Chapter 453: Top-Level Box
Bill slept soundly until evening, when he was finally woken up—but the process was a bit of a team effort. Fred and George came up with the idea, Ron fetched the water, Ginny passed the bucket, and Charlie delivered the final touch by splashing the entire bucket of cool water directly onto Bill's face. Even if Bill wanted to get angry, he wouldn't have known who to blame.
Since Bill and Charlie were both home, and it was Kyle's birthday, Mrs. Weasley had been busy in the kitchen since noon, preparing a big, delicious dinner. Just as Kyle had hoped, Chris arrived with his bottle of 150-year-old Firewhiskey. Mr. Weasley's eyes lit up when he saw the impressive number on the label.
Unable to resist, Bill asked for a small glass, but this time he paced himself, sipping it slowly like Mr. Weasley. So instead of passing out immediately, he only collapsed onto the table near the end of dinner. Unfortunately, he did so just as Percy was taking a sip of his soup, splashing it all over Percy's shirt.
Percy, displeased, pointed out that it was the shirt he intended to wear to work the next day. Even after Mrs. Weasley cleaned the soup stains off with a quick spell, Percy muttered under his breath as he returned to his room.
"If he's so afraid of getting dirty, he shouldn't have worn it to dinner," Fred commented.
"Maybe he thought Mr. Crouch would drop by," George added with a laugh.
Mrs. Weasley gave both of them a light smack on the head, which quickly shut them up. But this little mishap didn't spoil the cheerful mood.
After dinner, the younger ones who hadn't had any alcohol helped Bill up to his room. Meanwhile, Charlie had slumped over the table across from him. Ron and Ginny tried tugging and pulling at him for a while, but they couldn't move him far, so they settled on shifting him from his chair to the floor. A few gnomes even wandered over, curiously poking Charlie's face with their long, thin fingers.
"Go away!" Ron shooed the gnomes off before he and Ginny dragged Charlie back inside to The Burrow.
The next morning, Charlie woke up with a vague, dull ache, feeling as though he'd been trampled by a dragon.
And so, the days drifted by until mid-August. One evening, Mr. Weasley came home beaming with excitement.