Just A Bet ● Fred Weasley × Reader ●

29 - 12 Grimmauld Place

I was overtaken by a light when one of the twins ripped the blindfold off of me. Looking up, we seemed to be in the middle of an entryway. A very old, very rustic looking entryway.

"This isn't the burrow," I muse.

"'Coruse not. Welcome to 12 Grimmauld Place." George patted my shoulders before leaving.

"Was that y/n?"

"y/n? What's she doing here?"

"y/n!"

Harry, Ron, and Hermione all raced down the stairs. I smiled at the golden trio, giving a small wave. They all grinned and rushed to me, shoving Fred out of the way when they wrapped me up in a group hug.

"Glad you're here, y/n. Fred and George were restless!" Hermione exasperated.

Fred's voice came from a few steps above. "Mum says you're sharing a room with Ginny. I'll bring your bag up."

"Okay." I smile, then gasp when Hermione tugs me up the stairs. "Mione!"

"What!? I need time away from Ron and Harry."

"Ooooh. Ron~" I tease, earning a smack to the back of the head. "Kay, sorry."

-

Ginny, I think, was the most excited to see me. The poor girl practically fused herself to me for a decent twenty minutes. I wasn't complaining though. I couldn't imagine having to live with five brothers. Apparently, Charlie was back in Romania, so he wasn't here.

Bill...

He would be tormented.

Eventually, Molly called us for dinner, so we all hurried down the many flights of stairs.

"We'll be eating down in the kitchen- oh!" The twins appeared behind her with a loud pop. She threw her hand up, whirled, and smacked George on the arm. "Just because you're allowed to use magic now doesn't mean you have to whip your wands out for everything!" She yelled down the hallway they ran.

"Hi, Molly." I smirked, poking my head into the hall to see George and Fred share a fist-bump.

"Ah... Hello, y/n, dear!" She gave me one of her signature bone-crushing hugs. "The boys weren't a hassle getting you here, were they?"

"No, not at all." 

Now that I thought of it, they were quite gentle about it all. I was grateful for that.

"Hungry, dears?" Molly asked, casually throwing her arm around Arthur's back.

"Starving-" Ron was cut off. 

"Harry Potter..." A man with shaggy brown hair and a beard came from behind mother and father Weasley.

"Sirius." Harry's smile stretched from ear to ear as he shoved through and hugged him. Ah, so this is the infamous Sirius Black... He doesn't look like much of a criminal to me.

Sirius hugged back, laughing at being reunited with his god-son. Well, then. Isn't this touching...? After a moment, I felt like I was intruding on something important, so I lower my head right as Professor Lupin's hand rests on Sirius's back. It was also a shocker to see him here too after the whole incident in fourth year. The stories from Ron were bonkers.

I sat myself at the table across from Fred and beside a woman whose name I discovered was Tonks. Well, her real name was Nymphadora, but the second anyone said it, she grew bright red. And redder than any usual person because she was a metamorphagus. Her magic could be used for negative things, but she used it to give herself pig snouts and to make us laugh. 

I was distracted with my food, enjoying my first decent meal of the summer, but then Molly snapped at something Sirius had said.

"Enough! He is just a boy!" She took the daily prophet from his hands and folded it under her arm.

"Well no! If Voldemort is raising an army, then I want to fight!" He looked at Sirius, who simply leaned back in his chair and winked. 

I froze. Voldemort is raising an army? If he's raising an army and we have nothing, then we're as good as dead. "An army?"

"Yes. An Army." Sirius confirmed, but then Molly's hands were on my ears, muffling everything.

"Hey- mum. Let her go." Fred's words came muffled.

"She is a child! Children should not be aware of this, Sirius!" She begrudgingly took her hands off my ears.

Sirius sighed. "Then we're doomed."

"Well..." I began, putting my fork down. "What if we make our own army?"

"We've been trying. So far, this is all the army we have..." Lupin gestured around the table. There certainly weren't many of us... This would surely complicate things.

Molly visibly bristled. "Fred, a word after dinner."

All attention went to Fred. Even Fred's attention had been brought back to himself, forcing him to refrain from launching a pea at the house elf, Kreacher. "What?" He said.

"You heard me." Molly huffed. 

- 

An hour later, every kid in the house (aside from Percy) was gathered at the very top of the stairs while Fred, Molly, and Arthur were in the kitchen. George, bring himself, reached into his pocket and pulled out- ew... An ear on a string. What on Earth?

George winked at me. "Extendable ears. It's a new product me and Freddie are working on. Why not test it now?" He held the other ear, then started lowering the thing. Slowly but surely, as the ear reached near the crack under the kitchen door, we could hear voices.

"Fred, I told you bringing her here was a bad idea! Her safety is top priority." Molly's voice echoed up the string.

"Mum, you think her safety was any better at her mother's house?" Fred retaliated.

"Maybe it wasn't great, but at least she was oblivious."

"Molly, dear-" Arthur attempted to diffuse the tension, but was immediately shut down.

"Not now, dear, please." Molly said. 

"I don't see why bringing y/n here is a bad thing." I could practically hear Fred crossing his arms with a sass-filled eye roll- oh... They were talking about me...

All eyes of all children went right to me, and it suddenly felt like there were bugs crawling beneath the layers of my skin.

"It's not a terrible thing, but it's not a good thing, Fred! She needs to be safe. Not here." Her voice then softened, "By bringing her here, you put a target on her back. I hope you know that..."

There was a moment of silence before Fred spoke again. "Yeah, but you didn't see her room. You didn't see the clothes everywhere. You didn't see the amount of unfinished books everywhere because she couldn't keep herself distracted long enough." He paused again. "You haven't seen her at her lowest. I. Have."

I look away, feeling an all too familiar prickle in my eyes.

"Crookshanks! No!" Hermione whisper-yelled down the stairs as her skrunkly orange cat started smacking at the ear. "Crookshanks! George, pull it up!" 

George started pulling up the ear, but Crookshanks had his claws in it, forcing it back down.

"Fred, I honestly don't see why this is so important to you." Arthur finally got his point in.

"Because... because I lo-" 

The cat yanked the ear off the string, cutting off the connection.

----------

A/N - HA! Y'all thought you were getting a love confession. NO! teehee

Until next time, Darlings! Xxx