𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘧𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘣𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 | ʀ.ᴊ ʟᴜᴘɪɴ

Ch1: The leaky cauldron

The Leaky Cauldron.

What a dastardly dim place to voluntarily be.

I lazily dropped down the flagstone steps and ducked under a low walkway before finding myself in what seemed to be a half empty pub, the wizarding barkeep gave a fluent flick of his fingers and several chairs upturned themselves and lay atop the damaged and dented table.

"Laura dear!" The familiar shriek of the older Weasleys voice made me jump as high as a niffler on a Gringotts canvas bag of coins but I turned on my heels with a smug grin plastered on my face anyway.

"Molly, so wonderful to see you." She enveloped me in one of her amazing hugs and I could've sworn I heard a threatening crack or two from my ribs.

"How are you? Have you been eating well? How are they treating you down at that dreadful place," She took my face in both of her soft but classically worn hands and locked her sparkling eyes with mine. Before I could reply Mr. Weasley poked his head over his wife's shoulder and gave me a light-hearted smile, both hands were held tight behind his cloaked back as he continued his walk about the medieval place.

"I'm very well thank you Molly, I'd stay with you of course. But as we know it's the orphanages request that I stay there over summer. It will change as soon as I'm of the muggle adult age." I gave her a sad smile and as quickly as it was given it was reflected.

"Well, not long to go yet dear. As soon as October 2nd comes about, I'll be having you from that awful place." A certain amount of assurance levelled the sentence and forced another smile onto my lips.

"I'm very lucky to have you." Mrs. Weasley only scoffed in return and faffed her hands about her fiery ginger hair before turning and facing the worn oak door that Hermione had just waltzed through, Ron following close behind as they engaged in some sort of argument no doubt.

"Lovely to see you too Ronald." I tussled at his hair as he attempted to slink by me and continue hammering on at Hermione and the ginger cat cradled in her arms, the edge of his visibly aged shoe kicked into the rubber of my boot.

"Shove off El, already got mum calling me Ronald all the bloody time don't need you to do it as well." His voice broke and shrieked after every couple of syllables, someone had clearly aged somewhat over the six or so weeks of summer.

"Sorry dear, bloody boy has been driving me nuts all holiday." I turned to see Molly's stout figure beside me, and her hands crossed tightly over her chest as she gave out an audible sigh.

"Ah yes, I forgot about that! How was it? Bet it was blistering, given you got it for free I'm sure there isn't much to complain about!" I rubbed shoulders with her and gave a deep chuckle. Egypt, what a brilliant holiday. And Molly deserved it most of all, it was very fortunate on Mr. Weasley's behalf to win such a prize at work.

"Yes, well the boys had their usual fallouts, and the twins pulled an occasional prank or two on Percy. The cheeky pair managed to bribe an Egyptian fellow to trade a pigmy puff for a charmed sarcophagus. Hid it in Percy's bed they did. The shriek I heard..." She broke herself of with a stifled eruption of laughter that recalling the story had put her into. She poorly tried to hide it as she pinched the bridge of her nose and chuckled to herself.

"Well, I'm glad the majority of the Weasley's managed to enjoy it." I followed in suit with her laughing as we both imagined a scared Percy bolting from his bed with a girly scream and the twins would obviously be hiding right outside the door giving their best attempt at hiding their identical giggles.

"Ah speak of the mirrored devils." I turned to the red headed boys that breezed past us, clearly eager to barge into Ron and Hermione's ongoing bickering.