Three weeks later, Auden and her family returned from Italy. She was incredibly glad to be home, even though she had enjoyed her vacation. It was great to spend time with her family, especially considering her brother was leaving for Romania at the end of the summer.

She had just reached her room and started unpacking when the door burst open. She jumped, but relaxed when she saw it was Fred and George.

"Auden!" yelled Fred, hugging her and spinning her around. "You're back!"

"I am!" she giggled as she returned the hug. She then hugged George before giving them a fake exasperated look. "And I've only been back for two minutes and you two are already here."

"We missed you," shrugged Fred.

"I missed you too!" Auden smiled. She paused. "Were you waiting at the window or something so that you'd know the exact second I returned home?"

"Fred was," George laughed, poking his brother in the arm. Fred turned red and poked his twin back, but he masked his expression after a moment and grinned at Auden instead.

"Are you excited for the match tomorrow?"

"Of course," she said as she turned to continue unpacking her things. "Don't get me wrong, I loved being on vacation, but I'm so excited for the match. Has your dad gone to pick Harry up yet?"

"No, I think he and Ron are leaving soon. Do you want come?" Fred asked.

"Of course I do!" Auden exclaimed. She hadn't seen Harry in so long and was anxious to see him as soon as possible. She always worried about him and hoped the Muggles were treating him well. Speaking of the Muggles, she was also curious about them and wanted to see them in person. She had gotten only a quick glimpse two summers ago when she had gone along to rescue Harry from his prison cell bedroom. The only thing she had deduced from this glimpse was that Harry's uncle was some kind of walrus-tomato hybrid.

"Hurry up and finish unpacking, then," Fred told her, flopping onto her bed. "The sooner you finish, the sooner we can leave."

Auden tossed a pile of clothes on Fred's face. "Don't rush me," she mock-scolded.

Fred laughed and swatted the clothes away. "Get your smelly laundry off my face."

"Get your smelly body off my bed," Auden retaliated calmly.

"No, I don't think I will," Fred responded.

"The more you two continue to bicker, the more time we're wasting," George pointed out with a smile.

"You're right, George," Auden said, sticking her nose in the air. "Besides, I don't have time to argue with Fred and stoop down to his level."

"Oh, come on, Aud," Fred said, as Auden smiled, "you do it all the time."

Auden didn't answer. Instead, she scoweled and dumped another pile of clothes on Fred's face. He shot his arm out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her down onto the bed with him as she squealed in shock.

"I thought you wanted me to hurry up and finish unpacking," she said as Fred pulled her to him so that her back was pressed into his chest.

"I do," he answered.

"Then you have to let me go," she said, trying not to notice Fred's nose pressed against her neck, or his arms locked around her. It was making her heart pound. Great. Clearly, being away for three whole weeks had done nothing to clear her head or make anything about her relationship with Fred less confusing. She still wasn't sure how to take anything anymore. None of his simple, playful gestures were simple or playful anymore. She still couldn't figure out if she was just paranoid or what.

"George could just finish unpacking for you," Fred suggested.

"Not happening," George said, flopping into Auden's desk chair. "I'm going to make myself comfortable while you two cuddle and figure out how Auden's going to finish unpacking before we're all a hundred years old."

"We're not cuddling," Auden argued quickly. "Fred's just trapping me." She turned her head to look at him. "Let me go," she ordered, a smile turning up the corners of her mouth. "I have to unpack. I'm serious this time."

Fred sighed dramatically. "Okay, okay, fine." He let her go and Auden got to her feet as Fred rolled onto his back. There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "You've heard about Harry's cousin, haven't you?"

"Dudley?" Auden asked, glancing at him as she closed her now empty suitcase and stored it under her bed. "Yeah, he's told me about him. Why?"

"Well, George and I have heard about him, too," Fred said, looking at her. "He's apparently supposed to be on a diet, which means he's been deprived of the food he clearly loves."

"Like candy," George added, swiveling around rapidly in Auden's desk chair.

"Don't tell me you're going to give him a Puking Pastile,"Auden said, putting her hands on her hips.

"We're not," Fred said.

"Good, because-"

"We're going to give him a Ton-Tongue Toffee-" Fred interrupted, producing one from his pocket and waving it in front of Auden's face with pride. "George and I perfected them while you were gone. They make the tongue of whoever eats them grow. We're not sure how long yet, but we're estimating about three or four feet. We need to test them on other people besides ourselves to make sure."

"Fred, no. That's terribly mean. Besides, I don't think he'd take it. He and his parents are afraid of us from what I've heard. It won't work."

"Ah, but if I drop it accidentally..."

"He'll still know it came from you...or one of us. It doesn't matter. It's mean."

"Come on, Aud, lighten up," Fred said with a grin, tossing the Ton-Tongue toffee at her. It bounced off her shoulder, but she ignored it.

"You know I don't mind your pranks, but when they put an innocent boy in danger-"

"Innocent? Danger?" Fred gasped, putting a hand to his chest as he sat up. "Dudley isn't innocent, Aud. And we're not putting him in danger."

"If his tongue grows to three feet long..." Auden began.

"George and I have tested these on ourselves," Fred said, standing up and stretching. "We're fine. We aren't dead, we aren't injured, and we managed to return our tongues to normal. Dudley will be fine, but it'll be a laugh while the effects last."

Auden sighed and crossed her arms as Fred put his hands on her shoulders. "Trust us, Aud," he whispered.

"Fine," she muttered, looking up at the ceiling. It was hard to not trust Fred and George in situations like these because they had been testing their products on themselves. Not that Auden liked that easier, but it made it easier to give in when they wanted to try the products on other people. Not that much easier, though, because everyone reacted differently. Therefore, she still wasn't too happy about it, but she figured the results couldn't be too off.

"And not a word to Mum," Fred added. "She already got rid of all of our order forms for our products."

"She did?" Auden asked sympathetically, her face softening as she met Fred's eyes.

"Yeah," George said, getting up from Auden's desk chair. "We'll make more, though. Not even Mum's going to stop us from opening our own business."

"It's really what you want to do, then? Open a joke shop?" Auden asked.

The twins nodded. "Completely. Just as soon as we have enough money and we're out of school."

Auden smiled. "You'll be wonderful at it."

"Thanks, Aud," Fred said, returning the smile and throwing an arm around her shoulders.

The three of them then walked next door to the Burrow, where Mr. Weasley and Ron were getting ready to leave for the Dursley's house.

"I've had Harry's fireplace hooked up to the Floo Network just for tonight," Mr. Weasley explained. "I'll go first, Fred and George can go next, then Auden, then Ron. Sound good?"

They all nodded. Auden waited as Mr. Weasley, then the twins disappeared into the green flames.

"Your turn," Ron said, gesturing to the flowerpot filled with Floo Powder.

Auden took a small handful and tossed it into the flames. "4 Privet Drive!" she yelled, stepping into the fireplace. She felt the familiar spinning sensation, but when she stopped, she felt herself abruptly collide with someone.

"Ouch, Aud," Fred groaned. "You just elbowed me in the stomach."

"Well, what are you still doing in the fireplace? What are all of us still doing in the fireplace?"

"Harry's relatives use a fake fire," Mr. Weasley explained. "The real fireplace is boarded up. Harry just explained it to us before you got here. I think I'm going to have to blast us out."

Just then, Ron arrived, smashing into Auden and roughly forcing her even closer to Fred.

"Oi, Ron, you almost smashed Auden into the wall," Fred said, putting his arms around Auden to catch her. "It's a good thing I was here to protect her."

"Shut up," Ron muttered. He glanced around. "What's going on? What are we doing here? Has something gone wrong?"

"No," Fred said sarcastically, "this is exactly where we wanted to end up."

"Yeah, we're having the time of our lives here," George added.

Auden giggled into Fred's chest and he smiled down at her. "Glad we could be of some amusement in this time of frustration," he said.

Auden didn't have time to answer, because Mr. Weasley had started yelling through the fireplace at Harry.

"Stand back! I'm going to blast us out! One…two…three!" With a bang, the boarded up fireplace opening exploded, causing the four Weasleys and Auden to topple onto the floor.

"Auden, you're squishing me," said a muffled voice. Auden then realized she had fallen on top of Fred.

"Sorry, sorry!" she exclaimed, standing up and brushing herself off.

"No worries," answered Fred, getting to his feet as well.

Mr. Weasley was now introducing himself to Harry's aunt and uncle, who looked exactly as Harry described them and also as Auden had remembered them. Uncle Vernon still looked like a cross between a walrus and a tomato, while Petunia was the opposite. She was pale and bony, her eyes wide as she stared at them, while her husband's eyes were narrowed.

"Are you all packed and ready to go, Harry?" Mr. Weasley asked.

"Yeah, everything's upstairs," Harry said with a grin as he surveyed them all. Auden had to smile. He was so excited to go to the match for one thing, and also to get away from the Dursleys, which still made Auden kind of sad. Life couldn't have been fun for him here.

"We'll help with your stuff," offered the twins as they followed Harry out of the room. Auden bit her lip. She had already observed that the only person missing from the room was Dudley and she was positive that the twins had noticed as well. They had offered to help Harry figuring that it would boost their chances of running into Dudley and hopefully passing the Ton-Tongue Toffee onto him.

About a minute after the three of them left, a large boy around Auden's age entered the room. Auden and Ron smirked at each other. This had to be Dudley. Auden wondered if he had met Harry and the twins on the way to the living room. His tongue wasn't growing yet, so that was a good sign. Dudley kept his eyes on Auden, Ron and Mr. Weasley as he waddled sideways across the room to hide behind his parents. Auden noticed he was keeping his hands tightly covering his bottom. Was that normal? Then, it clicked. He was still scared after the whole pig-tail incident with Hagrid. Great. That was going to make the Ton-Tongue toffee incident that much worse. Part of Auden couldn't blame him for being afraid and she wished there was a way for her to tell Fred to call the whole thing off.

The room was filled with a terribly awkward silence and Auden fidgeted slightly. She actually couldn't wait to just get out of there.

"How silly of me," Mr. Weasley finally said. "I didn't finish my introductions. This is my son, Ron, and his friend, Auden. They're the same age as Harry. And from what I've heard, Dudley is also their age, is that right?"

Harry's aunt and uncle nodded slowly as Dudley cowered even more.

Mr. Weasley nodded. "Fantastic," he said with a smile. Auden knew he could feel the tension in the room as well and was doing the best he could to be polite.

Just then, the twins and Harry returned with Harry's things, sparing everyone else from any more small talk.

"All set then?" asked Mr. Weasley. "Fred, into the fireplace now, please."

Fred hadn't taken two steps before a bunch of Ton-Tongue Toffees were accidentally-on-purpose spilled from his pocket. "Oh no, hang on, sorry," he said as he knelt down to pick them up. He collected all but one that was resting right next to the leg of the coffee table. Auden looked at Dudley. He was staring right at it. He saw it, but would he eat it?

After Fred disappeared into the fire, George left with Harry's trunk. Then, Ron disappeared as well.

"Auden, you next," said Mr. Weasley.

Before Auden could move, there was a gagging sound. She turned to see Dudley, lying on the ground with his tongue flapping out and growing bigger and bigger. Auden and Harry looked at each other, amused. Even though Auden had worried about Dudley, she had to admit that his growing tongue looked hilarious. She felt terrible, but she had to at least crack a smile.

"What did you do to my son?" roared Harry's uncle. He was clearly not amused, and rightly so.

"Nothing," Mr. Weasley said quickly. "It must have been Fred, my son. He likes to play jokes. I am terribly sorry. I can fix this, though, if you'll let me see his tongue…"

Harry's uncle was now throwing glass figurines. One of them narrowly missed Auden's head and shattered against the fireplace behind her.

"Harry, Auden, get out, leave…now!" yelled Mr. Weasley.

Harry grabbed Auden's arm and dragged her into the fire, where they were whisked away to the Burrow. The exit from Harry'ws house was so rushed and hasty that the arrival at the Burrow caused Auden to lose her balance and fall, bringing Harry down with her.

"What happened? Did he eat it?" Fred asked excitedly, helping first Harry, then Auden up.

"Yes, he did, and his parents are hysterical," Auden said, shaking her head and crossing her arms. "Your dad's trying to put him right, but I told you it was a bad idea."

"No, it wasn't," Fred laughed. George was laughing as well from the kitchen table where Bill and Charlie were also sitting.

"His dad was throwing figurines," Auden said, frowning, only causing the twins to laugh more. "One almost hit me in the face."

Fred clamped his mouth shut, but Auden could tell he still wanted to laugh. "Sorry, Aud."

"Would it still be funny if I came back with my head gushing blood?"

"I doubt it would be gushing," Fred assured her. "But, no, it wouldn't be funny. Can't have you getting another scar on my account."

Auden smiled as Ron began introducing Harry to Bill and Charlie. She and Fred just looked at each other for a moment more before Fred spoke again.

"So, what'd you really think?"

"It was a terribly mean thing to do," Auden said. "That is what I really think."

"What else do you really think?" Fred asked. "If you won't tell me, then you leave me no choice but to force you..." Then, he tickled her and Auden had to laugh. She was squealing and grabbing Fred's wrists in an attempt to pry them away, when Mr. Weasley appeared. Fred stopped tickling Auden and the room was silent.

"That wasn't funny, Fred! What did you two give that boy?" Mr. Weasley asked angrily, his eyes shifting from Fred to George.

"Nothing," Fred said innocently. "I just dropped it. I never told him to go and eat it."

"You dropped it on purpose!" Mr. Weasley yelled. "You knew he would eat it! You knew he was on a diet!"

Auden looked at the ground. She never saw Mr. Weasley get angry. Even though he wasn't terribly angry now, it seemed like he was. And she felt partly responsible.

"How long did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly, causing Auden to look up again. As ashamed as she was to admit it, she was curious.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!" Mr. Weasley exlaimed as the entire room broke into laughter. "It isn't funny! That sort of behavior seriously underminds wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles and my own sons-"

"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" Fred exclaimed.

"No, we gave it to him because he's a bullying git," George said. "Isn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," Harry said earnestly.

"That's not the point!" Mr. Weasley said. "You wait until I tell your mother."

"Tell me what?"

Auden spun around in horror. Mrs. Weasley had just come in the back door with Auden's mother, Ginny and Hermione and was staring at Mr. Weasley expectantly. He blinked a few times. Auden knew that he hadn't actually planned on telling Mrs. Weasley anything.

"Ron," Hermione began quickly, "why don't you show Harry where he'll be sleeping?"

"He knows where he'll be-," Ron began, but shut up when Hermione gave him a look. "Er, come on," he muttered to Harry leading the way towards the stairs as Hermione and Ginny followed.

"We'll go, too," George said, gesturing to himself and Fred.

"No, you two stay where you are," Mrs. Weasley ordered.

"And you too, Auden," Mrs. Parker said as Auden blushed. Her mother had known Fred and George had come over earlier. She must have assumed the three of them had hatched a plan together.

"Now, what happened, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley asked.

"It's nothing. Fred and George just-but I've had words with them."

"I hope it's nothing more to do with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes!" Mrs. Weasley exclaimed, crossing her arms.

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" Auden asked in a whisper, leaning closer to Fred.

"Yeah," he whispered back, "we named our future joke shop while you were gone. And we perfected a ton of other products that Mum threw away. We had a huge argument..."

"Guess I missed a lot," she whispered apologetically, giving his hand a comforting squeeze.

Fred simply shrugged as Mr. Weasley finally explained to Mrs. Weasley what had happened to Dudley. She instantly blew up at Fred and George, resulting in another argument. Auden felt extremely awkward. She had been around when Mrs. Weasley scolded the twins before, but she had never witnessed a full blown argument like this one. She almost wanted to leave, but her mother had told her to stay and besides, she wasn't going to leave the twins to get yelled at alone.

Once Mrs. Weasley had gotten through yelling at the twins about their "poor career choice" and "lack of OWLs", and once the twins had finished telling her that a joke shop was what they were passionate about and that they didn't need a lot of OWLs to successfully open and run one, Auden's mother was finally able to get a word in.

"Did you have something to do with this?" she asked, turning to Auden with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, no, not really, but I knew about it and I saw the toffee on the floor, but I didn't say anything," Auden said, her cheeks red. She couldn't lie to her mother; she hated to lie.

"How could you not say anything to stop that poor boy from eating it?"

"I was just kind of hoping he wasn't stupid enough to eat random candy off the ground, but I guess he is that stupid," Auden shrugged as Fred and George laughed hysterically. Mrs. Weasley glared at them and they stopped at once.

Mrs. Parker was still glaring at Auden when Fred chimed in. "It's more my fault than hers, Mrs. Parker. Don't be angry with her. She told us not to do it. She was actually really worried, but I did it anyway."

"Well, I still think you should have said something, Aud," her mom said.

"I'm sorry," Auden replied. "You're right, I should have."

After Mrs. Weasley had finished scolding the twins a little more, she put them and Auden to work setting the table outside.

"I'm sorry you had to get yelled at too," Fred told Auden as they walked out to the yard. "You didn't really do anything."

"It's okay…I mean I probably should have said something…"

"But…?" Fred prompted her.

"But, to be honest…seeing Harry's cousin's tongue reach four feet long made my day," Auden finished.

"That's my girl," Fred laughed.

Auden smiled. "Fred?"

"Yeah?" he asked, glancing at her.

"What your mother said...don't let her make you feel stupid or useless. She cares about you, which is why she gets upset, but I think she can be-well, I just don't want you to let her get you down. If you want to open a joke shop, then do it. You and George are smart. Very smart. And amazing. And talented. I just don't want you to think for a second that you aren't, okay?"

Fred looked down at her for a moment. Auden couldn't quite read his expression, but she thought for a second that she saw his eyes water slightly before he swallowed, blinked and nodded. "Thanks, Aud," he whispered, reaching out and squeezing her hand. "That means a lot, honestly."

She nodded. "Tell George for me, too," she grinned.

Fred smiled. "Of course."

Dinner was amazing as usual. Mrs. Weasley was a fabulous cook and the Dudley incident was forgotten quickly. Once, Auden looked up to see Fred staring at her. She crossed her eyes at him and went back to half-listening to Percy, who was chewing her ear off about Barty Crouch and how amazing he was.

"So," Fred said to Auden after dinner, once everyone had helped clear the plates away.

"So what?" Auden asked with a grin, absentmidedly starting to wander in the direction of the pond in the Weasley's backyard.

Fred followed her, his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face. "I'm so sorry you had to sit next to Percy at dinner. I can only imagine what he was talking to you about."

"I can only imagine, too, because I wasn't really paying attention," Auden giggled.

Fred laughed and reached out to gently punch her shoulder. They reached the pond and came to a stop at the edge of the water.

"I'm glad you're finally back from your vacation," Fred finally said. "I missed you. Things weren't the same without you here."

"I wrote you letters," Auden said, "just as I promised."

"Yeah, but it still wasn't the same as actually having you here." Fred let a puff of air out of his mouth before looking at her.

Auden turned to meet his eyes and she then realized how close they were standing. Her arm was less than an inch from Fred's and that fact was actually giving her goosebumps. That had never happened before.

"I missed you, too," she finally whispered. "A lot."

Fred turned his whole body to face her then, and she slowly found herself mirroring his actions. "Auden," he whispered. "I..." He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"Yeah?" she asked. His nervousness only made her even more curious about what he wanted to say.

"I'm-I think-you're..." He was still standing incredibly close to her and Auden could not only see each and every freckle on his face but the blush creeping up his cheeks.

"I'm what?" she prodded gently, despite the fact that her heart was pounding in her chest.

Fred inclined his head minutely closer to hers. It was almost as if he were about to kiss her, but then he froze and pulled away. "I think you're a really good friend," he blurted. "That's what I was trying to say."

"Oh," Auden said. She felt slightly disappointed, but she couldn't explain why. "Okay, well, so are you."

Fred smiled slightly. "Thanks. Um, well, we should probably get back inside. We have a big day tomorrow so we should probably get some sleep."

"Yeah," Auden agreed quietly. "We should."

Fred nodded and turned for the house. Auden followed him, still trying to process and make sense of what had just happened.

"I mean, a really good friend? George, what was I thinking?" Fred mused as he flopped onto his bed about twenty minutes later. "I mean, she is a good friend, but I don't want to be just her friend anymore and now she probably thinks that's exactly what I want to be."

"Maybe not," George said from his own bed. "You said you almost kissed her, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but then I panicked and froze up and told her what a good friend she is." Fred sighed and rubbed a hand over his face. "I'm so stupid, George."

George was quiet for a moment. "I'm sure Auden doesn't think so."

"I'm sure she does," Fred argued.

"She's known you her entire life. She's seen you mess up dozens of times."

"But never like this," Fred told him, letting out a sigh.

"Look, Fred, tomorrow things will be back to normal. You're just making a bigger deal out of this because you messed up and embarrassed and frustrated, but it's one of those things that won't matter in the morning. Trust me on this, okay?"

Fred nodded. "I can't believe I was so close to kissing her," he whispered. "I wanted to so badly."

"What stopped you?" George asked, rolling onto his side and facing his brother. "I mean, fear, obviously, but why were you so scared?"

"I was scared that if I kissed her, she'd push me away or hit me or just take it very badly and then things would be weird for sure. I'm not certain about how she feels about me. I'm scared of being rejected."

"It's a perfectly normal fear," George said.

"I know," Fred nodded. "I just...I feel like an idiot and a coward. Why couldn't I have just kissed her and told her how I feel? Why couldn't I have just done it? She's one of my best friends. And if she cared about our friendship, she wouldn't let things get weird or ruined if she didn't return the feelings."

"But would you?" George asked. "If it turned out she didn't return the feelings, what would you do?"

"I'd be devastated, but I still want her around in some way or another. Being just friends is better than nothing at all."

"Agreed," George nodded.

"The way she stuck up for us after Mum was yelling...she told me that she didn't want us to feel useless. It's like she knew how I was feeling-how we were feeling- and took the time to make sure we knew she believed in us." He buried his head in his hands. "It made me like her even more, George. I don't know what to do. She's so important to me and I want to go about this the right way, without losing her forever or without getting myself hurt."

"Maybe you could talk to her," George suggested. "Take things slow. Explain how you feel. See how she reacts and what she's thinking. You'll never know what's going through her head unless you ask."

"True," Fred sighed, running a hand through his hair.

George smiled and stifled a yawn. "I don't know about you, but I'm exhausted and I'm going to try to get some sleep. You should, too, and don't worry about what happened tonight anymore. I promise that everything will be back to normal in the morning."

Fred didn't answer. Instead, he rolled onto his stomach and closed his eyes, sincerely hoping that George was right.

A/N: This author's note is unrelated to this chapter, but I was thinking about something I'm writing in a future chapter and I decided I wanted some opinions and people can just let me know in a review or something...I never specified what song Auden and Fred were dancing to in Chapter 10 but I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for a song because I decided it's going to come up later in the story. And of course, if I decide to use the song you suggested I'll give you the credit for the idea :)