The next few days passed in a similar manner. Chessie stayed on the couch or in the bed, moving minimally and slowly if she had to at all. The concussion from- something- was relatively severe, and even with Madame Pomfrey's potions and George's care and comic relief she was still technically condemned to bed rest for the week. Rose kept her company a lot of the time, but one afternoon George and Rose both mysteriously disappeared during one of Chessie's naps. When she woke up, she felt well enough to make a sandwich and grab one of Rose's juiceboxes and go sit on the stairs to the first floor behind the registers, watching the store in full swing.

There was Verity in a purple WWW robe, cheerfully demonstrating a product for a few children too young to attend Hogwarts. Chessie chuckled softly as the innocent little piece of gum stuck to one of the kids, and then rapidly stuck to anything else it touched. Very soon all three children were stuck together wrapped in what looked like pink toffee. Verity watched and laughed as they giggled, and told them the word to stop the charm.

"Mercy!"

Chessie, from her perch halfway down the stairs, groaned and rolled her eyes. Sometimes the twins had a strange sense of humor.

As the afternoon wore on and the absence of customers turned into an excess of them, Verity lost control and Fred had to come out of the back room- the room where the twins worked on new experiments and fixed haywire old ones- to help her. They were both out on the floor, helping what seemed like every single customer on the floor without being too aware of each other, and the registers were empty. A line was growing at them, people waiting to pay for their new stuff. Normally, a third employee- the absent George, in this case- was to be running the registers. The line grew, and the waiting customers began getting irritated.

Chessie sighed as she finished her sandwich and licked her sandwich-holding fingers.

Fine, fine, fine.

She went back upstairs and swallowed a bitter dose of medicine for her head as she tossed on jeans and pulled her hair back badly. By the bottom of the stairs were some extra purple robes with golden WWW's on them, and as she jogged by, she grabbed one and threw it on. It was muscle memory from the Shiny Teacup, just as quickly changing the cash drawer and ringing things up fast and accurately were.

The whole crowd, big as it was, only took about twenty minutes to be checked out and herded out the door, and as the last large group left, laughing to themselves, Fred and Verity sighed in relief.

"Thanks for doing the register for me." She said breathily, sliding to the floor against a ravaged shelf. Fred looked sharply at her.

"I wasn't on register."

The two paused, looking at each other, then as one turned towards the registers and saw Chessie checking out a little boy with some sugar quills. The boy said something softly.

"No problem, honey. Here's your change." They heard her say. Chessie walked the small boy to the door, made sure he had the bag in his little hands securely, and waved as he ran off. She turned around absently, still smiling slightly, and saw Fred hanging onto a shelf so his legs wouldn't collapse under him, and Verity spread out on the floor.

"Oh, um…" her smile faded slightly. "I'm sorry, there was nobody on the register and I worked in a diner for years, so I knew how to do it already. And I used a new drawer, so all your money's still there…." She gestured towards the small closet under the stairs where the money was kept during the day.

"You ran register?" Fred said in astonishment, his brain catching up with his ears. "In that swamp? Impressive."

A gust of wind blew in as the door flew open.

"Why, yes I am! Quite impressive, if I do say so myself! And-" George paused midsentence in the doorway in muggle clothes, staring at the mess with a bag of things in one arm and Rose's hand in the other. "What the bloody hell happened here? Did we get busy?"

"Busy?" Verity scoffed. "We were swamped! Where were you?"

"I had to come out of the back, so nothing's done, and Chessie came down and ran register for us-."

"Really?" George looked at Chessie as if he'd just noticed she was there. "What happened to bed rest?"

"I feel fine," said Chessie, who desperately wanted to go throw up. She wiped her dark brown hands on the purple robes, suddenly feeling absolutely horrible from working with a concussion. "I'm going to count down and go take a shower."

And with that, she jerkily, like a child who was caught with its hand in a cookie jar, grabbed the money tray out of the register she'd taken over, took off the robe, and shut herself in the small vault under the stairs, where she sat quietly for a few minutes and took deep breaths, rocking back and forth.

"I'm going to school!" Rose jumped up and down excitedly that evening at supper. She sang it over and over again, enthusiastically, as the twins and Verity (who stayed with Fred as often as at her own flat) and Chessie calmly ate. "I can learn to read better and meet people and-" she paused and sat down, slightly worried. "Do you think I'll make any friends?"

Chessie put her spoon down and swallowed the bite of potato in her mouth, but George responded before she could.

"Of course you will. Just be careful to remember that not everyone will accept you as well as we do."

Fred pitched in.

"And definitely keep the werewolf thing to yourself."

Rose frowned for a second in thought, then perked back up. "Okay."

"But what about injuries, did any of you think of that?" Chessie, although pleased that George had Rose enrolled in the muggle primary school just down the street outside Diagon Alley, was worried. So many things could go wrong. She could be found out. Someone might hurt her. Anything could happen in such a large city.

"You're so pessimistic," Verity complained. Chessie spared a glare at her and turned expectantly back to Rose.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I saw the school with George earlier. It's small but cool and no one has funny names like Tonks and Verity."

"My name's not funny," Verity said with her mouth full.

"Okay," Chessie said without much conviction. "So say she goes to this muggle primary school and learns to multiply or whatever. How is she going to get there and back each day?"

"Easy," Fred said. "Either George or I go out every day for something or other. One of us could get her while we're out."

Chessie paused. That sounded reasonable. "And in the morning?"

George shrugged. "She's your charge. You like walking anyway." He studied her expression. "Don't worry so much, Chess. It will be alright. You'll have some time to yourself, we won't have to keep an eye out for her in the shop- it'll work out just fine."

"And by British muggle law she has to be in some form of school anyway," Verity added as she picked up plates. "I went to the library."

Chessie looked at all the faces around her. Rose was motionless, listening intently to the conversation. Chessie considered from Rose's perspective. It was her life. And the law. And some time to talk to other kids might not be a bad thing, she could have some fun. Chessie did sort of want to explore around without having to worry about a child.

Fred was doing this because George wanted to. She wasn't sure why George cared so much. Maybe it was because he was just that kind of guy- but she quickly crushed that thought. No one's nice without a good reason. He just hasn't revealed it yet. Even in her head that sounded false.

Verity was…Verity. She seemed almost crazy to Chessie at times. But when working for the twins that seemed to be a prerequisite. Chessie hadn't remembered her at school as an enemy, but definitely not as a friend either. No one wanted to be friends with a wet blanket klepto Slytherin pureblood who read muggle romances when her dorm mates slept or weren't there to harass her. Verity seemed like she would have been in Hufflepuff. But she was nice, and had a wicked sense of humor. And she helped with Rose quite a bit right after the full moon, when Chessie had been indisposed and Mrs. Weasley had to go back to the rest of her family.

They were all nice, and Chessie just realized for the first time how in over her head she was. Looking back, when she was in Hogwarts, she would have never thought she'd be sitting at a table amicably (enough, for her) with two blood-traitor Gryffindors, a muggle werewolf, and a perky Hufflepuff.

And they still haven't kicked me out.

She opened and shut her mouth a few times, trying to find another reason not to let Rose go, then gave up, throwing her hands in the air.

"Fine," she said, and Rose cheered.