It's Christmas! Yay! And that means presants and more Weasley time. Sorry this update took so long, stuffs been going on. It was insane.
Katherine found herself awoken by a number of loud noises. The first of which was the door slamming against the wall, followed by Ginny's high pitched squeal of surprise, Tenebris hooting angrily, flapping wings and the twins loud shouts of surprise, and possibly pain. Katherine sat up in bed, wiping her eyes.
"Tenebris, come here," she mumbled, opening her eyes sleepily. Tenebris fluttered towards her and landed on her bed, hooting softly at her. She let everything come into focus and the first thing she noticed was Fred and George standing, rather disgruntled, in the bedroom door. Ginny was glaring at the from her place on her bed and her pillow was on the floor at their feet-presumably having been thrown across the room. There were also a few feather on the floor and the twins arms looked slightly scratched up.
"Merry Christmas?" She offered uncertainly, receiving glares from everyone in the room, she turned her attention on the twins, who seemed very upset at their failed wake up plans. "You scared him," she admonished, petting Tenebris.
"We scared him?" Fred snapped, "He just ruddy attacked us. We thought Ginny had cursed us with accidental magic or something!"
"You through the door open in the early hours of the morning," Katherine snapped back as she climbed out of bed, "He was trying to look out for me and Ginny."
Fred just gaped at her. She shook her head pulling on her slippers, the floor was cold. Ginny got up as well, looking rather excited now that her shock had worn off. Tenebris took up his regular Christmas position on Katherine's shoulder. She pet him again.
"Good boy, but you shouldn't attack the twins, they don't mean any harm," said twins shot her evils, which she ignored in favour of giving Tenebris and owl treat and pushing them out of the room, "C'mon you two. I'm sure your mum will be able to fix a few cuts in no time. Besides there're presents waiting."
This brought all the Weasleys back to attention and the three siblings raced down the stairs, followed-at a much slower pace-by Katherine. She came downstairs in time to see Mrs Weasley reprimanding the twins for their less then peaceful wake up.
"Merry Christmas!" Was Charlie's bright greeting, as he grinned widely at her, "So, did the twins walk in on you changing or something?"
"No," Katherine laughed, receiving glares from Fred and George, "They startled Tenebris." She gestured at Tenebris sitting on her shoulder. He was watching everyone warily but was peacefully remaining on her shoulder. "He gets a bit defensive around new people. Anyway, Merry Christmas!"
Charlie, ever the animal lover, took an immediate interest in Tenebris. The two proceeded to have an odd staring contest, to the amusement of the twins, who now seemed over their attack.
"Okay everyone, time for presents," Mrs Weasley announced after everyone had said 'Merry Christmas' numerous times. Everyone received a Weasley sweater, pulling them on immediately as it was a normal event for them. Katherine opened her present with some awe, she hadn't really been expecting it. Her sweater was Gryffindor red with gold sparks, like those from a wand. She absolutely adored it.
"Thank you Mrs Weasley!" she exclaimed, enveloping the rather surprised Mrs Weasley in a large hug. She quickly pulled the sweater on, ignoring Mrs Weasley's mumbled 'you're welcome' and the slight blush. The twins chuckled at her antics, as did Charlie who was currently examining Tenebris, who had finally moved from Katherine's shoulder and allowed Charlie to measure his wingspan, etc. This was all done much to the amusement of Katherine and the other Weasley's, though for different reasons. The Weasley's were just entertained by their brother's antics, Katherine more entertained by the fact that Tenebris may as well have been showing off.
"Oh, you two!" she suddenly announced, turning to the twins, "I've got your present! I think it's brilliant!" Fred and George watched her pull two parcels out of hiding, a large grin plastered on her face. "Be gentle with them, they are fragile. You have to take more care than you do with some of your others things."
Both boys took their boxes rather gingerly after that warning and Katherine shook her head. With the paper off, the both pulled the lids off two flat boxes to find two practically identical silver mirrors. Katherine couldn't help but laugh at their confused expressions as they both examined their 'present'.
"You sure you gave us the right thing Katherine?" Fred asked uncertainly, "I mean, we can be conceited-"
"-but don't you think this is taking it a little far?" George finished, placing his mirror back in its box.
"No way," Katherine replied with a laugh, "If they were just normal mirrors you two would probably break them before we got back to school." This did nothing but make the twins more confused. "They're two way mirrors."
Fred and George stared at her for a moment. Their eyes flickered to the mirrors them back to her a few times.
"Are you serious?" Fred asked, clear awe in his voice, "Two way mirrors as in, the ones you can use to talk to each other in different places?"
"The very same," Katherine answered, smiling again, "Except they're really more like three way mirrors. I took the liberty of getting myself one as well."
"This is excellent," Fred whopped, catching Katherine in a hug, which was fast joined by George, "Now we can talk anywhere!"
"Don't worry," George murmured, so only she could hear, "We didn't forget your present. It's just hard to wrap so you'll have to wait till latter."
"That's ok, I have to mail Theodore anyway," She said with a smile, "Charlie I need my owl back."
Charlie complained a little, Tenebris was a rare type of owl after all, however the argument ended when Tenebris joined the fray and, gently (or at least more so than he had been with the twins) bit Charlie's finger. Katherine took him upstairs and gave him Theodore's present to carry (mostly joke products and things she thought it'd be hard for him to get with their father watching). When she came back downstairs she had her arms full of things, which she laid out on the table.
She proceeded to give all the Weasleys presents.
Bill, Ron and Ginny received a handful of chocolate frogs and a box Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans each, Percy got some 'advanced reading', Charlie got a book on rare magical creatures, and Mr and Mrs Weasley were given some more refined chocolates as well as chocolate cauldrons, which contained fire whiskey. Fred and George seemed rather annoyed by all this, not because they weren't getting any but because they'd missed it ("How did you buy all this without us seeing anything?").
"No you can't give it back," Katherine said with a frown, she knew of the Weasleys financial status and had learnt of their dislike for 'charity', but she refused, point blank, to take her presents back, "First of all, they're presents, I can't take back presents, secondly, I wouldn't know what to do with it all anyway, and thirdly," now she turned to Mr and Mrs Weasley, "If you return yours you're supplying a minor with alcohol."
Fred and George laughed at this, not having said anything after recognising the face they'd dubbed, Katherine's 'What-I-say-goes-because-I-have-logic-and-if-you-disagree-I-will-get-you' face. It always reminded them of the Cockroach Cluster incident, and they were keen to avoid that again.
"Alright dear," Mrs Weasley said finally, "But you really didn't need to."
"I know," Katherine replied with a gentle smile, "I wanted to. Besides, your letting me stay with you, it's the least I could do. Plus I used Christmas presents as an excuse to buy myself sweets."
This brought some more laughter and everyone continued chatting away happily.
A little later in the day Katherine, Fred and George were sitting in the boys' room laughing about prank ideas. Everyone was doing their own thing now, which, for a few people, turned out to be reading.
"So when do I get my present?" Katherine asked.
"We could probably go now," Fred offered, looking out the window for some reason.
"Or very soon at least," George corrected, he pointed out the window to a small black figure slowly getting closer.
"Tenebris is back!" Katherine exclaimed, and Tenebris flew through the window a moment later. He immediately started drinking from one of the twins cups of water.
"You got more presents?" Fred asked as Katherine took two parcels from Tenebris.
"Yeah," she replied, examining the boxes, "This ones from my father." She ripped the paper off without a second thought. "An advanced potions book, isn't that a surprise?"
She tossed the book, gently, onto Fred's bed before moving to the other parcel. She tore the paper off this one to reveal, another book. She inspected in quietly until Fred and George pulled it from her grip.
"It's in gibberish," Fred informed her, sounding very confused as he flicked through the pages.
"What's your brother expecting you to do with this?" George asked, equally as confused.
"It'd make a good paper weight," Fred commented seriously. Katherine finally gave up and burst out laughing.
"It's not gibberish," she gasped out between laughs, "It's German." The twins stared at Katherine, then at the book, at each other and, finally, back at Katherine.
"You can read German?" They asked together. Katherine just laughed a bit more.
"Ich spreche es auch," she informed them, then at their blank expressions, "I can speak it too."
"Why were we not informed of this?" Fred demanded, after a moment of shocked silence.
"You didn't ask," Katherine replied with a shrug, "I can read and speak a range of languages, my father thought it would be useful. Here you did a good job." She gave Tenebris an owl treat, he hooted tiredly as she congratulated him before flying off to sleep in Ginny's room. Fred and George continued to stare at her, until she turned around with a raised eyebrow.
"Ok, time for our present!" George announced, moving towards the door, "Let's go!"
Fred nodded, looking excited, the three made their way downstairs. Mrs Weasley watched her sons guide Katherine outside with a suspicious look before she smiled and turned away. Katherine ran with the twins down the hill, just a step behind them so she could follow them.
"Where are we going?" she asked after a moment.
"Beside the point!" Fred announced, before he pulled what looked like a money bag from his pocket, "Here, you're going to want this." Katherine looked at the bag. It was a money bag, in fact it was her money bag, the one she'd taken to Diagon Alley. She looked up from it to the twins, feeling very confused.
"You remember when we were talking about things we used to do before Hogwarts?" George asked. Katherine nodded uncertainly, she remembered the random conversation on one of the evenings Fred and George refused to go to bed, which happened a lot and often involved keeping Katherine up as well.
"Well, you told us your mum used to take you to muggle villages," George continued.
"So we thought you'd like to go again," Fred finished, pulling Katherine to the top of another hill. She just gaped at the small muggle town. She'd known there was one nearby, but she'd never expected to visit it.
"We nicked your coin bag before we left Diagon Alley," Fred told her, sounding proud.
"Then we converted everything you had left in their to muggle currency in Gingots right before we left," George explained. Katherine gaped a moment longer before she spun around and enveloped the twins in a tight hug. Whatever she'd been expecting, this wasn't it but she was so happy with this. They could not have gotten her a better present. She did really miss visiting muggle towns with her mum, mostly because it was a nice solid memory.
"C'mon, let's go!" She exclaimed happily, rushing down the hill. They were all dressed in muggle attire anyway, mainly just because they could. The only thing that made them look odd would be the Christmas hats they were wearing, but that was easily explained away as over excited eleven year olds. Fred and George rushed after her, laughing at her excited face. They silently agreed that she looked like a kid in a candy store, which was ironic as she immediately dashed into the nearest sweet shop.
Katherine had bags full of muggle toys and lollies. None of which the twins would have bought for her had they come alone. They'd also watched 'The Wizard of Oz' to everyone's amusement. They were preparing to leave when Katherine suddenly stopped them, laughing loudly.
"Guys a magician!" She exclaimed, pointing at a funny dressed muggle man who was collecting a crowd. Fred and George watched confusedly as he produced a bunch of roses from thin air.
"How can he do that?" Fred asked, as the man handed off the flowers to produce a deck of cards, "That goes against the statute of secrecy."
"And almost every other law we have in place involving muggles," George added, staring unashamedly at the man. Katherine laughed at their discussion. She grabbed Fred's jacket and tugged him closer.
"It's not real magic, but it's impressive, isn't it?" Katherine asked, watching gleefully. Fred and George both gave her odd looks but continued to watch the magician none the less. A moment later he came up to Fred and told him to pick a card. Sceptically he did so, much to Katherine's amusement. They watched him flash the cards around a bit, Fred gave his back and they watched as he flicked the cards around a bit more before pulling one out.
"Is this your card?" He asked Fred, who looked doubtfully at the card. His doubt was quickly replaced with confusion.
"Yes," he answered. The crowd clapped, some of them laughed. Fred, George and Katherine moved away from the crowd the twins talking confusedly.
"So, if there is no real magic, how does he do that?"
"I don't understand it at all."
"Its muggle magic," Katherine explained, "It's all illusions, smoke and mirrors. It's not real magic it's more like trickery, people simply call it magic for their own entertainment."
"If you say so," said George with a shrug. The group made their way back towards the Burrow, checking that Mrs Weasley wasn't about when they did get there because the twins hadn't gotten permission to wander around the muggle village. They crept back up to the boys' room, where Katherine new books were still stationed.
"So, you never actually told us what this book is about," said Fred as he took a seat on his bed and help the book up for inspection.
"You didn't give me a chance to find out," Katherine reminded him, pulling the book from his hands and moving to sit cross legged on George's bed.
"So, what's it say?"
"Flucht Folgen: Die Störenfriede Leitfaden," Katherine read, then she started laughing. The confused expressions on both Fred and George's faces became more so, which only made her laugh more. "You guys are hilarious when you don't know what's going on," Katherine gasped between giggles, finally regaining some composure, she continued, "Anyway, it says, Escaping Consequences: The Troublemakers Guide." Now Fred and George were laughing as well, making Katherine start again.
"Well, it was definitely a good choice," Fred gasped out. Katherine nodded her agreement, but George was studying the book now.
"Do you know any other languages?" he asked thoughtfully. Fred looked from his brother to Katherine, who was blushing slightly.
"You do!" He yelled, pointing accusingly at her, "How many?"
"A few," Katherine mumbled, "German's one of my better ones but I'm fluent in a variety. Only human languages though, I find non-human languages too hard."
"George," Fred said, turning to his brother, "Can you believe that? Non-human languages are too hard."
"I know Fred," George agreed with a serious expression, nodding solemnly, "And here I was thinking she was clever, but if she only fluent in a variety of human languages."
"She must be at the same level of those of us who are intelligent enough to know one language."
"Ok!" Katherine snapped, but she was grinning, "I get it, I get it. I'm a clever little girl who can have conversations you won't understand."
"And who would you have those conversations with?" Asked Fred, raising an eyebrow.
"Er, Theodore?" Katherine suggested, frowning slightly. "Or someone from Germany?"
"So, no real worries for us then," Fred replied with a grin, Katherine scowled at him.
"I'll start taking my class notes in another language," she threatened.
"Sure you will," Fred said solemnly, patting her on the head, and receiving a slap for his troubles.
"C'mon," George laughed, "I can smell Christmas dinner!"
Katherine moved all her things to Ginny's room, and the trio made their way downstairs where Mrs Weasley was, indeed, almost finished preparing dinner.
That was fun. Next chapter and were back at Hogwarts! Not really sure what's going on in their second year, but comment if you have any ideas. Besides the twins getting on the Quidditch team, obviously.
Comment are apretiated and go towards faster updates and more interesting chapters.