Chapter three

WEASLEYS' WIZARD WHEEZES

Rose tried to embrace the stomach-churning feeling of getting catapulted through about a hundred fireplaces but she'll never really get used to it. She had to close her eyes to calm her stomach down.

At last she felt herself slow down and reopened her eyes to catch the correct fireplace.

Stepping forward to exit at the burrow, Rose immediately felt she would stick the landing and the floor came closer at a rapid pace.

Rose braced for impact but strong arms caught her before she could hit the ground.

It was George.

"Did he eat it?" Fred asked with a wide grin on his face.

Her eyes flashed and she looked at them with a hard ice cold look, snatching herself free from George's arms.

The smiles that had been plastered on the twins and their brother Ron, suddenly vanished.

"What were you thinking!" Rose reeled.

The three brothers took a step back in surprise.

"Oh, Rose doesn't have it hard enough with her magic fearing relatives, let's make it a bit harder by traumatizing them!" She spat the words out venomously. "Yeah, great idea, that way the two weeks she has to go home will be unbearable. Making them look at her like a freak! Was that your plan? Congratulations! You succeeded, all the progress I made with them, has vanished with your little stunt!"

The brothers took another step back cautiously. Rose felt her magic brimming at the edge of her restraint, happily waiting to burst out. She fought to hold it back.

"You don't have to go back…" Ron muttered.

She whirled around and gave him a hard stare, fire in her eyes.

"So, that's it then? You didn't agree with me to go back and gave those two knuckleheads an idea so that my life would be miserable? That was your brilliant plan?"

Ron flinched and shrank. The look on his face told Rose enough. Yes, yes, that had been his plan.

"Hey! We're not knuckleheads…" Fred said faintly.

"No? You guys know I'm always in for a practical joke. But seriously? You also know how hard it is with the Dursley's, did you even think about the consequences for me?"

Fred suddenly couldn't look her in the eyes anymore.

"No, I guess not." Rose said, the angry energy slowly leaving her. It made place for another feeling. Disappointment, she thought they knew how delicate the situation at her home was, even without knowing about… Marge.

George just stood there, gawking at her in amazement. What? Did he think she would have been happy about this?

"You have anything to say in you defense?" Rose eyed George. He straightened his face and looked her straight in her eyes.

"No, it was stupid, we didn't think and we shouldn't have done it."

Rose nodded, the last of her anger disappearing.

"We're sorry." George added and Rose nodded again. The room was very silent, the three brothers looked like had lost their puppy or something. Rose revisited her tantrum and a knot of guilt began to form in her stomach. They didn't live with them, how could they really understand the situation. They just wanted to teach Dudley a lesson for treating her horribly. Rose sighed.

"I'm sorry for yelling."

"You were in your right to do so." George answered flatly.

Rose felt a little smile tug the corner of her mouth looking at the three defeated boy's.

"What was it anyway?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee." said Fred. "We came up with the idea for it a while ago, so we started making them, we just needed someone to test them on…". Enthusiasm filled his voice while talking about it, but fell away with the last words. He turned his gaze to a corner of the room.

Suddenly someone chuckled and Rose saw that there were two red-haired people sitting at the scrubbed wooden table, that she had never seen before. But she quickly realized who they should be. The two already graduated Weasley brothers, Charlie and Bill.

"It's a miracle! No one has been able to shut up those two so effectively before." Said the furthest.

The tiny kitchen exploded with laughter.

"How's it going Rose?" One of them stood up and approached her, holding out a hand to shake. When she took it she could feel calluses and blisters across his hand.

When her eyes flashed down she saw several burns riddling the skin on his arms and assumed this was Charlie. The brother who's working with dragons in Romania.

She could see a lot of the twins in him, only his face was broader. The typic twin smile was very recognizable though. He had a lot more muscled than the twins though, which wasn't surprising, working with dragons and all.

Charlie's eyes only flittered to her scar for a second but immediately focused back her eyes.

The other elder Weasley brother got up as well and took Rose's hand as well.

Bill looked her over completely and a wide grin spread across his face after his eyes flittered over to George for a second.

Rose was a bit taken aback by Bill. She knew he worked at Gringotts, the wizarding bank and she had half expected an older version of Percy. Strict, very conservative and a tickler for the rules.

Bill was the complete opposite however. He was tall, broad, had long hair that was in a pony tale and a fang pierced his ear.

He didn't look like someone that worked at a bank but more like someone that worked at rock concerts or clubs.

"You really do look like you could be a Weasley." Bill said with a low gritty voice, smile still plastered on his face.

Rose smiled back widely.

"I feel like one half the time." Rose chuckled, as did the rest in the kitchen.

"Although, I must say you have better looks than the rest of us, no wonder…" But before Bill could finish his sentence they were interrupted by a popping sound.

Mr. Weasley appeared in the kitchen, his face constricted in anger. A look she had never seen before from Mr. Weasley.

"What. Where. You. Thinking!" Mr. Weasley almost spat out the words. A flaming look pointed at the twins.

"We shouldn't have done it, we know." Fred shrugged.

That took Mr. Weasley back for a minute but then he continued lecturing.

"I have been campaigning my whole life against that sort of stunts! I've been working towards respect for the muggles and then my own sons pull a stunt like that! It disgusts me."

"Dad, it wasn't because he's a muggle." Fred said angrily. "If he had been a wizard we would have done the same thing, with how he had been treating Rose."

"Doing it for Rose is a very lame excuse! She has told us on multiple occasions how difficult her relation to them is because of their fear for magic, you didn't do her any favors!"

"We know dad… We're sorry…" George said.

Mr. Weasley raised his eyebrows. He was totally flabbergasted by the defeated looks on his sons faces. They had never accepted a lecture from him this easily.

"What's wrong?"

Bill laughed.

"Dad, Rose already gave the three of them a trashing they won't soon forget."

Mr. Weasley looked at her with surprise.

"Wait, three?"

Ron instantly reddened like a tomato.

"Ron gave them the idea." Bill said.

Ron shot Charlie a glare.

"You should have seen Rose, dad. We've never seen them shut up that quickly before." Charlie laughed.

Rose's cheeks flushed.

"And right she is! You better hope your mother doesn't hear about this!"

"Hear about what?" said a voice behind them.

Mrs. Weasley walked into the kitchen, her eyes immediately suspicious, scanning the room.

When her eyes fell on Rose, she smiled.

"Hello, my dear." Her eyes quickly returned to her sons and husband.

"Hear about what, Arthur?"

Mr. Weasley was at a loss for words. Rose knew he had never intended to tell his wife, wanting to keep the peace.

Silence filled the kitchen and everyone's eyes were nervously flitting between Mrs. And Mr. Weasley.

At that moment two girls entered the kitchen. Hermione and Ginny.

"Rose!" Ginny exclaimed and she ran to her, throwing her arms around her in a hug. Rose laughed out loud. Hermione chuckled and threw her a wide grin. Ginny had been looking up to Rose since her very first visit to the burrow.

"Hear about what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley asked again, not letting herself be distracted by Ginny's enthusiastic outburst.

"I already gave Fred and George a lecture, Rose did so as well…"

Mrs. Weasley looked at Rose for a second and then focused back on her husband.

"What did they do? If it has anything to do with Weasley's Wizard Wheezes…" Mrs. Weasley voice began to sound dangerous and Rose knew her lecture would be nothing compared to Mrs. Weasley. She started to feel a bit sorry for the twins.

"Euhm, maybe we should show you where you're sleeping." Hermione said.

"She knows, she slept in my room last..." Ginny said.

"We all go and show her." Hermione said while signaling with her eyes it was time to leave.

"Great idea, Hermione." Rose said happily and they turned to leave the kitchen. Ron stood to follow.

"Yeah, great idea, Hermione." George said nudging Fred to follow as well.

"Oh, no no. You two stay where you are!" Mrs. Weasley snapped.

They were almost at the door when Mr. Weasley spoke up.

"Ronald! You get to stay as well."

Ron cursed under his breath and faced an now even more furious looking Mrs. Weasley.

Ginny, Hermione and Rose quickly escaped, while Hermione made a disapproving sound. Clearly not happy that Ron was involved as well.

"What happened?" Ginny asked while they started climbing the steps.

Rose quickly explained and Hermione scoffed.

"Unbelievable, those idiots!" She exclaimed after Rose was finished.

"What was your mom talking about Ginny? With the Weasley's wizard thing…" Rose asked.

Ginny gave a chuckle, Hermione didn't.

"Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Mum was cleaning their room a week ago and found piles of price lists with joking products. All stuff they had put together, it's pretty impressive. We always heard the weirdest noises from their room but we all just figured they liked loud noises. But some of the stuff is a bit… well dangerous because it hasn't been properly tested. The pricelists were for Hogwarts, they were planning on selling the stuff there. Mum just lost it. They didn't get a lot of O.W.L.s and she went ballistic. When she told them that they wouldn't get into the ministry if they didn't get better grades, they just told her they didn't want that. They just want to open a joke shop, I think we all went partially deaf with the outburst mum had after that."

Suddenly a door opened on the landing and Percy stuck his head out.

"Hi Percy." Rose said.

"Hello Rose, I was wondering who was making all the noise… I'm trying to concentrate on my report for the ministry…" Percy said, pride and irritation seeping through his words.

"Sorry, Percy." Rose muttered.

"Just… keep it down?" Percy said.

Rose grinned at him.

"I will… but I'm not sure I'll do you much good."

Percy's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Your mom is about to… well…"

Percy groaned.

"What did those idiots do now!" He slammed the door shut. Rude.

Percy had always been… tricky to interact with but this caught Rose by surprise.

"He's been like that since he's working for the ministry." Ginny said hatefully.

When Ginny's room came into view, shouts finally started erupting from the kitchen. They quickly entered her room and the familiar pink walls greeted Rose.

There were three beds in the room for the three girls and the three of them installed themselves on Ginny's.

"So, Percy has taken a liking to the working life?" Rose asked.

Ginny sighed.

"He won't shut up about it. Do us all a favor and don't ask him anything about it. He'll talk your ears off for a half hour straight. Dad has to drag him home each night, or he'd be sleeping there."

Rose chuckled.

"How were your two weeks with the Dursley's, Rose?" said Hermione.

"Fine, I reckon next year won't this good." Rose answered a bit strained, trying not to think too hard about it.

"How's Ron involved in all of this?" Hermione asked.

"He gave them the idea." Rose said.

"What! Why?" Hermione gasped.

"Ronald logic, I figure. It doesn't surprise me." Ginny said.

Hermione and Rose looked at Ginny.

"He's been complaining non-stop since he's been back. Constantly whining about how ridiculous it is that you're returning to your aunt and uncle each year. Mom's been telling him that they're still you family, that it's normal for you to want to go home, even if they're… conservative about magic. I don't get it though, why so obsessed about it now? He's never complained about it before." Ginny looked at Rose curiously. Rose shrugged in response.

"I've been playing with the idea that he may be falling for you."

Rose burst out laughing and Hermione sputtered, almost choking in surprise.

"Or not." Ginny said, seeing their reaction. "One Weasley is enough anyway…" She muttered under her breath.

"Sorry, what?" Rose asked.

"Nothing. But if it's not that, what then?" Ginny quickly pressed on.

Hermione and Rose glanced at each other.

"Probably because I'll be coming over after 2 weeks each year from now on." Rose said.

Ginny gave a happy yelp.

"Really, why?"

"They can't keep me the whole summer anymore…" Rose tried to evade the subject.

"But why give the twins such a ridiculous idea then?" Hermione quickly added, before Ginny could ask more questions.

Ginny shrugged.

"I think he figures if your life was a living hell over there you'd never want to go back…"

"What an idiot!"

"Precisely."

Silence filled the room.

Hermione tilted her head.

"I think the shouting has stopped. Should we go down and help your mom with dinner?"

"Good idea." Ginny said.

They left Ginny's room and went to the kitchen. They found Mrs. Weasley alone in the kitchen, still mad and mumbling to herself.

When she saw the girls, she gave them a faint smile.

"We're eating outside, there's simply not enough room for all of us inside. Could you girls take the plates outside and the forks and knives?"

Hermione and Ginny took those and Rose stayed behind.

Mrs. Weasley waved her wand a bit more powerful at the potato's than intended and they shot out of their skin so fast they were bouncing around the room in a second.

"Oh, for heaven's sake!" Mrs. Weasley snapped. She flicked her wand again and a dustpan began cleaning them up.

"Those boy's!" She suddenly burst out. Grabbing the pots and pans in short powerful moments.

"I don't know what's gotten into them! No ambition at all! Always making trouble." Mrs. Weasley put one of the pots on the fire with such force a loud bang sounded through the kitchen.

"And it's not like they're stupid but they're wasting their brains on causing trouble, if they don't change they'll be charged for improper use of magic. I don't know what I did wrong… NOT AGAIN!"

She shouted when she had tried to grab her wand again but it had made a farting sound and changed into a rubber chicken. Rose had to suppress a snigger.

"How many times have I told them not to leave them lying around! They never listen!" Mrs. Weasley continued.

Mrs. Weasley suddenly stilled and had to search support on the counter.

"What will become of them…" She muttered silently.

"Mrs. Weasley…?"

Mrs. Weasley jumped and Rose realized she hadn't even noticed Rose had stayed behind.

"You heard all that did you?"

Rose just nodded.

"Listen, I don't agree with what they did, I'm pretty furious myself about it but…" Rose hesitated, it wasn't really her place, she wasn't the mom. "I agree they act like fools sometimes but they always manage to make others around them smile." Rose stilled again, Mrs. Weasley seemed interested in had she had to say so she continued on.

"I mean, I've… my life… I mean we all know I've hadn't had to most 'normal' life. Each year it's like something has to get me off guard and smack me in the face. But whenever that happened they were always the first ones to make me laugh again. Appreciate the smaller things. I've only known them three year but I think it's pretty damn amazing how they seem to be able to lighten a mood. And I know starting a joke shop seems like... well a joke. But I have no doubt they'll turn it into something amazing."

Mrs. Weasley smiled a bit.

"It's too soon dear. They need all their options open, they could do so many things."

"I'm not a mom. And I've never… I didn't grow up with one so it's not really my place. But I just wanted to share what I thought." Honestly Rose couldn't see them doing anything else than bring joy and laughter to the world but she wasn't going to say that now.

"Thank you dear." Mrs. Weasley seemed to 'man' up again and continued her cooking.

"You should go outside with the rest."

Rose left the kitchen and bumped up to a fleshy wall.

It was George… again. Fred was standing right behind him.

They were looking at her with awe.

"Did you mean all that?" George said, his voice sounded raspy.

"Heard that did you?"

They nodded.

"I'm still pissed at you two." Rose said pointing a finger at them but a little smile played around her lips. "But yeah, I meant every word."

They suddenly scooped her up in a bear hug and Rose had to giggle.

"Thank you for saying that to mom."

They put her down again.

"I have no doubt that if you guy's pull it off, you'll take over the Wizarding world by storm." Rose said. She winked at them and stepped outside, leaving the twins gaping behind her.

"She's pretty amazing."

"Yup."

Rose entered the garden and immediately saw Crookshanks chasing after a gnome. It quickly hid in one of the boots scattered around at the door. Giggles sounded out of the boot at Crookshanks stuck a paw inside to try and catch it.

Rose jumped at a very loud crashing sound coming from the other side of the house.

She turned the corner and saw Charlie and Bill pointing their wands upward towards two flying tables. They were chasing each other, trying to knock the other table out of the air.

Fred and George quickly joined her and start cheering. Ginny was laughing, Hermione seemed torn between being worried and laughing. Ron sat in a corner of the garden, his ear red and his eyes fixed on something in the garden. He still seemed very displeased with what had happened today.

Suddenly Percy's window flew open.

"Will you keep it down?!" He shouted.

"Sorry Perce, how's the report going?" Bill asked sweetly.

"At this pace very slowly!" Percy snapped and he closed his window with a bang.

Bill and Charly shrugged and lowered the tables. After a quick reparo both tables were repaired and they started setting the table.

In no time everyone sat down and the tables were overflowing with food. Rose's stomach made a lot of noise at the sight of it, after being on a diet for two weeks, and Mrs. Weasley made sure her plate was extra full.

To focused on Eating Rose didn't say much but listened in on the other conversations.

Percy and Mr. Weasley were discussing his report.

Percy was bragging how he'd have his report done sooner than was expected of him to made a good impression of himself.

"It'll help Mr. Crouch immensely, since our department is overflowing with work. The department of magical games and sport just isn't helping us enough. Ludo Bagman…"

"I like Ludo." Mr. Weasley interrupted. "He's the one that made sure we have such good tickets."

"Bagman is nice enough, he's just not a leader. Just look at Mr. Crouch! I would see him lose a member of his department and do nothing about it. Bertha Jorkins has been missing for a month now."

"Yes, we talked about that. He told me she had disappeared multiple times before, but I agree he should be looking for her anyway."

"Mr. Crouch seems very disapproving of Mr. Bagman in the matter but we simply don't have the time to search for members of other departments for them. You know with that big event coming up…" That last part Percy said considerably louder and looked around, as if he was expecting people to ask him about it.

"You know which one father… the top secret one."

Ginny rolled her eyes and whispered to Rose.

"He's been trying to get us to ask about it the last two week. Nobody wants to out of fear he'll start lecturing us about his report."

Further down the table Mrs. Weasley showing her disapproval of Bill's earing, which was apparently recently added to his look.

"Really Bill, aren't you afraid what the people at the bank will say?"

"Nobody gives a sh… cares. As long as I keep bringing in treasure, they're happy and they don't care how I look."

"And your hair is getting way too long, dear. I wish you would let me cut it."

"I like it." Ginny suddenly said. "It looks cool, besides Dumbledore's hair is way longer."

Next to Mrs. Weasly, Fred, George and Charlie were discussing the world cup.

Rose was happily switching between conversations, until her eyes fell on Ron, who was still avoiding her gaze. Rose sighed caught his attention.

"What's up with you?"

"Nothing."

"Yeah, right…"

Ron bit his lip and his ear turned red.

"Spit it out, djeez."

"You're still staying with us right, next summer I mean?"

Rose eyebrows rose to her hairline in surprise.

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Becauseyouseemedpissed." Ron muttered in.

Rose had to laugh.

"Oh Ron. What you did was pretty stupid but did you seriously think I wouldn't be friends anymore?"

Ron's face turned the same color as his ears now.

"You're my best friend silly."

Ron smiled lightly but before he could add something, Mrs. Weasley let out a surprised yelp.

"Have you seen the time! Hup, all of you in bed…"


AO3 Readers might have noticed I've made additional changes .

I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think. I love communicating with you guy's ^^.

XXX D.