DISCLAIMER: THE WORLD OF HARRY POTTER BELONGS TO JK. ROWLING.
Two days had passed since the water balloon incident, and Stephanie and Fred were finding it more and more difficult to be close to each other, without one of them trying to seduce the other, much less keep a hold of themselves during the seducing in question.
Snape had not shown up of the two training sessions, and no one knew where he was; not that they really worried.
It was a Thursday afternoon, and the kids were all lounging in Stephanie's room, playing cards, talking and cracking jokes. Sirius had joined them, enjoying the company, and he sat at the desk playing chess with Ron while Stephanie and Fred sat far apart from each other, and Laura was animatedly talking to George about new products they could make. Hermione and Ginny were reading,
occasionally looking up to listen to what was being said, over all it was a comfortable atmosphere.
" George! George! George!" Laura said inspired and hyper.
" What? What? What?"
" I have the greatest idea ever! Did you ever consider making disappearing clothes?"
Stephanie cocked an eyebrow and said, " Why do you want your clothes to disappear Laura?"
" Well I think it would be funny. Like a clothesline, and when the buyer puts it on they disappear so they are standing naked! IT WOULD BE SOO COOL!" She was getting a bit carried away with this idea.
"Wait Laura, so you are telling me you want to walk around naked? What if you forget they disappear and you are on a date and all of a sudden you end up naked?" laughed Stephanie.
Hey, I wouldn't mind, thought Sirius looking at them out of the corner of his eye, getting a wonderful mental picture.
"Laura …no more sugar for you." Said Ginny enjoying this.
" No really! Listen guys, it would be the greatest prank ever. Like on Christmas we could send it to Malfoy…OH IT WOULD BE SOO FUNNY!"
Everyone laughed, but Fred stopped himself and said in disgust, " Eww bad mental picture. Definitely not something I want to visualize!"
" ANYWAYS, Fred and I shall think about it. Now on to important business, are we still meeting Lee and Oliver this weekend?" asked George.
" We should be, Lee Owled us yesterday saying he would meet us in diagon alley at the ice cream shop." Piped in Stephanie.
Sirius had stopped paying attention to the chess game at the mention of Oliver's name, but Ron hadn't noticed, because he was concentrating on his next move.
" Did you ask your mum how we are supposed to get there?" asked Laura.
" Well George and I can apparate, but you kids are just unfortunate," said Frederick cockily.
Stephanie shot him a look, and thought, hey, I never thought about him apparating in my room, o god now that's all I am going to think about, Fred coming in my room in the middle of the night…ooo getting a little ahead of yourself there Stephanie…
" Yeah, mum was talking about it yesterday, she said you could use Floo." Said Ginny sort of envious, but also wanting the house free of all this pranking and what not.
" Did you hear from Oliver, Laura, to see if he was gonna make it?" asked George.
" Oh yeah, got a letter from him yesterday actually. Forgot to tell you because it came really late." She could feel Sirius watching her, and her face started becoming warmer as her pulse was racing.
" You can't go."
The group all turned their heads at the same time to look at Sirius with surprise and Fred asked, " Why not Sirius?"
" Because Dumbeldore appointed me to protect Lau—You guys, and I don't think it would be safe."
" Oh come on Sirius, old mate, if mom said it was ok." Said George not really convinced.
" Yeah, we'll be home before it gets dark. Not worries." Said Stephanie understanding that her and Laura might be in danger going out in public, but then again, who knew about their magical ability yet?
" Yeah, if mom says it's ok. We'll all give you our word to not get in any sort of dilemma, and trust me when I say that it's a huge sacrifice." Said Fred.
Sirius knew he wouldn't win without telling them that Stephanie and Laura had to stay due to their vulnerability to this exposure. Mostly, he did not want Laura to go and meet Oliver, but he was not about to reveal that little detail.
" Fine, but you better be home before it gets dark, and stay in crowded areas." He said frankly displeased. He got up to leave the room, and they all watched him go.
" What about the game? You're winning." Said Ron clearly not having paid attention to the little occurrence.
" What's his deal?" asked Ginny a bit appalled.
" Give him some credit, here we are having a grand ol' time, when the grown ups are worried about the war. It's normal for him to be worried." Said Hermione patronizingly.
Laura and Stephanie understood, but the boys just shrugged, a bit in denial.
The rest of the week was spent pretty much the same way, because Mrs. Weasley had postponed cleaning until next week, having some business to attend to. On Friday there was another Order meeting, and Tonks stayed for dinner, much to the ecstatic George.
" Hey Fred, you think I look like a kid?" asked George as he was changing his shirt for dinner.
" Uhh, we are seventeen and half, I think not."
" No but, do you think Tonks would look at me like a kid?" asked George turning around grabbing socks to avoid his brother's ' AHA! I KNEW IT' look.
" Why?" asked Fred slyly.
" Just answer the question, do I look like I'm seventeen or twelve?"
" If you look 12 then I look 12, so I say you look quite handsome, and all our years of quidditch have sculpted us into fine tempting specimens to the female species."
" You know, you're a cocky dumbass." Said George shaking his head.
" What can I say, 3 days without kissing Stephanie have rendered me crazy."
" You mean you guys are still going at it?" asked George incredulously.
" Yes! Last night, she cornered me after you all went to bed, and I was going to the kitchen to get some water, and she came wearing an alluring little outfit and messy bed hair, and she came and sat on my lap whispering 'stuff' in my ear…I thought I was going to go insane!"
" Dear brother of mine, let me just say this; you got it bad!"
" I know…I know…"
Dinner was a normal affair, Hermione and Ginny were chatting with Tonks, asking her about her days at Hogwarts which was just about 4 years ago, and how she became and Auror. Ron, Fred and George were talking about quidditch, which left Stephanie and Laura free to talk about their training in low voices, with some code words.
" Man, my abs are so sore, I wonder if anyone will notices us getting in shape?" asked Laura.
" Dude I don't know, but my ass got firmer, and knowing Fred he will notice sooner or later." Stephanie grinned.
" Never tell me these things." Said Laura shaking her head.
" You know we still haven't kissed each other, and this morning he came up to me, having put on my favorite cologne and he gave me a hug and then gave me and Eskimo kiss, you know when you rub the tips of your noses together. It was so cute and tempting, I had to scrunch my eyes tight and bite my lip to not jump his bones."
" So you looked constipated?" asked Laura flatly.
" No…I guess…"
" Way to keep your man away, just look constipated when he is trying to seduce you" said Laura sarcastically.
" Well what about you, are you excited to see Oliver tomorrow? It's been like a week for you without a little snogging here, a little snogging there."
Laura blushed, and said, " Yeah I am pretty excited, I guess."
Sirius who hadn't been sitting that far away and was pretending to listen to Lupin had heard her comment, and it completely cut his appetite. He thought that she might have felt the same way about him when they had their romantic moment in the training room, but now he was sure she saw him as nothing more than another Lupin. Damn! He had to make her stay home tomorrow! Something, anything to make her not go and meet… that …that…that Oliver!
" George shut up." said Ron finally.
" Why? Is she not looking?" asked George looking back at Tonks.
" No, you are just infuriating me trying to sound manly and suave. She can't hear you, you know, she is talking to Hermione."
" Oh…" said George slightly put out.
Fred patted him on the shoulder and said consolingly, " No worries dear brother, no matter how imbecile you act she won't notice."
Instead of getting cheered up however George looked at his brother squinting his eyes and said, " Thanks a lot, that's like saying she doesn't know I exist."
Fred chuckled and said, " George…now you are acting like you are twelve."
Everyone went to bed that night full and cheerful. Well almost everyone. George was slightly put out, and as the house fell asleep, Sirius sat in the living room with only the fire in the chimney giving any light, as he peered into the flames.
His expression was perturbed and his soul was tormented. Here he was, left with thoughts of this young woman to plague his mind, and no matter how he thought about it, he could not imagine her loving him as he loved her. In the few instances when she did not think anyone was watching and her and Stephanie
would get all excited about a story they were co-writing, or they started singing a song together, forgetting the other faces in the room, that's what he loved best. When she didn't think anyone was watching, he would glance at her, and his heart would fill with a peculiar familiarity of something he read once upon a time; the mystic of such an emotion only fathomed in novels; could it be love?