OK, I'm starting to procrastinate now, so to make myself write more I'll post the rest of what I've written. Really long chapter ahead, and some funny Weasley goodness

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Chapter 2 - New

Her first few days at the Burkes’ were unlike anything she’d ever experienced. The Burkes had a house at the end of a village called Ottery St Catchpole, a village which Amarantha learned was mostly inhabited by Muggles. Their house looked quite ordinary from the outside, save for the strange pot plants which were placed around the perimeter of the house and the terrace sticking out of the hipped roof. Through the windows you could see a normal kitchen and a living room, but once you entered it all looked so unlike from what you could see outside.

It was a manor. A very Elizabethan manor, with two fireplaces and too many rooms for Amara to remember her way around the house. She loved exploring it though; magic was obvious in every room, there was a grandfather clock on the first floor which screamed insults at you if you forgot to remember what you were supposed to be doing at the time, a dusty library which shifted its shelves around according to what you wanted to read, couches and chairs which slid away when they realized you were getting too comfortable, and a lot of other things which took some time to get used to. Amara described everything in detail in her letters to Dita.

One bright morning in August, Amara woke up to the sound of Mrs Burke swishing the curtain aside to let the sun into her new bedroom, who told her that they were having a dinner party that night with some rich wizard family who had a daughter her age. Amara groaned inwardly; this was the third time in one week already. The Burkes liked having friends over for dinner, since the house felt too empty with just three people, but so far every family that came was just as posh and polite as the two Burkes; in fact, Amarantha didn’t think she could ever get used to being posh and polite. No matter how hard she tried, she just wasn’t up to that sort of etiquette. She always managed to slurp food all over her dress, drop her glass or stain the tablecloth with her drink. Nevertheless, she forced a smile and pretended that the dinner party was something she was looking forward to.

‘Why don’t I take you to the playground after breakfast, dear? Your father and I were planning on going shopping today. That is, unless you’d like to come with us?’

Amara was quite surprised at the way she spoke. Your father and I.

‘Um – yes, OK, thanks,’ she said, smiling politely and changing into her brand new dress. She went downstairs, ate breakfast quietly, and set off with Mrs Burke. Their house was at the end of the street, so they were in countryside after a few minutes’ walk on a footpath, which eventually led to a small playground where a few children were playing.

‘I’ll be going, Amara,’ said Mrs Burke as she made to leave. ‘If you need anything, just give next door’s a call.’ Amara nodded and watched her make her way back up the path.

She turned towards the swings and walked slowly up to a girl and a boy who looked about her age. They looked like Muggles, and both had light brown hair cut identically. Apart from three other children with their mother the park was quite empty.

Amara sat on a swing and wondered whether she should talk to the Muggle children. She was wearing Muggle clothing so they couldn’t guess anything, could they?

‘Are you from around here?’ asked the girl with identical hair to her brother’s. ‘I’ve never seen you. We come here every day.’

‘No, I only just came here,’ replied Amarantha. It was a bit strange, she had never talked to Muggles, but they seemed perfectly normal to her. ‘I live with the Burkes,’ she added.

‘Oh, so you’re adopted?’ piped in the boy. ‘We did hear Mrs Burke was adopting. Her husband wasn’t too keen, I heard. Kept having these loud arguments. You could hear them from across the street—’

‘Yes, that’s them,’ said his sister, clearly wanting him to shut up.

‘So how is it?’ the boy asked. Amara glanced at him. He’s really nosy, she concluded.

‘They’re really nice.’

‘Really? Because I heard old Mr Burke got into some nasty trouble a while ago.’ His sister rolled her eyes. ‘Toby – that’s the postman –’ he went on, not noticing his sister ‘– he went up to the house to give him some strange package, kept rattling and making funny noises, he said, and guess what? He set one of those weird plants on him!’

Neither Amarantha nor the other girl looked amused. His sister had probably already heard him tell the story a dozen times, and Amarantha figured that a Devil’s Snare had gotten in the way by mistake. She had read about them in the Burkes’ library.

The playground had gone very quiet. Amara turned her head to the other side of the park, where two boys with identical red hair and mischievous smiles had quite suddenly appeared. Even their clothes were matching; grey shorts and black shirts with yellow stripes, both bearing two crossed Ws over what looked like a wasp.

‘It’s them again!’ hissed the nosy boy, looking round too. ‘Weird pair. I heard they’ve got twenty brothers and sisters and their dad’s a magician—’

‘Come on, Luke,’ said his sister, grasping his arm. ‘Mum said not to go near them.’ She turned to Amarantha.

‘You should go too,’ she told her, as the mother with three children made for the footpath. ‘I’m Lisa, by the way. What’s your name?’

‘Amara.’

‘This is my very nosy and talkative brother Luke,’ said Lisa.

‘Hey!’ he protested.

‘It was nice to meet you,’ she finished. And they hurried off.

The park was empty now, except for the two boys and Amarantha. She sat still on her swing and watched the two red-haired boys make their way towards her.

‘Hey, aren’t you supposed to be running away?’ one of them said, grinning.

‘I suppose no one has told her about the whomping see-saw yet, George,’ the other said, grinning too.

‘Yeah, ouch, haven’t seen Dad like that since we set a spider on Ron,’ said George, wincing and rubbing his rear. ‘It still hurts...’

‘You’re wizards, aren’t you?’ said Amara, smiling. She’d thought there must be others near.

The twins looked slightly taken aback.

‘Didn’t think we’d run into one like us over here,’ said George finally, sitting down on a swing.

‘Yeah, do you live in that Muggle village?’ said the other twin, sitting down next to him.

‘I came here a week ago. I live with the Burkes,’ she said again.

‘The Burkes? I heard old Mr Burke can get really angry when he wants to. He could compete with Dad,’ chuckled the boy next to her. ‘I’m Fred, by the way, and this is George,’ he said, shaking her hand.

‘I’m Amara.’

‘Actually, I’m George,’ the same twin added.

‘Hey, I know you’re jealous since my name sounds better and all,’ said the other twin. ‘But don’t mind him. I am George.’

Amara laughed. They reminded her of Tim from the orphanage. He was a joker too, and was like Amarantha’s little brother at that time. She felt a little pang of homesickness.

‘We live up there,’ said the twin whom she guessed was Fred, gesturing towards the hills, ‘we’re quite a big family of wizards. So, can you do any magic yet?’

‘Um, not really, no,’ she said. Come to think of it, the only magical thing she’d ever remember doing was cure Dita’s pet rabbit when he’d gotten a bad case of snuffles a few years back. What she’d done wasn’t really remarkable.

‘Really? We can do loads of stuff, already!’ jumped up Fred, his twin following suit. ‘Watch!’

They knelt down and uprooted a few flowers, and then lit them like they were setting off fireworks. Letting go, they flew ten feet into the air and exploded in a shower of sparks. The twins smirked at the look of awe on Amara’s face.

‘Whoa... how’d you do that?’ she said, suddenly realising her mouth was open and closing it quickly. She blushed; she must’ve looked like a right idiot.

‘It’s more a matter of luck, really,’ said Fred. ‘Most of the time we can’t control it. We could be eating and all of a sudden the plates are gone and there’s nine holes in the ceiling.’

‘Mum isn’t too pleased when that happens, but at least it makes Ginny laugh,’ said George. ‘She’s our little sister,’ he added, as they sat back on the swings.

‘Do you support the Wimbourne Wasps, then?’ asked Amara, gesturing at their shirts. ‘They did beat the Chudley Canons, but the Falmouth Falcons beat them by sixty points last season.’

‘They cheated!’ protested Fred, but he was grinning. Everybody loved a little Quidditch banter.

‘Did not! Stevens got in the way of a Bludger, he didn’t fly into Becket on purpose.’

‘Yeah, but Bagman sent that Bludger at Thompson after he’d caught the Snitch,’ George added.

‘OK, so maybe he was a little angry they’d caught the Snitch, but they still won by sixty points, didn’t they?’

Amara tried for a winning ‘ha!’ when they couldn’t think of a counter-attack but ended up choking on a fly, much to her embarrassment and the twins’ amusement. They happily exchanged their views on the last match between their favourite teams for a while. The sun had reached its highest point when Mrs Burke came for Amara.

‘See you later!’ called George, as they too made their way home.

‘We practice Quidditch in an orchard near our house, you should come up there some time and we’ll see how you play,’ called Fred, smirking.

‘We’ll see,’ Amarantha said, hiding a grin and already making her way up the footpath with Mrs Burke. She’d made up a story of how she’d once made a spectacular save back when she was still in the orphanage, and the twins were eager to see how well she could play. In truth she’d only ever played Quidditch once, after she, Dita and a few others had broken into the broom shed back at the orphanage - but ten minutes into the game and they’d been called off by the Matron. Amara still had a souvenir of the shape of the Matron’s fingers still raw pink just underneath her back.

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