It's Better If You Do

Pinching the bridge of her nose and closing her eyes, Rose let out a long sigh and counted to ten as she heard her sister retching in the bathroom. Opening her eyes slowly, she repeated tersely, "What happened?"

"I wanted to use D'Artagnan to write a letter, but she told me no and I really needed to use him, but she just kept being stubborn about it, so I went ahead and began to write the letter. That bloody owl kept biting at the quil I was using and when I went to swat him away," George held up his bitten hand as evidence and Rose sighed again, quickly moving to Bellamy's potion kit for the Dittany and picking the wash cloth back up. "And so she comes upstairs and I... well... I teased her a bit, because I realized blood made her sick, and when she was backing away from me, she backed too far and almost fell down the stairs. But, I caught her! So... that's good, right?"

His story had ended a bit sheepishly as the two gave him scowls he likened to that of his mother and father whenever he had done something dreadfully stupid. It was Fred's turn to sigh, and he ran his hand through his hair while George quickly made his way down the stairs to Rose, who had been beckoning him closer to wash it. She shook her head as she washed it, noticing the clean bit of flesh that D'Artagnan had scooped away in his bite.

"What was her reasoning for not letting you use him?" she murmured, wiping up the blood from both of his hands and down his arms. George sighed exasperatedly.

"She said that he wouldn't know where it was, even if you told him and she was afraid he was going to get lost... What?" he asked, because Rose had let out a loud scoff and rolled her eyes. Her eyes were a bit dangerous looking as she looking up at the stairwell.

"That's a lie," she said bluntly, unstoppering the Dittany. "D'Artagnan hasn't ever been here, so how on earth did he find us? I swear, she's ridiculous sometimes." The boy's eyes widened as he realized the truth of her statement, and his eyes narrowed.

"What's the big deal with me using that bloody owl anyway?" George asked sharply, as Rose quickly poured two drops of Dittany into the wound and coughed a bit when she accidentally inhaled the smoke. Fred stepped over and lightly patted her on the back, to which she gave him a grateful, if watery, smile for her eyes had teared up.

"I don't know, to be honest. But, I say you can go on ahead. Take him. He's not doing anything useful here except wounding you two, and I'd rather like to be done with playing Healer today." Rose said darkly, rinsing her own hands of his blood, and she suddenly said firmly, "But I'll be having a word with her, you can count on that. She needs to grow up. It's just as much my owl as it is hers."

George sighed and said quietly, "I don't want to cause any trouble between you two." Rose simply shook her head, her expression rather serious.

"Write your letter. I'll call D'Artagnan down," she said before clicking her tongue loudly. The Eagle owl swooped down the stairs and landed on her shoulder, hunching his head down as if expecting a rebuff. He was right; she gave him a very stern look, before saying, "You know better. You should not have done that to him. Or either of them. We've taught you better than that. Now, you're going to take this letter to-" she paused, looking at them for an address.

George was busy scrawling a letter from the left over parchment from their ideas on the fireworks, so Fred said quickly, "The Burrow, Ottery St. Catchpole, Devon, near Stoatshead Hill. Arthur and Molly Weasley." Rose looked at the sheepish owl once more, but her expression was softer.

"Did you get that?" the owl blinked his wide orange eyes, and she smiled at him. "And I know you like to play with people and their quils, but you cannot bite them. Understand?" she asked, gently petting his head. D'Artagnan gave a soft hoot, and swooped over to sit on the table in front of George, his head lowered and looking quite ashamed. He hooted quietly, sticking out his foot and George gave him a rueful smile.

"It's fine, you silly bird," he muttered, tying the letter around his foot. D'Artagnan flew towards Rose and lightly nipped her hair before flying up the stairwell and out the opened window. She gave a sigh and looked up at the stairwell, but it seemed Bellamy was determined not to come out. With a shake of her head, she addressed the twins.

"I'm sorry he hurt you two. Normally he's very sweet, but it seems he's a bit antisocial around people-" she said, but was cut off by a grumble from George.

"Not unlike a certain brunette," he said but quickly stopped as she gave him an exasperated look. Her eyes were wide and earnest as she appealed to the boy.

"Could you two get along for five minutes? You're eighteen, and she's twenty. You're adults and should act as such. Merlin's beard, you two were getting along great an hour ago!" she pointed out, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah, we were," he grudgingly admitted, absently rubbing over the spot where the owl had bitten him. He sighed heavily, and said slowly, "Look, I'll try to do my best and get along with her."

"That's the spirit!" Fred said cheerfully, clasping him on the shoulder. His brother merely gave an unwilling smile. Rose was thinking hard, as she watched George.

"Don't you like her?" she asked quietly, hoping her voice would not carry up the stairs to her sister, who was known to be sneaky and listen in. George merely nodded, his eyes glued to the table, and she began again, "Maybe you should stay away from her for the rest of the day. That'll give her time to cool off, and then by the end of the day it'll be better."

"Yeah," Fred agreed with a nod. "Give her some space. It's like Mum after we went to the Quidditch World Cup. She was all but strangling us with hugs- remember?"

"Yes, but she's also our Mum." George pointed out with a laugh. Fred shrugged, grinning wickedly.

"They've got enough in common. Although I'll say if Rose keeps patching us up like this, she might have just as much in common with her." Fred said slyly, giving the blonde a wink. Her cheeks flushed a bit, and she scowled playfully at him.

"Oh, go on, you two!" she said loudly, earning raucous laughs from the red-headed twins. Fred snuck a kiss on the top of head, and they ducked out of the curtain, leaving Rose smiling to herself. The smile began to fade, however, as she though of confronting her sister about her behavior. Sighing slightly, she ran her hand through her hair, effectively pulling it out of it's ponytail. Standing, she quietly made her way up the stairs and paused haltingly at the bathroom door, and knocked softly.

"Bellamy? May I come in?"