oh you got a fire and it's burning in the rain [roxy]

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Everyone at Hogwarts had better watch out, because Fred was back and better than ever. He had promised his sister he was going to see her, and he hadn't reneged on that promise even when the Aurors told him it was going to take a full half hour to check him for potentially dangerous devices. It made sense, really, since it wasn't like Weasley's Wizard Wheezes were known for being tame or safe, but it was still kind of annoying. But Fred had been clean, and the boxes that he was carrying under his arms had been triple-checked and also declared to be clean. Because they were. Fred might have been reckless, but he wasn't in the business of smuggling dangerous objects into a school full of people that he loved. Making his way to the Gryffindor Tower felt kind of strange, especially with the boxes under his arms, but Fred made it there, and even managed to persuade one of the second years to give him the password. That probably should have worried him more than it did, but Fred didn't really care, because he was back in his old haunt. Fred flopped on one of the armchairs in the common room and scrawled a quick note to his sister, telling her to come down from her dormitory to meet him.

@roxanne

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The moment Roxy got Fred’s note, she jumped up and ran downstairs, and was halfway across the common room towards the door when she realised he was RIGHT THERE. If she cared about the rules, she’d have been concerned. But there was a reason she wasn’t a prefect, because she bounded up beside him, and sat on the arm of the chair beside him.

“Hey big brother of mine,” she chirped. “Back where you belong, huh? And you brought me boxes!”

@fred

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Thankfully, Roxy obeyed his directions immediately. It would have been kind of anticlimactic if she had come down twenty minutes later or whatever. She didn’t seem surprised to see him inside the entrance of the common room, and Fred smiled to himself. He still had it. “Hey, little sister of mine.” Fred responded easily. “I’m a king returned to his throne, Roxy.” He agreed when she half-said, half-asked if he was back where he belonged. He nodded to her comment about the boxes. “I’m all for breaking rules, but are you really going to set boxes on fire in the middle of the Gryffindor common room?” Fred asked. Now that he was an adult, he was a little more concerned about the legality of such things. He had too much going for him to go to Azkaban.

@roxanne

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“Dork,” she said, nudging him with her elbow when he called himself a king. “A king isn’t a king without a court, though, and all you’ve got is me.” Sure, Fred looked like he belonged, but at the same time - it wasn’t anymore. Time sucked. Shouldn’t be allowed. Writing letters just wasn’t the same as getting to hang out together.

“Of course not. I rather like the tower, I don’t want it in flames. Courtyard,” she said, jumping to her feet. “Mischief isn’t caused just by sitting around, come on!” Plus she had a point to prove. And it would probably be best if they didn’t get in trouble for someone in the Gryffindor Common Room who shouldn’t be, considering.

@fred

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“I might be a dork.” Fred said with a shrug. “But I’m your dork, so you have to love me anyways.” That was how siblings worked. She said that a king wasn’t a king without a court, and Fred nodded, smile dropping a little. “Don’t have much by way of that anyways.” Friendships tended to drop off after school, and even though Fred had never expected it to happen to him, he wasn’t surprised.

Fred snorted when Roxy said that she liked the tower, and didn’t want it to go up in flames. That was a smart idea. “Courtyard it is.” He said, lifting himself out of his chair so he could follow his sister down to the courtyard. “I know more about mischief than you do, shut up.” Fred said, rolling his eyes at his sister as he grabbed the boxes and began to make his way down.

@roxanne

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"Best brother dork," she said with a grin, "isn't that a given at this point?" He was clearly disheartened by her comment on the lack of just general people around him, and one time she'd find out what that was about, but for the moment she let it drop. Her brother, her time, her mischief.

And they were off, down toward the courtyard with the ease of seven years of practice - a quick and efficient route. "I am well aware I'm the well-behaved one. But that doesn't mean I don't know something about it." She turned around just enough for him to see her stick her tongue out.

@fred

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“Is it given that you have to keep me? Yes, absolutely.” Fred smirked. “Why do you think I didn’t get rid of you years ago?” He said, reaching out to rustle his sister’s hair fondly. He wouldn’t have gotten rid of Roxy, even if he had wanted to – and to be clear, Fred didn’t want to get rid of his sister. She was the closest thing he had to a best friend anymore, not that he was going to tell her that. That was pathetic.

Fred chuckled at Roxy. “Only in our family would it be bad to be the well-behaved one.” Well, Fred thought it was a bad thing, and he was sure that his father would agree with him. “Maybe when you graduate you can work on your mischief skills.” He teased. When Roxy stuck her tongue out, Fred immediately stuck his back out at her, winking quickly as they reached the entrance to the courtyard.

@roxanne

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"I'm much too awesome to have gotten rid of," she said, batting at his hand away lightly as he rustled her hair. Not enough to make hime stop, just enough to have plausible deniability on secretly liking it.

"I'm a disgrace," she said, utterly deadpan, shaking her head slowly and sadly. "It's almost like I didn't propose setting boxes on fire in the courtyard." She knew perfectly well that he teasing, but she didn't think improving her mischeif skills was something she was going to be doing a lot of, either before or after graduation.

They reached the courtyard, and Roxy chose a clear, stone-floored space. "Here," she announced. "Pass me some boxes."

@fred

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Fred smirked when his sister said she was too awesome to be gotten rid of. That was debatable. Roxy tried to smack his hand away, but she didn’t have much power behind the motion at all, and Fred was able to continue to ruffle her hair unhindered.

“Absolute disgrace.” Fred agreed in an equally deadpan voice. “How did you even get this whole idea anyways?” Maybe it had been in the letter, but maybe not. Fred couldn’t imagine that one day Roxy just woke up and thought to herself, today would be a good day to become a pyromaniac. Fred glanced around, half expecting Elias to appear. After he had given the other boy such trouble for creating a bonfire in Hogsmeade, it would be hypocritical if he saw Fred setting fire to boxes in the middle of Hogwarts’s courtyard.

“Aye aye, captain.” Fred said, handing some cardboard boxes to Roxy. “Light ‘er up.”

@roxanne

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"I told you this," she scolded. "We're setting boxes on fire because labels are annoying and I can't pick one. And because Hogwarts is better than Durmstrang." Yep, this really all came down to her school was the best school.

She accepted the cardboard boxes and placed them in a sort-of pyramid, and then muttered softly as she poked the bottom. It only took a moment for her wand to spark and a moment longer for a spark to catch. And yes, sure, she could have set them alight with a bit more oomph, but watching the cardboard curl into embers was rather mesmerizing. She'd leave the oomph to her brother.

@fred

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So Roxy had mentioned why they were doing this. Fred was going to chalk that one up to bad memory and not to not paying attention…because he definitely tried to pay attention to Roxy, at least more than he paid attention to other people. “Labels can be annoying, I guess.” Like heterosexual. That one was annoying, because it was what he used to scare himself into thinking that he didn’t have a chance with the boy he liked. “Jury’s out on Hogwarts versus Durmstrang though.” It seemed wrong to diss Elias’s school.

Fred watched as Roxy organized the boxes to her liking, and then set them on fire. It was a very…tame way of doing things, but Fred wasn’t sure if he should add a loud bang to something symbolic. What he did do, however, was point his wand at the smoke, and carefully shaped it into a W. For Weasley – the one label Fred was okay with, for now.

@roxanne

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"Viola said they wanted to do this, but couldn't because they'd get expelled for it at Durmstrang. You'd never have made it through first year. Therefore, Hogwarts is better." Hell, she didn't think she would have made it to graduation at Durmstrang.

Fred formed the smoke into a W, and she leaned into him. "Boxes alight, she said with a smile, "now, I do believe there was something you were supposed to tell me." She'd stopped nagging him by mail, but if he thought she was going to forget now that she had him in person then he was underestimating her.

@fred

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Fred nodded when Roxy explained that Viola wanted to burn boxes, but couldn’t because Durmstrang would expel them. That was lame…logical, really, but when did Fred ever use logic to determine whether or not something was lame!? “So you only measure a school’s goodness based on whether or not it lets its students burn things?” Fred asked his sister with a smirk. He wondered if there was a fire-making school nearby so he could rub the absurdity of that question in his sister’s face.

Roxy said that there was something he was supposed to say, and Fred tapped his finger against his chin dramatically, milking the experience of making his sister wait before rushing a bunch of words out at once. “I kissed Elias Greyback.”

@roxanne

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She rolled here eyes at her brother's jib about her analysis of schools. "Yes, clearly, that is the only criteria for a good school," she deadpanned. But all things being equal, she'd rather have the fire.

Roxy all but squeaked, "you did what!?" He had made her wait, and she could see why, kind of, but she was grinning. "Details! How did you meet? Did you talk? Is he nice?" He'd better be nice, or she'd have to have words with him. Oh, but she was proud of her big brother for doing something about his crush, no matter what Elias was like.

@fred

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Roxy rolled her eyes, and Fred rolled his eyes right back. He was a much better eye-roller, because he had much better eyes. After his admission, Roxy began to bombard him with questions, and Fred took a moment to collect his thoughts before answering. “We’ve been writing owls, you know, and we met up a couple times in Hogsmeade…” Fred wasn’t actually trying to be vague this time around, but when things came to Elias he was trying to be careful about how much information he gave, especially since he still wasn’t sure where the other boy was as far as being out of the closet, if he even needed (or wanted) to. “And the last time we met up, I kissed him and then we watched trains.” There was some stuff in between, banter mostly, but that wasn’t what Roxy would find important. “He’s very nice.” Fred added, trying to ignore the blush creeping up in his cheeks.

@roxanne