Bound Together (Fred Weasley)

Chapter 1- Missing Keys

Sunlight streamed in through the little girls window, softly lighting up the blue and white walls, making them dance with color.

In the corner of the room, opposite the one with the door, sat white bunk bed. The top bunk had a curtain hanging from the ceiling, forming a tent like structure. On the bottom bunk lay a small child of about five.

The quiet of the room was disrupted when a smart dressed woman in her mid twenties walked into the room and strode towards the little girls bed. Wrenching open the lilac drapes the woman turned to the bed and in a singsong voice called out, 

"Wakey wakey Scar baby. It's breakfast tiiiime. You don't want to be late for your first day of school, do you?"

Slowly the child in the bed stirred, before sitting up and wiping the sleep from her eyes. She looked up at her mother and grinned. "No mum, of course not. Can I wear my green overalls instead of the blue?"

Scarlet's mother laughed. "Of course you can sweetheart. Now hurry on downstairs, breakfast is getting cold."

Scarlet grinned, throwing back the covers she jumped out of bed, gave her mom a quick hug, and bolted down the stairs, passing her older brother Dominiq on the way down.

"Dad says no running down the stairs!" Dominiq called after her.

"I'm not running, I'm hopping!" Scarlet giggled as she began hopping down the stairs. She looked back at her brother, sticking her tongue out and making a raspberry noise. As she turned back around, a pair of strong, tan arms wrapped  themselves around her torso, picking her up and spinning her around in circles.

"Ahhh! Daddy!! Put me down! Mommy says I'm going to be late for school."

Laughing, Scarlet's father set her down in her seat, where a plate of eggs and toast awaited her. Wolfing down her food, Scarlet watched as her father frantically searched the kitchen and living room for something.

"What's wrong daddy?"

"Oh nothing sweetheart, I just seem to have misplaced my keys. If I don't get going soon, we'll both be late." Pausing,

he called up the stairs to his wife, "Honey?"

"Yes Derek?" She replied, poking her head around the corner.

"Have you seen my keys? I can't find them. They were on the kitche counter just a moment ago." He scratched his head.

"It's like they've vanished."

Monica sighed, shaking her head at her husband. He was forever losing things. Last week he misplaced his wallet and found it in the medicine cabinet in the guest bathroom three days later. Two weeks prior, he lost the tv remote and found it the next morning at work in his briefcase. Smiling to herself, she walked downstairs.

"Maybe you accidentally put them in the fridge, or the dishwasher or something. Or maybe you left them in your jacket pocket? There was a slight chill last night, remember?" She walked towards the fridge, planting a kiss on first Scarlet's head, then Dominiq's as she passed them.

"But I already checked in the fridge, I even looked in the egg container!" Derek looked exasperated.

"Maybe you cooked them in my eggs and I ate them!" Piped up Scarlet, grinning like a madman.

"You can't cook keys into eggs you git, that's not how it works." Dominiq rolled his eyes.

"Dom, no name calling at the breakfast table!" His mother chided him, before opening the fridge to search its contents for her husbands keys.

"She started it." Dominiq mumbled as Scarlet stuck her tongue out at her brother.

Picking up the egg container, Monica called out triumphant, "I found your keys honey! They were behind the eggs and in front of the milk." She held them up and handed them to her dumbfounded husband.

Spluttering, he took the keys from his wife. "But- but how? I just looked in there?"

Laughing, Monica picked up a still grinning Scarlet and headed upstairs to get her ready for school.