"Ickle-William's getting married!"

For the first time since the end of the Christmas holidays, the shop had less than five customers inside at a time. Whether it was the fact that people had finally run out of their Christmas money or not, it was the first slow day Weasley Wizard Wheezes had since their opening. Because of this, Fred didn't care about yelling aloud and embarrassing himself in front of the very few customers. He weaved through the shelves and displays to get to the counter where Blair and George were standing and exchanging light kisses. They wouldn't usually display such PDA in the shop, but they had gotten closer (if that was even possible) throughout the past few weeks and weren't concerned about being seen by the three or four customers that were too baffled by the yelling of Frederick Weasley to even notice them.

"To who? A Gringotts goblin?" George joked and raised an eyebrow as Fred put the letter down in front of him.

"To that French bird that was in the Triwizard tournament!" Fred ignored his twin's previous statement. "He's marrying a bleeding Veela!"

Blair read over the supposed parchment and realised that it wasn't a letter at all. It was a wedding invitation addressed to all three of them. The card was a light blue and had silver-foiled lettering. The words printed on the front moved and bounced from a nifty charm that was probably suggested by Charlie to make the invitation look cooler and more striking.

To Mr Frederick Weasley, Mr George Weasley and Miss Blair Rosier,

You are invited to the wedding of William Arthur 'Bill' Weasley and Fleur Isabelle Delacour.

On the 1st of August 1997, join the couple to tie the knot and be bonded for life at the Weasley home, The Burrow.

Please RSVP to Molly Weasley ASAP

"They're having it at the house?" George said as he read over the top of Blair's head, turning to Fred once more. "You'd think Delacour would want a huge ceremony at a fancy French castle or something."

"Maybe they thought it would be safer if most of the Order are going to be there-"

Blair was cut off by a familiar miniature owl flying through the letter flap on the front door and begin circling around their heads with a letter in its beak. Pigwidgeon hooted and chirped with his wings speeding his tiny body throughout the store before finally settling on the counter. Blair decided to take the letter before the bird decided that he was too excited to sit still and let him jump up to fly out the door quicker than he had flown in.

"That's a Hogwarts seal, isn't it?" George pointed to the red wax that kept the letter closed, making Blair turn it over for all of them to see. They hadn't received a Hogwarts letter since Umbridge sent them their refusal of graduation certificates. It made the three worried that maybe something had gone wrong at the castle and letters had been sent to everyone who had once been involved with the school.

Cracking open the seal, Blair pulled out the parchment and began reading the cursive writing that she saw was signed off as Professor McGonagall's. Fred and George waited patiently for her to explain the letter and were concerned when she looked up at them with a crease in between her eyebrows and her lips pulled tightly into a frown.

"Ron's been poisoned."

---

It was odd apparating to Hogwarts. They had always taken the Hogwarts Express or their final leave on their brooms last year. If it had been any other situation, Fred would have surely been bouncing around from being able to apparate to their old school like adults. But it lost its novelty as the rest of the Weasley family had appeared with them after receiving the same urgent letter from Professor McGonagall. Molly had been nearly in tears when she had heard and insisted that the whole family go to the castle to see if their youngest son was in a stable condition. She had only just been recovering from the announcement of Bill proposing to Fleur, only to be put into a state of anxiety and extreme worry from the next letter that arrived with a barn owl from Hogwarts.

The castle was exactly how Blair remembered it from last year; only there was no stench of Dolores Jane Umbridge and the blood quills had been destroyed by Cornelius Fudge before his resignation. The bridge that connected Hogwarts to the hills of Scotland was long and was being walked along by the Weasleys and Blair. Molly walked at the front with Arthur's hand tightly in hers with Professor McGonagall leading them; the woman initially waiting for them to arrive and take them to the hospital wing.

The Professor led them to Ron who was passed out in one of the medical beds. Harry, Ginny and Hermione stood beside him and looked up solemnly when the family entered the room. Madam Pomfrey stood with Professor Dumbledore, Professor Slughorn and Professor Snape, the adults looking over Ron who was sickly pale and grey under the eyes. Most of them hadn't seen Professor Slughorn before and were suspicious when they heard that it had been his bottle of mead that had put Ron in this post-poisoned state. Snape held the bottle of mead and was sniffing it for the obvious smell of toxins.

"Oh my poor Ronald!" Molly cried as she rushed to his bedside, running her hand through his thick, orange hair.

"I honestly wasn't aware of this mead's toxicity, Mrs Weasley. I'm terribly sorry," Professor Slughorn confessed and was looking like a kicked puppy. The man had to watch as one of his students chocked and convulsed, Harry being the one to think fast to shove a Bezoar down Ron's throat. Professor Snape's nose wrinkled at the stench that flowed from the bottle, turning to the Headmaster with a confirmed expression.

"Liquorice, Professor. The stench of a strong poison," Snape droned. "If Potter here hadn't acted as quickly as he did, I think we'd be holding a very different ceremony."

Blair slipped her hand into George's and squeezed it lightly, hoping that he wasn't too upset about seeing his brother come so close to death. Even though he and Fred spent most of their lives teasing and poking fun at Ron, he was still their brother and part of their tightly knit family. Bill and Charlie tried to console their obviously nervous and anxious parents, while Ginny shifted her weight from foot to foot next to Hermione.

"Where is he?! Where is my Won-Won?!"

A high pitched voice suddenly drew the attention from Ron to a girl that rushed into the room. Charlie inched out of the way to create a path for the girl who's curly hair bounced on her shoulders and had a purple bow clipped into all parts of her mane. The Weasleys watched in confusion as the girl stopped at the end of Ron's bed and seemed to ignore everyone but Hermione and her 'Won-Won'.

"What is she doing here?!" the girl squealed, eyeing Hermione with disgust.

"I could ask you the same question," Hermione raised an eyebrow with the irritation evident on her face.

"I happen to be his girlfriend!"

"I happen to be his... friend."

"Oh don't make me laugh!" the mystery girl scoffed. "You two haven't spoken in weeks! It's not until now that he's suddenly so interesting!"

"He's been poisoned, you daft bimbo!"

A collective 'oop!' sound rang through the Weasley children as Hermione stood up from her chair and glared at the girl. Harry and Ginny were biting their lips in order to keep either a satisfied cheer or a laugh back. The girl, who Blair finally realised was Ron's new love interest Lavender Brown, stomped her foot as if she was a child. She even whipped her fiery gaze around to Blair, who was standing a little too close to Ron's bed for her liking. Blair noticed this and tried to make her and George's entwined hands visible while shuffling behind George's tall frame for protection. She sighed when mumbles started to flow out of Ron's dry lips and Lavender's attention was drawn back to her darling Won-Won.

"See! He senses my presence!" Lavender hissed at Hermione before leaning forward in attempts to hear what her boyfriend was saying. "Don't worry Won-Won! I'm here!"

"Mnnher.... Her... Hermioneee..."

An eerie silence settled into the room and Lavender eventually stood up straight, eyes watering and nose turning a deep red. The Professors watched as she ran out the room while sobbing loudly, before turning back to the Weasley parents that could barely comprehend what had just happened. Blair could sense Fred and George exchanging a look that was bound to be making a silent joke, and she herself was ready to crack a 'well that went well' sort of statement.

"I never understood young love, I must say. But I think Mr Weasley is in good hands now," Professor Dumbledore said before turning on his heels and walking calmly out of the room. Professor McGonagall followed after him, leaving Professor Snape and Professor Slughorn to stand awkwardly beside each other.

While Hermione kept her hand laced with Ron's,Ginny and Harry walked around the bed to stand with the other Weasleys. Therewere some congratulations to Bill for the announcement of his engagement andfurther reassurance for Molly that Ron would be okay. Fred and George startedto laugh among themselves at the way Lavender had dramatically run out the roomwith sobs and tears down her face.

"Never thought Ronnie-kins would be breaking a few hearts," Fred sniggered. "Did you see the way she ran? It was like a unicorn on stilts!"

"She seemed familiar. Was she one of the ones that got covered in that exploding fruit from last year?" George pondered.

"Yes. And I had to deal with her because you guys couldn't keep the hallway secure!" Blair butted in and glared at the two.

When they had gone through their final string of pranks at Hogwarts before they left, Fred and George were supposed to keep the particular hallway clear so that Umbridge would be the only one affected by their exploding fruit. But they had goofed off and let a couple students down the hall unknowingly, making not only Umbridge but four fifth year girls covered in the awful smelling fruit that Blair had rigged to blow. Lavender Brown had been part of the group of girls and was covered in the yellow mushiness. Blair had unfortunately been in sight of the particular Gryffindor and had to spend the rest of the day helping Brown clean it out of her hair. But it wasn't like she was missing any classes, because she had stopped attending them by that point of the school year.

"No need to be bitter about it," Fred rolled his eyes and flicked Blair's forehead, making her yelp and gesture for George to protect her. But the boy was too busy watching Bill be questioned continuously by Molly, who had gotten over her worry for Ron and was now questioning why he had chosen to get engaged so quickly.

"But really Bill, don't you think it's a bit sudden?" Molly pushed and grabbed hold of her eldest son's arm. "You have a long life ahead of you!"

"I know, Mum. But I've been thinking about it a lot already," Bill smiled, obviously thinking of his beautiful fiancé.

"What about you, Charlie? No lady on the scene?" Arthur asked his son and Charlie looked as uninterested as Fred was in all of his Hogwarts classes.

"No," he shrugged and left it at that.

The Weasleys saw that Ron was in the good hands of Madam Pomfrey and Hermione. They bid Harry and Ginny goodbye before heading for the door, remembering to send Ron some get well letters once he had woken up from his recovering nap. They all decided to head back to The Burrow for some lunch, Molly insisting that the family be together and try to convince Bill to rethink his life-changing decision.