"HELENA KATHERINE ROSEMUND! GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW."
Nina woke up in the morning by the yell of her father, afraid to know what had been the reason for him to call her by her full name. She threw her covers to the floor, regretting doing such thing when she stumbled with the blankets on her way out. The girl wanted to keep sleeping. Although, Helena wasn't sure what time it was today.
Her father always let her sleep in on her birthday.
She had to quickly adjust to the bright light of the summer coming from the kitchen, where her father was standing, arms crossed, covered in colorful confetti from head to toe.
"Care to explain why I'm basically a walking rainbow?" Andrew Rosemund asked her daughter.
"Early Halloween for my birthday?" she said quietly, hoping the joke would get her father to not look so scary right now.
The joke did not work.
"No, not quite," he said, "I opened this box and it exploded confetti all over me, and it's not coming off."
Helena went to see the opened cardboard box that was laying on the kitchen counter, and took out a variety of sweets that she immediately recognised were from Honeydukes, courtesy of the twins.
"Nice..." she said admiring her delicious present.
"Excuse me?"
"Oh, not the confetti thing, dad... Sorry, about that," Nina apologised, "Looks like they used magical glue."
She tried pealing off a small piece of confetti on his arm but it had really stuck.
"So this was a Weasley present, I'm guessing," her father came to the conclusion when she said they. "I have to admit, it's very clever..."
"Clever enough for me to walk away freely?"
"Maybe," Andrew Rosemund smiled at her, "But I'll have a small chat with them when they get here."
The Weasley twins had invited Helena to one of the most important events in the wizarding community: The Quidditch World Cup.
After begging her father to let her go all summer to spend the last two weeks of school break at the Weasley's, he eventually gave in, knowing she liked spending time with them. Even when she complained about them, especially about the twin named Fred, her father could see she really cared for them.
The twins had written to her days before to tell her that they would be arriving in the afternoon with their father, Arthur Weasley, who Helena had met right when they arrived at King's Cross station when the school year ended.
Just like Hermione had told her, Arthur Weasley had an interest in everything muggle-related, just like Nina's very own father was mesmerized by the wizarding world.
"Well, I'm gonna go ahead, take a shower and get ready," said Helena returning to her bedroom. "Maybe Mr. Weasley can get that confetti off of you!"
Putting on her favorite yellow sundress, she looked on her mirror to fix the strands of hair that did not want to be part of the high ponytail she pulled her hair into.
Then she heard a tap on her window and turned to see Alfie, her brown owl, hovering outside.
Nina quickly went to open the window to let him in, dropping the letter he had been carrying on her bed, hooting excitedly, flapping his wings as if he wanted to go back to the place she had sent him.
"Cedric gave you M&M's, didn't he?" Helena narrowed her eyes at her owl as Alfie hooted back in response.
During the summer, Cedric and Helena had been writing letters to eachother to keep in contact. In one of them, the boy had told her that he gave Alfie an M&M as a treat, since he had run out of proper ones for owls, and said how he had taken a liking for the muggle candy.
It was still weird for her to think she had a boyfriend. Maybe it was because they haven't seen each other since the day they left from Hogwarts, but at least she could write to him. She wrote about Cedric to the twins in one of her letters to them, and they seemed to have taken the news well.
Helena grabbed the letter Alfie had brought her, reading the Hufflepuff's neat caligraphy...
Dear Nina,
Guess what? My father and I will meet you and the Weasleys to share a Portkey the day of the World Cup! I hope our little bet is still on. Viktor Krum is Seeker for Bulgaria and he's a pretty good one! Anyway, I can't wait to see you ;)
P.S. Do you think Alfie will like Skittles?... Kidding! I know he will.
Love, Cedric
Nina laughed reading the last part, turning to her owl and stroking his soft feathers. The bird scooted closer to her, closing its eyes as he enjoyed being cuddled.
"He's buying your affection, you know that?" she chuckled at the owl. Alfie did not mind at all.
There was a loud popping noise that came from the living room, and Nina bolted from her bed where she was sitting, scaring the poor owl with the sudden movement.
She could hear her father talking to another man, and when she entered the small living room, she immediately ran towards the two tall redheads standing in the middle of the room, tackling them in a hug.
"Happy birthday, Nina!" they said in unison, looking down at their shorter friend. "Why aren't you covered in confetti?"
"Because it got my dad instead. Oh, I missed my favorite twinsies!" she squealed, getting herself to stand between them. "Your hair got longer," she pointed out.
"Hear that, Fred? Stating the obvious, this one," said George, hugging her back with one arm.
"She's a year older, George," began Fred, stroking her head the same way she had done with Alfie, "Her mind is not what it used to be."
"Oh, please!" Nina chuckled, swatting away the redhead's hand. "You didn't even let me finish. I was going to say that your hair looks nice like that. Really brings out your rosy cheeks."
The twins looked at each other.
"We don't have rosy ch--"
Nina lightly slapped both their faces, an evil triumphant grin on hers.
"Now you do."
"Bloody, Hel--"
"... And here is Helena Rosemund!" Arthur Weasley boasted, walking towards them when he heard talking behind him. "Happy birthday, dear," he said shaking her hand.
"Thank you, Mr. Weasley!" she smiled shyly, "Oh, and thanks for letting me stay in your home until school starts."
"It will be our pleasure to have you there," the kind man said, "Molly wants to meet the girl who was brave enough to befriend these two."
"Heyyyy... We're not that bad," complained George.
"Way to stick up for us, dad," said Fred, crossing his arms.
"I'm only repeating what your mother told me," Mr. Weasley defended.
The head of the Weasley family looked around Helena's apartment home, getting closer to the television they have in the living room, running a hand over the electronic.
"Is this a functioning one?" asked Mr. Weasley, marveled by it, "Have one back at the office, you see. Can't get it to work yet."
Helena nodded, walking up to the television and pushing the on button, displaying a brand new show about six friends who lived in New York City. They have been showing the pilot episode all week, but Nina already loved the program.
"Outstanding!" replied Mr. Weasley, observing the small people moving on the screen. "Any more brilliant muggle artifacts lying around here..."
The twins cleared their throat to stop their father from scavenging all over the apartment.
"Right, maybe some other time!" Mr. Weasley said clapping his hands together.
Then Nina's father stepped out of the kitchen confetti-free. Mr. Weasley had magically removed the colorful tiny pieces of paper from him and Andrew Rosemund was thankful, but was even more happy to have seen magic being casted right before his eyes.
"Thank you again, Arthur," said her father, then smiled when he saw the two boys standing next to his daughter. "So these two are the Weasley twins..."
Helena thought her father would bring up how their birthday gift to her had exploded on him instead, but Andrew Rosemund looked at them with admiration.
"Did you really develop candy that makes your tongue extremely long?" he asked the twins, his eyes showing a glint of wonder.
"We sure did! Ton-Tongue Toffees," they replied together.
"Have some right here..." Fred reached for his pocket but Mr. Weasley stopped him from doing so.
"Your mother told you to throw those away," Mr. Weasley reminded, giving the twins a look before turning back to Helena. "Now, we best be off! Not sure how you'll react to Apparating."
"We're Apparating?"
"What's Apparating?" her father asked curiously.
"It's a form of magical transportation, dad," explained the girl, "Like with Floo Powder. But Apparating takes a lot of practice and you need to take a test before a Ministry worker. Not many wizards enjoy Apparating. Some have experienced splinching, and ended up with half their body."
Helena shivered at the gruesome thought.
"Couldn't have said it better myself. You are very bright indeed, Nina," beamed Mr. Weasley. "And since you don't own a fireplace, Apparating is the way to go to not cause any muggle disturbance. Fred, George... Go help Nina get her luggage," he ordered the twins.
The girl showed them the way to her small room. One of the white walls was plastered with posters from the muggle teen magazines she read from time to time. She did not understand what was so addicting about them.
Everything in her room was neatly where it was supposed to be, from her school books that were on a shelf above her bed, to her clothes in her closet that were color coordinated. The only thing that was untidy was her bed, but Nina quickly picked it up to move around freely.
"Don't tell me you actually buy those," said Fred pointing at the magazines that were on her desk, "Ginny buys Witch Weekly--"
"--But she told us muggle ones have weird horoscopes," said George, turning the pages in one.
"They're not weird. They tell you about your love life... it's fun, I guess," Nina explained.
She never takes them seriously, she just likes to read them to have a laugh.
"Love life? Rubbish... Let me have a look," Fred took the magazine from his brother's hands and flipped through the pages until he found the horoscope section. "Aha! You would be a Leo, Hell. 'Love is in the air but confusing times are coming your way.'"
"Better warn Diggory there, Rosemund," teased George, nudging her arm.
"Come off it!" Nina laughed, and grabbed a pillow, smacking both twins with it. "Why don't you two stop reading that thing and get the luggage, while I get Alfie in his cage, yeah?"
Helena did not want to worry about her love life when it was in its early stages. Besides, those silly horoscopes were never right.
The three of them walked back to the living room carrying Helena's stuff when Mr. Weasley and her father were having a talk about means of transportation, muggle vs wizarding.
"... I mean, of course I was surprised to see that car in the sky, but I knew it was from your world and didn't say anything," Andrew Rosemund said, remembering the time he had dropped off Helena on King's Cross for her fourth year, and then spotted a blue Ford Anglia high up in the air before disappearing.
"Lost in the Forbidden Forest, Ron tells me," sighed Mr. Weasley with regret.
George leaned in to Nina so that the adults would not hear him...
"Sirius could've used that car--"
"--If he'd found it," Fred sniggered on her other side.
Helena supressed her laugh, thinking how it might have been harder to find a missing car than an escapee from Azkaban when they went into the dark forest on several occassions without seeing the car.
"Off we go then!" Mr. Weasley motioned for the teens to get closer to where he was, bumping into each other as they tried to manage the girl's luggage as well. "Get a good grip on each other, don't want anyone drifting away."
Nina took the hand of the twin that was closest to her, holding it with a strong grip. She was nervous about Apparating and did not know what to expect.
"Don't worry. I've got you, Hell," whispered Fred to the girl, giving her hand a light squeeze to reassure her.
"Have fun! Don't forget to write!" her father yelled excitedly at her. "Oh, and happy birthday kiddo!"
And with a loud popping sound, they were gone.
Helena felt as though her whole body was being squeezed into a narrow tube, and thought she would run out of air to breathe. She did not dare loosen her grip on Fred, and on Alfie's cage for that matter. But in a split second, they had arrived safely to their destination.
"Welcome to the Burrow!" the twins beamed.
.
.
.
.
.
.
a/n Sorry for the delay! I'm using my phone's data to update until I get wifi installed.
I hope you liked this chapter! More Fred coming up ;)
THANKS TO OneWasABookThief for the adorable fanart!!! I absolutely love it :3