Alexandra Weasley: Book 4

6

When Alex returned home, she found her two eldest brothers were back. She looked between them and then up at her mother questioningly.
"Your brothers came home this afternoon to surprise us." Molly said.

"Why?"

"We put our money together and got tickets for the quidditch finals." Bill said. Alex crossed her arms.

"I have plans."

"Well you can't stay home alone. Who knows how long we'll be there."

"I never said I'd be home."

"What if we said we got a ticket for your friend too? Hermione?" Alex glanced at her mother.

"Mum!"

"It's a nice gesture."

"Oh my god." Ginny huffed from the steps. "Alex can't come with us because she's already going with Cedric." Bill and Charlie both collectively let out an 'oh'. Alex huffed.

"I'm going to my room. Anyone who comes in is at risk of getting run through with my katana." She said, before stomping upstairs. Bill frowned.

"Who's Cedric?"

"And since when does she own a katana?"

"Her boyfriend, and shortly after we returned from Egypt." Ginny answered.

"She's twelve, what's she got a boyfriend for?" Bill scoffed.

"I'm twelve!" Ginny rolled her eyes. "Alex is fifteen." With that she whirled away and left the room.

"I'll go talk to Alex." Charlie offered. Molly shook her head.

"Not for an hour at least, you're not. She really does have a sword in her room and almost chopped Fred's hand off last week." Both Bill and Charlie instinctively cradled their hands to themselves.

Upstairs, Alex took out her mirror to talk to Hermione. Her face appeared almost immediately. "Hey."

"Hi." Hermione smiled. "How was it?"

"Never mind that. Bill and Charlie are home."

"Charlie? How's Saphira?"

"Haven't had the chance to ask. Bill was right there."

"I miss her." Hermione admitted. "Do you remember when she'd fly in loops and then snort fire into the sky?"

"Or when she'd, like, eat in one gulp but insist she wasn't hungry for more?"

"Or when she'd come out of nowhere and scare us?"

"What I really miss is when she'd tell us about the plants around us and what they could be used for. Speaking of, you gave Madam Pomfrey and Professors Snape and Sprout the list of the flowers descriptions, right?"

"Yes, and Professor McGonagall too since she's the head of Gryffindor. And Snape has possession of Sal's portrait. Flitwick has access to Ravenclaw's study and Sprout has Sal's journals. We made the arrangements. For someone who wanted nothing to do with the presentation, you're very invested."

"I just didn't want it to be unequal. I don't want anyone to know I was working on it so Cedric took my spot. We needed one person from each house."

"Yeah, I know. Still think it's dumb that you wanted to keep this secret." Alex stuck out her tongue. "You still haven't told me how your day out with Snape was. And I can't believe that's a sentence that isn't weird."

"He got me ice cream."

"It's hard to reconcile your version of Snape with the one who docks marks off for going over the page limit."

"You're the one who asked." Hermione didn't know where Alex was really going. As far as she was aware, Alex was getting to know her uncle better, not that it was much of a lie. They did talk a little over ice cream afterwards.

"Does he eat ice cream too?" Alex snorted.

"No, that would be ridiculous. He just sometimes has tea."

"Alex!" Her mother called. "Letter for you!"

"It's not from you is it?" She asked Hermione who rolled her eyes.

"Why would I write to you and not tell you?"

"Sometimes you're very baffling." Alex shrugged before rolling out of her bed and going down. She glared at Bill who sat at the kitchen table with a bowl of soup.

"It's a nice bird." He said. Alex huffed and went over to grab the envelope from her mother.

"It's Laila." She looked at Hermione. "You get anything?"

"No."

"Huh." Alex opened it. She skimmed through it and groaned. "H, I'll talk to you in a bit." She set the mirror down on the table. She looked at her mum.

"Who's Laila?"

"Laila Shafiq." Alex said. "We have arithmancy together."

"You're friends with Shafiq?" Bill asked.

"Problem?"

"No of course not. I knew her brother. Heard she and a few others discovered lost parts of Hogwarts."

"Yeah. Anyways." Alex turned to her mum. "Can I go to Malfoy's party tomorrow?"

"Didn't you beg us not to let you go?"

"And now I want to go, and it's not because I'm being blackmailed. I'm kidding!" Alex added at her mother's alarm.

"I don't know- it's rather last minute." Molly said. "Your father won't like it."

"But you can convince him, can't you?"

"Do you really want to go, or are you just avoiding everyone?" Molly asked.

"Do I have to choose one?" Alex asked. Molly raised her brow. "I want to go?"

"You don't sound sure." Bill muttered and she threw him a glare.

"Some of my friends are going to be there. And Draco isn't totally horrible company. He's kind of, just a little bit, my friend."

"How can someone be kind of, just a little bit, your friend?" Bill questioned.

"Well, we talk sometimes, and sometimes those talks don't make me want to hex him which is a big step up from second year. So when our charms assignment made us work together, we became kind of, sort of, just a little bit friends."

"I'll have a chat with your father."

"Okay, but Laila's going to be here at four tomorrow to pick me up." Alex said, before ducking out to rush up to her room. Now came the hard part- telling Hermione.

A/N~ I know Draco's birthday's actually in June time and that they'd have been in school, but I really like the idea of Alex integrating with more Slytherins so for the purpose of this story, Draco's birthday is in August.