It's Better If You Do

Once the marshmallow mixture had come to the right consistency, Bellamy emptied it out onto a cool plate and with a quick twirl of her wand it formed into perfect little, fluffy, white pillow shapes. She let out a content sigh and extinguished the flame under the pan, but did not clean it off, knowing she’d have use for it later on. Pocketing her wand once more, she turned and watched as Rose, Fred, and George all leaned over the parchment on the table as Rose’s quill moved rapidly across the sheets.

“If we did all the work for them,” Rose murmured softly, “all they’d have to do would be to think it. It’s just like the sheet’s Bellamy got me. It’s what gave me the idea really.” Bellamy noticed that Fred, instead of watching the plans Rose was drawing out, had his eyes glued to the blonde.

“But instead of only the color, they can change the shape and pattern as well, right?” George asked, since he was the only twin that seemed to be paying attention.

“Correct,” Rose said with a glance over to George before looking over at Fred, a wide, happy smile curling her lips as she momentarily found herself sidetracked. George quickly added another comment, to which drew Rose’s attention away from Fred, but the smile on her face remained. They appeared really happy with each other, and Bellamy made note to at least cut down on the jests she shot at them. Truth be told, Bellamy was a bit jealous that Rose had found someone out of uprooting their lives from France. If this whole blind date turned out to be a fiasco or end horribly, as they so often did, Bellamy didn’t know who would be willing to date her. She was cold, spiteful, and blunt. On the outside, she may have looked delicate and proper, but on the inside she knew she was mean and inconsiderate.

As they continued to murmur quietly amongst each other about the fireworks, Bellamy retrieved her tan briefcase and opened it up, thumbing through the ingredients. She gently picked up a medium-sized vial that she had carefully wrapped a very fluffy fabric around. The Erumpent fluid had a tendency of becoming quite volatile and Bellamy didn’t want to have to replace her whole store of ingredients merely because a vial of the liquid exploded. She found her jar lionfish spines without any trouble and righted herself, closing the briefcase gently. Bellamy gathered the ingredients, taking the wrapped Erumpent fluid quiet gingerly into her gloved hand, and placed them over onto the table.

“Just let me know if I’ll need to purchase anymore of these ingredients after you’re done,” she said softly, directing the attention of Fred, George, and Rose toward her.

“Thanks, Bellamy,” Rose said with a smile before she continued on planning. Bellamy forced a smile onto her lips.

“No problem,” she murmured as the smile slid from her features. She then glanced over to George, who was watching her with a seemingly concerned expression. Sending him a slight glare seemed to give him the idea she didn’t want to be watched, because he quickly looked back down to the pieces of parchment in front of him.

Bellamy turned and made her way up the stairs to the flat without another word, flipping her long wavy hair over her shoulder as she pushed open the door. Noticing that the three other beds in the room hadn’t been made, she retrieved her wand and with a quick wave, they straightened themselves out. The pillows fell into place, perfectly fluffed, and the sheets flattened out their wrinkles and tucked their ends under the mattresses. With a nod, she pocketed her wand once more and walked over to the windows, forcing them open to let in a nice, mid-May breeze once more. She took a seat on the sill beside her dittany plant and carefully looked over it before giving it a gentle spray of water from the end of her wand.

She tried to push aside the dreadful feeling that she used to constantly feel when she was at Beauxbatons, but it hit her full force. It was always the same with Bellamy and Rose. Rose made friends effortlessly and she seemed to have an almost magnetic sort of aura around her that drew people in, despite the fact she could be terribly shy at times. She never conformed to the primp and proper rules that the popular girls followed, but no one made much of a fuss over it. Bellamy seemed to always be on the outskirts of things and had to work very hard at conversations. She followed everything to minute details and she was still joked for her lack of poise and ability. In short, Rose had friends at school, while Bellamy would always retreat to some quiet corner with a plant or book and whittle away any free time she had.

Heaving a great sigh as she stared out onto the bustling alleyway below the window, she knew that Rose would never purposely alienate her. She was her sister after all and got along better with the twins than she did. Besides, Bellamy liked her time to herself and it seemed she had scarce opportunity for it living with two rambunctious, joke shop owners. Her attention was then diverted from her own thoughts to a large brown, Eagle owl that swooped onto the window sill beside her, nearly overturning her dittany plant had she not moved it out of the way in time. However, her discontent with the owl was short lived because she immediately recognized it by the distinctive black spots on his wings and the large feathery tufts over his wide, orange eyes.

“D‘Artagnan,” she breathed as she hurriedly untied the roll of parchment from his outstretched leg with one hand while enchanting a bag of owl treats from her trunk with her wand in the other. She noticed that the letter was addressed to Rose and knew that she would not be able to open it. With any letter her parents sent, they always took the utmost precaution to make sure that it would only be read by those it was addressed to. If she had not recognized the family owl, she would have known the masculine, yet swirling script that was her father’s handwriting. “Sauter*,” she commanded of the owl, tapping her right shoulder.

Obediently, the large owl flew up and perched itself on her shoulder as she grabbed the bag of owl treats in the hand that was not gripping the letter. Bellamy left the room and descended the stairs as quickly as she could with D’Artagnan on her shoulder. Her loud footsteps drew attention to her, which quickly went to the Eagle owl on her shoulder. Rose’s face paled as she immediately stood from the chair and took the roll of parchment from her sister’s hand and opened it. Fred and George sent each other a look before slowly standing and making their way from the room.

“You stay,” Bellamy said to the twins as she lifted a treat to D’Artagnan, who gave an appreciative hoot before crunching down on the treat voraciously. “You deserve to hear this since we live with you now,” she explained once she noticed the looks of confusion on the Weasleys’ faces. Rose, who had been quickly reading the letter, shot a relieved look to Bellamy once she had finished. “Well then, what does it say?” She asked impatiently.

“They’ve gone to their vacation home in the islands,” Rose said quickly to which Bellamy gave a nod of understanding, “so they’re as safe as they can be at the moment.” She glanced over to Fred and George, who were wearing identical expressions of concern. “Papa implores us to refrain from any run ins with any of the Malfoy’s or suspected Death Eaters. He also says to be on guard at all times and never sleep without our wands within an arm’s length--that goes for you, too,” she shot to the twins with a look, who gave a simultaneous, short nod. “He said he’d prefer it if we were with him and maman, but he knows that it’ll take a lot more to uproot you, Bellamy.” The brunette gave a wry smile, but didn’t say a word.

“He also asks that you two,” Rose turned once more to Fred and George, “take into consideration what this will mean for you two and your business. We‘re going to need to be constantly vigilant against certain kinds of people now and that may mean that you and your store could be involved. They could come in here and attack you and ruin the store to get to us if they saw the need for it.” She let out a heavy sigh, sending a particularly meaningful look to Fred. “If you don’t want the risk or danger of us around, we’ll understand and leave immediately,” she said in a softer voice, looking to the ground and biting her bottom lip hard. Bellamy shot a look to her sister before turning to the twins.

“If we do stay though,” she added in a strong voice, “we’re fully capable of protecting ourselves should we be attacked. I can’t duel very well…but I can defend myself against most spells. And Rose is a fantastic dueler.” The room went silent as the twins glanced between the sisters then to themselves, saying not a word. It was as if they were communicating telepathically through a single look as they both gave another simultaneous nod before turning back to the girls.

“As much as your cooking and desserts are a burden to us, Bellamy-” George started with a look that let her know he was joking completely. She merely rolled her eyes, the smallest bit of a smile curling her lips

“-and as much as I hate snogging you all the time-” Fred added with an insinuating wink to Rose that had her blushing despite the situation.

“-you stay,” they finished together wearing wide grins.