Dangerously Close

I groaned as I opened the door of my bedroom, trying to sustain my hunger. It was normal that Aunt Petunia only fed us a piece of toast and cup of tea while we were tormented by Dudley’s big pile of pancakes, eggs, sausages, and everything inbetween. I fell back onto the bed, beginning to hum a random tune.

I heard Harry falling onto his bed too, grumbling. “I’m tired of eating nothing.”

I couldn’t help but agree.

I sat up and watched Addie hoot happily and eat the food in her bowl. I shot her a I’ll-take-away-your-food-if-you-keep-bragging look and she immediately stopped.

I walked towards my trunk, rummaging for a book I could read to keep me entertained. I didn’t find anything but my textbooks and an old Gilderoy Lockhart book from my fourth year. To my surprise though, as I was searching through, I felt a box. I immediately moved everything aside from the trunk to find in the bottom a Chocolate Frog box and a Licorice Wand.

I beamed happily and grabbed them out of the box. I was quite happy with myself that my last Hogsmeade trip I had decided to pay a visit to Honeydukes.

“Harry, look what I found,” I exclaimed, tossing him the Licorice Wand.

His upset face immediately brightened with joy as he picked up the candy, unwrapping it. I opened the box and grabbed the frog instantly before it could start jumping around the room. I began to eat it, moaning with delight at the taste.

“Been a while since I eat anything delicious,” I said with glee, letting the milk chocolate taste sink in to my taste buds.

Harry was already halfway through his licorice wand. “Thank Merlin you found these - I could have starved!”

“A sweet won’t make any difference,” I pointed out.

“Actually, it can,” he said, waving around what was left of his candy.

I giggled and proceeded to finish my Chocolate Frog. After swallowing the last bit of it, I pulled out the card from the box.

Cornelius Fudge.

I scoffed and threw the card. “I got Fudge. That totally ruined the fun.”

He walked towards the card that was thrown on the floor and picked it up, throwing it in his trunk.

“What,” he asked. “I’m saving it. I didn’t have one of him.”

I rolled my eyes at him and lay back on the rather uncomfortable bed, trying to relax. I closed my eyes, trying to catch up on much needed sleep, only to not be able to drown myself in Dreamland. After several minutes, I gave up and decided to grab some parchment and doodle.

After numerous attempts of drawing the castle I loved so dearly, I gave up and threw the stack of papers at the wall.

“I don’t even care anymore,” I mumbled to myself. “This room is never clean anyway.”

Harry burst out laughing at my words. I couldn’t help but a crack a smile and join him in laughter.

“You’re lucky, you know,” Harry said.

“Why?”

“Because next year you’ll be able to do magic whenever you want. You can apparate anywhere and everywhere, wave your wand to do the simplest of things. You’ll be able to hex Dudley whenever he bothers us,” he explained.

I couldn’t help but grin at the thought of casting jinxes on Dudley. We’d probably be able to have our own ways every now and then.

“Consider that the most genius idea you’ve ever had,” I complimented.

He smirked at me and I chuckled.

Before I knew it, there was a pecking sound on the window.

“God, another letter? Are we famous now, or something?”

“Actually -” Harry began.

“Rhetorical question, Harry,” I chirped as I opened the window to reveal the Weasley’s barn owl. My eyes widened in surprise as I looked at the envelope which was covered in numerous stamps. I took it from the owl’s beak and watched it fly away.

“Who’s it from,” my curious brother asked, making his way over to me.

“Mrs. Weasley.”

I flipped over the envelope to the back, tearing it open, ripping some stamps in the process. I pulled out the paper and began to read it.

Hi, dears!

It’s me, Molly! Arthur is taking the kids to the Quidditch World Cup tomorrow, and I think he’d be rather delighted if you attended. Hermione is going as well, her parents have agreed to let her. In fact, she’s already here at the Burrow! We really hope your Muggle aunt and uncle let you go. Write us back immediately with an answer!

I do hope I put enough stamps on this for you to receive this letter.

Molly.

I chuckled at the letter and passed it over to Harry, who scanned the writing. His eyes widened.

“Q-Quidditch World Cup,” he stuttered in amazement. “They want us to go?”

“Blimey, Harry because they’re going to ask Hermione and not you, Ron’s best friend,” I sarcastically said.

Harry ignored my remark and put the parchment back. “I’m going to go ask Uncle Vernon - but stay here. I think the two of us will just make him more annoyed.”

“Like he doesn’t already have to put up with us,” I joked. “But alright.”

He nodded and walked out of the room and ran down the stairs.

And in that time that Harry was gone, a brilliant idea popped into my mind.

I grabbed a small piece of parchment and a pen and began to write down the words onto the letter:

You know the address - see you here!



“You what,” Harry asked, almost choking on his words.

I nodded triumphantly. “Yup. And they could be here any minute now.”

“Bloody hell, Rose. You’re lucky I was able to convince Uncle Vernon,” Harry exclaimed.

“Meh,” I simply said. “I knew he would say yes if Dudley and magic were involved in one sentence.”

He chuckled and grabbed his trunk, throwing things he needed in. I did the same and closed my trunk after, picking it up in my hands. I opened the door, allowing Harry to go outside first, then turned off the light, walking out myself.

After struggling to get down the stairs with loaded hands, we made it to the bottom floor, heading to the living room where we took a seat. We had no idea how the Weasleys would come here, but we suspected Apparating would be their method of transportation.

Molly had mentioned Arthur taking the kids, and not her, so I assumed he would be the one picking us up. I silently prayed that one of the Weasley kids would come too, I needed to see at least one friend from Hogwarts.

Suddenly, the fireplace that was turned off flickered alive with green flames. I stood up, grinning. Floo Powder. Of course.

Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley immediately rushed into the room as the sound of the roaring fire emitted. They stared at it until finally the familiar figure of Arthur Weasley came in.

I jumped happily and pulled him into a hug, as did Harry.

“Mr. Weasley,” I exclaimed.

“Good to see ya, Rosalie!”

We pulled away and let him greet my Uncle and Aunt, who seemed disgusted, bewildered, and shocked.

Immediately, two new figures appeared in the fire. I recognized them as my two favorite gingers in the world.

“Hi Rosalie. Hi Harry,” they both said in unison.

“Fred! George!”

I chuckled and hugged them tightly, earning a weird look from my uncle and aunt, a teasing look from Dudley, a smirk from Harry, and a smile from Arthur.

After pulling away, Ron had come through the fire. Harry attacked him with a brotherly hug and I proceeded to hugging him, too.

“Bloody hell, I missed you two,” Ron exclaimed.

I laughed. “We did too. But I think that Harry missed you more,” I stated, pointing at my brother.

I walked over to the twins and left my brother and his redheaded friend to talk to themselves.

“Rose, you won’t believe what we’ve invented,” Fred whispered excitedly, trying not to be overheard.

George pulled out a candy that was tied up in a blue wrapper with white stripes. “Ton-Tongue Toffee,” he explained. “Makes your tongue large.”

I grinned. “This could be useful in so many ways.”

They grinned back with me in victory, knowing they had invented a best-seller right then and there.

“Mind if I have one,” I asked, looking towards Dudley.

Immediately understanding, they handed me one and shot me a smirk. I chuckled and kept it clutched in my hand.

“Well, we best get going,” Arthur exclaimed. “Big day ahead of us tomorrow, got to meet Amos there early! So much to pack, so much to do. Got to reserve a tent, too,” he blubbered on, caught up in his plans.

“Mr. Weasley, calm down,” I said with a laugh. “Everything will be fine.”

Arthur immediately began ushering us to the green flames that would lead us back to the Burrow. As I got in line to jump in, I dropped the toffee and snickered. Dudley immediately jumped to grab the toffee before I could “pick it back up.”

“No Duddykins, you’re on a diet!”

“Relax, it’s one toffee candy,” I pointed out with a smirk. “It won’t harm him.”

Dudley nodded, as if to agree with me. I was last in line to hop into the fireplace. I grabbed the bit of Floo Powder that was handed to me and stepped inside. I watched as Dudley’s tongue began to swell up and grow immensely. Aunt Petunia screeched.

I laughed in victory and watched as Uncle Vernon angrily hurried to grab me from the fireplace. But before he could grab me, I yelled, “The Burrow!” and was sucked away into the Weasley home.