A Hogwarts Legend: Chaos Begins [4] (SLOW UPDATES)

Chapter Three

Chapter Three - "Sucks to be you."

I spin faster and faster, elbows tucked tightly to my sides, blurred fireplaces flashing past me, until I start to feel sick and close my eyes. Then, when at last I feel myself slowing down, I throw out my hands, and bring myself to a halt in time to prevent myself from falling face forwards out of the Weasleys' kitchen fire.

"Did he eat it?" says George excitedly to Harry and I, holding out a hand to pull me to my feet.

"Yeah," says Harry, who's standing to my left. "What was it?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," says Fred brightly. "George and I invented them, we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer ..."

The tiny kitchen explodes with laughter; I look around and see that Ron and George are sitting at the scrubbed wooden table with two red-haired people that I've never seen before, through I know who they must be: Bill and Charlie, the two eldest Weasley brothers.

"How're you doing, Emily?" says the nearer of the two, grinning at me and holding out a large hand, which I shake, feeling calluses and blisters under my fingers. This has to be Charlie, who works with dragons in Romania. Charlie is built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who are both long and lanky. He has a broad, good-natured face, which is weather-beaten and so freckle that he looks almost tanned; his arms are muscly, and one of them has a large, shiny burn on it.

Bill gets to his feet, smiling, and also shakes my hand. Bill comes as something of a surprise. I know that he works for Gringotts, that he had been Head Boy of Hogwarts, and have always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy; fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around. However, Bill is - there's no other word for it - cool. He's tall, with long hair that he's tied back in a ponytail. He's wearing an earring with what looks like a fang dangling from it. His clothes wouldn't look out of place at a rock concert, except that I recognise his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragon hide.

"You're cooler than I imagined," I blurt out, blushing as Bill laughs.

"Well, your exactly how I imagined. Ron and the twins have told us a lot about you."

Turning to the twins and Ron, who have gone quite red, I wink at them and turn back to the oldest Weasleys. "Did they tell you I'm weird? Because that is entirely accurate."

Before any of us can say anything else, there's a faint popping noise, and Mr Weasley appears out of thin air at George's shoulder, he's looking angrier than I've ever seen him.

Beef, beef, beef, beef.

"That wasn't funny, Fred!" he shouts. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything," says Fred, with another evil grin. "I just dropped it ... it was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."

"You dropped it on purpose!" roars Mr Weasley. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet -"

"How big did his tongue get?" George asks eagerly.

"It was four foot long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

Harry, the Weasleys and I roar with laughter again.