Dealing with Ourselves : Fred Weasley

7

     I'm woken up by a loud rumble in my stomach that is followed by an empty pain. I slowly sit up and look around. The walls are painted pink and are decorated with a Quidditch poster and a band poster. When I am sitting fully up a bad headache hits me. As well as how dry my mouth and throat are. 
     I slowly get up and change into light blue jeans and a red and white striped shirt. I brush my hair out and put my glasses on. I slowly walk out and make my way around the house. I finally find a room with people. 
     Fred is sitting at the kitchen table with Lupin and Mrs. Weasley. Next to Mrs. Weasley, a tall, older man with red hair looks at me. This must be their dad. He smiles at me. "You must be Charlie," He says before standing and holding out his hand. I force myself to smile through the headache and shake his hand. "Yes sir," I say after clearing my throat. 
     Mrs. Weasley stands and gets me a glass of water and pulls a chair out for me. I sit. "Thank you." Fred gives me a small smile. "How do you feel?" he asks. "I um... I have a headache," I say in between drinks of water. It already makes me feel better. 
     "Do you care explaining what happened?" Lupin asks while looking at me. "Um... Well, I had a few pieces of gum that Fred and George gave me. They are supposed to-"  "Yes they told us about the gum," Mrs. Weasley says in disapproval. 
     "Okay. Well, I was feeling really down because I had gotten in a bad argument with my adoptive family and because of Cedric. And the gum made me feel better. But I kind of forgot that they said they weren't finished or anything yet. So I kind over overdid it," I say while pushing my hair behind my ear. 
     "When was the last time you ate anything dear? You look so much skinnier than the last time I saw you," Mrs. Weaslsey says with a worried look. I think about it for a few seconds. "Well, the last time I ate a full meal was before we left Hogwarts. But I think it has been four or five days since-"  "Four or five days! No wonder you look so thin! We need to get some food in your system!" Mrs. Weasley says shocked. 
     She starts to bustle around the kitchen now and starts to prepare things. "I know that you are going through something hard but you still need to take care of yourself," Lupin says while giving me a serious look. 
     "What happened to your hair?" Fred asks while looking at my hair. "It is long, I know. I need to get it cut," I say with a small sigh. "I think Fred was talking about the colour," Mr. Weasley says with a smile. I give them a look of confusion. "The colour? What do you mean? It's black." Fred suddenly looks as though he is holding in a laugh. "You might want to go look in the mirror love." 
     I slowly get up look around for a mirror. I finally find one in a bathroom. When I look in it I am shocked to find that half of my hair is a bright cyan blue. My mouth falls open in shock. Why is it blue? How and when? 
     I can hear laughter coming from behind me at the doorway. I look back to see Fred and George there laughing. I don't have any words. I think as hard as I can to try and figure out how this happened. The only time I left the house after I got back was when I went to see Harry and when I went to the store. 
     The store... It slowly starts to come back to me. I bought hair dye when I was all loopy from the gum... I must have dyed it myself... Well, I must say I did a rather good job. Especially while not being able to properly function. 
     I walk past the laughing twins and walk to the kitchen and sit back down. They follow. "Um... Sirius said that I should be careful when I leave the house so I think I thought it would be a good idea. Kind of makes me a little less unrecognizable," I say while looking between everyone. 
     Lupin lightly laughs and lightly shakes his head. Mr. Weasley does the same. "Don't worry dear I'm sure we can fix it," Mrs. Weasley says with a kind smile. I give her a smile of appreciation. Honestly, I don't know if I will want to change it back. 
     "So why am I here?" I ask curiously. Lupin and Mr. Weasley look at each other before looking back to me. "Dumbledore trusts you," Mr. Weasley says, a serious demeanour coming over them all. "And none of us thought it was safe for you to stay at your muggle home. Especially by yourself," Lupin explains. 
     "What about Harry and Hermione? They are in muggle houses, and Harry is wanted by the most dangerous wizard alive," I say starting to get a little upset. "Hermione is here," Mr. Weasley answers. "She's somewhere with Ron or Ginny," George adds. "Harry has constant protection. Dumbledore's orders," Lupin says to answer my other question. I lightly nod. I suppose that is better than nothing. 
     "None of us will be here for much longer. Tomorrow we will be staying somewhere else. So make sure to get packed," Mr. Weasley says while looking at the twins. "We have been," Fred says with a nod. "It's Ron you should worry about," George says while also nodding. 
     "Why aren't we staying here? Where will we be staying? Wait, how long am I staying with you?" I ask quickly. The twins lightly laugh. "Somewhere safer and easier," Lupin simply says. "Until we go back to school," Fred says to me with a smile. I can't help but feel happy about that. 
     I smile back at him. Before I can say anything else Mrs. Weasley sets down a large plate filled with food in front of me. And when I say filled I mean completely filled. It is all breakfast stuff. She also sets another cup of water down. "There you are, dear. Eat up," She says while crossing her arms. A proud smile on her face. 
     "You won't starve as long as you stay with us," Fred says with a light laugh. "Not on mums watch," George adds. I smile at her. "Thank you." I slowly start to eat, not wanting to overdo myself. "What happened to your hand?" Fred asks. I look at my hand that has a bloody bandage around it. 
     Oh right, I forgot that I cut my hand on the cat food can. I don't think I cleaned it very well. I'm sure it will be fine. "Oh, I accidentally cut it opened a can of cat food. Where is Pebbles?"  "Looks like the bandage needs to be changed," Lupin says while looking at my hand. 
     "Last I saw of the cat was upstairs with Crookshanks," George says while taking a piece of bacon off my plate. "Here, dear. Let me see what you need and we will get it cleaned up," Mrs. Weasley says while holding her hands out for mine. 
     I hesitantly lay my hand in hers. I wince slightly as she unwraps the bandage. I guess some blood had dried and stuck to it and is ripping off. When she gets it off it looks like the two-inch cut is still slightly bleeding. It has some fuss and stuff in it. Probably dirt. 
     "We need to get this cleaned before it gets infected," she says before rushing out. Lupin stands and gets a rag and wets it and walks over and wraps it around my hand. When Mrs. Weasley comes back in she has a jar and a new bandage. She gently wipes down my hand with the rag Lupin gave me before putting the cream from the jar on it. She then gently wraps my hand up. 
     She pulls her wand out and points it at it and after a moment it feels slightly tighter. "There you go. It should be better in a few days. I made the bandage waterproof for when you bathe."  "Thank you. I appreciate everything," I say while smiling at her and Mr Weasley. They smile back. 
     Lupin stands again. "I should be going. I will see you tomorrow Molly," Lupin says while putting his hands in his pockets. Mr. Weasley also stands. "Yes, I should be going as well," He says with a sigh. "Do be careful, the both of you," she says giving them a serious look. She walks over and gives her husband a quick kiss. 
     "You as well," Lupin says before walking out. Mr. Weasley smiles at me and the twins before walking out as well. "Eat up dear. You need to get some strength in you," Mrs. Weasley says while patting my shoulder before leaving the room. 
     I look at the twins while eating. "So what is going on? Do you know where we are going to be staying?" I ask them. They shake their heads. "Someplace big we reckon," George says with a shrug. "Needs to fit a lot of people," Fred adds with a nod. "A lot of people? Who all will be staying there?" 
     "Well, I don't know about staying there all the time," Fred starts to say. "But the whole Order will need to be able to fit comfortably and safely," George continues. "For meetings and such," Fred finishes. I look back and forth as they finish each other's sentences. "Order? Meetings?" 
     "The Order of the Phoenix," Fred starts, both the twins lower their voices so only I can hear. "It's the secret society that Dumbledore created-"  "-The people who fought You-Know-Who in the first war are in it-"  "-And the new believers who Dumbledore trusts. We don't know much about any of it-"  "-Only the bits that we managed to overhear and that Bill has told us-"  "-Mum says we are too young to join. So they won't tell us anything."
     I take in all the information they are passing back and forth all while eating my food. I lightly shake my head. "This seems like it is going to be an even more stressful year than last year." They both nod in agreeance. "If you hurry up and eat we can show you our new invention," Fred says with a proud smile. I smile back and eat a little faster. Maybe this won't be a horrible summer.