Before the Dawn | George Weasley

4

George and I walked in silence to the broom cupboard.

I sat my book bag down on the bench and rifled through it, reaching to the very bottom to grasp my broom repair kit. George watched with wide eyes as my entire arm and part of my shoulder disappeared into the seemingly small bag.

"Expansion charm," I explained with a small laugh, pulling out the kit. "Helps me keep all the important things close."

"Got any snacks in there, by chance? I'm a bit peckish." I could tell by his tone he was joking, but he gave a gasp of delight as I reached back in and pulled out a small pastry.

I tossed it to him. "Might be a couple days old, but if you want it, it's yours."

He had devoured the entire thing by the time I was done speaking.

"Fetch me your broom, please." I unfolded my repair kit, scanning the various bottles and brushes inside.

George dug in the cupboard and pulled out a dry, dusty-looking broom with a frayed brush and a long crack running through its handle. I raised my eyebrows as he handed it to me. It was a Cleansweep, an older model, and there was no denying it had seen better days.

"It never used to be that bad, but it's gotten a lot worse lately and I suspect it's only going to keep going in that direction."

I looked over the broom in its entirety. "You might be better off just buying a whole new broom."

His face turned a bit pink. "Ah, I think I'd rather have it repaired."

"This is a little worse than I expected. You should probably take it to a professional." I glanced up at him, noticing his face grow redder.

"That's, er... I suppose I could..."

I watched him closely, piecing it all together, and looked back down at the broom to spare him my gaze. "But professional repairs are expensive, and a repair like this would be almost as much as a new broom."

"Yeah," he agreed quietly.

"I can fix it," I decided in that moment, running my finger over the break in the handle. "It won't be as pretty as a professional job, but I can fix it."

George brightened noticeably. "I'm not worried about pretty. I'll take whatever you can give me."

I turned to my kit and picked out a few bottles. I could feel George's eyes on me as I worked, and I paused, looking up at him.

"Are you going to watch me?" I asked hesitantly.

"Is that okay?" He gazed at me with wide eyes. "I'd like to learn how you do it."

I nodded a bit nervously and held up a pair of bottles for him to see as he settled onto the bench next to me. "These two bottles contain the main ingredients. When you combine them they form a sticky resin that quickly hardens and absorbs into the wood so it seals the damage and prevents further branching."

George watched intently as I unscrewed the bottles, adding a few drops of each into a dropper bottle. "Adding equal parts of each should do the trick." I eyed the crack in the broom, then added a bit more of each. "But these materials can be pricey so you don't want to mix more than you'll need."

I could see him cringe lightly out of the corner of my eye, so I changed the subject. "Once they're combined you just mix them up, and then you drop it into the breakage."

I frowned slightly as I focussed on my work, shaking the bottle to combine the ingredients and then using a steady hand to drop the mixture into the crack drop by drop. As the formula met the wood, it fizzled slightly and expanded, quickly hardening and turning black.