Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [6]

⚡️ Chapter 9 ⚡️

The shop was packed with customers; Vega could hardly see the shelves in her line of sight. She looked around the place, taking in the brightly-coloured surroundings – there were boxes piled to the ceiling: Here were the Skiving Snackboxes that the twins had perfected during their last, unfinished year at Hogwarts; Vega noticed that the Nosebleed Nougat was most popular, with only one battered box left on the shelf.

There were bins full of trick wands, the cheapest merely turning into rubber chickens or pairs of briefs when waved, the most expensive beating the unwary user around the head and neck, and boxes of quills, which came in Self-Inking, Spell-Checking, and Smart-Answer varieties. Vega felt like this busyness was just what she could expect.

A space cleared in the crowd, and Vega pushed her way toward the counter with Harry right behind her, where a gaggle of delighted ten-year-olds was watching a tiny little wooden man slowly ascending the steps to a real set of gallows, both perched on a box that read out to the audience in an array of flashing colours:

Reusable hangman – spell it or he'll swing!

"'Patented Daydream Charms...'" Hermione had managed to squeeze through to a large display near the counter and was reading the information on the back of a box bearing a highly coloured picture of a handsome youth and a swooning girl who were standing on the deck of a pirate ship.

"I think I might want that one," Vega joked, trying to lighten the mood and she was glad when Harry laughed lightly in the back.

"'One simple incantation and you will enter a top-quality, highly realistic, thirty-minute daydream, easy to fit into the average school lesson and virtually undetectable, side effects include vacant expression and minor drooling. Not for sale to under-sixteens.' You know," Hermione said, looking up at Vega. "That really is extraordinary magic!"

"For that, Hermione," said a voice behind them. "You can have one for free,"

Vega whipped around to find a beaming Fred stood before them, wearing a set of magenta robes that clashed magnificently with his flaming hair. He laughed at her reaction and held his arms out for her to hug him, which she gladly did.

"Fred!" Vega breathed, wrapping her arms around his shoulders and reaching up to give him a kiss, making Fred grin against her lips. "I missed you,"

"I missed you, too, love," Fred assured her before looking at their audience. "How are you, Harry?" He held his arm around to shake his hand.

"Good," Harry replied, shaking his hand back.

As Vega moved back from Fred, she brushed her hair away from her face and looked at her boyfriend in confusion when he took her chin to move her head to look at him, staring at her closely until she realised that he was focused on her eye.

"What's up with your eye?" Fred asked, genuinely curious.

"I got a bit hurt," Vega replied before adding hastily, "By accident – of course, we were all just fooling around with your punching telescopes, you see,"

"But you know it's dangerous, Vega," Fred said, frowning and not looking for a second convinced that she took part in that. "Show me how bad it is; I've got something to fix you up,"

Hermione took the moment to flee the scene, causing Vega to look after her in bewilderment and she quickly busied herself with undoing her Metamorphmagus cover-up and allowed Fred to see what was up with her eye and he frowned deeper.

"How long have you had it now?" Fred asked as he pulled a small tub of cream out of his pocket before reaching to inspect her black eye. "Does it hurt?"