Mischief Managed

"Are you okay? Why are you alone?"

The figure was Harry.

"I - I lost them. Where's Ronald and Hermione?" I asked, brushing the dirt off of my legs.

"I lost them, too. C'mon, let's go find the tent. Maybe we'll find the others on the way," Harry said, helping me up.

We began walking back, no longer hearing screams. Suddenly, up in the sky shot a green skull with a snake coming out of it's mouth.

"What's that?" Harry asked.

"I don't know..." I said, staring at it.

Then, we heard yelling and men talking amongst themselves.

"Harry, just wait. We don't want to walk in on them talking. Just wait 'til they're done," I said, putting a hand on his shoulder.

We both stopped and stood, listening intently in the silence, only hearing the whispering of the men. The yelling had died down. After about five minutes or so, the voices stopped and Harry and I began slowly walking again. We didn't know which way the tent was or if we were even going the right way. Suddenly, at the end of the wood, we saw a small light.

"I think we've found the campsites again," Harry whispered, as we crept closer, keeping close together. As we stepped out of the dark wood, we saw absolutely no one around. The campsite was dark except for the light of small fire around and the shining Green skull still up in the sky.

"Harry! Ella!" came the voice of Arthur. "There you two are! We were all back at the tent, worried as ever!"

"Mr. Weasley!" Harry sighed, smiling widely. We followed him back to the tent.

"Mr. Weasley, what's that green thing in the sky?" I asked.

"It's the Dark Mark, you-know-who's mark," he said quietly. He looked highly uncomfortable. I glanced over at Harry who was staring up at it, looking highly nervous. I reached a hand out and put it on his shoulder, smiling.

Finally, we reached the tent and as we walked in, everyone looked as if they either had been crying, or that they hadn't gotten a decent sleep in years.

"Harry! Ella!" Hermione said excitedly and ran over to us, pulling us in hugs. I smiled and hugged her back, as Ronald ran over and pulled Harry and me into hugs as well.

"We're fine, guys, really," I said, laughing. Then I looked up and caught Fred's eye. He was staring at me with a small smile on his face, and a tear falling down his cheek. I walked over to him and pulled him in to the biggest hug I could muster up.

"I was so worried about you," he whispered in my ear. I kept my tears back and stayed in his arms, until Arthur said it was ready to try to get back to sleep before we left in the morning. I smiled at Fred, gave George a small hug so it didn't look as weird that I was only hugging Fred, and walked back over to my bunk with Hermione, Ginny, and Ava. I climbed on the top bunk and snuggled up against my blankets and fell asleep almost immediately.

"Wake up you lot! Ready to go back to the portkey!" came the voice of Arthur Weasley.

"Dad..." I heard Ginny say.

"C'mon, we need to go," Arthur said again. I sighed and jumped off the bed, putting all of my things back in my bag.

"I'm ready for more sleep. Let's go so I can get more sleep now," I said and began walking out of the tent. The sun was barely shining, all the fire was out, and the Dark Mark was now gone. The entire campsite was still empty because, as I assumed, everyone was still sleeping.

Soon, Fred and George emerged out of the tent and stood beside me.

"So what happened with you last night?" Fred asked.

"I don't really remember. I know I tripped, but that's like all I can fully remember. I think," I said.

"Oh."

"Well, we're all packed! Let's go to the Portkey!" Bill said, as he and Charlie came out of the tent.

The three of us followed them, with the others following behind. When we finally reached the Portkey, the group of us gathered around it and we were back.

"Awesome, now we get to walk all the way back," Ronald complained.

"Oh, Ronald. Stop complaining," I teased.

He smiled at me and kept walking, as did the rest of us. During the whole walk back to the Burrow, everyone was quiet. Most likely because we were all dead tired from last night's events.

Once we reached the Burrow, Molly ran out saying, "Oh thank goodness, thank goodness! Arthur - I've been so worried - so worried -"

She flung her arms around Arthur, as he hugged her back, chuckling slightly.

"Molly, it's okay. We're all alright."

"You're all right," she muttered with a smile on her face. From the paleness of her face to her bloodshot eyes, I could tell she'd been crying. Then, she turned to face Fred and George. "Oh, boys. You're alive!" Then she ran over to them and pulled them into bone-crushing hugs.

"Ouch! Mum - you're strangling us -" they said in unison.

"I shouted at you both before you left!" Molly said, beginning to cry. "It's all I've been thinking about! What if you-know-who had got you and the last thing I ever said to you was that you didn't get enough O.W.L.s? Oh Fred... George..."

"Come on, now, Molly, we're all perfectly okay," Arthur said, rubbing her back as she let go of Fred and George. "Although Harry and Ella did give us quite a scare. We couldn't find them for quite a while..."

She turned to us with tears down her cheeks. "Oh, you two! Always so brave!" And again came the bone-crushing hugs. I attempted to hug her back, but as hard as I was being squeezed, it was difficult.

Once she let go and ran over to everyone else to hug them, we all went inside. Arthur picked up the paper and began reading it, then complained to Molly about what the paper had said about him.

After that, all of us besides Molly and Arthur went up to our beds and fell into a deep sleep for a few hours. I woke up from Ronald and Harry running into our room, shaking me awake.

"Bloody hell," I murmured. "What do you want?"

"Let's play some Quidditch! Bill, Charlie, Fred, George, and Jacob can all play. We can do four on four!" Ronald said excitedly.

Then, Hermione shot up. "Ron! Ella's tired, we all are. She doesn't want to play Quidditch right now."

"Yeah, I do," I said, smiling as I got out of bed. "Let me change and I'll meet you all downstairs."

"Brilliant," Ron said, glowing, as he and Harry walked out.

Hermione sighed and looked at me. "You only want to play because Fred will be out there."

"No! I also want to play Quidditch! I haven't played for a while!" I said, defending myself.

"You didn't play at all over the summer?" Hermione asked, shooting me a look.

"Oh shut up," I said, looking through my bag for proper clothes to play Quidditch in. Finally, I got changed and walked downstairs. Hermione stayed upstairs with Ginny and Ava, who were still asleep.

I got downstairs and they were all waiting for me. So, I grabbed my broom and we headed outside. The teams were Fred, George, Harry, and me and Bill, Charlie, Ron, and Jacob. We played for a good hour or two, not keeping track of the score because it made it all the more fun just to practice for the year of Quidditch ahead of us. Fred and George were the Gryffindor beaters, Jacob was the new Keeper for this year only (he used to play Chaser), I was a Chaser, and Harry was the Seeker. Ronald loved Quidditch, but he never wanted to try out and who was I to make him? He actually wasn't that bad of a player. By the time we were done, we all went inside and sat down in the living room together, chatting about the new year of Hogwarts coming closer.

~

Harry, Ronald, and I all sat down in Ronald's room, making sure we had all of our things because we were to leave tomorrow morning. As we were sitting down, laughing about something stupid Harry said, Molly walked in and threw something at Ron.

"What's this?" he asked.

"Dress robes. You're going to need them this year," she said simply. He opened up the package and pulled out a long, maroon velvet dress. It had a moldy-looking lace frill at the collar and matching lace cuffs.

"You've given me Ginny's dress..." he said slowly, holding the robes as far away from him as possible.

"No, they're yours."

"What?" Ronald gasped, as Harry and I tried to hold back laughter. "You've got to be kidding, I'm not wearing those. No way."

"They're tradition, Ron!" Molly shot.

"I'll go starkers before I put that on," Ron said, crossing his arms.

"Don't be silly, everyone wears them. They're on your list! Harry has some, too," Molly said.

Harry slowly took the package Molly was holding out to him and pulled out robes that looked exactly like our school ones, except the color was bottle green.

"Well they're okay!" Ron said angrily. "Why couldn't I have some like that?"

"Well, I had to get yours secondhand!" Molly said, blushing.

"What does Ella have to wear?" he asked.

"Well, she'll go shopping with other girls when the occasion approaches sooner," Molly said, smiling sweetly. "She'll buy a very pretty dress and win over the hearts of many young men."

I laughed, not sure if she was joking or not.

"I'm never wearing my dress robes. Never," Ron said stubbornly.

"Fine," Molly snapped. "Then go naked. Harry, Ella, take pictures. Goodness knows I could do with a laugh." And with that, she turned around and left the room, slamming the door closed.

Ron sighed and laid his head down on the floor. "Never. Ever. Wearing. Them."