Chapter 3
"Can I go now?" Rebecca asked. Molly had already delayed Rebecca's eager exit to get to the shop in the name of waiting for the 'good-luck sandwiches' Molly was making. But the sandwiches were done and Rebecca was eager. "Please?"
"May."
Rebecca bit her tongue. "May I please go now?"
"Isn't Fred coming to get you?" Molly asked, looking around the downstairs for any hint of his presence.
"I'm flooing in the mornings."
Molly raised an eyebrow. She had noticed Fred's previous insistence that Rebecca not floo but their arrangement seemed to have changed. "And you'll be back at?"
"Three." Rebecca squirmed under the questioning and impatience. "Please? I don't know if there's anything left to do before opening!"
Molly reached out and brushed off the shoulders of the suit. "We'll all be coming by later; go ahead and warn them now."
Rebecca laughed and kissed Molly's cheek, grabbing the bag of sandwiches off the counter before running down the hall to the fireplace. "I will!" A flash of green followed Rebecca from the Burrow to the shop's downstairs, though she jumped to the back of the fireplace instead of leaving it when three faces leaned in at her. "Bloody hell!"
Cedric laughed the loudest, his idea to start the first day of the prank shop with a good prank. His uniform was different than the creators in that he didn't have a jacket. Instead, his oxford shirt was decorated with suspenders adorned with Ws in different fonts and patterns.
Collecting herself, Rebecca stepped out of the fireplace joining their excitement. "Looking sharp, Ced!"
He slid his thumbs under his suspenders, raising an eyebrow. "You think?"
George nodded and blushed before clapping his hands and doling out pre-opening tasks. "Alright, alright. Enough fun. Rebecca, you make sure that all the sweets are filled. Fred, make sure the front is clear. Cedric, man the counter."
"And what will you be doing?" Fred asked cheekily on his way to do as he was commanded.
George raised the bag of sandwiches above his head as he climbed the stairs to the flat. "I'll make sure lunch doesn't rot!"
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The queue out front began to form well before they had announced they would open and when the doors finally swung in, the crowd swarmed. Fred, George, and Rebecca, circled the floor; helping guests looking for specific items and answering questions as they came up.
"Hey mate," Rebecca crouched to the floor, meeting the eyes of a wandering toddler. The little boy pointed up at the nearest sweet display. "That? You don't want that." Rebecca waved as a frantic mum found them from across the shop.
"Boo-boo?" The boy held a hand up to Rebecca's face, his fingers covering as much of her scar as possible.
"Oh-"
"I'm so sorry!" The mother shook her head and took a breath, her child in arm's reach again. "Trying to keep him in sight is...well, something impossible. Have you been using your manners?"
Rebecca laughed and stayed on the ground beside him. "A perfect gentleman." She put her hand over his, covering her scar more. "Not a boo-boo, see? All good!" Rebecca stood up as the boy decided her scar wasn't an issue and motioned to be picked up by his mother. "Who is this master runaway?"
The mum smiled. "This would be Timothy. Can you share how old you are, Timmy?"
Timothy, now named, giggled and raised up three fingers.
"Three? Wow! I would have guessed twenty, twenty-five maybe." Rebecca reached up to the case that originally caught his attention. "A sweet for mum, perhaps?"
"Janet, please. Tim's been an introduction to a lot of shop keeps." A flash of something crossed Rebecca's face before she could cover it up. "Are you okay?"
Rebecca turned her eyes away, all too aware that she had failed to hide herself as she would have been able to with ease before. "I'm sorry." Rebecca took a breath, concealing and putting away things that shouldn't come out. "How rude of me, I...I knew someone named Janet a long time ago. But that was long ago." Rebecca held the sweet out further. "Please, I insist."
"What does it do?" Janet asked, letting the girl's obvious pain go without anymore discussion. "I won't grow a second head or anything, will I?"
"Oh no." Rebecca appreciated the change in subject. "That would be Two-Headed Toothpaste in the aisle across the way."
"Oh!" Janet held the hand with the sweet to her heart. "I was kidding! How did you come up with all of this?"
Rebecca gave a little bow, bringing about a wash of giggles from Timothy. "With help, but that's all I can share. Everything else is confidential."
Janet unwrapped the candy slowly. "Well, I guess if I won't grow a head. What do you think, Tim?" Timothy glanced at Rebecca before nodding his head excitedly. This shop was so loud and colourful and everything looked so bright and happy--any child would be happy. Janet popped the sweet into her mouth.
Timothy's hands shot to his mouth as he laughed, his mother looking at him with a new, bushy beard.
"What do you think, Tim-Tom?" Janet ran a hand across her chin, tickling her son with the end of her new addition.
Timothy launched his arms around his mother's neck before pulling away a second later. "Itchy."
The two women looked at each other before laughing, Timothy settling on his mother's hip as the excitement of his most recent escape caught up with him. The beard was gone in a few seconds and one of Tim's hands wandered up to his mum's cheek--making sure everything was as it had been before. "We should go," Janet sighed. "I have a feeling my oldest is causing mischief somewhere."
Rebecca walked with her. "That's no problem. We encourage mischief here."
Louis appeared from down the other end of the shop, his eyes bright as he tried to take everything in to memory. "Mum! You found Rebecca!"
"That's this Rebecca?" Janet asked quietly, looking down at her son pointedly. "You've been talking about Rebecca Potter?"
Louis sighed. "Potter Weasley, mum."
Rebecca glanced at Louis nervously. "What exactly have you told your mum about me, Lou?"
Janet switched Timothy to her other hip, looking at Rebecca in an entirely new light.
"The truth?" Louis answered, his tone saying that was obvious.
"The truth encompasses a lot," Rebecca turned to Janet, embarrassed. "I'm sorry if anything's been glorified as it was passed on."
Janet smiled sadly, remembering Louis' stories from the year before and the older students who made it their mission to protect the younger--to protect her son. "I have a feeling nothing was glorified, Louis isn't one for exaggeration." Janet held her hand out for Rebecca to shake. "Between the club and the..." Janet sniffed, overwhelmed. "And every other bit of help you offered, I can never thank you enough."
"Mum!" Louis gasped. "Please, you're embarrassing me!"
Rebecca squeezed Janet's hand. "I only did what anyone would have."
"And yet, what 'anyone' didn't." Fred chimed from behind them. He held his hand out to Janet and Louis in turn, then ducking to meet Timothy's eyes and to shake his hand over Janet's shoulder too. "What'er we thinking, Louis?" Fred looked over the store. "Satisfied?"
"This is the craziest, most absolutely mental shop ever."
Fred considered the words and glanced at Rebecca. "I think that's what we were going for."
Janet called out her goodbyes and nice-to-meet-yous as Louis dragged her down an aisle with shouts of needing to show her something.
"I bet that little Louis will end up just as much trouble. Same eyes."
"Really?" Rebecca asked, turning and straightening the boxes on the shelf nearest. "I thought the look was familiar."
"Yeah?"
"Seen it on you enough." Rebecca gave him a cheeky grin.
"Careful." Fred caught her hands and spun her so she faced him entirely.
"Of what?" Rebecca laughed. "You?"
Fred bent down, letting his lips brush against her cheek before he answered. "You don't want to see me make trouble."
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Cedric quickly found that manning the counter was nowhere near as manageable as he had thought. By the time the first two hours had passed, he had had exactly four seconds of reprieve between customers and that was simply because it took that much time for the first to meet the counter.
Rebecca ducked under the counter and patted his shoulder, not wanting him to get overwhelmed with the same task for too-too long. "Want to trade a bit?"
"You sure?" Cedric asked, though his nod had been too enthusiastic. "It gets a little wild."
Rebecca shooed him to the side, waving the next person up. "I think George said something about needing me in a bit, but I'm not sure. He's a little excited and when he's excited-"
"He talks too fast!" Cedric laughed. "I think he does that so we'll agree and move on."
Rebecca shrugged, not putting it past him. "I don't doubt it. I've been commanded to meet over near the flat's stairs by one. Could you come back around then?"
Cedric gave her a little salute and stepped away to help anyone who needed.
"Rebecca!" Angelina said as she piled her selected purchases on the counter.
"Angelina! What are you doing here? Don't you have training?" Rebecca tallied up her total quickly, holding up a bag and eventually fitting it all inside neatly when Angelina nodded.
"Later." Angelina looked around with wide-eyes. "Couldn't exactly miss all this!" She took her change and made sure Rebecca was really listening. "You three, this is really something."
"Yeah, it is." Rebecca motioned in the general direction she had last seen Fred and George. "They're off that way, probably giving a child something they shouldn't, if you wanted to see them." Angelina laughed and went off to find the other troublemakers.
The customers and transactions began to blur. The queue eventually wound its way down to a two-to-three person mass that gave Rebecca the chance to look at the transaction book. The three of them had put together a few estimates based off of preliminary guests and what had sold the best at school, but they had already doubled their largest estimate.
They weren't even half way through with the day and they had met their weekly goal.
Cedric made his way back to the counter just as George grew tired of searching for her. "REBECCA!" Cedric winced as George's shout echoed over the store. "Guess I don't have to tell you that it's time."
"Nope." Rebecca ducked out from under the counter and wove through the crowd. Where Fred and George were standing, Molly, Ron, and Ginny were.
Molly kissed Rebecca's cheek before nudging her towards the other purple-adorned shop workers on the stairs. Fred and George pulled her down so that she was sitting on the stair between them, all three of them putting their arms around the other.
Molly took the picture quickly, knowing that a photo would only be nice with this bunch for a short window before one of them pulled a face. "Okay, okay!" Molly pushed her sadness down for the time being, knowing that it was impossible to pretend her children weren't growing up forever but wanting to a little longer. "I have to grab a few things down the street and these three want to look around."
Fred walked Molly to the door, holding his arm through hers so that they weren't separated in the crowd.
While George gave Ron and Ginny the best route to take around the store, Rebecca paused to tie her shoe. Since Fred wasn't harping on her about it, she was able to put into practise Harry's lessons with only the slightest tinge of embarrassment making it to her face.
"Can't believe how fast the day's going." George sighed, checking the time as Rebecca stood back up and Fred rejoined them. "Are you getting hungry?"
"And what if she isn't? Am I supposed to starve?" Fred quipped.
"I could definitely eat."
"I'll run and get them." George paused, chuckling at what Fred had said, and then caught how Ron was holding a toy up to them.
"How much is this?"
"That's-" Fred and George spoke over Rebecca.
"Five galleons." They answered in unison, crossing their arms.
"How much for me?" Ron asked, holding the yo-yo a little lower. He didn't have five galleons, he didn't even have two.
"Five galleons." Fred and George repeated, identical shakes of their head in disbelief.
"I'm your brother!" Ron said incredulously.
"Ten galleons." Fred and George shrugged before George continued up the stairs and Fred went to help a customer going for something out of their reach.
"Pricks." Ron muttered, putting the toy back on the shelf.
Rebecca took it right back off and tore the top minutely. "This is damaged! We can't sell damaged goods!"
Ron's scowl lifted slightly, looking at her a moment. "It would be bad for business, wouldn't it."
"Absolutely." Rebecca tossed the box to him and began to give him a proper tour. "They're just excited, they don't mean to be..."
"Gits?"
"Well yes, but don't tell them I said so."
"Too late." Fred intoned, holding a sandwich out to Rebecca and eying the box in Ron's hands. "Must have missed the damage in our initial inspection."
"Must have." Rebecca agreed, unwrapping her sandwich and coming to Ron's defense again. She lifted up the top piece of bread and turned it over. "Hmm, no note this time?"
Ron snorted until Fred's sharp look sent him scurrying off.
"It's a little funny." Fred admitted once he was gone.
"You don't have to make him feel bad." Rebecca muttered, busying herself with a bite of her sandwich.
"I know. It's just so easy."
Rebecca rolled her eyes. She walked alongside Fred quietly until she caught sight of the counter ahead. "Have you seen the book yet?"
Fred wiped the crumbs away from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. "No, afraid to look. Seems like someone has been offering samples and giving things away."
Rebecca looked at him entirely unenthused, letting her eyes trace him up and down. "Go take a peek and say that to me again."
Fred narrowed his eyes, confused. Rebecca leaned against the end of the nearest shelf and continued to eat at her sandwich. Fred paused shortly ahead, a group of kids running in front of him. One tripped and went flying, nearly ending in a teary catastrophe, but Fred's hand shot out and grabbed the little one by the back of her shirt. "Careful, there!" Fred bent to one knee and reached up to the girl's ear, pulling back a knut like it had been in her ear all the while. The girl grinned, especially when Fred directed her to where the sweet dispensers were.
As much as he would have enjoyed teasing Rebecca, he couldn't help but give out the occasional sample as well. Rebecca finished her sandwich with a smile at Fred's interaction with the child.
Fred greeted Cedric and leaned over the counter, turning the book so he could see it. His sandwich fell out of his hand and his jaw dropped. "Fred?" Cedric asked, the sandwich left behind as Fred turned back to see Rebecca.
Fred turned back just long enough to clean up his mess before making his way back to Rebecca, his shock not fading.
"Still worried about some samples?" Rebecca asked.
Fred leaned down and kissed her without warning, linking his arms behind her and standing so that she came with him. He pulled back a moment later before shaking his head and kissing her again. Then, and only then, was he able to speak. "Worried? I can't-I can't even think right now!"
"Do you ever?" Rebecca shrugged, tossing back his own excuse. "'It's so easy though.'" She laughed at his inability to defend himself against his words and stepped back. "I'm going to see what I can do. Mum will be back soon and it's almost three."
Fred nodded, watching her go. He was still in too much shock over their profits to immediately dive into another task.
"Wow!" Hermione remarked. "You're certainly busy!"
"Lots of people want to laugh!" Fred answered, finding his words came easily with Hermione despite his thoughts running wild.
"Where's Rebecca?" Hermione asked, hearing the undertones in his voice. "I said I'd pop by before she left."
Fred pointed down the direction Rebecca had just gone in. Hermione's spot at Fred's side was replaced by Hermione's dad, the man's face filled with awe. "Good god, this is lunacy."
"We specialise in that here." Fred grinned, beginning another tour.
When Hermione found Rebecca, it wasn't in the way that she had been expecting. Rebecca was on the floor, reaching to the very back of the shelf to get the little that was left. "Nearly missed you down there, you alright?"
Rebecca sat up quickly, too quickly. The edge of her glasses caught on the shelf above and went clattering to the floor. "Damn!" Rebecca tried to catch them, but only sent them flying farther without them on.
Hermione picked them up from where they'd landed in front of her feet, the lenses webbed and cracked beyond ignoring. "Well, I've heard of knocking the socks off of someone but never their glasses."
Rebecca giggled, brushing her pants off. "You shocked me, that's for sure! Are they-"
"No, you are not going to wear them as they are." Hermione shook her head. "You'll poke your eye out! I'd ask if you wanted me to fix them, but I know how you feel about mafic outside of Hogwarts ever since..."
"Ever since I was nearly expelled? Yeah, reason enough I think." Rebecca sighed. "I don't care if the Ministry can't pinpoint who uses what in Diagon Alley, it isn't worth the risk." She looked around, not recognising any details in the fuzzy, blurry haze of no-glasses. "Fred or George or even Cedric, they can all fix them."
Hermione led Rebecca by the elbow, never knowing just how bad Rebecca's eyesight had been until she hadn't seen the child she had almost stepped on.
"Hold on, better idea." Rebecca paused at the end of an aisle, working her way into a headache wandering around unable to see. "GEORGE!"
George grinned and excused himself from the introductions Fred was making between him and Hermione's parents. "I think I'm being called."
"He thinks?" Hermione's mom laughed.
"Really?" George asked when he saw the broken reason he was being called for. "That's it?"
"No not really, I just missed your company." Rebecca held them out to him with a frown. "Yes! Can you please just fix them?"
George tapped his wand to them. "Oculus reparo." The lines in the lense disappeared and the frames straightened out--her glasses whole once again.
Rebecca slid them up over her nose, sighing in relief as the world was clear. "Thank you."
"No, thank you!" George laughed. "You look naked without them!"
"It is a little strange."
Rebecca looked at Hermione. "Wow, siding against me! Whatever happened to female solidarity?"
Hermione rolled her eyes and put her arm through Rebecca's again, not to guide but to follow her around the store she had played an intricate role in creating. "Harry rang me this morning. Told me to tell you that everything looks great."
"I can't wait for him to come." Rebecca looked around, wanting Harry's eyes to be alongside her. "We're going to do all our shopping when he's here and-" She had to stop a moment, not wanting to cry. "I can't wait for him to get to Sirius."
"He can't either but the time will fly." Hermione squeezed Rebecca's arm. "It'll pass just like one paragraph in a book to the next."
Rebecca looked at Hermione strangely. "That is not a saying."
"It could be."
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"Oh my..." Remus breathed softly, stepping into Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes with Sirius bouncing beside him and Harry in front of him. Only two weeks remained until Hogwarts' term started and on that day--the first day that Harry, Sirius, and Remus made it to the shop--O.W.L.s scores were supposed to be sent out.
It was a very, very busy day.
Sirius sniffling and wiping at his face startled Remus out of his reverie. "Pads, are you crying?"
Sirius turned away from him, scoffing. "Yeah, right. I don't cry."
"That's not what you said at the end of that m-"
"That dog died, Moony. That's different."
Remus raised his hands in surrender. "Yes, okay. You're right about that. But what's wrong right now? This should be your happy place, look at all the trouble just begging to be caused!"
Sirius looked out over the expansive shelves and displays, his eyes settling ahead where Harry wrapped his arms around Rebecca tightly. "It's-James and Lily would be so proud right now. Prongs..." Sirius turned his head so that Remus opened his arms and Sirius could rest it against his chest. "He'd look at all this and say, 'Blimey! Our works cut out for us, isn't it?'"
Remus chuckled, rubbing Sirius' back as he practically heard the voice of their friend saying those very words. "Yes, he would."
"Hey," Rebecca made her way to the embraced godfathers while Harry disappeared down an aisle with Ron. "Everything okay over here?"
Sirius stood up on his own, waving his hand over at the store. "This...this is magnificent."
"And your still busy!" Remus followed them down an aisle as Rebecca showed them around. "You've been open for what--four weeks now?"
"Five and this?" Rebecca couldn't hide her pride. "This is a slow day." She looked out the window as they neared the front of the store, Diagon Alley as grey as ever outside. "It's not good out there and it seems like more shops are closing each week. Here though, here they come to laugh."
"Of course they do." Remus interrupted before anyone else could be sad on such a day. "No show us around and stop being silly."
"Don't be silly in a prank shop? That's a tall order." Rebecca motioned for them to follow her to the right. "These are our skiving snacks, not like either of you need any of these though."
Sirius tutted and looked over the Puking Pastilles. "You never know when you need to get out of something."
Fred was nodding through Cedric's repeated sharing of where he and George had gone out for dinner the week before. Not even Cedric's new-found trend for retelling the same stories could dampen the smile that came to him when he saw Rebecca showing Sirius and Remus around. One of Fred's greatest joys had become seeing her around the shop: the work became her and, no matter what her task was, she did it happily. From the youngest of customers looking to cause trouble to the oldest customer begrudgingly dragged in, Rebecca helped them all leave beaming.
"Checking them out, Harry?" Fred asked after abandoning Cedric's storytelling for the time being. "Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, real money spinner."
Rebecca appeared behind them, Remus and Sirius following their tour guide. "Good if you need to make a quick get away, too." Harry waved to Ron from across the store and he looked at Rebecca with his eyes wrinkled, unsure of whether or not he could go without being entirely rude. "No, it's fine. Go on and I'll show...never mind." Harry took off to Ron and Rebecca found Sirius and Remus had disappeared in childlike giddiness to a different display.
Fred chuckled and put his arm around her shoulder, steering her down towards the newer section of the store. "The answer is no, I don't think so." He pecked her cheek when she looked up at him. "I know what you're thinking."
"No you don't." Rebecca rolled her eyes after a moment to think it over. "I might have been about to ask if you thought the post had come, but I hadn't decided."
Fred smirked. "It'll get there when it gets there and we'll open them at dinner."
Rebecca sighed. Dinner felt so far. Molly and Monica, as Hermione's mum had demanded they all call her instead of Mrs Granger, had been corresponding almost daily to plan tonight's opening-O.W.L. celebratory dinner.
"Love?"
"Only thinking."
"Dangerous." Fred glanced at the display Hermione and Ginny were in front of, brotherly-concerned. "Hello ladies."
"Love Potions?" Rebecca asked incredulously, stepping away from Fred as if to keep Hermione and Ginny from looking any longer. "You two don't need these!"
George snorted. "Especially not you, Ginny."
Harry stopped where he and Ron had stumbled upon them all, the tension palpable.
"Meaning?" Ginny demanded, putting the vial she held back in its display to turn her fill attention onto George.
"Are you not currently dating that Raven-dork?"
Ginny only have a smug shrug. "That's none of your business."
Harry couldn't help but feel as if his eyes were drawn to Ginny, and he wanted them anywhere else until Ginny was out of sight.
"Anything new then?" Hermione asked Rebecca.
"Yes!" Rebecca jumped back into her role of tour guide, pointing back a ways. "Finally perfected the blasted..."
Fred and George lay a hand each onto Harry's shoulders, keeping him from following. "Harry, we have to thank you again."
"You already thanked me." Harry said, looking with longing at the long-gone backs of Hermione and Rebecca. "A few times, actually."
"And we still feel like we owe you more. All of this-" Fred grinned at the bustling shop. "All of this would have taken much, much longer without you. And clearly business is booming, so-"
"Stop there, I don't need to hear another word." Harry glanced behind the Weasley twins as Rebecca and Hermione were already on a different topic and on their way back towards them. "You made sure she wasn't here for this, didn't you?"
George gulped. "Of course not, she's this bloody tall." He held far lower than believable. "But you could always just take the money and not say anything."
"I'll take the money," Fred and George relaxed at Harry's shocking agreeability. "But I'll tell her about it."
Both boys shot back to attention. Fred narrowed his eyes. "You're a devious, scheming bloke Harry. Have you ever heard that before?"
"Heard what?" Rebecca glanced at the time. "That it's almost three?"
"Yes," Harry said with a meaningful look at Fred and George. "That's all I heard, at least."
Rebecca unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it off, telling those going back to the Burrow then that she'd be right back down. The stairs up to the flat above the shop had become familiar over the summer, the original plan of working only a few days a week long forgotten.
Inside what would one day be she and Fred's room, Rebecca hung her suit up and pulled on her day-clothes with a sigh. Molly was requiring the last two week so summer to be shop-free after the three-day-a-week agreement had flown out the window.
Molly couldn't understand that the shop didn't feel like work and it certainly shouldn't have counted as such since--as far as to her knowledge and to her insistence--she wasn't paid. No matter the nagging, Molly had budged.
Hermione leaned against the counter next to Fred, nudging him so that he would redirect his attention from the still-closed door to the flat. "You did what I said, didn't you?"
Fred grinned. "Why do you ask? You know I did."
"Feels good to hear it."
"Then yes," Fred bumped Hermione with his side. "I set up the account and yes, she doesn't know. Exactly as she'll stay about it, right?"
Hermione scoffed at the insinuation. "As if! I'm an excellent keeper of secrets. Just because you melt at the sight of her..." Hermione's words fell on suddenly-deaf ears as Rebecca opened the door and walked down the stairs. "Like I was saying."
"What?" Fred asked hollowly, his mind elsewhere. Her hair was pulled back, just the locks that would have framed her face. Fred almost forgot how to breathe.
Rebecca waved to George and Cedric where they were and smiled up at Hermione. "Ready to go?"
Fred cleared his throat. "Excuse me, I do believe you're going home for the day." He held his hand out in front of her, blocking her walkway from going any closer to the fireplace. "Where do you think you're going?"
"Really?" Rebecca sighed.
"Really." Fred turned his arm so that his hand was facing her, waiting for her to take it. He smiled cheekily when she did and apparated the two of them back to the Burrow.
"I don't think I'll ever understand them." Ron remarked, holding the pot of floo powder out to Hermione and Harry in turn.
"That's probably a good thing." Harry laughed, explaining further when Hermione and Ron looked to him. "You'd have to be as mental as they are!"
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"Bring the plates!" Remus passed onto whoever else was in the kitchen as Sirius forgot them. He was far too occupied with antagonizing Tonks with all of the devilish things he had purchased from the shop.
Molly and Monica were at the table with bowls and plates of every conceivable picnic-related food while Wendell and Arthur gossiped at the grill.
"No, I'm telling you Arthur, you'll know when they're done."
"How if you don't cast the diagnostic?"
"They'll tell you," Wendell turned an ear towards the cooking meats. "Just listen."
Rebecca, one of the few left in the house, called out the door to Remus before he had a heart attack trying to organise so many people. "I've got the plates, Rems!" She opened the cupboard and reached up, placing a hand on the counter and pushing herself taller as her tiptoes didn't put the farther-back-than-usual plates in her reach.
Remus gestured towards Fred to help Rebecca in a panic before hurrying down the hall Sirius had disappeared down, trying to convince Sirius to commit to a truce long enough to eat with everyone.
"Can I get that for you?" Fred asked softly, easily scooping out the entire stack of plates and holding them out of her reach. "Ready?"
"Yes!" Rebecca laughed. "You're delaying supper on purpose!"
"I would never!"
"Yeah, yeah." Rebecca laid a hand on his stomach and tried to pull him down into a kiss. "Kiss me so we can go open the scores."
"So romantic." Fred wasn't all that bothered by her approach though, not when it meant kissing her all the same.
Rebecca and Fred left the plates at the end of the table and joined the queue, Fred taking a spot behind George and Rebecca squeezing between Remus and Harry. "Cut much?" Harry asked, stepping back around her so that he was in front again.
"Bitch much?"
"Children, children." Remus interjected before anything could escalate. "That's enough, you're all going to eat."
Molly and Monica had plates loaded with food for everyone--including them--in no time. "Today," Molly began ceremoniously. "We will see how the hard work-"
"Can we please open them?!" Hermione nearly shouted.
Wendell hid his laughter with a well-timed cough, both his daughter and his wife's eyes levelling on him testily.
"Yes, I guess so." Monica sighed, handing out the half of the letters Molly had handed her while instructing everyone to wait until they all had them to begin to open them.
"Remember what George told you." Fred laid a hand on Rebecca's bouncing leg, squeezing it reassuringly. "You are more than an exam score." He was given a little bit of what might have been a smile before Rebecca's sealed letter was in her hand and her face was entirely blank.
Fred couldn't help but wonder if the walls she could put up so quickly would one day be wholly destroyed.
"Alright!" Arthur called, waving his hands for them all to begin as if he were announcing the start of a race. "Go on!"
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(In case you've forgotten or need a refresher, here are the O.W.L scores)
Pass Grades:
Outstanding (O)
Exceeds Expectations (E)
Acceptable (A)
Fail Grades:
Poor (P)
Dreadful (D)
Troll (T)
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Hermione had hers open in a second, her eyes scanning the sheet just as quickly. Molly had a hand on Ron's shoulder and was praising him quietly, ruffling his hair and leaving a kiss on the side of his head before looking around the table.
Harry's face fell for a single moment before he managed to hide himself well enough, but not before Sirius had noticed and asked to see his scores.
Rebecca slid her scores out of the envelope, feeling her heart pounding in her ears and feeling how it climbed up her throat.
Rebecca Potter Weasley:
Astronomy: E
Care for Magical Creatures: E
Charms: O
Defense Against the Dark Arts: O
Divination: T
Herbology: E
History of Magic: P
Potions: O
Transfiguration: O
"Well?" Fred prompted when neither joy or disappointment showed on her face. She turned the paper towards him, still serious. Fred read over the scores and found the very excellence he knew he would and he wasn't sure where her celebration was. "Rebecca!"
Harry looked across the table solemnly, curious.
Hermione and Ron switched scores, beginning the trading between them all. Ron rolled his eyes and told Hermione he could have guessed while Hermione defended the areas Ron succeeded in.
Sirius finally handed Harry back his paper, confused by the reaction that had threatened to show before being masked. "These are perfectly acceptable scores, what's wrong? You don't even want to know what I got..."
"I got an E in Potions." Harry answered softly, not wanting his failure known to everyone. "That means I can't take N.E.W.T. level." He held his sheet over to Rebecca, still keeping his eyes turned to his plate. He knew she would have been able to see the pain he was still coming to terms with.
Harry Potter:
Astronomy: A
Care for Magical Creatures: E
Charms: E
Defense Against the Dark Arts: O
Divination: P
Herbology: E
History of Magic: D
Potions: E
Transfiguration: E
Rebecca knew exactly what had Harry in a less-than-celebratory mood after reading his scores. She frowned and caught Fred just as he stood to show off her scores to the others. "Hey darling?"
"Yes, love?" Fred asked excitedly, kissing her forehead. He was flooded with so much pride he hardly knew what to do with it all. "Anything. You ask and it's done."
"I was thinking maybe we should go ahead and...start that thing?"
"That thing?" Fred clarified, furrowing his brow.
"Yes, that thing." Rebecca nodded and took a final bite of her supper before taking his hand and hurrying to the covered box by the side of the house.
Harry turned Rebecca's sheet to the light, narrowing his eyes. "Well, at least I didn't get a T."
Hermione paled and dropped the fork she had only just picked up. "A-a what?" She waited while Harry read Rebecca's scores to her, noting that she got a bloody O in Potions. "Let me see that." Hermione scanned Rebecca's scores for herself and couldn't believe it.
"What?" Ron demanded, yanking Rebecca's sheet from Hermione's frozen hands. "What's the T in?"
Molly gasped and held her hand to her mouth, leaving the adult's conversation at the sound of one of the children having gotten a T. "No. Which of you? A T?!"
"What's a T again?" Wendell asked, very confused why the table was plunged into whispers and murmurs. "Terrific?"
Cedric shook his head, confused. He had seen Rebecca studying, heard about her in classes. "Not quite. T...T stands for Troll. It's the lowest score you can get. What in Merlin's beard did she get that in?"
George plucked the paper out of Ron's hands exactly as he had Hermione's. Molly ignored the rudeness she saw, needing to know herself. "Divination--It's a mistake! It has to be!"
Arthur shook his head. "There are no mistakes in the O.W.L.s."
They continued to debate the validity of the score while Rebecca and Fred worked on organising their surprised and setting them up on the very top of the Burrow.
Harry was grateful they had all been distracted by Rebecca's Divination score; he had found a moment to mourn his dream of being an auror privately.
"I'm sorry." Tonks offered quietly. She had been subject to many a question by the boy on what it meant to be an auror and the qualifications required therein.
"At least it's not a T." Harry tried to laugh away form of his pain, but it didn't work. His narrow failure felt like it was burning a hole in him.
"You are right on that." Tonks shook her head. "I'm not even going to pretend to understand that one. I was under the impression she was a right swot when it came to exams."
"Nice, Dora, nice." Remus scolded before leaning back and considering the situation entirely. "It is a little ironic though. Fails Divination, battles subconscious premonitions."
"Not for a while." Harry corrected, something sticking out to him about the irony. Rebecca hadn't mentioned anything horrible happening in her Divination exam, certainly nothing that could have warranted a T. But, at the same time, she hadn't mentioned anything to him about recent dreams either.
Rebecca sat down with a secretive glimpse back towards the house, not saying a word about where or what she and Fred had been setting up and not seeming to hear any questions about her exams and, most specifically, what had gone wrong to have earned a T. Before Molly had asked the first question though, Harry saw something behind Rebecca's eyes--something that looked almost afraid by the memory.
Just as quickly as he thought he had seen it though, Rebecca's wall was back up and she appeared as she always did. "Maybe," Harry thought, scaring himself with the accusation his own mind could conjure up. "Maybe I don't know her as well as I've always thought."
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In case you were curious, this is the best guess as to what Ron's scores would have been and Hermione's scores as well.
Ron's O.W.L.s
Astronomy: A
Care of Magical Creatures: E
Charms: E
Defense Against the Dark Arts: E
Divination: P
Herbology: E
History of Magic: P
Potions: E
Transfiguration: E
Hermione's O.W.L.s
Arithmancy: O
Astronomy: O
Care of Magical Creatures: O
Charms: O
Defense Against the Dark Arts: E
Herbology: O
History of Magic: O
Muggle Studies: O
Potions: O
Study of Ancient Runes: O
Transfiguration: O
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