Chapter 2
THE YOUNG WITCH KNOWN AS Rory Weasley bounces around her new apartment after returning home from her meeting with the president of MACUSA. It's been a great day but Rory is keen to relax.
At half eight, her phone starts screaming at her. And that's not a metaphor or an analogy, the phone literally starts screaming like it's being brutally murdered. This is because Rory has followed after her Uncle Ron in the way that she's sometimes quite scatterbrained and oblivious. So her Aunt Hermione had to set the most obvious alarm for her ringtone so she'd never miss a call or message. Smart, but extremely annoying.
Rory trips over the leg of her dining table as she answers the call after sprinting from the kitchen to the living room where her phone is. Laughter fills the other line and Rory joins in.
"Is she okay?"
Rory hears her mother fussing in the background.
Rory kindly requests her siblings hand the phone to their mother, after promising they will be able to speak to her once she's done speaking to their parents.
"Are you okay, chérie?"
Fleur Weasley, née Delacour, asks her eldest as two of the other three children run off to collect their father.
"I'm fine, Maman. So, I met the President of MACUSA today."
Rory starts and she can imagine her mother's reaction. She'll be sitting in her chair and clenching the arm nervously, wishing only for her children to succeed in life.
"Oh, how did that go? Alright, I hope."
She says.
"Well..."
Rory starts slowly, deliberately. She wants her mother to get the wrong idea.
"Oh darling."
Fleur says sadly, before launching into reassuring nonsense. Like, 'there are plenty of places out there that would be lucky to have you and if MACUSA can't see that then it's their loss'. Usual mother stuff.
"I got the job!"
Rory yells suddenly, interrupting her mother. Silence follows.
And then...
"You cheeky bugger."
Bill Weasley snorts into the receiver.
"Thanks dad."
Rory grins even though her parents can't see her. She's sure they will imagine her grinning.
She can hear her mother ranting at her father, blaming his family for how their eldest has turned out. She is, according to her mother, 'too much like those damn twins, and she only met one of them!'
This has Rory laughing along with her dad, despite the painful reminder that her Uncle Fred is no longer with them. But it's all fine, the family has moved on and Rory gets along famously with her Uncle George.
"Alright Mum, ease up. You guys aren't mad still?"
Rory asks, slightly concerned.
They'd been so shocked and she hadn't even given them time to be angry. It had only been a few days since she'd told them she was leaving and then done so.
"About you running off to another continent? Not at all."
Bill promises, in a way that leaves Rory still unsure how her parents feel. He has a talent for that.
"A little warning would have been nice though."
Fleur adds on in a chastising manner.
"I gave you warning! I told you I had an announcement a month before and the whole family was invited for the dinner."
Rory justifies.
"But you left the next day."
Bill points out. He does have a good point.
It was a funny evening actually...
•
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•
RORY INVITED THE WHOLE FAMILY to her dinner and none of them know why, it's great. Well, she told her Uncle George and they both decided it would be hilarious to give almost zero warning before disappearing to America for a couple years.
Those in school are home for the summer holidays and those at work have been given suitable warning to request time off, even her Uncle Charlie managed to make it back to the UK.
The night starts off well. The adults are sipping lightly on their drinks and asking through laughs what the occasion was, but Rory and George remain tight lipped.
The children are behaving well too, surprisingly. Louis sticks close to his big sister, as he always does. He's closest to Rory out of his three sisters.
Then James and Fred II find a box of prank supplies in the room of the original trouble makers of the family and they decide they need to spice things up, because all anyone is doing is drinking and speculating and catching up. So where's the harm, right?
They set up the fireworks and as Rory steps up to make her announcement, they set the bloody things off.
Now, it's quite obvious but... it's a terrible idea to set fireworks off in an enclosed space.
Needless to say, it doesn't end well. One firecracker explodes above and deafens those below. Another knocks over a jug of water and has Rory's little cousin, Lily, screaming as she gets saturated in frigid ice water. The final firecracker lights the marquee on fire and everyone is forced to evacuate.
Rory huffs, dries a crying Lily with a simple charm and extinguishes the fire before it spreads through the dry field and takes down the Burrow.
The two would be pranksters exchange a look before legging it inside to escape the wrath of their parents, their grandmother, and their cousin.
The scolding those two receive is legendary and terrifying.
Lily turns to her mother then and asks innocently if James and Fred have ruined her cousin's news and that brings all attention back to Rory.
She gathers her breath, for she's panting after scolding her younger cousins, and casually announces that she's leaving for America the next day to further her career as an Auror and simply sits back as chaos ensues.
•
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•
RORY LAUGHS AT THE MEMORY. It had been a good night, despite the near catastrophe.
"So, tell me about your partner. Are they nice?"
Fleur asks in a typical mum way.
"Dunno. Haven't met him."
Rory answers honestly with a shrug.
"That's a bit slack."
Bill says, no doubt with a frown. Rory can imagine the two of them frowning in disapproval at MACUSA's inability to introduce two partners.
"Nah, I got lost and he got bored and left on assignment. I meet him tomorrow, though."