RECONVENE! (fred weasley)

iii. the fight

cleaning had become one of maeve's most frequent hobbies. when you live in a house as dusty as grimmauld place, it was hard for it not to be.

the first places they had had to clean were the bedrooms that were being used. the bedrooms were the most used places in the house and no one wanted a dusty bed. next, they cleaned the kitchen. when you live in a house with many hungry people, the kitchen was basically the most important room in the house.

when it was just remus, sirius and maeve staying in the house they didn't need the whole dining room. instead they'd all eat in the nicest bedroom so that they didn't have to clean. unfortunately for them, they couldn't fit the three of them, hermione, harry and all of the weasley's into the room.

this meant that they then had to clean the dining room. when they did that, however, they had nine people cleaning and it had managed to go by quickly.

once they had cleaned the dining room, mrs weasley was convinced that they should clean the whole house. everyone agreed with her- the dust had started to make people sneeze a lot and it was slightly annoying during order meetings.

because of this, everyone would be cleaning when they could. and now that it was summer, everyone could clean. this led to every teen cleaning in the living room.

ginny and maeve were cleaning the statues and pictures, hermione, ron and harry were all trying to hoover and fred and george were making sure the sofa wasn't dusty (though everyone knew they were taking multiple breaks and sitting on there).

for over an hour, the seven teens had been cleaning in silence. it was increasingly awkward and maeve wanted nothing more than to break the silence. she assumed that everyone was being silent because she was there. maeve knew that her situation with fred made everyone wary- for a good reason, they would later find out- but she wanted things to go back to how they would have been a year before.

as much as maeve hated to admit it, she missed fred. before they had started dating, they had been best friends for six years. she had the same situation with george, but she didn't want to affect his and fred's relationship by trying to maintain their friendship.

either way, the situation she was in now was not desirable at all.

maeve coughed lightly, breaking the silence after breathing in too much dust. eyes immediately went on her.

"so..." maeve started, not really knowing what direction to take the 'conversation' in, "how are you all?"

"uh- great!" harry told her, trying to save his sister from any potential embarrassment.

"i mean we're cleaning. i don't think that means we're doing great." ron said to harry.

"cleaning isn't that bad!" hermione told ron.

"sure. other than the cleaning, i'm splendid!" george said sarcastically, looking at maeve.

"i'm fine. it's dustier than i was expecting though, don't you agree?" ginny said, blowing a loose strand of hair out of her eyes.

"oh, yeah. i love cleaning! and this house is just spectacular!" fred told maeve in a patronising way.

"the house isn't awful. it just needs some work done. no one has lived here in like a decade," maeve defended the house. this would be their first interaction in months and they could tell that it might not end well.

"it is awful! be honest maeve, there's cobwebs everywhere and sirius' mum shouts at us wherever we go," fred returned quickly.

"that's why we're cleaning it, funnily enough. we're getting rid of the cobwebs!" maeve shot back, adding sarcastic hand action to emphasise her point.

"don't argue, please. it's bad enough that everyone's having to avoid your obvious tension!" george cut in, trying to minimise the argument brewing.

"i'm not going to lie to you, george, neither of us wanted to be in this situation either! i wake up one morning in this dump and suddenly everyone's here!" maeve ranted.

"oh, so now you agree that it's a dump?" fred glared at her.

"obviously it's a dump, i'm just trying to be positive!"

"maybe we should just all shut up again! you guys need to calm down, why'd you even break up anyway?" ginny told them, acting as if she was their older sibling.

"none of your business!" maeve and fred chorused, agreeing for the first time that day.

the group quickly resumed their silence, hoping that the cleaning process would go by quicker.

★彡

as soon as the living room had been cleaned, the seven teenagers all shot off to different areas of the house.

ginny went to her room, wanting to write some letters to her friends. hermione, harry and ron all went to the boys room so that they could talk about something that involved no one else. fred and george went to their shared room to design new products for their joke shop.

maeve, however, flung herself into the black family house's library. whilst she did want to read a good book, she needed to talk to the person most like a father to her- remus- and the library was where he was cleaning.

"moony? where are you in here?" maeve called out.

"back here!" he shouted back.

maeve made her way to where her godfather was cleaning, "need any help?"

"sure thing mae, i take it you guys all finished cleaning?" he asked her, noticing that she looked slightly down.

"yeah we finished. i don't know who decided to let me and fred clean in the same room, though. it wasn't a smart decision." maeve told him, her eyes becoming teary.

"uh oh. what happened?" he questioned.

"everyone was really quiet so i tried to make a bit of conversation and we ended up arguing. it was really stupid and i don't know why i'm getting sad but i- i miss how everything used to be!" maeve told him, getting more incoherent towards the end.

"maevie, it's not your fault. people change and relationships change. who knows, you could be best friends again soon! maybe you'll even start dating again. no one knows what fate has held for you." remus told her wisely.

"i suppose. i just feel so sad about what happened and i can't imagine how he feels because i'm the one who broke up with fred!" maeve exclaimed.

"your hurt is your hurt maeve, you can't control it. now, you need to help me clean these books before we can go and have lunch!" remus said, making maeve giggle slightly.

keira's note!
these carry on getting smaller and smaller huh?
i did plan to have maeve, ginny and her,one talk about by themselves but i just don't think it really fits right now?
next chapter for sure!
also, sorry for the majorly crappy 'fight'.
i feel like maeve might be a bit unlikable or not have a clear character and that's just cuz i'm a crappy writer!
hope your all doing well and enjoying the book.