It was two o'clock in the morning, the sky was pitch black and the moon could not be seen. Alicia stared out of the window hoping to find some sort of comfort. Something that would convince her that things weren't so bad. She sighed wishing she was sleeping. Her thoughts were too crowding when she was awake. Getting through the day was easy. She could pretend everything was alright and distract herself with other things. But a night, she was left alone with her thoughts.

I HATE YOU!

She flinched. The bareness of the starless sky was reminding her of things she was trying desperately to forget. She took a deep breath and tried to make her mind to go blank as his face tried to creep into her thoughts.

She walked away from the window and tried to head towards the light at the bottom of the door. She wasn't going to be able to sleep alone tonight.

It's not like you'll be hard to replace!

Alicia paused as her worst memory threatened to overwhelm her and echoed in her head over and over.

She tried not to look around too much as she headed towards the door, darkness scared her. The door squeaked a little as she pulled the door open and slid out into the candlelit hallway.

She took careful steps as she walked. Sleeping portraits snored on either side of her as she made her way towards her destination. Her bare feet felt cold against the marble floor of the corridor. It seemed to take ages, but eventually she got to the door at the other end of the hallway. She grasped the doorknob.

Did you seriously think that I'm going to wait around all summer for you to decide what you want?

Alicia let go of the doorknob and took several deep breaths as her eyes began to water. She closed her eyes and allowed his face to flow into her imagination. His piercing blues eyes, his fiery red hair, and his beautiful pink lips…she had him completely memorized. She quickly pushed the image out of her mind. She grasped the doorknob again and then turned it. Tears began to stream down her face and she let go once more.

Wiping her face she turned around and headed back the way she had come. She wasn't a little kid anymore. Why had she even come in the first place?

The door creaked open behind her and she froze. "Alicia?" a groggy voice whispered into the dim light.

She turned around to face a young man, just old enough to be considered an adult in the magical world. He was wearing only pyjama pants, his tan chest completely bare. The candlelight made his muscles look much more defined. He had the body of an athlete.

Alicia stared up into his dark eyes that were very similar to hers. "Oh, hi," she whispered, feeling foolish.

He ran a hand through his jet black hair and yawned widely. He seemed to waken up a bit more. "What are you still doing up?"

Alicia mentally kicked herself. She should have just stayed put. Now she had to stand there like an idiot. "I was just—I—I—I was going to the bathroom," she stuttered.

He smiled lazily and leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms across his defined chest. "Then what are you doing rattling my doorknob in the middle of the night."

Alicia scowled. "Just never mind okay, it doesn't matter, its nothing." she turned to leave.

"Stop." He commanded. He looked at her for a few moments as she turned back around to face him. "Do you want to sleep in my bed tonight?" he asked without a trace of teasing in his voice.

Alicia stared at him for a moment just to make sure before she nodded slowly. He opened the door wider and headed into the room. Alicia began to follow him.

"Shut the door, Alicia," he reminded her.

Alicia hesitated as she closed the door and all of the light was eliminated. She couldn't see one inch in front of her face. She took small steps forward feeling around blindly for the bed. "Where are you?" she whispered anxiously into the dark.

"Over here," he replied in a sing-song voice from somewhere to her left. She turned and headed in the direction of the voice. Finally her knees hit the bed and she breathed a sigh of relief. She clambered onto the mattress and crawled upwards.

A warm hand encircled her wrist and pulled her up the rest of the way. She quickly got underneath the warm covers and snuggled into the body next to her.

"Wow, you're really cold," he said shrinking away from her. She laughed, much happier now that she wasn't alone.

"Oh, please! I'll get frost bite," she argued, scooting closing again.

He grudgingly moved to put his arm around her but gasped when her icy arm slid across his stomach.

"You are as cold as a vampire," he complained as Alicia put her cold nose against his shoulder.

"I've never met a vampire."

"Good. It probably would have bitten you."

"No, that's illegal," Alicia said rolling her eyes though he couldn't see it. "I'm surprised you can feel anything, you're hard as a rock," she said giving his abdomen a little poke.

He jerked and moved her hand back to where it was around his waist. "Well, you're bone-y as a rock," he said, poking her side trying to find her hip bone.

"Ha! Hear it is," he said grabbing it, causing Alicia to shriek out and flail around. "Hey, you're messing up the covers," he complained shoving Alicia back down onto the bed. "I bet you woke my parents up."

Alicia settled back onto the bed and linked her arm with his. "Well it's your fault, muscle man. If they come in we can just pretend to be sleeping."

"You'll start laughing like an idiot," he said seriously.

"No, I won't."

"Yeah, you will."

"I'm not an idiot, bum-face."

"Bum-head."

"Bum-brain."

"Bum-butt."

"What?"

"I win!"

"Asshole."

"Alicia!"

"What?"

"Poopface."

"You're dumb, shut up."

"Goodnight, Alicia," he said finally, smiling to himself.

Alicia rested her head on his shoulder. "Goodnight."

"I'm glad you're here, nitwit."

"Me too, jerk. I love you."

He yawned loudly. "Love you, too."

Fred and George slumped up to their rooms, still exhausted from the earlier yelling match they had with their mother.

"Blimey, mate, I though she was bad this morning," Fred sighed at they entered their room.

George collapsed onto his bed. "I reckon I've lost my hearing. Did you see that vein coming out of the side of her forehead," George chuckled softly.

Fred couldn't make the extra two yards to his own bed so he collapsed next to George on his, "I was not expecting all of that," he said closing his eyes.

After seeing what their mother held, Fred and George raced down to the ground immediately, the rest of their siblings following curiously.

"Mum!" they cried.

"What. Are. These," she muttered so lowly they could barely hear her.

Fred and George exchanged a quick glance. "Er…"

"Don't lie," she growled menacingly.

Fred spoke up. "They're order forms for our joke shop."

"Yeah," George added quickly. "Weasleys' Wizarding—"

"I TOLD YOU NO JOKESHOP!"

Bill, Charlie, and Ron all jumped in surprised at their mothers' sudden increase in volume. Then took a couple steps back and watched from a safe distance. Ginny was peeking out of the kitchen window.

"And we told you too bad," Fred said bravely. George swore under his breath and stepped back a little pulling Fred with him.

"EVERYTHING IS TO BE THROWN AWAY!" she hollered. She pointed her wand at the order forms which promptly burst into fire. Charlie gasped.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Fred and George cried at the same time. "THAT'S OUR STUFF, WE'VE SPEND MONTHS ON THAT!"

"WELL IT'S NO WONDER YOU FAILED MOST OF YOUR O.W.L.s! ALL OF THOSE POISONS I FOUND IN YOUR ROOM ARE GONE SO IT WAS A WASTE OF TIME!"

"THEY WEREN'T POISONS!" George yelled, clutching his forehead which was beginning to throb.

"THEY CERTAINLY WEREN'T WORTH RUINING YOUR LIFE OVER! IT'S TIME TO GROW UP! I don't know what you were thinking about ordering all those awful things for! Explosives?! IN MY OWN HOME?! You both are wasting all of your money! Do you know how much your school books cost? Instead your room is filled with all your ridiculous potions and contraptions!"

Fred put a hand on his twins' shoulder and stepped foreword. "That wasn't just ours. It was our creation. Our inventions," he uttered angrily.

"Everything under this roof is mine, you two are only children, you don't know anything about what it's like in the outside world!"

"IF YOU WANT US TO LEAVE, WE'LL LEAVE!" George shouted, his temper rising.

"YOU WILL DO NO SUCH THING!"

"WANNA BET? We'll use the money for our joke shop!"

"YOU NEED TO USE YOUR BRAINS AND DO SOMETHING PRODUCTIVE WITH YOUR LIFE!"

"Hmm, lets see," Fred said pondering for a moment. "Productive. What does that word remind you of George," Fred asked sarcastically.

"Well, Fred, it rather reminds me of the word product."

"We used to have products didn't we?"

"We did! We were going to sell them and make money! Oh wait…our very own flesh and blood just destroyed them!"

"Well, there go all our hopes and dreams," Fred said mockingly in a happy voice.

"Jolly good times old chap," George said patting Fred on the back. "Lets go celebrate with a bottle of Firewhisky!"

Bill and Charlie where snickering in the background.

"Yeah! Who needs life-long hopes and dreams anyways!"

"Lets be drunks instead!"

"Aye to that, mate," Fred said pretending to sway oh the spot.

George giggled goofily and stumbled into Fred. "Blimey Mum! You were right! What were we thinking starting a business! This is going to be much more fun!"

"Yeah, the alcohol totally makes me forget about my depression. Why should I be sad about my crushed ambitions when I can like, totally like, cruise in a wave of unconsciousness," Fred slurred slumping to the ground.

"Like totally, totally," George said to Fred who was pretending to be unconscious.

George kneeled to the ground next to his twin and poked him. "Hey bud, hey. What's goin' on?"

Mrs. Weasley glared down at them in a stony silence. "That's not funny," she muttered.

George looked up at her with a confused look on his face. "I think he's dead."

"That's not funny!" Mrs. Weasley repeated as George put his head to Fred's heart.

George glared up at her. "Neither is you throwing away our inventions. That's a really bad joke."

George pretended to pass out into Fred's chest and neither of them would move until she left. They laid there for a good ten minutes of her yelling and refused to move a muscle. Eventually Mr. Weasley had to come and lead her away again.

George felt as if he had barely been asleep for a second when he was disturbed.

"Wake up!" a soft voice cooed. She laid down on the bed. "Would you wake up," she said, this time more forcefully.

George pried he eyes open and looked at Ginny who was lying next to him propped up on her elbows. Fred was still asleep on his other side. "What?" he croaked turning sideways to face her and looking at her with his eyes half-open. "Is it daytime again already?"

"Dad's going to take to you and Fred when he goes to pick up Harry," she said.

"When's that?" George asked groggily, closing his eyes.

"Tomorrow."

"Well, thanks a lot for telling me so early. I guess I'll have a twenty four hour head start," he said burying his head back into his pillow.

"I wanted to show you something important before everyone was awake," Ginny said seriously. "Wake Fred up."

"Why can't you?"

"Whenever I get one of you to wake up, I can't get the other one to." She rolled her eyes when George raised his eyebrows. She leaned over him so her face was next to Fred's. "FRED! FRED WEASLEY! FIRE! DEATH EATERS! NAKED VEELA!"

Fred scooted more into the covers.

Ginny smirked at George. "See?"

"Wow. Pretty impressive," he said nodding his head. "I've never seen him so tired. He's always pretty easy to get up."

"No, he's always like this. AREN'T YOU FREDDY?" she shouted again in his direction.

George laughed. "Well I doubt I'll be able to get him up."

"Try," she confidently. "Your too-small-to-play-Quidditch little sister doesn't know any better," she said mockingly.

George sighed and turned to Fred who had begun to snore lightly. George lightly prodded his shoulder. "Fred wake up," he said not really trying.

Fred groaned and turned away from the wall to face George. He lifted his head up from the pillow. "Huh?"

George's jaw dropped. "How did you--?"

"Hey Fred, I need to show the both of you something," Ginny interrupted George, looking not at all surprised. George was about to comment when she took out her wand and pointed it at the door. It clicked locked.

"You're not supposed to do magic!" Fred frowned sleepily.

Ginny looked at him and snorted. "Yeah, so?"

"Ginny—"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," she said dismissing him with her hand. George raised his eyebrows and looked at Fred.

Apparently they were thinking the same thing. This wasn't their sweet little sister. It was an impostor.

"There are more important things to discuss than the illegal activities that I happen to engage in," she said in a secretive voice.

"Activities with an 'S'?" George asked.

"Like you both haven't been doing illegal magic since the moment you've had a wand—"

"Ginny, that's different. Mum will think we tricked you into—"

Fred interrupted, now fully alert. "What the bloody hell could you need to tell us that's more important than illegal—?!"

"Fine! If you two don't want to listen then I won't tell you!" she said storming towards the door. "I guess I'll have to sell these 'candies' myself."

Fred and George's jaws both dropped to the floor as Ginny closed the door behind her. They both scrambled out of the small bed at the same time. George got out first and yanked the door open. Fred's leg was tangled in the sheets as he hopped after George and he tripped face first. He reached out to George and latched onto his pants. Which then proceeding to fall down to his ankles.

Ginny turned around just in time to see George standing there in his boxers. Fred's head was down between George's ankles, holding onto his pants with sheets wrapped around his calves. The looked at Ginny for a moment and then looked at the state they were in and wondered how they had gotten into that particular predicament.

"What…are you doing?" Bill asked walking by the door frame with a toothbrush in his mouth. He stared at the three of them for a moment before he shook his head and headed down the stairs, deciding it was better not to ask.

Ginny gave them a chastising look before pushing George back into the room. "Do you want to get us all in tr--?"

"OUCH!"

George had accidentally stepped on Fred's arm when Ginny pushed him backwards. George quickly moved his foot and lost his balance.

"AHHH!" Ginny yelled as George pulled her down with him in an attempt to stay upright. They landed with a thump right on top of Fred.

"THAT. HURT," Fred muttered angrily. They paused as footsteps sounding coming down the stairs.

Charlie glanced at them briefly as he walked by and kept going. He paused for a second and took a few steps backwards and looked in once again. He stared at them scratching his chin for a moment with a quizzical look on his face. "Yep. That's what I thought I saw," He nodded and turned to go.

Ginny groaned and stood up, not bothering to be gentle. "Get up, and close the door," she ordered, nudging George with her foot.

Once George had closed the door, Ginny took a seat on Fred's bed. Fred and George went and sat across from her.

"If you tell anyone, I swear, for the rest of your lives I will—"

"Ginny we won't tell anyone!"

Ginny grinned at them for a moment, loving the power she now seemed to have over her brothers. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a handful of sweets twisted in brightly coloured wrappers. Before she could reach into her other pocket, Fred and George tackled her.

"GINNY!" George hollered, squeezing her as tightly as he could.

Fred was on the other side doing the same. "YOU'RE THE BEST SISTER EVER!!"

"Ouch—FRED!—get off, your suffocating me—EW!" she squealing as George placed a smacking kiss on her forehead.

"Ginny how did you get these!?" Fred questioned as Ginny scrambled to her feet.

"I snuck back inside when Mum started yelling at you guys to come down and a saw these sitting on the counter next to the garbage so I figured—"

They paused as the door creaked open. Ron poked his head inside. "Breakfast is ready," he moaned through a wide yawn. They waited until he closed the door and his footsteps faded away.

Fred turned back to Ginny. "Ginny, if you ever need anything—"

"—anything—"

"—anything at all!—"

"—just ask—"

"—your wish is completely—"

"—our command," George finished.

Ginny stood up to go looking thoroughly satisfied. She emptied her last pocket and tossed the remaining sweets onto Fred's bed.

"I'll remember that," she said before heading out the door. Fred and George quickly stashed their merchandise before scrambled downstairs for breakfast in a much happier mood than they had been in before.