Hunted AIAOY 3

Chapter 13

Post decorating, Fred and George nearly started a brawl under the guise of brotherly affection.  Since Charlie had been in Romania so long, they wanted to see if he was fireproof...By pushing him towards the oven.

Molly kicked them all out of the kitchen, shooing every male up the stairs and releasing Arthur to his office as he had been caught looking down the hall towards his research sadly one-to-many-times.

"Where should I start?"  Rebecca asked, surveying the mess.  Bowls were caked in residual dough and icing, sprinkles were speckled across the counters, the pans hadn't been washed.  The kitchen was a wreck.

"Oh no!"  Molly laughed and waved her wand, clearing the mess and dishes.  "It's just the easiest way to get rid of them all!"

"Why didn't you just do that first?"  Ginny whinged, though she stopped when Molly slid two cups of milk in front of both girls.  "Never mind."  

"Now I get to chat with my girls."  Molly conjured a cup of tea, sipping at it while Rebecca and Ginny chose their cookie.  "How had the year been?  Any new friends or...new attentions?"  

Ginny realised she'd fallen directly into her trap and shook her head, jumping off the stool.  "No!"  Ginny was gone in seconds, her milk in hand.  

Molly sighed, glancing at Rebecca.  "It's alright, dear.  No need to run off like she did.  Fairly dramatic, if you ask me."

"Ginny?  Dramatic?"  Rebecca shook her head.  "Never."  They were sitting in comfortable quiet which had been hard to come by with Fred and George's plans for the best Christmas and the general holiday madness.  "Are you having a good holiday?"

Molly found Rebecca's introduction of a conversation to be one of the greatest signals of progress in her growth and answered truthfully.  The girl from two years ago visibly struggled where the girl in front of Molly seemed only slightly hesitant.  "With all of you here, Bill and Charlie home again and everything so good...This will be my favourite Christmas for quite a while.  What about you, sweets?  Good Christmas so far?"

Rebecca nodded.  She didn't know how anyone with such happiness in front of them could have possible wanted anything more in the world.  Rebecca didn't quite know how to put that into words, that this was the single-most happiest Christmas in her entire life.

Molly kissed the top of her head, sliding the now-emptied cup towards the sink to be dealt with later.  "Go on up and hop into line for the bath.  We'll be up in a bit to get everyone snug into beds."

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"Dad?"

"Damn!"  Arthur jumped and hit his head from where he was sitting on the floor.  "I'm not-Oh, Fred.  You startled me."

"Really?"  Fred asked, letting his play fizzle out with one last jest.  He had a serious question and needed a serious answer.  George was no help, all he did was tease Fred nowadays.  "I hadn't noticed."

"I thought I had a while longer."  Arthur murmured, looking back down to the figures in front of him.  "I think this is Muggle magic, maybe something divinitive?  Prophetic?  I'm not sure."

Fred leaned what he'd snuck from his trunk against the wall and sat on the floor in front of his father.  "Not quite."  Plucking the ball from the ground deftly, Fred bounced it and scooped up one of the toys.  "Rebecca showed us these after trying to explain Muggle games. They're 'jacks.'"

Arthur laughed loudly, taking his own turn with the ball Fred offered happily.  "Just a game!  Marvelous!"  Arthur bounced the ball again, grinning up to his son as he succeeded again.  Something was bothering the boy, though.  Arthur read his children the way some read words.  "Was there something you wanted to talk about?"

Fred crossed his legs in front of him, nodding.  "Sort of."

Arthur nodded, letting Fred gather his thoughts and words instead of pressuring him to hurry up.

"Tomorrow's Christmas."  Fred paused, glancing at the back of the tile next to him.  "I know that we're lucky."

Arthur raised an eyebrow, confused as to the turn their conversation had taken.  

"I know we're lucky to have had so many Christmases...when some people haven't."  Fred cleared his throat, finding a strange ache there.  "And George and I-We've made Christmas perfect--As perfect as we could make it."

"You two most certainly have!"  Arthur laid his hand on Fred's shoulder, squeezing it.  "You two have filled every day with happiness and your mother and I are so proud of you."

"I tried asking George what he thought, but he wouldn't give me an answer."  Fred picked up his hard work, the image still facing down.  "I just need you to tell me if this is good enough to be a gift."

Arthur looked down and gasped.  Out of amazement and also a flash of disappointment.  Molly was right, their son was utterly in love and now he owed her two galleons.

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"What are you working on so diligently?  Christmas eve is hardly the time for school work."

Rebecca moved to hide her paper purely on instinct as Charlie stepped into the living room she had snuck off to with Buckbeak's defense.  "What?"

"You heard me."  Charlie sat down across from her, glancing at the books.  "Law?"

"It's for a friend."  Rebecca put her notes into the book and closed it.  "There's a-"  Rebecca sighed, taking her glasses off and using cleaning them as an excuse to try and figure out how to explain what had happened all that half a year.  "A boy was attacked by a hippogriff in class at the beginning of term because he didn't listen to the instructions.  The hippogriff is being put on trial and this is his defense."

"What do you know about laws and defences?"  Charlie asked curiously.

"Nothing."  Rebecca raised an eyebrow, questioning Charlie's insinuation.  "But I've learned a lot and enough of us are working on this that we're going to win."

Charlie smiled.  This was the most she had shown him, the most of the person his family had sworn she was once Rebecca let herself show.  "Good, you're certainty will keep you working hard.  Do you know where I work?"

"A dragon sanctuary in Romania."  Rebecca pushed back, still cross at how Charlie had asked her what she knew about the law.  "And I know you don't write enough."

Charlie laughed at that, his head thrown back and the sound pouring into the hallway.  "No, no I don't.  Certainly not enough to have not known such an addition was made."  Rebecca surveyed the man in front of her and nodded once, letting the nudge go freely.  Growing slightly more serious, Charlie nodded back to the work in front of her.  "I do work at a sanctuary and we do have dragons, but we also work on rehabilitation for other magical creatures."

Rebecca felt a glimmer of hope as she realised what Charlie was saying.

"We have some redcaps, a handful of trolls, and we have a hippogriff or two."  Charlie was quiet a moment.  "Perhaps a letter from a sanctuary on behalf of the ability for hippogriffs to 'rehabilitate' would help?"

Speechless, Rebecca nodded.

"I'll let you think about it, Bill and I are due to stay a few days after Christmas anyway."  Charlie knew that she would take him up on the offer because he could see plainly that she was not one to take shortcuts in what she was doing.  But, by giving her the illusion of time to think about it, she didn't feel pressured in answering at that moment.

Rebecca watched Charlie leave the room and then scrambled to get a clean sheet of parchment out.  She needed to update the others.

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Author's Note:

Yes, this is a super, super short chapter compared to others.  However, I don't think that I could fit all of Christmas into one and don't want to split it into two.  Sorry.

<3