"Did he eat it?" Fred asked after we orbed into the living room.
"Yeah, what was it?" Harry asked, still holding my hand.
"Ton-Tongue Toffee," Fred said brightly. "George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer…" Everyone exploded with laughter. Harry and I, mostly Harry though, were introduced to the two eldest Weasley boys, Charlie and Bill. Before anything else could be said, there was a faint popping noise, and Mr. Weasley appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder. He was looking angrier than I've seen him, or anyone else look. Even my aunts, so that's some serious anger.
"That wasn't funny Fred!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?" "I didn't give him anything," Fred said with another evil grin. "I just dropped it… It was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."
"You dropped it on purpose!" Mr. Weasley bellowed. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet -"
"How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly.
"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!" Everyone, but Mr. Weasley, laughed. "It isn't funny! That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons-"
"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" Fred said indignantly.
"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," George said. "Isn't he, Harry?"
"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," Harry said honestly.
"That's not the point!" Mr. Weasley yelled. "You wait until I tell your mother -"
"Tell me what?" a voice behind them said. Mrs. Weasley had walked in, her face showed nothing, but her eyes were narrowed with suspicion.
"Oh hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him and smiling. However, she returned her attention to Mr. Weasley. "Tell me what, Arthur?" Mr. Weasley hesitated. Harry could tell that, however angry he was with Fred and George, he hadn't really intended to tell Mrs. Weasley what had happened. There was a silence, while Mr. Weasley eyed his wife nervously. Hermione and Ginny came downstairs, slowly stopping when they reached the bottom. "Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice.
"It's nothing, Molly," Mr. Weasley replied. "Fred and George just - but I've had words with them -"
"What have they done this time?" Mrs. Weasley asked. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes -"
"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" Hermione said.
"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last -"
"Show him were he's sleeping," Hermione repeated.
"And we can show Stephanie were she's sleeping," Ginny added, catching on.
"Oh," said Ron, finally getting. "Right."
"Yeah, we'll come too," George said, hoping to slip by.
"You stay where you are!" Mrs. Weasley snarled. Harry and I edged out of the living room, as Ron left the kitchen. I looked back at my sisters and friends, Alexa looking desperate. 'Help' she mouthed. I looked around as we climbed the stairs, Hermione and Ginny in front of us, and waved my hand saying 'come on.'
"What are Weasley's Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as we climbed, the other five girls slowly climbing the stairs at first, but walking much faster as we climbed to catch up. Ron and Ginny both laughed, although Hermione didn't.
"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," Ron whispered quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that…"
"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," Ginny added. "We thought they just liked the noise."
"Only, most of the stuff - well, all of it, really - was a bit dangerous," Ron said, "and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms… She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."
"And then there was this big row," Ginny said. "Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop." Just then a door on the second landing opened, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.
"Hi, Percy," said Harry.
"Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise. I'm trying to work in here, you know I've got a report to finish for the office – and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."
"We're not thundering," Ron said irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic." We continued climbing up the stairs, as Percy sneered, closing his the nine of us climbed up three more flights of stairs, shouts from the kitchen below echoed up to them. Apparently Mr. Weasley had told Mrs. Weasley about the toffees.
"Ya, here's where we'll all be staying," Ginny said shortly as we passed her room. I guess my sisters and friends didn't want to feel out of place, since none of them were really friends with Harry or the others, so they slipped into Ginny's room.
After what seemed forever, we finally reached the top of the stairs, where Ron's room was. As we entered, a small owl was hopping up and down in a small cage and twittering madly.
"Shut up, Pig," Ron said, plopping himself down on one of the two beds in his room.
"Why are you calling that owl Pig?" I asked.
"Because he's being stupid," Ginny said. "His proper name is Pigwidgeon."
"Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," said Ron sarcastically. "Ginny named him," he explained to Harry and I. "She reckons it's sweet. And I tried to change it, but it was too late, he won't answer to anything else. So now he's Pig. I've got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that." Pigwidgeon zoomed happily around his cage, hooting shrilly. I leaned over to Ginny and whispered, "I think it's a cute name." She smiled at me and whispered a 'thank you'.
"Have you had a good summer, Harry?" Hermione asked. "Did you get our food parcels and everything?"
"I've had a great summer," Harry said, coming over and hugging me from behind. "Those cakes saved my life, thanks a lot."
"And have you heard from -?" Ron began, but fell silent. We all knew he was going to ask about Sirius, well except for Ginny. The only people who knew about what happened last year were the four of us and Dumbledore. Well and my sisters. I'm sorry, but I can't help it! They're the two I turn to and gossip about everything. Of course once I told them that Harry and I were dating, they wanted to know everything. And I mean everything. Every. Last. Thing.
"I think they've stopped arguing," Hermione said, trying cover the awkward moment as Ginny looked curiously at the four of us. "Shall we go down and help your mum with dinner?"
"Yeah, yeah. All right," Ron said. I stopped outside of Ginny's room and kissed Harry, telling him I'd see him later. I slipped in as the four of them went downstairs, and flopped down on a large bed by Sage.
"So what exactly happened at the Dursley's?" I smiled slightly and told them everything. Like I said before, every last detail. Once I had told them everything, we started laughing.
"Why couldn't we have gone with you?" Sage asked. "That would have been awesome to see."
"As awesome as it might have been, nine of us stuffed into that fireplace. It was bad enough with five, but nine? No me gusta," I said. (I speak random languages at random times. Mostly French, but thanks to all my Spanish taking friends, and Sarah, I now also talk random Spanish.)
When it was time to eat, we all went downstairs and out into the garden, where a long table had been set up where the 16 some of us could all sit, comfortably. I sat somewhere down by one end of the table by Harry, and Jennifer sat on my other side.
After we had eaten a delicious meal and some homemade strawberry ice cream, we were all ushered up to our rooms to go to bed, since we had to get up early tomorrow. I walked hand in hand with Harry back inside, and up the stairs. We stopped at Ginny's room, and he kissed me goodnight softly. I smiled, hugged him, and told him goodnight. I walked into the room, changed into my pjs, took my contacts out, and climbed into bed between Alexa and Susanne, falling asleep soon.