Fred Weasley watched his parents move on to the dance floor with a mischievous grin on his face. He loved big gatherings, especially when at least half the people present were muggles. He was about to stand up and try to find Lee Jordan when Angelina Johnson sat down next to him.
"What're you grinning at?" She asked, setting her bottle of butterbeer on the table in front of her.
"Nothing." He said and tried to stand up but Angelina held him back with a hand on his arm. Her eyebrows rose up to her hairline and she gave him an I-don't-believe-you look.
"I know you, Weasley, what're you planning to do to these poor muggles?"
Grinning broadly, he pointed to five spots on the wall of the circular ballroom they were sitting in.
"If you'll kindly notice, three of the five spots I just pointed to are rigged with Filibuster Fireworks. When I give the signal, Lee's gonna set fireworks off." He explained, leaning back in his chair, a smug grin on his face.
"What about the other two spots?" Angelina asked
"Other spots?" Fred questioned, one eyebrow raised.
"Yes Weasley. The other two spots. What are they?"
"Oh those!" He said and clapped his hands in mischievous glee. "Those would be hooked up to what muggles call flame throwers. They are hooked up to a timing device that is supposed to go off at midnight."
Angelina's jaw dropped and her eyes automatically flew up to the ceiling. Fred followed her gaze and chortled.
Don't worry, I had Charlie put an anti-flammable charm around the building." He said.
Angelina nodded as if what he had just said was commonplace. Talk turned to other things, and after several minutes Angelina pointed over at George and Evelyn who looked like they were in the middle of a heated argument.
"That looks like a pretty bad argument for newlyweds." She commented. Fred looked over at his brother and sister-in-law and snorted.
"You think that's bad? I can remember their first real fight." He said and Angelina leaned her arms on the table.
"I've seen and heard them fight before. Do you remember what the fight was about?" She asked.
"'Course I do," he said and Angelina leaned in closer to listen to the story. "It started a day or two before Christmas in our second year and Evelyn had come to saty at the Burrow over the holidays…"
Snow fell in fluffy white clumps around the Burrow. From her seat in the kitchen Evelyn could see Ron and Ginny building a snowman in the garden. Mrs. Weasley was at the stove whipping ingredients together for hot vegetable soup. Fred sat next to Evelyn, flipping through his potions book and muttering nasty things about Professor Snape.
"Stupid git…crummy essay on Shrinking Solution …would like to shrink his hideous greasy head."
Percy and Charlie were out in the back paddocks zooming around on their brooms and tossing a quaffle back and forth.
Evelyn leaned her elbows on the table and tuned out Fred's rantings. She hadn't heard a sound from George all mornings. Normally that wasn't a good thing. She had to figure out what evil twin number two was up to.
She excused herself and patted Fred on the shoulder as she passed him on her way to the stairs.
She walked up to the third floor and knocked softly on the second door on the right. From inside she could hear shuffling and a muffled thud followed by a string of curses. It was another minute before she heard a strangled "come in" from within.
Evelyn opened the door and grinned at the red-headed boy pretending to read his transfiguration book upside down.