Oak Leaves: A Series of Vignettes

The bright morning sunshine beamed into the small bedroom and shone right into George Weasley's eyes as he woke. Frowning, he sat up and rubbed his eyes with his chubby little hands. The six year old blinked a few times and looked around. His brother Fred was still sound asleep in his own bed on the other side of their room. Birds were twittering outside of the window. George padded across the worn wooden floor in his gray and patched socks to unlatch one of the windows. Leaning out, he spotted his mother, Molly Weasley, already dressed for the day, red hair pulled back, and she appeared to be smacking a rug with a broom handle. Shocked, George stared open-mouthed at his mother for a moment and wondered why his mother was punishing a rug. What could a rug have done to make his mum hit it so hard?

As realization sunk in, George rushed to the red armchair in the corner while discarding his pajamas. He scurried to pull on one set of the matching clothes that his mother had laid out for himself and for Fred the evening before. He managed to get his freckled arms through the armholes of his blue shirt and zipped his jeans as far as he could. He still wasn't very good with buttons, so he decided to leave the button on his jeans undone. George then seized the doorknob and rushed down the three flights of stairs, passing the room that little Ron and Ginny shared, and his big brother Percy's room before reaching the ground floor. He ran through the warm kitchen and practically crashed into the door to the back garden. Once he wrenched it open, he hurried straight to his mother, soaking his socks in the dewy grass.

"George! What on earth are - "

"Mum! Why are you hitting the carpet? Doesn't it hurt it?" George blurted out before she could finish her sentence. "It isn't the carpet's fault, Mum. Honest. I'm the one who spilled the pumpkin juice on it!"

Molly smiled and set down the broom to pick up her son and hug him. Seeing his mother smile, George smiled back. She set him back down and gazed at him. When Molly started to laugh heartily though, George became confused.

"Mum?"

"George, dear. I'm very glad that you can dress yourself, but you've got to pay more attention sometimes." Molly reached down and helped her son re-arrange his shirt, with George just now realized he had put on backwards in his hurry to save the family rug from the clutches of an unjust punishment.

"Mum?" George's muffled voice came from within the shirt. "Why're you hitting the rug?"

"I'm beating it to get the dust out. But, since you so readily told me who the pumpkin juice-spilling culprit was, why don't you go get the watering can and water my herb garden."

George scampered over to the garden shed and brought the old watering can to his mother who filled it with water from her wand, and George proceeded to go around the back yard, watering the different plants that his mother had been growing all spring. Once he finished and chased a garden gnome until it got upset and tried to bite his ankle, he followed his mother back into the kitchen and sat down to wait for breakfast. While he waited, he watched the massive grandfather clock that was tucked into one of the many nooks and crannies of the kitchen. George always liked to watch the clock, and he made sure to alert his mum whenever one of his family members was on the move. This morning though, the clock wasn't needed to know what was going on with his brothers and little sister.

A loud boom sounded from somewhere above the kitchen. Startled, George looked up and watched the ceiling. He heard a door slam and two pairs of feet begin thumping down the stairs. The noisemakers rushed down toward the kitchen, which was now emitting the delicious smell of bacon, eggs, and fresh muffins, but stopped before George could see anyone. Laughing and shrieks of happiness erupted from the nursery two floors above the kitchen, and Molly tutted as she set a platter of muffins onto the table in front of George. George grabbed one just as Ron darted in and jumped up onto a seat. Ron, who had turned four only a month ago, began stuffing one of Molly's famous blueberry muffins into his little mouth. George swiveled around in his chair and saw Bill and Charlie, his two eldest brothers, walk into the kitchen with a giggling, curly-haired Ginny on Bill's back, followed by a sleepy-looking Fred and a pouting Percy.

"William, Charles, how many times have I told you not to wake up your brothers and sister so early in the morning?" Molly said sternly from the sink, her back to the room.

"We're sorry, Mum," Bill said as he blanched and plopped a happy Ginny into her chair. "We forgot, I guess."

Molly spun around with a gentle smile on her face and a bowl of bacon in her hand. She ruffled her son's hair and set the bacon down on the table. The dish of eggs flew over from the counter and landed next to the rest of the food. The Weasley children all took seats at the wooden table and ate their breakfast.

After a few moments of silent eating, Percy, ever the eight-year-old intellectual that he believed himself to be, cleared his throat. Every Weasley present stared at him, expecting another boring speech about how Hogwarts, Bill and Charlie's school, should allow in younger students who wanted to have a 'basic understanding of magic before they begin their wizard knowledge career' or something to that extent. That's why all were surprised when Percy grinned and looked at Ginny, who waved her pudgy fingers at him.
"Ginny," Percy said, "Happy Birthday!"

Immediately, the rest of the Weasley brothers jumped up and surrounded their baby sister, wishing her a happy birthday while their mother looked on with a grin. Percy merely turned back to his breakfast. After the commotion died down, each Weasley finished their breakfast and went back to their rooms to get dressed, except for Molly and George (a/n: remember? He was dressed!). Molly began to clear the table, humming. George turned around to again watch the clock. All of the hands showed pictures of each Weasley. Except for his dad's hand that was pointing at 'Work', the hands were aimed toward 'Home'.

At half-past noon, Arthur Weasley arrived home to find Molly in the kitchen, baking an amazing array of dishes of food. The now three-year-old Ginny was sitting happily at the table wearing a pink party dress and eating a cookie. Arthur came up behind Molly and surprised her with a hug.

"Arthur! You're late!"

"Oh, so is that how I'm greeted these days?" Arthur asked his wife with a wounded look on his freckled face.

Molly, grinning, welcomed Arthur home with a kiss and then blushed when their daughter squealed and clapped from her vantage point a few feet away. Arthur, after being admonished for ruffling Ginny's hair after Molly had spent nearly an hour brushing out all of the knots in it, went to change out of his work robes and into the Molly had already laid out for him. After pulling on his dress robes, which had been patched more times than Arthur would have liked to admit over the years, ran his fingers through his short hair and glanced out of the window that faced the back garden of the Burrow. There, he caught glimpse of all six of his sons laughing and chasing around dozens of gnomes with sticks and having more fun than they could ever have with the expensive toys that muggle children were reported to be demanding these days.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Arthur returned to the kitchen to see if he could help his wife cook or clean; in other words, be in any way useful. After being assured that there was nothing for him to do inside, Arthur went outside to round up the boys and get them changed into nicer clothes.

Strings of fairy lights were all around the Burrow's back garden, which was full of guests. For Ginny's third birthday, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley had decided to hold a party. The size of the guest list had gotten a little out of hand, but everything had gone off without a hitch so far. All of the wizarding families around Ottery St. Catchpole were invited, including the Lovegoods, Fawcetts, and the Diggorys. Also in attendance was much of the Hogwarts staff, some of Bill's friends from school, relatives, Ministry employees, and the odd wizard that was somehow involved with the Weasley family. Everyone had enjoyed the meal that Molly had made and the cake that preceded it.

Ginny, with the help of Ron, Fred, and George, had opened all of her gifts. Her favorite was a muggle doll that Grandpa Weasley had owled over from Cornwall that evening. Nobody could get it away from her without her screaming and crying. On top of her head was a crown of oak leaves that Fred and George had presented her with earlier. They had spent two weeks making it without their mother knowing, which was quite a feat indeed. At the moment, Ginny was toddling around the garden with her doll, trying to keep up with Ron. Ron, who had obviously had his fill of the delicious cake (it was smeared all over his thin, freckled face), was chasing after his twin brothers.

After careening around Amos Diggory, who was talking with a man the that their dad had earlier called 'Mad-Eye', Fred and George ducked into the house, but Mrs. Lovegood scooped Ron up before he could follow. After having his cheeks wiped down, he was told to take little Luna Lovegood over to play with Ginny. Arthur was chatting with Waldo Lovegood, who had just been promoted to editor of the wizarding magazine, 'The Quibbler'. Molly was talking with Minerva McGonagall, who had been two years ahead of Molly and Arthur at Hogwarts.

Fred and George emerged from the kitchen clutching shoeboxes. They darted over to the pond and began chasing toads around the bank. Once they had caught a half-dozen frogs and newts, they ran over to Suzie Fawcett, and shoved them in her face. Screaming, she ran off to her mother. The twins giggled and put the creatures back into the shoeboxes and hurried away from the scene of the crime.

Albus Dumbledore, after already being subjected to Percy for half an hour, sat listening to him with his eyes twinkling. Percy had been going on and on about how he wanted to go to Hogwarts and how he had been told that Dumbledore was the greatest wizard in the world by his brother Bill. After another ten minutes, Percy excused himself to go and play with his friend Cedric, who had finally quit playing a mini game of Quidditch with Charlie, Bill, and Bill's friends Orsino Thurston and Donaghan Tremlett. They were all in the same year at Hogwarts and had spent most of the night talking about music with Bill.

Once some of the guests began to leave, thanking the Weasleys for a fantastic night, Molly sent her children to bed. After stalling for as long as possible, Fred and George climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and stumbled into their room. Suzie Fawcett, after chasing the boys for nearly an hour, had actually had the nerve to grab Fred and kiss him. It had been utterly disgusting and George swore that he got a case of the cooties just watching it. Fred had cried for fifteen minutes, thinking that he was going to die. George watched his brother climb into his bed and pull his blanket over his head after pausing to kick off his shoes.

Personally, George had had a fantastic night. Ginny had liked the birthday crown that he had put a lot of work into. The boys had gone as far as climbing one of the oak trees to pick just the right leaves. He had had the best of luck with Suzie Fawcett, getting away before she could grab him. Plus, he had gotten to follow on of Bill's friends around for part of the evening. The boy, named Heathcote, had been taking pictures with a camera that belonged to his dad. George's favorite part was when Heathcote would take a picture and engulfing purple smoke would billow out from the camera, making him cough and giggle. As he drifted off to sleep in his bed, George decided to send Errol to Heathcote a letter and ask to see the pictures.