Chapter 1: Close Encounters

He remembered the first day he saw her like it was yesterday. A crispness hung in the cool breeze, which smelled faintly of freshly cut grass and pipe tobacco, as he made his way through the bustling streets, navigating his way in and out of the various shops that held the school supplies his family could barely afford with their meager income. His younger siblings whined indistinctly behind him, their measly attempts at persuading their parents to splurge a little on this or that fading as he and his brother swam through the crowd towards their destination. And just when it seemed like they would never reach it before their mother realized they were missing, it was there. Spread out in front of them like Christmas dinner was their glorious future: a vacant two-story building, complete with tattered storefront draperies and a white sign emblazoned with the two most glorious words they had ever seen-FOR SALE.

"What are you two gits starin' at?" Ron Weasley asked his older brothers.

He didn't really care either way what they were looking at, but it was either feign interest in whatever scheme they were currently plotting, or tag along with his mom and sister while Ginny sought out new dress robes on the off chance there'd be another school dance this term at Hogwarts. The mere thought of dress robes and school dances made Ron shudder, as he remembered with utter disgust how well the last dance had gone for him. Thankfully he had grown into the dress robes his brother Percy had worn when he was a sixth year, and therefore didn't have to suffer through the torment of having his mother fawn over how old he was getting, and how tall he was getting, and how handsome he was becoming before bursting into tears of joy that her youngest son was growing into a fine young man, as she was known to do as she reminisced about how fast the years were passing. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

"The future, little brother," Fred said , clapping Ron roughly on the back, dodging a playful shove in return as he nodded his head toward the old building, which to the naked eye seemed to have been condemned due to some sort of health code violation.

"What, you mean that old thing?" Ron scoffed, pointing at the dilapidated building. "The only future that rundown shack's got is the day it comes crashing down on the poor idiot who buys the place!" He paused looking from Fred, to George, and back again. "You didn't do what I think you did, did you?"

George grinned. "Not yet," he replied, draping an arm over Ron's shoulders.

"But soon," Fred finished, doing the same.

Ron shrugged them off. "Have you gone mental?" he asked. "What could you possibly see in that old dump, I mean besides your grave if mum ever found out that you even considered buying the place?"

Fred and George exchanged a look that only the two of them in their twinliness would ever understand before stating the obvious: "Opportunity." And there, just beyond George's left ear, Fred saw her, scurrying after a loose piece of paper across the street.

Her long golden-brown curls swirled around her face in the breeze as she chased the small slip of paper down the street, bumping into patrons as she passed, muttering apologies as she passed, determined to catch whatever it was. Fred grinned a little. Her movement through the crowd was awkward, yet strangely graceful, almost as if rehearsed like a dance. Forgetting his brothers, Fred pushed his way towards the sidewalk on the other side of the street, reaching the abandoned storefront he and George had been admiring just in time to snatch the piece of parchment out of the air, and collide with its owner, causing her to drop the bags she had been carrying. She let out a sigh of defeat and scrambled to gather her things. Fred, bending down to help her, handed her the items he had gathered, uncontrollably brushing a strand of hair out of her steel gray eyes, marveling at how silky it was and, shaking himself out of his day dream, held out the parchment.

"I think you dropped this," he said smoothly, his fingertips softly brushing hers as he handed over what appeared to be a shopping list.

She smiled softly. "Thanks," she said. Her voice was gentle, like music to Fred's ears. She held his gaze for a moment, as if trying to discern what he was thinking, and the next minute she was gone, lost among the sea of shoppers.

"Oy!" George called once he had spotted Fred, too late to have seen what his twin had hurried over to see. He and Ron made their way over to him, Ron still sputtering on about something that Fred was too distracted to overhear. There were a thousand questions running through his mind. Who was she? Where did she come from? Where was she going? Would he ever see her again? The sound of Ron's voice brought him back to reality once he and George were at his side.

"All I'm saying," Ron continued, a little too loudly as the crowd around them had dispersed a bit. He looked into the dusty store window, struggling to hold back a sneeze "is that maybe you want to hold off a bit before..."

"Since when are you the voice of reason?" George asked, wiping the grime off of another pane of glass and peering inside. "Hermione rubbed off on you, has she?"

"No," Ron protested, his brow furrowing as he hurried to change the subject. "I mean look at the place! What could you possibly want with a place like this?"

"Like we said before," Fred said as a twinkle in the sidewalk caught his eye. He bent down and picked up a thin silver chain sporting a small charm in the shape of a sparrow, its wings outstretched as if it were soaring through the air "Opportunity." He smiled to himself, gingerly placing the necklace in his pocket and walked back through the crowd towards the dress robes shop, leaving his brothers perplexed behind him.