(Eng) Weasleys, Pranks and other Curses

34

When I woke up the next morning, I could hardly believe my luck. I was lying on my back, all fours stretched out from me, and on my stomach was George Weasley. His fingers intertwined tightly with mine.

"No," he grumbled, squinting his eyes tighter as I brushed his hair out of his face.

"I'm afraid we must. We have to be gone before my parents show up here."

George was still grumbling, but slowly getting up. "You're right," he growled, rubbing his face.

"Besides, maybe you should put on something else for breakfast. I don't know what the others will say about you coming out of my room like that." I raised an eyebrow, and this time I didn't shy away from admiring him from head to toe.

Again, something awakened in me. Animalistic. Hungry. I wanted to devour him skin and hair. I shook my head to dispel the thoughts, yet continued to watch George slip into his pants, leaving his shirt unbuttoned.

I was about to say something about changing my mind about breakfast when we both heard murmurs from the hallway. We exchanged a glance and I nodded toward the door as I quickly slipped back into my nightgown.

George jerked the door open and already Ginny, Maddie, and Fred were tumbling in in turn.

"We weren't - "

"We were just - "

And "Uh lala!" was all they got out before George closed the door behind them again. To my great regret, he was now buttoning the buttons on his shirt after all.

"What a nice surprise," he muttered, looking skeptically at his brother.

"We just wanted to see if everything was okay," Ginny grinned broadly and came prancing around the bed to join me. "Looks okay. We can go again, guys."

"Not so fast!" I grabbed her by the hem of her shirt. "It's actually quite convenient that you're here."

"Is it?" George still thought otherwise, then it clicked. "Ah. Yes, it is."

He pulled out the letter from my parents while I explained the plan.

"I don't want to stay here!" immediately complained Ginny.

"But we need someone to convince the others that we've, well, you know, buggered off?"

She still had her arms crossed, but seemed to slowly understand her usefulness to us. "And Maddie and Fred?"

"They're both trying to catch us in the act so they can tease us about it for the rest of our lives." George nudged his brother. That wasn't so far from reality.

"Well, if I have to," the youngest Weasley continued to pout. "But then we'd better hurry before Mum and Dad have had enough coffee."

I was having a hard time acting normal at breakfast. In my head, I was already a hundred steps ahead. Lost in thought, I drank my herbal tea, only to be blindsided. Courage. Confrontation. Twin Star.

The tea reading showed exactly the same as it had before.

"What is it?" George leaned over to me and I held the cup out to him, even though he wouldn't understand.

"I've been getting the same results for weeks. Courage. Confrontation. Twin stars."

"I thought you weren't supposed to predict things for yourself?"

"Isn't it called Binary Star in newer editions?" Hermione didn't like fortune telling, but that didn't mean she hadn't read about it.

"Isn't that the same thing?"

For once, Hermione and I rolled our eyes at Fred's comment at the same time.

"A binary star system consists of two or more individual stars gravitationally bound to each other. They periodically orbit the common center of mass. They appear to the outside world to be one, but they are not," Hermione explained.

"And what does that tell you?" George handed the cup back to me.

"When I first saw it, I thought I was going to clash with you," I confessed meekly. But that didn't make sense now. "Oh," I groaned softly as a thought forced itself upon me. But there were still too many people sitting at the table who didn't know about our plan.

"Oh?" I liked Hermione, but not enough to tell her more.

"I think I'm getting my period," I lied quickly to end the subject and shot up the stairs.

Even as I was changing, George walked in without knocking. "What do you think?" he asked and to my amazement he was already ready to leave.

"I think that's already part of the puzzle. Binary stars act as one, but in astrology it makes a big difference. I think the tea is trying to tell me there's more to it than I'm seeing."

"Clever tea," George muttered, holding the door open for me when I finally finished.

We had arranged to meet the others in a reading room. The only room that also had a fireplace that could be plugged into the floo network. I stuffed a sachet of the powder into my jacket pocket. "Everybody ready? You must not let go under any circumstances. Because I don't have a permit for some of the fireplaces we're about to pass."

Everyone nodded. I grabbed George and he grabbed his brother. Fred grabbed Maddie, who was still a little hesitant.

The powder made the flames flicker higher, but I was determined to finally put an end to the whole spook. We had just crossed the threshold and I called out our first address when two figures approached us in the fire.

"Camille?" they called as they flew by, and I hugged myself tighter to George. My parents. They knew I had escaped and in all likelihood they would know where to.

"Run!", I yelled as soon as we arrived at the first turnover point and yanked the three of them after me. Several travelers had to jump out of our way as I headed for the nearest fireplace.

"What happened?" shrieked Maddie, who was being pulled more by Fred than running herself.

"Those were my parents! We can't let them catch up to us!"

"Now what?"

"I'm changing our route. Hold on tight." And already the next fire swallowed us.