14

All thoughts of a quiet sit-down dinner with the Weasley family were banished from Carly's mind the second she stepped from the fireplace into the kitchen of The Burrow. She managed to duck as a frying pan whizzed by her head, closely followed by half a bucket full of sausages. The pan settled onto the stove, the sausages plopping noisily on top. A flash of red and Mrs. Weasley snatched George into her arms, beaming.

"Hi, Mum. Uh. You're crushing me. Mum!" George squawked, and she finally let him go. She turned to Fred, and gave him a bone crunching hug before turning to Carly.

"Carly, this is Mum. Mum, this is Carly, my girlfriend." Fred introduced with a hint of a smirk.

"Nice to meet you, dear. I'm so glad you came for dinner. I want to know everything about you!" Mrs. Weasley smiled, not a trace of the anger she showed before, much to Carly's relief.

"She is a lovely woman normally," Fred explained, "She just gets very protective of her darling children."

Carly laughed.

Fred took her on a tour of the burrow, leaving the family downstairs to prepare dinner.

"You're the best excuse I've had so far to skip helping." Fred laughed as he took her hand and led her up the rickety staircase to the first floor. "Besides, there's not a lot of room in the kitchen for all of us."

As they crossed the landing to the next flight of stairs, Ginny emerged from a door to their left. She smiled and waved, then descended the stairs.

"That's Ginny's room, by the way. And the other one is Bill's, but that obviously doesn't get used anymore. He's away too much." Fred smirked, and then they climbed to the next floor.

"Percy's room, and that room belongs to George and myself." Fred boasted, "But we won't go in there just now, it's just full of boxes and stuff at the moment. We'll come back."

"I love this staircase." Carly giggled.

"Ha.. Yeah.. Many fun times running up and down it. Usually away from Mum. Who could tell why?" Fred replied.

The third floor held a bathroom and a storage compartment, and the fourth floor was where Mr. And Mrs. Weasley resided.

"And our final destination: Ickle Ronnikins room!" Fred pointed at a door with a little faded sign on it displaying "Ronald's Room".

"And what seems to be so exciting about this room?" Carly asked, knocking loudly on the door.

"Don't do that! Mum'll hear us!" Fred grabbed Carly's wrist, and turning the handle to the door, pushed it open softly. "Get in!"

Carly giggled as she tiptoed into the room void of people, but full of Chudley Cannons posters.

"What on earth are we doing here?" Carly asked.

"Planting a few surprises for my baby brother to find… Aha! Here we are…" Fred mumbled, pulling something furry from his pocket.

"And that is?" Carly asked curiously, moving in closer.

"It's a new invention of ours, called a Pygmy Punch. Similar to the cute little fuzz balls you might have seen in our store, but ten times bigger. And well, when you touch it in the dark… Well, I'm sure you can guess it from the name." Fred smirked.

Carly began laughing hysterically, and Fred felt his first ever pang of guilt.

"Is it too much?" Fred asked, uncertain.

"No! Hahaha… Just what you said about touching it in the dark… Hahaha… Please leave it for Ron!" Carly continued to laugh.

Fred rolled his eyes and stuffed in under the bed sheets.

"What else did you have in mind?" Carly asked.

"Well, I have a few howlers I was going to leave under his pillow. Also, these biting bugs…"

"Ron is going to have a wonderful sleep!" Carly laughed.

"Indeed he is. Now if only Percy the Prat still lived here. His bedroom was generally my second stop. I guess Ron will just have to do for now. C'mon, I'll give you a quick show of my room."

The couple went back down to the second floor, and walked up to the twins' door.

"Are they burn marks?" Carly asked, running her finger along the side of the door frame.

"Let's just say this door isn't the one we started with." Fred grinned, opening the door and beckoning for Carly to enter.

When they were both inside, Fred closed the door behind him.

"And this is where all the magic began." Fred sighed. He began reminiscing about past times with his twin.

"I can't believe he broke it!"Fred cried out to his twin brother George, who was absently waving around his mother's wand.

"What are you going to do? Mum said you could share my toy broomstick. I don't mind." George suggested kindly.

Fred stomped back and forth in the bedroom, wearing his second-hand one piece pajama suit. His small features were scrunched into what he hoped looked like fury, but if any clucky woman saw him she would have seen it as adorable. His fiery red hair was sticking up at all angles, and there was a clump of dirt behind his right ear from feeding the garden gnomes his leftovers from breakfast out in the yard.

George watched him curiously, still twirling the wand around. He was in an identical pajama suit, except for a hole in the right elbow, from where he had tripped down the staircase a few days before. He began to wave the wand and make 'Broooom!' noises, as if it was a world class broomstick. In his mind, it was easy to see it as one.

Suddenly the wand was snatched out of his hands.

"I've got it!" Five year old Fred exclaimed, with a sly grin, holding the wand above his head. "I'll curse him!"

"Cool!" George beamed at his twin, getting to his feet.

The pair of them tiptoed down the staircase, George being extra careful watching out for loose nails.

They found Ron in the living room, playing by the fireplace. He seemed to be playing some kind of game with his teddy bear and a very beaten up quaffle. Fred noticed that seven year old Percy was reading on the nearby armchair, but he was facing his back towards where the twins peeked around the door frame.

Ron was cuddling his teddy bear and Fred decided to make his move. He aimed the wand and not knowing any spells of use, scrunched his eyes tight and waved the wand.

"Aaaaaauuuurgghhh!"

Fred opened his eyes to see Ron screaming, his face a deep shade of red, holding what appeared to be a giant wriggling spider where the teddy bear was moments before.

"Oh no. I missed." Fred sighed, upset.

Ron continued to scream at the hairy spider in his arms, not appearing to know what else to do with it.

Percy had flown from his seat, and with a huge kick the spider flew away. He then wheeled upon Fred, who just realized he was still holding his mothers wand. He looked to his twin for support, but George was long gone, his scuffling feet could be heard on the second floor. Fred smiled guiltily as Percy opened his mouth to reprimand him when there was another blood-curdling scream.

The spider had returned and was advancing on Ron again. Three year old Ron was sobbing and backing away, and Percy kicked out his foot again and this time the spider scuttled out the front door and across the yard.

"I'm telling Mum on you." Percy pouted at Fred.

"No you won't." Fred said bravely.

"Muuuuuuuuuum!" Percy yelled at the top of his lungs, and the memory faded with Fred running a fast as he could, his mother brandishing a rolling pin as she advanced on him.

"Helloooo? Fred?" Carly was waving her hand in front of Fred's face.

"Oh. Sorry! Just got carried away in a memory." Fred laughed.

"Am I allowed to know? Or do I not want to know?" Carly smirked.

Fred smiled at her and scooped her into his arms.

"Ok, I'll tell you. Then we better head downstairs before Mum realizes we haven't actually helped at all." Fred grinned, then began to retell his story, as Carly laughed in horror.