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Chapter 4

"Mummy!" Sirius' bright voice chirped from living room floor, where he and Fred were engaged in a game of Exploding Snap, or, more accurately, a game of throwing cards into the air and waiting to see which ones would burst into flames.

"Hello, darling!" Ginny smiled, swooping down to pick him up and cover his face with kisses. Sirius shrieked with delight and wriggled out of her arms, dropping onto the floor and somersaulting over to Fred to resume the game.

"Fred, is it really necessary to play with exploding cards around my son?" Ginny reprimanded, "He is only three, after all."

"Oh, he's fine, aren't you Sirius?" Fred replied. With a flick of his wrist, he sent five cards spinning across the living room. Two erupted into balls of flame before returning to their normal state and floating harmlessly back down to the carpet.

Sirius laughed, delighted, and tumbled across the room to gather up the pile of cards there. He scurried back over to his uncle, dropping them all across Fred's lap.

"Besides," Fred said, throwing some more, "You should be grateful that I've been here, watching your son while you've been upstairs sleeping."

Ginny, puzzled, looked at the clock. It read two in the afternoon.

"Merlin!" She exclaimed, "Have I been asleep that long?"

"We twied to wake you up!" Sirius exclaimed, rushing over to his mother and clambering up her legs, "But you said to go away!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, sweetie," Ginny said, running her hand through Sirius' ruffled

mop of black hair, "Mummy was really tired."

"It's okay!" Sirius said, hugging her neck and kissing her cheek, "Uncle Fwed and Uncle George gave me pwestents!"

"Presents!" Ginny repeated in an excited voice, while simultaneously turning a suspicious eye on Fred, "What kind of presents?"

Sirius' eyes lit up again, "They gave me-"

"Well, Exploding Snap for one," Fred replied, interrupting Sirius and looking slightly guilty, "And, you know, just some silly stuff from the shop. Like…candy, and, um, a little miniature Hogwarts express that runs on magic."

"And this!" Sirius sprang off Ginny's lap (he had clearly already devoured all the candy) and ran into the kitchen. He returned a moment later with a bright yellow box, which was shaking violently in his hands.

"Fred! You didn't get him some kind of horrible animal did you?" Ginny shrieked at her brother.

"No!" Fred exclaimed defensively, "It's harmless!"

Just then Sirius lost his already weak grip on the box, which bounded out of his hands and onto the floor. It bounced from the floor towards the window, Ginny snatching it out of mid-air just before it collided with the glass. It vibrated fiercely in her hand, so much that she couldn't read what it said. Clutching it tightly, she could just barely make out what it said across the top.

"Ever…Ever-Bouncing Rubber!" She screeched, "Fred!"

"Can we open it, Mummy?" Sirius pleaded, clinging to her knee.

Ginny leapt up off the couch, and holding the box to her chest, ran upstairs to her room, ignoring Sirius' wail of despair. She tossed it into her underwear drawer, which quieted it, but still caused the whole dresser to vibrate slightly. Ginny stormed back downstairs, furious at Fred. She knew he would never give Sirius something that might hurt him (other than exploding cards), but the idea of the havoc Sirius would wreak on the Burrow with that small ball was more than she could deal with at the moment.

"Come on, Gin," Fred said pleadingly, "It's perfectly safe."

"Oh? And how long have you been selling it? I've never seen it in your store before, and I was there just a month ago!" Ginny planted her hands on her hips and glared at Fred.

"Well…" Fred hesitated, "Technically, it's not exactly on the market yet, we haven't gotten it passed by the Dangerous Substances Committee-"

"So you bring it here to test it out on my son?" Ginny spat.

"Mummy!" Sirius cried, clearly oblivious to the argument that his mother and uncle were engaged in.

Ginny turned to look at her son, only to get an Exploding Snap card right in the face. It didn't burn her, all she got was a wave of heat, but it was enough to set her off.

"All right, Sirius, I think it's time for you to take a nap!" Ginny said, trying to control the anger in her voice. Sirius opened his mouth to protest, but before he could say anything, Ginny said, "No, don't interrupt me. You've been playing all morning and afternoon, and if you don't take a nap, you're going to be too tired to play after dinner."

Sulking, Sirius obediently put down the rest of his cards and walked past her into the kitchen. He looked longingly at his uncle, and then began climbing the stairs. Ginny glowered at her brother, who grinned at her, at then went upstairs to put Sirius to bed.

Getting Sirius to calm down was a bit of work, and eventually Ginny resorted to a very mild sleeping potion to put him to bed. She finally got him under the covers, and he smiled sweetly, if not somewhat tiredly, up at her.

"I love you, Mummy," Sirius said, reaching his small arms out to her.

"I love you too, Sirius," Ginny replied, bending down so that he could wrap his arms around her neck, and kissing his cheek.

Straightening up, Ginny raised one hand to her eye level, and slowly lowered it, dimming the lights in the room as she did. Then she turned and stole quietly out of the room. Once outside of Sirius' door, she made as much noise as she pleased storming back down the stairs to the living room.

"Ah, a vision of love and gratefulness, you are," Fred said from the floor, where he was neatly stacking the Exploding Snap cards, "Here I come, laden with presents and more than willing to take your son off your hands for a week, and this is how you treat me."

"Oh, Fred," Ginny said, all of the anger inside of her disintegrating as she collapsed on the couch, feeling miserable, "I'm sorry. It's just been so stressful lately. And you know that I could never control my tempter, and being stressed doesn't help it at all."

"Yeah," Fred said, sitting next to her and putting a comforting arm around her shoulders, "You'd think an extra eight hours of sleep would do it, but –"

Ginny swatted him gently with one hand, "Eight hours extra doesn't make up for the fact that I average about four hours of sleep a night."

"Four hours!" Fred repeated, looking down at her, "Ginny, Sirius is three now. There are no more midnight feedings. What time do you go to bed?"

"About ten or eleven, depending on how hyper Sirius is. He has more energy than any child I have ever known. It's really not natural. And even if he goes to bed at a normal time, I can't get to sleep until then. And I get up at six."

"Okay, but that's still at least seven hours of sleep, Ginny."

"Well, I still sleep so restlessly, it's hard to get real sleep. So with all the time that I'm half-awake, tossing around, I think it averages out to four hours."

"Have you tried sleeping potions?" Fred asked, stroking Ginny's fiery hair.

"Yes, but the heavy ones put me so out that I can't wake up for hours, and by then Sirius is already up and being crazy, and Mum has to watch him, and it ruins her whole schedule, and…Well, I don't want her to watch Sirius..." Ginny felt slightly guilty at this admission, but Fred acknowledged it only with a slight nod, so she continued, "And the lighter ones just don't work because…I don't know. It's just all in my head, I guess, and the lighter ones aren't strong enough to counteract it."

"Poor Ginny," Fred cooed, hugging her a little closer with his arm, "You know what you should do?"

"What?" Ginny asked with a sigh. Despite all the extra hours of sleep she had, she suddenly felt very tired, and leaned her head on Fred's shoulder.

"Tomorrow night, George and I are going to a party, and – "

"Oh no, Fred," Ginny interrupted, "I know what kind of parties you guys go to, and I'm not going to go get drunk and come home a bloody mess and ruin the only image Sirius has of a parent."

"Not like that," Fred said, jostling Ginny, "George and I gave up on that about a year ago. It got to be too much, it was ruining our work, and so we stopped. And because we didn't want you to bring Sirius by one day to find us puking our guts out or running around naked or something. No. It's the annual, Let's-All-Get-Together-And-Applaud-Ourselves-Because-We're-Rich party that the Ministry Department of Commerce gives every year."

Ginny didn't say anything. Of course, as a mother, her answer was no. She didn't want to leave Sirius for a night, even if her parents could watch him. In fact, Ginny didn't ever want to leave Sirius in her parents' care. Not that she didn't trust them with a child, but because Ginny didn't want to have to depend on her parents for any reason where Sirius was concerned. But the Ginny Weasley that was still twenty-one and quite attractive and charming was clawing (rather violently) at her insides, just waiting to come out.

"It sounds boring," Ginny said, hoping for an excuse to get out of it, so she wouldn't have to think about how much she really wanted to go out somewhere, even if it was the dullest cocktail party ever.

"Of course, it'll be horrible," Fred said, "All those stuck-up pompous-asses subtly hinting at how many millions they've made without really saying it, so that they can still claim that they're too classy to mention their income. But if you're there, and George and I will be there, and we can have some fun."

Ginny made a non-committal groaning noise. She really, really wanted to go, and just get dressed up for one evening and be young and fresh again. It would be the first time since she came back to live at the Burrow that she had been out, and that was quite awhile.

"Come on, Ginny…" Fred said, jostling her again and grinning down at her, "You know you want to go out and have some fun. You don't even have to drink or anything, just being out will be good for you."

"Fred, I'm sorry, I just can't leave Sirius here alone!" Ginny said, hating herself.

Fred quickly changed tactics, "Percy'll be there.'

Before she could stop herself, Ginny sat up a little, "Percy? Really? Not that – "

"Yes, Percy, your favorite brother," Fred said, sounding bored, while inwardly grinning at Ginny's reaction.

"He's not my favorite!" Ginny protested, "You and George are! It's just…you know, he means a lot to me."

"Yes, I know," Fred smiled, "And you haven't seen him in a couple of months at least, so you'll be able to chat with him, see what he's up to, tell him how Sirius is doing…But of course, Percy isn't busy or anything…So you can do that any time."

Ginny cringed. Percy was now Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic, and he was a very busy man. He was always working, or traveling with the Minister on foreign business. It had been a long time since Ginny had seen the brother who, despite the fact that she had very little in common with him, and the fact that she had hated him with a passion for three years, had one of the dearest places in her heart.

"Oh…" Ginny grimaced, "Fine. I'll go."

"Excellent!" Fred hugged her, and then jumped up and began to dance around the living room in a horribly awkward way, "I can't wait! The Minister will be there, of course, and we can have all sorts of fun making the shrimp in people's cocktails attack them, and making the bartender run out of ice whenever someone asks for it, and – "

"What's going on, here?" George's appeared in the doorway.

"George!" Fred exclaimed, grabbing his twin from the doorway and twirling him around like a ballroom dancer, "Ginny's coming with us to the party tomorrow!"

"Really!" George asked, escaping from Fred's clutches and looking at her, "Gin, that's great!"

"Yeah," Ginny smiled, somewhat weakly, relieved that Fred's antics had prevented her and George from having a "making up" session, "I hope so. What am I supposed to wear?"

"Well, we're wearing custom-tailored lilac tuxes, so you can match us if you want," Fred said, stopping his maniacal dancing for a moment and looking appraisingly at Ginny, "But I did just see some lovely tangerine robes in Madame Malkin's as we were leaving-"

Ginny held up a hand to silence them, "I think I'll pass."

"But, you just said you would come!" George protested.

"No – I mean I'll pass on wearing tangerine," Ginny laughed, "I'm still coming to the party. I'll just take Sirius with me tomorrow and go shopping."

"Leave Sirius! We'll watch him until you get home!" Fred said, pulling Ginny up off the couch by both her hands and spinning around in circles.

"Fred, please, you're going to make me sick!" Ginny exclaimed, "Besides, I can't trust you two here alone with him, what with giving him ever-bouncing rubber-"

"Did you give it to him?" George, at the mention of the new product, began running around in circles in order to keep up with Fred, who was still spinning Ginny around, "How did it go over? Did he like it? Did it break anything? How high did it go?"

"Didn't get the chance," Fred cut in regretfully, "His mummy took it and hid it away."

"Ginny, you're quite the spoilsport, you know that?" George said, following Fred and Ginny's revolving progress around the room.

"Yes!" Ginny finally wrenched her hands from Fred's grip, and balanced herself against the wall, breathing hard, "But – I – Can't let you – endanger…my son."

Ginny smiled at her brothers' protests, and reminded herself to find a better hiding place for the ever-bouncing rubber before she left the next day.