MOON AND STARS, fred weasley

four

"What are you doing in here?"

She panicked for a second, though luckily it was only the voices of the twins.

She was rummaging through James' suitcase, making quite a mess of it. She's fix that later. "Lily told me it was in here... ah found them!"

She grinned, and turned round to face the twins with a mandrake leaf in each hand.

"You didn't," said George.

"You're brilliant, you are," said Fred. "Hold on a minute..." Fred seemed to inspect her then. "Have you been crying? I thought the last moon's just gone."

"Maybe I'm on my period," she said and Fred's face dropped. "I'm not. That usually aligns pretty well with the moon, actually. I sent Sirius into a bit of a nervous breakdown but hey! Mandrake leaves."

Without warning, she shoved the leaves into both their mouths.

"Hey woman, give us a warning next time," they complained.

"Be quiet. This is your last chance. I'm not risking getting my ear screamed off by a mandrake again."

"Or by our mother," George said.

"But you're alright?" Fred checked.

"I'm fine. They're probably all in a meeting by now anyway. Now let's go jump-scare Harold. I can hear his groaning from here."

With that, the three of them popped to where Harry, Ron and Hermione were.

"Harry!"

"Thought we heard your dulcet tones. Don't bottle it up though, mate. Let it out."

"Instead of complaining, how about we show you our new wicked invention?" Adhara asked.

The extendable ear worked right away. They heard Sirius, so at least he was okay again.

"If it wasn't for Harry, we wouldn't even know Voldemort was back. He's not a child, Molly."

"He's not an adult, either."

"We're not sure if we want him involved or not," said Lily. "He's only fifteen."

"Perhaps Potter will grow up to be a felon, just like his godfather. Or perhaps your daughter — she's already halfway there."

Adhara scoffed. She snuck around but that didn't make her a felon.

"You stay out of this, Snivellous."

Adhara laughed at the nickname as Ginny joined the group.

"Snape's a part of the Order?" asked Harry.

"Unfortunately. Personally, I think he's hoping to woo your mum, which is not happening."

Harry's face wrinkled at the thought. And as he did, Crookshanks began to play with the ear on the level below.

"Get it up," Adhara instructed. "We spent weeks on that."

"Crookshanks, leave it alone."

"You bloody cat," Ron mumbled as Crookshanks took hold of it in his mouth.

"Hermione, I hate your cat," Ron spoke again as Crookshanks ran away with one of the ears.

"Bad Crookshanks!"

"I knew I should have packed a backup," Adhara sighed. That didn't last long.