Make Me.

Book 4 - Chapter 5

"You've gotta use your core," Ellie said, hands on her hips.

She was standing to the side of Ginny's bedroom. The room was the smallest of the bedrooms in the Burrow, but in a cozy way. The walls were plastered with a peeling butter-yellow floral wallpaper that Ginny had mostly covered up with posters. There was a big one of The Weird Sisters and another large one of The Holyhead Harpies. Ellie's cot was stood on it's end in one of the corners and Marshall was sitting on Ginny's desk, on top of a stack of secondhand books. The sun was setting outside the window, casting an orange light across the room.

"Your arms can only help so much," Ellie added.

Ginny was in the middle of the room, fingers dug into the shaggy carpet on the floor, trying to balance on her hands, legs and feet up in the air. Ginny wobbled and Ellie caught her around the middle, placing a hand on either side of her body.

"You've gotta squeeze here," Ellie said, pressing her hands into Ginny's stomach and back. She felt Ginny squeeze her muscles with a grunt. As she did, her legs toppled her over onto her back.

"I've almost got it," Ginny said from the floor. Ellie helped her up. "I don't know what to do with my legs once I'm up there."

"Look -" Ellie said, flipping onto her hands and taking a few balancing steps to keep herself steady as she looked up at Ginny from her chest. Ellie's shirt had fallen down around her neck, muffling her words a little as she spoke. "Elbows 'lightly bent. Abs are tight. And your legs, you can use them to help you balance, but if you move them too far forward or back, you'll fall righ' over -"

Ginny's bedroom door flung open the rest of the way from it's just barely cracked open position. Ellie's bare back was to the door and she couldn't see who was there.

Nobody said anything. Ellie flipped down to her feet gracefully, face red from the blood rushing to her head. Fred was standing in the doorway. His eyes were wide and his face was flushed. He looked like he had been caught doing something he shouldn't have been.

"Okay, Freddie?" Ellie asked.

"I - uh. . . mmhm," he mumbled. "I. . ." His thoughts trailed off as he stood in the doorway.

"What do you want?" Ginny asked, sounding annoyed. "I thought Mum told you and George to de-gnome the garden?"

"We finished," Fred said quietly.

"And?" Ginny questioned. "We're doing something here."

"I - I see that," Fred mumbled. He was starting straight into Ellie's eyes.

"So. . . go?" Ginny said.

"Oh." Fred looked behind himself out into the stairwell. "Sure. . . or. . . I could just watch. . ."

"Go," Ginny said harshly. Ellie was giggling at them.

"You won't even know I'm here. I won't say a word," Fred said quickly, finding his voice as he collapsed into a seated position in Ginny's doorway.

Ginny took a few more attempts to get him to leave, but Fred wasn't moving. He sat there for another twenty minutes as Ellie placed one hand on each side of Ginny's middle to help her achieve the perfect handstand. She had to force herself to forget Fred was sitting there because he was staring holes into her body.

"Just one more try," Ginny said with a huff, sounding determined as Ellie picked her back up off the floor for what felt like the fiftieth time.

"Go on, then," Ellie mumbled, arms out, ready to steady the girl.

Ginny flipped down onto her hands and miraculously, stayed there, swaying a little, taking a step or two forward, before her legs swung back down to the ground and she was upright again, face lighting up.