In Denial

summer before 4th year

Vanessa's POV

August 25th, 1992

"I'm nervous, what if I get lost?" Lavender whines, shoving a spoonful of cereal in her mouth.

"Lavy it's your second year I'm sure you'll be fine," I reply, slightly preoccupied with my own nervousness, I was planning on trying out for quidditch Beater after all, I had already been on the team for two years but the Ravenclaw team captain takes pride in his team, so he wouldn't even think about letting me switch to beater until I had been on the team for at least two years. Plus we only had a week before school started up and I still hadn't done most of my shopping

"Nessie! Did you even hear me?" Lav asked, her tone filled with annoyance as I snapped out of My thoughts, "I'm sorry, Lav, what's up?"

she rolls her eyes before continuing "I was asking what classes you think I'll be in."

I think for a moment, back to my second year and the classes I took "Probably the same, except you'll have astronomy instead of flying"

she groans at the thought of having to take astronomy, I've always loved my astronomy classes, but everyone's different, I guess. 

"If you ask me I'll think you'll be kicked out of all of your classes and forced to sleep in the potions classroom" Lee comments from the hall.

I turn to see my cousin all dressed and heading towards the door, "Where are you-" Before I can finish Lavender cuts me off, arguing with her older brother.

"but I don't want to sleep in the dungeons!" she complained, "and I'm terrified of snakes" She looked up at me for guidance and I managed to suppress my laughter "Don't worry Lav, he's only joking, right Lee?" I turn to him and widen my eyes so he knows to agree

"mhhh, Lavy! I'm sure you'll love all of your classes" he chuckles, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Satisfied with that answer Lavender turns her attention back to her cereal

"Where are you off to?" I question, eyeing Lee's going-out outfit and finally noticing the letter in his hand.

"Oh, I'm off to see the twins, I was supposed to invite you, but I sort of forgot," he lies, I roll my eyes at this as he continues, "But if you can be ready in the next," he pauses, looking down at an imaginary watch, "15 minutes, you can still go"

I jump out of my chair excitedly "I'll be back down in 10" I call out while running up the stairs. 

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Despite the Weasleys living nearby it takes us a full 45 minutes to get there on foot, typically we'd travel by floo network, but the fireplace in the house is broken.

"how much loongerrrrrrr" Lavender whined from behind us, after she realized that we were going to leave her she begged to go with us, and after 5 minutes of grovelling I convinced Lee to let her. After all, it wasn't like she'd be hanging out with us, she and the youngest Weasley boy, Ron were the same age, and Lav was practically obsessed with him. 

"quit complaining! you're lucky I even let you come" Lee snaps with an eyeroll.

"c'mon Lavy, the quicker we get there the sooner you get to see Ron!" she practically runs the rest of the way as, me and Lee joke about her crush and wonder if Ron still thinks she's annoying.

"I'll bet he does, she hasn't changed since he last saw her at Christmas." Lee jokes, as the burrow comes into view.

"WONWON" Lavender screams as she runs toward the door. Me and Lee share a knowing look before following her, Percy Weasley, the oldest of the Weasley boys still living in the house, opens the door and tells us that everybody is in the back. I give Lee a confused look (usually when the Weasleys are expecting company they're all crowded in the front room, but he just shrugs in response.

when we reach the backyard Molly comes to greet us, and we see the rest of the Weasleys denoming the gardens. Molly's always been like a mother to me as I hardly see my own mother with all of the work she does, she's a Dragon Tamer and travels a lot for work while my dad works at Gringotts so my house is typically empty.

"Hi, loves!" Molly greets "I thought yous were coming tomorrow?"

I glance at Lee who rereads the letter in his hand with a guilty look on his face "Oh, bullocks! I must have misread it!" he exclaimed in mock sincerity, I smile and roll my eyes at the "apologetic" look on his face.

"Oh well, you're already here might as well get settled in!" Molly decides, and Lee smiles as I realize that he and the twins probably planned this entire thing.

"LEE!! NESSA!!" a voice booms from the yard, we turn to see a screaming George as he and Fred practically sprint towards us. "we were starting to think you guys weren't going to show." George pants, half out of breath, hugging Lee. Fred looks at me and hugs me, when we pull away I look at him, he got taller, and he's cut his hair. 

"Muuuumm, can we take a break and show Lee and Nessa to their rooms?" Fred asks, turning towards his mother. 

"Okay, but be quick, we need everyone working on denoming!" she answered, Fred smiled and led us up the stairs, 

"Did your mum tell you to have us come tomorrow?" I ask George as we walk up the stairs, once Molly's out of earshot.

"Maybe.. BUT that's completely unimportant Nessa, Fred and I have something really really awesome to show yous." he replies with a huge smile plastered on his face, we reach the twin's room, where we were staying pretty, quickly since it's not that high up. 

"holy hell, yous have a lot of pranking stuff" Lee states as soon as we walk in, looking at the 3 boxes labelled "school stuff" with fireworks sticking out.

"Does Molly really think all of those are your potions supplies?" I ask, remembering the time in second year when Molly threw out all of they're pranking stuff and they were grounded for months

"Probably not, but she never comes in here anyways" Fred shrugs "Anyways you guys both get to sleep on these lovely floor beds that we've put together," He gutters to the two piles of pillows and blankets on the floor, "so you're welcome!"

Me and Lee laugh, setting our stuff down on our own "floor beds".  "Alright, what's the 'really really awesome' thing," I ask once my stuff is down. 

"well Vanessa, darling, if you must know," Fred starts, turning around and digging through a draw to find something, "unlike you two bums me and George have dedicated our entire summer to our craft." 

 I roll my eyes at the 'darling' and the calling us bums, "Uh huh and what have you non-bums come up with"

He turns around holding a box of intricate-looking fireworks, "custom fireworks, we've perfected the design so now they're even better than the ones at Zonko's" he says, proudly holding them up. Lee goes over to him first, getting a better look. "can I hold one?" he asks, before Fred hands one over, "Nessa, catch" he tosses one to me.

"wow these are actually brilliant" I observed after examining the design for a moment.

Fred: "Well what did you expect, you should never doubt us, we're actually known for our brilliance" 

Lee: "Ah, and here I was thinking that yous were known for your poor attendance" 

George: proudly "Poor attendance but straight E's and A's" 

we go back and forth, and discuss pranking plans for another 30 minutes until Molly calls us all back down to help in the garden, when we walk down we see Lavender harassing poor Ronald, she had the boy cornered by the crops twirling her hair. yet she still thought nobody knew about her crush. 

"Oh merlin, look what Lavs done with Ronald" Fred laughs

Lee: "When is she going to take the bloody hint, I mean look at the poor boy"

George: "You mean poor girl, seriously, you'd have to be deranged or something to like Ronald that much"

Molly: "i didn't call you kids out here to speculate Lavender's crush or make fun of Ron." we all turn to see Molly standing behind us with her hands on her hips, "Now get on with it," she gestures towards the others in the garden and we sigh and get to work.

A/N': these first two chapters were made pretty short to kind of introduce you to the story, the next ones going to be much longer so you'll have to let me know which yous like better.