Next day was everything but exciting.
Burrow woke up into beautiful sunny Saturday, which would usually mean day full of flying or trip to the village for popsicles.
After quick breakfast however, Molly chased all the kids upstairs to unpack and clean their rooms.
Ginny and Ron complaining had no end. Why should they stay inside and clean when they don't have trunks full of dirty school uniforms and socks.
But Molly wasn't taking no for an answer.
"the sooner you clean your rooms the sooner the summer starts." Was a well known sentence among Weasley children.
And so they spent all morning sorting laundry and trying to put everything away.
Jade had to admit it felt good to push her empty school trunk against the wall at the end of her bed and sit down on the floor to make her way through pile of clothes.
She made three piles – one for whites, one for black school robes and one for colored clothes. It would save a lot of time for Molly and Jade was proud of herself for thinking about it.
She took the clothes down to the kitchen where Fred and George just deposited a rather large mess of mixed school robes on the floor.
Jade put her three groups of neatly separated clothes on the floor and started to dig through the pile twins just left there.
Molly was sitting at the chair, stitching a patch to the knee of Ron's corduroys.
"You don't have to do that honey, I'll sort them later." She smiled at Jade.
"It's quite alright, I'm almost finished with my room and there's still enough time before lunch to get everything done." Replied Jade looking down at one of the white shirts, with rather burned cuff on the left sleeve. It used to make her feel like she was a visitor in the house, not one of the family, when Molly told her she doesn't have to do something, but now she knew it was just Molly's way of saying thank you and how much she appreciated when one of the kids helped with chores without being asked.
After sorting the laundry, Jade climbed up the stairs back to her room. She was brushing off last traces of dust from the bookshelves which were now proudly holding her school books (before she'll pass them to Ron) and a couple of notebooks she made by binding the parchments with notes from the classes.
Jade turned around and was about to walk out of the door – on the way to change the water for her wild flowers, when George blocked her way and with a finger pressed to her lips, indicating she should stay quiet, he pushed her back to her room. Fred followed close behind his brother, checking the corridor before he closed the door.
"We've got a huge favor to ask from you." Whispered Fred, briefly looking down at the brown cardboard box he was carrying.
"We need to hide some of our inventions in your room." Explained George, jumping on Jade's freshly made bed.
"Hey! I just straightened those sheets! Get off!" she frowned and tried to pull him down but ended up falling between the pillows herself.
"Why don't you just hide it in your usual hiding place? I don't want to be responsible for it." She said, looking wearily at the box.
She did enjoy adventures with twins, sneaking around the castle, exploring secret passages was one thing, but facing the anger of Molly if she found out Jade was hiding twins' inventions was a completely different matter.
"We can't. Mom always checks out room and she already discovered most of our hiding places. You're our only hope." Pleaded Fred, making the best imitation of puppy eyes Jade has ever seen.
"Well,… alright, but if she finds it here, I know nothing about it." Jade said after a while. She couldn't say no to Fred when he looked at her that way.
"It's only for a couple of weeks, until she stops being suspicious." Promised George and kissed Jade on the cheek.
"You are the best!" exclaimed Fred and pushed the box into the darkest corner under Jade's bed.
She shook her head as she watched boys carefully straighten the bed skirt made of cotton fabric with yellow and teal pattern* which Molly added while Jade was at school in attempt to make the room more cozy.
They jumped up at the sound of their mother's voice, echoing through the house.
"Ronald Weasley, you put down that cream cracker this instant. Lunch will be ready in five minutes!"
"We'd better go." Said George and pulled Fred out of Jade's room.
Lunch was perfect like always. Molly prepared simple pumpkin-tomato soup with black beans and garlic bread with melted white cheddar on top. They had strawberry scones for desert and freshly made lemonade.
Molly's new record of Dion and The Belmonts was playing in the background and all Weasley children (minus Percy of course) were happily swinging their legs to the rhythm of "I wonder why". (the record was a gift from Arthur, who brought it home one day for Molly. He happened to come across small muggle music shop on his mission from work. He couldn't help but think about his Molly when he spotted an orange cover of vinyl record, with small colorful hearts. And she played it for two whole weeks nonstop, before switching back to the radio, but he still came home sometimes, hearing the record playing and Molly singing along. Those nights were his favorite.
"Your rooms are clean now? All the laundry downstairs? School trunks empty? We don't want any more moldy socks, right boys?" asked Molly looking at the twins with raised eyebrows.
"Excuse me?!" exclaimed Fred, getting up so fast, he almost knocked over his chair, but George caught it and put it back up.
"There has never been such thing as moldy socks in our trunks!" argued George, pretending to be deadly offended.
"Stinky old socks maybe…" admitted Fred.
"…unwashed forgotten underwear, occasionally…" continued George.
"left over crackers, probably…" added Fred.
"But never ever did we get any mold in our trunks. That would be just…" George closed his eyes.
"…downright disgusting." Finished Fred, holding the shoulder of his twin who was theatrically pretending to be fainting at the idea itself.
"alright, alright. You have the afternoon free then. Off you go, out of the way, I have tons of laundry to do." said Molly, trying not to smile at the antics of her boys. Oh how she missed them over the year.
The air was getting hot, and with nothing much to do for the afternoon, kids decided to just hang out under the tree and plan summer.
Ginny pulled out the old picnic blanket they always used outside and Jade fetched some lemonade from the kitchen and they all sat down.
Fred and George got comfortable seats up in the tree, already planning the newest inventions for their collection of pranks, Ron persuaded Percy to play a game of Chess with him and they were currently sitting at the wooden table with heads in their hands, staring at the chessboard.
"So, Ginny, how was the year at home?" asked Jade, sitting down on the blanket which Ginny spread under the tree.
"Boring." Frowned Ginny and sipped lemonade from her bottle. The drinks were cold and drops of water were condensing on the glass.
"Oh, but now you're home and we can do all the fun stuff! We can finally play Quidditch in teams and go on a trip – mom wouldn't let us go alone and dad had had to work a lot these past weeks. But I helped mom clean the attick a little bit and we found a lot of fun things. She said that once you come home, we can take some of them out and do some crafts if we want. I've already put a nice crocheted doily to my room. Mom says her great grandma made it long time ago. Just wait until you see it, we found a lot of stuff for decorating." Babbled Ginny, while Jade laid back, closing her eyes, sun shining on her face.
She missed her sister so much during the school year and it was nice to just sit here and listen to her talk about silly things.
"I have a week of extra chores to do - because of that stunt we pulled at Easter, but once that's out of the way, we can get a week of crafting and re-designing our rooms. That could be fun, right?" asked Jade, opening one eye to look at excited Ginny.
"With plans and sketches and our own design projects?" whispered Ginny, as if she couldn't believe her luck.
"Of course, with plans, and craft projects and our own inventions. We'll find out own color schemes and styles for the rooms, and we'll have the best rooms in all Burrow." Smiled Jade.
They snoozed on and off all afternoon, enjoying free day after hectic last weeks of school, but laziness never lasts long when you have Fred and George around.
"Hey girls, wanna help discover new ingredient for our newest invention?" Asked George, peeking from between the leaves of the tree.
"Another smelly fireworks?" asked Jade without even bothering to open her eyes.
"Is this one even smellier than the last one?" chuckled Ginny.
"Well if you don't want to help, stay here with your pretend-tea party ladies." Said Fred, turning away from the girls and walking in the direction of the pond.
"Hey, who's a lady to you?!" yelled Ginny, getting up and throwing a handful of dry grass in Fred's direction.
"I'm just as good mischief-maker as you are!" she yelled, running after him, bare feet, grass stained shirt and purple skirt.
Jade laughed at her and jumped on George's back as he walked past her. He caught her and without problem carried her, quickly following Fred and Ginny.
Piggy-back rides were a novelty for Jade and she found it delightful that her brothers could carry her around like that. It made her feel free and loved.
George run alongside the path, jumping over mud and fallen branches as he went, with Jade laughing loudly.
He dropped her down without warning as they reached the pond and Jade landed but- first in the mud.
"Hey! That's not fair!" she scolded and got up, wiping her dirty hands into Fred's shirt.
"Mud fight? Seriously? What are we, five?" asked George looking at Jade, pretending to be disappointed in her. But Fred hugged him from behind, plastering a handful of mud on George's cheek.
"Mud fight!" he yelled and run around, followed by Ginny who was holding dirt in both of her hands stretched up, high in the air. Pieces of squishy mud were falling down, landing in her fiery red hair.
"Mud fight! Mud fight!" laughed Jade and grabbed some dirt from the ground. It had grass mixed in and sand from the small beach but no one cared.
Weasley children used to have mud fights regularly when boys were smaller, but to Molly's great joy, they stopped them few years ago.
George was sure that their newly discovered part-time activity won't be received positively by their mom, but he didn't care.
They didn't have this much fun in ages.
After the shooting of mud bombs calmed down, four of them were left, covered in mud and tired from all the laughing. As they looked at each other, they realized what's waiting for them at home, once mom saw them, covered in wet soil from head to toes. None of them felt like going back to the Burrow just yet and so they spent few more hours looking for the secret ingredient for the newest project.
Even Fred and George didn't know what they're inventing yet, but they used to say that inspiration won't come to you, you have to get out and chase it. And so they chased, garden gnomes and fairies, salamanders and grasshoppers around the pond, while sun dried the mud and they were left, covered in dry pieces of dirt which flew off of them with every movement.
And in silent agreement, they walked back home, their bare feet silently stepping on the ground which was quickly cooling down in the sun setting down. The silhouette of home clearly visible against the orange sky.
"We already have week of extra chores because of Easter, mom can't give us more work. It's summer after all." Concluded George as they were nearing the backyard.
"But you know nothing will stop here. One week for Easter, yeah, but she still has plenty of weeks left, to choose from, before we get back to school." Said Fred, absentmindedly scratching the scar on his left hip, which reminded him of the trouble they were already in.
"There isn't enough chores in Burrow to punish us all, if we get one more week of extra cleaning we're going to wear down the whole house and it'll just fall apart from over-cleaning." Laughed Jade and bravely stepped inside, followed by her brothers and Ginny, ready to face Molly's anger. They stopped at the doorway, mud falling off, landing in big chunks on the freshly scrubbed kitchen floor.
*fabric inspired by Notting Hill collection by Joel Dewberry – fabric called Historic Tile in Canary
Hey guys! I know it took a little bit longer than I promised but, summer came to Portugal (where I'm studying right now) and so we spend most of the free time outside soaking in the sun after long winter.
I hope you like this chapter, let me know what you think, I love reading your reviews.
Thanks to Aaaaa (guest) , Splendora-C.A.M-McGonagall, HpDork FreakaZiod, Cookie05 for commenting – and to all of you guys who follow and read my story.