Standard disclaimers apply!

I do not own Harry Potter. I have nothing to do with Scholastic, Warner Bros or Bloomsbury. I'm not JKR and I am certainly not making any profit out of this.

9th December 1998

7.05pm, Chaos Central.

George shook his head and impatiently scribbled out the half-written spell. "No, that's not right. It'll turn blue."

Throwing down his quill, he leaned back on the faded settee, ran his hands roughly through his hair and shut his eyes. "A watched pot never boils ... a watched pot never boils ... a watched pot never boils ... a watched pot never boils ... ugh, it shouldn't be this hard, damn it. Tea. I need tea ... haha, that's funny ..."

He was interrupted by the sound of stones clattering on glass. "GEORGE!"

"Angie!" Jumping up, he crossed the small room quickly, threw open the window and pointed his wand at the front door directly below. "Come straight up!"

While haphazardly making space on the coffee table, he distractedly swept his wand up and down the room. "Percy's right, I should clean more often."

"You've not wrong there!" Angelina laughed and shut the door behind her. "I bought food."

"You're diamond, you are, even if you are late ... and I've got something for you," he riffled through a pile of papers on the kitchen counter, "Success!" and handed her an appallingly orange envelope.

"What's this?" She eyed it curiously.

"Front door key," said George, "and the security spell ... so you don't have to just about break my windows, and I don't have to get off my lazy arse and let you in."

"Oh, George!" She clutched the envelope to her chest and fluttered her eyelashes. "You're so romantic!"

"Leave off," he chuckled, taking the plastic bags from her and setting them on the coffee table before leaning over the kiss her cheek. "You know what I mean."

"I know." She half-smiled and glanced at him through her lashes. "It's good."

"I'm glad you think so," he said lightly. "So what's for tea?"

"Indian," Angelina grinned, tucked the envelope into her jacket pocket, sat down with a small groan and pulled various containers from the plastic bag. "Been busy?"

"Like a bee. So have you, by the look of it," he said, brushing wood dust and shavings from her shoulder. "How goes it at Snidget Lane? Laurel working you hard?"

"Hard enough," she nodded, digging into her rice enthusiastically. "Rumour has it that Nimbus is working on something to render the Firebolt close to obsolete. I don't know how they could possibly do it, but you know Laurel ... she's not going to take that lying down."

"So she's got you lot all working on a way to improve the Firebolt? Oh yum! Chicken! How the hell are you going to do that?"

"No idea," she admitted. "It can't go any thinner without compromising the suspension and strength, so that's out. SHIT!" She waved her hand in front of her mouth frantically. "Hot! Pumpkin juice?"

"Yeah, hang on," he waved his wand and two icy bottles materialised on the table.

She took a large swig. "Thanks. So yeah, if we go for more speed ... well, I don't know ... I've got visions of flying it and having my face peel off."

"Not ideal," George snorted.

"No, not really. Balance is near-on perfect ... so what else is there? This is delicious; I was getting tired of Chinese."

"Hm, me too," he said, "although I didn't realise until just now."

"So what are you working on at the moment?" Angelina motioned to the scraps of parchment that had been shoved onto the side of the table.

George held his hand over his mouth and chewed vigorously. "Trick kettle. You gave me the idea."

"I did?" She looked confused. "When?"

"Last month," he laughed, "you were messing around with the tea things to avoid looking at me, remember?"

"And you told me a watched kettle never boils," she smiled at him. "I remember."

"Do you remember what day it is?" George leaned forward and brushed his nose over hers.

"Sure do," her lips barely touched his at all, "one month ago today. I'm really glad you pushed the issue."

"Me too."

Lordy you lot are patient with me! Thanks for the reviews, and we'll be back to Ron and Hermione soon (erm, my version of "soon" anyway).