The twins were again in their room and working on prank potions - what else could they do with their time in the middle of winter when it was too cold to play or practice Quidditch? - when Dobby popped in with a letter for them.
First casting a detection charm of the twins' own design on the letter, Fred then accepted it.
"Letter from Harry, Fred," he declared, opening it as Dobby popped away again.
"I thought that was obvious, my less intelligent brother," replied George. He was already coming around to read the letter side-by-side with his brother.
After reading the first couple of paragraphs both, together, said, "Oops!"
Getting roughly to the fifth, Fred said, "Well, my even less intelligent brother, Lord Harrikins is now 'hands off'. Agreed?"
"Agreed," his brother immediately replied.
After reading about the betrothal and that Hermione was now a magical ward of Lord Sirius Black, George gave a low, quiet whistle and said, "And so's Hermione."
"Agreed," said an equally surprised Fred. "This is going to shock the rest of the family."
"Ginny, for a start, is going to be gutted," said George
As they read down George suddenly exclaimed, "Sweet Merlin!"
"Harry woke the Longbottoms!" exclaimed Fred.
Both looked to the other and said together, "Harry Potter is a god!"
When they turned back to the letter, it took them a little while to read through about the stripping of the Statute and why.
"So that's why," said George.
"Yep," said his brother. "Shall we take this down to the kitchen to read?"
"Of course!" said Fred. "I'm sure the family will love to hear Harry's good news!"
"Except Ginny," added George.
"And possibly Ron," added Fred right back.
"Ah, yes!" sighed George. "His infatuation with the lovely Miss Hermione."
"But we still read it?" asked Fred.
"Of course!" said George.
Again knocking on doors - though, due to it being a weekday they only needed to knock on Ron and Ginny's - the twins first charged up the stairs before charging down again. This time, all the way to the base of them.
Walking into the kitchen, the twins plonked themselves down at the table and, with Fred holding up the letter, both said, "Letter from Harry!"
Spinning from doing whatever she was doing at the kitchen counter, Molly asked, "Really?"
As soon as she saw the letter in her son's hands, she immediately began wiping her hands.
"I wouldn't bother, Mum," said Fred.
"Harry'll have just put privacy charms on it again," said George.
Molly immediately stopped and sighed. "Read it to me," she demanded.
The twins glanced at one another before Fred said, "Are you asking us to read it to you?"
"It's a letter to me and George," said George.
"Maybe we don't want to read you our private correspondence," said Fred.
"Don't be disobedient!" she snapped, starting to get angry.
"Don't be rude!" both twins snapped back.
That shocked their mother into silence.
By then, both Ginny and Ron had joined them.
"What's going on?" asked Ginny, before Ron had a chance.
"Fred and I have received another letter from Harry," replied George.
"And Mum tried to demand we read it to her," added Fred. "Now, we will."
"Because we planned to, anyway," said George. "And not because Mum tried to demand we do."
"And now that everyone's who's at home is here..."
"We shall begin." they both said.
Same as last time, the twins took turns reading the letter, a paragraph each.
After the first paragraph, before George passed to Fred, Ginny exclaimed, "Dumbledore tried to kidnap Harry?"
As Ron blurted in anger, "Harry's at Hermione's??"
Dong!
"RON!" his mother screeched.
Ron immediately winced and, a moment later...
Ding!
Everyone relaxed again. And Fred took up.
Back to George and he and Fred exchanged a glance. They skipped the next three paragraphs.
As soon as the first two lines of where they next took up in the letter were read, Ginny exclaimed "Noooo!" And immediately burst into tears as Ron exploded with rage and exclaimed, "NO!―"
Dong!
"I won't have it!" he ranted, surging to his feet. "Hermione's mine! I planned to ask her to go out with me as soon as we got back to Hogwarts! Bloody Potter! BASTARD! I'm gonna kill him!―"
DONG!
"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY!" screeched his mother. She quickly ran around the table and laid a huge smack across his face.
"STOP IT!" she screamed, red in the face.
"Look at the clock!" exclaimed Ginny, who had now stopped, frozen in place. With tears prickling her eyes she looked horrified, staring at the clock face.
That had everyone, including Ron, looking at it. Seeing it, Ron near wet himself, right there.
His hand was pointing to 'Mortal Peril'.
Getting herself back under control, Molly hissed, "Ronald Weasley! Go to the shed... right now... and stay there until your father comes for you."
As she said that, his hand moved back to 'In Danger'.
Dong!
He stared at his mother in shock until she yelled, "NOW!"
He quickly ran out the back door.
With him gone, the room settled again. Ginny, still sniffling with tears, suddenly ran back upstairs to her room.
George and Fred glanced to one another and sat again.
Fred said, "I think we better finish reading this when everyone else gets home."
"No," his mother sighed. "I want to know what else he has to say."
"Mother," said George, all serious. "If you want us to keep reading our private letter from Harry to us to you..."
"You're going to need to politely ask," added Fred.
Almost instantly getting angry again, Molly managed to control it and release it again with a sigh.
"Please read it to me," she said in a more normal voice. "I'd like to know what else he has to say."
Both twins nodded and George took up again where he'd left off when their two siblings jumped up.
When George read the paragraph about coming after anyone applying potions, Molly winced. The threat of what would happen if anyone tried was also not lost on the woman.
When it got down to what happened at the Wizengamot, she again winced.
When Fred started with listing the four enchanted muggle artefacts Harry had mentioned, Molly was shocked. 'The Hogwarts Express? The Knight Bus? The others? Why did Arthur not think of those? Shouldn't he have acted?' she thought. 'I'll have to ask him when he gets home.'
She could see exactly why Harry had chosen those artefacts and now understood better why the Statute had been revoked.
When George, this time, started listing the items on the persons of Bones, Dumbledore and Marchbanks, she sighed and massaged the bridge of her nose. 'Oh, Arthur,' she thought.
But, when Fred read about how Harry knew Arthur's job might have been in trouble and had immediately acted to ensure it wasn't, she was very relieved.
Fred finished with, "Oh, and my betrothed, Hermione, says, 'Hi!'"
Both then said, "Harry"
Fred folded the letter back up and slipped it into an inside pocket of his robes.
"Sorry, Mum," said Fred. "We knew Ron and Ginny might get a little upset..."
"But, we didn't think Ron would act like that!" said George.
"Better he act like that here," said Molly. "Than he act like that in front of Lord Potter or his Lady Presumptive, Hermione.
"At least, here, we have some hope of him getting it under control before they meet again."
She seemed to remember where she was and who she said that to before she seemed to shake it off and glare at the twins.
"Not a word of that to anyone!" she snapped. "And how is young Harry getting mail through to you, anyway? All mail is supposed to come to me!"
"All owl mail, Mum," said Fred.
"Harry doesn't use an owl to send mail to us," said George.
With that, the twins rose and headed back upstairs.
Back in their room, Fred asked, "Do you think we should write to Harry and let him know about Ron and Ginny?"
George shook his head and replied, "That part about potions? I think it was directed to both of them."
"And Mum," added Fred. "You didn't see her wince when that was mentioned."
"Quite."
"So, we write to Harry... and Hermione?" asked Fred.
"Not yet," said George. "We may be seeing only what we think we're seeing."
_‗_
―==(oIo)==―
ˇ
When Sirius flooed Ted's office and said he'd read the note, Ted invited him straight through.
"So?" asked Ted. "What do you think?"
"It's one way to get around the legislation," grinned Sirius.
Ted nodded and said, "Will the Grangers agree, though?"
Sirius shrugged and replied, "We can only put it to them."
"It also depends on where a floo can be put in their house," said Ted. "Do you know if they have any fireplaces? I thought their home was central-heated."
"One can easily be created," said Sirius.
Ted nodded and said, "Then we'd best go over there to see if there are any suitable locations before I take this to the Ministry."
"You want to do this right under the noses of the aurors?" asked a surprised Sirius.
Ted shook his head and said, "I just want to see if there's a suitable location, first."
"Fair enough," said Sirius.
"Then you're going to do it right under the noses of the aurors. I'm just putting the parchmentwork through."
He laughed at Sirius's shocked expression.
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