Chapter 11: Fun and Games

"Hah, we won!"

"Not fair, we have *Ron* as the keeper."

"You literally suggested Weasleys versus non-Weasleys, you can't blame Ron now!" Simon retorted smugly as Fred complained about their side's defeat, "Just admit I am a good keeper and Cedric and Sue are outscoring you twins by a mile!"

With neatly cropped dark brown hair and soft grey eyes, 11-year-old Cedric was grinning from ear to ear as he made a victory lap on his broom around the Burrow, already somehow looking like a superstar. Since his father argued with his mother that socialising with other children and playing sports would also be productive to a future career in wizarding politics, Cedric had been joining Simon's group of friends in the Li's garden maze adventures and playing quidditch pickup games at the Burrow more often these past few years. While Cedric was certainly still acting a bit mature for his age, often like a "father figure" among the children, he had definitely learned to let loose a little more and enjoy just being a kid. That did not stop Fred and George from calling him "Grandpa Diggory" at times to annoy him. Guess this was coming back to bite them as Grandpa Diggory just thrashed them in quidditch.

Simon had been enjoying the past few years as well too. As he grew up, he did not need to hide his knowledge or intelligence as much. Now at 11, people just assumed he was an intelligent and bookish child when he used bigger words or asked for some recommended readings from adults.

"OW!"

Simon cried as Sue purposely hit him on his shoulder when she flew past. "Hurry up, slowpoke! The Weasleys want a rematch!"

One thing Simon did not enjoy as much these recent years was that he no longer had a toddler sister who giggled when he showed off some basic wandless magic. He now lived with a little monster who was two years younger than him and a little too friendly with the Weasley twins. Yes, Fred and George had appeared to be way less chaotic than in canon after all the intense training Jane put them through and had not done anything life-threatening to Ron for Merlin's sake. Still, they loved a good prank and had definitely been helping Sue buy some "goods" from Zonko's. Simon shivered still recalling Hiccough Sweets the little monster snuck into his candy stash a while back. He was hiccupping all day until his father finished brewing the antidote. The only benefit coming out of these recent sufferings was he was getting decently proficient at potions to save himself from the results of these pranks. Jane had grounded Sue a few times but never too seriously – Simon would not be surprised if Jane actually found some of her daughter's pranks funny. Simon did not know what to think since he never had a younger sister in his past life.

*"I do not know much about siblings either but I agree she was much more loveable as a toddler,"* Raze chimed in as he was flying above the Burrow.

*"Thank you for agreeing with me, Raze."*

"Wait, when did we say you can change players?" Simon stared as Fred got off his broom and passed it to Ginny.

"Our manager thinks that I am more suited to be a beater and I honestly need to use the loo," Fred laughed and gestured to Phoebe who was watching the game while casually reading *Hogwarts: A History* as she lay on a picnic mat. Her waist-long raven black hair spread on the mat as she made herself comfortable. Even though she had grown many inches since Simon had met her seven years ago, she still had an air of fragility and doll-like features, preferring to read rather than participate in sports. But anyone who underestimated her based on her looks and disinterest in joining the quidditch game would be sorely mistaken. This was not a girl you wanted to mess with.

"You know I am right," Phoebe said as she flipped to the next page, "And be thankful it is just Ginny, not Charlie. You should feel blessed by Merlin that he went to visit a Dragon reserve with Professor Kettleburn today."

For someone who barely played any quidditch, Phoebe had a keen eye when it came to each of their strengths and weaknesses. And she was not wrong that Ginny would play chaser better than Fred. Phoebe had always been the more observant one out of them, as evidenced by her noticing something before the rest of them most of the time in the maze. And since the time Simon came up with the ballsy quaffle method to save George, Phoebe had basically been having an unspoken friendly competition with Simon over who came up with more successful "quest" strategies. Especially with Cedric, Sue and sometimes Ron and Ginny now joining on "quests", it was possible to split into two teams every now and then and race to finish the quest. Now even when she was not on a broom, she was challenging Simon in quidditch by proxy as the "manager" of the Weasley team.

----

Phoebe was quite smug the rest of the evening. She passed Ginny an extra serving of mashed potatoes with gravy for her good work on the field. Simon muttered something about how he was not planning to play quidditch at Hogwarts anyways – it would take up too much of his time. He had plans.

"So you would be heading to China again this summer?" Mrs Weasley asked as she sent more dishes to the table with a flick of her wand, "And also Brazil?"

"Yes, Mrs Weasley," Simon responded, digging into his plate, "I visit almost every summer plus my cousin Wanyang recently gave birth to a daughter. There is some important banquet we need to attend following the child's birth. Brazil would just be a short one-week trip with my uncle who teaches at Castelobruxo. He promised a little adventure before I start at Hogwarts."

"Well, that would be one hectic summer indeed!" Mrs Weasley said rejoining the table.

"And extra fun if you guys bring these!" whispered Fred as he shoved a few packets under the table to Simon and Sue.

Simon peered at these Zonko products warily before George added quietly "For your Aunt Xiao and Zeren." Wide grins appeared on both Simon and Sue's faces. Their friends have long been acquainted with stories of their least favourite relatives and knew it was one of the reasons why Simon chose to reject the offer from the Academy and attend Hogwarts in the coming year. Fred and George were at the Li's cottage when Simon made his decision and Dirk burned the Academy's letter, thus notifying the Academy not to send the follow-up letter which would have given Simon access to the name and location of this mysterious wizarding school.

"Thanks," Simon muttered, shoving these products into his pockets.

"Just remember to bring back some notes from En-han!" George mouthed.

En-han had started at the Academy, being two and a half years older than Simon. En-han was a gifted child and had begun having some classes there at age nine. But only once he joined the general classes for 11-year-olds and above did En-han come across the ridiculous prank potions upperclassmen in the Academy were making. While still not great at handling magical beasts and flora, En-han was decent at potions and took meticulous notes that were very easy to follow. The prank potion notes En-han shared with Simon last summer had been a hit with Fred and George. Fred had found many creative uses for the potions in the maze and maybe once on Percy, which got him grounded. George had even taken to experimenting with some of the recipes, proving to be a good potions partner of Simon's whenever Dirk let them practice in his potions room. Simon's favourite was the potion that made people sink into a surface briefly and George managed to add the additional effect of making the surface stick a little on the person like quicksand. With En-han's notes, Fred's ideas, and George's surprisingly good intuition when it comes to experimentation, Simon wondered if he may have fast-tracked the timeline when it came to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

"Also here are some extra pieces of meat for Raze," Mrs Weasley said, passing a small plate to Simon, "Sorry he cannot be in the house – he frightens Percy's rat."

"Which makes him the best occamy!" Fred grinned.

"All occamies eat rats!" Percy retorted from the other end of the table.

"Still does not change the fact he is the best occamy!" George responded.

*"I really cannot eat the man-rat?"* Raze quipped outside the Burrow.

*"As I said before, no – we need to use him to save someone, remember?"*

*"Fine,"* Raze replied as Simon gave him the meat at the door, *"But if your plan to clear this guy's name fails and man-rat ever tries to hurt you and your friends, I'll devour him!"*

---

"Thank you for the meal, Mrs Weasley!"

"Have fun in China, Simon and Sue! Bye Cedric! Also, we will see you around next week Phoebe!"

"Your parents are busy at work again?" Simon asked Phoebe as they walked towards the fireplace and she shrugged.

"My father's likely going to get a promotion soon and there is an article on the major development on transfiguring muggle electronics coming out on Transfiguration Today later this week that my mother has to look into…"

"So, the usual."

"Yeah, *the usual.*"

Simon and Phoebe stood in awkward silence as they watched Cedric use the fireplace to head home.

"Well, I am sure it would be fun at the Burrow. And I will bring you and Cedric back some interesting books if I see any..."

"Move, slowpoke!" Sue interjected, nudging Simon to hurry up.

"Okay! See you guys on the Hogwart's Express…" Simon added as tossed the Floo powder into the fireplace "Li's cottage!"