HIDDEN BLACK

✧HONESTLY, WERE GOOD LOOKS JUST A WEASLEY TRAIT?✧

LYRA LOOKED AROUND THE tiny kitchen to see even more redheads (how did she forget that Ginny had so many brothers?) There were only two that she didn't recognize, and she supposed that they must have been Bill and Charlie, the two eldest.

"Hello, you must be Lyra," said the nearer of the two, grinning at her and holding out a large hand, which Lyra shook, feeling calluses and blisters under his fingers. This had to be Charlie, who worked with dragons in Romania. Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it.

Then the other, Bill, got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Lyra's hand. Bill was... handsome, definitely. Honestly, were good looks just a Weasley trait? He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring with what looked like a fang dangling from it. Bill's clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except that Lyra recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragonhide.

"Woah," she gasped, "Is that actually from -"

"Dragons?" Bill gave a charming grin, "Nah, Charlie wouldn't let me," she looked at Charlie, who chuckled and nodded, "They're fake, but still look cool, eh?"

Lyra nodded, but moved away from the fireplace as it erupted in green again.

"Did he eat it?" said Fred excitedly, holding out a hand to pull Harry, who had just arrived, to his feet.

"Yeah," said Harry, straightening up. "What was it?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer. . . . "

The area exploded with laughter; but before any of them could say anything else, there was a faint popping noise, and Mr. Weasley appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder. He was looking angrier than Lyra had ever seen him, granted she had only known him since this morning.

"That wasn't funny Fred!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything," said Fred, with another evil grin. "I just dropped it. . . . It was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."

Lyra could already imagine how easy it would be to get the other Slytherins to eat them... most considered it the worst kind of treachery to go against their house, especially the 'noble Slytherins', but really, they had earned it.

"You dropped it on purpose!" roared Mr. Weasley. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet -"

"How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly. Lyra couldn't help but feel eager as well.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

The Weasleys roared with laughter again.

"It isn't funny!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "That sort of behavior seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons -"

"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" said Fred indignantly.

"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," said George. "Isn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry earnestly. Lyra looked at him in surprise, but should have known from his family's reactions to magic.

"That's not the point!" raged Mr. Weasley. "You wait until I tell your mother -"