Setting things to rights - 3

"What do you two want?" Ginny asked, rolling her eyes dramatically.

"Now, what kind of attitude is that from our wee wayward lass? I would think you'd be groveling at our feet after frightening us so," Fred replied, holding his chest and batting his eyelashes.

Before Harry had the chance to explode, George laid a restraining hand on his shoulder. "Keep your knickers on, Harry."

"And you keep yours on as well, by the way," Fred added, waggling his eyebrows at Ginny.

She punched him in the shoulder – hard.

"I'm not here to give you a hard time. That's Bill's job," George said.

"He's being impossible," Ginny said, scowling.

"He'll get over it, Gin Gin. He still tends to see you as the spunky little sprite you were when he left for Hogwarts," George said.

"I was only a year old when he left for Hogwarts. Certainly he's noticed a difference," Ginny said, mutinously crossing her arms across her chest.

"Exactly. You were a baby, Ginny, and just a little kid when he came home for summers. He'd already moved out on his own by the time you developed your attitude," George continued as if she hadn't spoken.

"Now, here you are out fighting the war he wants to fight, but he can't because everyone keeps coddling him. He was the one left to console Mum after you disappeared, and she was even more adamant about protecting him after you were gone. He's been unable to go back to work, and even on the Order missions it's Fleur who gets the more dangerous assignments rather than him because no one wanted to upset Mum any more than she already was."

"That's not going to sit well with any self-respecting wizard," Fred replied.

"And we really haven't helped," George admitted grudgingly.

"I suppose we've been taking the mickey out of him a bit," Fred conceded. "But we thought we were helping."

"When you and Ron came back, he'd just reached his breaking point. His baby brother and sister are smack in the middle of it, and it was too much for him," George said. "And, lately, the full moons always seem to make him a bit grouchy."

Ginny's face had softened, but she still appeared unwilling to let it go completely. "Well, he's going to have to get used to the idea, because I'm not a little girl."

"Never said you were," Fred said easily.

"Yeah, we've been on the receiving end of enough of your hexes to know better," George said, sighing. "Maybe you should hex him a few times so he realizes it."

Ginny giggled and lightly shoved George's head.

"So, you're okay with it. With Ginny helping me, I mean?" Harry asked, picking at a stray thread on the couch.

"'Course we are. We just wish you would've let us come with you, as well," Fred said eagerly. When Harry opened his mouth to respond, Fred held up his hands in a defensive posture. "I know you can't, but that doesn't mean I don't wish it was different."

"Or that you would at least let us help you," George said, leaning forward.

"Yeah, but then we remembered that you did ask us for help. You asked us to locate Dung's old flat. Which we did," Fred said, his eyes sparkling.

"You did?" Harry asked, sitting up straight. "When? Where is it?"

"It's in a really dodgy Muggle area of Birmingham. The building owner let us inside. He's really hacked off that he hasn't had any rent from Dung in months. He said he was going to let the place to someone else, but I don't think there's a long line of people who want to take it since it's really close to where those fires burned over the summer," George said.