CHAPTER TEN: JOKING
Buffy had thought that travelling by portkey had been uncomfortable, but as she shot out of a fireplace, feet first after voluntarily stepping into green flames, she knew that portkey was far less creepy. She stood and dusted herself off, looking around the cluttered room. She moved away from the fireplace just as her mother came rushing out as well. Buffy helped her mom to her feet and continued her study of the room.
Sirius and Giles wee staying at the Black Manor, no doubt swapping embarrassing stories from Buffy's early childhood, and from Buffy's teenage years.
There were nine chairs at the far end of the room, surrounding a long wooden table. In the sink, dishes were washing themselves and on one of the chairs, a hat was being knitted with floating needles.
"Nifty," Buffy whispered.
"Is that visitors I hear," a gentle voice said, making the group turn around to see who had spoken. It was a rather plump lady with red hair and a kind face. She suddenly smiled in recognition and moved towards Joyce, the two women hugging tightly.
"As I live and breath, it's Joyce Potter," Molly Weasley said in wonder. "We wondered where you'd run off to."
Joyce laughed slightly and gave a sheepish shrug. "It's wonderful to see you again Molly."
Molly's attention was caught by the blonde girl behind Joyce and she looked even more startled. "Is this…little Eliza?"
Buffy grimaced at the word little, but allowed herself to be pulled into a hug by the woman.
"It's just Buffy now," the Slayer said.
"Oh my dear, I haven't seen you since you were four years old," Molly commented. "Oh, Harry will be so excited to meet you both! He just got here today."
"Where is he?" Buffy asked, nervous about meeting her cousin for the first time.
Molly nodded and pointed up the stairs. There was a sudden bang from one of the upstairs rooms. Joyce and Molly both jumped, but Buffy didn't even flinch.
"That'd be the twins," Molly said despairingly. "Don't know what they've been up to all summer, making bangs and noises at strange hours of the day. Always blowing things up. Anyways, Harry will be upstairs in my son Ron's room on the third landing. You should go and surprise him dear."
Buffy grinned and nodded. She looked to her mom for permission, and Joyce nodded. The Slayer quickly went up the stairs, taking them three at a time. She made it to the second landing, but bumped into two people coming out of a room. They stared at each other momentarily, the twins in complete shock.
"Hullo," one of them finally greeted.
"Who are you?" the other asked.
"Buffy Summers," she replied. "I'm guessing you'd be the twins your mom was talking about."
The two identical boys grinned and nodded. "I'm Fred, the smart one," one of them announced, sticking his hand out.
"I'm George, the cute one," the other said, shaking Buffy's hand.
Buffy laughed and knew instantly that these two would be an absolute riot to be around.
"Entirely chuffed to make your acquaintance," Fred said.
"Not often you get Americans wandering through the Burrow," George added.
Buffy looked at them curiously. "The Burrow?" she repeated.
"This house," they replied simultaneously. "That's it's name," Fred continued.
"A house with a name…well, when in Rome," Buffy mused.
"Rome?" George repeated. He looked to Fred in mock-confusion. "Aren't we in England anymore?"
"England? I thought we just agreed we were in America," Fred replied.
"Oh right. Which state?"
"Hungary?"
"Starved," George replied.
Buffy laughed, and the twins grinned at her.
"So, seriously….and not to sound rude or anything, but…what are you doing here?" Fred asked.
"Visiting family," Buffy replied enigmatically.
George reached forward and touched Buffy's blonde hair, stepping forward to have a closer look.
"Nope, it's definitely blonde. I've never heard of a blonde Weasley before," George said.
"Your dad's not an accountant is he?" Fred asked suspiciously, remembering their one cousin that no one ever spoke of.
Buffy giggled, remembering that Hank Summers was an accountant. But he wasn't her father. She shook her head. "He's a wizard all right."
"So, you're not a Weasley, you can't be a Granger if your dad's a wizard…so that just leaves…" Fred trailed off.
"You can't be a Potter!" George exclaimed, catching on where his twin had left off.
"Sure I can," Buffy replied. "James Potter was my uncle."
Fred and George stopped to look more closely at her. They both suddenly moved into the exact same position, their fingers touching their chins in a thoughtful pose.
"Hmmm…same nose as Harry," Fred mused.
"Must be a Potter family trait," George continued. "Different eyes though."
"Similar height," Fred added.
"You won't mind if we start calling you Tiny, will you?" George asked.
Buffy glared at him, but couldn't help the laughter that bubbled over. The twins grinned at each other again.
"C'mon," George said. "We'll take you up to Ron's room. That's probably where they'll all be."
Buffy followed them up another flight of stairs and they stopped on the third landing. George dug into his pocket and dug out a sweet wrapped in plastic. He handed it to Buffy.
"Here. Kind of a welcome to the Weasley household," he said.
Buffy looked between the twins, but they were obviously skilled in their poker faces, neither of them giving anything away.
"No offence or anything, but I was taught not to take candy from strangers," Buffy said.
"Think of it as a Roman custom," Fred pushed.
"Weren't we in Hungary?" George asked.
"No, you Turkey," Fred replied.
"I thought we were having chicken for dinner."
"George, we can't eat our guest for dinner, now matter how big of a chicken she is," Fred said.
Buffy wasn't one to back down from a dare, and being called chicken was the last straw. She unwrapped the sweet and popped it in her mouth, both the twins watching closely. They stood in silence for several seconds, the twins obviously expecting something to happen, but nothing did. Fred turned to look at his twin.
"Are you sure you gave her the right one?" Fred asked.
George nodded and dug into his pocket for an identical sweet. He handed it to Fred who unwrapped it and popped it in his own mouth. The Weasley twins had no problems testing their own products, knowing that they couldn't fool unsuspecting victims for all of them.
Buffy jumped slightly as Fred suddenly turned into a giant canary. It took her a moment to connect the dots, and then she began laughing hysterically, fanning her reddening face with her hand. George watched her, a grin on his face, transfixed by the giggling Buffy.
It took a minute for Fred's feathers to moult and he reappeared looking entirely normal.
"Oh god that was classic," Buffy still, still giggling. "Where did you get those?"
"We made them," Fred and George said proudly. "Weasley's Wizards Wheezes."
"What I don't get," George said, "is why they didn't affect you."
Buffy shrugged, but somehow knew the answer was partially because she was a Slayer, and partially because she'd wished for nothing to happen. Sirius had explained about how untrained witches and wizards often did magic just be wanting something desperately enough. She somehow knew that if she had wanted the sweets to affect her, they would have. But she hadn't trusted the twins enough. She knew though, just from that one practical joke, that the twins were trustworthy, but mischievous. They would do nothing to harm others, they just liked to entertain other and themselves as well.
"Must have been a dud," Buffy replied.
The twins shrugged, knowing that they'd often made some sweets that had been duds, and it was entirely possible.
"So are you ready?" George asked, gesturing towards the closed door.
Buffy shook off her laughter and breathed in deeply. "As I'll ever be."
George nodded and opened the door to his younger brother's room. George and Fred went in first, and Buffy went in last, slightly hidden by the larger boys bodies.
"Don't you knock?" came an irritated voice.
"We would have Ronniekins," George began.
"But Harry has a visitor," Fred finished.
Harry stood with interest and the twins parted. Buffy stepped forward, smiling in a slightly nervous way. Harry grinned widely and flung himself towards Buffy, hugging her tightly. Buffy hugged him back and felt the tingling at the back of her neck that told her without a doubt that Harry was family. Ron and Hermione looked on in shock and amusement.
Harry pulled back, slightly embarrassed that he'd just flung himself at a virtual stranger.
"You're Eliza," he said.
Buffy nodded. "More or less," Buffy replied.
The twins looked at her curiously. "You said your name was Buffy," Fred accused.
"It's a nickname," Buffy replied.
Harry was just grinning in disbelief. "I can't believe you're here. Siri…uhhh…I just didn't think you'd come."
"And miss out on meeting my little cousin?" Buffy asked, noticing Harry's sudden non-mention of her father's name. She knew that none of the other Weasley's besides Ron knew about Sirius' innocence. "Not a chance."
"When did you get here?" Harry asked.
"Just now. Fred and George have been uh…introducing themselves," Buffy said.
Ron groaned and glared at his two brothers. "You didn't give her any sweets did you?" he asked.
The twins glanced at Buffy with incredibly innocent looks on their faces. "Of course we didn't!" they replied, sounding affronted.
"Never accept anything from those two," Harry warned.
Buffy grinned at the twins and winked at them. "I kinda got that memo already. I'm still not sure where the giant canary
came from though."
"Wasn't it a Turkey?" Fred asked.
"You can't still be Hungary," George replied quickly.
Buffy was amazed by how quickly the twins played off each other. They were lightening quick and never failed to dead-pan their jokes. She wondered whether her mother had been as close to her twin brother as these two seemed to be to each other. She could understand why her mom would have been so devastated to think that her husband had betrayed James just from watching Fred and George interact. She'd never had any real contact with a set of twins before, but it was definitely an experience to remember.
"What are you two talking about?" Hermione asked.
The twins just shrugged. "The importance of naming houses," George replied.
Everyone except Buffy and Fred looked at him in confusion. Harry saw his cousin laughing and shook his head in wonder.
"You already understand the twins," Harry commented. "I can tell you're going to be a little bit scary."
"Just wait until you meet Lee," Fred commented. "It only gets worse."
George suddenly felt his good cheer leave. He knew that Buffy was American, but apart from that, he knew nothing else. Except for the fact that he was rapidly beginning to like her.
"Will you be going to Hogwarts?" he asked.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah. Sixth Year or something," she replied. "Kind of annoying, seeing as I'd only have one year to go until Graduation back home, but…eh. The price of being expelled I suppose."
All at once, Fred, George, Harry, Ron and Hermione exclaimed the same question. "You were expelled?" Each of them had put a different emphasis in different places within the sentence, though Fred and George sounded the same, and Harry and Ron had been fairly similar.
"What for?" Harry asked curiously.
Buffy shrugged. "Oh, nothing much. Burnt down the gym, that sort of thing," she said casually. "Oh, and I was a 'trouble maker' at the next school as well, so…"
Fred and George were practically salivating at the thought of blowing up buildings. They doubted they would be able to explode any of Hogwarts though.
"Two schools?" Harry asked, laughing. "You'd better keep away from Snape then. If he finds out you're half Potter, he'll be trying to make it three schools. He hated my dad."
"Well, for that alone he deserves to be tormented," Buffy dead-panned. She turned to look at George. "Any chance of getting him to eat one of those Canary Candies?"
"Canary Creams," George corrected her. "And I doubt Snape would ever accept anything off us."
"Believe me, we've tried," Fred said.
Harry was already liking his cousin. He could tell that the twins were equally fascinated by her as well, and Harry could definitely see parts of Sirius in the girl. From what he'd heard about Sirius when he'd been back at school, he'd been a joker and a trouble-maker, but very bright as well. And from what he could tell about Eliza…or Buffy, whatever it was, she was definitely some of those things.
For the rest of the afternoon, the six of them sat around in Ron's room, laughing, talking, joking and getting to know each other, daring each other to try the Weasley's Wizard's Wheezes, and then cracking up in hysterics whenever they worked. Buffy tested her theory and learned that she had been right about the force of willpower. She'd willed herself to want to be affected, and then willed herself to not be affected, and both times it had worked (or not worked as the case had been). The twins wondered how Buffy had managed to get two duds, and George had noticed the enigmatic smile on her face. He hadn't asked though, but he made a note to himself to get around to it at a later stage.
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DKG.