Chapter 21:
Emily, Fred and George managed to get them all playing, that is except for Molly of course. She decided that she would just clean the house and prepare dinner.
"Alright, we'll divide the teams evenly." Emily said after they set up the field. They were playing a few ways away from the house because Mrs. Weasley didn't want Bludgers flying into her window every so often. "Fred, Ginny, Charlie, Ron and Arthur, you will be on one team. Bill, George, Harry, Hermione and Percy and me will be on the other." She said.
"We have Percy? That's not fair!" George complained.
"Shut it!" Percy glared.
"Okay the whole point of the game is to not let us get to this base." She said, pointing at the home base. "You want to pitch the ball at the beater bat and when I hit it, you all out on the field try your best to catch it and touch the runner with the ball." She explained. "Any questions?" George put his hand up.
"What happens when we tag the runner with the bludger?" He asked.
"Then they're out and the next person in line goes up to bat." She said. "Well let's get to it. Arthur! You'll be the pitcher." She said. Everyone went scattered to their bases and lined up to bat. Emily walked up to Fred who was holding the beater bat and put her hand out.
"I'll bat first so you guys know how to do it." She turned to Fred. "The bat if you would sir." He smiled and handed it to her.
"Good luck." He said and took his position as the back catcher. Emily smirked and got up to bat. She decided she would go first to show the rest of them how it was done. Emily took advantage of this and smiled to herself. She could feel Fred's eyes on her from behind.
"Ready?" Arthur called out. She gave him a nod and he threw the ball. As it came towards her, Emily swung the bat as hard as she could and hit the Bludger out into the air. She dropped the bat right away and ran to first base.
"Wow, she'd make an excellent beater." George said from the sideline. Charlie ran out to catch it but it fell to the ground and Emily made it to first base before she was tagged. It was Percy's turn to bat. Arthur threw it and Percy missed the first time.
"Strike one!" Emily shouted. "Remember, three of those and you're out!" Arthur tossed it to him again, missing it a second time. Fred tossed it back to his dad. He threw it one more time but Percy missed.
"You're out!" Ginny yelled. It was Harry's turn to bat. Harry hit it and it fell between Charlie and Ron. Ron grabbed it and headed to first base. Emily ran to second base. Harry was tagged before he could reach first.
"George you turn!" Emily shouted.
"Great, this should be easy." He said.
"Good luck Georgey." Fred said from behind him. "Try not to trip and fall, we wouldn't want any accidents." He patted his twin on the shoulder.
"Shut it Fred." George said as he picked up the bat. Arthur tossed it to him and George hit it as hard as he could. The Bludger flew across the field, over one hundred yards. Everyone watched in astonishment.
"Run George Run!" Emily shouted. The two of them ran as fast as they could as Ron passed the Bludger to Charlie, from Charlie to Ginny. Emily was making her way to home as Ginny passed to Fred. It all happened in a blink of an eye and no one saw what happened first, whether Emily made it home, or Fred tagged her with the Bludger.
"I got it!" They said at the same time.
"No way, I totally made it." She said.
"Oh c'mon Em, I got you first, sorry." He smirked. Emily's eyebrows rose.
"Oh really, is that what you think?" She asked.
"It's what happened." He shrugged, still smirking. She smiled and shook her head as she walked off.
"Switch!" Arthur yelled.
Emily decided to be the pitcher this round.
"Alright its 0 all, let's make this round quick, I'm sure Molly's got dinner ready." Arthur announced. Everyone got into their positions. Ginny got up to bat first.
"Ready Gin'?" Emily asked.
"Go for it." She shouted. Emily tossed her the ball and Ginny hit it as far as George. Bill ran and chased the ball in the air as he watched it fly. He caught it and everybody clapped.
"Nice going Bill!" she said. "You're out Gin, Charlie you're up!" Charlie got up to bat. Emily tossed him the ball and he got one strike, the next time he hit it though, he managed to get onto second base. The game went on until almost everyone went up to bat, the bases were loaded and it was Fred's turn to bat. He walked up to the base and picked up the bat.
"You ready Fred?" She asked.
"Get on with it Ryan!" Emily laughed and tossed him the ball. She managed to throw a curve ball, and Fred didn't hit it.
"I thought you were ready!" She said.
"C'mon Fred! Give it a good beat!' Charlie shouted from third.
"Show her how a beater hits Freddy!" George shouted. Fred got into his ready position again, as Harry passed Emily the ball.
"C'mon you've got to hit this one." Emily said. She tossed him the ball again, with another curve.
"Fred what're you doing? Hit it!" Ginny shouted. Emily had possession of the bludger again.
"Alright, last chance Fredy." Emily smirked. Fred shot her a look. She tossed it again, this time normally. Fred wasn't prepared for it, but was ready for the curve ball. He missed it again. "Strike three, you're out!" She shouted.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second that wasn't-" He began.
"Fred it was completely fair." She said.
"Time for supper!" Molly shouted from the house. Everyone went running into the house.
"Charlie, elbows off the table dear." Molly said as she began to dish out numerous peoples food. It was a full house. The table wasn't big enough to have everybody sitting down, so a bunch of them just sat in the living room with their food and socialized. The older ones got to sit at the table first though, which was fine with everyone else, because it meant they could socialize more with each other. "Emily, don't be afraid to dish up." Molly said and pet her cheek, Emily smiled.
"Thank you Molly"' Emily dished up and joined her friends in the living room. She sat on the floor in front of the couch with Ginny behind her.
"That was so much fun Em!" Ginny said. "Where on earth did you learn how to play that?"
Emily wanted to tell her all about her brother Jeremy and how he played on a baseball team. She'd go to his practices and sometimes his friends would play a game with her for fun. "Well we'd play it a lot at the orphanage, when I stayed there." She said shoving some salad into her mouth.
"We've got to do it again. I've seen muggles play that before." Hermione added.
"You'd make one hell of a beater Em." George said with food hanging from his mouth.
"Why thank you." she smiled. They spent the rest of the time talking about the Quidditch World Cup, then realized it was getting late. Emily got up and picked up a few stray plates around the floor that people had forgotten and brought them into the kitchen where she saw Molly washing the dishes.
"Why don't you just use magic to do the dishes?" She asked curiously.
"I like doing the dishes. I don't enjoy using magic all the time. It would make the whole lot of us lazy. Plus I'd have nothing to do all day." She smiled.
"Well why don't you head up to bed, I'll finish up for you." Emily suggested.
"Oh I can't let you do that, it's alright."
"No I insist Molly. It's the least I can do for all that you've done for me." She said taking the cloth from Molly.
"Alright, good night dear." She said and headed up to bed. Emily stacked the plates up beside the counter and filled the sink with hot, soapy water and began to rinse them off and wash them when another stack was plopped onto the counter beside her.
"Now why on earth are you doing the dishes?" Fred asked, leaning on the counter.
"It's the least I can do." She smiled. "Plus I enjoy it, it's kind of fun." Fred smiled and picked up a towel and began to dry off the dishes she had laid out to dry.
"You know, that was a nasty trick you pulled earlier." He said.
"Whatever do you mean?" She asked, knowing exactly what he meant.
"I mean in that muggle game."
"Baseball?" She laughed. Muggle game.
"Yes!"
"It wasn't a trick Fred, it was called skill." She passed him a plate. "And besides, I could say the same thing to you." Fred looked down at the plate, picking up a dry cloth and began drying the plate.
"Are you referring to when I got you out?"
"No you didn't get me out! I got there first, fair and square!" She poked him.
"Did not."
"Did too!" They heard a big fit of laughter coming from the living room, which distracted them and they both looked into the direction of the living room, they were all still in there in there. "Whatever, I just made it even." She returned to cleaning the dishes.
"Whatever you say." He laughed.
"...I did."
"Did not."
"Did too." She kept up.
"Are we really going to start this again?" He laughed. She handed the last dish to Fred to dry and emptied the sink.
"Well that was fun." She said.
"What's next? We gonna sweep the floors... Or pull the weeds from the garden?" He joked. Emily leaned against the counter with her elbows.
"I can't wait until we go to the cup, it'll be so much fun." She smiled, thinking about what it would be like.
She felt Fred tense up next to her. From the corner of her eye she saw him looking back and forth from her, like he wanted to ask her something. "Em, can I ask you a question?" Fred asked, Emily looked towards him with her eyebrow raised.
"Depends, what is it?" She asked.
"Why don't you want to go back to the orphanage?" He asked tentitively, as if he'd really wanted to say it for a long time. Emily sighed.
"Then no, you can't ask me a question." She said getting up and walking out the kitchen door and into the garden.
"Wait, Em listen." He said as he followed her. "Every time we bring it up, or just mention it you get all bummed out, why?"
"I don't want to talk about it... I am not an orphan." She said, still walking.
"No." He rushed in front of her and stopped her. "We're going to talk about it, because I'm your best friend and we used to tell each other everything. Tell me, did something happen there?" He asked.
"No! Nothing happened there, it's not that I don't want to talk about it, it's just... I'm not sure if I'm allowed. I'm just really confused right now about a lot of things and this isn't something I want to get into." Shee said. Fred removed his hands from her shoulders.
"You're not talking about the orphanage, are you?" He asked. Emily took a breath in and looked at the ground. "Em listen, we said we'd forget about the kiss, but honestly, it's the only thing I can think about when I'm around you." He tilted her chin up so that she was looking him in the eye. "look at me and tell me you don't think about it too." He said. They stood for a moment, both looking at each other. It was quiet. The only things that could be heard around them were the crickets chirping and the frogs croaking in the distant creek.
"I can't." She whispered.
"Exactly. Em I can't forget about it, no matter how hard I try you always have some clever way of wandering back into my mind. To be honest, I don't even think I want to forget about it." He laughed. Emily blushed to herself at the thought of kissing Fred. With his hand still on her chin, he slowly leaned in and, still looking in her eyes, closed the gap between them and kissed her. Emily's eyes fell shut and she gave into the kiss. She wrapped her arms around Fred and kissed him harder. He moved his hand down to cup her face, and the other slid around her back to hold her even closer to him. She could feel Fred smiling into the kiss, which made her smile as well. Soon, to both of their displeasure, they broke apart in need of air.
"Now I don't know about you, but now I know I can't forget about that." He said. Emily laughed and kissed him again. The two of them stood out in the cool summer night, not wanting that moment to end.
Review, Review, Review!