𝟏.| ✬ 𝒟ℯ𝒶𝓇 ℬ𝒾𝓁𝓁, ✬ {ℬ. 𝒲ℯ𝒶𝓈𝓁ℯ𝓎}

\𝓉𝒽𝓇ℯℯ\

~

"And Weasley's got the quaffle, passes to Weasley, who- drops it" Bill said in his best announcers voice, making Ginny giggle.

"Oh, come on Ron," Fred bellowed, catching the muggle basketball Bill threw up to him.

They were losing miserably. Eleanora swooped past George and high-fived him, taking both hands off her broom to cheer for yet another point to their team. "Forfeit yet?" she called to Fred, who pulled a face at her and chucked the ball towards the opposite goal, missing by yards.

Sunday afternoons had become the designated time for quidditch. The twins, Eleanora, Bill, Ron, and Ginny would all troop over to the nearby field and play game after game until someone gave up or got hurt. Bill was usually the announcer, but in moments like these- when Fred got too annoyed at his little brother's lack of experience on a broom- he would take over. "Ron, trade out" he shouted, setting his wand down on the ground next to Ginny. "You can be the announcer now, Gin." He took Ron's broom and kicked off.

"Eleanora passes to George, who passes to Eleanora, who- woah, did you see that?" Eleanora had done her signature move, a corkscrew flip to dodge her opponent- in this case, Bill. "And Eleanora scores, making it-" Ginny screwed up her face, trying to do the math.

"110-10!" George called gleefully. He caught the the ball and twirled it on one finger. Fred swooped past him and grabbed the ball from his finger. "Oi! That's cheating!"

"Sometimes you have to cheat to win," said Fred, diving past Bill who had almost fallen off his broom from laughing.

"And the score is 110-20!" shouted Ginny as Fred made his second goal of the game.

"Fred!" Bill called, holding up his hands to catch the ball, and they were off again. Eleanora dove at Bill, who swooped out of the way, speeding towards the goal. George tried to block his shot, but Bill made it, whooping as the score went up ten points.

After that, the game started to even out. Bill was a good player, despite never having been on the team, and surprised Eleanora with his flying skills. "Show off," she called as he did a flip to avoid George stealing the ball off of him and made yet another goal.

"110-110, tied," Ginny yelled, voice cracking with excitement.

"Whoever gets the next goal wins the game," said Bill. "We should get home soon anyways." He tossed the basketball high in the air. George caught it as it came down and passed to Eleanora, who was cut off by Bill, and passed it to George. George missed narrowly and let the ball drop a few feet until Fred swooped in out of nowhere and caught it. Bill cheered. Eleanora dodged past him, trying to cut off Fred, but she was right behind him, speeding towards the goal.

She had an idea at the last second, something she'd only practiced once on the pitch at Hogwarts with Charlie. That time, she had fallen on her face and gotten a bloody nose, but she decided it was worth the risk this time. She pulled her legs up, setting her feet behind her until she was crouching on her broomstick, then slowly stood, balancing shakily as she zoomed behind Fred. It was like riding a skateboard- which she had never done.

When she got close enough to the Fred that the tip of her broom was brushing the twigs in the back of his, she took a deep breath. They were almost at the goal, it was now or never. Using her full momentum, she pushed herself off of her broom and flew through the air, meaning to land on the back of Fred's broom. It didn't work. She grabbed his shoulders and pulled him off his broom, both of them toppling over and plummeting the few feet to the ground. Fred landed on top of Eleanora and the ball landed a few feet to the right. He rolled over and let out something between a groan and a laugh. "Eleanora, what the hell was that?"

"Get off of me, I can't breathe." She pushed him away. They both laid on the grass side by side, laughing too hard to catch their breath.

The other Weasleys ran to catch up with them. "That was incredible- how'd you do that?" Bill asked, throwing his broom on the ground and sitting down next to Fred and Eleanora.

She managed to contain herself enough to say, "It didn't work right," and then dissolved into uncontrollable giggles again.

They walked back to the Burrow together, Bill carrying Ginny on his back. All six of them were streaked with dirt and grass stains, vividly recounting the day to each other. When they walked in the front door, Percy looked up at the group in mild disgust. "I do hope you're all showering before dinner," he muttered before going back to his book.

Mrs. Weasley bustled in from the kitchen and looked at her children with affectionate reproach. "I was starting to get worried- it's later than usual, you know. Dinner's almost ready, so you'd all better hurry to get cleaned up- Eleanora, dear, you have dirt all over your face, go wash up."

"Mum," Ginny said as Bill lowered her to the ground, "you should've seen what Eleanora did, she stood up on her broom. It was incredible." She looked up at Eleanora in admiration.

"It really wasn't that great," said Eleanora, secretly feeling please with herself. Ginny was hard to impress.

Eleanora washed up quickly and changed into a clean pair of shorts and a Weird Sisters shirt she had stolen from George at the end of last school year. When she went down to the kitchen, Mrs. Weasley had her chop up some vegetables for a salad, which Eleanora did gladly. She was always looking for ways to help Mr. and Mrs. Weasley out, never wanting to feel like a burden. She spent many breakfasts with Arthur discussing how simple magical items worked, and even sometimes helped him take apart things like her muggle CD player. She helped Mrs. Weasley in the kitchen all the time, not because she really felt like she had to, but because she loved listening to the woman talk, always there to help everyone.

Today she was going on about a man named Kingsley Shackelbolt, who had stopped by to complain about something at work. "What exactly does he do?" asked Eleanora, intrigued by the complaints Mrs. Weasley recounted.

"Oh, he's an auror- catches dark wizards and such, very important work," she said, waving her wand at a pot of soup so it would stir itself. "He can't tell us about a lot of the work he does, it's all very private, but he's in charge of some big things."

Eleanora thought about this for a long time. She liked the idea of fighting dark wizards, especially because of her family history. Mrs. Weasley seemed to know what she was thinking. "Oh, it's very difficult to become one. You need top marks and even then there's a rigorous training process. I'm sure you could do it if you really put your mind to it, though."

"Yeah, maybe. I don't really know what I want to do," she said honestly.

"Well, you don't have to. You're thirteen years old, they shouldn't be making you decide your future right now anyways. Speaking of which, what do you want to do for your birthday?"

Eleanora looked up in surprise. "My birthday?"

"Yes, it's coming up, isn't it? I was just thinking something small, a family dinner and a cake, unless you wanted-"

"That sounds perfect. I never do anything for my birthday."

Mrs. Weasley gave her a warm smile. "That's what we'll do then."