Notes and Disclaimers: This story is about Eileen Pierce's summer between "Father Figure" and "Eternal Knight", she visits several of her friends and learns some interesting things about them in the meantime. Each chapter of this story will be about a different person she's staying with and the secrets they indulge. The characters starring in this short story are: Eileen (of course), Cheryl and Gregory Applegate, Artemis Prewett, Lucas, Page, and Roderick Beowulf, Fred and George Weasley, Remus Lupin, and Severus Snape. Special thanks to Starr and Otaku for helping me find my inner New Yawkah! XD Enjoy and make sure you read it, some of this might be referenced in the next story! ~_^
Chapter 7: Weasleys Wizard Weezes
Eileen woke early to the sound of creaking floorboards somewhere outside the door, curiously peeking over the edge of her blanket to see shadows passing under the door on their way downstairs. Glancing over at the window, she found it to be still before 5 am, wondering who would be up this early during the summer. She crept out of her bed and quietly padded across the room, gently cracking the door open enough to allow enough room to sneak out in kneazle form.
Whispers downstairs told her that it was more than one person and she silently descended the stairs, peering over the railing to see two figures sneaking out of the house.
Who's going out at this time of the morning? Couldn't be the men, they would take the fireplace out. Eileen pondered before scampering down the rest of the stairs and following the figures outside unnoticed.
The figures briskly ran into the underbrush and disappeared out of sight, but Eileen could still smell them and swiftly followed. She trotted for quite a ways before spotting the figures stooped over a box that had been hidden within the shrubbery. Upon closer inspection, she realized the figures were identical in appearance.
"Lumos." She said after she changed back and glowered at the boys as they fell back with surprise.
"Bloody 'ell!" Fred exclaimed, gawking at her in the wand light.
"We didn't even hear you!" George clung to the edge of the box, looking quite startled.
"That's rule number one of stalking your prey." She cleverly cocked her eyebrow.
"You were in your Animagus form again, weren't you? Again I missed it!" George grumbled, squinting to adjust to the light.
"Maybe I'll show you later if you tell me what you're doing out here so early." Eileen whispered, peering around them at the box they were now sheltering behind them.
They exchanged curious glances before saying, "Don't tell."
"I won't, you know that. Is this part of the top secret business?" Eileen leaned closer.
Moving away from the box and allowing her room to huddle between them, they produced various items that they explained to her in detail.
"This is our latest invention: Ton Tongue Toffees! Eat just one and your tongue swells to ten times its normal size!" George whispered excitedly, "We haven't gotten a chance to test it on anyone but ourselves yet but it's wicked."
"Don't look at me." Eileen narrowed her eyes at them.
"Of course not! Oh, this is our favorite so far, Skiving Snackboxes! We're still working on things to put in it but it's going to have candies in it that give you excuses to cut out of class. These make you barf, though we haven't quite got the recipe right." Fred displayed a box of candies.
"Can't take the cure if you puke it right back up." George laughed half-heartedly.
They rummaged some more before the sun began to come up and they stowed their treasures away again.
"These are just backups, in case Mum manages to discover what were doing in our room and makes off with our stock." Fred explained as they headed back toward the house.
"I'm impressed, I thought you two just goofed off all the time." Eileen strolled along with them.
"It's not goofing off, it's product testing!" George winked.
"Sure it is. What about your O.W.L. tests? Didn't you get bad scores?" Eileen cocked an eyebrow at them.
"Who needs those stupid tests when we've got our futures to focus on!"
"The point of the scores IS your future, it gets you good jobs."
"But we already have a future, in pranks!" Fred posed dramatically with his brother and Eileen eyed them curiously.
"So you're not going to work at the Ministry like your dad and Percy?"
They scoffed and said, "No way!"
"Mum wants us to work there, I'd rather snog Filch." Fred frowned, crossing his arms.
"I hate office work, it sucks my soul out...it'd be like working in Azkaban!" George grimaced dramatically.
"I see. Well, hopefully I can help you improve on your products before I have to leave, I'd really love to see what you've got going on and how you're doing it." The inner Ravenclaw in her was about ready to wet itself with excitement over the challenge.
"That's the plan! Come on, we'll show you our order forms so you know what we're planning on selling!" Fred led the way back inside as they tiptoed back up the stairs, still early enough that no one was up yet. They barely got into their room when the bedroom door upstairs creaked.
"To the beds!" George hissed, launching himself at the bottom bunk of his bed and disappearing beneath the blanket in record time as if he'd done this a million times. Fred quickly followed, flying into his top bunk and waving at Eileen to follow. Transforming, she leapt up to his bed and hid under the blanket just in time as their door cracked open.
"Fred? George? Were you just up?" Their mother called sleepily, a slight hit of suspicion in her voice.
But the boys were skillfully feigning sleep, lightly snoring and pretending to be having good dreams. Waiting a moment before mumbling under her breath and shutting the door, their mother descended the stairs and was safely out of range when the boys peered out from under their sheets at the door.
"Whew, that was a close one." George commented, rolling onto his back and staring up at the bottom side of his brother' bunk.
"Yeah..." Fred seemed to be blushing slightly as Eileen snuggled against his body in an attempt to hide herself, cautiously peeking a twitchy pink nose out to sniff the air for signs of someone else outside.
"Man, now I gotta pee." George grumbled, hopping out of bed and padding to the door, "Be right back!"
As he disappeared out the door, Eileen changed back, staring around the room curiously to see if anything had changed since shed last been here. There were a few more boxes and brewing experiments sitting out but it was more or less the same mad scientists laboratory it had been before, except now there was an awkward looking young boy laying next to her on the bed looking right nervous about something.
"Um...Eileen...there's...something I wanted to ask you..." Fred whispered, his cheeks flush.
Blinking innocently, she whispered back, "Yes?"
Before he could open his mouth, George came back in and hissed, "You better get back in your room, Mum's heading for Ginny's room!"
Quick as a flash, Eileen wiggled out from under the covers and slipped off the bed, apparating as soon as her feet touched the floor.
Heaving a sigh of relief and shutting the door quietly, George whispered to his brother, "That was a close one! Mum would flip her lid if she caught her in our room this early!"
Groaning, Fred buried his face in his pillow and left George quite confused as he muttered, "I was so close!"
"Close to what?" George inquired cluelessly, perching himself on the ladder on the side of the bunk.
"What do you bloody well think?" Fred glowered over the top of his pillow at his brother who raised his eyebrows.
"Are you mad? If Mum caught you - " George gaped at him, the thought of his brother having a go at a girl in their room shocking him greatly.
"I wasn't doing anything! Not that I could...she'd probably blow up the house if I tried anything." Fred grumbled, burying his face in his pillow again.
George frowned at his brother for a moment before climbing down and rolling into his bed, trying to catch some z's before they had to officially be up.