As always, thank you guys for all the continued support, it means the world to me! How about we keep those reviews coming, though, hm? They really do keep me going you guys :)
Don't be afraid to drop off questions, either!
Also, since people have asked, I'll just post a reminder: Amelia is a year older than Harry, Ron & Hermione, but a year younger than Fred, George & Cedric, meaning she was born in 1979.
And, I do not have a beta. I do not do much editing, if any at all. I literally write and post as soon as I'm finished with a chapter, so I am completely aware that there are many mistakes. Everything I post is a first draft, just finished. I do plan on going back and fixing said mistakes when I get further along. But, yes, I'm aware they are there.
Well, enjoy, and thanks again guys!
"Stop it, you're squashing me!"
"Would you rather me squash you, or let all the doxies out before mum gets back?"
"Neither!"
"Would you two just shut up and stop arguing for one minute?!" Ginny pleaded, exasperated. She was already exhausted from hearing Hermione and Ron bicker constantly.
Both Ron and Hermione rolled their eyes, as they, along with Ginny, kept pushing their weight into the desk drawer to keep the doxies at bay. They were putting up a surprisingly good fight, shoving back from their side of the drawer, trying to get out. As they kept shoving the drawer shut, Hermione and Ron continued to bicker. Ginny rolled her eyes now, and looked to Harry, who seemed to be just as annoyed with them as she was.
While the four of them struggled to keep the doxies contained in the drawer, Fred and George sat on a nearby leather sofa, snickering at them.
"You two!" Ginny exploded, glaring at them. "Would it kill you to help?"
With a smirk towards each other, they said, in unison, "Not at all."
They then proceeded to Apparate from the sofa to the desk, but they timed it wrong - their mother was just entering the room.
"FRED! GEORGE! HOW MANY TIMES DO I NEED TO TELL YOU, YOU DON'T NEED TO USE MAGIC FOR EVERYTHING JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN?!" Mrs. Weasley burst, as she, and Sirius entered the room.
"Sorry," the two shrugged. Neither looked that concerned.
Regaining her composure, Mrs. Weasley went back to the task on hand, saying, "Right, you lot, you need to be careful, because doxies bite and their teeth are poisonous. I've got a bottle of antidote here, but I'd rather nobody needed it."
"When I say the word, start spraying immediately," she said. "They'll come flying out at us, I expect, but it says on the sprays one good squirt will paralyze them. When they're immobilized, just throw them in this bucket."
"All right — squirt!"
Harry had been spraying only a few seconds when a fully grown doxy came soaring out of a drawer of the desk, shiny beetle-like wings whirring, tiny needle-sharp teeth bared, its fairylike body covered with thick black hair and its four tiny fists clenched with fury. Harry caught it full in the face with a blast of Doxycide; it froze in midair and fell, with a surprisingly loud thunk, onto the worn carpet below. Harry picked it up and threw it in the bucket.
"Fred, what are you doing?" said Mrs. Weasley sharply. "Spray that at once and throw it away!"
Harry looked around. Fred was holding a struggling doxy between his forefinger and thumb.
"Right-o," Fred said brightly, spraying the doxy quickly in the face so that it fainted, but the moment Mrs. Weasley's back was turned he pocketed it with a wink.
"We want to experiment with doxy venom for our Skiving Snack boxes," George told Harry under his breath.
Deftly spraying two doxies at once as they soared straight for his nose, Harry moved closer to George and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "What are Skiving Snackboxes?"
"Range of sweets to make you ill," George whispered, keeping a wary eye on Mrs. Weasley's back. "Not seriously ill, mind, just ill enough to get you out of a class when you feel like it. Fred and I have been developing them this summer. They're double-ended, color- coded chews. If you eat the orange half of the Puking Pastilles, you throw up. Moment you've been rushed out of the lesson for the hospital wing, you swallow the purple half —"
" '— which restores you to full fitness, enabling you to pursue the leisure activity of your own choice during an hour that would otherwise have been devoted to unprofitable boredom.' That's what we're putting in the adverts, anyway," whispered Fred, who had edged over out of Mrs. Weasley's line of vision and was now sweeping a few stray doxies from the floor and adding them to his pocket. "But they still need a bit of work. At the moment our testers are having a bit of trouble stopping puking long enough to swallow the purple end."
"Testers?"
"Us," said Fred. "We take it in turns. George did the Fainting Fancies — we both tried the Nosebleed Nougat —"
"Mum thought we'd been dueling," said George.
"Joke shop still on, then?" Harry muttered, pretending to be adjusting the nozzle on his spray.
"Well, we haven't had a chance to get premises yet," said Fred, dropping his voice even lower as Mrs. Weasley mopped her brow with her scarf before returning to the attack, "So we're running it as a mail order service at the moment. We put advertisements in the Daily Prophet last week."
"All thanks to you, mate," said George. "But don't worry….Mum hasn't got a clue. She won't read the Daily Prophet anymore, 'cause of it telling lies about you and Dumbledore."
"That Skeeter woman's still writing for the Prophet?" Zinnia inquired, upon her and Amelia's arrival into the room. "Shame, she's downright nasty."
There was a slight chuckle that reverberated through the room at Zinnia's comment, but everyone shut up and stared when they saw Amelia, who wished she could Apparate out of the room at that moment.
It seemed like forever that nothing was said, until it was George who finally broke the silence and stepped forward to greet Amelia.
"See, I told you it'd be soon," he winked, giving her a one-armed kind of hug. "You should learn not to doubt me."
"Suppose I should," Amelia replied, mustering her best grin.
After George broke the ice, Hermione, Ron, Ginny and Harry got the guts to greet Amelia as well. Fred didn't, understandably, and everyone but Amelia noticed how quickly his mood had changed for the worse upon her arrival.
"Er….need any more help getting rid of the doxies?" Amelia then inquired, unsure of what else there was for her to say.
"No, I think we're all set, thank you," Mrs. Weasley answered, from where she had collapsed on the sofa first occupied by Fred and George. "Ginny, Hermione, why don't you girls show Amelia to her room?"
Hermione and Ginny nodded, escorting Amelia out of the room and up yet another flight of stairs.
"What does she mean, 'my room?'" Amelia asked, increasingly more confused and uncomfortable.
"Well, your grandmother has been in and out of here all summer," Ginny supplied. "She's been planning on moving you two in here - complains about the Muggle that owns your building all the time. She was just waiting until she thought that you were ready."
"But….what about my stuff?" Amelia then inquired.
"It all arrived just before you did," Hermione told her. "Zinnia must've charmed it here just before you two came over."
They came to a stop in front of one of the great, old mahogany doors, which Ginny opened. Inside, were the remnants of what was once an elegant bedroom, with mahogany wood and rich fabrics and deeply colored wallpapers. Amelia saw indeed that her stuff was here - her school trunk at the foot of the bed, her books, her letters and the box of Cedric's things on top of the bed, and Ramses on a bird perch in the corner, fast asleep.
Looking around the room, Amelia was unsure on how she felt about all of this. Her grandmother was on the right side. She got to spend the rest of the summer with a few friends….and Fred.
Once again, a small mewing noise drew Amelia's attention away from her thoughts. She pulled open her large, baggy shoulder bag, to reveal Lucy, mewing as she batted about a few loose Knuts at the bottom of the bag.
"You little scamp," Amelia mumbled, amused, as she pulled the kitten from her bag to cuddle in her arms.
"New cat?" Ginny asked, smiling as she pet Lucy's fuzz. "Awfully sweet little thing….can I hold him or her?"
"Sure, her name's Lucy," Amelia nodded, handing her to Ginny. "Like 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,' by the Beatles?"
Confused, Ginny raised an eyebrow, as Lucy nuzzled her cheek. "Beetles? Like the bugs?"
"No, a band, a Muggle band," Amelia chuckled, gesturing to their picture on her shirt.
"Oh," Ginny replied. Amelia wasn't sure if she understood.
"She's so cute!" Hermione squealed, taking the kitten from Ginny's arms. "This is just great! Crookshanks has been a bit bored, I think - now he can have a little playmate! Look, he's already come to say hello!"
Ginny and Amelia snapped their heads around, to see Crookshanks, a ginger mess of a cat, sitting in the doorway. His head was turned, evidently intrigued, as his tail swished over the floor.
"Here, Lucy, meet Crookshanks," Hermione said, setting the kitten down in front of the significantly larger cat.
Bemused by the smaller, Crookshanks batted at her with his paw gently, but it was enough to cause Lucy to leap, nearly all the way back into Amelia's arms.
"I don't think Crookshanks is looking for a playmate, Hermione," Ginny commented.
"He'll get there," Hermione assured the redhead, as she lifted Crookshanks into her arms. "He just needs to warm up to her a bit."
"If that's what you want to believe, go ahead," Ginny shrugged. "Oh, and Amelia - I'm apologizing in advance for Fred's behaviour. I don't blame you for breaking up with him, but….from what I've seen of your pranking, it would've been fun to have you in the family."
"Oh," Amelia mumbled, her cheeks heating up. Her old nervous habit of stuttering resurfaced, as she said, "It was never….we….w-we were never that s-serious, Ginny. We just….fooled around a bit."
Again, Ginny shrugged, as she replied, "That's not what Fred thinks."
Hermione sensing how awkward Amelia was feeling, said, "Well, er, we'll let you settle in for a moment, alright?"
"Sure," Amelia nodded.
"Lunch will probably be in about half an hour," Ginny informed her. She stopped, just before she was fully out of the room, and added, "Sorry about my mum, too. She's a bit protective of us, and well….you'll figure it out."
Amelia nodded again as Ginny left the room after Hermione, and sat on her bed, Lucy in her lap. She took the bag off of her shoulder and set it next to her, as she pressed the button that opened her locket. On one side, she saw the family picture that had been in there since she received it. On the other, a newer addition - a picture of her and Cedric, mainly, laughing in the courtyard, though Herb, Leanne and Phoebe were all visible. She smiled, just faintly so, before clasping it shut once again.
As she rose to her feet once again, she heard a loud bang at the window. Immediately, she scurried over, and saw an owl on the ground. She gasped, thinking it was dead, until it flew up once again, to be let inside by Amelia. It seemed a little dizzy, before landing on the perch next to Ramses, who managed to sleep through the whole thing, and offered Amelia the letter in its beak, which she took, and read.
Amelia F. Honeycutt,
I hope that by the time you read this you've arrived at 12 Grimmauld Place, or else I've really spoiled a surprise for you. I also hope that this letter finds you well.
I was planning on joining you there with the Order, on George's invitation, but I decided not to. Sorry about that. It's just that I know I have to leave for Hogwarts in a little more than a month, so I want to spend as much time with Elliott as possible before we have to leave. I never knew being in love could be so wonderful! I sent you a picture of us, it's in the envelope, if you want to take a look.
So, I just wanted to apologize for not being able to join you. I'd do my best to save you from Fred if I was there, George says he's been an absolute mess. At least you're not alone with him. But, I understand how he feels now, now that I have Elliott.
Write me soon!
Love,
Phoebe E. Hibbert
(P.S. - My parents finally let me get my own owl! Her name is Fortuna. Isn't she lovely?)
Amelia smiled, being able to hear Phoebe's voice in her head as she read the letter. Setting it aside, she took the envelope up once again, taking out a Muggle polaroid picture from it. It was Phoebe, in baggy denim overalls, a tie-dye t-shirt, and shockingly yellow Wellingtons, her hair a mess, as usual. There was a boy next to her, with hair just as long, though much better kept, with a bright smile and twinkle in his eye as he looked at Phoebe, whose eyes were shut due to her laughing. Both of them were wading in a pond, frogs in their hands.
Of course, Amelia thought, shaking her head. Phoebe would find a frog hunt romantic.
Either way, she set the photo aside with the rest of her mail, happy that Phoebe was happy. She figured she'd write back later, when she had more of a chance. She also wondered how George felt about the whole Phoebe situation. Amelia had an inkling that he fancied Phoebe, even just a tad.
Hermione came upstairs to fetch Amelia for lunch, and guided her down to the now crowded kitchen, where Mrs. Weasley had prepared a plethora of sandwiches for everyone. Amelia took the seat between Ginny and Hermione, and across from her grandmother, who was sitting next to someone who was very familiar to her.
"Professor Lupin?" Amelia inquired, shocked. She never thought she'd see him again, especially after hearing about his….condition.
"Hello, Amelia," Lupin nodded, sipping his drink with a smile. He looked even shabbier than she recalled, but nonetheless, she was very happy to see one of her favorite professors. "You're doing well, from what I hear from your grandmother. I've heard you're doing an internship at St. Mungo's?"
"Yes, I am," Amelia nodded, her cheeks warming with embarrassment. "I go three days a week, and observe Healer Smethwyck. It's nice, but not all that exciting, considering I can't use magic outside of school yet."
As she spoke, she felt Fred's eyes bore into her from down the table.
"Smethwyck says she's brilliant," Zinnia praised, elbowing Lupin with a grin. "Says she could run St. Mungo's on her own right when she gets out of Hogwarts. A natural brain."
"It's because I read, gran," Amelia said humbly, after a bite of her sandwich. "I just read, that's all."
"See, Ronald, I'm not the only one who reads," Hermione shot at Ron.
Amelia looked to Ginny, who was rolling her eyes, and chuckled a bit under her breath.
"Amelia, have you read Hogwarts, a History?" Ron inquired sharply, trying to defend his end of the case.
"Yeah, I have," she nodded, knowing it wasn't what he wanted to hear.
Hermione smirked, and the now-defeated Ron sunk into his seat, scowling. Between seeing that, and the continuing feeling of Fred's eyes on her, Amelia had a feeling it was going to be a long rest of the summer.