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ღ chapter twenty four ( cauldron bottoms )
JULES SPUN FASTER and faster, elbows tucked tightly to her sides, blurred fireplaces flashing past her, until she started to feel sick and closed her eyes. Then, when at last she felt herself slowing down, she threw out her hands and came to a halt in time to prevent herself from falling face forward out of the Weasleys' kitchen fire. The Quidditch World Cup was tomorrow, and she would be staying at the burrow to make it easier for Arthur to take her along.
Jules looked around and saw that Fred and George were sitting at the scrubbed wooden table with two red-haired people she had never seen before, Harry, Ron, and Hermione tumbling out of the fire on her heels. "Catch," George said, tossing a sweet towards Jules, which she immediately chucked back.
"Definitely not eating anything you give me, Ron told me all about the toffees," Jules scoffed. They'd spent the last week or so at the manor, and had caught up with everyone's summers, played plenty of Quidditch, and made trips to the muggle village to walk 'Padfoot,' and get ice cream, just so the adults had peace of mind.
"Wise choice. How're you doing, Harry, Juliet ?" said the nearer of the two, grinning at them and holding out a large hand, which Jules shook, feeling calluses and blisters under his fingers. This had to be Charlie, who worked with dragons in Romania. Charlie was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weatherbeaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it.
Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook their hands. Bill came as something of a surprise. Jules knew that he worked for the wizarding bank, Gringotts, and that Bill had been Head Boy at Hogwarts; she had always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy: fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around. However, Bill was — there was no other word for it — cool. He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring with what looked like a fang dangling from it. Bill's clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except that Jules recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragon hide. Jules gasped at the sight of them. "Wicked boots!"
"Hello," Molly grinned, entering the kitchen, her eyes narrowing when she spotted the toffees. "Fred, George, burn those things already, don't you? It's so nice to see you Harry, Juliet, Ron and Ginny will show you guys where you're sleeping."
"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," Ron said quietly. "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented for something called Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that..."
