Falling Slowly (A Hogwarts Lovestory) - Fred Weasley Fanfiction

38 | Tired Days Can't Remember

It was quarter past six when Hermione and I entered the Burrow. Mr Weasley had helped to connect the Granger's fireplace to the Floo Network this afternoon, so we used Floo Powder to travel so Hermione's parents didn't have to drive us all the way.
It felt as though I was being sucked down a giant drain. Everything seemed to be spinning very fast and there was a defeaning roaring in my ears while a whirl of green flames was surrounding me like a hurricane. Finally I fell, face forward, onto hard floor.
"Ouch", I howled as Hermione, who went into the fireplace after me, landed roughly on top of me. Her elbow left a palm-sized bruise on my right thigh.
"Oh, I'm sorry Julie", said Hermione, pulled out her wand, pointed it at my thigh and tried to fix my leg. I was still coughing and trying to get the dust of the fireplace out of my lungs.

"Where is everyone?", I asked after I released a bunch of soot out of my throat. We were sitting on the floor in front of the fireplace in the living room of the Burrow, but nobody else was there. It must be dinner time, so where was everybody? How unusual not to see or hear anybody in the otherwise loud Burrow. I looked up at the huge clock - it showed Ginny, Percy and Mrs Weasley home (but apparently busy in the garden or somewhere around). Ron, Fred, George and Mr Weasley seemed to be travelling.
"Shhh", said Hermione suddenly and gave me a sign to be quiet. "Do you hear that?"
I did. There was a quiet noise, a whirring, a ringing, but I couldn't locate it. Wait... was it coming... out of the fireplace?
"Step aside!", I called and tried to push Hermione out of the way - but it was too late. With a loud crash Harry came sliding out of the fireplace, covered in dust just as Hermione and I were, crashed against Hermione and me so we all fell down on the floor again.
"What-?", Harry tried to ask bewildered, but he didn't get the chance because just when he opened his mouth, someone else was coming out of the fireplace. It was George. Fred followed short after his brother.
"What's going on here?", asked Fred, who had had the luck on landing softly on the pile of humans on the ground. He helped his brother up on his feet, beat some dust out of his jeans and sweatshirt and looked around to see why everybody was lying on the ground. When he saw me, he stopped moving. Fred's hand, which was just running through his red hair (that has grown longer over the last few weeks and made him look more handsome than ever) froze in the air and his expression darkened. He let his hand sink and looked away.
"Ah, Hermione - you're already there", he said, walked over to her and helped her on her feet too. Hermione opened his mouth to reply something but right at that moment, Ron and Mr Weaslsy came sliding out of the fireplace and Mr Weasley started to yell at his sons immediately.
"FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY! IF YOUR MOTHER HEARS-"

"If I hear what, Arthur?", asked Mrs Weasley, who had just appeared in the back door carrying a large basket with freshly picked potatoes. Her face was dirty, her hair covered with soil and her eyebrows were raised sceptically at her sons.
Fred and George, who were usually rather quick witted and always used to have a funny answer on their lips, were now looking ashamed down at their feets. They used to play a lot of pranks and were up to loads of mischief, but both of them still respected their mother.
"Nothing, mum...", mumbled George.
"Yeah, mum, don't worry-", began Fred, obviously trying to talk himself out of it.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?", yelled Mrs Weasley.
Ron, Harry and Hermione meanwhile found a good excuse to sneak out of this unpleasant situation and went silently upstairs. I looked desperately around and searched for Ginny (my own chance to get out of this) but I couldn't find her anywhere, so I stayed and tried to act as inconspicuous as possible.
"Mum, you are overreacting. I just dropped one of these toffees - accidentally of course - and Harrys fat cousin ate one of them. He must have had an allergic reaction or something-"
"ALLERGIC REACTION, FRED?", yelled Mr Weasley. "HIS TONGUE SWELLED TEN TIMES AS BIG AS ITS NORMAL SIZE!"
Fred and George got pretty angry then when Mrs Weasley forced them to empty their pockets, which were full of Ton-Tongue Toffees. Apparently they had worked on them the whole summer.
And then I did the most inappropriate thing one could do in a moment like this.

I giggled.

Mrs Weasley turned around and gave me a staggered look. Her expression changed from angry to astonished.
"Don't give them a reason to be proud of their action, Julie", she said with raised eyebrows. "It's not funny at all. That poor little boy-"
But Molly Weasley didn't get to finish her sentence and so we never heard what she was gonna say about Dudley Dursley, the poor little boy (a term by the way that I highly doubted was fitting), because I couldn't stop myself. I drowned in my own laughing and I just couldn't end it. I cried from laughter. I couldn't get the picture of Dudley's swolen tung out of my mind.
"I-I-I'm sorry, Mrs Weasley", I gapsed as soon as I could breathe again, but I was still giggling.
Surprisingly, the look on Mrs Weasley's face suddenly softened.
"Well", she mumbled finally to Fred and George, "I still don't approve it, but I guess if someone was to be a guinea pig to your unbelievably stupid and dishonorable experiments, Harry's cousin wouldn't have been the worst choice. Harry told me he wasn't always that nice to him."
She threw a last devastating look over to her sons, when she finally sighed and said "I will not punish you - at least not for now. But be warned, I won't lose sight of you two this summer."
That being her last words, she stormed out of the burrow. Mr Weasley and the twins were completely perplexed.

After a short moment where everyone was gathering themselves (everyone but me since I was still giggling like an idiot), Mr Weasley cleared his throat, condemned his sons to help me carry my luggage upstairs and left the rest of us standing awkwardly in front of the fireplace.
George was the first to break the silence.
"That was brilliant! I always wonder how you got this enviable capability to calm even the angriest people down. Right, Fred?"
But Fred only grunted without looking at me. George rolled his eyes.
"You know what, Fred? I think I just heard a gnome in the garden. I'm gonna take a look. You take care of Julie's trunk then, alright?"
Fred didn't look like he was alright with his brother's idea, but he heaved my heavy trunk onto his arms and tramped wordlessly up the staircase.
I followed him in silence, finally able to stop giggling, trying my best not to offend him in any way.

As Fred had layed down my luggage in the small triangle shaped room that used to be his and would be mine during the summer, he still had managed to constantly avoid eye contact with me. But when his hand reached for the door knob to leave the room, he stopped for a second and turned his head into my direction.
"That wasn't the worst way to handle the situation, Daniels. Thanks. But I fear your little giggling attack downstairs left a bit of saliva in the corner of your mouth. Makes you look ridiculous."
Then he left the room and the door closed loudly behind him.

I threw myself onto the bed, cleared my face with a towel and closed my eyes. Fred was teasing me again. Better than ignoring? I decided to take it for a good sign.

Will you lay with me where the sun hits right?
When the tired days can't remember
How a blurring haze came across your eyes
Will you lay with me forever?
- The Hotelier