Fireworks! (Fred and George Weasley)

“So… We’re leaving in a few days.”

“I know,” George said as we sat next to each other on the windowsill in the Gryffindor Common Room.

“Fred never asked Angelina out…” I pointed out.

George looked at me with an unreadable expression. “I know he didn’t.”

“Is their anything you regret not doing?” I asked George curiously.

George thought for a moment. “I guess so… but I could always do it in the future. Leaving Hogwarts doesn’t meant the end of our lives, you know.”

“I know…” I said thoughtfully. “What did you not do?”

George shook his head. “It’s not important.”

“It’s important to me,” I said reasoned.

“It’s not important,” George repeated. I sat silently with my head against the window. I wished we could just leave right then and there. “Where’s Davies?”

I laughed humorlessly. “He was going to talk to the paintings. A hobby of his.”

George laughed. “Are you serious?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” I looked out the window at the setting sun. How very pretty. “It’s not working.”

“Huh?”

“Davies and I… it’s not working,” I explained. “We are too different. Whoever said opposites attract was very wrong.”

“Maybe you could work things out…” George said, also looking out the window. “You still some time.”

“Before we leave.”

“Fred, George, as much as I love you guys… I don’t think this is a good idea…” Sam said skeptically at the bottle of fire whiskey sitting in between the three of them.

“Come on, Sam, don’t be a chicken,” Fred said. “Have any of you had a drink before?”

“No,” George and Sam chorused.

“Me neither.”

The three thirteen year olds stared at the bottle silently, unmoving. After all they had been though to get this firewhiskey, sneaking into the kitchen, bribing the house elves, getting past Filch and Percy and the other prefects; were they not even going to try some?!

Sam reached for the bottle. “If we’re going to have some… I might as well go first…”

They were different. Smaller. Younger. Fred and George’s hair were both very short, and they had less freckles. They were scrawnier—apparently the effects of Quidditch hadn’t hit them yet. Sam’s eyes were bigger, bluer. Her hair was cut to her shoulders and she had a slim, stick-like figure. She was almost taller than the twins.

She reached for the bottle, but Fred stopped her. “Let’s all go at the same time.” He pulled out three cups and Sam poured the liquor into them.

“On the count of three,” George said, grabbing hold of his glass. “One…”

“Two…” said Sam.

“THREE!” they all said. They quickly raised the glasses to their lips and swallowed the firewhiskey. Not but three seconds later, they were all spitting it out, and coughing.

“That’s awful!” Sam exclaimed. “How can adults drink that?”

“That’s one trick I’ll never learn,” Fred said, wiping his mouth with his sleeve.

“All I know is that I am never having firewhiskey ever again!” George exclaimed.

Blegh. If there was one thing I hated more than the male species, it was being alone. Well… not really… I like having some Samantha-time in my room sometimes… but I hate, hate being alone in public. I mean… It just looks pathetic. Well to me anyway.

How was it that Alicia, Katie, Angelina, Fred, George AND Lee were all off doing something that didn’t include me? At the same time? Very suspicious.

Very suspicious, indeed.

But hey, I’m a big girl! I can handle this stuff. I won’t let these fools in the hallways know how utterly sad and lonely I am.

Actually, no. I don’t want them to see me in this fragile state.

I turned down a different hallway and walked slowly through it. I watched my feet as I walked. Hmm… I think I was slightly pigeon-toed…

Suddenly someone yanked me into an empty classroom.

“What the heck?!” I shouted at the mysterious person. “Oh… Davies… hi.”

He smiled at me. “Where have you been the past two days? I haven’t seen you at all.”

Oh, God. Just please give me some air. I’m suffocating here!

“Sorry,” I mumbled. “Just busy and all…”

“Busy doing what?” he asked like a little child would ask his parents.

Oh, dear God, I cannot stand the sound of his voice.

“Stuff.”

“What sort of stuff?”

“Oh my God,” I muttered. KDJFHKSADFHA!!!!!!

“What was that?” Davies asked, curiously. Thank Merlin he did hear me fully.

“Oh, nothing. Listen, Davies, I have got to… go…” I said slowly. I went to stand, but I looked at his face. Poor baby…. He didn’t want me to leave… how can I resist? “Actually,” I said sitting back down. “I don’t have to go.”

He smiled.

Oh, I am such a giver. Look at me, making the people of the world happy.

But, seriously, I didn’t want to listen to him tell me about his conversation with the portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, or whatever.

So, I snogged him. Snogged him good. Though his voice isn’t that of a songbird… his kissing is quite satisfactory.

Well, that shut him up quite effectively. Half of me didn’t feel right about it, though. If I can’t stand the sound of his voice, and don’t want to hang out with him, and use kissing as a way to make him stop talking… should I really be dating this guy?

Probably not, but I am NOT going to give Fred and George the opportunity to tease me even more about my inability to hold down a boyfriend.

Which they were completely right about, by the way.

A few minutes later—I’m not sure about how many minutes, really. It could have been two, or ten—I immerged from the classroom and skipped down the hallway.

Must. Find. George. Or Fred. Or both. Or anybody.

Luckily, as I entered the library, I skipped right into George. “George, my buddy, my pal, my dummy from another Mummy. I was just looking for you!”

“What for?” he asked smiling. “And why were you skipping?”

I looked at him with a serious expression. “Oh, Merlin, I’m going insane. I feel like I have Cabin Fever or something.”

“Wha--?” I led George over to a table and sat down.

“I just spent time—how much time, I’m not sure—alone. With Davies.”

“Well, technically, if you were with Davies, you weren’t alone,” George said with a cheeky smile. I leaned back in my chair with a raised eyebrow. Dare he test me? Apparently not. “SO, what did you do with Davies that drove you insane?”

“Oh lordy, “ I said, leaning forward. “It was awful. First he kidnapped me as I was so innocently walking down the hallway. Then he was like, ‘Where have you been? What have you been doing? Blah Blah Blah,’ like, completely giving me the third degree, and he just kept talking and talking and I couldn’t get outa there.”

“What did you do?” he said, mocking my dramatic tone.

“I panicked!” I said wildly. “I totally freaked! So, I snogged him.”

George looked at me with an amused expression. “So, lemme get this straight…” George said, leaning forward. “You are dating this guy, and he is annoying you like hell, and you want to get away from him, so you… snog him? That is the craziest story I’ve heard all day…”

I glared at him. “Are you saying you don’t believe me?”

“No, no, I believe you. The proof’s right there, on your neck,” he said smirking and pointing to my neck. My hand shot up to cover it. “What I am saying is that either the world has gone topsy turvy, or that makes no sense. Why would you snog him if you don’t like him? Why would you DATE him if you don’t like him?”

“Um… I dunno…” Lies, lies, lies. When will I learn? But it’s not like I was about to tell George that I didn’t want to admit defeat…

George laughed at my stupidity. I would’ve too, if I were him. If only I could’ve come up with a better lie than ‘Um… I dunno…’ Ugh. My slow mind sickens me.

“So are the fireworks ready? I asked, changing the subject.

“Nice subject change. And yes,” George said, grinning. “Phase one tomorrow at Lunch.”

“Operation Bustin’ Out begins,” I said high-fiving George.

“You might want to cover that up before Fred sees,” he said, motioning to my neck, “ or he will tease you until the end of time.”

It was about to begin. And it was going to be awesome. I stood outside the Great Hall, waiting for Fred and George to return with the fireworks, and making sure no one was in the Entrance hall just yet. I heard someone approaching.

“Samantha,” Davies said as he approached her. “What are you doing in the hallway?”

“Uh… stuff.” Damn my slow working mind!

“Okay…” Davies said slowly. “Well, would you like to have lunch with me?”

“I’m sorry, Davies,” I said to him. “I’m busy right now…”

“Busy doing what?” he asked suspiciously.

“Go into the Great Hall and you shall see!” I said as I forcefully pushed him through the doors and into the Great Hall.

Fred and George came running to me. They handed me a firework.

“Weasleys’ Wildfire Whiz-Bangs,” Fred said as he handed it to me. “Care to do the honors?”

“With pleasure,” I said igniting the end of the firework with my wand. It shot off, exploding into ten fireworks of multiple colors. I beamed and laughed, and clapped my hands together like a little child. Fred And George set two off after me, which exploded into two elephants, roaring and swinging their trunks in the air wildly.

“We made this one for you, Sam,” George laughed, handing me a large firework. I lit the end and it exploded into a big, colorful butterfly, flapping its wings and as it flew down the hall. I laughed and clapped my hands.

We set off all the rest of the fireworks at once. Everyone came filing out into the Entrance Hall to watch the show. The fireworks were never ending—they never faded or burned out. It was truly a sight to be seen. Dragons, and rockets, and birds and many explosions of color filled the hall. I laughed with joy as I wrapped both my arms around Fred and George.

“What IS this?!” Toadface screamed as she saw the fireworks. I pulled Fred and George behind a tapestry into a secret passage. The last thing we need is a detention.

“Brilliant,” I told the boys, once we were safely out of sight. “Bloody brilliant.”

“We know,” they said in unison.

I stood in the third floor corridor, the next day, holding a small clump of what looked to be dirt. This clump of dirt was soon to be a huge Portable Swamp. I grinned.

I looked behind on both sides to be sure no one was coming. All clear. I set the Portable Swamp onto the floor. Any second now, it was going to turn into a swamp.

I waited a moment. Nothing happened. Did they give me a defective Swamp?

Dammit! I knew I forgot something. I needed water. I smacked my head. I bent over the clump and spit on it. It turned into liquid, and started spreading. I smirked as I backed away. Soon the whole corridor was a swamp, complete with rotting logs, moss, and a stench that’ll last for days (or so it says on the package)!

Satisfied, I turned and walked down the corridor, mentally preparing myself for my next task at hand.

I walked into the library and saw Davies sitting alone a table in the corner. I walked over to him and sat down.

“I was wondering when you were going to start studying for N.E.W.T.s,” Davies laughed.

“I didn’t come here to study,” I said seriously. “I came here to talk to you.”

“Okay…” he said slowly, setting his quill down. “What about?”

I took a deep breath. “I’m leaving.”

“Leaving… the library?”

I shook my head. “Leaving Hogwarts. In a couple minutes.”

“You can’t just leave,” Davies chuckled. “This is school. You need it.”

“No, I don’t,” I said. “Not with this Toad running the school. Fred, George and I are—“

“I should have known it had something to do with them,” Davies said, his tone disappointed. I looked at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Why do you do everything they say?” Davies questioned. I cocked my head to the side. “It’s something I’ve noticed about you…”

“I do whatever I want to do,” I said, looking him straight in the eyes. “It just so happens that Fred and George like to do the same things as me. That’s why we’re friends.”

“Don’t be naïve,” Davies said, shaking his head. “It’s obvious that Fred and George don’t like me. They never did. So they convinced—“

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” I said, leaning back “This has absolutely nothing to do with you. I don’t even know how you thought of that. I’m leaving because I hate Umbridge. That’s that.”

“Okay, I guess this is goodbye, then.”

I looked at Davies incredulously. “Just because I’m leaving Hogwarts doesn’t mean my life is ending. I can still see you. You’re graduating Hogwarts in a couple months—“

“No,” Davies said. “No, I’m not going to do that. You want to leave? Fine. That’s what you want to do. But if you want to do that, you can leave me out of it.”

I stood up abruptly. “You are the biggest baby I have ever met. And do you want to know something? You aren’t that great at kissing. Okay, that was a lie. But, your voice annoys me. I was going to dump you anyway.”

Hmm… immature? Yes. But ineffective? No way.

I turned on my heal and walked out of the library, hardly believing that just happened. He was a bigger baby than George! Oh well. If he was going to be like that, then I was better off without him, right? Wasn’t I? I didn’t have enough time to think about this! I ran up into the Entrance Hall where there stood a huge group of people.

“We won’t be seeing you,” I heard Fred say.

“Yeah, don’t bother to keep in touch.” And that was George. I ran up to the crowd and began trying to push my way through.

“If anyone fancies buying a Portable Swamp, as demonstrated upstairs, come to number ninety-three, Diagon Alley—Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes. Our new premises!” Fred shouted. I pushed my way through, but no one was moving.

“Special discounts to Hogwarts students who swear they’re going to use our products to get rid of this old bat!” George said. I pushed through the crowd, finally making it through. Fred and George had pushed off from the ground on their brooms.

“Wait for me!” I called. I ran to George, who reached out for me and pulled me onto the back of his broom. I turned to Umbridge. “Arrivederci, Toadface!”

“STOP THEM!” she called, but we were already out of reach. I laughed as we flew higher. We caught sight of Peeves bobbing around the crowd, laughing. Well, cackling…

“Give her hell from us, Peeves!” Fred said to him. And then Peeves did something NO ONE ever expected he would do.

He saluted to Fred.

I laughed as I held onto George. We flew out of the castle at an unbelievable pace, and into the clouds.

“George!” I called, though he was right next to me.

“Yeah?” he called back.

“WE’RE FREE!”

George laughed as he caught up to Fred. “Hey, Fred!”

“Yeah?”

“WE’RE FREE!” he laughed.

“Now, let’s go to Diagon Alley!” I exclaimed. “I want to see your new shop!”

And so we flew. And flew. And flew.

Not before glancing back at the place I had called home for the past seven years, though. So many wonderful things happened there. I got my first kiss there (compliments of Cedric). And my first love-bite (compliments of Davies), even if I didn’t want it. That’s where I explored and got into trouble and pulled my first prank. It’s where I met Fred and George, the two most important people in my life. I squeezed George tighter as we continued to fly.

I was going to miss it.

And I knew that deep down, even though they would never admit it… Fred and George felt the same way.

Arrivederci, Hogwarts. And bonjourno, Freedom!