A steady flow of news in the form of scribbled notes from George followed the next day, even if it was much the same, he was all right and starting to bug the Healers. Both Nox and Fred calmed at this, knowing the third corner of their company was well on his way to join them again. Molly seemed to be on a baking frenzy and Nox politely excused herself to go out, saying she had some work to do. Fred found her on the front step an hour later, hunched over her notepad and chewing on the pen, looking out over the yard without seeming to see it.
"You really shouldn't let the chickens walk all over your notes," he commented, peering over her shoulder at the scrawling.
"Huh? Sod off," she answered, still not seeming to notice him fully.
"Witty retort, George taught you that?" he asked, sitting down beside her instead.
"This?" She said absently, indicating the notebook and the page which seemed to display some sort of raggedy timeline. "No, just my notes."
"You have the worst handwriting ever, I can't make out a single letter! And that's saying something," he told her mock-gravely.
"You're not supposed to," she explained in a tone as if he was five years old, and slow to boot. "It's really quite simple, every letter is mirrored and you read every other line from left to right, the others right to left."
"And you would do that because...?"
"Because I like to keep my notes to myself," she said and slammed the small pad closed as he began shooting interested glances at it.
"You just raised your paranoid level from absurd to obscure," he informed her and jumped to his feet again. "Come, Mum's dying for you to taste her apple pie!"
"Apple? Ugh!" She had hoped she wouldn't see another apple or apple-related dish for half a century, but obediently followed him into the kitchen, where Molly presented her with a plate of pie, complete with whipped cream and vanilla sauce, refusing to hear any polite objections of how Nox was still stuffed after lunch.
Forcing down a few bits of the pie, but mostly just moving it around on the plate with the small fork, Nox continued her train of thought, one hand absently on the pocket with her notepad in it, as if the knowledge that the words were there was a comfort. Fred went around the kitchen slowly, inspecting what his mother had baked so far and trying to smell it. Suddenly the flames in the fireplace turned green for a moment and Nox looked up to see a tall, redheaded man, doubtless another one of the twins' close relatives.
"Hi Mum, Fred," the man muttered, balancing the books in his arms better before dumping them on the table and taking a seat.
"Percy, good to see you in such a corking condition," Fred said flatly, having noticed the title on one of the thicker books his brother had brought. "Werewolves then and now? Why?"
"Because of G-George," Percy told them, accepting an egg custard from Molly as she fussed gently over his hair before going back to the batter she was mixing. "I've been at the Ministry and Hogwarts to find out more – more –" he didn't manage to stifle the jaw-cracking yawn "– about how we'll make it b-best for him and I think I found a recipe with some tweaks to the Wolfsbane potion." He took off his glasses to rub his eyes and shook the rather greasy fringe away from his forehead before putting the glasses on again.
"Tweaks? What for?" Fred said, crossing his arms over his chest. "The potion is made for werewolves, you know."
"Yes, but it's not flawless as it is," Percy said, beginning to gather the loose sheets of paper producing between the books in the stack.
"Potion for what?" Nox asked, being fed up with people talking over her head about things she didn't understand a word of. Percy's bloodshot eyes snapped to her, then to Fred, and settled on her with a soft warning against the ghost she didn't like.
"The Wolfbane Potion," Percy began in a lecturing tone, seeming to enjoy himself in the moment, "was invented by Damocles in 1987 and relieves, but do not cure, the effects of the full moon on a werewolf. The main ingredient is –"
"Oh, fascinating, Perce," Fred cut him off with. "George will keep his mind, but still look like a nasty beast," he told Nox shortly.
"Not much out of the ordinary, then," she concluded, seeing Molly having taken to turn the batter a bit more forcefully than strictly necessary.
"Yes, but it do-doesn't always work," Percy said, handing her a news-clipping. She skimmed through it fast, the story was of a werewolf that had taken the wolfsbane potion, then 'lost control', as it so delicately said, and killed his fiancé and her child. "Damocles himself haven't been working on perfecting it, but someone else did." Percy took a book out from the middle of the stack and opened it, showing the page to Fred and Nox.
"Crikey with a cherry on top!" Fred exclaimed and slapped his forehead. "You're not telling me old grease-beak's gonna be of some help to us now?"
"Yes, I am!" Percy snapped as Nox pulled the book a bit closer to herself to have a better look at the picture of the sallow-faced man with a hooked nose and cold, black eyes.
"Severus Snape, Potions," she read the top line out loud. She thought the photo blinked at her, but pushed it out of her mind as a trick of the light.
"Worst professor we ever had," Fred told her with a theatrical shudder. "If I didn't know better, I'd say he had something against us."
"He was still one of the best Potions Masters," Percy said and yawned again, making a feeble attempt at covering his mouth with his hand. "He didn't j-just brew the potion for Mr. Lupin, he perfected it." He flipped the page over to show the picture of the then-Defence Against the Dark Arts professor with another yawn. "I've got permission to borrow some of his personal notes from the Headmistress." He indicated a small notebook bound in black leather.
"Typical Perce, asking permission," Fred muttered in Nox's ear. "If you're just borrowing, why ask?"
"So this'll help George?" she asked Percy and tried waving Fred's icy tickling fingers away from her neck.
"Ye– ye– yes!" Percy forced through another yawn.
"Dear, go take a nap," Molly told him, appearing at his side and dusting off the corner of his robe.
"No, I'm fine," he insisted and shook his head like a dog ridding its ears for water.
"Percy, you look awful, go lie down on the couch while I start dinner," Molly continued and viewed him critically. Nox silently agreed with her, Percy's short hair stood on end in the back as if he had ran his hands through it several times and his eyes were a delicate red around the blue, not to mention the dark shadows underneath.
"Okay, a small nap," he agreed and pushed the chair back to get up, leaving the egg custard untouched. Molly patted his back affectionately as he dragged his feet towards the sitting room, then she went on with the biscuits she had been in the process of making.
"D'you need any help with dinner?" Nox blurted, feeling she could at least occupy her time with something useful, as long as she got careful instructions.
"No," Molly said warmly with a knowing gleam in her eyes, "it won't be possible to wake him again for at least two, maybe three hours." Nox didn't argue with this, but flipped through the first pages of the book until she reached the title page.
"Hogwarts, yearbook 1993-1994?" she said, looking at Fred for an explanation.
"Yeah, I guess that's when Loony Lupin was teaching," he answered with a shrug.
"And?" She raised her eyebrows at him.
"And what?"
"And what it the name of nelly puffs are Hogwarts?" she asked loudly.
"Our old school, duh," he answered as if he had just told her the sky was blue.
"Hogwarts," she repeated sceptically. "What, Pigfarts was already taken?"
"Hey, don't insult good, old Hoggy-warts here, now," he said, almost sounding hurt. "Best school for magical kiddos there is. Right, Mum?"
"Of course," Molly answered absently with her nose down in a cook book.
"So you went there and learned to pull rabbits out of top hats," she muttered, flipping through the pages fast.
"No, that we had to figure out on our own," he said proudly. "If you're trying to find a picture of me, start by looking for fifth year Gryffindors."
She didn't ask, just scanned the top of the pages for any Gs before coming to a stop midway through the book. The page showed a gang of seven teenagers, all dressed up in some sort of scarlet sport uniforms. The twins weren't hard to recognise with their flaming hair and freckles, the faces were still the same, even if they were more boyish and their shoulders hadn't filled quite out to their adult width. Each of them held a bat, which they swung over the heads of their team mates every now and then with a laugh, and among all the red their eyes seemed clear blue with a heavy glint of mischief. The rest of the team seemed to accept their attitude and even adopt some of it, two of the three girls glanced over at them where they were positioned on each side of the group quite frequently in fact.
"Who's who?" Nox asked after reading the names under the photo, having passed the fact that the people in the frame was moving, she had seen more unsettling things as of late.
"That's Wood," Fred said, pointing a translucent finger at the brunette with a hard seriousness to his homely face, standing in the middle, "Katie, Angelina and Alicia" – the two first were now busy checking out each of the twins again – "And Harry. If you ever wanna get on Charlie's nerves, tell him that oink is a better Seeker than him."
"Sure," Nox answered dubiously.
"Sorry, forgot you detest fun," Fred said and turned back to the picture. "As for who's me and who's George, take a guess."
"That's George," Nox said half-heartedly and pointed to the twin on the right.
"You could be right," Fred agreed. "But you're not. Can't you see that's me?"
"You're like two drops of water!" she objected. "Only reason I can tell you apart now is that I can see through you!" There had been moments, in certain lights, where she had seen just how much the twins had been alike when they were both alive, and the photograph didn't dampen her conviction.
Fred was quite for a moment, then slapped the book close and pulled the stack of papers closer to them with a loud "Let's see what Perce have dug up, then!"
–
Yes, Percy had done a good research and the potion both looked and smelled as it should, there was no need for nerves now.