Briar had been invited to the quidditch world cup this summer with the Weasleys, since Arthur Weasley could usually get tickets from work, and this year they invited Harry, Hermione, and Briar to join their family
And Mrs Weasley had decided that Mrs Forrest, Ollie, and Remus should join them for dinner on Briar's birthday
So Briar and her family had arrived on the morning of it, and then in the afternoon they were greeted by Harry who came through the Floo network with Fred, George, Ron, and Mr Weasley
When Mr Weasley came through the fire place, the once chatty, lively group were silenced by his shouts
"That wasn't funny Fred!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?" Briar, her family, and Remus gave the twins confused look, both of whom were snickering
"I didn't give him anything," said Fred, with another evil grin. "I just dropped it.... It was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."
"You dropped it on purpose!" roared Mr. Weasley. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet -"
"How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly.
"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"Harry and the Weasley twins roared with laughter again."It isn't funny!" Mr. Weasley shouted. "That sort of behaviour seriously undermines wizard-Muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of Muggles, and my own sons-"
"We didn't give it to him because he's a Muggle!" said Fred indignantly.
"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," said George. "Isn't he,Harry?"
"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," said Harry
"That's not the point!" raged Mr. Weasley. "You wait until I tell your mother -"
"Tell me what?" said a voice behind them as Mrs. Weasley entered the kitchen. Everyone fell silent immediately, fully aware how strong her temper could be "Oh hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him and smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?" There was another silence as everyone anxiously waited to see what Mr Weasley would do "Tell me what, Arthur?" Mrs. Weasley repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice.
"It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Mr. Weasley, "Fred and George just - but I've had words with them -"
"What have they done this time?" said Mrs. Weasley. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes -"
"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" Hermione suggested
"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last -"
"We can all go," said Hermione pointedly.
"Yes" Briar said so she, Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and Harry edged out of the kitchen and set off up the rickety staircase
"What are Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes?" Harry asked as they climbed, and Briar had the same question. Ron and Ginny both laughed, although Hermione didn't.
"Mum found this stack of order forms when she was cleaning Fred and George's room," said Ron "Great long price lists for stuff they've invented. Joke stuff, you know. Fake wands and trick sweets, loads of stuff. It was brilliant, I never knew they'd been inventing all that-"
"We've been hearing explosions out of their room for ages, but we never thought they were actually making things," said Ginny. "We thought they just liked the noise."
"Only, most of the stuff - well, all of it, really - was a bit dangerous," said Ron,"and, you know, they were planning to sell it at Hogwarts to make some money, and Mum went mad at them. Told them they weren't allowed to make any more of it, and burned all the order forms.... She's furious at them anyway. They didn't get as many O.W.L.s as she expected."
"And then there was this big row," Ginny said, "because Mum wants them to go into the Ministry of Magic like Dad, and they told her all they want to do is open a joke shop."
A door on the landing opened next to them, and a face poked out wearing horn-rimmed glasses and a very annoyed expression.
"Hi, Percy," said Harry.
"Oh hello, Harry," said Percy. "I was wondering who was making all the noise.I'm trying to work in here, you know I've got a report to finish for the office - and it's rather difficult to concentrate when people keep thundering up and down the stairs."
"We're not thundering, "said Ron irritably. "We're walking. Sorry if we've disturbed the top-secret workings of the Ministry of Magic."
"What are you working on?" Harry asked
"A report for the Department of International Magical Cooperation," said Percy "We're trying to standardise cauldron thickness. Some of these foreign imports are just a shade too thin - leakages have been increasing at a rate of almost three percent a year -"
"That'll change the world, that report will," said Ron. "Front page of the DailyProphet, I expect, cauldron leaks."
"You might sneer, Ron," he said heatedly, "but unless some sort of international law is imposed we might well find the market flooded with flimsy, shallow-bottomed products that seriously endanger -"
"Yeah, yeah, all right," said Ron, and he started off upstairs again, followed by the others. They headed up three more flights until they reached Ron's room. The walls were covered with posters of Ron's favourite Quidditch team, the Chudley Cannons, who were whirling and waving on the walls and sloping ceiling, and there was fish tank on the windowsill, which had previously held frogspawn, now contained one extremely large frog. Ron's old rat, Scabbers, was here no more, but instead there was the tiny grey owl hopping up and down in a small cage and twittering madly."Shut up, Pig," said Ron, edging his way between two of the four beds that had been squeezed into the room. "Fred and George are in here with us, because Bill and Charlie are in their room," he told Harry. "Percy gets to keep his room all to himself because he's got to work."
"Er - why are you calling that owl Pig?" Briar asked
"Because he's being stupid," said Ginny, "Its proper name is Pigwidgeon."
"Yeah, and that's not a stupid name at all," said Ron sarcastically. "Ginny named him," he explained "She reckons it's sweet. And I tried to change it, but it was too late, he won't answer to anything else. So now he's Pig. I've got to keep him up here because he annoys Errol and Hermes. He annoys me too, come to that"
"Briar, follow me" Ginny said and the Lupin girl and Hermione followed the youngest red head out of Ron's room and down one story into Ginny's room, which had three mattresses squished in
The three girls gossiped away in her cramped room until Mrs Weasley called them all down to help set dinner, so Briar, Harry, and Ron went outside to help Bill and Charlie set the tables and by 7 o'clock all of the Weasleys, Lupins, Juliette, Ollie, Hermione, and Harry were seated around two long wooden tables eating mountains of Mrs Weasley's delicious cooking
At the far end of the table, Percy was telling his father all about his report on cauldron bottoms. In the middle of the table, Mrs. Weasley was arguing with Bill about his earring, which seemed to be a recent acquisition. And next to Mrs. Weasley, Fred, George, Briar, and Charlie were all talking spiritedly about the World Cup.
"It's got to be Ireland," said Charlie thickly, through a mouthful of potato. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."
"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," said Fred.
"Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," said Charlie shortly. "I wishEngland had got through. That was embarrassing, that was."
"What happened?" said Harry eagerly
"Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," said Charlie gloomily. "Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."
"I think it'll be Ireland" Briar added
At the other end of the table Remus and Hermione were quietly whispering about something and kept sneaking glances at Briar. And once Mrs Weasley sent all the now empty dishes into the kitchen, Hermione hurried inside and came out moments later carrying a large cake decorated in red and gold icing
Briar couldn't stop the smile that graced her face as the group around her began to sing and when she blew out the candles, she looked across the smiling faces around her and for once in her life she really felt like she was home
"What did you wish for?" Fred asked
"It's bad luck to tell you" She grinned
As everyone else began to head inside for the night Briar found herself curled in one of the Weasley wicker chairs on the porch, with her father seated in the chair next to hers
"I wanted to give you this" He said and from his thick coat, he pulled out a small box from a pocket of it, which was wrapped in brown paper. Briar slowly unfolded the paper from the box and opened its wooden lid, finding a leather bracelet inside with a metal wolf head charm on it
"It's beautiful," she whispered
"I gave it to your mother when we first started going out" he explained "I thought you should have it"
"I love it" she smiled as she clipped it around her slender wrist
"And," Remus said, leaning down and pulling out a large, badly wrapped present from under his seat which Briar had failed to notice due to his long coat scraping the floor "This is from me and Sirius"
Briar carefully took the gift from him and tore through the wrapping to reveal the sleek wooden handle of a familiar broom inside. And once all the wrapping was gone she knew immediately that she was holding a fire bolt
"Oh my god," she whispered in shock
"You're a brilliant player, honey, and we both think you could go all the way. So I want you to play as well as you can and I hope this will help," he explained
"Thank you!" Briar squealed and after squeezing him in a tight hug, she sprinted inside to show Harry and then the two young Gryffindors bounded out into the darkness on their brooms, the sounds of their laughter and cheers echoing throughout the quiet night