The Scars to Prove It

Though she had planned to find a new place to spend the summer, she also didn’t want to impose on the Mr. Zabell’s only time with his now-only family. It was this summer that Mr. Weasley was given a once in a lifetime opportunity — eleven tickets to the Quidditch World Cup. So after a relaxing summer of the planning pranks with the twins, it was time to pick Harry up — along with one of the best pranks planned so far.

“Dad, can Reena come with us to pick up Harry?” Fred asked after his father had made him show all his pockets just to make sure that the twins wouldn’t pull anything stupid.

Mr. Weasley avoided her wide-eyed gaze as he frowned at Fred. “The only reason you two are allowed to come is because I need your help carrying Harry’s luggage. I don’t want Carina going into a possibly-violent stranger’s household.”

“Come on, Dad, she can take care of herself,” George said with a knowing look.

“What I said stands. Now grab yourselves some Floo Powder and we’ll get going.”

“But Mr. Weasley!” Carina pleaded, just as planned. “I’ve never seen anything Muggle before.”

Mr. Weasley, as planned, stiffened and turned around. It was obvious by his expression that he was having a war within him — the poor sheltered girl, never shown the marvels of the Muggle world that he loved so dearly. On the other hand… his wife would kill him.

“Quickly. And just don’t tell Molly.”

Carina grinned. The entire plan would have failed had she not been allowed to go — it was her pockets that were stuffed with the small charmed candies.

Mr. Weasley stepped into the fireplace first. “Number Four Privet Drive!” Carina hardly blinked at the green flames engulfed him, and he was gone.

“We’ll go next,” Fred announced.

“Have to protect the little girl from the possibly violent strangers,” George grinned and ruffled her hair as he passed.

“Number Four Privet Drive!”

Ron and Carina blinked away more soot from their eyes. “You can go next,” he offered. Carina shrugged, grabbed a handful of the powder, and she heard herself repeating “Number Four Privet Drive!” before she was swept away.

But instead of the usual dropping sensation before stepping out of the fireplace, the air was knocked out of her as she was stuffed into a tiny room with soft walls — it wasn’t until the wall gave an oof that she realized she was tucked between George’s arm and his chest.

“What on earth happened? Where are we?” Carina whispered, fear of being trapped setting in.

“They have an ‘electric fireplace,’ Harry said,” responded Fred.

“Dad’s about to blow it out of the way.” Carina quickly realized that she and George’s chest were pressed together, and it took a lot of leaning back to look up into his green eyes. Both their hearts quickened, but her eyes didn’t move from the shadows flickering in his gaze.

“Oh God, Ron, why did you have to come?” Fred groaned as Ron appeared beside him, his elbow apparently making a place for itself in his gut.

“Expulso!” The fireplace blasted away from it’s place wedged in the chimney, and the occupants of the fireplace tumbled out all over one another. Carina stood up quickly, avoiding George’s hand held out to her. She stood, wide eyed and slightly scared, and swung around the too-bright room. The walls weren’t stone or wood — they were something painted a cream color. The couches were too clean, the carpet probably was before they brought all the soot with them. What scared her the most was the sharp light coming from little containers above. It was too unnatural and white to be fire. Behind the corner, all sorts of contraptions whirred and ticked. Carina swallowed harshly. No amount of mandatory Muggle Studies classes could have prepared her for this. Across the room, the picture of fire continued to move and create false crackling noises though the glass had been shattered, and she focused on that to keep her heart beat low.

“You must be Harry’s aunt and uncle!” Mr. Weasley said enthusiastically, walking over to the sharp woman and pudgy man who looked just as frightened as Carina.

Fred, noticing her stiffness, stood behind her and rubbed her shoulders gently. “It’s okay, Reena. Nothing to be scared of.” Slowly but surely, her tense posture relaxed as Arthur tried his best to explain himself to the dumbstruck Muggles.

“Hello, Harry!” Mr. Weasley said brightly once he realized he would be getting no response from the Muggles. “Got your trunk ready?”

“It’s upstairs,” Harry replied, trying to repress a smile. Poor thing looked like a prisoner here — he was wearing ridiculously baggy Muggle clothing that must have been a hand-me-down from the chubby boy hiding behind his mother. It must be so exhilarating to be getting out once more.

“We’ll get it,” Fred announced. He winked at Harry as he and George and went upstairs — apparently they still remembered where it was since they rescued him from it in the middle of the night two years ago.

Harry moved across the room to stand near Ron, and Carina moved closer as well. The line was clearly drawn, and only Mr. Weasley dared toe over it at this point. When George and Fred returned with equally evil grins, George bumped the trunk into Carina, causing her to tumble over.

“Oh, goodness,” she cried in a high pitched voice as the candies rolled over the floor towards the Muggles. “I’m so sorry!” She crouched onto the carpet to pick a few of them up, not worrying about her worn robes becoming dirtier in the soot. George knelt next to her, picking up all the candies but three, all near the Muggle’s feet. If this wasn’t the first prank she’d pulled with the twins, she would have been suppressing a wild grin and wouldn’t have been able to keep from glancing at George. However, it had been nearly six years since her first prank, and her solemn and innocent eyes were glued to the task at hand — even Mr. Weasley wasn’t suspicious.

“Sorry about that,” Carina said hastily, taking George’s hand to stand up. Every angle of this had been planned out — otherwise she would have avoided any more physical contact with George. Without a word more, he helped Fred with the trunk in the fireplace, and in a matter of moments the both of them had left the Muggle house. It was at this point that the fat Muggle had managed to get the candy unwrapped, just as George and Fred said he would. At the moment he was coughing a little, which soon escalated to choking. Carina glanced at the watch Fred had given her. Within eighteen seconds, a purple tongue could be seen. Without a trace of emotion, she continued to watch as the Muggle held his neck, trying to pry his own tongue out. Harry and Ron were nearly doubled over in laughter, and Mr. Weasley was trying to help, but the older Muggles were too frightened to let him. After fifty two seconds, the tongue did not grow any more, and Carina hid the watch back under her sleeve. Before anyone else could turn their fingers to her, she winked at Harry and slipped into the fireplace and back to the Burrow.

“Times?”

Carina blinked the image of the green flames out of her eyes and stepped out of the fireplace. She pulled her black hair from away from her face, and relayed what she had seen quite professionally.

“Coughing started almost immediately, and it was eighteen seconds before the tongue could be seen. Stopped growing at fifty two seconds.” She watched as George and Fred scrawled all this down before hurrying to get out of the line of fire when their father returned. Carina, naturally, would get none of the blame. It had all been set up to look like the twins used her as an unwitting pawn, as always.

Bill and Charlie were talking about something or another at the kitchen table, and Carina slid into a chair next to them silently. They glanced up at her as she leaned in.

“Just pretend you’re talking to me, I don’t want to draw attention to myself,” she said lowly as Ron appeared in the fireplace.

“Why?” Bill asked, looking at her questioningly.

“Because I don’t want to get in trouble.” She raised a brow at the brothers, and they grinned and nodded knowingly.

“So, before Dad gets here, was it successful?”

“Of course it was. You’re brothers are geniuses.”

“With a pretty bright assistant,” Charlie said with a brotherly nudge from under the table.

She rolled her eyes. “Just a good spy.”

Harry appeared next, and Carina leaned into the table, the back of her head towards the fireplace. Charlie and Bill leaned in as well, looking like they were having a casual conversation about the Bulgaria-Ireland game for the Cup this year. Mr. Weasley came through last, and without a glance at Carina, stormed upstairs to look for George and Fred. They should have been long gone though -- they stored their brooms in their room the night before.

Charlie bellowed out a laugh as soon as his father was out of range. “You really are good at this. He didn’t even look over here!”

Carina smiled, not wanting to say that she was so good because she used to stay away from her father on a regular basis.



“Why didn’t you tell me you were pranking the Muggles? I would have come earlier!” Farren’s ridiculously long black hair spread out across the floor, but it pulled back as she sat up to glare at her three friends.

“We barely got Ri there, there was no chance my dad would have let you as well. You don’t seem as innocent!”

“Besides,” Carina reasoned, “you didn’t tell me last time you guys picked up Harry. It was my turn.”

The room fell silent for the first time all night. Carina figured that everyone was finally about to fall asleep. The four were looking up at the rafters of the attic from their blankets. Charlie and Bill had taken the twin’s room, and Percy was in Ron’s, so they plus Ron and Harry were sleeping up here. The younger two, along with the rest of the household, had fallen asleep long ago. But with the four best friends all sleeping in such close quarters (there were only so many blankets — they were all under the same three) they couldn’t stop themselves from talking. Farren had arrived just hours after the Muggle escapade, and George and Fred had gotten off with a stern talking-to. Carina rolled over onto the pillow next to hers. It smelled like fresh apples and fireworks — Fred’s. He was almost asleep, and continuously moving closer to Farren. Carina didn’t know if this was subconciously, or if he was taking advantage of the fact that she and Oliver had been forced to actually break things off when he graduated.

But Carina’s stomach still flipped when she thought about her and George so close to each other in the fireplace earlier that day, and it frightened her. So she pushed herself further away from him and his warm chest she she could pretend to forget about it.

However, when she woke up, she was in the middle of a tangle of limbs. She still faced Fred, but her arms were tucked under George’s muscular arm, and her head rested on it like a pillow. Fred was on his back, one leg drapped over each girl on both sides of him. Whore, Carina thought to herself with a smirk. She sat up a little, hearing Hermione wake Ron and Harry from above. Her eyebrows shot up when she saw Farren curled neatly into Fred’s arms and chest — without a thought, she elbowed George so he could see as well. Startled, he sprung up and hastily removed his arm from her waist — she hadn’t even realized he had wrapped his free arm around her. But seeing the two curled around each other, his eyes widened even further. His wide eyes met hers, and they were both asking the same question. What happened if their best friends dated and it worked out? What happened if it didn’t

After a moment George took Carina’s pillow (which had been replaced by George’s arm, and he seemed to know that)and it whipped it across at Fred and Farren. Without having to tell one another, immediately George and Carina both pretended to be asleep. This left Hermione as the only possible culprit, so Farren didn’t think twice when she chucked the pillow back at the younger girl. Apparently thinking Fred at thrown it, she glared and stepped on his hand on her way out the attic. Carina glanced up at George, who was grinning down at her. This was how everything was meant to be.