On the first day of August, the Hogwarts booklists arrived, marking the earliest they'd arrived since third year, and an entire month earlier than the previous year.
"Oh, shit," Fitz muttered to himself as he read his letter.
"Dear?" asked Simmons.
Fitz pointed to the letter that Harry had received saying that Professor McGonagall had made him the captain of the Gryffindor quidditch team. He didn't say it out loud because they were sitting around the kitchen table eating breakfast with everyone else, and he didn't want anyone questioning him about why he wasn't playing quidditch that year, when in their minds he'd played for the last five and just been reinstated after the end of the disastrous fifth year.
"You'll just have to write her a letter," Simmons replied quietly. "She'll have plenty of time to pick someone else."
"Send it to her with your application for classes this year," added Daisy, who'd looked over Fitz's shoulder to see what her spouses were talking about. When FitzSimmons turned to look at her in confusion, she explained, "Since NEWTs require certain OWLs, we have to apply for the classes we want, and she'll approve or disapprove our list. Did I really get to that part before either of you?"
"I was busy being surprised by this," answered Fitz.
"Still looking over the actual booklist," said Simmons.
Mrs Weasley, meanwhile, had stopped puttering about the kitchen long enough to see that the four remaining students in the house were looking over their Hogwarts booklists, and sighed, "Well, I don't suppose we can put off a trip to Diagon Alley much longer now that you've got these. We'll go on Saturday as long as your father doesn't have to go into work again. I'm not going there without him."
"Well, the three of us are going by the Knight Bus today, just as soon as we get ready," Simmons answered curtly and firmly. "And probably pop into a few shops in London proper as well while we're out. Now, we'll still go with you on Saturday if you want the company, but we are going to get our new books today."
"Oh, no you're not, young woman!" shouted Mrs Weasley
FitzSkimmons stood up and pulled their wands out, pointing them directly at Mrs Weasley.
"While I always appreciate the 'young' part of that sentence, it wasn't a request — it was a statement," replied Simmons.
"And try and stop us, I dare you — make our day," Daisy added coldly. "We're going, and that's final. You don't have the pair or the skill to stop us, but by all means try — we'll take all the live practice we can get before we eventually have to face Death Eaters who actually know how to fight."
"Dumbledore went through a lot of trouble to make The Burrow safe for Harry!" shouted Mrs Weasley, her wand that she'd been using in the kitchen still noticeably hanging limp by her side — she clearly had no delusions about trying to actually fight them.
"And we don't give a shit, we're not spending our sixteenth summer locked up here," replied Fitz. "If Dumbledore wants to keep us here, he can come try to babysit us himself. But until that day comes, we're acting like normal human beings, not sniveling, cowardly pussies hiding away because evil happens to exist in the world."
"We can more than take care of ourselves, and sure as hell a lot better than you can take care of us," added Simmons. "You can't even handle a boggart, something we've been able to do since first week third year, and Harry's fought Voldemort himself and won four times so far, and Ronna and I battled Death Eaters intent on killing us in the Ministry a month and a half ago. And those past selves of us were nothing compared to what we're capable of now. So goodbye!"
And with that she turned on her heel and strode away, FitzDaisy following after her. Simmons led them straight out the door and down the path that led to the nearest road, ignoring Mrs Weasley's stream of shouts at them to get back inside, that they were too young, that she would tell on them, and that everyone from Dumbledore to Harry's dead parents would be disappointed in them.
Arriving at the road, Simmons threw up her wand hand, and a second later the Knight Bus screeched into existence in front of them. As it was a quiet Thursday morning and there were no other passengers on the bus at the moment, they arrived outside The Leaky Cauldron just a few short minutes later, and were soon walking down Diagon Alley towards Gringotts. Down a street that was substantially drearier than it ever had been before when they or their book counterparts had visited the magical street. Gone were the cheerful crowds and bright shop displays, replaced by an almost emptiness only broken by tight knots of shoppers quickly hurrying along their way, and dull, somber-colored Ministry warnings plastered over every available flat surface. If a street could die in the same way a house could (specifically Number Twelve, of Grimmauld Place), Diagon Alley had.
Once in Gringotts, the only still bright building they'd run across so far, they found that the goblins had greatly tightened security, and it was taking much longer than normal to get down to the vaults. But after about fifteen minutes of standing in line waiting for a free goblin, Griphook spotted Fitz and called them over. As it was only Harry's vault they were trying to access, Griphook had them down to Harry's vault in less than ten minutes, and back up to the main street with three overflowing moneybags shortly after that.
Pulling out their booklist they hadn't had time to finish due to their disagreement with Mrs Weasley, Simmons quickly read over it all. "Professor Slughorn did apparently talk to whoever did the booklists, as it mentions that there will be a new Potions professor who accepts both E's and O's for NEWT classes. There's also the bit Daisy mentioned about needing to send in our class application list, which we need to do as soon as we get back, or maybe just stop by the owl post office while we're here so we don't forget. And then a booklist of what seems to be the books and supplies for every class we took last year — is that the way it looks on your booklists as well?"
Fitz and Daisy quickly perused their lists, finding no Arithmancy or Runes books on their list, yet otherwise matching up.
"Other than nothing for Divination, which I assume is because other than third year they either used the same book or Trelawney provided the book, that looks to be correct," answered Fitz.
"Good. So Hermione O'ed all ten OWLs she took last year, which means those are the ten classes we will be taking this year. We'll obviously have trouble getting you two into Arithmancy and Runes since neither Harry nor Hermione took them OWL year, and we may have trouble with Ronna's Potions grade as well, only being an A and not the required E."
"Not that it's actually going to matter because we're going to just demand to take all ten classes you've been taking, but in the books Harry and Ron have always taken exactly the same classes — if we assume either an unimaginative author, or else an intentional plot device to always have them in the same classes, might it be possible to guess that Ronna's going to be given Harry's schedule no matter how much Ron didn't actually get the grades to continue with those classes?" asked Daisy.
"It is definitely a possibility that that's what occurs in the books, yes," answered Simmons. "But also like you said, it's irrelevant for us, because we're taking all ten classes no matter what, and within two weeks, no one's going to care about our OWLs, because we'll clearly be the top three in every single class.
"Also, while we're in Flourish's, I had a new idea for this year. You know how we've always concentrated on Defense in our spare time? Well this year, I think I'd like to shift that some to Potions. While we can always learn more about fighting, we are quite advanced in the subject, and Potions has actually been perplexing me for several years now, I've just never mentioned it or taken the time to really study it, as we were so focused on combat. My original plan for last year had actually been to start studying potions more, even though I never mentioned it, but then we ended up with Umbridge, and fighting clearly became more important again. But now that hopefully we won't have another Umbridge situation, I think it's time to delve more into Potions. Because none of the potions we make in class turn out exactly like they're supposed to. Close, very close even, but something's always just the tiniest bit off, in color, or viscosity, or smell, or something. And maybe it's just the scientist in me who spent fifteen straight years in labs who can tell that, but it's there whether anyone else knows it or not."
"And this has to do with Flowers and Blobs how, exactly?" asked Daisy.
"Because we're going to buy every single potion book in there, and then go into Knockturn Alley and buy every book we can find down there, and spend this summer comparing them all to see if I can't figure out how to actually make these potions. Because Hermione has always followed Snape's instructions impeccably, and all three of us — or certainly Fitz and I, the scientists with years of lab experience, and you're really good as well, Daisy, don't get me wrong — have as well in our five years, and while we're always the three best, something's still always a hair off. And I want to figure out exactly what."
"You don't have to pretend like I'm anything close to you two in the lab," replied Daisy. "But sounds like an interesting enough way to spend the summer — for you, anyway, while I snog Fitzy."
Ten minutes later, they had walked down the street to Flourish and Blotts and picked up all the school books they needed, and carried them to the counter.
"Hi," Simmons said to the young, brunette saleswitch. "We're going to be buying basically every potions book you have that we don't already own, so what's going to be the easiest way to do this?"
"Um…let me go get Mr Blott for you," answered the girl, before hurrying into the back room.
A minute later, she returned with an older, kind-looking gentleman.
"So Miranda here says you want to buy a copy of every potions book we have in stock?" he asked in his Scottish accent.
"Yes, Sir," answered Simmons. "We want to compare their different instructions for the same potions, and just generally learn the science behind how potions work, to figure out how to make them better without just having to blindly try a bunch of different things."
"And we have money," added Fitz, plopping a sackful of gold down on the counter.
"You're that muggleborn girl who comes in here every year buying way too many books, and if the rumors that have reached my ears are to be believed, are known as the brightest student at Hogwarts right now, aren't ye?" asked Mr Blott knowingly.
"Yes, sir, that would be me," answered Simmons.
"Very well, then. I'll go get a cart, and you can go down the rows picking the books you want, and Miranda will tally up the total as you go. And I should be able to get a house elf to deliver them to wherever you'd like."
"We have a house elf, actually," said Fitz. "But if you could throw in three of your magical bags that are bigger on the inside, we could use them for some other shopping we need to do today."
"Of course, of course," replied Mr Blott.
It took quite a while to go down every bookshelf in the shop, but eventually they had got every Potions book they didn't already have a copy of at The Burrow, sent them via Kreacher to FitzSkimmons' room in The Burrow, and had paid what Simmons was positive was a sharply discounted rate. But Mr Blott waved them out with a big smile, and six of the magic bags instead of just the three Fitz had asked for, so she was also sure they were both happy with the transaction.
Next, they went by the Apothecary to restock their supply of Potions ingredients, before finally heading to Knockturn Alley. The side street was fortunately completely deserted as they walked down it, all the dark arts practitioners apparently wise enough to know that it wasn't the wisest idea to be seen practicing their trade these days. But when they pushed on the door of Borgin and Burkes it swung open easily enough, and they walked inside.
They had just made it over to the bookshelf when they heard a suspicious sounding voice from behind them at the counter ask, "What are you three doing in here?"
"Looking to buy some potions books," Fitz answered politely, turning around to look at Mr Borgin. "We have gold, and plenty of it."
Mr Borgin stared at them suspiciously for a second longer, before turning and heading back into his office, leaving them alone again.
"Guess that means we're free to shop," Daisy muttered under her breath as Simmons began pulling books off the shelves and handing them to Fitz and Daisy to carry up to the counter for her.
Soon they had several tall stacks of books sitting on the counter, which after much arguing, Mr Borgin finally sold to them at the prices listed on the books, and not the exorbitant amount he thought he could charge them since there was no way anyone had actually added up the prices in their head as they'd grabbed them off the shelves when they'd grabbed that many. But Simmons wasn't anyone, and she knew exactly how much it should cost, and wasn't about to pay a Knut more simply because she was a mudblood. In the end, it was her flat out telling him that he was trying to charge her more because she was a mudblood, and specifically the fact that she'd used the word 'mudblood' while describing herself and thus clearly wasn't offended by it like the entire wizarding world, that made him finally agree to take the prices listed, and after calling Kreacher to take those books back to their room at The Burrow as well, they left the dark arts shop.
Making their way back down Diagon Alley, they headed towards their last stop on the wizarding street before they headed out into muggle London for some clothes shopping — Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes.
The twins shop wasn't hard to find in the least, being the only shop on the street that still had any color left in it. In fact, it looked rather like a firework explosion of color had gone off at the shop. Walking inside, they found it busier than any other shop they'd been in so far that day, nearly as many people as had been in Gringotts, though with substantially shorter lines for checking out than the bank. Not that it was crowded by any means, as it was just a Thursday, but the twins were clearly doing well in their new venture.
Wandering through the shop looking at all the displays and products, Daisy and Fitz suddenly heard their wife groan. Turning to see what was up, they found her looking at a display titled 'WonderWitch'. And amongst the various makeup-like products, a row of love potions — the truly 'Unforgivable' magic.
"I really thought they were better than this," sighed Simmons.
Daisy gently rested her hand on her wife's shoulder. "It's not entirely their fault, sweetie. They were raised in a world that for the most part doesn't believe there's anything wrong with sexually assaulting or raping someone, so long as you magically force them to think that they like you before they do it. Remember Mrs Weasley, summer before third year, laughing with Ginevra about a love potion that she made when she was in school? I'm not saying it's right, because it's very, very wrong, but the twins weren't taught that it is wrong."
But before Simmons could reply, they heard from behind them, "Look who's finally made it to visit!", and turned around to find the twins walking across the shop towards them.
"How are you, Harry, Hermione, sister we sometimes admit to being related to?"
"Good, good," replied FitzSkimmons, shaking hands all around.
"Where're the adults, and army of aurors protecting Harry?" asked Fred, looking around. "No way mum let you come on your own. Last we heard, she would barely step into her own backyard without dad being there to protect her."
"She let us come on our own — when we pointed three wands in her face and told her where she could shove it when she said that we couldn't come on our own," answered Daisy.
"Our booklists came out today, so of course we were going to come get our new books and supplies today, but — yeah, the threatening her at wandpoint part is entirely true," explained Simmons a little more thoroughly. "Then we walked down to the main road, summoned the Knight Bus, and here we are."
"Hermione Granger, breaking the rules and threatening our mum?! Who are you, and what have you done with the real Hermione?" George gasped in mock horror.
"Yeah, well — things change when you've fought for your literal life against Death Eaters," answered Simmons. "But speaking of change — Please, for the love of God, get rid of those — they're date rape drugs, plain and simple. Which may not mean anything to you as wizards, but they're horrific and should be what's actually unforgivable instead of the so-named 'Unforgivable curses'."
The twins just kind of stared at FitzSkimmons in confusion, glancing back and forth between them and the bottles that could be found in magical shops all across the country that Simmons was pointing at.
"Okay, let me put it simply," Fitz said, stepping up. "I gave you your money to start all this, which makes me partial owner. Now, I'm not going to ask you for any return on that investment, but I do demand that you get rid of all 'love' potions and anything similar, and never make or sell them again. Are we clear?"
"And if they're a really big seller, which Heaven forbid they would be, we'll give you a bunch more gold to go invent something better to replace these as your major source of income," added Daisy.
"The rest of the products here are fine," said Simmons. "Bit vain, perhaps, but that's your customers, not you — you're just selling vain girls what they want, which is fine. But love potions cross a line for us. We're not going to go into it, but we have personal experience with someone messing with one of our minds for the sake of 'love' — it's not good, trust us."
"So just get rid of them and never make or sell them again, brothers dearest," finished Daisy.
After staring at them blankly for a few more seconds, Fred waved the lovely young saleswitch over from the counter.
"Verity, remove all these love potions, please, and don't sell any that people may have already grabbed." Turning back to FitzSkimmons, he continued, "Now if you three would like to follow us into the back, we'll give you the tour."
Thirty minutes later, FitzSkimmons walked out of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. The twins had given them the full tour, and FitzSkimmons had given the twins ideas on new things they should try, or how they could improve some of their projects, or how they could make some of the products that they had been stuck on work. But the twins had had to go back to work, and FitzSkimmons needed to get out into muggle London to buy clothes, so they had finally parted ways with the promise to visit again soon.
The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, the girls dragging Fitz through every clothes shop they could find, and just generally being girls. But eventually even they were shopped out, and it was getting on towards suppertime, and they could avoid returning to The Burrow to face the music no longer.
~FSK~
Walking into The Burrow after taking the Knight Bus back, FitzSkimmons found no Dumbledore waiting on them, meaning Mrs Weasley probably hadn't followed through on her threat to tattle on them.
They did however find a very irate Mrs Wesley who proceeded to chew them out, not that FitzSkimmons actually took any of it in, too busy not listening to her to listen to her. And when Fleur came down midway through Mrs Weasley's yelling, they simply stood up from the table and turned their backs on her to walk over and say hi to Fleur, leaving Mrs Weasley a stuttering mess, never having had someone simply walk away from one of her scoldings before. But FitzSkimmons didn't care, the overbearing, mollycoddling busybody meant nothing to them, and anyway, she wasn't even real to begin with.
Needless to say though, the rest of the evening was a rather tense affair, and FitzSkimmons were more than happy to escape up to their bedroom as soon as they could that night.
Saturday morning, FitzSkimmons rode with Mr, Mrs, and Ginevra Weasley in a Ministry car to the Leaky Cauldron.
Upon arriving, they discovered that Hagrid was the security Dumbledore had overridden the Ministry on sending, because apparently size was more important to Dumbledore than the ability to say, actually (or at least legally) perform magic against any Death Eaters who might have half a mind to murder Harry during the middle of the day in Diagon Alley, or have any training at all in protecting a high-level asset, like any auror would have had. Because despite Mrs Weasley's fearmongering that they were all in mortal peril if they stepped an inch outside The Burrow, and what Dumbledore had told Fitz the night he'd dropped him off, the headmaster apparently did not actually believe Harry that was in any danger in Diagon Alley.
Of course, FitzSkimmons didn't really care who or who not was there with them, as they were far more capable of taking care of themselves than most of the people in the wizarding world, and anyway, they were just there for the ride that day, having already purchased all their necessary, and a bunch of unnecessary as well, school supplies for the upcoming year.
Diagon Alley was as dead looking as it had been two days earlier, the fact it was the weekend having spruced nothing up. In fact, Tonks's dull, listless hair the night they had arrived back in this world had been brighter than Diagon Alley was, and the few other people walking down the street to do their shopping were sticking closer together than a pair of giant boobs squished together in a sports bra. FitzSkimmons were sticking close together as well, of course, but that had to do with wanting to be as close to each other as physically possible, and absolutely nothing to do with being scared out of their wits of a dude who's name they'd either completely forgot or never knew, and some of his school buddies, like everyone else there was. It also had to do with them having nothing better to do while they followed Mrs Weasley and Ginevra around getting all her supplies, as she was the only one needing shopped for.
As they stopped in Madam Malkin's Robes For More Than Just Some Occasions to get Ginevra new robes, they found Malfoy already in there with his mum, getting fit for new robes himself.
As soon as he spotted FitzSkimmons, he sneered, "If you're wondering what the smell is, Mother, a mudblood just walked in."
"I don't think there's any need for language like that!" exclaimed Madam Malkin, appearing from behind a clothes rack.
But Daisy just smirked back at Malfoy, "I'm amazed you actually recognize that smell, since Parkinson's clearly never let you get that far with her."
Simmons hissed, "Daisy!" as Fitz let out a chuckle, but Daisy's subtle reference to the smell of a girl's arousal and having sex apparently flew right over the heads of everyone else, as everyone just kind of looked at her in confusion, having no clue what she was talking about — Pansy wasn't a mudblood/muggleborn, like Granger was. Which was probably for the best, really, as mentions of sexual intercourse were unlikely to go over well with either of the two mothers present.
But Mum Malfoy did recognize the name Parkinson quite well, and assumed the Weasel's use of it must be an insult against the nobleblood girl somehow, even if she didn't understand how (even if in reality it was a compliment of the girl, to be brave enough to turn down Malfoy's advances), so after a second she smiled unpleasantly and sneered, "I see that being Dumbledore's favorite has given you a false sense of security, Harry Potter. But Dumbledore won't always be there to protect you."
"And I noticed that your hubby's still in jail — guessing he's not one of Riddle's favorites, since he hasn't broken him out yet like he did with his precious Bella," smirked Fitz, before adding as if he'd just suddenly realized it, "Oh, that's right — she's your sister, isn't she?! What does it feel like for your sister to be in higher standing with your master than your husband is? Then again, your master's probably fucking your sis, whereas the last time your husband saw any action was just before you found out you were pregnant with that git," he finished nodding over at Malfoy.
The two Malfoys immediately whipped out their wands and pointed them at Fitz. And while Simmons and Daisy's hands both went to their wands in their pockets, neither of them pulled them out, and Fitz didn't go for his wand either. If either Malfoy was to actually curse him, FitzSkimmons wanted to make sure that there was absolutely no question that they hadn't been doing it in self-defense, that they'd cursed the wizarding-equivalent of an unarmed man, so that the Ministry would have no choice but to convict them of aggravated assault and toss them in lockup with the dementors for a few years. And while the curse would very likely hurt, curses weren't permanent in this world, St Mungo's could fix just about anything, Fitz was no stranger to pain, and Mum and Son Malfoy would be unconscious from his wives' spells before they could get off more than one shot. All in all, it was a risk worth taking to let the bully beat him up just enough that the adults of the world could no longer deny that the bullies were bullies, or insist that the victim must have started the fight to avoid having to punish the bullies for bullying.
The Weasleys and Ms Malkin were either simply too shocked, or else too cowardly, to pull their weapons to defend the wandless boy who had two wands pointed at him.
"Don't you dare insult my husband, or sister like that!" snarled Mum Malfoy.
"You wouldn't dare actually curse me," Fitz sneered contemptuously, ignoring her comment, not that there was really anything to say about it, given the fact he just had. "You're in a shop surrounded by witnesses, and you'd be joining your husband in Azkaban posthaste if you tried cursing the Harry Potter right now. So put your wands away and be smart for once in your miserable lives."
Apparently Mum Malfoy saw the truth of this, as while she continued to glare daggers at Fitz, she grudgingly lowered her wand and put it back in her robes. Malfoy kept his wand pointed at Fitz for several more seconds, until Mum Malfoy placed her thin white fingers on his shoulder to make him stand down as she said, "You know what, Draco, now that I know the kind of scum that shops here, I think we'd do better at Twilfitt and Tatting's."
And with that they strode out of the shop, leaving the kitchen as they were unable to stand the heat Fitz was throwing back at them. The atmosphere in the robe shop was noticeably diminished after that, and Madam Malkin hurried Ginevra through her fitting and all of them out the door as quickly as she could, like it had been their fault that the Malfoys were cunts, and Death Eaters on top of that.
And it was a continued diminished group that FitzSkimmons had to walk with as the Weasleys continued their shopping, but eventually they made it to the twins' shop, which was the only reason FitzSkimmons had come back on this trip to the most magical street in all of London. The store was as bright and shiny as ever, and once again more crowded than any other shop they had entered that day, and actually rather crowded this time as it was a Saturday.
As soon as they spotted FitzSkimmons, the twins came scurrying up, excitedly saying, "Hey, guys! Weren't expecting to see you again so soon!"
"Just came along for the ride to say hi while they did their shopping," said Daisy, nodding over towards the Weasleys.
"Well, glad you did," said Fred.
"And if you happen to mosey by our WonderWitch section while you're here, let us know what you think," added George.
"I'm guessing all the love potions are gone," guessed Simmons.
"And now you've completely ruined the surprise," smirked Fred.
"But yes, we did as you requested," said George. "Which you knew, you were here when we told Verity to remove them, but we thought you'd like to see for yourself."
"We trusted you. But we will make it by there before we leave to see your hard work," Fitz replied with a smile.
And make it by there they eventually did, on their tour of the whole shop that they'd only seen part of two days earlier, as the twins had taken them into the back to show them the inner machinations of the twins' minds that really were quite the enigma, and so they hadn't had time to just wander the shop floor before they'd had to head out. There were numerous entrancing things they ran across in their exploration, but they were eventually drawn to a cage full of miniature, brightly colored fuzzballs.
As Fitz juggled a plethora of pink pygmy puffs (i.e. three), Daisy happened to glance out the window at just the right time to see Malfoy the Youngest hurry down the street all by his lonesome.
"Guess being a Death Eaters' child means you're free to walk around Diagon Alley all by yourself," she said quietly to her spouses, nodding out the window.
"Think we should go tell his mum, get him in trouble?" Fitz asked jokingly. "Maybe if we took her a pygmy puff, she'd even disown him and adopt it instead as her official heir."
"I mean, Dad Malfoy is in jail right now, so it's not like he could actually stop her," said Daisy. "Either he, for that matter — daddy dearest is having to make sure he doesn't drop the soap, while son is still underage and so has no say."
"Imagine if when Riddle springs Lucius, he comes home to find he no longer has a son, and instead all his dark arts when he dies is going to go his 'daughter', Draca 'pygmy puff' Malfoy," chuckled Fitz.
"Quite the improvement, really, if you think about it," smirked Daisy.
But as tempting as it was, they decided to forgo their attempt to supplant the heir of Malfoy House with a bright pink miniature tribble, and resumed their prowl around the store, seeing what other amazing items the twins had invented with all their smarts, wondering if together they really were twice as smart, like FitzSimmons were.
Far too soon, however, Mrs Weasley bustled them all out of the store and back to the waiting Ministry cars, to be returned to house arrest at The Burrow.
Over the last month of summer, FitzSkimmons and Fleur slipped out of the house early several randomly scattered mornings to Knight Bus away from The Burrow, and actually go do something fun.
Most days they just went into London, showing Fleur the never-ending world of muggle shopping and some of the more famous tourist attractions, but a couple days they had Fitz take them up to Scotland to show her around his homeland as well, as Simmons was always happy to get back up to Scotland, and Daisy hadn't had many opportunities to visit yet since they'd gotten all married, what with their very busy Shield schedules of constantly having to save the world.
Fleur absolutely loved these trips, making them promise that they would come visit France with her once they were of age and no longer restricted by the adults. FitzSkimmons of course didn't mention that they'd all been to France numerous times on missions, and Simmons on family trips as a girl, instead just happily agreeing that they'd love to come visit and let her show them all around.
In addition to spending time with Fleur, they also spent several afternoons with Tonks, who happily informed them that Lupin had started talking to her more, and replying to her owls, even if he still hadn't said he was willing to go out on a date with her yet. Her hair had also continually grown more flamboyant and fun each time they saw her, and her mood had brightened up in correlation with her hair.
Less pleasant were the weekly visits from Kreacher, but he did his job, and brought them weekly reports of the progress he was making at the Black house, Number Twelve Grimmauld Place. And between the grumbles, insults, and expletives, it sounded like he was actually doing quite well, and enjoying it as much as he was ever going to enjoy anything. It seemed like setting him loose to do what he was born to do really did have as much of a positive impact on him as one might have expected if they were a logical human being.
But when they weren't hanging out with either or both of the two wizarding ladies, or listening to the cantankerous old house elf, FitzSkimmons spent most of their time going through all five billion potions books Simmons had bought, comparing the instructions for every potion that they could find in multiple books. While it was a little bit of an unsure project, as they couldn't actually try to make any of the potions to experiment with different instructions under Mrs Weasley's blood hound-like nose for sniffing out underage practice going on under her roof, Simmons used everything that she hoped they were figuring out correctly to edit the instructions of Advanced Potion-Making by Libatius Borage that would be their schoolbook for the upcoming year. They wouldn't be able to see how well they had actually succeeded in figuring out the mysteries of potion-making until class started in September and they could begin trying out their revised concoctions, but they did what they could with the resources they had, and it was a great way to pass the time until September finally arrived and they could mosey on up to Scotland for the rest of the year, and Hogwarts Castle School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.