Transportation

"I somehow feel betrayed," Fred muttered darkly to George.

"I was just being a good son. Unlike you sods," George added.

"Don't dally in the middle of the walkway!" Percy snapped, pushing past the twins with his new (second-hand) suitcase in hand.

Fred and George made identical hand gestures at Percy's back, which earned them each a sharp smack in the head from their mother.

Molly was dragging her own suitcase. She looked ahead to where Percy was making his way through the crowds, searching out her husband and daughter.

"There they are," she sighed. She, the twins, and Percy headed toward the two redheads standing near one of the airplane terminals.

"Isn't it exciting?" Arthur asked his family as soon as they were close enough. He was giddy with excitement and kept starting, pointing out the window to the incoming flights.

"Of course," Molly said placidly. She was looking around, and suddenly stiffened. "Where's Ron?"

The rest of the Weasleys looked around, but Ron was no where to be seen.

"Oh, dear," Mr. Weasley said quietly.

"Ron!" Molly called. "Ron!"

"Mum, shut up," Ginny hissed. "Don't do that in a public place!"

Molly left her bag and hurried out into the walkway again. "Ron!"

Percy decidedly took charge. "I'll go an inform an authority," he said importantly.

"Percy, don't embarrass the man," George scolded.

"Yeah, d'you think Ron wants to hear himself being paged all over the airport?" Fred asked.

"'Ronald Weasley? Ronald Bilius Weasley, your mummy's looking for you!'" George snorted. "Maybe we should page him."

"Arthur!" Molly shouted. "Arthur, I found him!"

And there was Ron, pushing himself between a pair of girls chatting away in French. In one hand, he carried his luggage, and in the other, a small cage containing his rat.

"I'm here," he said testily as Molly placed her arm around him, steering him to the rest of the family. "I got cut off by a group of senior citizens."

"Well, it's fine now," Arthur said, pointing. "Look, our flight is boarding!"

Sure enough, they were called to present their tickets and passports and load onto the airplane. The Weasleys were very successful, until it came to the boarding part.

"Arthur, move," Molly whispered.

But Arthur wouldn't budge.

"Dad!"

"Dad, come on!"

"What the bloody hell?"

"Language, Ron."

"Shut up, Percy."

"Arthur, please go."

But Arthur was hypnotized by what he could see of the cockpit. He went as far as to reach out toward it, but Ron 'accidentally' hit him in the back with Scabbers' cage, sending him forward into the seating area.

The plane did not have seats open for seven people to be seated together, so the family was separated. Arthur and Molly sat on either side of Ginny, and Ron was seated behind them with a business man to his right and the aisle on his left. This left Fred, George, and Percy to grab their seats at the back of the plane, sitting next to the toilet and directly behind an old woman, a young lady, and a small girl.

Percy was extremely disgruntled to be sitting in the back with the twins, but he kept his lips pursed rather than appealing to Ron to switch. The twins glanced at each other with mischievous looks in their eyes as Percy sat near the window, staring out at the other airplanes.

"Look, Molly! Look at the airplane! It's landing! There are wheels on it, do you see? So that it can -- !"

"Arthur, sh!" Molly said, placing a calming hand on her husband's arm while Ginny sunk low in her seat. "The entire plane can hear you!"

"Sorry, Molly," Arthur said quietly, the very tips of his ears blushing.

"So when do we actually get going?" Ron asked over the seats. "It better not take too long; I wanted to catch the match on the radio in two hours."

"Two hours?" Arthur blinked. "Ron, what do you think this plane does, vanishes and reappears in Egypt in a few seconds?"

"You say that like it's so hard to believe."

Molly put her finger to her lips and nodded surreptitiously to the Muggle man sitting beside Ron.

"We'll be in the air for a good few hours," she said, not sounding to thrilled about it herself.

"I'm going to miss the Cannons?" Ron asked, outraged.

"Here, Ron, I'll play out the game for you," Ginny said. "'As the Magpies score beat the Canons keeper for the twentieth time this game, they break the record for most goals made in the first three minutes of a match! And it appears that Gudgeon has seen - oops, no, he's crashed right into the stadium wall! And the Magpies win, 350 to 0!'"

"Shut up. Only reason you aren't sore is your team isn't playing."

As Ginny continued to patronize Ron, the twins were busy. They had managed a few Filibusters each and were now wondering how to light them under the seats of the passengers in front of them. The smell of singed fabric drew Percy's attention, who opened his mouth to reprimand the twins for whatever they were doing now, but was cut off by Arthur Weasley's exclamation of glee as the engine audibly started and the plane began scooting forward.