Confident | Fred Weasley

Chapter 80 | Mansion

With Christmas over and done with, Sarah absorbed herself back into her potion-making. Capri had brought a few books on blood magic back from Italy, so Sarah spent the rest of December scouring through them.

New Years passed with the group attending a party hosted by Lee and Spike. Sarah hadn't even realised they were such good friends, but apparently, they were thinking of becoming roommates and moving closer to Diagon Alley. It was actually quite a nice party, as Sarah even got to see River and Alicia attend.

"My parents are on baby-sitting duty tonight!" Alicia had shouted over the loud music when Sarah had asked.

January began with terrible weather. It was just rain, and more rain, and even more rain. Still, Sarah's birthday was celebrated rather nicely. Mrs Weasley insisted that they have Sarah's birthday dinner at the Burrow. The usual lot attended, bringing gifts and catching up over firewhiskey glasses. The dinner ended with a fireworks show by Fred and George.

Sarah also went back to work. She was beginning preparations for her first ever tour. It was going to be small, with only a few locations; London, Paris, New York, and Los Angeles. Sarah hadn't ever left the country before, so the prospect of going to America was incredibly nerve-wracking.

Still, she found herself with a lot of spare time, so she started helping out with the shop again. Fred and George refused to hire anymore people, as it put them in danger by being connected to the Weasleys, so Sarah did her best to help out with the workload.

With the kids back at Hogwarts, the shop was quiet enough that if you were stationed at the till, you could crack open a book or the Daily Prophet. Sarah chose a textbook that Capri had brought back from Italy on blood magic.

It was called "The Blood is the Life: the Study of Magic and Blood" and had been particularly insightful so far.

Fred approached the till, sweat on his brow. He was carrying a crate full of orders that needed to be wrapped and sent out. Owl orders always increased when students went back to Hogwarts.

Sarah looked up from her book, "Busy?"

Fred nodded and grumbled, "Yeah! Tomorrow, we're having George do the orders. I'm sick of carrying crates around."

"Oh, come on," Sarah teased, "Where's all that beater strength gone, huh?"

Fred slid past her, placing the crate behind the till, "Funny you mention that, actually. Wood came round this morning with Angie, did you know?"

Sarah shook her head, "I didn't realise. I was working in the basement this morning. Are they alright?"

Fred withdrew a roll of orange tissue paper, purple ribbon, scissors, and spell-o-tape. With nothing else to do, Sarah reached for another pair of scissors and began to help Fred with the orders.

"Yeah, yeah, they're fine - " Fred waved off Sarah's concern. "They came with an interesting proposition, though."

Sarah raised an inquisitive brow, "Do tell."

"They were thinking to help with Angie's quidditch training, as well as keeping the gang together, we might do some mock Quidditch games," Fred told her, slicing through the tissue paper in a satisfyingly straight line.

"Oh, that sounds fun!" Sarah agreed, as she began cutting the purple ribbons into similarly lengthy strips.

"I said so, too. I put us both down as wanting to do it, if that's okay?"

"Course it is."

"I'll need my bat back, by the way," Fred told her, placing a Skiving Snackbox on the tissue paper. With a series of crunches, he folded the tissue paper tightly around the box.