Summers (with Fred & George Weasley)

You're a Muggle Beca

The day after term ended Beca went to the park. Just as she’d been praying all winter they would be, her three best friends were sitting there waiting on her. Lucy’s crush on Fred was as big as ever, and absence had made her heart grow stronger for George. They didn’t really talk much about their school. Just that some new kid, Harry something, was in Fred and George’s house. Beca knew there were four houses at their school. Fred and George were in Gryffindor, Lucy was in Ravenclaw and none of them liked the kids in Slytherin and then there was a fourth one. She never could remember the name of that fourth house. Kind of like trying to name all the dwarfs from Snow White.

Beca didn’t have school to talk about. Uncle Phil said school was a waste of time for girls. She did tell them that she had a part time job at Bishop’s Books. Addleson Bishop owned the book store in Ottery St. Catchpole. It had been arranged for Beca to work for him and also for him to give her lessons.

What she couldn’t tell them was about the strange man who happened upon her in the park, just a few months after they’d left for school. She was sitting on a swing, minding her own business, and feeling a bit sorry for herself, when the oldest man she’d ever met started speaking to her. She told him straight up, “If you’re a mass murder here to kidnap and kill me so you can get your picture in the paper, you’ve picked the wrong girl. No one would even notice or care if I disappeared.“ she said sadly.

“Not even Fred and George Weasley?“ the old gentleman asked.

That sparked Beca’s interest. Who was this man and how did he know Fred and George. He suggested Beca accompany him to the book store and it was him, Professor Dumbledor, who introduced her to Addie and arranged for her to work for him. The only thing he asked is that she not mention him to her friends. She could do that.

Whenever the foursome got bored Fred or Beca would come up with some clever plan to entertain them. Since today was a hot day, Fred decided they should go swimming. All the kids liked to hang out at the pond over in the valley. There was a tall tree that hung over part of it and a rope had been tied to it. Fred, George and Lucy loved to swing out over the pond and dive into the water. She was amazed at how long they seemed to hang in the air or how many flips they could do before hitting the water.

Actually, she was just amazed at their ability to get in the water at all. It’s not that Beca was afraid of water. No, that wasn’t it at all…Beca was afraid of the dark. She still had nightmares about the car accident that killed her parents and she just couldn’t bring herself to step foot in that dark, murky water.

The next time they were bored, it was Beca who came up with a most brilliant idea. They would go to Wyatt’s Supermarket and have a shopping cart race. Beca and George were one team, Fred and Lucy the other. The object was to have one person pushing and one person riding in the cart. They would take off in the parking lot, enter opposite doors, race up and down the aisles, only pausing half way through to switch between rider and pusher.

1,2,3,Go! They raced up and down the aisles as fast as they could go. It was hard to tell who was in the lead until the very end, but it was George and Beca who won. She wrapped her arms around him, and as he pulled her from the cart, he kissed her right on the mouth. And it wasn‘t a “kiss-because-of-a-bet” either, it was a real kiss. They were cheering and laughing so hard, she wasn’t even sure he’d realized what he’d done.

Even though Fred and Lucy lost, they were also laughing just as hard as Beca and George, until they heard someone scream, “Beatrice Glenn!” They all turned and saw Mr. Wyatt standing there, arms on hips, looking furious. Beca walked over to him and he was really reading her the riot act. Threatening to tell her aunt and uncle what she‘d been up to, wanting to know who those other kids were and what their parents name’s were and where they lived. The last thing Fred and George needed was the Muggle grocer complaining to their mum about something they’d done while running around with Beca. Mrs. Weasley already disapproved of Beca, after last year when Fred and George had been caught by Bill and Charlie fighting over her.