Chapter 4
Molly and Arthur were not surprised that their household stayed asleep well into the next day. The evening before had been long, stressful, and not to mention frightening. Lunch time marked the waking of most of the children, but Molly went to check on the remaining few snoozing on.
Charlie, on the couch in the living room, had his blanket tucked around him as tightly as Molly had done it hours earlier. Exhausted to the point of not turning, Charlie seemed as content as can be.
Rebecca and Fred, however, had shifted minutely. Rebecca had pulled her legs farther up under the blanket while Fred had turned so that he was farther on his back, though both of their hands still dangled between them dangerously close to touching.
Hermione and Ginny came down the stairs trailed by Harry and Ron, Ginny the chosen one to ask if they could go outside. "Could we go flying, mum?"
"Yes," Molly held her hand up as she thought of a stipulation. "But don't go shouting near the front of the house, they're still sleeping."
Harry lingered behind the others. "Do you think they're alright?"
"I think they probably just needed a good long rest after yesterday, yeah?" Molly reassured Harry with a small smile.
"Probably just exhausted from lugging you about." Ron countered, laughing.
Molly when to scold her youngest son, but he hopped out the door before she could get a word in as he knew what was coming. Hermione patted Harry's arm as she and Ginny passed him to go out, Hermione offering a spot next to her on the ground if he didn't feel like flying when he made it outside.
"He'll be out in a minute." Molly said, finding that the others weren't hesitant in the slightest to let Harry be for a moment. Once they were alone, Molly stepped out from behind the counter. "Would you like a hug-oh!"
Harry wrapped his arms around the most motherly figure he had and held her tightly, worried and a little lost.
"Sweets, I'm sure she's fine." Molly said with a rubbing of his back, motioning for him to hop up into one of the stools at the counter when he let go of her. "Let's have a cup of tea."
There was one thing about the entire ordeal that was bothering Harry greatly. "What does it mean--Voldemort's followers at the match?"
Molly took a sharp breath at the name. "You-Know-Who was a plague in our world, a plague that spread far and wide."
"So you're not worried about yesterday?" Harry asked, confused.
"Harry, I have a son in Romania with dragons, a son in Egypt with curses, another son graduating this year, (I know, anti-canon. However, since I made the twins one year younger it seemed fitting that Percy stay a year younger as well. He's not the biggest role in this story so it doesn't really matter.) two sons who want nothing more than to cause trouble, and Ginny. Not to mention the two of you, who have a very special place in my heart. And Arthur!" Molly gasped. "How could I forget Arthur and his muggle toys?"
Harry looked down, disheartened. "But it's so easy to worry. Too easy."
Molly slid his cup of tea in front of him and sipped from hers. "It is. But the easiest way to stop worrying is to work out why that will be okay. You start, we can do this."
Harry took a deep breath, racking his head to think of what he should possibly start with. "Rebecca. Easy enough to start with--she's a walking worry herself. Asleep? She tells the future. Awake? Knows exactly what I'm thinking. She's intune to every single one of us and I still feel like I can hardly read her."
Molly smiled, sensing what the issue could really be. "So what you're saying is that you're afraid of how much she loves you?"
"No." Harry found that Molly busied herself with fiddling with her cup, waiting for Harry to admit the truth. "It's not about how much she loves me, I don't think. I-I love her so much. I never want to see her hurt or sad or anything." Harry sipped from his own tea, feeling as if a weight had been lifted off of him at just the admission.
"I want to tell you a story, if you don't mind." Molly found that Harry nodded eagerly. "After Arthur and I had Charlie, we had a scare. Charlie had this fever that got worse, we couldn't keep anything in him, had to take him to St Mungo's in the end. He spent days there and...we almost lost him." Molly didn't talk about this, not ever. "When we finally got him home, I started cleaning everything. If it came in this house, it was deep-cleaned. I spent so much time cleaning that I ended up missing his first steps because I was scrubbing the door knob."
Molly sighed, finding that the ache of loss resounded in her even after all those years. "It was hard, so hard, to know that I'd missed something that you can only watch once--You'll understand when you're a parent how much those things mean--But it ended up for the better. I stopped worrying so much about the germs and spent more time enjoying the time I had with him."
Harry frowned. "But weren't you worried that he would get sick again?"
"Of course!" Molly tried to lead him to her point. "But I had to find balance between worrying and worrying too much."
"So that's what you're saying I have to do." Harry clarified. "With Rebecca and with Voldemort."
Molly flinched at his name again. "Exactly."
Harry stood up and lowered his head. "This family stuff is hard." Molly reached for his hand, holding it firmly until he walked to the door and looked back to her. "It's worth it though, isn't it?"
Molly smiled and nodded. "Family means everything."
Harry laughed, finding that he really did feel much better. "Rebecca was right--You do fix everything with a cup of tea."
Molly waved him out of the house and double-checked her list. "Fred and George will need dress robes, Ron can wear Bill's, Ginny...Ginny will need a dress. Percy can wear Arthur's dress robes. Rebecca will need..." Still adding when two of her three sleeping beauties woke up, Molly smiled. "Harry will be quite please that you two have joined the living. Harry has been in quite the state."
Rebecca smiled sheepishly, excusing herself to brush her teeth.
Fred puttered around the kitchen a moment before pulling out bread, jam, and plates for two.
"Fred?" Molly asked, concerned by her silent son.
Fred looked at her before continuing what he was doing. "I'm alright. Just thinking."
Molly took to her stood again and motioned for him to take the opposite where Harry had been minutes earlier. "Do you want to talk?"
Fred sighed and put the jam away before cutting both sandwiches down the middle and taking a seat. "Last night was mental, mum. I can't-Those muggle-borns..."
"I wish you never had to seen any of that." Molly's heart hurt. "The ugliness of evil."
"But we did." Fred said sadly.
"Yes, you did." Molly looked to the stairs as Rebecca rejoined them and took a stool next to Fred. Fred slid the second plate to her.
Rebecca grinned and held the sandwich up. "Raspberry? My favourite!" She took a huge bite and tried to thank him with her mouth full and failing, trying again when she had swallowed. "This is one of the best sandwiches in the world, definitely patent-able!"
Molly shook her head and slid their letters to them. "I've added everything to the list-"
"A dress?" Rebecca asked, skimming through the usual order of books and finding an additional section for requirements. "Why do we need a dress?"
Fred became very interested in his sandwich, thinking on George's theory of a dance.
"I don't know dear, I'm sure you'll find out at school." Molly plucked the list out of Rebecca's hands and motioned for them both to continue eating. "We're headed to Diagon Alley at the end of the week and can take a peek there but there's also a nice shop in Hogsmeade you'll all find to do well in!"
Rebecca caught Fred's eye, making a face. "Hurrah." Her voice dripped in sarcasm that seemed to jolt Fred out of his mental-meandering. As Molly launched into a discussion about cuts, colours, fabrics, and lots of other dress details Rebecca wasn't overwhelmingly concerned with, a gem of a fact came from Molly.
"And Fred!" Molly abandoned the dress topic, seeing how despite the fact that they thought she wasn't looking, Fred and Rebecca were miming various forms of torture onto themselves. "You and George will need dress robes! Madam Malkin will take the measurements though I might have to go to that woman down the way..." Where before Molly talked on the importance of dress measurements, for dress robes her advice was to have a little extra room for movement.
Rebecca took their empty plates and set them in the sink, waving goodbye to the trapped Fred at the back door. "Thanks for the sandwich!" She mouthed, not wanting to interrupt Molly and bring the discussion back round her way again.
Before Rebecca had even turned the entire rotation from the house to the garden, Harry had his arms around her.
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The door to the Burrow was thrown open as the Weasleys, Harry, and Hermione poured back into the home with their arms heavily laden with piles of the year's supplies.
"Make your piles and pack your trunks now!" Molly shouted up the stairs as the kids climbed them, calling back down their affirmatives. Hermione and Ginny followed Harry and Ron down the hall towards their two rooms while Rebecca lingered at the top of the stairs, shifting some of her books to her other arm so she could free herself enough to get to the paper bag she had managed to keep out of Molly's sight.
Fred and George waved her towards their doorway, looking at the bag excitedly. "You got them?"
"Of course I did." Rebecca patted the bag proudly. "What we needed and more. The clerk gave us an advance on the fangs, powdered newt eggs, and feathers of pigwellions in exchange for a snackbox from the first shipment."
George's mouth dropped. "All of that?"
Rebecca smiled. "I sold it well."
"Clearly." Fred added the ingredients inside to their running supply list and placed it in his trunk carefully. He and George had gathered up every cent they had between themselves and agreed that Rebecca could offer up that exact amount into the fund for supplies. With what she had procured that morning, they would be ready to start crafting as soon as they arrived at Hogwarts.
"Did you two find it strange?" Rebecca asked, leaving her books in a pile at the door and hopping onto Fred's bed to watch as they packed their trunks. "In Diagon Alley today?" She was chalking Fred's odd mood up to leaving home, which she knew upset him deeply.
"Strange how?" George asked.
"No, I noticed it too." Fred sat on the end of the bed, his face taking on the same look it had whenever mention of the World Cup happened. "No one was acting like anything happened. A week ago, the World Cup was attacked by Death Eaters and no one seemed to care."
"I don't think it's not caring, I think they didn't know." George sighed. "I heard dad and Percy talking earlier, why they were yelling. Percy wanted to know something about an article from the Prophet and dad blew up: Apparently 'Rita Skeeter,' whoever that is, said that the Ministry knew there would be an attack with all of the security at the match."
"This only made Percy upset, though, when he insisted that the Ministry couldn't have known anything and that the attack was being blown out of proportion." George's voice trailed away as he talked about what had bothering his thoughts all day.
"Percy said that?" Rebecca asked. "He was there!"
Fred raised his hand and teetered it from side-to-side as if he were weighing options. "He wants a job with Fudge next year. Probably thinks bad mouthing the Ministry will lessen his chances. Prat."
George nodded at the insult. Rebecca stood up to go start her packing before supper and looked behind her as Fred followed her to the hall, catching up with her above the stairs. "Something up?"
Fred nodded and then shook his head, as if he didn't know the answer. "You're not cross with me, are you?"
"Why would I be cross with you?" Rebecca asked confused.
"I don't know." Fred looked down. "This week's been so busy, I just haven't seen you all that much. And now i-it's time to-I just wasn't sure if you were avoiding me or if it's just-"
"I don't think there's anything you could do to have me avoid you, Fred." Rebecca gave him a little smile, wanting it to catch on his face and frighten away the weight that seemed to follow Fred around more and more. "Harry was really freaked after the match, plus Hermione's here. I've also been trying to spend extra time with Ginny before our classes are all different and Molly and Arthur and-"
"Lot on your plate." Fred said, sounding almost relieved.
Rebecca nodded and was happy to see a little glimpse of a smile come from him. "How about a ride tonight?" She looked over his shoulder to make sure no one else was out in the hall. "After everyone's gone to sleep?"
Fred raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to corrupt me?"
"That's a yes." Rebecca laughed. "I'll knock when it's clear, yeah?" She opened her door with her foot and found Hermione and Ginny chatting and laughing as they piled their belongings into their trunks and talked about the year ahead.
George scowled when Fred reentered their room, the book they all wrote their ideas for Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in his lap. The goofy grin on Fred's face did not go unnoticed and only deepend George's irritation. "That's it, I've got our next project alright: Extendable Ears."
"What, so you can eavesdrop easier?" Fred asked, his elation at the prospect of a sliver of an outing with just Rebecca erasing any potential strife between twins on the premise of privacy.
"Of course not." George answered reassuringly. "Though it will help for sure."
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Molly magicked away the mess after dinner, a treat to celebrate the last supper at the Burrow for the summer. Leaning back in her chair, she looked around as the children squirmed in their seat to start the sharing. "Harry, Hermione? Would either of you like to start us off?" The tradition had been explained to them earlier that day.
"I will, mum!" Ron raised his hand, jumping the line. "My favourite memory of the summer was...your cooking."
The table collectively groaned as Ron sat back proud of himself. As long as he could remember, that had been his favourite part of the summer. The speaking went around the table, a wide selection of favourites presented. "The Match...Quidditch in the garden...Mum's cooking...Being with you all..."
"Fred?" Molly asked, he bing the only one to not share yet.
Rebecca hadn't realised that Fred hadn't shared, still stuck on her own thoughts. She had chosen to pick the day after the Match when they all seemed to spend extra time together.
Fred's face flashed white as every eye in the room turned to him. "I'll keep it for just the book this year, if you don't mind."
Molly nodded and added his scrap of paper to the pile she'd made of everyone else's to add to her project later that evening.
Arthur shooed them off. "Early to bed, early to rise ladies and gents! Cabs will be here bright and early!" He chuckled at how fast the room was cleared, mostly at least.
"What's happened with the second Anglia?" Rebecca asked, still in her seat.
Arthur frowned. "Ministry's banned all of my work with any 'overt possibility' for Muggle noticing."
Rebecca sighed. "I'm sorry."
"It's nothing you've done, but thank you." Arthur jerked his thumb in the direction of Molly--her back turned as she gathered her things to leave the room. "Someone things it's a good idea."
"Yes, I do." Molly answered, not even looking over her shoulder as she left them.
"10:45." Arthur said quietly.
"What?"
"Molly's asleep every night at 10:45, like clockwork." Arthur gave her a little smile. "Sound travels at the top of the stairs, you know." His meaning dawned on Rebecca and she gave him a quick hug before hurrying to finish her packing.
Upstairs, Hermione and Ginny were just placing the last few things on the top layer of their packed belongings while Rebecca had plenty of work to go. "Can we-What are those?" Hermione asked, gesturing to the miscellaneous, not-on-their-lists potion supplies.
"If I tell you, I have to kill you." Rebecca answered ominously.
Hermione rolled her eyes. "You are going to cost us so many points this year." Hermione's jaw dropped as Rebecca continued to pull out ingredients, seemingly endlessly. "How much do you have?"
"See my last answer." Rebecca grinned, catching Ginny's eye.
"How many orders have you gotten so far?" Ginny asked, sitting on Rebecca's bed and looking down at the would-be mayhem.
"You're selling pranks!" Hermione realised, very late to the party. "Oh my-Rebecca!"
"It's harmless, Hermione!" Rebecca laughed. "It's not like...I don't know, drugs or something. They're pranks."
Hermione sat next to Ginny, shaking her head and putting her face into her hands. "Where did I go wrong with you?"
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The showers had started early, the kids all ready for bed as Molly and Arthur climbed the stairs to make sure everyone was settled in. "Everyone snug as a bug?" Arthur asked as he entered every room behind Molly, like he did every night.
"Rebecca, you almost forgot this!" Molly chided, setting a cup of tea on the table beside her bed. "You packed-"
"I have them." Rebecca smiled. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry," Molly kissed her forehead and then Hermione's, pulling their blankets up. "Just drink it."
Arthur gave Rebecca a wink by the door as the adults left, one that Hermione noticed. Turning to her as soon as the door was closed, Hermione's eyes were narrowed with suspicion. "What are you planning?"
"In bed, Hermione?" Rebecca asked, the perfect innocence on her face. "I'm trying to go to sleep!"
Hermione sighed. "Mhmmm--And I'm a monkey's uncle."
"Are you really? Congratulations!" Rebecca laughed at the face Hermione gave her and checked the time. There was still nearly half and hour until she could take the brooms she'd hidden in her and Ginny's closet out.
"Just whatever you're doing," Hermione pleaded. "Please drink the tea when you two are done. I really don't want to be sleep beaten."
Rebecca looked from the clock to Hermione quickly. "Two? I never said anything about anyone else."
Hermione looked to Ginny as if she needed support before giving Rebecca a knowing look. "Rebecca, you don't have to say anything. You and Fred are practically connected at the hip."
Rebecca looked to Ginny for her own support, finding none.
"Hermione's right!" Ginny said with a laugh. "It's sad really, how he follows you around all day."
Hermione sat up so that she could talk over Rebecca. "Is he following her though? I can never tell, they seem to go back and forth."
Rebecca pulled the blankets over her head. "You two are rotten!"
"But we're not wrong." Ginny sang. "What're you two even going off to do?"
"Why do you want to know?" Rebecca retorted, sticking head out from under the covers.
"So we know where to say you weren't when Ludo Bagman is found dead tomorrow." Hermione said, a sliver of seriousness coming into the conversation. "We know they're still really upset."
"No murders tonight." Rebecca sighed, sitting up. "But yeah, they're still upset. All we can keep doing really is send owls, but he never responds."
"If I ever see him in a dark hallway..." Ginny said threateningly. "I won't tell you what I'll do, so you can deny knowing, but it will be ugly."
"That's not why we're going on a fly." Rebecca looked to Hermione and Ginny. "I'm not telling you because you'll make fun of him."
"I would never!" Hermione denied, staring at Ginny until she agreed to secrecy.
"Fine, I won't either." Ginny crossed her arms. "You never let me have any fun."
Rebecca ignored her comment. "He gets really sad when it's time to leave. I figured a last adventure would be a good parting."
Hermione smiled. "That's actually really sweet."
"'Actually?'" Rebecca repeated. "I can be a very sweet person!"
"For Fred." Ginny countered.
"And in general!" Rebecca defended.
Hermione pounced at the exposed admission. "And. You said 'and.' Have anything else to say on the topic?"
"I didn't say and." Rebecca said immediately, scrambling to find a way out of the corner she'd backed herself into.
"I heard an 'and.'" Ginny added, pointing to Hermione. "We both heard it."
Rebecca checked the time and decided that leaving ten minutes earlier was better than staying with those two. "I did not say 'and' and I admit nothing." Rebecca slipped out from under the blankets and went to the closet. "You two are mental. Besides, doesn't Hermione have something to say about a Bulgarian scarf or are we still pretending that there isn't one?"
Ginny and Hermione watched as Rebecca walked to the door before thinking it over and doubling back to the window. Hermione and Ginny stopped their teasing to ask what she was doing as she it open.
"Rebecca?" Ginny's voice took on a concerned tone as Rebecca poked her head out to see how far the drop was.
"We get it, we're not funny." Hermione said quickly. "We're done!"
Rebecca grinned madly from the middle of the room, sticking one broom under her arm and holding the other out in front of her. She ran the last few feet in the room before launching herself out the window and jumping onto the broom in her hand to catch herself as she dropped to the ground.
Hermione and Ginny were out of bed in an instant, watching Rebecca's broom take flight and take her back to the window. Hermione had her hand against her heart, the racing beats making it feel as if it would jump straight out.
"There," Rebecca said with a grin. "Now we've all had our fun this evening. Damn am I happy that worked!"
Hermione shook her head. "You are a horrid person. A horrid, horrid person."
Ginny looked out the window in awe. "I am so doing that next time."
"Don't wait up." Rebecca said, closing the window. "I'll be quiet." She turned away from the house to Fred and George's room, the night air not uncomfortably cool. The moon shone brightly in its three-quarter position, looming over the horizon in the distance.
Rebecca held the second broom across her knees, balancing herself as she pulled her broom to a stop outside their window.
Fred was leaning against the wall next to their door, telling George that he was going to give him a black eye like Ron's if he didn't stop talking.
"I don't know why you get so defensive." George said, leaning forward so he was laying on his stomach and had his chin propped up on his hands. "Are you hiding something, Freddie?"
Rebecca knocked on the window as loudly as she dared. Fred glared at George and opened the door to the hall, looking up and down for the source of the knock. Rebecca tapped the pane again, smiling as she opened it from the outside. "Really, Fred? Half-dead or something?"
Fred walked across the room and stuck his hand out, catching the side of George's head and pushing him so that he fell forward with a grunt. "Fancy seeing you here. Looking for someone in particular?"
"Yeah." Rebecca leaned forward so she could see around Fred. "Coming, George?" Rebecca laughed and held the broom out for Fred to take. "Let's get on before we're exhausted for tomorrow."
Fred grabbed the broom and pushed out of the window lightly, gliding next to Rebecca as they had so many times through the summer. Waiting until they were far enough from the house for no one, not even George who they could clearly see lingering at the window, could hear them.
"Where to?" Fred asked.
"Thought we could go out to the pitch and see where from there, if you're alright with that?" Rebecca asked.
"Sounds great to me." Fred took off. "Race you!" He pushed his broom's nose farther down, speeding into the night with Rebecca right behind him.
Rebecca leaned down against her broomstick, minimising the wind resistance the best she could and closing the few inches between the two of them just as they passed between the quidditch posts.
They pulled up, accepting a tie. Continuing on at a walking pace, they meandered down towards the lake they--save Rebecca--would swim in on the rare days it was hot enough. Fred pulled his broom to a stop at the edge of the stony shore, looking out over the land of his home. "I'm really going to miss this." Fred said quietly.
"I know." Rebecca wished she could do something.
Fred set his feet down and tossed his broom on the grassy bank behind them. "Can I try something with you?" He stepped closer to her, waiting for her approval.
"Depends?" Rebecca was just happy to see a smile teasing at his lips. "What is it?"
"You'll see." Fred swung a leg up over the back of her broom and sat on it behind her. He put his arms around hers, grabbing the handle over her hands. "Charlie did this with me before my first year, before we had to go for the first time. He understood while Bill couldn't."
"Understood what?" Rebecca asked as Fred raised them every so slightly.
"That it's hard to leave." Fred guided them forwards, over the water, slowly.
"Fred?" Rebecca asked, her voice raising as the safety of the ground left them.
"I'm right here." Fred reassured, tightening his grip over her hands. "It's okay." He slowed their ride in the middle of the water, the edges of the lake visible all the way around them. "Charlie took me out here and said that, like the water, we're together all the time. It might not always look like it, but we're infinitely connected."
Rebecca had opened her eyes as he explained, uneasy by the distance of land but heartened by the message and memory Fred was sharing with her. She turned her head so that she could see Fred, realising just how close they really were. "That's beautiful."
"I still cried every night the first week." Fred admitted, blushing. "But thinking that there was still apart of me with mum and dad helped." Fred blinked and turned his attention to the sight around them once more. "Sometimes that's what I think about you. We're apart but never entirely."
Rebecca watched how his cheeks darkened further, thinking about him in a way she wasn't sure if she had before and wondering if she should-
"Cheesy, right?" Fred took her hesitation as a sign that he had been too forward and lowered his head, turning them back to where his broom was waiting for them on the shore.
"I don't think it was cheesy." Rebecca turned her hands to hold onto his when he first tried to get off of her broom. "Not at all, actually."
"Actually?" Fred asked, leaning to the side so he could see her entire face for any sign of dishonesty.
"Actually." Rebecca let go of his hand and waited for him to mount his broom before speeding off towards the house. "I'll win on the way back, too!"
"Not fair." Fred said the second he caught up with her, Rebecca already having opened the window to the girls' room. Both Hermione and Ginny were asleep, thankfully.
"I'll get the brooms back in the morning." Rebecca whispered, setting them both back in their closet quietly while Fred pulled the window shut behind him.
Fred nodded, noticing the unconsumed tea on her side table. "Is there a certain time you want to be up tomorrow?" He whispered back as Rebecca lifted the cup to her mouth and drank from it.
"Half-seven with Hermione, why?"
He gestured to the tea, the two of them walking towards the door. "It's later than you normally drink it, probably leave your more tired in the morning. I'll make sure you're up, okay?"
"I didn't think of that." Rebecca frowned down at the liquid. "Maybe I should only drink half of it-"
"I'll make sure you're up." Fred interrupted, thoughts of the pain he had seen her in at the World Cup filling his head.
"I'll hold you to that." Rebecca warned, finishing the long-cooled tea. "It's," She yawned deeply. "Quite strong." He laughed and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway quietly and turning back towards her. She stood in the doorway, leaning against the frame with her mug in one hand and the other at her side. "Good night, Fred."
Fred took a step back towards her, looking down to her. "Good night, Rebecca." Fred leaned down to her and Rebecca felt as though her breath caught in her throat. His lips brushed against her cheek, flooding them with an unlabel-able disappointment. "It was a perfect night, the perfect goodbye."
"Yeah, it was." Rebecca closed the bedroom door once Fred reached his, more than ready for bed but finding sleep eluded her for a while.
Despite the happiness of their evening and the absolute perfection of spending time with one another, both Fred and Rebecca lied in their beds for a long while feeling as if there had been something teased--dangled in front of them--but not received.
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"Don't make me come up there!" Molly shouted up the stairs, silencing the bickering between Ron and Ginny over whose turn it was next in the bathroom early the next morning. Hermione's alarm had gotten both she and Ginny out of bed, but Rebecca was unreachable.
Harry abandoned the hope of the bathroom and turned back to Ron's room, figuring that he could just get dressed in there and nab his toothbrush when there was an opening. Fred followed Harry down the hall and passed him, knocking on the girls' door lightly. When there was no response, he let himself in and pushed the door shut behind him too softly for it to make a noise--too softly for it to have shut all the way.
Fred couldn't help a smile at the sight of Rebecca sleeping so deeply, especially when her hair was wild as ever and the occasional light-snore escaped her. "RJ?" He shook her shoulder.
There was no response. "Rebecca?" He asked, shaking her a little harder.
Harry stepped further into Ron's room but continued to watch as Fred bounced on her bed where he sat before reaching down to slip his shoes off and climb onto Hermione's side of the bed. "Oh RJ?" He sang cheesily. "It's a beautiful day!" Bounce, bounce, bounce. "It's time to wake up!" Bounce, bounce, bounce.
Rebecca woke up laughing, nearly being bounced off the bed as Fred jumped off. "You should sing more often." Rebecca's voice was scratchy with sleep, making Fred wish she would speak more. "It's a nice way to wake up."
"Don't flatter me." Fred responded. "George already says my head is bigger than his." He flattened down his hair, it had gotten to be one of the longest lengths it had ever been. "It's nearly eight, so you'll-"
"Bugger!" Rebecca sat up quickly. "We've got to go soon!"
Fred put his shoes back on as Rebecca threw the blanket after blanket off of her, scrambling for her glasses clumsily. The arm of her glasses caught on her mug, sending it flying off the edge of the table. Fred's arm shot out and grabbed it before it smashed. "You've got plenty of time!" He laughed. "You laid out your muggle clothes, you packed your robes. Right?"
Rebecca put her glasses on and pushed the locks of hair in her face back, nodding.
"Alright then, all you have to do is get dressed and eat breakfast." Fred stood with a stretch. "I'll go make sure Ron doesn't eat it all and see you when you're ready." He walked backwards out of the room, pointing at her from the door. "Plenty of time!"
Fred closed the door behind him so she had the privacy to change and jumped at the sight of Harry in Ron's doorway. "She'd asked me to make sure she was up last night." Fred said, trying to recover from the care.
"Really?" Harry mused. "I spent the entire evening with her and I don't remember that." Harry secretly enjoyed the way Fred started to squirm under his stare.
"Strange, isn't it?" Fred said. "How that happens?"
"Very." Harry turned back into Ron's room and closed the door behind him, leaving a rattled Fred to hurry down the stairs.
Rebecca paused at the top of the stairs when she left the room, frustrated. "Does anyone see my jumper down there--my Christmas jumper? I can't find the blasted thing for the damn train ride!"
"Language!" Molly called as Arthur answered as well.
"It's down here, next to your trunk!"
Molly turned on Arthur, giving him a look. "You've got to call them on their mouths! It's like they were raised by sailors!"
"And language!" Arthur called up, far too late.
Rebecca smiled as she brushed her teeth and tried to comb her hair, Harry peeking his head in to see if he could brush his as well.
"I've just given up." Harry said, clarifying. "Both on the language thing and the hair."
Rebecca rinsed her mouth. "Well, only one of us can look a perpetual mess so that's alright with me."
Harry did not appreciate the insult. "Sleep well last night? Noticed it you slept past the alarm."
Rebecca glanced at him in the mirror, fixing the last section of her hair. "Fine. Took me a while to fall asleep is all."
Harry shook his head so his hair was extra messy and paused at the door. "You're an awful liar."
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Molly directed the children into their cabs as they poured out of the house. "Percy, Arthur, and I are in the first one! Hermione, Ginny, Rebecca in the second with the owls and Crookshanks! Ron, Harry, Fred, and George in the last one! Let's get a move on!" She clapped her hands as they and their trunks started filing towards their rides.
Arthur helped with situating trunks and making sure everyone was present and seated before heading to the frontmost cab. The rides were uneventful for the most part, the kids chatted and gazed out the windows. Rebecca kept looking over her shoulder to make sure that the third cab was still following them.
"I think the cab knows how to get to King's Cross." Ginny sighed after the third look-back.
"I'm just making sure we don't get too far apart." Rebecca said defensively. "Don't start any nonsense this early."
Hermione laughed into her book, but stopped when Rebecca turned to her.
"Really, Hermione?" Rebecca crossed her arms. "Alright then, I have my own nonsense to start. The scarf. Where'd it come from? It's time confess."
Hermione turned her page slowly, not looking at them. "Nothing to confess to. A fit stranger gave it to me. Keyword: Stranger."
"Keyword: Fit." Rebecca corrected. "What'd he look like?"
Hermione smirked. "Well, he wasn't tall, lean, and red-haired so no need to worry."
Rebecca scowled. "You think you're so clever, but I'll get you back for that."
Ginny oohed and laughed at the two of them, directing their focus to the fact that they were nearing King's Cross. "Look, we're almost there!" A sign listed the distance remaining as five kilometres.
Rebecca looked over her shoulder and told herself that it would be the last time she would until they arrived. (It wasn't.)
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