"I wouldn't mind." Ginny remarked. "I wish I could have gone with Harry and the others when he went."
"You're not old enough to go to the theatre." Molly stated firmly.
Bill glanced over at Charlie and sent him a sympathetic look; he was going to have to put up with the family shenanigans while Bill was escaping.
"You know if you want to arrange a night with your mates in London, you can always crash at my place." Bill said, offering his brother a respite.
He loved the flat on London Street; two bedrooms, a good sized living room, decent bathroom, and a kitchenette. It was a great little pad. Sirius had confided that he'd bought it with Harry's father when they'd left school. James's portion had been left to Sirius but Sirius had turned the deed of the property over to Harry as an adoption present. Bill was honoured they'd entrusted it to him and he was loving having his own place. In Egypt they'd had to share tents or apartments, it was always close quarters, and the less said about the Burrow the better as much as he loved his childhood home. He had a sneaking suspicion that providing him with the ability to move out of the Burrow was another black mark against Sirius in his mother's eyes.
Charlie's eyes brightened with relief at having an escape route. "Thanks! I'll take you up on that!"
"You will not!" Molly remonstrated. "Bill, Harry didn't give you that apartment for you to take advantage of him and have a succession of unpaying guests!"
"No, he gave me it to look after as part of our service arrangement and it was made very clear that the second bedroom was a guest room for use by my guests. If Charlie wants to stay the night or a week or the entire time he's in England, he's welcome." Bill said brusquely, fed up.
"Well, I might spend the occasional night, but Mum's cooking is better than yours." Charlie winked at him as he tried to ease the tension again.
Their mother softened immediately with the compliment. "Oh, Charlie!"
"If he's not going to take you up on it, I might." Percy said. He cast a look at the twins. "It's very hard to get peace and quiet here to focus on my work."
"Do you think…" Fred began.
"…he might be blaming us, brother?" George completed.
Bill bit his lip and tried not to laugh at Percy's put upon pout. "Percy, you're more than welcome to come and stay a couple of nights if you need to get some work done. But if you want to move in full time though, Mum's right; I probably will have to arrange for you to pay some kind of rent to Harry."
"A couple of nights when I have reports to do would be perfect especially now Mister Crouch is off sick." Percy said immediately.
"Barty's sick?" Arthur looked up, concerned.
Percy nodded. "Since Tuesday with wizard's flu. He sent me work assignments by owl."
Arthur grimaced. "I'm not surprised he caught something with all the stress he's been under from the press and the World Cup and the…" he caught himself and blushed. "He's probably just a bit run down. He was looking peaky when I saw him last."
"Maybe I should pop over with a casserole." Molly suggested, compassionately.
"I would leave it, Molly," Arthur said firmly, "that elf of Barty's is very protective and probably won't let you anywhere near him."
"OK then, Percy," Bill said, dragging the conversation back on track, "you know the floo address so make yourself at home when you need to use the flat." He figured Percy was saving up for his own place.
"Does that apply to us too?" asked Fred mischievously.
"No, it does not." Molly said before Bill could reply. "Anyone underage will be staying here at all times."
He supposed that was fair enough and tried not to resent the implication that his mother didn't trust him to look after his siblings.
"If you're working will you make it to the Longbottoms' party?" His father asked, changing the subject.
"I don't know." Bill said. "It depends on how it goes."
Ron snorted. "I wish I didn't have to go."
"What's the problem?" asked Charlie. "Good food, a bit of dancing, cute girls…" He winked at Bill as he said the last.
"Charlie!" exclaimed their mother on cue.
Bill dropped his gaze from his brother so he wouldn't laugh out loud.
"Your brother's far too young to be thinking of girls and dating." Molly said firmly.
The older brothers all exchanged a wry look. Bill had been caught in a broom closet in his fourth year; Charlie had started dating in his third – as had Percy although he'd kept it quiet. Fred and George simply shared a grin and said nothing but Bill assumed they'd also discovered girls by Ron's age.
"We have to dress up!" Ron said hotly around a mouthful of food.
Bill could understand that complaint. He hated dress robes.
"There is nothing wrong with dressing up occasionally." Molly remonstrated. "It will be lovely."
"Have you seen my dress robes?" asked Ron pointedly. "I'm not wearing them!"
"What's wrong with Ron's dress robes?" Bill asked Fred in a side whisper as their mother informed Ron he would go naked if he didn't put them on.
"Imagine we played a prank on them already and you'll have a good idea of what Ron's robes look like right now." Fred whispered back.
Ah.
"I don't understand why you had to get me second hand robes!" complained Ron furiously. "Sirius gave me some money!"
Charlie's eyes widened at that and Bill grimaced; his mother was not going to appreciate Sirius's name being thrown in her face.
"That money is for your education, young man!" Molly shot back at Ron. "It's not for frivolities."
"Your mother's right, Ron." Arthur chimed in. "We can't use the educational fund for dress robes."
"I'm going to look stupid." Ron mumbled miserably.
Bill exchanged a look with Charlie who gave a small nod. Charlie would have to go out and buy some dress robes so he could get some for Ron at the same time. Both of them were earning; they could cover the cost as a combined early birthday-Christmas present.
He mopped up the last of his egg and drank down his juice. He should get going, Bill thought, glancing at his watch. "Dad, can I have a quick word? House business." He saw Charlie's eyebrows go up at that and realised he was going to have to bring his brother up to date with events.
Arthur motioned to the back of the house. "Why don't we take this to my shed?"
Bill got up and dropped a kiss on the top of his mother's head. He did love her despite her overprotectiveness. "Thanks for breakfast, Mum."
He followed his father out and Bill waited until he'd closed the door of the shed before putting up a privacy bubble.
"You need to speak with Mum." Bill said bluntly.
His father sighed and took his glasses off to pinch the brow of his nose. "It's not that easy with your Mum, Bill, you know that."
"What I know is that she's risking our alliance of friendship with the House of Potter because she dislikes Harry's adoptive father." Bill replied briskly. "Harry loves Sirius. He's starting to notice Mum's attitude and he won't stand for it if he thinks she's insulting Sirius. There'll be a huge row, Harry will choose Sirius, and you'll be forced to discipline Mum for being in breach of oath and bringing discord between the two Houses. While I doubt either Harry or Sirius would embarrass us publically or politically with an alliance dissolution, we can't allow it to happen."
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