Aila was sitting in the kitchen with her cousin, Charlie, listening to him ramble on about dragons while Arthur, Fred, George and Ron had gone to pick Harry up. Or more like break him out of the prison of his muggle family's home.

Suddenly, Fred and George rolled out of the fireplace, followed by Ron and finally Harry.

"Did he eat it?" Fred asked excitedly, holding out a hand to pull Harry to his feet.

"Yeah," Harry said, straightening up. "What was it?"

"Ton-Tongue Toffee," said Fred brightly. "Aila, George and I invented them, and we've been looking for someone to test them on all summer."

Aila, along with everyone else who had gathered in the tiny kitchen, exploded with laughter.

"How're you doing, Harry?" Charlie said, grinning at Harry and holding out a large hand, which he shook.

Bill got to his feet, smiling, and also shook Harry's hand. Before any of them could say anything else, there was a faint popping noise, and Arthur appeared out of thin air at George's shoulder. He looked as angry as when he had discovered that Fred was making Ron do an unbreakable vow.

"That wasn't funny, Fred!" he shouted. "What on earth did you give that muggle boy?"

"I didn't give him anything," Fred said with another evil grin. "I just dropped it...it was his fault he went and ate it, I never told him to."

"You dropped it on purpose!" Arthur roared. "You knew he'd eat it, you knew he was on a diet–"

"How big did his tongue get?" George asked eagerly.

"It was four feet long before his parents would let me shrink it!"

Aila and the other boys roared with laughter again.

"It isn't funny!" Arthur shouted. "That sort of behaviour seriously undermines wizard-muggle relations! I spend half my life campaigning against the mistreatment of muggles, and my own sons–"

"We didn't give it to him because he's a muggle!" Fred said indignantly.

"No, we gave it to him because he's a great bullying git," George added. "Isn't he, Harry?"

"Yeah, he is, Mr Weasley," said Harry earnestly.

"That's not the point!" Arthur raged. "You wait until I tell your mother–"

"Tell me what?" said a voice behind them.

Molly had just entered the kitchen, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Oh hello, Harry, dear," she said, spotting him and smiling. Then her eyes snapped back to her husband. "Tell me what, Arthur?"

Arthur hesitated. However angry he was with Fred and George, he hadn't really intended to tell Molly what had happened. There was a silence, while Arthur eyed his wife nervously. Then Ginny and Hermione appeared in the kitchen doorway behind Molly. Both of them smiled at Harry, who grinned back, which made Ginny go scarlet. Aila stifled her giggles. Ginny had been very taken with Harry ever since his first visit to the Burrow and Aila made sure to seize every opportunity to tease her about it.

"Tell me what, Arthur?" Molly repeated, her voice dangerously low.

"It's nothing, Molly," Arthur mumbled, "Fred and George just...but I've had words with them–"

"What have they done this time?" Molly said exasperatedly. "If it's got anything to do with Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes–"

"Why don't you show Harry where he's sleeping, Ron?" Hermione suggested from the doorway.

"He knows where he's sleeping," said Ron, "in my room, he slept there last–"

"We can all go," Hermione said pointedly.

"Oh," Ron said, catching on to what she was suggesting. "Right."

"Yeah, we'll come too," George said, attempting to leave as well.

"You stay where you are!" Molly snarled, sending a shiver down Aila's spine.

Molly had always been a pleasant woman, rarely losing her temper at anyone, a trait she had developed after having to raise seven children and her niece. However, ever since Aila, Fred and George proposed starting their own joke business and testing out prototypes in their home, Molly seemed more short-fused than before, except her anger was mostly targeted at the twins.

Aila jumped onto Bill's back as he and Charlie also retreated upstairs. "That was something," she muttered, wrapping her arms around Bill's neck.

"You're telling me," Bill said dryly, hooking his arms around Aila's legs to support her better.

Charlie opened the door to the room she, Fred and George shared before Bill and Charlie had arrived. Aila collapsed onto her bed.

A large bookshelf separated the room into two. On the twin's side of the room, although a large vase of flowers had been placed on the desk in front of the small window overlooking the garden, not even her perfume could disguise the lingering smell of gunpowder. A considerable amount of floor space on their side was devoted to a vast number of unmarked, sealed cardboard boxes but most of them were stacked up in tall stacks to make space for Bill and Charlie's stuff.

Meanwhile, Aila's side of the room was covered in a floral lilac wallpaper. Fairy lights hung from the ceiling and wall, lighting up her side. Books of all kinds lined her floor-to-ceiling bookshelf. All her furniture was made out of dark ebony wood with gold carvings while her bedsheets were navy blue with matching embroidery, a stark contrast against the wallpaper but a perfect balance between light and dark.

"Want to play Wizard's Chess?" Aila asked, pointing to her set sitting on her bookshelf.

"Sure," Bill shrugged, setting up the chessboard.

"You and Bill play first then the winner plays with me," Charlie said, plopping down on the floor beside Aila.

"What does the winner get?" Aila asked, observing the board.

"I know!" Bill exclaimed. "The losers will have to get autographs from all the quidditch players in the World Cup for the winner!"

"Deal!" Charlie and Aila agreed. They shook hands and started the game.

"I win!" Aila shouted happily. She took out a small notebook and thrusted it into Charlie's hands. "Here."

Bill and Charlie sighed in defeat. Now they had to go and get autographs from the Quidditch players for their sixteen-year-old cousin.

"Let's go down and help mum," Charlie suggested as he glanced at the clock. The three of them made their way back downstairs to find Molly alone in the kitchen, looking extremely bad-tempered.

"We're eating out in the garden," she said when they came in. "There's just not room for eleven people in here. Could you set up the tables outside?"

Bill and Charlie used their wands and lifted two battered old tables. Aila climbed onto one of them just as the tables were lifted. She laughed as Charlie gave her a dirty look seeing as he had to lift both her and the table. As Bill was setting down his table on the ground, Charlie accidentally bumped his table into his, making Aila squeal.

Bill turned to his little brother with a playful glint in his eye. The tables were lifted high above the lawn with Aila still on Charlie's. With a flick of their wands, the tables smashed into each other, each attempting to knock the other's out of the air.

Aila hung onto the other side of the table, trying not to fall off or get caught between the two tables. She laughed in delight as she clung onto the table like her life depended on it — which it did — as the tables smashed into each other. Soon, the others came out into the yard. Catching onto what was happening, the twins started cheering and Ginny started laughing while Hermione was hovering near the hedge, apparently torn between amusement and anxiety.

Ron and Harry came out just as Bill's table caught Charlie's with a huge bang and knocked one of its legs off. The force of the hit was so hard that Aila almost fell off the table. She jumped onto Bill's table before flipping off the table, landing on a very unfortunate person.

"Aila," George groaned from under her. She only grinned and latched onto a laughing Fred's back. This time it was Fred's turn to groan as she wrapped her arms around his neck.

There was a clatter from overhead, and they all looked up to see Percy's head poking out of a window on the second floor.

"Will you keep it down?" he bellowed.

"Sorry, Perce," Bill said, grinning. "How're the cauldron bottoms coming on?"

"Very badly," Percy said peevishly, and he slammed the window shut. Chuckling, Bill and Charlie directed the tables safely onto the grass, end to end, and then, with a flick of his wand, Bill reattached the table leg and conjured tablecloths from nowhere.

By seven o'clock, the two tables were groaning under dishes and dishes of Molly's excellent cooking, and they were all settling themselves down to eat beneath a clear, deep-blue sky.

At the far end of the table, Percy was telling Arthur all about his report on cauldron bottoms.

"I've told Mr Crouch that I'll have it ready by Tuesday," Percy was saying pompously. "That's a bit sooner than he expected it, but I like to keep on top of things. I think he'll be grateful I've done it in good time, I mean, it's extremely busy in our department just now, what with all the arrangements for the World Cup. We're just not getting the support we need from the Department of Magical Games and Sports. Ludo Bagman–"

"I like Ludo," Arthur said mildly. "He was the one who got us such good tickets for the Cup. I did him a bit of a favour. His brother, Otto, got into a spot of trouble — a lawnmower with unnatural powers — I smoothed the whole thing over."

"Oh Bagman's likeable enough, of course," Percy said dismissively, "but how he ever got to be Head of Department...when I compare him to Mr Crouch! I can't see Mr Crouch losing a member of our department and not trying to find out what's happened to them. You realise Bertha Jorkins has been missing for over a month now? Went on holiday to Albania and never came back?"

"Yes, I was asking Ludo about that," Arthur said, frowning. "He says Bertha's gotten lost plenty of times before now — though I must say, if it was someone in my department, I'd be worried "

"Oh Bertha's hopeless, all right," Percy said. "I hear she's been shunted from department to department for years, much more trouble than she's worth but all the same, Bagman ought to be trying to find her. Mr Crouch has been taking a personal interest, she worked in our department at one time, you know, and I think Mr Crouch was quite fond of her — but Bagman just keeps laughing and saying she probably misread the map and ended up in Australia instead of Albania. However," Percy heaved an impressive sigh and took a deep swig of elderflower wine, "we've got quite enough on our plates at the Department of International Magical Cooperation without trying to find members of other departments too. As you know, we've got another big event to organise right after the World Cup."

Percy cleared his throat significantly and looked down toward the end of the table where Harry, Ron, and Hermione were sitting. "You know the one I'm talking about, Father." He raised his voice slightly. "The top-secret one." Ron rolled his eyes and muttered loudly to Harry and Hermione, "He's been trying to get us to ask what that event is ever since he started work. Probably an exhibition of thick-bottomed cauldrons."

In the middle of the table, Molly was arguing with Bill about his earring, which was a recent acquisition.

"...with a horrible great fang on it. Really, Bill, what do they say at the bank?"

"Mum, no one at the bank gives a damn how I dress as long as I bring home plenty of treasure," Bill said patiently. "Besides, Aila has multiple piercings on her ears."

"And your hair's getting silly, dear," Molly said, fingering her wand lovingly. "I wish you'd let me give it a trim "

"I like it," said Ginny, who was sitting beside Bill. "You're so old-fashioned, Mum. Anyway, it's nowhere near as long as Professor Dumbledore's–"

Next to Molly, Fred, George, Aila and Charlie were all talking spiritedly about the World Cup.

"It's got to be Ireland," Charlie said thickly, through a mouthful of potato. "They flattened Peru in the semifinals."

"Bulgaria has got Viktor Krum, though," Fred pointed out.

"Krum's one decent player, Ireland has got seven," Charlie said shortly. "I wish England had got through. That was embarrassing, that was."

"What happened?" Harry asked eagerly.

"Went down to Transylvania, three hundred and ninety to ten," Aila said gloomily. "Shocking performance. And Wales lost to Uganda, and Scotland was slaughtered by Luxembourg."

Aila was part of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team where she was the seeker. Her best friend, Cho Chang, was the best chaser she had ever seen in the team. She hoped that Roger Davies, another chaser, would become the captain. Not only was he passionate about Quidditch, but he also genuinely looked out for all the team members, even their opponents. Whether they won or lost, he was always a good sport about it.

As the sun sunk low below the horizon, Arthur conjured up candles to light the darkening garden before they had their homemade strawberry ice cream, and by the time they had finished, moths were fluttering low over the table, and the warm air was perfumed with the smells of grass and honeysuckle. Aila was feeling extremely well fed and at peace with the world as she watched several gnomes sprinting through the rosebushes, laughing madly and closely pursued by Crookshanks.

"Look at the time," Molly said suddenly, checking her wrist watch. "You really should be in bed, the whole lot of you — you'll be up at the crack of dawn to get to the Cup. Harry, if you leave your school list out, I'll get your things for you tomorrow in Diagon Alley. I'm getting everyone else's. There might not be time after the World Cup, the match went on for five days last time."

"Wow, hope it does this time!" Harry said enthusiastically.

"Well, I certainly don't," Percy said sanctimoniously. "I shudder to think what the state of my in-tray would be if I was away from work for five days."

"Yeah, someone might slip dragon dung in it again, eh, Perce?" Fred said slyly, nudging George and Aila's feet on either side of him.

"That was a sample of fertiliser from Norway!" Percy said quickly, going very red in the face. "It was nothing personal!"

"It was," Aila whispered to Harry as they got up from the table. "We sent it."