Are They Snogging?
Leigh stood by the exit in the common room, tapping her foot impatiently as she gazed up towards the girls dorms. Hermione sat on the couch with her legs crossed, Ron's head lying in her lap. One of her hands twiddled a strand of his hair between her fingers, and the other held a book. Ron looked like he was moments away from sleep.
Suddenly the portrait swung open behind Leigh, and Harry stepped in to immediately take in the view in front of him. His face twisted. "Ew, guys."
Hermione looked up, eyes jumping between Harry and Leigh. "What?"
Harry shook his head again, a disgusted expression on his face.
Hermione spoke again, matter-of-factly. "Harry, we're just cuddling."
"Yeah exactly, what makes you think anyone wants to see that? We have dorms for a reason."
Leigh smiled at the joking exchange, and Ron stirred in Hermione's lap. He spoke in a tired voice. "That's where we're going later, mate."
Immediately, the book held in Hermione's other hand smacked down on Ron's forehead. He yelped and immediately threw a hand up to shield against further attack. Before he could speak again, Hermione beat him to it.
"We are not!"
Ron only grumbled, and Harry stifled a laugh.
As much as Leigh enjoyed being in the trio's presence, she had somewhere to be, and after tapping her foot a final time she decided to pop into her dorm to check what was holding Nova up. The two of them were set to be down at the twins' shop in Hogsmeade in just a few minutes. Sure, there was no real hurry, but once Leigh had agreed to a set time, she liked to stick to it.
She opened to door to her dorm only to see Nova in front of the mirror, curling her hair.
"Are you coming? We need to leave."
"I'm done soon, I promise! Just a few things left!"
Leigh bit her tongue, and nodded at her friend's words. "Should we meet there? I don't think they'd care if one of us is a bit late."
"You don't think so?" Nova asked, curling another strand.
"No, I'm sure it'll be fine. It's a Sunday."
Nova nodded profusely, the curls flying around her head. "You're so right. It's a Sunday. I'll see you there then!"
"See you there," Leigh spoke with a smile, turning on her heels and jogging down the stairs. Right before she reached the portrait another voice spoke up.
"Where are you off to in such a hurry, on a Sunday of all days?" Harry asked, now seated in the sofa chair beside the couch, seeminngly having come to terms with his best friends' display of affection.
"Just helping the twins with something," Leigh answered hurriedly.
"Helping? Just last month you were intent on their downfall. Now you're over there more often than not," he chuckled, and Leigh smiled in response.
"A bit dramatic maybe, but I guess."
"You are there quite often. What are you guys up to over there?" Ron asked, and was immediately smacked once more on the head by Hermione's book. He rubbed the spot with a frown. "I didn't mean like that!" He defended, before his eyes widened as he looked at his girlfriend. "Did you think like that?" He asked, and Hermione gradually started turning redder.
"I– No, I didn't..," she trailed off, attempting to look away, but failing to convince anyone.
"'Mione, why are you blushing? What does that mean?" Ron continued, and Harry was again sat giggling to the side. Leigh took the opportunity to sneak out of the common room, hearing a bit more of their conversation before the portrait shut behind her:
"What does that mean! Are they snogging? They better not! Which one is she snogging? Hermione, tell me!"
"No one, Ronald! Keep your nose out!"
"Harry, don't laugh, I can't take this! Godric, they better not–!"
The portrait shut with a thud, and silence surrounded her. She couldn't help but laugh faintly to herself as she made her way down the steps.
-
"Hello!" Leigh's voice rang out as she stepped into the shop, almost immediately coming face to face with countless piles of boxes. She stopped dead in her tracks, letting her eyes run over the piles, which almost covered half the shop floor and reached up to the ceiling. "Shit," she muttered to herself.
George appeared around the corner, hair uncharacteristically un-styled. He smiled once his gaze met her. "She's here Freddie!", he yelled before he approached her. "Thank Merlin someone who's good at this stuff has gotten here. Fred's in there! Let me take that, I'll put it upstairs," he said quickly and pointed towards the space he just got out of, reaching for her jacket. He quickly moved towards the stairs.
Leigh walked to the doorframe and peeked inside what appeared to be a small storage space of some kind, seeing even more piles of boxes, and Fred standing close to the right wall with a thick book in his hand. He turned at the sound of her steps.
"Oh thank God you're here," he started, moving over to give her a sideways hug before looking at her desperately. "How much do you know about extension charms?"
"Uh, I– why?" She stuttered, feeling put on the spot, and the hug already having caught her off guard.
"Alright, so, we have loads of extension charms on this building, right? Some placed before we moved in, and some which we placed afterwards. Turns out some spaces are still not...extended enough," Fred spoke, gesturing to the small space they were currently in. "So the question is how do we put an extension charm within an extension charm, when the second extension charm is already placed, without removing or lessening the effect of each extension charm? Do you get what I mean?"
The cogs in Leigh's mind were turning. "I think so?"
"Yeah, so that's what we want to do," Fred spoke, exhaling and running a hand through his hair. "Yeah."
"Right," Leigh looked at the book still in Fred's hands. "Which book is that?"
He immediately passed the book over to her. "Here, take a look. Just been trying to find something on using several extension charms."
Leigh nodded slowly, turning the pages and quickly starting to skim through the text on extension charms. She quickly got distracted as she felt Fred leaning over her shoulder, his tall build towering above her. She gulped to herself, trying to keep herself from turning her head to the side.
"A lot of boxes you got," she said instead, letting her gaze direct itself to the piles already in the small space they were in.
He chuckled behind her, the air grazing her ear. "Yeah, unexpectedly many. Although we're not really prepared for it. It's great you're here though," he spoke, gently touching her arm with his hand in a thankful gesture, and her brain momentarily stopped working. "But no pressure to solve it!"
She nodded, mumbling "No pressure," to herself.
He chuckled breathily and seemed to take a step back, leaning back against the wall. She spun on her heel to face him. "Sorry for the rushed welcome," he said and sent her a soft smile, letting his head tilt back against the wall behind him. "How are you doing?"
"Doing alright. You?"
"A tad stressed," he mumbled. "But excited too."
His honesty was refreshing, and she found herself thinking that maybe she should be more truthful in answering that particular question too.
Thankfully, both for her own and the twins' sake, the three of them did eventually figure out how to extend the storage space without impacting any of the charms currently in place. The next steps on this lovely Sunday would be to unpack the boxes and arrange those which were unable to be unpacked in the storage spaces available.
"What's even in all these?" Leigh asked when the three of them stood in the general shop area, gazing at the mountains of cardboard ahead of them.
"Some new stuff, some old stuff, and some new product components, to sum it up," George said as he scratched his head. "What happened to your friend? The one who was gonna join you?"
"Oh, right, she'll be here soon I think," Leigh replied. "She's just...finishing some stuff up."
"Ah, alright. Well!" George slapped his hands together, glancing at his watch. "Let's get started! Most of these are regular products, and we can use magic to move them. Some contain ingredients and components for future products though– we're doing some, uh...testing– but we might have to carry those normally. The further they are from any kind of magic the better."
They got to work, moving some boxes with products to their shelves in the shop, and others to the side, George plastering big 'NO MAGIC' signs on them.
"Alright, these are going upstairs," George commented, pointing to the boxes with the signs.
Leigh nodded, immediately coming forward to carry one. She heaved it into her arms and started her journey upstairs, carefully setting it down right inside the flat upstairs before returning down.
"Careful with your back," Fred hummed as she neared him by the boxes, and she nodded faintly at his words while a rosy shade covered her cheeks. He gave her a grin and made his way towards the stairs.
George's voice was heard from deeper into the shop. "Could someone check if the storage space is empty? In that case we can start shoving stuff in there too. These shelves are getting a bit packed..."
"On it," Leigh said and abandoned the pile of boxes with signs to instead go back into the storage space they had successfully extended just a bit earlier. It was bigger now, perhaps bigger than required, and she made her way towards the back of it to check if there was any items left. A few items laid idle and she collected them into her arms before moving to walk back out, but stopped in her tracks. Among the items laid a familiar one.
A small box with a drawn dementor on the front stared back at her and she bit her lip in thought. A part of her knew she was better off leaving it alone, but another part wanted to set it loose and hope her skills would kick in once she was faced with the fake creature.
She still couldn't cast the patronus charm successfully, but she also hadn't tried at all the last few days. Maybe she would get a kick from seeing a realistic-looking dementor, and finally be able to do the charm again?
She was tired of not being able to do it, and there was no real danger in trying, was there? The fake dementor couldn't actually give a dementor's kiss, and the product was set to disappear already after a minute or so. She had already faced it once, so she knew what to expect. It had caught her off guard last time, but this time she could be prepared.
She made her choice and moved to place the items currently in her arms down on the floor beside her, instead reaching for the forget-me-shock and opening the packaging.
Moments later the familiar powder was in the palm of her hand, and she took a final inhale before blowing the sand-like product into the air.