Scratches (Fred Weasley)

(85) Home Where Trouble Still Reaches

Florence nearly forgot that she was already home when she had woken up that morning, momentarily startled at the change of scenery when she woke up, the walls of her dormitory room no longer greeting her eyes as she tried rubbing sleep off of them. She swung her legs off of her bed, her feet finding her slippers almost immediately.

There was a loud meow that came from under her bed, a ball of while fur rolling out into the open as if on cue. It was Miss Mimsy, Florence frowned at the sight of the cat, who now looked bigger than the last time she had saw her. "Who let you in?" Florence grumbled, "This is still my room. You shouldn't get used to whatever you do in here when I'm not around."

Miss Mimsy simply stared up at Florence, before letting out a soft meow as she sashayed out of the room. Florence scoffed, tying her hair to keep it out of her face before coming down the stairs.

There was a distinct burning smell lingering in the air the moment she drew closer to the kitchen, sprinting rather faster in fear of getting all her equipment burned out. Ofcourse, she thought, surprised at her lack of surprise at the sight of Sirius, trying to scrape off the charred remains of what was supposed to be a pancake, while her mother was trying to get rid of the grey smoke.

"Good morning, Florence," Remus greeted, who was seated at the dining table, watching the scene unfold casually, "Did you get a good night's rest?"

"Yeah," she gave him a smile as she slid into the seat across from him, "Never realized how much I missed my own bed until I got to sleep in it again....So why is Sirius trying to cook breakfast?"

Remus shrugged, an amused look on his face, "He said he wanted to.... Looks like we're eating charcoaled pancakes today."

"Excuse you," the man in mention scoffed, setting down a plate of decent looking pancakes in front of the two, "But I actually only burned that one—"

"No," Jane cut off, joining her daughter at the table, "He burnt five pancakes...and a couple sunny side ups. Found them in the bin."

"Tattletale," Sirius muttered, distributing the plates and glasses among them. The pancakes that he managed to save were actually decent in terms of taste, however they didn't taste good plain, so Florence's plate was flooded with maple syrup.

She was about to take another bite when Sirius cleared his throat rather loudly, "So...One of Molly Weasley's boys, then, huh?"

Florence choked on her pancake, coughing rather violently as she reached for her glass of milk. She chugged it down rather swiftly, hoping that eventually she'd drown in her milk and not have to tell them anything. It was not like she didn't want them to know about Fred, but she was just caught off guard, and now felt uncomfortable with the thought of having to tell them.

"Pardon?" Florence asked as soon as she put her glass down.

"He was definitely a Weasley, dear." Jane said, "I would know that Prewett-Weasley shade of red hair anywhere."

"Oh...you mean Fred..." she said, "Yeah, we're...together..."

"How long for...?"

"A couple of months now..."

"Meaning...?"

"Eight months....? More or less...? Less..."

"I see," said Jane, "And we're only hearing about this now because...?"

"It completely slipped, mum, I swear," Florence had launched into defensive mode, "I was going to tell you—I swear on Merlin's pants— I was going to.
But I was just so busy with everything else that I forgot to mention it in my letters."