Hello all! Thank you again for continuing to read this story - it means a lot that many people enjoy ths story of mine. Although, if it's not too much to ask, I would like it if more of you can review coz I would love to know your thoughts on this fan fiction :) Thank you, and enjoy :)

{The Heart of a Weasley}{Chapter Four}{Diagon Alley}

Grabbing those few extra hours of sleep was the best feeling, as I woke feeling fresh and full of energy. I wasn't the only one to feel like this as Rose bounced out of bed and was ready within fifteen minutes to go shopping in Diagon Alley. I wasn't too long after.
"Come on, you guys, I wanna go shopping!" Rose said excitedly, when she found that Fred and George were still lounging on the sofa, both half asleep. I stood in the doorway amused as I watched Rose impatiently tug on their arms. "Hurry up!" Rose really did like her shopping.
The twins both breathed sighs of defeat, and heaved themselves off the sofa. "Please don't go into every single shop like you do most of the time." Fred complained, grabbing his wallet from the table.
Rose folded her arms, insulted. "I don't do that."
"Yes you do." Fred, George and I all said together.
She looked at each of us, and then just made a 'humph' noise, and walked out of the room, but we were used to this; we got the same reaction every year. Once we're in Diagon Alley, she perks up immediately. I just grinned at the boys, and let out a laugh, and followed Rose into the kitchen, where we said our goodbyes to Mrs Weasley. Mr Weasley had already gone off to work, and the other four were in the garden, probably soaking up the lovely weather we were having today.

Rose, George, Fred, and I used floo powder to travel to Diagon Alley, although it's not my favourite form of travel. A broomstick is my favourite by far. But sadly, I can only do that on the Quidditch Pitch at Hogwarts. Speaking of which, I want to have a good look in Quality Quidditch Supplies.
"Right, I need to get…" Rose said, pulling the list out of her bag. "…The Standard Book of Spells, Advanced Potion-Making, Advanced Rune Translation, and Confronting the Faceless. I got the others a few weeks ago."
"We haven't got any of our books yet." George announced, as we weaved our way through all the witches and wizards that were crowded down Diagon Alley.
"Blimey, popular day to come shopping." We were in a massive traffic jam. "Good choice, girls." Fred added sarcastically.
A man then bumped into me, making no move to stop or apologize. I turned round, whilst rubbing my arm, to get a look at him, but the crowd had already swallowed him up. Fred and George were yelling after him, evidently not happy with him not apologizing. "Geez, some people."
"A lot of people are still in an uproar, or still wary, about what happened at the World Cup." Rose said. "But there's no need for behaviour like that."
We decided to try to be as quick as possible today with buying the rest of the things we needed for our sixth year at Hogwarts, but we could tell that we were going to be here for a good few hours at least. We started with the second-hand robe shop. Fred and George had grown a few inches over the summer, so their robes looked ridiculous on them now. Rose offered to buy them new robes, as she was financially comfortable and was very caring and thoughtful, but the twins wouldn't have it. I hope that it wasn't a pride thing as we've never viewed them as 'poor'.
After buying their new shirts, trousers, jumpers, and cloaks, we went to Eeylops Owl Emporium, where I bought some food for Tierney, the boys were looking at a cage full of mice and rats (not really sure why), and Rose was stroking some kittens near the back of the store. Once paid, I went over to Rose, who just couldn't tear herself away from the purring kittens. I don't blame her really.
"Alex, I want them all! They're all adorable!" Rose was speaking in an unusually high pitched, child-like voice.
"I know, they're so cute! I could just cuddle you all day!" I replied, mimicking Rose's voice naturally, picking up one of the kittens and hugging her to me. The boys then came over.
"Honestly, what is it with girls and kittens?"
"And the high pitched voices?"
I looked up at them, pouting in a 'but they're so sweet!' way. "How can you not fall in love with them on sight?" I held one of the kittens up to my face, and she meowed and put her paws on my face gently, making me giggle. I saw the boys roll their eyes.

Fred and George eventually had to physically pull us out of the shop, otherwise Rose and I could have sat there all day stroking those kittens. No wonder Rose chose to take a cat to Hogwarts rather than an owl or a toad.
"Right, I'm gonna head to Madame Malkins. I need some new robes for next year as mine, somehow, got destroyed last year…" I looked up at the twins, with a glint in my eye. They both avoided my eyes, but judging by the looks on their faces, they know they're guilty. It was about two weeks before the end of term, and I had, reluctantly, been helping Fred and George on one of their 'projects'. Little did any of us know that the potion would explode, and of course land all over me rather than them. I had to be sent to the hospital wing as boils and burns started erupting all over me, and I had to lie to Madam Pomfrey about what had happened, and told her that one of my own potions in class went wrong. I knew after that to never help Fred and George with their inventions, unless I knew one hundred percent that it was safe.
The others headed to Quality Quidditch Supplies, knowing that they were going to be in there for a while, whilst I went into Madame Malkins. Madame Malkin was behind the counter, and she smiled at me once I entered. "Good afternoon, dear. Here for new Hufflepuff robes?" She always remembered her regular customers.
"Hello, Madame. Yes, I am. My other ones are ruined."
"Right through here, there's another girl being fitted at the moment."
"Okay great, thank you."
I headed through the door to the back of the shop, and I immediately recognised the girl standing on the footstool.
"Eleanor!" I greeted with a smile, going over to hug her while the second witch was just sorting out the length of the robes. "How are you?" I went and stood on the footstool next to her, while Madame Malkin pulled a robe over my head. Eleanor was one of my close friends from school. She's in the same year, and in Ravenclaw.
"I'm really good, thank you! You?"
"Yeah, great, thanks. What've you been up to over the summer?"
"Not much really. Just been relaxing with my family. It's hard staying connected with the Magical world, having muggles parents and all. But I heard about the news of the World Cup! Dreadful, isn't it?"
"Yeah definitely. I went with the Weasley's, and just being in the middle of everything was scary. But thankful, I don't think many people were harmed."
"That's good that you're all okay. I just hope there's not another event like this. But how was your summer? Besides the World Cup."
"I went to California with my dad." I smiled over at her.
"Wow, alright for some!" We laughed.
"Right, that's you all done, dear." The second witch said to Eleanor, and she stepped down from her footstool, thanking the woman.
"Where're you heading next?" I asked her, as I held out my arms for Madame Malkin to measure.
"I'm all done now, so gonna head back home. But I'll see you next week on Platform nine and three quarters?"
"Of course! Have a great week!"
"You too, bye!"
With a quick hug, she left. I followed shortly after with my new robes. I found Rose, Fred and George still in Quality Quidditch Supplies, all engrossed in looking at the shops' new collection.
"Hey guys." I greeted, and Rose then shoved a book under my nose, making me laugh at her eagerness.
"Look, look, look!" I read the title of the book. Beating the Bludgers – A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch.
"Ooh!" I took it off her. "This is the new book?" I started to flick through its pages.
"Yeah, I think it was released only a few days ago, which would explain why they're only two copies left on the shelf." She then grabbed one off the shelf for her. "Well, one now."
"This is definitely worth getting. It'll help us bump up our chances to win the Quidditch Cup."
"That's never gonna happen." George commented, reading the book over my shoulder. Rose and I gave him dirty looks.
"Excuse me?" Rose added, staring him down.
"He's right, you know. Gryffindor clearly have the best team." Fred joined in.
I scoffed, looking back down at the book. "You're only jealous because we beat you last year." Rose said, and I looked at her, trying not to grin. We had never brought up that match before. Fred just grabbed her shoulders from behind and said,
"Lucky shot."
George followed him over to look at the broomsticks, but as they were both smiling, we knew that we hadn't hit a nerve. Rose and I just laughed.

We purchased our books half an hour later, and the four of us decided to get an ice cream. The weather was very warm today, so we thought a treat was in order.
"I think we need to brave it and go into Flourish and Blotts." Rose announced, after finishing her ice cream, and looking across the street. Through the windows, I could see that the shop was swarming.
"I think you're right. It's not going to calm down any time soon."
And so, we went into the shop, squeezing past people to get to the stacks that we wanted, which were near enough the same ones, as we were mostly taking the same NEWT classes this year and next. Rose had out her list, and was scanning the shelves, whereas I was getting distracted by looking at books that weren't on my list at all. Rose then came to stand by me again and was looking at the top shelf.
"Who decided that making shelves as high as the ceiling was a good idea?" I looked at her amused. She was above average in height, yet still inches shorter than Fred, George and I. They were inches over six feet, so they were our usual way of reaching things up high.
"Fred, George, you're wanted." I said, laughing into the book I had grabbed off the shelf and started to read.
"That's always a pleasure to hear." Fred joked, slinging his arms around both mine and Rose's shoulders. George came up on Rose's other side, a few books under his arms already. Rose lightly elbowed Fred at his comment, and then indicated to one of the top shelves.
"You know you love me and want to get down a copy of Advanced Rune Translation for me." She grinned up at Fred and George.
"Well, I don't know. How much do you love us?" George said.
Rose looked at both of them, and then crossed her arms, although a smile was tugging at her lips. "Are we really gonna do this again?"
Fred and George have a habit of using their height to advantage most of the time when it involves Rose and I needing their help.
"Guys, just give her the damn book." I said, grinning. "Besides, you guys need them as well. Oh, and so do I."
They proceeded to tease us for a bit, but eventually gave in, and retrieved the books. We managed to work our way around the store, although slower than we would have liked, and left the store, after paying for our new books.

Literately just as we had stepped out of the store, we bumped into some familiar faces.
"Mum, dad!" Rose said, skipping forward to hug her parents, as well as her brother and sister. Fred, George, and I greeted them too.
"So what have you kids been up to? Got all your school supplies?" Diego, Rose's dad, asked us, putting his arm around his eldest daughter.
"Yeah I think we're just about finished. Bit of a hectic day really." I replied, smiling."I know what you mean; we didn't expect it to be this busy." Rose's mum Felicity said.
"We're about to go for a drink in the Leaky Cauldron. Did you wanna join us?" Jae asked.
We accepted their invitation and headed to the Leaky Cauldron, and managed to grab a big table for the eight of us.
During our pleasant afternoon drinks, we talked about the upcoming year, and how excited we were to be going back. Although I love being home for summer, I think I love Hogwarts just that little bit more because such crazy and unexpected things happen there every year, especially when you're best friends with the Weasley twins. They sure do make your life an adventure. I had always gotten along with the Knight's for as long as I can remember. Diego and Felicity treated me as their daughter, and regularly had me over to stay at theirs. They also adored the twins, as Jae gets on with them really well and regularly messes around with them at school. They do share a dormitory and are in most of the same classes after all. Jae was like my big brother, and he is always there for me too. Rose and I do have a lot of fun competing with him at Quidditch, as he's a Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team and has been since his second year, just like Rose and I. Lilly on the other hand is the sweetest girl you will ever meet. She's fourteen, but it's hard not to view her as a much younger child, because of the charm that she has. She's incredibly intelligent, way beyond her years, and she and Ginny spend a lot of time together, as they're in the same year. So really, the Knight's and the Weasley's were practically one big family really. It was nice to have so many people in our lives that we could rely on.

For what felt like hours sitting in the Leaky Cauldron enjoying our chat, we decided that it was best to head back to the Burrow, as we had a long day tomorrow. We arranged to meet Lilly and Jae on Platform nine and three quarters tomorrow at around 10:45, so that gave us time to some empty compartments on the Hogwarts Express. When we got back to the Burrow, Mrs Weasley had laid out what looked like dresses on Fred and George's beds. Rose and I burst out laughing when the twins held each of the 'dresses' up to their bodies.
"What the-"
"Has she lost her mind?"
"Why would she give us dresses?"
"Fine we like to experiment with different things, but not as far as this!"
Rose and I were practically on the floor laughing. Rose managed to compose herself quicker than I could. "You do know that they're not actually dresses, right?" They both just looked at her blankly. "They're dress robes. You know, like formal robes for special occasions."
The twins didn't look any less horrified.
"'Formal robes for special occasions'?" They said together, clearly not liking the sound of that.
"Yeah, we have to have dress robes for this year." I said, finally stopping laughing. "Didn't you read your Hogwarts letters properly?"
"No."
Of course they didn't.
"So what's this special occasion then?" Fred asked, stuffing the dress robes into his trunk, not really caring about keeping it uncreased.
Rose shrugged. "I have no idea. It doesn't say on the letter. I can't wait to find out though! The chance to dress up all pretty and elegant. We don't get to do that often enough at Hogwarts."
The boys did not look happy at all.

For the next few hours, as Rose and I were all packed for the next school year, we were going around the house and helping anyone who hadn't finished, which was basically the boys. Afterwards, we were helping Mrs Weasley cook dinner, as the table was set for twelve people, as Percy and my dad were joining us tonight. There was a great atmosphere around the dinner table as everyone was looking forward to a new year at Hogwarts, and even though Percy was being quite boring with talking about Mr Crouch, he was outnumbered by a lot of people, so laughter was regular during dinner. After clearing up the kitchen, my dad and I said goodbye to each other, as I wouldn't see him for a long while. Mrs Weasley then ushered all us kids off to bed, as we had to be up at six tomorrow morning, so that we weren't all in a mad rush with the number of people in the house, as we had to get to Kings Cross for the Hogwarts Express at eleven in the morning. Fred and George, once again, gave up their beds for Rose and I, and all four of us were talking for a while before we gradually fell silent, giving into the tiredness and falling asleep.