Taking Care Of Business (Rox/Thal)

Roxy walked around her father's shop, tidying up and helping people out. Her twin brother, Fred, was currently off Merlin knows where probably pulling a prank on some innocent bystander. In all honesty, she wished she was wherever he was. It definitely beat having to stay there at work with nobody to talk to besides her dad, who was off talking to Lee Jordan about some new product or what-not.

With a sigh, Roxy took a sip of her drink and hoped up onto the counter, waiting for something interesting to happen. She wished that her brother would come back soon so she could leave and go have some fun.

Thalia was bored. Extremely bored. She had been working at the Leaky Cauldron for five hours before her mother said she could leave. Now that she didn't have anything to do, she was extremely bored. Sighing, she walked into Diagon Alley.

Thalia had already finished her school shopping, so she could spend the few galleons in her pocket on herself. Looking around, none of the stores caught her interest. Except one: Weasley Wizard Wheezes. Smirking, she skipped into the store to pay her bestie, Roxy, a visit. Spotting her friend on the counter, she made her way over.

"Excuse me, Miss, but I would like to buy the newest product," Thalia said, making her voice a bit higher and more childish.

Roxy picked up a magazine laying on the counter and started reading, not really paying attention to her surroundings. She heard a high pitched voice that sounded like a small child say something and reluctantly put her magazine down and hopped off of the counter, still not looking at said child, though.

"Our newest product.. Oh, that'll be 2 galleons," Roxy said, still not looking up. When the child didn't respond, she lazily looked up and nearly fell over in shock. After a few seconds, a huge grin broke across her face and she ran around the counter before tackling her best friend into a huge hug. "Thalia!! I haven't seen you in AGES!! How are you?"

Thalia stifled a giggle as Roxy started working without looking up. She let out a loud laugh when she did look up.

Thal gasped for air as Roxy hugged her, hugging back weakly. "Hey, Rox. Can't...breath," she choked out. Pushing the darker girl away from her, she took in a deep breath and grinned. "I'm dying of boredom. SAVE ME!" she exclaimed, pretending to faint.

"Join the club!! Urgh, I hate work!" Roxy said, dramatically clutching her heart. "It's bad for the soul! Bad, I tell you!"

A grin spread across her face again when she got an idea. She walked back around the counter and sat down on the stool behind it with a huff. "I have an idea. A good idea, mind you," she told Thal with a smirk.

"The club of boredom or the club of hating work? Because I will easily join both," Thalia grinned. "Yup. It's definetly bad for the soul."

Thali watched Roxy as a large, yet creepy, smile spread across her face. It reminded her of the same one that she saw her dad wear right before he comes up with a new product. It sent tingles of excitement through her body to see her friend wearing it.

"Idea! Yay for ideas!" Thalia cheered, doing a little happy dance.

"What's this idea," she said, completely serious.

"I don't know about you, but I think Marshmallow needs a taste of his own medicine," Roxy said, rolling her eyes at Thalia's happy dance. It made her look completely ridiculous, honestly.

"We need some ideas, first. Let me go get dad!" she said before running off to the back room to fetch her father.

Thalia blushed, remembering how she came up with that nickname for Roxanne's brother, Fred. She never really told Roxy; that would just be way too awkward.

"Ooh, that sounds like a great idea!" Thalia grinned, forcing the blush to go away. As Roxy disappeared into the back room, she drummed her fingers against the counter. Waiting was not how she wanted to fix her boredom.

"Lonely, I am so lonely, I have nobody," she sang to herself.

Roxy came running back into the room a few minutes later, dragging her father and Lee with her. They both had weird looks on their faces as they followed the 11 year old.

"Hello, Thalia," George greeted her with a smile. "Haven't seen you around lately. Been working a lot down at the Leaky?"

"You're getting off topic, daddy!" Roxy exclaimed, smacking him on the arm. He winced, she had a hard hit for such a little girl. He turned his attention back to her while Lee tried to cover up his laughter. "Now. Thalia and I want to prank Mar- I mean, Fred. Do you have any ideas?"

"Why would you want to prank your brother?" George asked, though he really didn't care. He loved that his children had taken after him and his own twin brother. He continued before she could even answer. "Well, I'd suggest one of our love potions. But, you would have to have the hair of a willing girl to get him to fall in 'love' with, of course."

With a sly smirk, Roxy turned back to Thalia. "Oh, Thally?" she said in her sweetest voice and waited for Thalia to say something.

Thalia straightened up when Roxy came back with her father and his friend, Lee. She smiled back at 'Uncle' George. "Hey," she greeted before muttering "the Leaky is secretly a child labor camp".

Thalia grinned as Roxy nearly called her brother Marshmallow in front of her dad. It was very amusing how she could slip like that. That grin slipped off her face as soon as she saw the look on Roxy's face.

"No. No. No. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO! NO!!" Thalia said, shaking her head furiously. There was know way in hell that she would agree. Absolutely no way.

"Please!!! PLEASE!" Roxy pleaded while her father and Lee looked at the two amusedly. "You would be the bestest friend ever!!"

"It's not that bad, really, Thalia," Lee said, walking up to stand beside George. "It'll ware off in no more than an hour, guaranteed! Promise!"

"See, two of the three who invented the things say it wont be bad!" Roxy began to plead again, more or less begging. She put on her best puppy dog face and pouted her lip. George didn't know how Thalia could withstand that, he always fell for it so quickly.

Thalia couldn't keep from glaring at her best friend. "No! Do you want your twin brother to take a love potion that'll make him love your best friend? Because, let me tell you, that is so weird and backward," she stated, putting her hands on her hips.

Thalia turned her glare on Lee as he started talking, her brown eyes flashing. Why the hell was he encouraging this? She turned back to her friend, glare meeting puppy face. They stared down for a minute or two before Thalia rolled her eyes.

"What's in it for me?"

"I.. uh.. I'll do your homework for any class for a week when we go to Hogwarts!" Roxy exclaimed, face breaking into a grin. She knew her puppy dog face had worked, it always worked. Always.

"Take it from us, that's a good offer," George said, while Lee nodded in agreement. "The professors like to conspire against students and give them homework due at the same time. It can get awful, Flitwick's class especially!"

"So you'll do it? Please?" Roxy asked excitedly.

Thalia bit her lip, her eyebrows furrowing as she thought. Was that really enough? "Homework? That's it?" she asked.

Thalia scowled. "Great. Just perfect. And people say Hogwarts is supposed to be fun? Hey, do you think I can threaten to get the professors fired if they give me homework?" she asked, more to herself than to anybody else.

"Add in being Frank's first kiss and you got a deal," she winked. Frank was two years younger, and had a drooling problem when he was around pretty girls.

"They were just kidding! It's really not that bad, according to Mum," Roxy assured Thal, patting her on the shoulder and glaring at her father and Lee. They shrunk back in fear of her going off on them. "Neville wouldn't be very happy with you if you did that, now would he?"

"What?!" she exclaimed, eyes widening. "No! Absolutely not!"

"He won't mind if I do this," Thalia said before putting on her best puppy dog pout and faking tears.

Thalia smirked and shrugged. "Then I guess you're gonna have to find a 'willing' girl. Hmm, I'm sure there are some desperate firsties around here who would love to have a Weasley loving her," she drawled, leaning her head on her hands.

"Ooh, what about her?" Thalia asked, pointing to a short chubby girl who was messing around with the love potions. "She's perfect for Marshmallow!"

"And you're one of those desperate firsties," Roxy mumbled under her breath, shaking her head slightly. She turned to her dad then. She mouthed to for him and Lee to go get the potion and they did as were told.

"No, no, I think it should be someone he knows, which would be you," she said, turning back to face Thalia. She put on her best puppy dog eyes again and pouted her lip. "Pretty please with sugar quills on top?"

Thalia groaned internally, knowing that she was going to lose this battle. Roxanne always got what she wanted. Always. It didn't stop her from trying to deny her friend her way, however, but it still gave Thalia the feeling that she at least tried to get what she wanted.

"Fiiine," Thalia sighed, giving in. "But if anybody asks, this is your fault and you forced me into it. Okay?"

Grumbling to herself, Thalia plucked a hair from her head and handed it to Roxy. She couldn't believe that she was going through with this.

"Yes!" Roxy said, jumping up in victory. She knew she'd get her way, she always did. She wouldn't call herself spoiled, though. Just likable.

"Fine, fine. It's aaaall my fault!" she said, quickly grabbing the hairs from Thal and heading to the back room again to find her father. She found him and Lee heading back to the front holding the potion. She dropped the hairs in and went back to find Thal with a satisfied smirk. "Alright, now we just have to find Freddie and find a way to get him to drink it without knowing."

Taking the potion from her father, she dragged Thalia out of the joke shop and into Diagon Alley in search of her brother.