Beauxbatons [Charlie Weasley]

Excitement

"Did he eat it?" Fred asks excitedly, holding out a hand to pull a soot-covered Harry to his feet.

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

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

Isabelle can't help but laugh, along with almost everyone else in the tiny kitchen. She's back at the Burrow, of course, having been invited to go along to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys. She's actually very excited, but nowhere near as excited as Charlie, who looked like a little puppy that was about to pee himself when he found out they were going.

"How're you doing, Harry?" Charlie asks, grinning at the black-haired boy and holding out his large hand for Harry to shake.

Bill gets to his feet, then, also smiling, and shakes Harry's hand, too. The eldest Weasley boy is wearing his usual rock concert clothes, with his long hair tied back into a ponytail and donning an earring with a fang dangling from it.

Before any of them can say anything else, there's a faint popping noise, and Arthur appears out of thin air at George's shoulder. He's looking angrier than Isabelle's ever seen him.

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

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

"You dropped it on purpose!" Arthur roars. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet—"

"How big did his tongue get?" George asks eagerly.

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

Isabelle, Harry and the Weasleys roar with laughter again.

"It isn't funny!" Arthur shouts. "That sort of behaviour 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 was a Muggle!" Fred says indignantly.

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

"Yeah, he is, Mr Weasley," Harry says earnestly.

"That's not the point!" Arthur rages. "You wait until I tell your mother—"

"Tell me what?" a voice says behind them.

Molly has just entered the kitchen, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Oh, hello, Harry dear," she says, spotting him and smiling. Then her eyes snap back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"

Arthur hesitates. Isabelle can tell that, however angry he is with Fred and George, he never actually intended to tell Molly what happened. There's silence, while Arthur eyes his wife nervously. Then two girls appear in the kitchen doorway behind Molly. Hermione — one of Harry and Ron's good friends from school — and Ginny. Isabelle flashes a smile at both of them, which is reciprocated by both girls.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Molly repeats in a dangerous sort of voice.

"It's nothing, Molly," Arthur mumbles. "Fred and George just — but I've had words with them—"

"What have they done this time?" Molly says. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes—"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" Hermione says from the doorway.