Hello again!
Here's a new chapter. It's a little shorter, but I hope you like it.
Thank you for the support!
Enjoy, and please don't forget to review! x

Marianne

wildest dreams
VOLUME II

CHAPTER SEVEN

The following day, I was feeling much better after taking my second dose of the antidote, and so Molly immediately sent me to work. I was excused from taking care of the Doxies upstairs with the others – thank Merlin –, but was asked, instead, to fix a grandfather clock that had the nasty habit to shot its heavy bolts at everyone who passed in front of it. I had no idea what to do with it – fortunately, Lupin gave me a hand as he was at headquarters for some business.

The next few days went by as if they hadn't even happened – Molly had been restless and we hadn't stopped cleaning the house from top to bottom. There were a moment good moments – the ghoul in the upstairs toilet Tonks found, for example, had provided amazingly good entertainment. We woke up early, and went to bed early too, exhausted from all the work. Even the twins were starting to fall behind on their mail business – and had had almost no time to work on the Snackboxes.

When I woke up on the morning of August 12th, the bedroom was empty and the sun filled the room. Frowning, I took a look at the clock next to me – it was nearly halfday! Letting out a shriek, I stood up so quickly I almost fell out of the bed and got dressed in a hurry – Molly would kill me for sleeping in so late, I was sure of it. Why nobody had woken me up before, I didn't know – but got the answer as soon as I entered the kitchen.

"I'm here! I'm he –" I cried out, the last word dying out in my throat.

Everyone was sitting around the table, almost in complete silence. Hermione looked pale, as if she was going to faint. Sirius held a newspaper in front of him, but I could see that his eyes weren't moving. My entrance didn't even disturb the mood – only the twins looked up. I frowned and sat down in front of them.

"What's going on?" I asked quietly.

"It's Harry," started Fred.

"He's bound to get back any minute now."

"Harry? What are you – Oh."

I suddenly remembered what day we were – Harry's hearing, of course! Everyone had probably been busy worrying about him, surely that was why nobody had thought of waking me up.

"Any news?"

The twins shook their heads, strokes of ginger hair falling in front of their eyes.

"Your shirt's upside down."

I looked down – George was right. Blushing slightly, I ran to the bathroom and made sure the colorful logo of the Weird Sisters was in the right place.

I bit my lip, taking a small breath. Harry would be fine, I was sure of it – but still, I couldn't help but start to worry a little. What if he couldn't go back to Hogwarts? The thought made me shiver. I couldn't imagine not going back – it would break my heart. Unable to stand still, I went into the kitchen to get some breakfast. Molly was there, already busy preparing lunch.

"Hello, Molly."

She jumped a little at my words – I gave her a soft smile.

"Addy, you're up."

"Yeah – sorry I slept in."

"It's all right, dear. Everyone has their day off, anyway… I thought you needed the rest…"

"Thank you, Molly. Need a hand?"

"No, no, no, I'm fine. You should get some breakfast. I think there's still some porridge left…"

I nodded, walking to the pot she was pointing. I heated myself a bowl with a flick of my wand, and set for the kitchen. As I entered, everyone suddenly got up from their seats – the sudden move and collective 'Harry!' nearly made me drop my bowl. I turned to the other door – Harry had just come in, followed by Arthur.

"How did it go?" asked Hermione, her voice a few pitches higher than usual.

But I had already guessed the answer – it was obvious, from the grin on Harry's face.

"Cleared of all charges," he said.

There was a collective sigh of relief, followed by shouts of glee and even some clapping. Ron threw his fist high in the air.

"I knew it! You always get away with stuff!"

Smiling, I was about to eat a spoon of my porridge when Fred's hand grabbed my wrist.

"He got off, he got off" he started to chant, pulling me towards so I would join him.

"I'm eating!" I cried out.

"Who cares!" he replied, grabbing my bowl and almost throwing it on the table.

I shook my head, but was way too happy to really care – and joined him, George and Ginny into some sort of odd celebration. We danced around the table, singing for Harry's victory.

"He got off, he got off, he got off…"

"That's enough, settle down!" said Arthur.

He seemed like he wanted to talk to Sirius – but he was smiling, so we kept going. I had George on one side of me and Ginny on the others, our arms locked as we danced and chanted even louder.

"He got off, he got off, he got off..."

"Be quiet, you four!"

But we didn't care – I was so happy. I was happy for Harry, and to be here with my best friends in the whole world, and we would go back to Hogwarts soon. For a moment, I couldn't care less about dangerous weapons, venomous bites or even my parents – I only enjoyed the moment.

Even when Molly finally made us stop – threatening to lock us up in our rooms – I couldn't shake away the feeling of glee that was overwhelming me. And it seemed like it was all over the house, too – the atmosphere had never been so light, so cheerful. I almost didn't even care about cleaning dusty cupboards and greasy cutlery anymore. Letters seemed to be arriving from everywhere – I got one from Angelina, who was on vacation in Spain with her parents, one from Oliver, and one from my uncle, telling me they were almost done with recording their new album already, and sending me a sample of one song. We played it at dinner that night – even Molly ended up dancing.

Exactly a week before our return to Hogwarts, I was sitting in the twins' room, replying to Angelina's letter while they worked on the Snackboxes.

"Blimey, Addy, are you sure you're not writing an essay?" said Fred as he eyed my already-filled parchment.

"I haven't seen her all summer," I said, still focused on my letter. "I have a lot of things to tell her."

"You're going to see her in two weeks, can't it wait?"

"No, it can't."

I looked up as he sighed, shaking his head. It was true, Angelina and me talked about a lot of things over our letters – but there was one thing she hadn't told me anything about.

"Fred? Have you written at all to Angie this summer?" I asked him.

Fred didn't reply – I narrowed my eyes at him.

"You didn't, didn't you?"

Fred let out an annoyed sigh.

"I'm not good with letters!"

"Says the bloke who runs an order-by-mail business!"

"That's not the same thing –"

"She's supposed to be your girlfriend, you prat! If George didn't write to me all summer, I would kill him. Physically kill him."

George let out a chuckle, looking up from his cauldron – I shot him a dark look.

"Oh, she's serious," he muttered.

"Of course I'm serious!" I hissed. "How d'you reckon she's feeling right now, Fred?"

"She hasn't written to me either!" he replied.

"Don't be such a baby! That's because she was waiting for you to write first!"

"Why should I be the one to write first ? Why do we always have to do things first?"

"He's got a point," said George.

I glared at him – I was quite annoyed, almost angry, and he must have seen it on my face because he quickly continued.

"Don't look at me like that! It's true. We're always expected to do the first move."

"Yeah, why shouldn't it be the girl, just for once?"

"Because we're – we're shy!"

Fred snickered.

"Angelina's a lot of things, but she's not shy. And you're not either."

I rolled my eyes at him.

"A lot of girls are! And I don't know, maybe we're not confident enough! You boys can be so…so..."

The twins both arched an eyebrow at the same time.

"Well, you're boys!" I finally sighed, exasperated.

"Yeah, that explains it," said Fred sarcastically.

I glared at him, and wanted to convince him to write to Angelina when the cauldron that was sitting between the two of them suddenly made a weird bubbling noise.

"Oh! It's ready."

I stared attentively as the twins got to work. As Fred lifted the cauldron from its spot on the heater, George grabbed the tray and put it on the floor next to them. Fred then carefully poured the pink substance in the tray and took out his wand.

"Looks good," said George.

Fred then muttered a spell that made the liquid substance slowly turn solid. Soon enough, we were looking at approximately twenty small pink pieces of what looked like candy.

"So that's the antidote?" I asked.

The twins nodded.

"Now we need to see if it works as well as we want it," said Fred with a grin.

George was already leaning under the bed, grabbing a small box. It contained the same looking candy as the one they had just made – only those were a bright blue. He looked at them for a few seconds, before looking up at his brother.

"It's your turn, mate," said Fred.

George sighed deeply, took one of the blue candy and was about to swallow it when I cried out.

"Wait!"

He stopped – giving me a questioning look. I stared back with wide eyes.

"I just – what's going to happen, exactly?"

"He's going to faint," replied Fred matter-of-factly.

"Okay. Then what?"

"Then what?"

"Well, what? How's he going to wake up? He can't take the antidote if he's unconscious!"

The twins grimaced.

"Yeah, that's the tricky part about Fainting Fancies. You've got to have an accomplice to give you the antidote – or it'll be hours before you wake up."

"Couldn't you incorporate the antidote in the candy so the person wakes up after, what, half an hour?"

"We tried," sighed Fred.

"We'll get there," added George. "But for now, that's as good as it gets."

"Okay. That's okay. Sorry. Go on."

The blue candy was less than one inch away from his tongue when I stopped him again.

"Wait!"

"What is it this time ?" sighed Fred in annoyance.

"I was just thinking – maybe you should sit on the bed? So that when you faint, you fall on the bed, not on the floor?"

There was a short silence as we all stared at each other.

"Yeah, good call," nodded George.

"Y'know, Addy, sometimes I reckon you ought to be in Ravenclaw," added Fred.

I smiled faintly, looking at George as he went to sit on the bed. My heart was beating fast as he finally swallowed the blue candy. He gave me a small smile, and half a second later, his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed on the bed, who let out a small creaking noise.

"Merlin," I muttered.

I quickly stood up, making my way next to George. He simply looked like he was asleep – but when Fred gave him a smack on the cheek, he didn't budge.

"There's no need to hit him!" I cried out.

"What?" he replied innocently, but he was grinning.

He stopped as we both heard the sound of footfalls on the stairs. Fred's eyes widened.

"Mum!"

I felt the blood drain out of my face – if Molly found George unconscious on his bed…

"What do we do?!" I hissed.

Fred shrugged, eyes wide.

"I don't know!"

We stared at each other in panic as the sound of the steps drew closer.

"Bollocks! All right, just – just hide the cauldron!" I said.

As Fred pushed everything under the bed, as they usually did, I turned to George. Think, think, think… I know!

I grabbed George's shoulder, and turned him on his side – facing the window, his back to the door. Then I took the blanket at the end of the bed and threw it on him. Now, he looked like he was sleeping.

"She's here!" I heard Fred say.

We jumped on the other bed – I grabbed my letter to Angelina and tried to take a relaxed position – just as the door opened.

"… Just wanted to get your laundry, dears – oh!"

I glanced up at Molly, heart racing.

"Is he asleep?" she asked, pointing at George.

I smiled nervously.

"He is," I replied. "He was really tired, you know, from the…"

"Cleaning," added Fred quickly, sensing my hesitation.

"Yeah, the cleaning," I nodded.

Molly stared at us for a second – and I thought she didn't believe us. But then, her shoulders relaxed.

"Oh, very well, let's not wake him."

We nodded frenetically, and Fred gave her the laundry bag in the corner of the room.

"Cheers, Mum."

She smiled, and turned to the door. I was about to sigh in relief when she turned around again – my breath caught in my throat.

"What are you two doing?" she asked, frowning.

"Writing a letter," answered Fred.

He lied with such ease – I was glad to have him by my side sometimes.

"Oh, to who?"

"Angelina."

"That lovely girl. Say hi to her from me, will you?"

I smiled, nodding. When the door finally closed behind Molly, I let out a big sigh of relief.

"That was close!"

"Na, she didn't suspect a thing," said Fred, shrugging.

"I wouldn't be so sure. Let's wake him up, in case she comes back with more questions."

We hurried to George – and Fred shoved a pink candy into his mouth without hesitation. I stroked George's hair, waiting for him to wake up. It took about a minute, but then his eyes fluttered open and he sat up straight in the bed, not looking like he had been unconscious at all.

"Thank Merlin," I muttered, hugging him tight.

"Why, hello," he said with a smirk.

"Well, the antidote works," sighed Fred, sitting down on the bed.

There was a short silence, as George looked at both of us.

"Why are you two out of breath?" he asked, frowning, and I couldn't help but burst out laughing.