"Honestly, Ginny, you really should leave it alone. I don't see the point in badgering me about it. Nothings going to happen, there's not even anything between us."

"But there is something between you two! I see it every day! Ella, don't you see how he looks at you?" Ginny whined.

Ella rolled her eyes and said, "No, Gin, I don't see it. Do you want to know why I don't see it? Because there's nothing to see! He doesn't like me, that ship has sailed."

"Ugh," Ginny groaned as she fell back on her back. "She is so stubborn. Katie, how do you deal with her?"

"I don't," Katie replied, not even looking up from her Quidditch catalog. "I just let her go on her little rampages until she realizes that she's wrong."

"I'm not wrong, you nitwits!" Ella yelled, throwing a pillow at Katie.

Katie and Ella had arrived at the Burrow a few days before Harry and Hermione would be before the Quidditch World Cup. They would have come along with the others if it wouldn't have been for Mrs. Weasley's begs for Ella to come earlier. And with Ella, of course, also came Katie. The girls were shaken from their playful bickering as they heard a commotion coming from downstairs.

"That wasn't funny, Fred!" Ella heard Mr. Weasley yell. "What on earth did you give that muggle boy?"

Katie and Ella looked at each other. "Uh oh."

"Oh, so you're going to tell me that you don't fancy him, but you'll run at the very inkling of his voice? Very convincing, Ella!" Ginny yelled after Ella as she and the two other girls raced down the stairs to see what was going on.

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

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

"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," Harry said in earnest.

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

"Tell me what?" Said Mrs. Weasley from behind them, flanked by Ella's mother who was carrying a load of laundry.

"Oh hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him and smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"

As they were waiting for Mr. Weasley to answer Mrs. Weasley Harry smiled at Ginny, and Ella could basically feel the giddiness radiating off of her. There was no doubt that she was blushing scarlet.

"Go, go now," Ella's mother mouthed to them silently, she could tell that things were about to get hostile. Molly Weasley definitely knew how to dish out punishment.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, and Ella's spine broke out into chills.

"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Mr. Weasley, "Fred and George just — but I've had words with them —"

"What have they done this time?" Mrs. Weasley said. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes —"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" said Hermione from the doorway.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last —"

"We can all go," Hermione said pointedly, and Ella and Katie started to shuffle uncomfortably from the room.

"Oh," Ron said, cottoning on, "right."

"Yeah, we'll come too," said George, and Ella lit up with the slightest bit of hope.

"You stay where you are!" Mrs. Weasley snarled at the twins, and there went Ella's hope.

Ella made her way out of the kitchen with Hermione, Katie, and Ginny, now accompanied by Harry and Ron, mouthing a quick, "good luck," to Fred and George before she left.

"What are Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as they climbed the zigzagged stairway of the Burrow.

"Only the biggest joke shop in the making that there ever was," Ella said proudly, as her, Ginny, and Ron laughed.

"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that. . ."

"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," said Ginny. "We thought they just liked the noise."

"Only most of the stuff — well, all of it, really — was a bit dangerous," said Ron, "and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms. . . . She's furious at them anyways. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."

"They're both such brilliant idiots and I offered to help them study for their exams. They could have gotten such good marks but nooo," Ella grumbled to herself, making Katie laugh under her breath.

"And then there was this big row," Ginny said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop."

And then a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.

"Hi, Percy," said Harry.

"Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know — I've got a report to finish for the office — and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."

"We're not thundering," said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."

"What are you working on?" said Harry.

"Nope, that's my cue," Ella said. "I refuse to be subjected to hearing about Percy's work again. I'm going to help my mum with something. See you guys later!" And with that, Ella practically flew down the stairs, sneaking past Mrs. Weasley yelling at her twin boys. She meandered out to the front of the Burrow where Ella's mother, Margaret, was waving her wand about and hanging laundry on the lines to dry. Mrs. Weasley had been so kind as to set up extra lines around the house because there were so many guests.

"Hey, Ma," Ella said, approaching her mother, whose back was turned to her. "Need anything help with the wash?"

Margaret sniffled and said, "N-no, sweetheart, it's alright. Go on with your friends, I-I'll be d-done in a minute."

"Mum?" Ella said again, placing a hand on her mother's shoulder. "Are you okay?"

Then something seemed to snap inside Ella's mother and she turned around quickly, cradling Ella tightly and nearly squeezing the life out of her. It then became apparent to Ella that her mother was crying. She didn't know what else to do beside hug her back. "Ma, what's wrong? What happened?"

"N-nothing happened. I've j-just n-never seen him before!" Margaret sobbed into her daughter's shoulder.

"Ma, what are you talking about? What's wrong?"

Margaret pulled back and wiped her eyes thoroughly, sniffling loudly as she tried to gain back some of her composure. She drew in an incredibly shaky breath and said, "I've just never seen Harry before. He looks j-just like James, he does. And he has his mother's — his mother's eyes," she added in almost a whisper.

Ella stared at her mother slack jawed. "Ma, are you telling me that you knew Harry's parents?"

Margaret nodded and more tears started to spill down her face, although she was looking around to make sure no one was watching them. "Knew them? Sweetheart, I went to school with them."

"Why didn't you think to tell me something like that, Mum? That's, like, a really big deal!"

"I try not to think about it anymore," Margaret said, waving her hands as if trying to ward of her thoughts. "Those were bad times, Ella, very bad times. I can't expect you to understand."

"Understand what, Ma? You aren't being very clear right now."

Ella's mother buried her face into her hands. "I just — I haven't seen and I've tried not to think about James and Lily for years now and to see him, looking like a carbon copy of James. . .it brings back a lot of unpleasant memories. James and Lily weren't the only ones who were sacrificed and I — wait! You're only fifteen! I shouldn't even be telling you this!"

"Wha — Ma! You can't just —"

"I can and I will!" Margaret said, waving her arms about again. This conversation is over, now go and find Jackson. I'm sure he'll be needing some help."

"But, Mum!"

"No buts, Donella! Go."

Ella scurried away after that. Her mother rarely ever got mad at her, and when she used Ella's full name she knew that she better back off. So she stomped her way angrily over to the garden where all the other "kids" were. When she got there, she was greeted with Bill and Charlie slamming together two battered tables, both of their wands held in the air. Fred and George were cheering, Ginny and Katie were laughing, and Hermione looked like she was being torn between anxiety and amusement.

Jackson was sitting near Fred and George, he seemed to get along with them a great deal better when Ella wasn't around, and he was watching their six year old brother, Riley, like a hawk. "Oh hey, kiddo," Jackson said as Ella plopped down next to George, still bitter that her mom had yelled at her, "what's up?"

Ella had to wipe the sour expression off her face as Riley ran up to her, shouting, "Ella!" and he threw himself down into her lap. "Uncle Charlie lifted me up on a table!"

"Uncle Charlie, huh, squirt?" Ella said as she ruffled Riley's hair. Her bad mood was already starting to melt away. "Well, I hope to god that he was being careful with you or else he's going to have to answer to me!"

"Of course we were being careful with him, Ella!" Charlie yelled over the clatter of the two tables, his focus still on beating Bill. "I don't fancy being cursed today!"

Ella snorted. "Yeah, you're lucky I can't do magic outside of school yet. So if anything happened to this little monster," she tickled Riley's sides and he screamed with laughter, "I'd just have to sick Jackson on you."

"Yeah right, idiot," said Jackson, reaching around George to shove Ella. "I'm not at your beck and call whenever you want, that would be George."

George blushed like mad but Ella didn't even notice, she was too busy making sure Riley didn't break her wand while he thoroughly examined it. Letting Riley handle her wand gave her the greatest amount of anxiety. Just then, Harry came around the bend of the garden and Ella wasted no time in calling Riley's attention to him. Riley sprinted up to Harry and started babbling at him excitedly and Ella had to stifle a laugh at Harry's flabbergasted expression.

Ella's attention drifted back to George and she laid her head in his lap, causing him to grow almost as red as his hair. "You know," Ella said, "while I did really like the necklace that Cedric got me, I do think this one suits me better."

"Yeah," George agreed as he absentmindedly played with strands of her blonde hair, "I think so too. Plus, I'm better looking than him anyways."

Ella laughed with her eyes closed, enjoying the feeling of George playing with her hair. "You're a goofball! Now come on, let's go help set up for dinner."

George followed Ella as she went to help set the table for dinner, delicious smells floating out from the kitchen. "Anything for you," he said quietly under his breath.

"What was that?" Ella asked.

"Hm?" George said, surprised that she even heard him. "Anything for food! I said anything for food! I am starving, aren't you?"

Ella laughed and shook her head while she was laying out plates along the tables. She knew exactly what he had said.