"Did he eat it?" Fred yelled excitedly, holding out a hand to pull Harry to his feet once he and Tori had gotten back to the Burrow.
"Yeah," Harry said, straightening up. "What was it?" Fred grinned. "Ton-Tongue Toffee, George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer...." He shot Tori a look.
"I refuse to be a test subject!" Tori threw her hands up in the air. The tiny kitchen exploded with laughter as Tori made her way over to the table to sit with Charlie and Bill.
Charlie Weasley was built like the twins, shorter and stockier than Percy and Ron, who were both long and lanky. He had a broad, good-natured face, which was weather-beaten and so freckly that he looked almost tanned; his arms were muscular, and one of them had a large, shiny burn on it. He greeted Harry by shaking his head.
Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Harry's hand. Bill came as something of a surprise. Everyone knew that he worked for the wizarding bank, Gringotts and that Bill had been Head Boy at Hogwarts and you would always imagined Bill to be an older version of Percy: fussy about rule-breaking and fond of bossing everyone around. However, Bill was— there was no other word for it— cool. He was tall, with long hair that he had tied back in a ponytail. He was wearing an earring with what looked like a fang dangling from it. Bill's clothes would not have looked out of place at a rock concert, except that Harry had seem recognized his boots to be made, not of leather, but of dragonhide.
Before any of them could say anything else, there was a faint popping noise, and Arthur appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder. He was looking angrier than Tori had ever seen him. "That wasn't funny Fred!" He shouted. "What on earth did you give that Muggle boy?"
"I didn't give him anything," Fred replied trying to act innocent, yet had 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!" Arthur roared, going red in the face. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet—"
"How big did his tongue get?" George looked as if he was dying to know. "It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"
The kitchen once again began to roar with laughter. "It isn't funny!" Arthur shouted. "That sort of behavior 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!" Fred said indignantly.
"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," George said. "Isn't he, Harry?"
"Yeah, he is, Mr. Weasley," Harry nodded earnestly. "You saw how they treated Harry! They didn't even say goodbye!" Tori told Arthur, but that didn't help.
"That's not the point!" He said, his face filled with rage. "And Tori, for you to be in on this... You wait until I tell your mother—"
"Tell me what?" said a voice behind them. Molly Weasley had just entered the kitchen. She was a short, plump woman with a very kind face, though her eyes were presently narrowed with suspicion.
"Oh hello, Harry, dear," She said, spotting the boy and smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"
Arthur hesitated. Tori could tell that, however angry he was with Fred and George, he hadn't really intended to tell Molly what had happened. There was a silence, while Arthur eyed his wife nervously. Then both Ginny and Hermione appeared, eyeing Tori.
"Tell me what, Arthur?" Molly repeated, in a dangerous sort of voice. "It's nothing, Molly," mumbled Arthur, "Fred and George just— but I've had words with them—"
"What have they done this time?" Molly demanded. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes—"
"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" Hermione said from the doorway. "He knows where he's sleeping," Ron replied, not taking the hint. "In my room, he slept there last—"
"We can all go," Hermione said once again, pointedly. "Oh," said Ron, cottoning on. "Right."
"Yeah, we'll come too," George nodded, taking a step to leave. "You stay where you are!" Molly snapped. "You too Tori! I can tell by your face you had something to do with this." Tori sighed, turning back around to face the wrath of Molly.
She sent one last helpless look to Charlie, who only shrugged and followed the group upstairs. Git. "Now. Tell me what, Arthur?"
✧ ✦ ✧
Tori kind of wished she would stop flinching every time Molly raised her voice. Molly went nearly ballistic on them. Tori had seen Molly mad, but never that mad. She was shouting at them so loudly, the entire house could hear it.
"I'VE RAISED YOU BETTER!"
Tori wanted to point out that Molly technically didn't raise her, but Molly has turned to her. "Year after year I ask you to keep an eye on these two! And you continue to get evolved! I've raised you as my own for five years! Five! You break the rules! You just don't care! You think people out there are going to deal with that? You think you get to try again? No!"
So Tori stayed silent until it was over. She was walking with the twins outside, practically invisible as Fred mumbled. "I don't think I've seen her that mad since we told her about the joke shop."
George sighed. "I don't get it. We've put all this work, all this effort, and we're good at it! Why doesn't she understand?"
There was a loud bang as the trio turned to the corner. The source of the commotion was revealed as they entered the garden and saw that Bill and Charlie both had their wands out, and were making two battered old tables fly high above the lawn, smashing into each other, each attempting to knock the other out of the air.
Fred and George started cheering, taking a seat in the front row. Tori stood up, starting to commentate like her friend Lee Jordan would. "Willam takes the left hook! Running straight into Charlie... who's just not giving up!" Ginny was laughing, and Hermione was hovering near the hedge, apparently torn between amusement and anxiety.
Bill's table caught Charlie's with a huge bang and knocked one of its legs off. Tori cheered loudly. There was a clatter from overhead, and they all looked up to see Percy's head poking out of a window on the second floor.
"Will you keep it down? He bellowed. "Sorry, Perce," Bill shouted up, grinning. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"
"Very badly," said Percy peevishly, and he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie directed the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then, with a flick of his wand, Bill reattached the table leg and conjured tablecloths from nowhere.
By seven o'clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Mrs. Weasley's excellent cooking, and the nine Weasleys, Harry, Hermione, and Tori were settling themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky. Tori was discussing the Quidditch Cup finalist with Charlie and the twins.
"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," Fred pointed out. "Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," said Charlie shortly.
"I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was!" Tori scowled down again her plate like it was its fault.
"What happened?" Harry asked eagerly. Tori shook her head. "It's too hard to talk about, Little Bro." Harry grinned up at her. Charlie, on the other hand, was frowning. "He should know! Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten. Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."
"Which is pure rubbish!" Tori said, rather loudly.
Arthur conjured up candles to light the darkening garden before they had their homemade strawberry ice cream, and by the time they had finished, moths were fluttering low over the table, and the warm air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle.
The night felt extremely peaceful and relaxed. Molly didn't seem as mad anymore at the twins, which eased a lot of tension. "Look at the time," She said suddenly, checking her wristwatch. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup, the match went on for five days last time."
"Wow - hope it does this time!" Harry said enthusiastically. "Well, I certainly don't," Percy replied. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."
"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" Fred grinned. Tori had to cover her mouth to keep herself from laughing.
"That was a sample of fertilizer from Norway!" Percy shouted, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"
"It was," Tori whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. Fred leaned down, explaining. "We sent it."
we stan fred and george
i remember reading this scene and i was like "fred, george? i salute to you."