Stunning; Fred Weasley

SEVEN

"Yeah," Ron and Harry said slowly.

"Well, the git paid us in leprechaun gold he'd caught from the Irish mascots."

"So?"

"So, it vanished, didn't it? By the next morning, it had gone!" Fred said impatiently.

"But- it must've been an accident, mustn't it?" asked Hermione.

George laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, that's what we thought, at first. We thought if we just wrote to him, and told him he'd made a mistake, like Elle suggested, he'd cough up. But nothing doing. Ignored our letter. We kept trying to talk to him about it at Hogwarts, but he was always making some excuse to get away from us. Elle got pissed when we kept disappearing to find him."

"In the end, he turned pretty nasty. Told us we were too young to gamble, and he wasn't giving us anything."

"So I told them to at least ask for their money back," I interjected.

"He didn't refuse!" Hermione gasped.

"Right in one," Fred replied.

"But that was all your savings!" Ron exclaimed.

"Tell me about  it. 'Course, we found out what was going on in the end. Lee Jordan's dad had had a bit of trouble getting money off Bagman as well. Turns out he's in big trouble with the goblins. Borrowed loads of gold off them. A gang of them cornered him in the woods after the World Cup and took all the gold he had, and it still wasn't enough to cover all his debts. They followed him all the way to Hogwarts to keep an eye on him. He's lost everything gambling. Hasn't got two Galleons to rub together. And you know how the idiot tried to pay the goblins back?" George said.

"How?" Harry asked.

"He put a bet on you, mate. Put a big bet on you to win the tournament. Bet against the goblins." Fred told him.

"So that's why he kept trying to help me win! Well- I did win, didn't I? So he can pay you your gold!" Harry said.

"Nope. The goblins play as dirty as him. They say you drew with Diggory, and bagman was betting you'd win outright. So Bagman had to run for it. He did run for it right after the third task."

The rest of the ride went quickly. When the train stopped, I went to retrieve my luggage, but Harry asked Fred and George to wait. I told them I'd wait before I left. Returning to our compartment, I quickly pulled my trunk from the netting. Fred and George returned, so I asked them what that was about, but they just shook their heads. I went ahead and gave them all hugs and made them promise to write before we left the compartment.

On my way off the train, I seen Harry and the other Weasleys so I quickly shouted a goodbye, wanting to hurry to Dad. Maybe me and Dad combined can get Mum to stay with us.

I grinned, forgetting all my problems when I seen a very excited Snuffles who was wagging his tail alongside the real Mad-Eye Moody. I rushed over, bending down to pet Snuffles, who immediately started licking my face. "Good to see you too, Dad," I murmured before standing up and nodding to Mad-Eye, who nodded back before starting to stalk off, leaving me and Snuffles to follow.
——
Inside Grimmauld Place, Dad transformed. Once he was back in human form, I seen the grin on his face as he brought me into a hug. After he let me go, he told me, "Your room is on the third floor, the third door on the right. I figure you'll want to get settled before dinner."

I smiled, "Thanks Dad. I'll unpack and be back down."

He chuckled, "Okay."

I took my trunk upstairs and found the bedroom he told me was mine. The hallway walls were dark colors with portraits of strict looking people adorning them. The floors were rickety and there was still at least an inch of dust on it even though Dad told me Molly had come by a lot to clean it. The house smelled damp and dusty. There was even a wall with the heads of former house elves on it, which gave me the creeps. Dad wants to get rid of them, but doesn't want to offend Kreacher and cause him to kill us in our sleep.