Chapter 4:

Back to work!

The sun came shining through the window of Fred's bedroom. He couldn't believe it was morning already. He hadn't gotten much sleep; the stomachache he had kept him up. Still he needed to get up and hop in the shower to get ready for work. As he stumbled to the bathroom, he could hear George in the kitchen humming. Fred just kept walking into the bathroom shut the door and began the morning rituals of getting ready for work. Fred had wished it had been his week to shower at night but it wasn't, and as he stood in the hot shower, he was now glad he was in the shower. As the warmth of the water ran over his body, he started to feel refreshed. Once he was done and dressed, he went into the kitchen to find that George had made them breakfast, well, toast and coffee.
"Good morning!" George said as Fred walked into the kitchen. He was wearing his good robes and his pearly smile.

Fred didn't think it was such a good morning after seeing George so happy, but he still mumbled out a good morning anyway. Fred sat down at the kitchen table with its two chairs, and helped himself to the toast as George brought him a cup of coffee.

'What's the matter with you?" asked George, placing a cup of coffee in front of his brother and sitting in the other kitchen chair.

"Oh, nothing, I guess I didn't sleep well last night," Fred said as he yawned.

"I would have thought after that long walk you took last night you would've been exhausted."

"Yeah, I think I was just worried about the order that should come in today," Fred said as he looked down into his coffee cup. He hated all the lies, but he was too ashamed to admit the truth.

"Speaking of that, are you ready to get going? I want to get there early and get that stuff inventoried early just in case Jenna shows up. I can't wait to see the pearly smile of hers. I would hate to leave you with all that work, " George said with a big grin on his face.

"I guess I'm ready to go."

They Apparated out of their apartment and to the shop. The order hadn't arrived yet, so they decided to see if they had missed anything they should have ordered. As soon as that was done, it was time to open the shop. The first person to come in was the delivery guy with their order. After signing for the order, George went right to work making sure it was all there. "Well, everything is here. So do you want to try the new Rainbows?" as he shoved one into Fred's mouth.

Fred tried to move out of the way, but it was too late, the next thing he knew he was turning red and then orange. George was laughing his head off.

"Well, I guess they work," George said still laughing. " I will get started on putting this stuff away. You don't mind watching up front while I go restock the back, do you?" He said eagerly wanting to get this done so he could leave early if Jenna showed up.

"Yeah I guess they do work," Fred mumbled as he turned blue. "Sure that's not a problem, just leave the fireworks. I will get those up on the shelf out here."

"Great, I just want to hurry and get this done," George said as he pulled the fireworks out of the box and set them on the counter for Fred to put away. He picked up his wand "Locomotor" and was about to walk into the back room when Fred asked him something. "What was that? I didn't catch it."

"I asked, how do you know that Jenna is going to come back today?"

George stopped and thought about the question for a second. "I don't know for sure that she will be back today."

"Okay then." Fred didn't know what to say. Fred suddenly realized he had no idea what Jenna had said to George yesterday. Fred couldn't wait to see Jenna again and hoped that George was right, that she would come in today. He loved her deep blue eyes and the way she laughed, it was like a sweet song.

George, pointed his wand at the box and headed to the back room. He was busy putting the other items they had ordered away when he heard the sound of the door chimes. He went over to the door to the shop to listen in to see if it was Jenna. He was disappointed when it turned out to be Ginny and Harry.

"Hello, Fred, how are you? Sorry we haven't been able to stop in here sooner. We've been busy with work for the Order and with getting our house ready," Ginny said as she patted her swelling stomach.

"So Harry, how are things coming along? You are treating my sister well I hope!" Fred said with his first genuine smile of the day. He loved to see his sister and brother-in-law. He couldn't believe how big his sister was getting. He couldn't wait to be an uncle for the second time. His brother Ron and his wife already had a one-year-old.

"They are going great. We almost have the nursery done. Well, work is work. You should know how that goes," Harry said with a smile as he put an arm around his wife's shoulders.

Fred envied them. He wish he could find someone he could love and that would love him as much as Harry and Ginny loved each other. Maybe he could have that with Jenna, he thought dreamily.

"So where is George?" Harry asked, bringing Fred out of his thoughts.

"I'm right here!" George said as he jumped out from the back room and gave his sister a big hug. "Wow, girl what do you have in there?" George asked teasingly as he rubbed a hand on his sister's stomach. He looked over at Fred , " And we thought Hermione was huge when she was pregnant. Ginny, I think you beat her though."

"Ha ha! Thanks a lot George," Ginny said as she giggled along with George. "We stopped by to see if you two would be able to come to our place for dinner this weekend?"

"You think you will be able to get out of bed?" George asked teasingly. "Or does this mean Harry's cooking?"

Harry started to laugh, as did Ginny. "Hey now, I know how to cook," said Harry.

"So are the two of you coming or not?" Ginny asked with a little giggle.

"I'm coming, how about you, Fred?"

"I wouldn't miss it," said Fred with a smile. "So, what's the occasion? Who else is coming?"

"You will need to wait for that, but it's going to be the family," said Ginny, turning a little red in the face.

"All right Ginny, what are you hiding?" asked George with a knowing look on his face.

"Me? I'm not hiding anything," said Ginny with a pink face.

"I know you're hiding something. Your face is starting to go red. You really need to work on that," George said as he smiled.

"Well, you'll just have to wait and see." Ginny stated getting herself back under control.

"Don't mess with her guys, trust me," Harry said as he gave Ginny a little squeeze.

"All right, I'll back off. I would hate for you to go all prego on me like Hermione did, remember that Fred? " George asked still smiling.

"Yeah, that was bad. So what time would you like us there, Ginny?" asked Fred.

"I told Mum and everyone to be there around six on Saturday," Ginny informed them.

"Sounds great!" said both Fred and George.

"We will see you then," said Harry and Ginny as they started out of the store.

"What was that all about?" asked Fred with a puzzled look on his face. He could tell, just like George, that Ginny was keeping something from them. He was just glad he wasn't that easy to read.

Before George could answer, Jenna walked in along with another girl. This girl had beautiful brown hair that stretched the length of her back till it fell to her waist. She was about the same height as Jenna, only she had the deepest blue eyes he'd ever seen. Fred couldn't believe she was here. He wanted to see her again just not this soon. George, on the other hand, was excited.

"Welcome back! How are you doing Jenna, and who is your lovely friend?" asked George as he took Jenna's hand and planted a kiss on the back of it.

Just at that moment, Fred touched his cheek where Jenna had kissed it the night before. Fred looked at Jenna's friend and noticed she was staring at him, not like she was longing for him, but in deep concentration. His face started to turn red as she looked away, a little embarrassed herself.

"Well, George, this is my friend Cassie. We were just out shopping, and I told her I needed to stop here and get a gift for my nephew," Jenna said as her face turned pink over the way George was acting. He hadn't been this forward last night. He had actually seemed kind of shy, but Jenna thought she might have just misunderstood him. She was happy to see George again and thought that it might be better if she brought a friend along to meet Fred. She really liked Cassie, and thought Fred would too.

"I was thinking about what you could get him. Try these," George said as he pulled some Canary Creams off the shelf. "If he eats these, he will turn into a canary for a brief time."

"That sounds great. I'll take a box of those. Do you have anything else?" Jenna asked as she took George's arm leading him away from Fred and Cassie. She hoped that the two of them might start talking.

"So, well I'm Fred. How long have you known Jenna?" Fred asked a little nervous after he caught her staring at him.

" I've known Jenna all my life. We live next door to each other," Cassie said as she glanced over at Fred, realizing that he liked Jenna.
Just then, Jenna and George came back up to the counter. "Fred will ring this up for you at the Weasley discount," George said stressing the word discount.

"You don't have to do that," Jenna said with a smile.

Fred wondered if Jenna had talked about last night at all to George, and if so, did George figure out what Fred had done?

"That's not a problem," said Fred. "We don't give our own family that big of a discount." He tried to smile and act like nothing was wrong.

Jenna paid Fred for her items. "Well I guess we will be off, " Jenna said as she looked over at Cassie.

"Could I see you some time?" George asked a little unsure of himself. He had never really asked a girl out before.

"Sure, what are you doing Saturday night? We could go out for dinner or something or better yet," she said with a wicked smile. "What if all four of us went out?" Jenna gave Cassie a big smile that had a pleading look at to it.

"That works for me," Cassie said as she glanced back over at Fred to see how he would respond.

"Well, we already made plans to go to our sister's for dinner that night. So how about Friday?" George asked hoping they would be able to go out.

"Oh, sorry I can't Friday. That's when we are having my nephew's birthday party, " Jenna said with a slight frown.

"I got it!" exclaimed George. "If you don't mind spending time with our family, you could come with us to Ginny's."

"She wouldn't mind?" Jenna asked, not sure if that would be such a good idea, but she really wanted to go out with him again. He had been acting kind of strange as they walked through the store. It was like last night never happened.

"Ginny, no she wouldn't mind, would she, Fred?" George said looking at his brother hoping he wouldn't argue about this.

"Well, I can't speak for Ginny, but I'm sure she wouldn't mind," Fred said. He knew his sister would be thrilled to see them with dates the problem was he wanted Jenna as his date, not Jenna's friend.

"Well, if you're sure Ginny won't mind, then we would love to come. What time?" Jenna said not even asking Cassie if this was okay with her.

"We are supposed to be there at six, so I guess we could come and get you at five-thirty," said George.

"How about you make it five and then we can walk over there," Jenna said as she eyed George for something to let her know he enjoyed their walk the night before.

"That would be great!" Fred said with a smile without stopping to think about what he was doing.

Everyone turned and looked at Fred. "What? I just think that's a good idea it would give us more time to get to know each other," he said as he looked over at Cassie who was again looking at him in that odd way of hers. He didn't know if he was going to like her, but if it meant he could see more of Jenna he would do it.

"Well I guess it's settled then. We will see you ladies Saturday at five o'clock then," George said with excitement. He thought Fred had a great idea especially since they didn't really know that much about each other, and it would also give them time to warn the girls about their mother.

"Five o'clock it is then," Jenna said as she reached for her shopping bag..

"That works for me too," Cassie said still trying to figure out what was up with Fred. Looking over at Fred, she said, "That is a good idea for us to meet sooner. We hardly had a chance to talk and I would like to get to know more about you. I have heard a little bit about George from Jenna."

Jenna turned a little crimson from Cassie's words, but it was true. Ever since bumping into George last night, she couldn't stop talking or thinking about him. She wanted more than anything to get to know this man better. He made her laugh and that felt great.

"Oh really?" asked George. "Like what?"
"We have to be going now." Jenna said a little embarrassed. She couldn't believe Cassie had said that.

"All right but I want to hear more abut this on Saturday," said George with a little hint of teasing.

As the girls left, Fred became a little worried about what Jenna had said to Cassie about George. He was afraid he might have to confess to what he had done, yet he wasn't ready to do that. He just hoped nothing would come out in front of their mum. She would figure it out quickly, and boy would he be in for it then. Why had he done it? He knew why, he wanted Jenna for himself, no matter what the cost. How was he going to get Jenna to notice him and not George, now that was the problem. And how could he do that to his brother? He started to feel as if he were acting like Percy and that freaked him out. He decided he had to tell someone what he had done and soon.

George went back to putting their order away, humming to himself. He couldn't believe Jenna had shown up again and that she was smart enough to bring a friend with for Fred. He just hoped Fred would like Cassie as much as George liked Jenna.

They had a good day with sales. They even decided to close a little sooner than usual. Fred looked beat. George felt great and couldn't wait for the weekend. Only two more days till Saturday, he thought to himself. When they got home, Fred said he was going straight to bed. George went into the bathroom to take a shower.

While George was in the shower, Fred changed his mind. He climbed out of bed threw on some clothes and Apparated out to the shrieking shack. He loved sitting there; it reminded him of the days when he was in Hogwarts and all the jokes he used to play with George. Those were good times, well until that Umbridge woman apeared. Even that wasn't so bad. It gave them a reason to leave Hogwarts and start Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. They were doing well. Even the Daily Prophet had said that Zonko's might go out of business because of them. They didn't want that to happen. If it wasn't for Zonko's, their life would have been boring.

The more Fred sat there thinking about the past, he couldn't believe what he had done to George. It was almost as bad, if not worse, than what Percy had done when Voldemort was trying to regain his power. The only reason Fred and George even called him their brother anymore was for their mum. She had taken it hard, the way Percy had turned his back on the family. That was years ago now, but Fred and George still loved to bring it up to Percy when mum wasn't around to hear them.

After an hour of sitting there, Fred decided he better get back home. He was going to have a hard time telling George the truth, but he knew it had to be done. He Apparated back to his room and got ready for bed.