Lauren
Weasley's Wizard Wheezes is a humble little shop in my opinion. There is a rather large window that looks into the store, where Ginny used to have a lot of fun making displays. The store itself is a square space with tables and stands randomly situated, filled to the brim with gags of all shapes and sizes. There was a small room in back where we kept extra inventory, and a rickety spiral staircase which lead to the apartments above. It is a three story building. The store at the bottom, a kitchen, bathroom, and living room on the middle floor, and two attic bedrooms. George and I used to have our own rooms till Ginny came. Now I'm glad to get it back. George snores.
We spend most of our day either in the store, or at the kitchen table, which I haven't seen the surface of in two years. It is the place where all of our genius comes together, the place where we spend all of our extra time. New products mean more profit. After growing up the way we did, it's no wonder George and I are so money hungry.
We spent the early morning hours today working on improving the trick wands, then opened the shop at ten. Business is always slow on Mondays, so I sat at the counter for two hours before anyone so much as walked in. When someone did it was the most unusual of customers. I look up from the Daily Profit to see who was there and I was met face to face with a rather pale and sickly woman who was probably a year of so my senior.
"I'm here for a job." She said bluntly. Her voice had a very strange accent to it, I couldn't really place it.
I was flustered for a second or two, not at all expecting someone to answer our ad so quickly. Not really knowing what to say, I yelled for George. We'd never really interviewed or hired anyone before, so this promised to be a unique experience.
I pointed my wand towards the front door and flipped the sign from open to close, as George pulled a few more chairs to the counter. The woman really didn't say anything, she just stared at us the whole time, giving me a very unsettled feeling. I can't help but wonder why someone who seems so cold would desire to work at a gag shop?
"Thank you for your patience Miss..."
"Lumiere." She said, taking a seat. "Cozette Lumiere."
"Lumiere, yes." George and I looked back and forth at each other for a time before thinking of something to say. Miss Lumiere just continued to stare at the two of us, seemingly unimpressed by her surroundings.
"Can you tell us a bit about yourself?" George finally asked, breaking the increasingly awkward silence. I commend him.
"I grew up near Inverness," she said. Shifting her weight on the chair, "but my parents moved to France when I was nine. I attended Beauxbatons Academy, which I graduated from four years ago. Top honors."
"And what jobs have you held previously?" George is good at this interview thing. Darn good. I cant think of a single bloody thing to ask.
"I played reserve for Versailles for a year, but left when my parents died. I've been living off the money they left me, but figured I could not do that forever." The way she spoke was so precise, it sounded incredibly rehearsed. Before George said anything else, she continued. "I had been to Hogsmeade village once before, and thought of how wonderful it would be to live in an all wizarding community. I saw your sign this morning."
"Now, wait, you played reserve for Versailles? What position?" George had his hand on his chin, and I noticed he was slowly leaning closer and closer toward her.
"Beater." She replied. George leaned even closer, staring right into her amber eyes with a sort of dreamy-but-almost-drunk look. I elbowed him in the side. Hard. Didn't I say he had a recent habit of flirting with just about anything? I must admit though, that Ms. Lumiere wasn't that bad of a choice. I wouldn't call her beautiful, but she had a very unique aura about her. Though her conversational skills and personality weren't exactly vibrant.
The interview continued for a few more minutes, and seemed at an end before I thought of something she had said earlier. "You said you had been to Hogsmeade once before?"
"Yes, a couple of years ago I came as a representative from Beauxbatons for the Triwizard tournament."
George and I looked at each other. It was funny that neither of us could remember her. When we weren't writing to that cheater, Bagman, we could often be found confusing the hell out of the foreign students. Oh well, that was a while ago.
We excused Ms. Lumiere while we went into the storage room. It was a good twenty minutes before we re emerged, shook the woman's hand and gave her the job. We both concluded that we might as well hire her. She did seem willing to work after all, and who knew the next time someone else would walk in looking for a position?
George removed the "help wanted" sign with a flick of his wrist. "You'll start tomorrow then. Ten o' clock."
She nodded obediently. "Before I leave, do you know of any place where I can rent a room?"
--------------------------
As I said before, George snores. Loudly. Very loudly. I was so excited as the prospect of sleeping an undisturbed night, but then my dreams had been smashed to the ground. Our second room was now occupied by Weasley Wizard Wheezes newest employee. If George wasn't family, I'd strangle him in his sleep. We grew up as a duo that could not be separated. But I suppose spending twenty-four hours a day, every day, for three years with George and very few other people, has really brought out his obnoxious traits.
And as I said before, the worst of those is his desperation for a girlfriend. Which is probably the reason why he was so set on not only hiring this girl, but giving her my bedroom as well. Bloody hell! It's my bedroom! He gave her my room without even asking me. And I couldn't just tell her no... She looked so grateful.
I woke up late, later then normal. George and Cozette were sitting at the kitchen table, were George was showing the girl how a trick wand operated. I rolled my eyes, I say three days before he's all over her.
Fig, Ginny's owl, swooped into the second story window and dropped a letter on the table. The bird pecked at a bit of egg on George's plate before flapping over to the vacant perch of our own owl, Whizbee. Good old Whizbee was off with a letter to mum, and should be back any time now.
I scooped an egg from the frying pan and sat down at the table, opposite the other two, and picked up the envelope.
To my dearest troublemaking brothers,
You shall be quite glad to know I've made it to school safe and sound. Things were very different that first night. The entire great hall was so quiet, black everywhere as a sign of continued mourning I suppose. Poor Colin, he was trying to hard to strong about it, but he just isn't the same old cheerful boy anymore...
They've changed the staff a lot since last year, poor old Sprout has been replaced by none other then Neville Longbottom, and Fleur Delacour took a job as astronomy professor after Sinistra retired after last years... Events. And, as you probably already know, Angelina's doing care of magical creatures now, and good old Lupin's back at DADA. I had Astronomy last night, beside the heavy accent Fleur wasn't too bad, I have the rest of the classes today. I'll tell you how it goes later. Have to go now, Herbology is waiting!
Ginny
Whizbee flapped in through the window and skidded to a landing on the table. I took the letter he carried (George was preoccupied...) And opened it up.
Fred & George
I hope you saw Ginny off well? And I pray you didn't plant any wild ideas in her head over the summer, I can't have her being a trouble maker like you two were.
Good news! Percy's gotten engaged! Now isn't that wonderful? How come the two of you can't settle down and get yourselves some nice girlfriends?
Fred snorted.
Fred, what about Angelina? She was such a lovely girl... Anyway, the wedding will be in December, so keep your calendars open. Oh! And Ron's gotten his first real job, tracking down some death eaters or something of the like. How come you two couldn't of gotten good jobs like your brothers? Percy's in the ministry, Bill is at Gringotts, Ron is an Auror... And you two? Dawdling though life making canary creams... Honestly.
Mom
"What did they have to say?" George asked, his mouth full of food.
"Ginny's doing fine, seems Neville and Angelina are teaching now, Fleur and Lupin too." I noted Cozette's eyes flashed up at me as said that last part. "Ron's chasing death eaters, Percy's getting hitched, and mom is disappointed in our lack of wives and 'good' jobs."
"What else is new?" George snorted. "You'd think after all this time she would've warmed up to us..." He turned to Cozette, "Our mum Is always angry at us because we don't have prestigious jobs like our brothers." He explained. The girl nodded. "Anyway Fred, if Angelina's down at Hogwarts, you should go pay her a visit. It's been what? A year now?"
I shrugged but didn't say anything. What was with all the talk about Angelina? We've been though for a long time... We went out for almost two years, everyone was asking for a wedding date... But we just... Grew apart. I'm not really sure why. She was my last real girlfriend. I dated since then, but nothing serious at all. Maybe that's why I'm not in a big hurry to get into a relationship right now...
Perhaps I will visit Hogwarts one of these days.
I wonder if Angelina misses me as much as I miss her?