Discovery

81.

After lunch, guests began departing for the evening. When everyone had left, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had us gather in the living room.

"Is everyone alright if we go out for a little while?" Mrs. Weasley asked as she pulled on her hat and coat.

"Where are you going?" Ron asked.

"We thought we'd have a night out," Mrs. Weasley said, smiling at her husband.

"On Christmas?" Fred questioned.

"We're going to pay your Aunt Muriel a visit as well," Mr. Weasley added. "Unless you all want to come along?"

"No, no, that's fine," the boys assured him.

"That's what we thought." Mrs. Weasley said. "Bye bye, kids, be good!"

We waved goodbye as they Apparated into thin air.

"Alright, who's ready to have some fun?" Fred asked.

"What do you have in mind?" Ginny questioned.

"What don't I have in mind?" Fred said cheekily, wandering into the kitchen.

He returned with two bottles of firewhiskey. He popped open one and threw the other to Ron, who caught it hesitantly.

"Should we really be doing this?" he asked, eyeing the bottle as if it might explode any second.

"Come on, little brother," Fred teased. "Come join the big boys. Have a little fun, for once."

"I have fun!" Ron said defensively.

When the twins eyed him with doubt, he popped open the bottle and took a swig, coughing madly when he swallowed.

Fred took a large gulp before passing the bottle to me. I downed as much as I could before I started coughing, then passed the drink to George.

When everyone had their fair share, Fred conjured up a Golden Snitch.

"Quidditch?" Harry asked. "It's freezing!"

"Oh no," he shook his head. "This is better than Quidditch."

"Nothing is better than Quidditch!" Ginny said.

"Alright, listen. I'm going to release the Snitch, and it'll hide somewhere in the house. Whoever catches it first wins."

"So tag, but we're all drunk?" I asked.

"Basically," Fred shrugged. "But you can hex each other and stuff. Plus, there's one more catch: No one from the other team can see you. If they do, you have to drink."

When we had divided into teams, (Fred and I, George and Ginny, Harry and Ron) Fred released the Snitch. It flew up flights of stairs, then disappeared over the railing on the third floor.

"Let's go!" Fred tugged on my sleeve. We climbed the stairs as quick as we could— which wasn't very quick considering we were both very tipsy already.

We got to the second floor, but just as I started heading for the stairs, Fred pulled me closer to him.

"You're gorgeous, you know," he whispered.