Black Soul- George Weasley

The One With The De-gnoming

"Mum, we know how to de-gnome a garden —"

"Oh, he is marvelous," she said. "He knows his household pests, all right, it's a wonderful book. . . ."

"He is marvelous", Astraea agreed earning a glare from George. She just smirked.

"Mum fancies him," said Fred, in a very audible whisper.

"Don't be so ridiculous, Fred," said Mrs. Weasley, her cheeks rather pink. "All right, if you think you know better than Lockhart, you can go and get on with it, and woe betide you if there's a single gnome in that garden when I come out to inspect it."

Yawning and grumbling, they all slouched outside with Harry behind them.

Harry and Ron were behind while Astraea and the twins moved forward.

"'M tired", Astraea mumbled.

"Well we have to de-gnome the garden", Fred said.

"Your fault", she replied and he grumbled.

George reached a gnome and started shaking it. "Gerroff me! Gerroff me!" squealed the gnome. He threw it far, pumping his fist at the distance. 

Ron was teaching Harry, they stopped and watched him shaking the g-nome. He let go of the gnome's ankles: It flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge.

"Pitiful," said Fred. "I bet I can get mine beyond that stump."

"You're on", they all started swinging the gnomes when Harry threw one really far.

"Wow, Harry — that must've been fifty feet. . . ."

The air was soon thick with flying gnomes.

"See, they're not too bright," said George, seizing five or six gnomes at once. "The moment they know the de-gnoming's going on they storm up to have a look. You'd think they'd have learned by now just to stay put."

Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched.

"They'll be back," said Ron as they watched the gnomes disappear into the hedge on the other side of the field. "They love it here. . . . Dad's too soft with them; he thinks they're funny. . . ."

Just then, the front door slammed.

"He's back!" said George. "Dad's home!"

They hurried through the garden and back into the house. Mr. Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. He was talking with Aurora.

"What a night," he mumbled, groping for the teapot as they all sat down around him. "Nine raids. Nine! And old Mundungus Fletcher tried to put a hex on me when I had my back turned. . . ." Mr. Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed.

"Find anything, Dad?" said Fred eagerly.

"All I got were a few shrinking door keys and a biting kettle," yawned Mr. Weasley. "There was some pretty nasty stuff that wasn't my department, though. Mortlake was taken away for questioning about some extremely odd ferrets, but that's the Committee on Experimental Charms, thank goodness. . . ."

"Why would anyone bother making door keys shrink?" said George.

"Just Muggle-baiting," sighed Mr. Weasley. "Sell them a key that keeps shrinking to nothing so they can never find it when they need it. . . . Of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking — they'll insist they just keep losing it. Bless them, they'll go to any lengths to ignore magic, even if it's staring them in the face. . . . But the things our lot have taken to enchanting, you wouldn't believe —"

"LIKE CARS, FOR INSTANCE?" Mrs. Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. Mr. Weasley's eyes jerked open. He stared guiltily at his wife.

"C-cars, Molly, dear?"

"Yes, Arthur, cars," said Mrs. Weasley, her eyes flashing. "Imagine a wizard buying a rusty old car and telling his wife all he wanted to do with it was take it apart to see how it worked, while really he was enchanting it to make it fly." Mr. Weasley blinked. Astraea chuckled and her mother elbowed her slightly.

"Well, dear, I think you'll find that he would be quite within the law to do that, even if — er — he maybe would have done better to, um, tell his wife the truth. . . . There's a loophole in the law, you'll find. . . . As long as he wasn't intending to fly the car, the fact that the car could fly wouldn't —"

"Arthur Weasley, you made sure there was a loophole when you wrote that law!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. 

"Follow me", whispered George.

Astraea followed George to his bedroom where he sat down on his bed. She sat down next to him laying back and closing her eyes.

"Can we talk?" George asked.

"Mhm", Astraea said not opening her eyes.

"I wanna talk about that kiss", he said. "I meant it, I really love you"

George looked at Astraea to find her snoring slightly, she had fallen asleep. He sighed and laid down next to her.

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Editinggg!!!

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