High Hopes {h.granger}

Five

Nora was violently woken up by Fred shaking her shoulders. She glared at his grinning, freckled face and pulled her duvet covers back over her head.

"Nora, we need to get ready and you told me to give you a thirty-minute buffer before everyone else wakes up and hogs the bathrooms!" Fred whisper-shouted at her and Nora just hissed in response.

She sat under the covers with her eyes squeezed shut for a moment as Fred and George shuffled around, picking their outfits. Fred was right, she had asked him to do that. The Burrow had 3 bathrooms with showers in them and 2 additional bathrooms with just toilets. It was still a nightmare to get everyone ready on time, especially with the added 3 guests.

Nora mumbled a bunch of curse words that her mother would have rinsed her mouth out with soap for. "Alright, I'm getting up so you two better not be naked!" She called out from beneath the duvet and was met with quick shuffling.

"You can get up Nora," George answered her after a moment, allowing Nora to lower the duvet and blink to clear her eyes of sleep.

George was already dressed, his hair dripping on to the shirt he'd put on. Fred was still in his pyjama top but had managed to wrangle a pair of dark jeans on. Nora nodded her head sharply before sliding out of the bed, almost tripping on her trunk, scattering the polaroid's they'd all taken the evening before (she'd convinced Hermione to take one with her and that was the one she'd hidden in her purse).

She held her arms out for balance, eyes wide. "Told you to put it under the bed." Fred whistled, holding his hands up in defence as Nora sent him a withering glare.

Nora wasn't a morning person and the twins hated waking her up in the morning, especially on early starts. She rifled through the trunk she'd been living out of for the past month (her mother had put an extension charm on it, thank Merlin) and pulled out a pair of light blue flared jeans along with a soft green knitted jumper and a little white top to go underneath. Nora grabbed a tote bag and popped her clothes inside it along with her towels, underwear and shower necessities.

"Which bathroom's free?" She asked a lounging George who was scribbling away in a notepad. He listened for a moment, used to the different sounds of the Burrow.

"The pink one sounds free." He responded after a moment and Nora dutifully marched towards the door and swung it open, looking up and down the corridor before speeding towards one of the two toilets on their floor, the pink one (labelled thus for the pink flowers Ginny had drawn on it in her childhood).

Once the door was firmly locked, Nora readied herself for the day. The footfall of the corridor steadily increased as she showered and she could hear the Weasley family members begin to argue about who was using which bathroom. Ginny's voice was the loudest as she yelled at her brothers, demanding to go first (she was backed up by her mother, who adored her angelic Ginevra). Nora knew Ginny could be less than an angel, she knew how to get everything she wanted as the only girl in the family and the baby.

Nora's mind drifted to her own family. If she'd had more siblings, would she have had sibling scrummages or had to fight for the bathroom? Her parents never had the chance to have more children, Nora had been a happy accident born during a war. The same war that had made her father flee for his safety.

Alder Evans, just like Lily Evans, his younger sister, was a Muggle-born. He had been directly targeted by Voldemort himself, just like his sister and many others in the Order. Nora's father was not a coward and had wanted to fight but Dumbledore forbade him and implored him to move away to America until the Dark Lord was defeated. Alder followed his instructions and left Nora's mother and Nora behind in the UK to keep them safe. Then, he managed to make a name for himself in the American Ministry of Magic and once the Dark Lord was defeated, he travelled back and forth from the UK to America. They'd agreed that Nora would be a Sheridan, not an Evans, in an effort to keep them safe.

Nora cursed as she got shampoo in her eye. She'd been too in her head to notice the shampoo dripping from her head. She quickly washed it out and began lathering conditioner to her hair as her mind whirred.

Dumbledore hadn't let Alder and Nora's mother, Eloise Sheridan, adopt Harry. He claimed that Harry should be hidden from the Magical World, to thwart any attempt of the Death Eaters seeking him. So, he'd been placed with Petunia (they didn't know where he'd been raised until Nora met him in his first year) and endured hardship and a lack of love.

Nora and her parents all resented Dumbledore for that. Her little cousin had never known love or happiness. He didn't know there was family out there waiting for him with open arms. It was also Dumbledore who had pushed back Alder and Eloise's recent plans to adopt Harry(if he couldn't be with Sirius, then they were the next best thing). This time though, they were so close to finalising the papers!

A sharp knock at the door made Nora jump. "Hurry up Nora!" Came Harry's voice from behind the bathroom door. Had she really been in there too long?

"Relax Harry! I'll be out in 5 minutes!" She called back over the sound of the shower. Nora quickly combed her hair and rinsed out the conditioner.

She switched off the shower and wrapped her hair in a towel. Nora slipped her clothes on, brushed her teeth with record timing and promptly opened the bathroom door. There, in front of her with a sleepy and grumpy glare, was her cousin.

Nora grinned at him and ruffled his hair as she walked past. "All yours, baby cousin."

Harry sighed, not even attempting to fix his hair as he walked into the bathroom and passive aggressively shut it with a click. Harry was as close to a sibling as she was going to get. Nora snickered as she walked down the corridor, dodging flying socks as she did so. Charlie gave her a stressed smile as he walked past, already dressed and ready and well on his way to claiming his breakfast before anyone else could.

She knocked on the twins' bedroom door half-yelled "It's Nora!", and heard a muffled 'come in'. Nora swung the door open to reveal the twins bent over their shared desk. She eyed them as she dropped her stuff off into her trunk, depositing her dirty washing in her laundry bag before peering over Fred's shoulder.

Nora read the messy scrawl written across the notebook. "More ideas for the joke shop?" She questioned. The twins didn't bother to turn around as they nodded. "Oh, is that what you gave my little shit of a cousin? Ton-tongue toffee?"

That caused Fred to snap his head around to her. "Your cousin?" George looked over too but he was looking at his twin in disbelief.

"Yes..." Nora scrunched her eyebrows together. He's not that dumb is he? She hesitantly continued. "Dudley is my cousin, just like Harry. Petunia was the eldest, then my dad was born and a year later Lily."

Fred scratched at his cheek, eyes glazed over as he looked up to the ceiling. George and Nora exchanged a confused glance but the edges of Nora's lips had turned upwards. She planted both hands on his shoulders and nuzzled her chin into the crook of his shoulder, tilting her eyes up in solidarity.

"Well you don't exactly look alike," Fred mumbled, shaking his head to snap himself out of his stupor, cheek hitting Nora's softly. Suddenly, his eyes returned to normal and Nora retracted her chin. He started looking between Nora and George who were trying their hardest to hold back their laughs. One glance at each other and it was over.

Nora rolled her eyes and examined her nails. "Harry and I don't look alike either, my mother is Mexican and James Potter was Indian. Do I need to explain to you how genes work again?" She teased him, extending her pointy finger to boop him on the nose. However, just as she was about to make contact, a shrill voice shattered the brief lull.

"Weasley's!" Then, in a gentler tone she added, "And guests, breakfast is ready!" As though on cue, Nora, Fred and George's stomachs all grumbled at the same time.

Nora retracted the finger that she still held aloft, earning a pout from Fred who had been looking forward to being booped. George shook his head at the pair before locking her arm around Fred's head, successfully head-locking him.

"Let's go!"

{A/N: Thank you for reading :) please vote and comment!}