Chapter 4

A/N: Sorry for the delay, a few surgeries and a missing muse delayed this chapter. All seems to be fixed now.

~oOo~

When Fred opened the door to the shop and saw the scene playing before him, he wasn’t sure whether to be relieved or furious. George sat comfortably in a plush chair with a sandwich and Butterbeer on the table next to him, watching Lee and Ginny snogging on the red velvet settee across from him.

They apparently hadn’t slowed down while Fred was with Oliver. Lee was lying down, his head resting on a plush deep purple pillow against the arm of the settee with Ginny straddling him. Ginny’s body was pressed against Lee’s, her hands threaded in his dreadlocks. Lee, in turn, was rubbing Ginny’s arse through her robes as he kissed her with abandon.

Hearing the door open, George looked up at a gobsmacked Fred.

“It didn’t seem fair to leave them standing in the middle of the shop. I always prefer snogging when I’m comfortable,” George told Fred while trying to look innocent.

“Oh, sure, why didn’t you just conjure them a bed? It couldn’t be worse than this bordello-style couch! This is our baby sister you are watching Lee snog. If I had known you wanted dinner time entertainment, I would have arranged it for you earlier.”

“Oh, you’re one to talk. If Oliver had been snogging Ginny you would be right here with me watching. Besides,” George said with a smirk, “a bed wouldn’t be appropriate in the shop.”

With a sigh, Fred conjured his own chair. Briefly, he wondered if he should try to convince George that it was an innocent mistake. But, in reality, the time would be better spent trying to quickly decide what to tell Lee and Ginny.

“Lee ... ” Fred heard Ginny say as she sat up, still straddling Lee around the waist. Lee stared at Ginny, confusion written all over his face.

“Expelliarmus!” Fred exclaimed, catching Ginny and Lee’s wands as they flew towards him. “Incarcerous!” he added, pointing his wand at Ginny.

Ginny stared at Fred, barely comprehending why she was suddenly bound with ropes.

“FRED! Unbind me NOW!” Ginny screeched.

“Ginny, you need to listen to me.”

“UNBIND ME!”

“Ginny,” Fred pleaded, “please listen to me. I don’t want to have to silence you also.”

Ginny started to say something, but stopped; Fred reckoned that she decided she didn’t want to be silenced also.

Fred and Ginny stared at each other as he tried to decide how to proceed.

He looked at Lee, who was still lying on the couch, then at George.

“George, can you please help Ginny move to a more comfortable position?”

“She looks pretty comfortable to me,” Lee observed, wiggling his eyebrows.

Ginny looked at Lee with a disgusted expression. “Boys!” she muttered under her breath.

George helped Ginny sit on the couch as Lee sat up to listen to Fred’s explanation.

“Well, you see,” Fred began as he paced back and forth, “I was working on a new love potion for the shop. It causes someone to kiss the first person they see after taking a bite of a piece of chocolate. The unique part of this is that it is transferred to other person as soon as they start to kiss, so both parties are under the influence of the potion.”

“Well, that explains why I didn’t find it odd that Ginny was kissing me,” Lee commented. “Not that she’d have to give me a potion to convince me to kiss her,” he added with a wink towards Ginny.

Ginny just stuck her tongue out at Lee, frustrated that she was bound, unarmed, and unable to respond in a more appropriate manner.

“So,” Fred continued, “when I came up front a little while ago to show George what I’d invented, I put it under the counter; I didn’t want a customer to accidentally take some. So, when I saw you run across the shop and jump into Lee’s arms, I knew you had taken a piece of my chocolate.”

“And,” Ginny added vehemently, gesturing towards the chairs with her chin, “you and George decided to just sit and watch, huh?”

“No, I left George here to make sure you and Lee didn’t get out of control, and I went to talk to Wood.”

“Oliver was here?” Ginny asked as the colour drained from her face. She fought the urge to curl into a ball as she didn’t want any of them to see how upset she was.

Fred walked over to Ginny. “He was supposed to meet me at 4:00. I’ve spent the past half hour talking to him about our new products, including the love potion you accidentally took. He did agree to think about our proposal to make him the face of the Wheezes. He’s supposed to get back to us.”

Kneeling in front of his sister, Fred asked, “Gin, can you forgive me? If I unbind you, will I live?”

Ginny was silent for a moment while she tried to absorb everything. If she understood everything Fred just said correctly, she’d just spent the hour snogging Lee, Oliver witnessed this, Fred worked to convince him that she wasn’t with Lee because she wanted to be … and Oliver believed him and would be coming back to the shop.

Sighing, she nodded.

Fred pointed his wand at Ginny. “Finite Incantatem.” He looked at Ginny and Lee, handing their wands back to them. “I’m really sorry. I didn’t want this to happen.”

“It wasn’t the worst way I’ve spent an hour,” Lee said with a smirk. Looking at Ginny, he winked and grabbed her hand as he headed towards the door. “Come on, Ginny. Let’s go finish this someplace,” gesturing towards Fred and George, “without an audience.”

“I don’t THINK so!” George shouted.

Fred pointed his wand at his best friend. “Levicorpus!” Fred thought.

Lee was shocked to find himself upside down, dangling by his ankle with his robes flipped over his face. All three of the Weasleys started laughing hysterically as they noticed Lee’s pants flashing “Eat at Lee’s.”

“Very classy,” Ginny gasped, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. “If I’d realised you hid that under your robes, I might have started snogging you earlier!”