WHO: Katie Bell & Fred Weasley WHAT: Chat, downtime WHEN: sometime last week /handwaves WHERE: Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes WARNINGS: None
She looked more tired than she felt. At least, that’s what Katie had been telling herself. She’d protested that she felt fine when her mother had pointed it out over breakfast. Jackie Bell wasn’t to know that her youngest had been awake half the night learning incantations for her next session with her former Professor, and it was supposed to stay that way. She bent over the list of spell incantations again where it was poking out under some brightly-coloured leaflets on the shop till, dark hair escaping her usually-neat ponytail as she read them over and over. She’d been too wary to try this at breakfast but she still felt the need to study more, to be better. Be more confident.
She shuffled the list under the leaflets as she noticed someone walk in sight, but breathed an audible sigh of relief upon seeing it was just one of the twins. Katie smiled warmly, retrieving her list but looking up at him instead of studying it once again. “Sorry, I was reading,” she said lightly, pushing her hair out of her face.
“This shop isn’t for reading, Katie,” Fred teased. “We only do fun things at WWW.” He peered over the till to see what she’d been reading, quirking an eyebrow at the list of spells. “You might have to teach me some of them later so I don’t have to do any reading myself.”
“I probably shouldn’t be doing homework voluntarily, it’s against your work ethic,” Katie joked, pushing the list aside. “What’s up? It’s not been busy,” she gazed at the door again. She missed the bustle of the school holidays.
“It’s against everything I stand for,” Fred agreed, but his smile faded as she pointed out the quietness of the shop. “You know. IDs, Death Eaters, Dementors, Wandless. No one really wants to come to Diagon with all that.” It gave him and George time to work on new inventions and Order projects, but it was far from how he’d always wanted the shop to be.
“I think they’re mad,” Katie told him, trying to brighten her own smile to make up for his looking a little less Fred than usual. “If I was under threat all the time I know I’d just want joke products. All the jokes ever,” she looked down at her list again, huffing a small sigh. “It won’t be like this forever. I believe that, even if I don’t believe much else right now.”
“ ‘Course not,” Fred agreed, bringing his smile back. “Death Eaters are too dumb for this to last forever. Any group that thinks Montague is a good addition has no chance at ever succeeding.”
“Careful, he might resort to drawing penises on the shop again,” Katie mock-warned him, heartened by seeing that smile again. “I’ll have to ask Prof-- Remus what’ll be a good defence spell against that.” She pushed her list to the side, propping her elbows on the till and resting her chin between her hands. “Have you been inventing? Anything good?”
“All our inventions are good, Katie.” A blatant lie, as many if not more failures among every experiment. “But mostly working on more defensive products right now. Not everyone has Professor Lupin helping them out so we’re here to profit off their defensive needs.”
Katie nodded slowly. “Not everyone asked him,” she retorted. “Though I suppose not everyone can just up and ask him, but more fool them.” She couldn’t help feeling a little bit proud of the progress she’d made. “Did you see he reckoned I could manage part of our next plan?” she lowered her voice suddenly on the last three words, but still couldn’t resist beaming. “Me! Manage things!”
Katie's smile was contagious, Fred’s own grin growing broader at her excitement. “ ‘Course you can manage things,” he encouraged. “If we’re not careful me and George are gonna be working for you soon.”
“Oh, behave,” she told him with a roll of her eyes. “I’m just excited, that’s all.” It felt good to hear that kind of approval from someone, it almost made her believe it. “Let me have my moment!” She picked up one of the leaflets on the till and crumpled it into a ball, moving it gently around the till surface.
“Nah, I’m serious Kates,” Fred’s smile remained but the teasing glint in his eye disappeared, voice full of sincerity. After everything Katie had been through, he wanted to see her succeed. “Not about the you taking over the shop, but about you managing things. You’ll be brill.”
Suddenly shy, uncharacteristically so, Katie batted the ball of paper towards him. “We all do our best,” she said diplomatically. “Now, do you need my help with anything?”
Fred looked around the empty shop. “You can manage the omail orders and pack up anything that needs owling?” he suggested. “Or we always need more product testers…”
“I’ll do the owling,” Katie was hasty to pick up on the suggestion. “Maybe I can drag Joe in sometime to be a tester?”
“Great!” Fred grinned. “As long as he knows it’s a volunteer position and doesn’t mind signing a few waivers, Joe would be perfect.”
“He needs to spice up his life a bit,” Katie smirked. “It’s not like it was at Hogwarts with all your willing test subjects, is it?”
“There’s way less gullible firsties out here,” Fred complained, though still smiling. “And for some reason you and Ang and Alicia and Lee and everyone aren’t keen to help out a friend in need.”
“Experience is everything, Fred.”
Katie picked up the ball of paper and threw it neatly into a bin behind the till.
“And the Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes experience is the best experience there is.” Fred turned to return to the back to continue product experiments with George. “Just come and get us when you want a lunch break,” he called over his shoulder. “Or if it suddenly gets busy.”