Towers - Fred Weasley

46

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DINNER TIME IS ALWAYS NOISY. Ebony would never admit it but she disliked dinner time with the Weasley's. Sure, there were things worse but Molly always made it a point to scold the twins for every small thing they do, just like today.

"Fred - George - NO, JUST CARRY THEM!" Mrs. Weasley shrieks. 

 Harry, Sirius, Ebony and Mundungus look round and, a split second later, they have dived away from the table. Fred and George had bewitched a large cauldron of stew, an iron flagon of Butterbeer and a heavy wooden breadboard, complete with knife, to hurtle through the air towards them. 

 The stew skids the length of the table and comes to a halt just before the end, leaving a long black burn on the wooden surface; the flagon of Butterbeer falls with a crash, spilling its contents everywhere; the bread knife slips off the board and lands, point down and quivering ominously, exactly where Sirius's right hand had been seconds before. 

"FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!" screams Mrs. Weasley. "THERE WAS NO NEED - I'VE HADENOUGH OF THIS - JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE ALLOWED TO USE MAGIC NOW, YOU DON'T HAVE TO WHIP YOUR WANDS OUT FOR EVERY TINY LITTLE THING!" 

"We were just trying to save a bit of time!" Fred reasons, hurrying forward to wrench the bread knife out of the table. "Sorry, Sirius, mate - didn't mean to -" 

Harry and Sirius are both laughing; Mundungus, who had toppled backwards off his chair, is  swearing as he gets to his feet; Crookshanks had given an angry hiss and shot off under the dresser, from where his large yellow eyes glow in the darkness.

"Boys," Mr. Weasley says, lifting the stew back into the middle of the table, "your mother's right, you're supposed to show a sense of responsibility now you've come of age -" 

"None of your brothers caused this sort of trouble!" Mrs. Weasley rages at the twins as she slams a fresh flagon of Butterbeer on to the table, and spilling almost as much again. "Bill didn't feel the need to Apparate every few feet! Charlie didn't charm everything he met! Percy -" 

She stops dead, catching her breath with a frightened look at her husband, whose expression was suddenly wooden. 

 "Let's eat," Bill says quickly. 

Ebony looks over to her two best friends. Though they look rather unbothered, she can see the look of disappointment on George's face and the look of hurt on Fred's. The two boys sit down on either side of her in silence. She places her hand over Fred's and offers him a soft smile.

It was quiet for a little while before everyone starts to talk again. Ebony follows the conversation in silence, she doesn't want to interrupt the adults even though she herself is one now too. She had turned seventeen back in June but she didn't celebrate it. Not with everything going on.

"Since when did someone have to be in the Order of the Phoenix to ask questions?" asks Sirius. "Harry's been trapped in that Muggle house for a month. He's got the right to know what's been happen— " 

"Hang on!" George interrupts loudly. 

 "How come Harry gets his questions answered?" Fred asks angrily.

"We've been trying to get stuff out of you for a month and you haven't told us a single stinking thing!" George states. 

"'You're too young, you're not in the Order'," Fred taunts in a high-pitched voice that sounds uncannily like his mother's. "Harry's not even of age!" 

"It's not my fault you haven't been told what the Order's doing," Sirius says calmly, "that's your parents' decision. Harry, on the other hand -" 

"It's not down to you to decide what's good for Harry!" Mrs. Weasley states sharply. The expression on her normally kind face looks dangerous. "You haven't forgotten what Dumbledore said, I suppose?"