Gentlemen Aren't Nice

Chapter Four - Fourth Song ~ Hollow Like My Soul

George woke up feeling pressure on his stomach and legs; groggily opening his eyes, he saw Aria fast asleep hugging him tightly.
Looking over, Fred was stirring in his sleep and he sat up with sleepy eyes.
"George?" he asked groggily.
"Aria fell asleep on me," George laughed quietly, "quite a shocker, eh?"
Fred looked over once he rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Looking at Aria, he laughed as well.
"Ready for our first day as shop owners?"
"Ready as you are!"

The first year Weasley Wizard Wheezes opened was grand.
Fred, George and Aria raked in the money by the galleons.
Summer hit and Fred and George were asked to come to the Burrow for a retrieval mission. Aria went as well, but stayed at the Burrow with Mrs. Weasley and Ginny waiting for her two friends to return.
"It'll be all right, dear. Why don't you play some music to stay occupied?" Mrs. Weasley patted the sullen woman's shoulder.
"Dun'wanna." Aria mumbled back and got up to head upstairs. She walked into Fred and George's room and began digging in their dresser drawers.
She didn't feel right wearing her usual corset, skirt and stockings.
Finding a pair of jeans that fit her and a white long sleeved shirt, she traded those for her normal garb. Loosening her pulled back hair, it fell about her face loosely as it turned black.
"Oh! Dearie! You look -" Mrs. Weasley gasped when Aria stepped down the stairs into the kitchen.
"-normal." Ginny finished for her mother. "It's kinda freaky."
"Sorry," Aria apologized, "I didn't feel right. I've got this sensor in my head going off."
Mrs. Weasley had no time to ask why because there was a crack and a flash of blue light from outside.
"Tonks? Ron?" she bustled out of the house expectantly. Only to return with a frightened and worried look. "Nothing, they missed it!"
"It'll be okay, Mum. Fred and Dad are next..." Ginny patted her mother's shoulder looking quite worried. Aria bit her lip when she saw the next blue light.
Nothing, just the Portkey.
"Hagrid and Harry are next..." Mrs. Weasley gripped a cloth tightly waiting patiently as she could.
Blue light and loud thuds of bodies hitting the ground sounded. The three females belted out of the door to welcome Harry and Hagrid back.
Mrs. Weasley made sure they were okay and ran back inside for a bottle of brandy for the lumbering man.
Ginny was explaining that the other two pairs hadn't returned when another blue light went off.
Aria's heart dropped.
"George!" she screamed and ran forward, Harry mimicking her.
Lupin carried George's upper half whilst Harry carried his bottom half. Aria was flicking her wand trying to stop the bleeding.
"A curse?" she mumbled to herself when the blood wouldn't stop.
Putting the blood-covered boy onto the sofa, Ginny gasped in horror. Aria flinched.
George's ear was missing, leaving a gaping hole. Covering her mouth, Aria magicked up a cloth and tried staunching the wound as Mrs. Weasley grabbed some more cloths. Passing Aria all the items she needed, George was cleaned up in no time at all before the last pair arrived.
Kingsley and Hermione arrived next with Fred and Mr. Weasley in tow.
Aria zoned everyone else out as she sat beside George holding his hand.
Mr. Weasley dropped beside her and Aria felt George stir.
"How do you feel, Georgie?" Mrs. Weasley asked hopefully between sobs. George's unoccupied hand groped the side of his head feeling his missing ear.
"Saint-like..." he murmured and Aria groaned. She knew what he was going for.
"What's wrong with him? Is his mind affected?" Fred croaked looking at Aria expectantly, a little taken aback at her appearance.
"Saint-like," George repeated, a lot stronger and opened his eyes to look at Fred. "You see... I'm holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?"
Fred looked choked.
"Pathetic. Pathetic! With the whole world of ear-related humor, you chose holey?"
"Ah, well," George smiled, looking at his sobbing mother. "You can tell us apart now, Mum."
Aria gripped his hand tighter, happy that he was okay and would live. George looked at her as well, flinching slightly as something hit his ear stub.
"I've always been able to tell you two apart." she said with a forced smile.
"You're not our Aria. What did you do with her, huh?" he joked. "Hey, that's my shirt!"
Fred joined in on the teasing. Laughter was lightening their grim circumstances until the news came.
"Mad-Eye, dead." Mr. Weasley choked out, making all hopes of joy break into the tiniest shards.
Bill, the eldest Weasley child pulled out thirteen glasses of Firewhiskey. Everyone toasted the dead Auror with vigor and drank in his name. Aria sniffed the glass first and grimaced, she didn't like any sort of alcohol at all.
Looking around sneakily, she dumped the contents into a plant pot when no one was looking.

Aria was having trouble trying to fix the kink in a new Weasley product. She was getting so fustrated that her swishes had turned into furious slams and jabs.
Her angry wand movements caused the small toy to blow up in smoke and darkened her face with soot. Thankful for her long eyelashes, Aria cleaned her face with a muttered spell.
"How's the Exploding Rubber Duck coming along?" Fred asked as he passed her a cup of tea, not bothering to use his hands, but a levitating spell.
"Exploding." Aria grumbled Vanishing the little yellow plastic pieces from her view.
"The wedding's tomorrow," he said casually, "you coming with us? Mum'll have a fit if we're not there."
"Harry's birthday is today isn't it? You give him a present?" Aria changed the subject when George came in with a rather large box of product.
"Got it right here!" he said proudly, patting the top, grinning.
"Ready to go downstairs?" the two looked at the black haired girl with raised eyebrows.
"What? And ruin Harry's coming-of-age party? I thank you not!" Aria fished out another rubber duck from a sack beside her and began muttering the spell, trying to stay calm.
"You're coming." the two-toned reply came to her ears as they pinned her to the chair with tight cords and levitated her down the steps to the kitchen.
"Look, Harry! We got you a Victorian burlesque dancer for you!" George joked. Remembering how Aria had once seduced Draco Malfoy, only to strip him, enchant his body to display his most embarrassing secrets in permanent ink, and tie him to a ceiling rung in a corridor.
"Er, thanks guys, but I don't think Aria likes being tied up against her will." Harry said noting the wild expression on the trapped woman's face.
"Awe, that's no fun!" they whined but let Aria loose.
"I shall bewitch your faces tonight." she muttered to them and went back upstairs.