Spending a good majority of the morning in bed, Anora had been awake for a couple of hours, enjoying her extra cuddle time with Iggy. Outside of her bedroom and downstairs, she could hear the chaos of her father's cooking adventures because no matter how many times the man failed, he never seemed to give up. However, the smell of smoke was growing stronger as it travelled through the cracks of Anora's bedroom door. Iggy sneezed several times before burying himself beneath the covers and Anora determined that it was probably time for her to get up and save her father before the house burned down.

It was the last couple of weeks of the summer holiday before Anora returned to Hogwarts and while she had spent plenty of time with both parents in the beginning, Simone had been absent over the last two weeks promoting her autobiography "Beat You To It." She had been travelling to different countries, signing books, while also attending Quidditch Matches as an honoured guest. Of course, Gerald and Anora had been invited to go along with her, but Anora wanted to spend her final weeks of summer at home or with friends, and Gerald claimed that Anora could not be left unsupervised for that long.

However, that was only an excuse because technically, Anora had become of age in the wizarding world once she turned seventeen and with her final year of Hogwarts starting soon, Gerald was looking for any excuse to spend more time with his only child, knowing she was going to venture out into the world on her own soon enough.

"Alright, Iggy," Anora called out as she left her bed, "I'm going to put the fire out downstairs and fill up your food bowl, but I'm going to be leaving shortly afterwards."

Suddenly, Iggy poked his head out from his hiding spot and looked at her before meowing loudly. She turned to him as she started grabbing clothes to get properly dressed.

"We discussed this last night," she told him, "Charlie and I are meeting up with Tonks at Diagon Alley to get our school shopping done."

He seemed to argue that they hadn't discussed such things as he meowed again at her, but Anora shook her head, telling him that she was still going and that she would be back soon enough. As Anora got dressed, he walked over and started purring, brushing up against her legs before sneezing again at the smell of smoke that only grew stronger. Reaching for her wand, with a small wave, she cleared the smoke from her bedroom, while also opening the nearest window.

Taking the opportunity to get some fresh air, Iggy abandoned her side and leapt up to the windowsill where he settled down. And with a scratch between the ears and a kiss on his head, Anora left him to sunbathe while she headed downstairs with her wand and school list in hand.

"Dad!" she coughed upon entering the kitchen before helping to clear the smoke away. "Don't you think after all these years, you might want to consider taking a cooking class or something? I mean, as much as I enjoy the thrill of a good fire in the morning, all this smoke inhalation can't be good for us, magic or not."

"I don't need cooking classes!" Gerald told her. "I just need to...need to um..."

"Stop losing your wand?" Anora chuckled before grabbing it off the kitchen table. "I think all the fumes are affecting your memory or maybe you took one too many bludgers to the head while you were on the pitch."

Gerald made a mocking expression at her teasing before noticing the school list in her hand. "Are you heading out already? Do you want to sit down and eat some breakfast first?"

The two looked over to whatever Gerald had been attempting to cook which had been burnt all to hell. "What is that?"

"French Toast."

"Yeah, I'm not really hungry, Dad," she began but noticed her father's frown start to form. "But maybe you and I could go out to dinner tonight. It'll just be the two of us and we can spend some quality time before Mum gets back and before I head back to Hogwarts."

He seemed to like her idea as the frown was quickly replaced with a smile and he took a hold of her list of supplies looking it over.

"I can't believe you're going into your seventh year," he said, "I remember when you were just a wee thing, terrified of what everyone was going to think of you. Now look at you, about to head off on your own, got the whole world waiting on you. I'm proud of you, you know that, right?"

"Yes, Dad, I kn- "

"Would have been prouder if you ended up playing Quidditch but we won't talk about that!"

Anora stuck her tongue out at him before playfully snatching her list from his hand and making her way to fill Iggy's bowl before heading towards the living room. Once she stepped into the fireplace, she told her father that she loved him before grabbing a handful of Floo powder and dropping it at her feet.

"The Burrow!"

Upon her arrival at the Burrow, chaos already was afoot, and it was more than likely caused by Charlie's younger brothers, Fred and George. There was shouting, mostly from Charlie's mother, Molly, who was demanding that the twins come out of hiding and deal with the consequences of their actions. Anora stepped out of the fireplace, looking around the room for a moment, she quickly spotted two heads of red hair hiding behind the sofa. At one point, they peered over the sofa and saw Anora, grins forming. However, the three of them could hear Molly approaching as the sounds of her yelling was growing closer, leaving Anora to motion them to hide.

"Fred and George- Oh, Anora, dear, I didn't know you were here already!" Molly, as flustered as ever, put on a smile for Anora's sake, exchanging a kiss on the cheek. "I'm afraid Charlie is still in bed."

"I'm not surprised by that at all," Anora said, "but don't worry, I'll get him up. Also, I heard you calling for Fred and George, I just saw them head in the direction of the kitchen. Probably making a way for the back door to the garden."

"I should have known! Thank you, dear."

As quickly as she had come, Molly was gone, hoping to track down the twins and as soon as her footsteps became distant, Fred and George stood up from their hiding place with grateful looks.

"Well, what are you two just standing around for, do you want to get caught?" she whispered to them. "Go on, find a better hiding place than that!"

The two mouthed their thanks before running off, leaving Anora to make her way to the main staircase and climb up to the third floor where Charlie's room was. She knocked once as she reached the bedroom door but of course, there was no answer. With no hesitation she walked in to see Charlie buried beneath his duvet; she started climbing over the piles of clothes on the floor to make her way over to start the long process of getting him up and ready.

"Chaaaarlie, wake up!" she sang but the lump on the bed didn't move. "Charlie Weasley! Wake your arse up!"

When she pulled his duvet away, it revealed only to be a pile of pillows. "You little sh- "

"Looking for me?"

Turning around, Anora quickly spotted Charlie standing in the doorway of his room, looking half-asleep while wearing a sheepish grin. She grabbed one of his pillows from the bed and threw it in his direction, and he had been too slow to deflect the hit, taking it square in the chest.

"I've been calling you the entire way up the stairs."

"I know, I heard you each time."

"So, why didn't you answer?"

"I did," he yawned as he entered his room, "but you probably didn't hear me because you were too busy yelling my name."

"I'm trying to save you," she said, watching as he lifted a shirt off the floor and sniffed it before putting it on, "do you want to be late and have Tonks rip you a new arsehole like last time?"

"I would think she would be used to the fact that we're late all the time."

"We're always late because of you."

"Oh, so now I'm taking all the blame?"

Pushing his blankets aside to make a spot on his bed, Anora sat down and crossed her arms. "Yes, you take the full blame because here I am fully dressed and there you are...sniffing your clothes...Charlie!"

"What?! I have to see if they're clean!"

"There are other ways to determine that, you know. There's this method called keeping your clean clothes separate from your dirty ones!"

"That sounds like it's going to require too much time and effort."

"Right, because you've been so incredibly busy this summer," she said sarcastically.

"I have been," Charlie nodded, "catching up on my beauty sleep."

"You might want to go back to bed then."

"Alright, that's enough out of you, get out! Out!" Charlie shooed her out of the room so he could finish getting dressed.

Entering the kitchen, it seemed Molly had finally found where Fred and George had been hiding and was finishing up with her scolding before sending them outside to de-gnome the garden. It left Ron sitting at the table looking over a wizarding chess set, while Ginny was struggling to braid her hair. More than likely Percy was hiding away in his room, never really liking loud noise and since Bill had moved out he hadn't been around the Burrow much.

"Here, let me help you," Anora told Ginny, grabbing her hair to help her braid, "Merlin knows I've had enough practice braiding over the years. I think I could braid in my sleep at this point."

"Did you manage to get Charlie out of bed?" Molly asked her, wiping her brow of the beads of sweat that had formed.

"Yes, he's just getting dressed," she answered, "and then we should be out of your hair."

"Oh, you're never in the way, dear," Molly chuckled lightly, "although speaking of hair..."

With perfect timing, Charlie walked into the kitchen to grab something to eat before they left, only to see everyone looking in his direction.

"What?"

"You need a haircut, Charlie," Molly said, "your hair is getting too long-"

"Not this again, Mum," Charlie groaned, "it's fine! I can hardly put it into a ponytail."

Unwilling to listen to his mother criticize his hair any further, Charlie grabbed Anora by the hand and announced they were leaving.

"Oh Charles, how many times do I have to say it?!" Anora teased Charlie as she mimicked Molly's voice a little too well for Charlie's comfort. "You need a haircut!"

"Lay off, An," he chuckled, "I don't need a haircut, but maybe you do! We'll just chop it all off!"

Pretending his fingers were a pair of scissors, he started chasing her around after they had at Diagon Alley via the Floo Network. She told him to stop as she threw her arms over her head to shield herself, but rather than going for her hair, he poked her in the ribs to tickle her.

"Alright, stop, stop! Truce! You don't need a haircut."

Satisfied with her answer, the two of them continued to walk on as they were to meet Tonks at Flourish and Blotts. Taking a quick glance at her watch, it was safe to say they were running late and Anora knew Tonks was going to be annoyed with them.

"You know she's going to be furious."

"Yes," Charlie said, "and I'll take the blame as I always do."

As they walked along, Charlie couldn't help but notice that Anora was slightly quieter than her usual self. Normally, she would have continued to joke around about his need of a haircut or how Tonks was going to be angry with him, but instead, she only stared ahead. But he finally heard her let out a small sigh before he turned to her.

"What are you sighing about?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing."

"An, come on, I think I know you better than that," he told her, "you're really bad at lying, at least, with me. And you're being really quiet, so come on, what gives?"

"Eh, it's nothing, I was just thinking about how this is the last time we're going to be doing this, you know?"

"The last time we walk somewhere together?"

"No!" she laughed before pushing his arm. "It's the last time we're going out to buy our school supplies and stuff. This is our last year, this is it."

"Aww, An! Why did you have to bring it up?"

"Because it's true!"

"Well, even though this is our last year, it's not like it's going to change anything," he said, "we're all going to remain friends and see each other, we're just not going to be in school."

Clearly, Anora did not care for his answer as she pouted in his direction.

"An, you stop with those sad faces!" He grabbed some of her hair and threw it in her face, however, Anora had been unprepared as she got a whole mouthful of her hair. It led to her making all sorts of spitting and gagging noises to remove the strands from her mouth.

"I'm choking!"

"I thought I heard the two of you in the distance."

Anora's dramatics quickly came to an end as the two of them recognised Tonks' voice, bringing them to look over to where their third companion had her arms crossed and was leaning against the side of a building. It was hard to miss her as her hair was bright green in contrast to the dark stone.

"Tonks!" Anora ran over and wrapped her arms around her. "I missed you, lover!"

"Don't try to butter me up, you two sacks of arse are late!"

"That was my fault," Charlie interjected.

"Well, I know that," she said, "it's always your fault."

"I must say, I like the green," Anora said, taking a lock of Tonks' hair in her hand. "It's bold."

"Yeah, it drove my mother insane all summer, so I kept it."

"Of course you did."

The three had certainly all grown up from the time they had first met back on the Hogwarts Express all those years ago. Anora remembered it well as it was another fond memory that always brought a smile to her face. After Charlie and Anora had signed each other's trunks, Charlie had been caught staring at Anora before he blurted out his next statement ever so bluntly.

"I like your hair!"

So used to compliments coming from adults instead of other children, Anora could only look at him for a moment in disbelief. "Wha-"

"I've never met someone my age with white hair, it's really neat."

"You mean that?"

"Of course," Charlie insisted, "I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it."

A shy grin formed as she peered down at her shoes. "Well, thank you, I like your hair too. It reminds me of fire!"

"You like fire?"

"Well, I guess so," she shrugged, " I'm around it a lot at home."

Seeing the worried expression develop on his face, she let out a laugh before shaking her head. " It's not like that. My dad can't cook for his life, so we have a lot of kitchen fires. Every time me or my mum come in it's just like 'fire time!'"

"WHO'S ON FIRE?!"

Charlie and Anora jumped as the mystery sleeping person in the compartment finally decided to reveal themselves by yelling out. They turned to see a girl pulling the cloak off her body in a panic before she rolled off the seat and onto the floor. She sat up quickly and suddenly, her light brown hair flickered through an assortment of colours right before their very eyes.

"Whoa," Anora breathed, " your hair, it changed-"

"Colours?" the girl finished. "Yeah it happens, I'm a me..meta...metam...metamorphmagus."

"What's what?"

"It means I can do this!" Her hair changed from black, to white just like Anora's, and then red like Charlie's.

"That's amazing!" Charlie and Anora squealed excitedly.

"Thank you," the girl said, pushing herself up and offering a bow in their direction, " I'm Tonks, by the way."

"Tonks?" Charlie repeated. "Just Tonks?"

"Well, I don't like my first name," Tonks huffed, " my mother named me something stupid, so I just go by my last name. Tonks."

"That's nice," Anora said, "but now I'm just going to wonder what your first name is."

Charlie nodded in agreement before Tonks let out a sigh. "Fine, I'm going to say it once and once it's been said, no one is to repeat it or address me by it, understood?"

Taking silence as their form of agreement, Tonks revealed her "stupid" name to be Nymphadora. Although neither nor Anora found it to be stupid in the slightest, in fact, they both thought it was a very pretty name. But hearing the serious tone to her voice, it was probably not best to go against Tonks' wishes.

"Well, now that you know me, who are you two?"

A snap from a set of fingers brought Anora out of her daydream and back to reality where she had been following Tonks and Charlie around the bookshop with her list. Her gaze focused on Charlie who stood before her as he lowered his hand back down to his side.

"Welcome back."

"Sorry."

"No need to be sorry," he said, "come on, I want to head over to Quality Quidditch supplies and check out some things."

Anora let out a whining noise as she threw her head back. From the time she was born, Quidditch had always been an intricate part of her life but unlike her parents, she didn't wish to spend every waking moment surrounded by it. Of course, it just so happened that one of her best friends was in love with the sport.

"You said you wouldn't drag me over there anymore!"

"Fine," Charlie huffed, "I won't drag you then. I'll carry you!"

"CHARLIE-"

There was little use to arguing as Anora was lifted up into his arms and he started walking towards the door where Tonks was waiting on them.

"To Quality Quidditch!"

"Charlie, I still have to pay for my books."

Charlie peered down to see her still holding onto her stack of books in her arms.

"To the register! And then to Quality Quidditch!"

"Yay."