A/N: Sorry guys, I keep doing this don't I. Formatting is the worst.

Chapter 9: The Scarecrow

It had been a few days since he last saw Zinnia but Charlie had been having a number of bad feelings about the scarecrow he had seen.

And so he called up George, the only other person who had seen said scarecrow who would take him seriously based only on his word.

"Brother mine…" he said through the Floo connection, "I've been thinking about…"

"That Zinnia woman? She's quite the catch," teased George. "Mum actually likes her, which you should definitely jump on if you want to avoid Bill's fate. Poor Fleur," he said, shaking his head sagely.

Charlie shook his head exasperatedly. Honestly, he thought it said rather a lot about his younger sister's maturity that she was the main instigator of the 'Phlegm' moniker, and that none of that was a good thing.

"No George," he said, "it's about that scarecrow she has. I don't suppose-"

"Yeah, I looked into it, of course," George said, interrupting him.

Charlie nodded. He was well aware that apart from running the underground radio station, Fred and George had spent the war collecting and spreading intel as required. It would have surprised him more had George not followed up on that feeling the two of them had had after spotting the scarecrow.

"And?" he asked, when George failed to elaborate.

"Well…" George said, drawing the word out, "it turns out that no one has a clue what happened to Axton Goyle after the war, but his mother seems to think that the last place he was supposed to be was somewhere around our place, sooo…"

Charlie grimaced. "Yeah, that would be a bit of a coincidence, wouldn't it," he said.

George shrugged. "Between you and me and the lampshade, I'm comfortable with hypothetically leaving the bastard where he is. Technically, we're not completely sure that that's actually Axton acting as guardian for Zinnia's vegetable patch."

Charlie groaned. "Hell, George, don't make me be the responsible brother here. I annoy dragons for a living, that's hardly a respectable occupation."

George snickered. "Two words, brother. Joke shop."

Charlie gave his brother a two-fingered salute and admitted that the two of them should probably check to see if they weren't just being paranoid.

George elected to come along because he thought that 'either way' this was going to be hilarious.

Charlie did not ask what he meant.

Charlie and George came up the drive of the Old Fawcett Place, and saw Zinnia working in the garden, weeding.

"Afternoon Zinnia," Charlie greeted as they came within earshot.

Zinnia looked up and tipped the floppy brim of her oversized straw hat out of her sightline.

"Charlie! George! Lovely to see you both! What's the occasion?"

"Well Zinnia, I want to make you an offer on your scarecrow," said George.

Zinnia blinked.

"You want to what?" she asked.

"Make you an offer on your scarecrow," George repeated, sticking to the story that he and Charlie had worked out between them in an attempt to think of something that wouldn't scare the woman. Best case scenario, her scarecrow was in fact not a transfigured Deatheater and they could pretend that George was just being a bit idiosyncratic, in line with his prankster persona.

Worst case scenario, neither brother felt the need to worry Zinnia until they were completely sure.

Zinnia laughed, leaning on her basket of weeds. "Aw, but I'd just been getting used to him! Why my scarecrow? What are you going to do with him?"

George just grinned back, dipping into his well-used improvisation skills. "Well, me and Charlie are pretty sure that you've got the ugliest scarecrow in Britain, and if so, I want to have him. I'll replace him, of course."

Zinnia snorted. "Well if you want him that badly, then of course you can have him. I hardly mind. Honestly he's been creeping me out a bit. Sometimes I feel like his eyes are following me." She shook her head, grabbing her hat as it promptly fell off. "Do you two want some tea? I was just about to pause and put a kettle on."

Charlie smiled to cover his trepidation. "We'll be right behind you Zinnia. You sure you're fine with us just taking the scarecrow."

Zinnia laughed again. "I have no idea what the two of you want with the silly, creepy old thing, but whatever it is, I don't want to know. Take it and do what you will."

And with that, she took her basket and left for the house.

The two Weasleys looked uneasily at each other. She seemed a little too flippant to suspect something, but still, wartime paranoia was a hard instinct to lose.

Deciding to shelve that line of thought for later, Charlie stepped a little closer to the scarecrow and immediately noted a suspicious dark smudge on the left 'wrist'. "Shit," he said, pointing it out to George.

The brothers turned to look at each other, then in Zinnia's direction, and then back to each other.

"She has no idea," said Charlie flatly. "She can't know. If she knew then she wouldn't joke about this, surely."

George grimaced, nodding in agreement. "We should check though," he said nonetheless.

Charlie pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Tell her you'll make her a better scarecrow in exchange for the thistles?" he suggested. "See how she reacts?"

George nodded grimly. "Sounds good." He strode up to the house and poked his head through the front door. "Hey Zinnia-flower, how would you feel about having a better scarecrow?"

Zinnia stared at him. "Uhhhh ambivalent?" she said. "I mean, I hate the creepy thing that's there, so…" she shrugged.

"Yeah, Goyle always did scare away the birds," Charlie joked a little uncomfortably.

Zinnia tilted her head. "Who?"

George shrugged faux-casually. "Oh nobody, just this Death Eater we used to know."

Zinnia tilted her head to the other side. That sounded like a gang or something. Pretty drab name though. The name reminded her of food described as tasting of death, and that tended to be synonymous with disturbingly untasty… which Zinnia didn't find even remotely threatening.

Well, each to their own she supposed…

"Well, if you want to trade me a better scarecrow for a wheelbarrow-full of thistles, I'm pretty sure I'm getting the better deal," Zinnia admitted. She looked out at her current scarecrow. "Though I don't know what I'll do with the old one. What do you reckon? Do you know anyone who would want a creepy thing like that?"

George nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure Kingsley would love to get his hands on that one," George said darkly.

Zinnia gave him an odd look. "…Is Kingsley a collector of weird scarecrows?"

The two Weasleys exchanged looks.

"…Sure, let's go with that," said Charlie with forced cheeriness.

Zinnia had no idea why the two brothers were being so damned weird about her scarecrow, but decided that she didn't want to know.