The Tree Fort
1st September 1982-
‘Bill can you please hold Fred and George still!’ called Mrs Weasley.
‘Why are we even doing this?’ grumbled Bill getting very fed up.
It was seven thirty in the morning, and Bill was standing outside the new Ottery St. Catchpole School, in his new school uniform. Today was his first day at Hogwarts, but Mr Weasley and Lyall wanted to get a photograph of all the children outside the school they had all worked so hard to get ready, before Bill left for school.
So all fourteen children were standing outside the school, when the sun had hardly risen trying to group together outside the old stable so they could all fit in the photograph. They were having to take the photograph so early, as the Weasley’s had to drive up to London to drop off Bill in their new car.
Ginny didn’t want to be held this morning, so was playing with Harry, Ron and Neville at the front of the little group. Cedric and Felicity were kneeling behind them, with their hands folded on their laps, Fred and George though weren’t behaving, and kept on trying to run off and play. At the back, Stefan and Percy were looking very proud as they had been trusted with holding Luna and Ophelia, and Charlie had his arm around Bill who was wearing his brand-new Hogwarts school robes which were currently plain black, as Bill wouldn’t be sorted until tonight.
‘Ok guys!’ called Lyall after having got enough photographs.
‘You can go and play now.’
‘Yay!’ yelled Fred and George rushing up and dashing as far away from the adults as they could.
‘Don’t go too far!’ called Mrs Weasley, ‘we’ll be leaving soon!’
Mrs Weasley and Mr Weasley were taking Bill and Charlie up to London to take Bill to get the train. They were leaving the rest of the children with the Lupin’s today as the car wasn’t big enough for all seven children, but Charlie wanted to come and see Bill off. They could have fit Percy in the car too, but Percy and Stefan were going to play together today.
‘Good luck Bill,’ said Remus, ‘we’ll all be thinking of you.’
‘Now then Bill,’ said Lyall, ‘what house do we want to be in?’
‘Gryffindor!’ beamed Bill.
‘Are you sure I can’t make you change your mind?’ asked Lyall.
‘You’re very bright, I’m sure you’ll make a great Ravenclaw.’
‘Lyall,’ said Hope warningly.
‘Don’t worry Uncle Lyall,’ laughed Stefan, ‘I’m going next year, and I will definitely be a Ravenclaw.’
‘Are you sure about that?’ asked Charlie.
‘You’ve got to be pretty brave to hit people with a frying pan,’ laughed Charlie.
‘Just ignore them,’ said Percy shaking his head at Charlie.
‘Come on Perc,’ said Stefan his face lighting up, ‘lets go destroy the ring!’
‘Can I be Frodo?’ asked Percy as they ran off together.
‘Only if I can be Aragorn!’ called Stefan laughing.
‘Wait!’ said Lyall running after the two boys, ‘you’ve forgotten Gandalf and his magic staff!’
Lyall picked a large stick off of the ground, and went to join in the fun. He had read the books with Stefan and Percy, and he always joined in with their fun when they were playing make believe.
‘We’ll leave them in your hands Remus,’ chuckled Mr Weasley.
Mr Weasley and Mrs Weasley got in their new Ford Anglia with Bill and Charlie. It was light blue, and second hand but Mr Weasley loved it.
The Fawcett’s, the Longbottoms and the Diggory’s had already headed home, but the Lovegood’s were still there, as Ginny was babbling away to Luna.
‘Alright Moonbeam,’ said Xenophilius lifting Luna, ‘time to go home.’
Ginny burst into wails of tears that Luna had to leave.
‘It’s alright little Ginny,’ said Pandora gently, and brushing Ginny’s tears off of her face.
‘We only live a few miles away, you can visit Luna any time that you like.’
Ophelia pulled herself up from the grass, and walked over to Remus and pulled at his trouser leg.
‘What is it sweetheart?’ asked Remus picking Ophelia up.
Ophelia pointed to Luna to try and make her point.
‘Do you want Luna to stay?’ asked Remus.
Ophelia nodded and beamed.
‘Seems like he had a unanimous vote Xeno,’ chuckled Remus.
‘Well I suppose we can stay today,’ said Xeno, ‘if you really want us to.’
‘Of course we want you to stay,’ said Hope, ‘you’re always welcome. Besides Remus needs your help today.’
‘Really?’ asked Xeno curiously.
‘I need to make a play area for the school,’ explained Remus, ‘I was thinking about putting a swing in one of the trees, and maybe even build a tree house.’
‘Sounds like fun!’ beamed Xeno who always like a creative project.
‘Oh God!’ exclaimed Hope running over, ‘those twins are getting close to the cave! They’re heading for the sea!’
Hope ran over to stop them, whilst Remus and Xeno went through all wood and rope they had to make a play area with.
Pandora had sat down in the grass cross legged with the three girls, and was explaining to Luna, Ophelia and Ginny about how the fairies left gifts of the flowers and painted the petals in the twilight. Luna was listening enthralled, Ophelia was playing with the wild flowers, and Ginny was running around never running too far away from the group.
Hope had managed to persuade Fred and George not to run too close to the beach, so they didn’t get hurt, and was now supervising Harry, Ron, Fred and George as they took it in turns to fly on toy broomsticks. Harry had one, and the twins also shared one, so they took it in turns to fly on the little brooms.
They had managed to get Stefan and Percy to help them, and between Lyall, Remus, Xeno and the boys they soon had a good start on the play area.
Stefan had managed to tie up the rope swing in a tree by sitting on Lyall’s shoulders, and Percy had spent his time finding the best trees whilst Remus and Lyall built a rope ladder to climb up.
Remus had originally planned a little tree house, but by the end of the afternoon, it was a substantially sized fort, complete with a rope bridge connecting between two of the larger trees, a play house for the children to play in which also had a small bookshelf, there was even a little observation deck where the children could watch the stars at night.
The observation deck had been Xeno’s idea and was a bit unusual as most tree houses didn’t have a separate area for watching stars, but Remus loved it because he knew it was the exact kind of thing that Marlene would have loved as a little girl.
‘Can we play now?’ asked Stefan as they finished building.
‘Of course Stef,’ chuckled Remus.
Stefan beamed and rushed up into his new forest kingdom.
‘Wait for Gandalf!’ called Lyall clamouring up the ladder after Stefan.
‘Are you coming Legolas?’ asked Percy taking Xeno’s hand.
‘Legolas?’ asked Xeno inclining his head, his blonde hair blowing in the breeze.
Remus couldn’t help himself but laugh, Xeno with his long blonde hair, and mysterious ways of talking did make a perfect elf.
‘He’s a tall immortal elf,’ explained Remus.
‘Very wise, very cool.’
‘Well alright then,’ said Xeno taking it in his stride and joining in.
By the time that the Weasley’s had gotten back from London, Ron and Harry had gotten tired and were now just chatting, so Fred and George were racing each other on the tiny brooms. Pandora, Luna, Ginny and Ophelia had all fallen asleep in the grass all four of them wearing countless daisy chains.
But Percy, Stefan, Lyall, Xeno and Remus were playing Lord of the Rings. Percy was playing Frodo and was protecting the ring which was actually just an acorn on a piece of string, Stefan was Aragorn and was waving an imaginary sword, Xeno was Legolas and offering wise advice and battle strategies whilst he used an invisible bow and arrow.
Lyall and Remus were battling each other with staffs which were just large sticks. Lyall was Gandalf, and Remus was the evil wizard Saruman. According to Percy and Stefan the game hadn’t been any fun, as they hadn’t had a proper villain to fight against, so Remus was now being the evil wizard.
Remus wasn’t evil at all, but he had a lot of fun pretending to be. He had an excellent maniacal laugh, and he chased the warriors around the garden throwing spells at the warriors until they had to hide and regroup in their secret hideout which was the tree fort.
‘Looks like you’ve all been having a fun day,’ beamed Mr Weasley picking up a Ron who was starting to fall asleep.
‘We’re playing Lord of the Rings!’ beamed Stefan.
‘I’m Frodo,’ laughed Percy.
‘Well you can play again tomorrow boys,’ said Mrs Weasley holding a sleeping Ginny.
‘I need to get Ron and Ginny home to bed.’
‘Bye Frodo,’ waved Stefan, ‘don’t lose the ring!’
Percy showed Stefan the acorn which was still tied securely around his neck on the string and drove home with his family.