Everything Changes // Fred Weasley

chapter 20: phoning a friend in a muggle town

Unfortunately, the Weasley household did not have any means for me to call my parents.

George quickly informed me that it wasn't just a thing missing from their house, but that most wizards didn't have a telephone.

I frantically paced back and forth, trying to get Naomi to respond to me, to buy me more time, but she must have been around my parents, so she wouldn't be able to disassociate and speak with me anytime soon.

I felt bad, leaving Naomi with the bulk of my parent's anger and frustrations, but I couldn't think about that right now. I had to find a phone, and I had to find one fast.

"I think there's a payphone in the nearby muggle town." Hermione offered as she sat on the floor of the living room, Ron sitting behind her in the armchair.

"That could work." I said, looking over to Fred. "Can we take my car?"

"We'll have to take the enchantment off of it once we leave The Burrow." He responded, already heading into the kitchen to find my keys.

"I have some muggle money in my bag." Hermione said, hopping up from the floor and running upstairs.

Soon, Fred, George, Bill, and I were all jammed into my tiny car. Fred offered to drive it off the Burrow, and Bill tagged along to reverse the enchantment once we were on the muggle road, since Fred and George had yet to turn 17.

As soon as the spell was reversed, I forced Fred to switch spots with me. He may be better at flying the car, but I was the only one who possessed a legitimate muggle driver's license. I listened to Fred and George's instructions, but it was clear that they had never driven into town. They brought me to many dead ends and wrong turns, but eventually we pulled up to the payphone box that Hermione had mentioned earlier.

I put the car in park and instructed the boys to wait there for me. They all seemed too amazed by the muggle town around them to really even notice I had left the car.

There wasn't much to see. The payphone was outside of an old, dingy gas station, and across the street was a sad excuse for a playground. One of the swings hung sideways with only one chain attached to the pole above and the singular slide had graffiti painted all around it, words that little kids definitely shouldn't be learning.

Taking a deep breath, I opened the door of the payphone and stepped inside, dialing my home phone number after inserting the correct number of coins. I prayed that my parents' deduction skills would be clouded by their anger and that they wouldn't notice that the number calling them was not a German one. 

The phone rang twice before I heard the line pick up, and my mum's worried voice answered the phone.

"Gemma?"

"Hey mum." I responded. It was nice to hear her voice. So much time had passed since I last spoke to her, and I didn't realize until that moment how much I missed her, even if she was a total twat most of the time.

"Where are you?" I heard my dad join in on the call. His voice was nothing like my mothers. Where my mum's was riddled with concern, my dad's was just furious.

"Germany." I said, backing up Naomi's claims, and realizing I needed to be more convincing, added: "Munich to be exact."

"Alone?" My mum said, still concerned for my well being. I turned to look back at my car to see Fred looking over towards the phone box. When he noticed me looking, he raised his eyebrows, asking how it was going, and I gave him a thumbs up and a fake smile before returning back to my phone call.

"Umm, I was at first, but I've made friends now. I'm alright." I didn't know where all this was coming from. Friends? My lie was growing more and more elaborate by the second.