No Laughing Matter

Two weeks later, Carly sat at her little desk in her cramped cubicle at the hospital, filling out paperwork and patient charts. Her 36-hour shift was almost over, and then she would have three whole days off to do what ever she pleased. She was hoping some of that time would involve some much-needed sleep, plus she wanted to eke out some time alone with Fred. He had been busy with his brother, shut up in the basement of their building, developing some new products from ideas George had brought back from the states. Rowan had inserted herself easily into Carly's flat, and was seldom home. She spent most of her time between her new job and George, both of which she seemed to love more every day. Things had begun to settle into a nice rhythm that seemed to suit all of them fairly well.

As if the thought had conjured her up, Rowan popped her head over the wall of Carly's cubicle and said, "Boo!"

"Boo, yourself," Carly smiled, finishing her last chart and dropping her quill. "What are you doing here?"

"Just coming in to tell you that I'm not going to be home for a day or so," Rowan said lightly, picking up the crystal orb that Carly used as a paperweight.

"Where are you going to be?"

"I want to check out a rumor I happened to overhear at work." Rowan didn't meet her sister's eyes as she spoke; a sure sign that she was hiding something.

"And?"

"And," she answered in one big rush, "I'llbestakingouttheMalfoymansioninWiltshire."

"Staking out the Malfoy mansion in Wiltshire. Rowan," Carly knew that it was useless to try to change her sister's mind once she'd set it on a goal. "Lucius Malfoy was an influential man, and a dangerous one. You can't assume that he is any less treacherous while he's in prison. People like him have servants and flunkies to do his bidding, and they won't think twice about dealing with you if you get caught."

"I know all of this," came the quick reply, "and I promise I'll be careful."

"Are you going alone?" Carly raised an eyebrow at her sister's lack of eye contact.

"Well when I talked to George about it, he kind of insisted on accompanying me," Rowan admitted with a bit of a triumphant gleam in her eye. Her life was developing very nicely in that department, if she did say so herself. George needn't know that she had been planning to move to London, anyway, to be near her sister. It was a nice kiss to his ego to let him believe he was the only reason she was here now, though he was the biggest.

"Just be careful," Carly said. She felt a bit better knowing that George would be tagging along. Not that he would keep her out of trouble; they seemed to thrive on playing practical jokes on each other. Still, another pair of eyes to look out for her sister wasn't a bad thing.

"Always." With a cheeky grin, her sister was off on another adventure.

No sooner had she fastened her cloak, than Fred strolled up to her desk, looking pleased with the world in general. He'd developed a habit of appearing at the end of her shifts to see her safely home. He produced a rose from thin air, offered it to her, and then took her bag from her hand and carried it for her as he led her down the now familiar corridor.

"I have the pleasure of announcing," he said as they walked, "that George has accompanied Rowan out on an assignment that will take them both out of town for a couple of days."

"I know," she grinned at the broad smile on his face. "Rowan was just here, filling me in."

"Did she also tell you that Lee is going to watch the store tomorrow? Leaving me with a free day on my hands?" he asked, holding a door open for her.

"She didn't mention it," Carly said, playing along. "What ever will you do will all of that extra time?"

"How does an autumn picnic sound? It's supposed to be fine tomorrow, and I just happen to know a great spot, where you can fly a broomstick without any fear of being seen by muggles, and stretch out on a blanket and relax."

"It sounds like heaven," she sighed, thinking of their last picnic. She took his hand as they walked the short distance to her building, her fatigue momentarily forgotten.

They climbed the stairs to her floor, and were just about to pause to say hello to Eunice (another habit they had gotten into), when the elderly witch swung her door wide and pulled them inside. Her hair was in its usual wild disarray, her eyes were fearful, and her hands shaking slightly.

"Oh my dears! I was just about to call the MLE! There was a woman outside of Carly's apartment, trying to get in!"

"When, Eunice?" Fred asked sharply, gripping her hands.

"Just moments ago! I'm surprised you didn't pass her on the stairs!"

Fred simply said, "Stay with Eunice, I'll check it out." He was gone before either woman could protest, with his wand out and a set expression.

"We didn't pass anyone at all," Carly said, taking the hands that Fred had just released, "Why don't you tell me exactly what happened?"

"Well I was just sitting down for a cup of tea, and I heard someone pass by in the corridor. I thought it might be Fred or George calling on one of you girls, so I got up to have a look. I looked out and saw a woman standing outside your door. I couldn't see her face, because her hood was up, but she was wearing glittery high-heeled shoes. She knocked first, and I was about to step out to tell her that you weren't home, when she pulled out a wand and tried to get the door open, so I stayed back; I didn't want her to see me. I could hear her trying different spells and passwords, but she didn't have any luck."

Mrs. Dunmeyer was getting more agitated, and Carly's instinct to comfort kicked in. She guided her neighbor to the sofa and sat next to her, urging her to finish her account. Before she had the chance to tell anymore, however, Fred returned, and said,

"I didn't see anyone. I checked up the stairs and down."

He sat down on Eunice's other side and asked her to repeat everything she had heard and seen for him. She told them that the would-be intruder had continued to try to guess the password or to circumvent it with various spell, but none had worked. Finally, there was a noise from the stairwell, and the 'visitor' had turned abruptly and fled.

"And then the two of you came up the stairs, and well, you know the rest."

"Thank you for keeping an eye out for us," Carly said. She flicked her wand to re-warm the tea that had been abandoned earlier, and handed Eunice the cup. "We appreciate it."

"Do you think we should contact the MLE?" The other woman asked anxiously, the teacup rattling softly against the saucer.

"No, there really isn't anything that they can do at this point," Fred concluded. "But I want you both to be more careful in future. No unnecessary risks, and if you see or suspect anything..."

Both women nodded in understanding.

Carly made sure that her neighbor was calm and settled before she and Fred left her to go back to Carly's flat. She uttered the password and used the correct charms to open the door, and was relieved to see everything was the way she had left it. Rowan was quite a bit less tidy that her sister, and Carly was too comfortable with her twin's clutter to be embarrassed by it. She unceremoniously swept up all of the papers that had been left scattered over the sofa and dumped them onto the desk in the corner, and then dropped onto it with a heavy sigh. Fred sank into the cushions next to her and pulled her close so that they could just enjoy the peace for a moment, and Carly felt herself begin to drift off as he ran a hand soothingly over her hair. Her exhaustion had finally caught up with her, and her brain was shutting down for a rest.

When she woke, it was to find her head resting one of the couch's many pillows, and a blanket draped over her. Fred was watching her intently from the chair next to the sofa with heavy lidded eyes. It had only been early afternoon when she had left the hospital, and now the sky was rapidly darkening into dusk. She smiled sleepily at him and asked how long she had been out.

"About three hours," He smiled lazily at her. "I dozed off myself right after you did; we must have really needed a nap."

"I guess so. Sorry about just dropping off on you like that," She yawned, sitting up. "The least I can do now is fix you some dinner."

"I'll help."

They wandered into the kitchen and scavenged out the makings of a simple meal, working together companionably in the small space. It wasn't until they sat down with hot soup and sandwiches that Carly noticed that Kyna was not on her perch, and that it was just a little early for her to have gone out hunting.

"I hope you don't mind," Fred said, as he noted the direction of her gaze. "I sent Kyna on a little errand for me. I needed to send a note to my father."

"It's no problem. Was it about what happened here today?" Carly asked, furrowing her brow at the thought.

"Yes. He's only in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office (for now), but he does have friends with the MLE that he can talk to," Fred explained. "It concerns me that each of us had had an attempted break-in in the past month. They might not be related at all, but it's a heck of a coincidence if they aren't."

"I agree," Carly frowned. "I just can't think of why anyone would want to break in here. Or the shop for that matter."

"That's why I wanted to owl my father," Fred said, not mentioning that the owl would be traveling to the secret headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix. "To get his opinion. There is definitely something strange going on around here, and I would like to know what it is."

"Maybe we ought to make up a list or a chart or something," Carly suggested. "Make a timeline of all of the weird stuff that has happened in that few months...say since Percy left home, and see if we can spot a pattern."

"Actually, my father already thought of that, and said he would work on it for me," Fred said. "He works at the Ministry, so it's likely that he might hear of anything else odd going on with Percy, and be able to get a clearer picture. But there was a woman here today... I wonder how that fits into all of this."

Unbeknownst to Carly, Fred had visited Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, quite a few times since George had returned home. He had helped add some information to the large chart that Dumbledore had already started over the summer, documenting Dark Arts activity all over Britain, though it had pained him to see Percy's name added to the list of questionable suspects.

According to various members of the Order, Percy had been acting very strangely, and had even been caught rummaging through sealed records at the ministry recently. H had avoided trouble by claiming ignorance to the security level of the files, saying that they had been put in the wrong place, and that he had been trying to ascertain where they really belonged. Finally it had been the Auror and Order member, Kingsley Shacklebolt who had snuck a Revealing Potion into Percy's tea while in a meeting with the Minister of Magic. If Percy was being impersonated by means of magic, the potion should have ended the masquerade by changing whoever the imposter was back to their normal state. If Percy weren't being impersonated, then the potion would be harmless and do nothing. Sadly, it seemed that either the potion had failed, or Percy wasn't being impersonated.

"I wish I knew. It makes me nervous to know that Rowan and George are out there right now, camping out near the home of a known Death Eater. Even if Lucius Malfoy is still in prison," Carly said.

"They can handle themselves. You said yourself that Rowan was the best in your school at Defense Against the Dark Arts, and George is no slouch, either," Fred assured her, standing to clear the dishes. "Let's go do something fun."

They dealt with the dishes quickly, donned their cloaks and spent the remainder of the evening on the roof of Carly's building, watching the oblivious muggle world on the streets below. Carly told Fred about an adventure that she and Rowan had once had at a "cinema" when they had found some muggle money on the street once, and how the huge picture on the screen had mesmerized them as they watched battles being fought in outer space. Their parents had grounded them when they had been found out, but it hadn't stopped them from sneaking out to see it again a week later. She pointed to a building just down the road, and told Fred that people lined up nightly at that cinema, and how she wondered if the "film" was the same here in England as it had been in America. At the wistful note in her voice, Fred wondered if he should get some money changed at Gringotts and risk an excursion into the muggle world to indulge her.

"Didn't you and George ever venture out into the muggle world to check things out?" Carly asked, feeling truly relaxed for the first time that day.

"Once or twice," Fred smiled. "But we gave up on it. We went to see what kind of products the muggle joke shops carried. It was pretty pathetic." He shook his head in amusement at the memory, "I don't know when I've laughed so hard. The things they were selling as magic tricks..."

Carly chuckled. She had taken muggle studies, and had enough experience in the muggle world to have an idea of what had been offered in such a place. He had the feeling that any muggle who wandered into Weasley's Wizard Wheezes would feel as bewildered there as Fred had in a muggle shop. With a jaw-cracking yawn, Carly turned to snuggle into Fred's warmth and felt her eyes getting heavy again. The three hours sleep she had gotten earlier had not been nearly enough to make up for the thirty-six she had gone without. Feeling Fred's arms come about her, she wished they could just stay like this for the next year or so.

"We'd better get you inside," he said gently, turning her so they could walk to the building's entrance. "You're asleep on your feet, and I don't want you falling off your broomstick tomorrow."

"You still want to go on the picnic?" she asked sleepily, descending the stairs to the fourth floor, and turning into her corridor.

"Sure, why not?" he shrugged, "It's better than sitting around here, worrying."