Chapter Four
"I'm just about to finish the food would you like to come sit with me?" Mrs Weasley asked.
Lily nodded and followed her back into the house. She took a seat at the large kitchen table and looked around. There was a lot of what she would have called 'useless magic' floating around. The dishes washing themselves and a rag floating over all the surfaces to clean them; a job that only would have taken a few minutes to do by hand.
Mrs Weasley waved her wand over a large pan, a stream of sauce coming from the tip.
"You certainly have your hands full with all the children." Lily smiled, "I struggled when Danica was still a baby and Harry was small, not sure how I'd have managed with any more than that."
Mrs Weasley laughed, "They have been a bit of a handful, but I so wanted a girl."
Lily was a bit taken back, surely it couldn't be the only reason she had so many children was because she was waiting for a girl?
"Would you like a cup of tea?" Mrs Weasley asked.
Lily nodded, "Yes that would be lovely. I'll make them, since you're busy." she offered.
"No need." Mrs Weasley smiled. She flicked her wand and the kettle filled with water and floated onto the stove top. Several cups floated onto a tray with a small jug of milk and some sugar.
Mrs Weasley had just finished filling the kettle when there was an ear piercing scream from outside.
Lily was on her feet at once and flew past Severus who was rushing down the stairs. Out in the garden everyone was rushing towards Ginny who was knelt on the ground trying to calm Danica down.
Danica's tongue had swollen so much it had fallen out her mouth and was spilling down onto the floor, it had also turned a nasty purple colour.
"I'm sorry Mum!" Ginny sobbed, "I found them by the door and thought she might like a sweet, I didn't know."
"What the hell?!" Sirius asked. He couldn't pick Danica up her tongue was so heavy.
"FRED! GEORGE!" Mrs Weasley shouted, "What have you done!?"
Fred and George both looked deathly pale.
"Sorry Mum, we didn't mean to." Fred said.
George nodded furiously, "We didn't want to forget them tomorrow is all."
"What are they?" Lily asked. She was holding Danica to try and keep her still while Severus carefully tried to shrink his daughters tongue.
"We invented them." Fred said quietly, "They're called ton-tongue-toffees. They're meant to be funny."
"Maybe if a five year old didn't get hold of them." Sirius snapped.
Harry was standing at the back of the crowd of Weasleys. He didn't want to push his way through and from what he could see Danica was now mostly back to normal, holding tightly to her mother.
"Lily, I am so sorry." Mrs Weasley said, "I never… the twins will be dealt with."
Lily pulled Danica onto her lap and smoothed her hair, using the time to take a few very deep breaths, "I'm sure they didn't mean any harm. And there is a certain amount of brilliance being able to make such things at their age."
Fred and George looked truly touched that Lily had called them brilliant and that she wasn't turning them into some sort of bug for hurting her daughter.
"We are really sorry. Ginny knows better than to just grab any old sweets." Fred said.
"Don't blame me!" Ginny wailed, "I was just trying to make a good impression for Ha… it's not my fault you just left them lying around!"
"ENOUGH!" Mrs Weasley shouted over all of them, "Hermione will here any moment, Ron take Harry through to the front and wait for her. Bill, Charlie finish with the tables, assuming our guests even want to stay after all this."
Lily nodded, "She seems fine now."
Mrs Weasley gave her a small smile, "Why don't we go and see if we can find some proper sweets? Fred, George," She turned to face the twins, "Go to your rooms and get any proper sweets you have. All of them. Now."
The twins nodded and ran into the house. They returned shortly after with several bags of sweets. Danica buried her head into her mothers chest when they offered them to her.
"You don't have to." Lily said, gently to Fred and George, "Danica is not short of sweets."
"We want to." they said together.
Lily took a sweet and showed her daughter it was safe. Danica slowly took a normal toffee and carefully nibbled the corner, waiting for something to happen before taking the rest.
Mrs Weasley gave her a smile before turning to the twins, "Gather EVERYTHING up!" She ordered them.
Fred and George looked sadly at one another. They slowly walked to their room and came back down with two large boxes each.
Lily stood up, passing the now sweet munching Danica to Severus, "You made all this?" she asked impressed.
The twins nodded.
"I keep telling you two to stop being so stupid!" Mrs Weasley snapped, "This stuff is not only dangerous but a waste of time. You should be focusing on your exams! Looking to your futures not at this rubbish!"
She flicked her wand angrily at the boxes and they vanished leaving behind a puff of smoke and a few chard flakes of cardboard.
Fred and George looked sorrowfully at the remnants of their hard work.
"We worked really hard on that Mum!" George snapped.
"Well, now you can go and work hard on your actual school work. Room, now. Until dinner." Mrs Weasley ordered them.
Fred and George traipsed slowly to their room and dug out their school work. Lily listened to a few more of Mrs Weasley's apologises before asking to use the bathroom.
She was on her way back down when she heard Fred and George talking. She knocked on the door and waited.
"We are doing our school work Mum!" Fred shouted out.
Lily pushed the door open slightly, "Wrong 'mum'. It's me."
"Oh" the twins standing up together.
Lily could see they were rather squished in the room which was covered in Chudley Cannons posters. There were several beds in the room, one normal one and three camp beds. Fred and George had been sitting at a desk with several school books between them.
Lily recognised one of the potions books as being far above the level they taught in Hogwarts.
"Can we help you Mrs Snape?" George asked.
"We really are sorry about what happened to Danica." Fred said.
Lily smiled, "I know. Don't worry about it, she seem quite all right now. I actually want to say I was sorry. I didn't mean for your things to get… taken away."
The twins shrugged,
"It's OK. Mum's been on at us all summer, she doesn't approve." Fred explained.
"Thing is we've never been smart at school stuff like the others, we're never going to get fancy jobs like working with dragons or Gringotts or anything but we're good at this." George said. He looked a little embarrassed at his out burst but Lily just smiled.
"I can see you have a real passion for it and, honestly, don't ever think you're not smart. Miss Hardbroom's Advanced Potions is far above most peoples understanding, I know I don't really get it." Lily told them, "I think that you should keep trying, just be careful. What happened with Danica wasn't your fault but people will, and do, use anything to make people's lives difficult. Never make anything that can't be easily undone is my advice."
Fred and George nodded.
"Thanks Mrs Snape." Fred smiled.
"Yeah, you're the first person who's didn't just think we were wasting our time. Thank you." George said, scratching the back of his head.
Lily smiled, "Lily, please."
"Everything all right?" Mrs Weasley asked, coming up the stairs.
Lily nodded, "I heard them talking and wanted to make sure they were working. Once a mother, you just can't help yourself." Lily smiled, "I hope I didn't over step."
"Of course not." Mrs Weasley said, giving a glare to Fred and George, "I just popped up to say Hermione was here and you two can come down and help once you've finished whatever you're doing."
Lily waved goodbye to the twins and followed Mrs Weasley back down the stairs.
"Mrs Snape!" Hermione said, happily, when she saw her. She came over and gave Lily a big hug.
"Did you get here all right?" Lily asked.
Hermione nodded, "Yeah, it was a long drive but my parents don't mind. They're just so happy I'm making friends."
Mrs Weasley checked her watch, it was heading for half past four already and she still had cooking to do, the twins stupid sweets had set everything back.
"I just have a little cooking to finish, would you mind making sure that everything is sorted out in the garden Percy?" Mrs Weasley asked.
Percy had just come down the stairs with a large pile of papers.
"I was just about to ask if I could skip dinner Mother, I am very busy!" Percy huffed.
Mrs Weasley let out a tense laugh, "Percy, we have guests."
Percy looked between, Harry, Lily and Hermione. It was clear he was about to say something else but stopped himself, "Of course, sorry. How silly of me. Do you have the napkins there? I'll go make sure that everything is ready."
Lily followed him out with the children and let Hermione and Harry join in the game Danica and Ginny were playing.
She sat on a tree stump and breathed in the country air. She'd always wanted to live in the country, maybe on a little farm around here. It was her plan with James, they were eve looking at houses when he'd been killed.
She loved Grimmauld place but she wasn't sure how she'd ended up living there still. Sirius came over pushed her with his hip.
"Budge over."
Lily laughed and shuffled to the edge of the log.
"How are you doing?" Lily asked.
Sirius shrugged, "Mostly been fielding questions from Mr Weasley about muggle stuff. He seems a bit obsessed. I feel sorry for Sev though, trapped answering questions about cauldrons. Do you think the stick up Percy's arse has ever seen day light?"
Lily dug him hard in the ribs with her elbow, "Stop it! We're their guests. I'm sure he's just proud of himself for being able to get such a good job so quickly. Not all of them have money. Or a friend they can mooch off." she laughed.
"They do seem to be struggling a bit." Sirius said, "So many kids!"
"Alice and Frank have five." Lily pointed out.
Sirius shrugged, "I don't know, it just feels different somehow."
"Maybe you are just to stuck up." Lily laughed.
Sirius shrugged, looked very blasé at the idea but he didn't deny it.
Mrs Weasley came out carrying the last of the food, a huge bowl of salad and called everyone to the table. "I hope everyone enjoys it." she beamed.
Lily helped Danica into her seat and served her a plate of chicken and potatoes before serving herself.
Harry was sat on the other side of the table, between Hermione and Ron; who was looking over joyed at the idea of being able to sit next to Harry Potter.
The food was good, very good really; although for Harry's tastes not as good as Kreacher's. He ate a lot and then two portions of pudding as well. Mrs Weasley seemed more than happy to feed him.
As the sun dipped behind the hills Mr Weasley flicked his wand and dozens of balls of light hung in the air.
"How beautiful." Lily smiled. Danica nodded, sleepily, her head on Severus's chest.
"You like them?" Mrs Weasley asked.
Lily nodded, "Yes. I always wanted a beautiful garden like this. We had a little one in Godric's hollow."
Mrs Weasley looked sympathetic, "It must have been so hard to leave it behind."
Lily nodded, "Yes. We rebuilt though." it wasn't a conversation she really wanted to have, especially not here, "So, I know Percy has just got a job at the ministry but what about you two?"
"I work for Gringotts bank." Bill smiled, "As a curse breaker. I do a lot of my work over in Egypt."
"That sounds very impressive." Sirius said, "I went to Egypt a long, long time ago. I loved it. Do you like it over there?"
Bill nodded, "Yeah it's great. Very hot though, took a while to get used to after years up in the highlands cold."
"And what about you Charlie?" Sirius asked.
"I work over in Romania with Dragons." Charlie grinned, "Several burns and close calls but I love it."
"That's brilliant." Severus smiled, he pulled the sleeping Danica on to his lap and wrapped his outer robes around her as a blanket.
Mrs Weasley popped into the house and bought out a well loved patchwork quilt and a floating mattress.
"Here, pop her on here and she can have a sleep." Mrs Weasley smiled, "She's only little still and it's been a long day."
Severus carefully lifted her up and placed her on the mattress. Mrs Weasley tucked her in and looked lovingly down at her.
"I remember when Ginny was that small. Always thought she looked like a sleeping fairy princess from one of those muggle books Arthur would bring into the house." She said.
Lily smiled, "She does look very sweet all tucked up there. Thank you."
Percy looked rather insulted that the conversation about jobs had changed before he was able to tell them all about his.
"As you know, I've just started working at the Ministry, youngest for such a high position for years." Percy told them, "And Mr Crouch is such an inspiration."
Harry saw his mother bristle slightly and wondered why. He watched Lily make a fuss of Danica, making sure she never looked at Percy while he was wittering on.
Percy finally paused to take a drink and Sirius took the opportunity to move onto someone else's ambitions.
"What about you Ron?" he asked, "What do you look forward to doing?"
Ron shrugged and looked a little awkward at being the centre of attention, Harry had the distinct feeling he wasn't normally asked what he wanted to do.
"Not sure any of us really know yet." Harry said with a laugh, "Hermione seems to be the only who's even thought about it!"
Hermione blushed at the thought of her list, "Well I like to be organised."
"I know what I want to be." Ginny pipped up.
Mrs Weasley let out a rather tense chuckle.
"I want to be a Quidditch player, professionally." Ginny told them.
"Wow. That's a lot of work but well worth it." Sirius smiled.
"She's still young." Mrs Weasley said, with a dismissive wave of her hand.
"Well I think it's a wonderful dream. James was a wonderful Quidditch player, Sirius was… all right." Lily smiled.
"Hey!" Sirius laughed.
"But I could never even stay on the broom. I've never been much of a flyer." Lily smiled to Ginny.
She checked her watch, "I think we best be off. Thank you so much for having us. We'll have to have you round at some point for dinner."
Sirius and Severus stood up with Lily and helped her untuck Danica from her makeshift bed. Danica yawned and waved goodbye before laying her head on Lily's shoulder. Harry laughed a little at the fact Danica's leg now came so far down Lily that she'd be too big to carry soon.
Lily walked over to him and gave him a one armed hug, kissing the top of his head, "Best behaviour. I mean it, one bad report!" She laughed.
Harry grinned, "Best not get caught then."
Sirius laughed and Severus smirked at Lily's exasperation.
"Are you sure having him isn't going to be too much trouble?" Lily checked with Mrs Weasley.
Mrs Weasley smiled, "Not at all. We're happy to have him."
Lily gave Harry one last smile before she held on to Sirius, Severus's hand at her shoulder. They turned on the spot and with a pop they were gone.