The red ribbon: a fred weasley story

Chapter 3: prefects

"The posts here!" I shouted up the stairs and raced to get Errol. I sifted through the letters until I saw my name.
"Oh, Lily, yours is here too," I smiled and passed her letter.
"Oh...my....GOSH!!!!" Percy bellowed and held a brand new badge up to his mothers face.
"Oh, Percy!" Mrs Weasley squeaked and kissed his face, "another head boy in the family!" She cheered. Ron and Ginny made feeble attempts to clap but fred and george howled with laughter and even I had to fight the grin off my face.

"What's so funny?" Lily asked me.
"We don't think it's very flattering that he's a head boy, prefect was bad as it was," I said and rolled my eyes, seeing Percy puff his chest out and pin it to his top.
"Oh wait until your father comes home!" Molly said, wiping her eyes, whilst me and fred rolled our eyes at each other.
"Lily, nice to meet you," fred stuck his hand across me for Lily to shake, which she did, "I'm fred."
"And I'm george," george waved.
"Don't try telling them apart, it takes years," I laughed and she politely waved back.

I started to open my left and something fell out.
"What you got there?" Fred said, checking his list and looking over my shoulder. I turned the badge over and saw a big, shiny, gold P for prefect on a read background.
"Oh," I said and let it drop on the table.

"But being prefects a good thing, I thought," Lily said, picking t up and examining it.
"Not when you're Harper, fred or george," Ginny said.
"Who's prefect?" Molly asked.
"Harper," fred said glumly.
"Hey! I'm not going to be a great pompous prat!" I shouted, "I'll just give detentions to Pucey and Malfoy," I grinned.
"And get us out of detentions?" George asked.
"Sure," I shrugged.
"Great," george said and high-fived me.
"Oh, that is not what that is for, Harper!" Molly said.
"I know, I'm just kidding," I said, innocently and threw a wink at the twins.
"Hm ok," Molly pursed her lips, "but congratulations you 2, we'll have to get you a present at Diagon Alley."
"Oh no, it's really ok," I flustered.
"No, no, congratulations are in order!" Molly clapped her hands and left the room.
"Cheer up! No more detentions," I said to fred, who was still crossing his arms and a scowl plastered across his face, "oh, Freddie, please it's not that bad!" I said and hugged him. He was hesitant at first but hugged me back, eventually and seemed to cheer up.

"We need to stock up on some more floo," Molly said, entering the room, carrying a flower pot.
"On some what," Lily asked, as we sauntered back into the living room.
"Floo powder," I whispered back, "just watch."
"Fred you first," Molly said.
"He's not fred, I am!" George whispered into our ear and we stifled a laugh.
Fred grabbed a handful of powder and and stepped into the fire place.
"Diagon Alley!" He shouted and green flames vanished him. George went and then me.
I shot out the end if the fireplace and fred helped me up.

"Hi," I breathed and brushed off my clothes; I was wearing a quidditch jumper, a top underneath and denim shorts, seeing as it was summer.
Lily suddenly shot out behind me and I helped her up.
"Hey, you good?" I asked brushing her off.
"Yeah," she grinned. "That was so cool," she laughed and I giggled remembering the first time I travelled by floor powder.
"So, how do you 2 know each other?" Fred asked and lily nudged me.
"Um, we were in the same foster home," I said, telling the basics of the truth.
"Yeah, I'm lily Owton," lily said and they shook hands. The rest of the Weasley's flew out of the fireplace and we began our shopping.

"Lily, you're going to come with us and we'll get your books, I don't want you getting lost," Molly said and lily nodded, moving over to Ginny.
"I'm gonna find harry and Hermione, mum," Ron said and started to walk off.
"Harry Potter?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, do you know him?" Ginny asked.
"Yeah Ginnys rather smitten to him," I smirked and she blushed very deep red. Molly threw me a look and I shut up but my sister job was done.
"Err no, Harper told me about her family," lily went back to the subject.
"Ok, we're gonna find the other three," george said and we ran off, leaving the others.