𝐅𝐚𝐭𝐞'𝐬 𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞┃𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙒𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙮

Chapter 38: Late Night Secrets

"I do have to side with Ginny on this one, you do have feelings for him. Perhaps you're just too oblivious but you both have something for one another-"

"Fine!" Rubi cuts across Hermione sharply, "Yes, I do fancy Fred!" The other two girls squealed. "But he doesn't like me like that, he never will. I'm just a friend to him, that's all." Rubi finished glumly, letting her head fall onto her pillow.

"Oh I'm not so sure about that. I think Fred does too, I've seen it." Hermione said, earning a nod of her head in agreement from Ginny.

"Yeah, don't provide me with false hope." Rubi muttered, turning to her side. "Goodnight."

The other two girls shared knowing looks but decided to go to sleep as well.

***

"Why do we have to be up so early?" Ginny said, as the three girls entered the kitchen, having been woken early to set out to the Quidditch World Cup.

They had retrieved Harry the day before, and given the Dursleys a nice surprise and Rubina Black didn't regret a second of it. Now as she walked into the kitchen, Rubi silently agreed with Ginny, not wanting to voice her thought out loud as she deemed it to be rude to the Weasleys, especially since they had been so kind.

"We've got a bit of a walk," said Arthur.

"Walk?" said Harry. "What, are we walking to the World Cup?" Despite the tiredness, Rubi gently smiled at her cousin and his confused self.

"No, no, that's miles away," said Arthur, smiling. "We only need to walk a short way. It's just that it's very difficult for a large number of wizards to congregate without attracting Muggle attention. We have to be very careful about how we travel at the best of times, and on a huge occasion like the Quidditch World Cup..."

"George!" said Molly sharply, and they all jumped.

"What?" said George, in an innocent tone that deceived nobody.

"What is that in your pocket?"

"Nothing!"

"Don't you lie to me!"

Molly pointed her wand at George's pocket and said, "Accio!"

Several small, brightly colored objects zoomed out of George's pocket; he made a grab for them but missed, and they sped right into Molly's outstretched hand.

Rubi sucked in a breath, not wanting the twins' hard work to go to waste, and under the table she reached into Fred's pockets, Fred looked at her questioningly before realising what she was doing and turned back to his mother. Rubi extracted some of the toffees, gripping them tightly in her own pockets.

"We told you to destroy them!" said Molly furiously, holding up what were unmistakably more Ton-Tongue Toffees. "We told you to get rid of the lot! Empty your pockets, go on, both of you!"

It was an unpleasant scene; the twins had evidently been trying to smuggle as many toffees out of the house as possible, and it was only by using her Summoning Charm that Molly managed to find them all.

"Accio! Accio! Accio!" she shouted, and toffees zoomed out from all sorts of unlikely places, including the lining of George's jacket and the turn-ups of Fred's jeans.

"We spent six months developing those!" Fred shouted at his mother as she threw the toffees away. Rubi couldn't help but feel bad for not being able to save everything.

"Oh a fine way to spend six months!" she shrieked. "No wonder you didn't get more O.W.L.s!"

All in all, the atmosphere was not very friendly as they took their departure. Molly was still glowering as she kissed Arthur on the cheek, though not nearly as much as the twins, who had each hoisted their rucksacks onto their backs and walked out without a word to her.