What do you think of our economic situation right now? Have you been to Caprice, that Mediterranean restaurant in Bloomsbury? Their food is delicious. I wish this place had a fire in it; it'd make it much more comfortable. Have you flown in a plane before? I haven't, but I'd love to. Much more adventurous than silly trains...' and so Fred continued for another minute or so, watching the expression of growing outrage on Jo's face.

She exploded in the middle of him telling her about how much he loved flowers, attracting amused gazes from other customers.

'I DID NOT COME HERE FOR THIS!' she yelled. She got out of her chair and was about to leave when Fred called her.

'Wait! Fine, come over here, I'll explain it!' he said. Fred saw a pleased look on Jo's face and she plopped herself back on her chair with her arms crossed and her eyebrow raised. Her mood change startled Fred, but he could only think of those big, beautiful eyes. And her smug smile.

'So...' he started quietly. 'When do you want to have our next date?'

Her outraged face was priceless. He started cracking up and pushed her cup of coffee towards her. She responded by knocking it over towards Fred and storming out of the cafe. He exited a minute later after paying up, gesturing silently to the other people that she was rather mental and not to pay attention to her.

As soon as he stepped out, it was quite easy to find her in the fairly crowded street. In her orange and pink attire, it was quite easy to see her glancing over her shoulder every few steps. Seeing her approach the next block, he Apparated to the corner next to the street she was approaching.

Jo

Jo walked away in a huff, furious at the way Fred was acting. If she ever saw him again, she was going to throttle him. She started getting worried, and hoped that Fred would have paid for the coffees. She looked hard at the ground she was fast-walking on, and crashed into something hard for the third time that day.

'Oh, for the love of G-!' Jo exclaimed looking up. 'FRED!'

Fred had appeared out of nowhere and was stalking her. Something was seriously wrong with him. Jo turned around and looked back after a few steps to see if he was giving chase. He had disappeared. Jo ran in the opposite direction, hoping to catch a taxi quickly. Jo made sure to look where she was going so she wouldn't crash into Fred again. When she saw a flash of red and someone coming in front of her, she rummaged in her purse for a second and pulled out what she was looking for. Fred's figure appeared and he was smiling mischievously. Jo returned the expression and raised her bottle of Mace. Closing her eyes, she pushed the button and held it for a few seconds. Hearing shouts of pain, Jo knew it had worked. She ran away to a nearby taxi, and thankfully, it was free. She told the driver her address and they took off, leaving Fred behind.