The Night Before!

{31st Aug 1993}

{13th Branton, Cheshire, London}

{5:23 PM}

I twirled my wand slightly focusing on the pile of stones to the side as they transformed into a smaller version of the Basilisk before applying animation charms on it while my left hand held the shield in front of me.

'He's moving now, I need to fix this hole in my attack, I take too much time with this spell which leaves an opening,'

As soon as I finished creating the Basilisk it slithered in front of me deflecting any spells that were coming at me as I let the shield drop. I noticed my mana had dropped by half since we started today's duel but it has gotten better than ever before.

Charlie dodged back swiftly as the basilisk advanced so I concentrated on his retreat and used 'Avis~' to conjure a flock of birds in that position before concentrating on the image of a Boa constrictor in my head as I did a transfiguration on the flock.

"Dammit, Blaise!" Charlie cursed and I grinned as he had to focus all his spells on bombarding the Basilisk away before the Boa had already snuck on him and was about to bite on his leg when I used 'Immobulus~'

Concentrating once again I swished my wand dispelling the two animals as they vanished from our sight before walking up to Charlie and giving him a hand.

"Oh shut it!" He barked before heaving himself up using my hand.

"What! I didn't use anything outside the rules" I gave him an innocent expression as he glared at me. I waved my hand and a tray which was set aside by Flickwi levitated to us.

I gulped down the orange juice as I conjured two chairs for us to sit.

"I still think you should sell this in the shop too," Charlie sighed as he greedily took big gulps. Having grown in England and used to having drunk only pumpkin juice would do that to you.

"Will you quit that, you know we have a reputation and so we won't be selling some stupid orange juice like a street stall." I took a long sip and asked, "How's everything doing at the shop? Are people buying stuff?"

"You're kidding me, right? Jonah was complaining about too much work yesterday, you know it's not that easy to make transfigurations that last till 6 months! Thank Merlin most people don't come to buy the Boil's cure cream otherwise I think he would have quit by now... Flickwi!" he said and the elf popped up with another glass of orange juice which he happily accepted.

"You know you could just pop up into muggle London and buy one right, this is a pretty famous drink?" I looked at Charlie Weasley drinking down another glass of Orange juice as I looked at him. He wasn't the same as the one depicted in the movies, or rather he hasn't grown up right now. He stood at about 6'1'' with the red hair common in the Weasley family growing longer by the day. He had a noticeable beard along his jawline and with bright grey eyes, he looked far happier than I thought he would be with the whole manager situation.

"So what happened to the Romania job? Are they still declining your grades and only starting you from an entry-level position?" I asked and his face grimaced.

"Why you gotta bring it up man!" he groaned but he set the glass down and turned to me with a serious expression, "They did but I turned them down," I looked at him in mild surprise as he sighed and explained.

"You know why I was running away right? I love my family but it can be quite suffocating, that many people were not meant to be living in one small house, and as you can see we redhead's have both temper's and unyielding personalities, you put 7 kids in that house and it's a miracle that we didn't blow each other up with accidental magic. Bill got out as soon as he can as he could focusing on his runes and charms masteries in France, so I thought riding Dragon's wouldn't be too bad you know!" He drank another mouthful before continuing.

"And then I saw your ad in the newspaper and decided to get that job to pressure the Dragon reserve into getting a better position but I guess I'm happy like this, I can live outside the home with the money I'm making and I got Ron a new wand and he looked happy even though he is going through his rebellion phase right now!" He exclaimed, the older Weasley had a gleam in his eyes as he chuckled with mirth and added, "The twins are quite jealous of you by the way so I would watch out for the pranks in Hogwarts, I know they want to open up a joke shop someday and you have already opened quite a successful business is making them pissed."

"Yeah, I am not gonna lie to you, I was not a fan of your brother's until the second year." I said, "So I don't have to look for a more permanent manager?" I asked as he nodded his head content to just sit down in his chair as we took the calm atmosphere in.

"Alright, I was hoping you would stay though, even though I beat you most of the time until you decided to become a freak last year and just caught the snitch in 5 minutes, I quite liked having you around!" I said as he grinned.

"Have I broken through your tough exterior? Has Blaise Zabini finally decided to smile? Have I extinguished your 'mask' with my Weasley charm? Now I can report all your activities and secrets back to Lily and Sirius!" I grimaced as he continued making fun of me so I fired a stinging hex towards his face.

"Hey, not my moneymaker! Do you know how many witches come to your shop just to see me," he exclaimed as he floundered exaggeratedly.

"Yeah, I have heard about your exploits!" I gave him a deadpan face as he grinned and I knew where he was going with this.

"Speaking of exploits," he ignored my glare as he continued, "how did your date with dear old Nymphodora go?" I gave him a stink eye.

"She better not hear you calling her that or you'll be whopped worse than I did to you," he grinned harder at that and teased, "What whipped already are you?" I twirled my wand and transfigured his glass into a smaller boa as his grin turned into a grimace.

"Why Snakes man, I thought we were friends!" he banished the snake away and I twirled my wand in my hand ready for round two.

'How about just charms for this one...'

'Aqua Eructo~'

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AN: You guys suck you know! I had 7 chapters written in advance regarding the timeslips before all of you wanted a skip! Anyway, I guess I'll just use them as Flashback to fill the plot!

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the small filler as I revealed some information, we are going to Hogwarts in the next chapter so see you tomorrow! Peace!