Coup de Foudre [Fred Weasley] [5]

⚡️ Chapter 37 ⚡️

It took a long time for the crowd around the Weasley twins to disperse, and then Fred, George and Lee Jordan sat up counting their takings even longer. It was well past midnight when Vega, Harry, Ron and Hermione finally had the Gryffindor common room to themselves again. Vega had long finished with her homework and was watching others.

"Good night, love!" Fred said and Vega smiled back at him, waving gently until he closed the door to the boys' dormitories behind him, rattling his box of Galleons happily, which caused Hermione to scowl in disapproval.

"Let them be," Vega told the brunette, tired of the constant unpleasant expressions the brunette was directing toward the twins. "They're not making any trouble – if they were, I would've agreed with you. Look, you still haven't finished with your homework,"

Now that she had nothing more to glare at, Hermione finally returned back to her homework. On the other hand, Ron was pretending to do his to escape the brunette's wrath while Harry had decided to give it up for the night.

"I'm tired," Vega mumbled as she got up from her armchair and stretched her limbs out. "I wish we had Quidditch practise this evening... it's more fun to hang out on the field,"

"Yeah, you would've spent half of it at snogging Fred," Ron replied, scratching out at his Potions essay in annoyance, and Vega gave him a look.

"They don't do that on the field," Harry spoke up. "It's your first year on the Quidditch team... Vega's probably the most serious at practise after the captain,"

"Thank you, Harry," Vega said. "I'm going to go check on Aquila while you do your homework – I'll be back in a minute," She walked up to the girls' tower, and to the Fifth-Year dormitory.

Aquila seemed to be doing better now so Vega gave him plenty of Owl Treats and allowed him to fly off to the Tonks Residence to stay until it was safer for him to return. Crookshanks had been a darling enough to stay with Aquila as Vega requested so she promised to bring lots of treats for him when the next Hogsmeade trip came around.

When Vega returned back downstairs, Hermione was still working on her homework while Harry was staring off into space in his own thoughts while Ron was already dozing off lightly, his quill spilling on his knee. Vega walked over to the fireplace –

"Snuffles!"

Right at the moment, Ron jerked out of his sleep while Harry and Hermione whipped around to look at the fireplace where could distinctly make out Sirius's untidy dark head appearing in the fire. They all gathered around the fireplace quickly.

"Hi," Sirius greeted, grinning.

"Hi," chorused Vega, Harry, Ron, and Hermione, all four kneeling down upon the hearthrug while Crookshanks, who had followed Vega downstairs, purred loudly and approached the fire, trying, despite the heat, to put his face close to Sirius's.

"How're things?" Sirius asked.

"Not that good," Harry said, as Hermione pulled Crookshanks back to stop him singeing his whiskers. "The Ministry's forced through another decree, which means we're not allowed to have Quidditch teams –"

"– or secret Defence Against the Dark Arts groups?" Sirius replied.

There was a short pause.

"How did you know about that?" Harry demanded.

"You want to choose your meeting places more carefully," Sirius said, now grinning still more broadly. "The Hog's Head, I ask you..."

"Well, it was better than the Three Broomsticks!" Hermione responded rather defensively. "That's always packed with people –"