Updated: June 29th, 2017

Chapter 4: Dinner with the Family

My insides burned as I fell out of the Weasleys' fireplace on my knees. I knew Harry was next to me because I heard Fred ask if Dudley ate the candy. When I got my senses back, I saw Harry and Fred in the kitchen, talking about the candy Fred and George had created. Ton-Tongue Toffee; a candy with an Engorgement Charm to make the tongue of the eater swell in size.

As I walked into the kitchen, the Weasley boys and Harry were laughing at what had happened to Dudley. I leaned on the wall for support, my head still spinning. "That could have seriously injured him, Fred. It's not funny," I frowned.

"Oh, c'mon Cora. The Muggle was asking for it," Fred smiled at me. I just rolled my eyes. When I looked away from him, I noticed the two older red-heads I had grown particularly fond of.

"Bill! Charlie!" Both men got to their feet to greet me. I ran straight into Bill's arms first, hugging him tightly. Charlie picked me up from behind and spun me around. I giggled when he put me down. I hadn't seen the eldest Weasley boys since the beginning of summer when I first met them.

Charlie was shorter than Bill by a few inches or so. He wasn't tall and skinny like his brothers, but a tad shorter and stockier. His hands were callused and blistered from working with dragons in Romania. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was tanned from many days out in the sun and dusted with freckles. His arms were muscular and he had a large shiny burn on the right one. I thought it was cute. Women loved battle scars.

Bill was tall, his long hair tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring that had a fang dangling from it. He had a job at Gringotts. Bill was a Curse Breaker for the bank, but if I looked at him I would have thought he was in a band. His clothes made him look like he had just been at a rock concert. Also, his boots were made from dragon hide. Bill was such a badass!

Before anyone could say another word, Arthur popped up out of thin air right behind George, making him jump a little. He looked pissed. It was the angriest I'd ever seen him. "That wasn't funny, Fred," he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?!"

Fred's grin turned down, "I didn't give him anything. It fell out of my pocket. It wasn't my fault he went and ate it…I never told him to, did I?"

"How big did his tongue get," George asked, sincerely interested.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it," Arthur exclaimed.

The boys and Harry laughed their heads off. Arthur looked like he was going to blow a fuse. I just shook my head at the immaturity of the Weasley children and Harry. When things calmed down a bit, I smirked, "Wait till Molly hears about this."

"Hear about what," a voice said from behind us. Molly entered the kitchen, oblivious to the wide-eyed looks of Harry and her children. She smiled kindly at Harry, "Hello, dear. What is it I need to hear?" Arthur hesitated. I knew no matter how angry he was at Fred, he wasn't going to tell Molly of the incident. We were all silent as Molly eyed her husband. He mumbled that it was nothing and that he just needed to have a few words with the twins. Molly's eyes narrowed, "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes –"

Suddenly everyone got up and spoke at once…

"Harry, let me show you where you're staying…" –Ron

"I need to check on that thing…" –Bill

"Great idea, Ron…" –Harry

"Cora, why don't you and I play some Wizard Chess…?" –Charlie

"Molly, it's really…" –Arthur

"Oh, I think I left my curling iron on…" –me

"Garden needs de-gnoming…" –George

"I think I'll just go for a stroll…" –Fred

"EVERYONE STAY RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE," Molly bellowed.

Harry, Ron, and I edged out of the kitchen unnoticed. We set off along the hall and up the staircase that zigzagged to the upper stories. As we made our way to Ron's room, Harry asked what Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes were. Ron laughed and I did manage to chuckle. I mean, it wasn't funny that Fred purposely dropped the toffee for Dudley to test. But, it was funny what the twins were doing with their products. They made fake wands, trick sweets, and loads of other great stuff that rivaled Zonko's. Although, Ron and I both agreed that some of their products were dangerous. Molly found out the twins wanted to sell the stuff at Hogwarts and she flipped. She burned it all up. I didn't blame her.

As we passed the second landing, a face poked out of a door. Percy emerged wearing a very annoyed expression, "I was wondering who was making all the noise? I am very busy in here. It's rather difficult to concentrate when people are thundering up and down the stairs."

Ron scoffed, "Well sorry we're disturbing your top-secret workings for the Ministry of Magic."

Harry, only having been here a few minutes, did not know about Percy. He had to ask what the elder Weasley was doing. As he explained (for the thousandth time) about the Department of International something or another, Ron and I both groaned. He turned and began walking up the stairs as Percy huffed, slamming his bedroom door. Harry and I followed Ron up three more flights of stairs. We could still hear Molly shouting at the twins.

Ron's room hadn't changed much since I first met him two summers ago. The same posters of the Chudley Cannons were plastered on the walls. There was a fish tank on the windowsill that contained a large frog. The only thing different were the extra three beds squeezed into the room. Ron explained to Harry that Bill and Charlie took Fred and George's room so they had to stay with him.

Ron cleared a path to his bed with his foot, pushing everything under the bed or in front of his dresser. I sat cross-legged on an unmade bed as I began to braid my curly hair. Harry fell back on the only made bed, staring up at the Chudley Cannons Keeper hovering in front of three hoops. "Percy's enjoying work, then," he asked us.

Ron gave a dark chuckle, "I don't reckon he'd come home if Dad didn't make him. He's obsessed. Just don't get him on the subject of his boss…"

I giggled, standing up. "According to Mr. Crouch…as I was saying to Mr. Crouch…Mr. Crouch is of the opinion…Mr. Crouch was telling me…Crouch this and Crouch that," I imitated Percy.

"They'll be announcing the engagement any day now," Ron added.

Harry and I both chuckled. I could tell Ron didn't want to talk about his older brother so I turned to Harry. "So, how was your summer? Did you get the food and stuff?"

He smiled, "Yeah, thanks. They saved my life, those cakes."

Ron abruptly asked if Harry or I had heard from my father. I gave my ginger friend a weak smile. Ron and Hermione had both gotten too involved with helping my father escape a horrible fate last year. It was wonderful to know they (in this case Ron) cared about him. But, he was still a touchy subject. I didn't answer because I didn't know if my dad had tried to reach Harry or not. I just knew Harry told his aunt and uncle about him.

"I think they've stopped arguing," Harry said, trying to get around Ron's question.

The three of us went back downstairs to find Molly alone in the kitchen. She looked extremely bad-tempered. "We're eating out in the garden," she said. "There's just not enough room in here. Cora, could you take the plates? Knives and forks, please, you two?"

Molly pointed her wand at the potatoes in the sink. They shot out of their skins so fast that they bounced off the walls and ceiling. She let out a frustrated cry and grabbed the dustpan to work on collecting the skins from the floor. Meanwhile, she complained about her twin sons under her breath. When the potato skins were collected, Molly slammed a large saucepan down on the kitchen table, making my two friends and I jump. With another wave of her wand, creamy sauce flowed from the wand tip as she stirred. At the same time, the cutlery drawer shot open. Harry and Ron ducked as knives flew their way across the kitchen where they began cutting potatoes.

I noticed a wand on the kitchen table and went to grab it. Molly beat me to it, shouting in frustration when it squeaked and turned into a giant rubber mouse. On the stove, the sauce was smoking and the knives were sloppily cutting the potatoes. Molly's frustration was making the kitchen a danger zone. Ron grabbed a handful of cutlery from the drawer, handing them to Harry and taking another handful, "Let's go help Bill and Charlie."

I took the stack of plates and followed my friends out the back door into the yard. We hadn't even gone a few feet from the door when we saw a litter of muddy brown things running around wildly. Barely ten inches high, their horny little feet pattered fast as they chased each other bush to bush. These were the resident garden gnomes and they were nasty little beasts. At the same time, a large crashing reached our ears. We rounded the corner to see Bill and Charlie with their wands out, making two old tables smash into each other. Fred and George cheered as Ginny laughed at the older boys' attempt at entertainment. I felt torn between enjoyment and concern. Molly would not be happy with what her boys were doing.

Bill's table caught Charlie's, knocking one of the legs off. "Will you keep it down," Percy bellowed. His head was poking out of a window on the second floor. He threw us all a nasty look before slamming the window shut.

The older boys shared an amused look and set the tables down. With a flick of Bill's wand, the tables were spiffed up and covered by two tablecloths. Harry, Ron, and I set the two tables. By seven, we were filling ourselves with Molly's delicious cooking. I had my share of her creamy onion soup, meatballs with onion sauce, Brussels sprouts with chestnuts, herb and garlic mashed potatoes, and an apple tart to finish. I didn't know how I wasn't overweight because of all the food I ate.

I sighed in contentment as Harry and I sat under the clear inky sky with the Weasley family. It was wonderful to just sit beneath the trees in the garden with my good friends. Well, I could hardly call them my friends. Harry and the Weasley family were my family. I sat back against my chair, listening to Charlie talk about his work in Romania with the dragons. Harry, who was sitting on my right, was helping himself to more mashed potatoes. On my left was Ron who was stuffing his face as usual. Diagonal from me were Fred and George and Charlie was across from me.

At the far end of the table, Percy was telling Arthur about his report on cauldron bottoms. From over the loud laughs of Charlie, Fred, and George, I could hear Percy's pompous voice say something about his boss. As soon as he mentioned someone named Ludo Bagman, Arthur cut his son off.

"…when I compare him to Mr. Crouch," Percy rambled over his father. The rest of us went silent as Percy continued his rant about the Ministry. Harry leaned over and shared a look with Ron, trying not to laugh when Percy exclaimed his boss's name. "As you know, we've got another big event to organize right after the World Cup."

Percy cleared his throat, looking down the table where Harry, Ron, Ginny, the twins, and I were sitting. Ron rolled his eyes, leaning closer to me and Harry, "He's been trying to get me to ask what the event is ever since he started working. Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons."

Other conversations started up and I heard Molly arguing with Bill about his fang earring. In front of me, Charlie began talking about the World Cup. "It's got to be Ireland," he said, spiritedly. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."

"Bulgaria has Krum, though," Fred pointed out.

"Krum's a decent player, sure," I shrugged. The boys and Ginny all looked at me. Fred's eyebrow rose. "Ireland has seven decent players, though. Bulgaria's against the odds."

"I wish England got through," Charlie said as he chewed on a meatball. "That was embarrassing, that was."

Harry asked what happened. Charlie explained rather dejectedly that they went down to Transylvania 390 to 10. It was a horrible loss for them. Fred continued the conversation as Harry left it. No one was more excited for the World Cup than Fred. I had a feeling I knew why. By nine, Molly lit candles as it got darker and darker. Moths fluttered low over the table and the warm air smelled of grass and honeysuckle. Ron suddenly leaned over again and then, very quietly, asked, "So – have you heard from Sirius lately?"

"Yeah," Harry said softly, finally answering the same question from earlier, "I heard from him twice. I wrote to him yesterday."

The two looked at me. I glanced down and across the table to see if anyone was listening. I nodded in confirmation, "I heard from him the day I left to come here. But, I told him not to write until school starts back up. I didn't want to risk anything. The post he uses…well it's a little flamboyant."

Harry snickered and replied sarcastically, "A little?"

I smiled a genuine smile. I elbowed him, "Oh, shut up."

"My! Look at the time," Molly said suddenly as she checked her wristwatch. "You should be in bed, the lot of you."

I laughed when Bill and Charlie groaned, complaining that they were older and didn't need a bedtime. With a flick of her wand, Molly cleared the table and the candles went out. I yawned, lacing my arm around Ginny's. We said goodnight to Harry and the rest of her family and made the tiresome journey up to her room. The young girl fell onto her bed and was out. I chuckled as I changed behind her dresser. I was so tired from the day's events that I passed out as soon as my head hit my pillow. That night I had happy dreams about Quidditch and redheads with Scottish accents.