Muggle | 𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑊𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑙𝑒𝑦

Chapter 40

The following day, many of the order's members went after Harry as promised and returned him safe and sound.

We had lived rather peacefully in Grimmauld Place up until then, but we were all forced out of our comfort zones the next day as Mrs. Weasley gathered us around to help her clean the place up and get rid of the Doxies, with the help of me, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George.

"Cover your faces and take a spray," Mrs. Weasley said to us the moment we entered the hall, pointing to two more bottles of black liquid standing on a spindle-legged table. "It's Doxycide. I've never seen an infestation this bad — what that house-elf's been doing for the last ten years —"

Hermione's face was half concealed by a tea towel but I distinctly saw her throw a reproachful look at Mrs. Weasley at these words. "Kreacher's really old, he probably couldn't manage —"

"You'd be surprised what Kreacher can manage when he wants to, Hermione," said Sirius, who had just entered the room carrying a bloodstained bag of what appeared to be dead rats. "I've just been feeding Buckbeak," he added and put the bag down on an armchair.

And then by one last quick glance at my direction, Sirius left the hall. Maybe I was just being paranoid, but I felt like he'd been avoiding me ever since the night we had talked, maybe afraid that I would bring it up again.

"Right, you lot," Mrs. Weasley started, "you need to be careful, because doxies bite and their teeth are poisonous. I've got a bottle of antidote here, but I'd rather nobody needed it."

She straightened up, positioned herself squarely in front of the curtains, and beckoned them all forward.

"Oh, this is gonna be nasty," I groaned.

"You have no idea," George muttered darkly, making me giggle.

"When I say the word, start spraying immediately," said Mrs. Weasley. "They'll come flying out at us, I expect, but it says on the sprays one good squirt will paralyze them. When they're immobilized, just throw them in this bucket."

She then stepped carefully out of their line of fire and raised her own spray. "All right — squirt!"

On cue, we all started spraying and one by one, the Doxies flew out from behind the dusty and old curtains and turned immobilized in midair.

Just then, Fred quickly took ahold of one of them sneakily, but Mrs. Weasley had already seen it.

"Fred, what are you doing?" said Mrs. Weasley sharply. "Spray that at once and throw it away!"

"Right-o," Fred said brightly, spraying the doxy quickly in the face so that it fainted, but the moment Mrs. Weasley's back was turned he pocketed it with a wink.

"We want to experiment with doxy venom for our Skiving Snack-boxes," George told Harry under his breath.

Harry moved closer to George and muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "What are Skiving Snack-boxes?"

"Range of sweets to make you ill," George whispered, keeping a wary eye on Mrs. Weasley's back. "Not seriously ill, mind, just ill enough to get you out of a class when you feel like it. Fred and I have been developing them this summer."

"They're double-ended, color-coded chews. If you eat the orange half of the Puking Pastilles, you throw up," Fred continued. "Moment you've been rushed out of the lesson for the hospital wing, you swallow the purple half —"

"— which restores you to full fitness, enabling you to pursue the leisure activity of your own choice during an hour that would otherwise have been devoted to unprofitable boredom.'"

"That's what we're putting in the adverts, anyway," whispered Fred, who had edged over out of Mrs. Weasley's line of vision and was now sweeping a few stray doxies from the floor and adding them to his pocket.

"But they still need a bit of work," said George. "At the moment our testers are having a bit of trouble stopping puking long enough to swallow the purple end."

"Testers?" Harry raised a brow.

"Us," said Fred and I snorted in laughter.

"We take it in turns," said George.

"George did the Fainting Fancies — we both tried the Nosebleed Nougat—"

"—Mum thought we'd been dueling,"

"Let's not forget that you almost dragged me into it!" I retorted, pointing a sharp finger between Fred and George.

They both grinned. "Now, now, Lexi," George started. "It was just an accident."

"Yeah," Fred nodded. "What kind of a boyfriend slips a bit of Puking Pastilles in his lovely girlfriend's food?"

"Oh, I dunno. Let me guess..." I rubbed my chin, acting thoughtful. "Oh, that's right! You!"

Fred gasped dramatically and faked a shocked expression. "I shall not bear this heavy accusation! I'm a perfect boyfriend!"

"Yes, who tries to feed me Skiving Snackboxes!"

"That was an accident! I swear on Merlin's pants!"

"I wouldn't believe you even if you swore on Merlin's balls!"

"What are you kids chattering about!?" Mrs. Weasley turned towards us, her hands on her hips. "Get back to work! Come on now, we'll have lunch soon after."

The de-doxying of the curtains took most of the morning. It was past midday when Mrs. Weasley finally removed her protective scarf, sank into a sagging armchair, and sprang up again with a cry of disgust, having sat on the bag of dead rats.

The curtains were no longer buzzing; they hung limp and damp from the intensive spraying; unconscious doxies lay crammed in the bucket at the foot of them beside a bowl of their black eggs, at which Fred and George were shooting covetous looks.

"I think we'll tackle those after lunch."
Mrs. Weasley pointed at the dusty glass-fronted cabinets standing on either side of the mantelpiece.

"Stay here," she said firmly, snatching up the bag of rats as Mrs. Black's portrait started shouted again from down below. "I'll bring up some sandwiches."

"Oh, thank God! I'm starving right now!" I huffed out loudly as she left the room.

"Aren't you always?" Fred grinned at me.

"One can never have enough food, mister," I said, grinning proudly.