Forever Always Ends // Weasley Twins

Chapter 11

Fred's POV:

"Ok, let me think.", I muttered to myself, "Where should we start... best place is right here, logical." I shook my head and cleared my throat. Looking at Anna, I realised she hadn't missed my brief absence. She smiled at me, probably just because she didn't know what to say.

In principle, it didn't really matter where we started, did it?, I thought.

"So off you go, and right here. I guess you can see that this is our kitchen and living room and dining room and actually everything a bit," I said a little sheepishly, searching for the right words to describe our living situation.

"An eat-in kitchen then?"

"Exactly."

I almost got a little nervous as Anna helped me out, because I didn't know what she would think of our house. After all, she had never been here before and I knew from her stories that she had a relatively large home herself. I tried to cover my uncertainty with a charming smile.

Pull yourself together Freddie. What's the matter with you?, I admonished myself, looking at Anna as she took in all the impressions that were so normal for me. Her gaze slid over our old dining table with its countless chairs of different colours, the cooker with its various kitchen utensils - only Merlin knows what Mum needed them all for - over the sink, which did the dishes by itself, and finally to the fireplace. As she looked at it, I could tell that I was about to be bombarded with questions.

"Don't tell me it's connected to the flea network!" Anna looked at me with an enthusiastic look, which made me smile.

"Sure it is. You know busy people like George and me depend on it. How else would we get to all our business appointments all over the wizarding world?", I babbled, wondering meanwhile what the hell I was talking about. George and I were thirteen years old, where would we go?

But Anna seemed to find it funny, because she started laughing. "I wish I had one of those. Would save me a lot of time too, after being as busy as you are." We goofed around a bit more and actually thought about whether we would be famous and successful someday before Anna's eyes fell on something else.

"You better not look in the mirror, it's nasty," I warned her as she took it from our mantelpiece but that was probably too late.

"Oops, I've never seen you before. You should comb your hair, strange girl. All dishevelled. Terrible," it sounded from the mirror and Anna stared at the mirror and then at me indignantly, as I had to laugh quite a bit.

"What are you doing? Why do you have something like that?" she asked, upset, but then had to laugh too.

"Well, I warned you. George and I gave that to Charlie a few years ago when he thought he was the biggest ladies' man."

"This looks like you. You have to tell me where you got it. I'll have to give one of those to Josh," she laughed and began to rummage through the big room. She looked at some books and old photos of us. I had to tell her all the stories about them and normally I hated it when Mum pulled out all the junk, but looking at the pictures with Anna was actually quite nice.

"All right, Anna. Let's go to the next floor! You know enough embarrassing stories about us now," I said and took her hand to guide her. When our hands touched, my whole body tingled and I got a little red in the face. I had always liked Anna very much, but this was the first time I felt this nervousness and pleasant warmth. Otherwise I was always relaxed and quick-witted around her. Obviously I was a bit rattled today.

We were just about to leave the room when Anna suddenly stopped.

"What kind of watch is that?" her eyes lit up again as she said it, "That's new - even to me... Your parents don't quite trust you, do they?" She had to laugh and pointed to the clock that always showed where everyone in our family was at any given moment.

"Well, I would say that Mum is the one who always wants to know where we are. She's a control freak," I said, joining in her laughter.

"Yeah but even 'prison'? She trusts you with everything, doesn't she?" she teased, playfully jabbing her elbow into my side. I just shrugged, "The danger of Percy ending up in jail is ever present, Anna. Pressing charges is a must. You know what he's like."

"You weirdo." she laughed at my joke and now we really were finally walking up a flight of stairs. The stairs zigzagged upwards and as we did so I explained to her who would be sleeping in which room. I purposely didn't warn her about the ghoul in the attic because I wondered if it would scare her.

When we were done in the house, we went outside because I wanted to show her the garden. However, Anna first surveyed our house itself and I knew that the sight could be a bit funny at first.

"It looks kind of crooked... How is everything actually holding together?" asked Anna, looking at me in confusion.

"Honestly, I have absolutely no idea. It's looked like that for as long as I can remember. Probably held together with some magic," I explained, wondering why I had never thought about it myself.

"And how many chimneys are there? Four? Five?"

"Five I think. Or four? I think one broke during one of our Quidditch games. Don't know if anyone ever fixed it," I said, scratching my head.

"I love it!" laughed Anna and you could tell she meant it. I smiled back and it was a load off my mind when she said that.

"Come on, I'll show you some more. Got another surprise," I said mysteriously, wiggling my eyebrows as I walked towards the forest with her.