Summers at The Burrow - Fred Weasley

Chapter Seventy-two - The Stationing

Days were like this even with school in procession. there were still thousands of ministry officials each week who would stop by in the store to pick up some products for their own enjoyment or to help them with their job. we had recently received word that the ministry was discussing working with us to create products to fight dark arts as well. I, for one, had taken to experimenting on more practical products and with that and preparing large batches of other products, we had our hands full.

Ron was sending us updates and letters from Hogwarts and apparently we had been the talk of the school at the beginning of the year because so many kids had our products. some of them were already in the process of being banned.

it was late one evening and the sky was dark. we had one window open to let in the breeze from the calming Diagon Alley air. Angelina came over right before the store closed because George invited her over and Fred and I also invited Lee to join us. we only planned to make a nice dinner in the flat and then spend some time together before the others take the floo network back to their homes.

The twins made a nice soup and Angelina made me try it before she would even go near it because she wanted to make sure the twins weren't going to put something in the food. the twins did not put anything in the food because I monitored their cooking to make sure of it.

after we finished eating we cleaned up using magic and then went to the living room to sit down. it was late and the twins and I were very tired from the days work so we all just sat there together. Fred sat in the corner of the sofa and I sat between his outstretched legs as he had his arms wrapped around me comfortably. George and Angelina were on the other end of the sofa and my legs were resting across Angelina's lap. Lee was in an armchair with a bunch of mangled stuffed animals that we had used as test subjects. he had taken quite the liking to them and, since the mangled stuffed animals sort of lived on that armchair, he claimed himself as their king and then covered himself in them. each of them had been pelted with the test subjects frequently throughout the evening.

silence had befallen over our small gathering after a while and we were just looking at the fire or whispering to our partners until there was a faint tapping on the open window.

"What was that?" Angelina asked.

"It's at the window." George said and I got to my feet.

"It's one of the school owls." I said as I began untying a letter from its ankle. "i wonder why it didn't just fly in, the window is wide open." I said.

"if it came from a school owls then it can't be Harry or Ron since they would have used their own owls." Fred said as he leaned forward in his seat.

"it could be from Dumbledore." Lee said and we went quiet again. he had said exactly what we were all thinking.

i took a final glance at them and then began to break the Hogwarts crest seal that was on the back. when I pulled the parchment out of the envelope, it was clean and crisp. I could see the handwriting through the paper and recognized it as McGonagall's handwriting. an uneasy feeling filled me as I slowly unfolded the parchment only to see that, at the bottom, it was signed with Dumbledore and McGonagall.

my eyes flicked back to the top of the page and I read down it carefully.

Dear Chloe Black,

With recent events within the wizarding world coming to light, it is imperative that we ensure the safety of our students here at Hogwarts. We, as your former administrators of magical education and leaders of the rebellion against He Who Must Not Be Named, have been in discussion over the last few weeks about a protection system for the school. there is a great concern among the parents and students.