chapter 20
Severus was quick to leave, but Molly needed more precaution to leave his office. It was only after the green flames had died out that Dumbledore dropped his "grandfatherly" façade. He took a deep breath, quickly realizing it with a growl.
Now that he had gotten Molly, and Severus when school started up again, to look after Harry he could calm down. Then he remembered another thing. How dare they! How dare they get someone else to judge Sirius' trail! Right away Dumbledore was fuming again. "How dare they say I was 'too biased'!" had it not been for the families he was representative of he would have had to sit with the spectators. Him, Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore, sitting with nosy spectators, there only because they wanted gossip.
Dumbledore spent a long while just badmouthing everything and anything he could think of.
The breakfast was tense. Molly had somehow heard about Harry being at Sirius' court trail and now she was acting very strange. Ron was taking the blunt of it, though. Much to Fred and George's relief. They didn't like being in the spotlight, so they were relived, even if that meant leaving Ron to fend for himself against Molly.
"Ronny dear, you should invite Harry and Hermione here for the rest of summer. We even have tickets to the Quidditch World Cup! Harry would love to come to that," Molly continued telling Ron how important it was that he sent the letters today.
Poor Ron had to sit there and take the nagging, acting like Molly was right. Fred and George know that they all have a role to play, and according to Ron's role, he had to agree with her. Harry would receive an invitation, even if he didn't have a reason to escape his own "home", and Hermione would receive one, even though she really didn't deserve the title of friend, anymore.
They left the kitchen before they were dragged into a "conversation" with Molly. 'More like a berating from her,' Fred though for both of them. They locked their door as soon as they closed it behind them.
They had just begun their research for the next batch products for their joke shop when they heard a knock on their door.
"Fred? George? Can I talk with you?" he sounded unsure and quiet. Fred hid their research while George walked to the door. Fred sent a 'ready!' over before George opened their door. "Hey…" Ron said when he saw George in the doorway, "Can I come in?" he asked, and George stepped to the side to let Ron in.
Ron slowly sat down on the edge of one of the beds but didn't say anything. "So? What did you -"
"-want to talk about?" they asked. They exchanged a glance as Ron's entire demeanor changed, like they had knocked him out of a trance.
"What should I do?!" he said loudly, making Fred and George glance at the door in fear of Molly busting in.
"Why are you freaking out? And be a little quiet, we don't want Molly to come," Fred and George said at the same time. the two voices mixing together seamlessly. Ron sat up a little straighter at their command, looking apologetically at them.
"I don't know! Maybe because I have to ask my best mate to come here! Where Molly is!" his voice was still loud, but quiet enough that Fred and George didn't fear anyone outside the room would hear. Fred and George had to agree that Ron had a point, they didn't really want Harry to have to be in the same room as Molly, either. "And I have to invite Hermione, too!"
"You're just going to -"
"-have to do it, Molly -"
"-can't see us act different -"
"-from before," the switched back and forth, Ron's head swinging back and forth with them to look at the person talking.
"I know…" he said defeatedly.
In the following days, Fred and George continue to lock their door to work on their joke shop products. They still hadn't quite gotten the right mix of the forgetfulness potion and revelation potion they had been working on since last spring. The theory was that the potions mixed together would help with memory and could be used to remember information for schoolwork and tests.
They had only been actually working with it for a week when it had blown up in their faces, stripping the Obliviations off of them. They had taken a break from it for a while after that, working on some other lesser theories, but now they were back to it. They were being very careful, so it didn't explode again. Especially when at home, where Molly would conjure a stick on the spot if she found out.
At the moment they were mixing the potions in a ratio of 1.43 to 2.06. It was precise work, too little of one potion would make it useless and too much of the other and it would explode. They were getting closer, the potion wasn't exploding anymore, but the effect was too strong, making their head hurt with just a drop. This time too, the potion was faulty, giving them a splitting migraine for the rest of the day.
They also talked about Harry. They had long since known that they liked the younger boy, since their fourth year to be exact. The realization was very sudden, it had happened at the Gryffindor-Slytherin quidditch game. If someone had asked how they felt about Harry before the game, they probably would have answered something about him being a good friend – maybe even joke about him being cute, but nothing more. After the game, though, that had irreversibly changed.
That game had been terrifying, the wild Bludger had been gunning for Harry the entire game, having a mind of its own. They had later learned that the House-elf Dobby had been controlling it. They had tried to protect him throughout the game, but in the end the Bludger hit its target. As Harry fell from his broom, having just caught the Snitch, Fred and George had been screaming. They didn't have time to think about their reaction, zooming towards where Harry lay, seeing Lockhart and the Creevey run towards him too.
It had been a whirlwind after that, Lockhart's failure at healing and taking Harry to Madam Pomfrey. They had only been able to talk when they had gone to bed that night. They had laid in their dorm room, the curtains closed around both their beds. They couldn't see each other, but the connection they shared made up for that.
It took a long time, and they trying to deny it didn't help. But in the end, they had to admit it to themselves and each other, they liked Harry as more than a friend. As they reminisced on it now, that was probably when they partly broke the compulsions placed on them.
'We like him…'
'Yeah… more than like, too.'
'What… do we do? What should we do?'
'I don't know… we can't tell him. not right now anyway.' Fred was right, they couldn't tell Harry. Harry, who had been abused for as long as he could remember. Harry, who hadn't had a friend, much a romantic partner (much less two), before he came to Hogwarts. Harry, who had just began telling them about his childhood. They couldn't just spring this on him right now.
'We'll stay by his side,' George determined, feeling Fred's agreement. They went to sleep that night with more determination than before. Determination to be there for Harry, in whatever way he needed them to be.
Ron had gotten a response from Hermione a few days after he sent the letters, but not from Harry. Hermione had said in her letter that she would be coming to them today, after lunch.
It's as they're eating lunch that Harry's answer arrives. Ron's new owl comes flying in with a letter almost as big as itself and landed beside Ron, hooting at him. Ron was quick to take the letter from his owl and open it. "It's from Harry!" he said before he began reading what the letter said. "He's coming! But only the day before, and he's leaving the day after," he told the rest of the table, "Says he wants to spend the remaining time of summer break with his family."
Molly huffed at that but didn't say anything. "So, he'll be here -"
"-in two days?" Fred finished.
"Yeah, something like that…" Ron answered as he looked through the letter again. They were all ignoring how Molly glared at them, like they had planned this, and how she was aggressively cleaning the kitchen countertop. They all knew she had thoughts she wanted to voice at Harry's letter, but they were very glad that she remained silent.