11

September 1st, 1990

The sun had yet to make an appearance over the countryside around the town of Ottery St. Catchpole. The air was still warm, but had that crispness that heralds the coming of autumn. Three miles west of town lay a tall house surrounded by acres of meadowland, a grove of trees, and a small lake. The house looked as though it had been haphazardly assembled from bits of other buildings, and had additions added on over the years. For all its awkward and worn appearance, the place fairly radiated a sense of love and peace that could only be described as 'home'.

That peace was about to be tested.

On the fourth floor of this place that was known as 'The Burrow', two young boys, twins, had begun to plot.

"So, what do you think, George? Should we start at the top and work down, or follow the usual pattern?" Fred whispered.

"Well Fred, you know how I hate being predictable… I think we should definitely start on Charlie and work down from there," George responded in equally hushed tones.

"Charlie's going to be a tough one, though. There's not much that really gets under his skin. And even though he's usually as level-headed as Bill, he taught us most of our first jinxes. We might have – "

" – to go straight to Percy and come back for Charlie later," George finished the thought effortlessly. The two of them had always been able to finish the others' sentences. One of the advantages of being twins was how well they thought and worked together.

"Let's get to it then!"

The boys quickly changed out of their pajamas and got dressed for the days' adventures in mayhem. Since stealth was important at this phase, they left their trainers off, and went out of their room in stocking feet.

The twins gathered their wands and a collection of potions they had been secretly working on all summer. Despite having only attended one year at Hogwarts School for Wizardry and Witchcraft, these two boys were unusually adept at magic. Though their somewhat flippant and lackadaisical attitude toward academic achievement annoyed their teachers and parents alike, they were actually quite good at both research and innovative applications of spells and potion combinations.

They knew that they had to get an early start, as the whole family would soon be up and about to head into London. The twins and Percy would be going back to school this morning and had to be on the train by 11:00 sharp. Charlie had graduated last year and would soon be on his way for advanced training in the care of Magical Creatures. Charlie had always expressed an interest in dragons. Percy, on the other hand, was the most studious of all the Weasley children. He was two years older than the twins and was starting his fourth year at Hogwarts. Next year, Ron the youngest son, would be making the trip to school for the first time.

The twins crept quietly from room to room; applying potions here, whispering various altered charms there… All in preparation for the coming chaos…

- Percy -

Percy Weasley was usually a very light sleeper. He prided himself on the ability to wake at a moments' notice and be ready for whatever lesson his professors had set for the day. He was a bit surprised then, to hear his mother calling for him in what sounded like the more impatient tone she usually used on Ron, who slept like the dead. His surprise only grew when he noticed that it was already half-past seven! On the first day of school, he was invariably the first one in the shower and down to breakfast!

He struggled out of bed as quickly as he could, though he felt unusually sluggish. Percy attributed this slow-moving stiffness to nerves, though he'd never had anxiety about school before. In any case, he'd mention it to his mother when he got downstairs. He grabbed his clothes and toiletries and bolted down to the bathroom, hoping that there was still some hot water left.

Unfortunately, Percy was out of luck on that point. He shivered through a quick shower and dressed meticulously. He was a fair bit taller than the twins, and nearly as tall as Charlie, his next oldest brother (though nowhere near as powerfully built).

Once he finished in the bathroom, Percy ran back up to his room, put his toiletries in his school trunk, donned his rectangular frame glasses and headed down to breakfast.

When he got downstairs, Mrs. Molly Weasley, matriarch of the clan, was dishing out eggs, sausage, bacon, fried potatoes and toast to the twins, Charlie, Ginny (the youngest and only daughter) and Ron. Ron seemed to be on his second or third helping and was frantically trying to shovel down one last mouthful.

"Morning everyone," Percy said in rather clipped tones as he sat. Several mumbled "Morning's" came back in response.

"Percy, dear. Would you like pumpkin juice, tea or coffee this morning?" Molly asked as she filled a plate with food and levitated it over to where Percy was sitting.

"Coffee please, Mum. Big day, today," Percy replied.

"Yes, lot of that going around this morning," Molly said. "Your father's already headed off to the Ministry. Got a floo-call about some fool mucking about with muggle fire-legs…"

"That's fire-arms, Mum," Charlie interjected. "Muggle weapons. Pretty crude, most of them, but still right nasty if you don't know how to handle 'em properly."

"Yes, well some idiot over in Grantham got hold of one and caused a great deal of damage, terrified half a neighborhood, and nearly blew his own face off!" Molly paused in the beginning of her rant against muggle contraptions… "Ronald! Why aren't you dressed yet? Get yourself upstairs and get ready. You know we have to leave soon and you're moving like molasses this morning!" Molly huffed as Ron sprinted from the kitchen and up the stairs.

Fred & George took that as their cue to excuse themselves as well. They put their dishes in the sink and headed out the back door.

- Ron -

Ron's delight knew no bounds. He swept his sleek new broom all around the pitch, avoiding both bludgers and the opposition. His bright orange uniform bore a series of patches down the left sleeve, denoting his teams many victories. Thanks to his impressive skills as the youngest chaser in the professional league, the Chudley Cannons were well on their way to their first winning season in decades.

As he made a particularly difficult feint and spin around the opposing teams' captain, his attention was caught by his mothers' voice coming out of the stands – "Ronald Weasley! Get up!"

Ron also thought that he smelled bacon… That was certainly odd. The concession stands didn't sell bacon…

"RON!"

Something had knocked him off of his broom! He was tangled in something! …

"Oh. Morning, Mum," Ron mumbled, realizing that he had fallen out of bed.

"Get a move-on, Ron. Breakfast's almost ready. Give a knock on Percy's door on your way down, will you." Molly ducked back out of the room and headed off to get Ginny up and about.

Ron was unusually tall for a ten-year-old. He showed potential to be at least as tall as his eldest brother, Bill, who topped off at nearly six foot, one. At this stage, though, Ron just looked gangly, angular and a bit awkward.

Heading down to the bathroom, he paused at Percy's door and gave a rather feeble knock. Getting no response didn't raise an eyebrow, as he had already started moving again. After using the loo and washing the sleep from his face, his stomach grumbled nosily and reminded him of the bacon he had smelled earlier.

Ron's brother Charlie was already at the table, and so was their little sister, Ginny. Just as Ron was getting started on the plate that his mother had hovered over to him, the twins came down and took seats next to Ron.

Conversation was light and varied as breakfast progressed. Ron was nearly done with his second full plate when Percy finally put in an appearance.

Ron recognized shortly that his mum was building to a rant about something that Charlie had said, when she suddenly paused… "Ronald! Why aren't you dressed yet? Get yourself upstairs and get ready. You know we have to leave soon and you're moving like molasses this morning!" Knowing better than to argue or waste further time, Ron sprinted out of the kitchen and headed up the stairs to get dressed.

- Ginny –

Young Ginevra Molly Weasley rarely needed to be called to wake up. She had the boundless energy of most nine-year-olds, and loved the freshness of early mornings. Today was a special one, too. As much as she hated that her brothers were heading off to school again (without her), she was delighted with the prospect of a trip to London and getting to see the boys off on the huge school train.

So this morning, when she heard the first sounds of her mother in the kitchen, she got up and put on her dressing gown over her pajamas and headed down stairs.

Ginny was quite petite, even for her age, and her entire family had always been protective of the beautiful little girl. Even when her brothers (especially Fred & George) teased her, they were always careful not to be too mean-spirited in their pranks and jokes.

Her hair was uncommonly bright red (even amongst the Weasleys) and her classically perky features were set off by warm, chocolate brown eyes that seemed to radiate curiosity, wonder and love all at once. From very early in life, she'd had most of her family wrapped firmly around her little finger.

"Morning, Mummy," Ginny said as she wrapped her tiny arms around her mother and hugged.

"Good morning, dear," Molly replied, squeezing back with one arm while her other used her wand to crack multiple eggs at once into the frying pan.

While Molly was the undisputed mistress of the kitchen, Ginny was always eager to learn, and to help. This morning, she was allowed to get the bacon out of the cold pantry and start it frying in the other pan. Molly kept a covert eye on her young daughter, but Ginny was wise enough to be careful around the hot stove.

Soon Charlie, Fred and George came into the kitchen and the twins made themselves useful by getting the pumpkin juice down and pouring several glasses and setting them around the table.

As her other brothers came down for breakfast and the morning started to get moving, Ginny had slowly begun to feel a bit flushed. She didn't know what would be causing the unusual almost sunburn-like feeling, but chalked it up to nerves about the day, and seeing her brothers off to school.

Once Ron had been banished to get ready and the twins headed out to the back yard, Ginny's discomfort reached a point where she knew something was wrong. She had just called out, "Mummy…?" when a blood-curdling scream erupted from up-stairs.

- Chaos –

The scream coming from the fifth floor had everyone scrambling up the stairs. When they got to Ron's room they quickly discovered the cause for all the commotion.

Ron, clad only in his boxers, was fairly perched on the top of the bed-post in the far corner of the room; and all around the bed were spiders; dozens of them. Some were small and slimy, others the size of a quaffle and covered in dense black hair.

Ron, who had been terrified of spiders since he was three, could do little more than cower. He was white as a sheet and drenched with sweat.

Even Molly let out a gasp and Ginny squeaked and hid behind her mum. It was then that Charlie noticed that the spiders were… dancing. "Mum, look," he said in amazement.

It was true. The spiders were all moving about in a very definite rhythm. And there, just barely audible, was the faint sound of menacing laughter coming from the biggest of the spiders.

Molly's eyes narrowed and she drew her wand, pointing at the offending arachnids. "Finite Incantatem!" She hollered. The spiders ground down to a halt, then wavered, blurred and re-formed into various pairs of socks and a couple tee shirts.

Molly, Charlie and Ginny ran over to Ron. He couldn't seem to pry himself off of the bed-post and had to be helped. Charlie physically loosened Ron's grip (which he silently deemed impressive) while Molly and Ginny tried to calm him down and soothe Ron's' frazzled nerves.

It was only when Ron was breathing normally and his color was returning that Molly noticed that Percy hadn't moved since they got into Ron's room.

"Percy…" she said tentatively.

"I seem to have a couple of problems, Mum," Percy said quietly, with a look of resignation on his face. "The entire room appears to have turned blue, and I can't get my glasses off."

This was too much.

Charlie went over to Percy, saying "Come on Perce'. Let's see what we can do about this."

Ron responded to Ginny's question about what had happened. "I had just ditched my pajamas and grabbed out some clean pants when …" Ron shuddered again; "They all started coming out of the dresser drawer. There must've been dozens and dozens of 'em Mum! Bloody spiders!"

"Language, Ronald." Even in the midst of crisis, manners couldn't be over-looked. Speaking of manners, she had a feeling she knew where to look for the cause (or causes) of this little prank.

"Come on, Ginny. We'll go see how Charlie's doing with Percy," Molly said as she stood and headed for the door.

"Ron, you go ahead and get ready now, then have a little lie-in. I'll call you when it's time to head out."

Ron moved slowly and shakily toward his dresser and cautiously pulled open another drawer, then jumped back, watching. When he was certain that no further spiders were going to start a meringue around his room, he proceeded to pull out a clean shirt.

In Percy's room, they found two young men in varying states of frustration and confusion.

"Well that's not right Charlie, because the glasses are still stuck, and now the room's gone violet," Percy was explaining with an air of great exasperation.

"I don't know quite what to make of it, Mum," Charlie said as Molly and Ginny came in. "I tried a simple un-sticking charm, and that just changed the color of the lenses. When I tried to change the lenses back to clear, the frames just tightened down on his nose even further…"

It was unusual for Charlie to be flummoxed by simple pranks and he silently admitted that the twins were actually quite talented. Unfortunately they still had a lot to learn about where, when (and against whom) to use those talents.

Molly, however, had seen this sort of effect before. This wasn't entirely unlike the prank that her late brother Fabian Prewett had played on their great-uncle Mordicai.

"Percy, you sit down here on the bed. Charlie, here's what I need you to do."

Molly proceeded to talk Charlie through a fairly unusual set of charms, while she also cast some seemingly unrelated spells on Percy's glasses from the opposite side. With the two of them working together, it still took nearly ten minutes to get the spectacles to drop off their weary wearer and for the lenses to return to clear.

Percy breathed a sigh of relief. He would certainly never admit to it publicly, but that little prank, especially when it proved so difficult to reverse, had really gotten to him. Percy was the most up tight of the Weasley lot, and had virtually no sense of humor. This, of course, made him a favorite target amongst his siblings and schoolmates alike.

Meanwhile across the pond at the back of The Burrow property, Fred and George were hiding amongst the leaves of a tall elm tree. They were keeping a close watch on the progressing chaos and turmoil in the house with a pair of nicked Sneakoscopes.

"Gred, I do believe that we've out-done ourselves this time!" George proclaimed happily.

"You do have a point there, Forge" Fred agreed.

"I can't wait to hear Ginny when her hair turns black."

"Her hair…?"

"What-"

"Oh, no…"

Just as the terrible realization of a potential blunder dawned on the twins, a heart-wrenching wail of pain and fear rolled out of The Burrow…

While Ginny was certainly relieved that her two brothers were now freed from the effects of their respective pranks, she was growing more and more worried about the burning sensation on her face. Right after breakfast it had felt as though she were simply flushed and overly excited about the days trip into London.

By the time they had cleared the spiders out of Ron's room and gotten him calmed down, it had begun to feel like a bad sunburn. Now, though, it had reached a point where it was genuinely painful and she had really started to worry.

"Mummy…" Ginny started, but stopped at the horrified expression on her mother's face. She reached up and gingerly touched her cheeks…

That's when the boils erupted.

In all her young life, Ginny had never felt anything like this. The pain was like little hot needles pricking all over her tiny, freckled face. But that frightened her far less than look of horror on the assembled faces, and worse, the sight of her own reflection in Percy's mirror. She wailed, not only for the pain her boils were causing, but at the injustice of being so marred!

Molly, Percy, Charlie all ran to their little girl and held her, trying vainly to comfort her. Molly quickly began standard healing charms to banish blemishes, acne, even an anti-rash charm. The combination seemed to slow the spread of the painful boils that had now covered Ginny's face, neck and collarbones.

Ron came running into the room, spurred by Ginny's continued wailing and pleading.

"What the… Oh, my God! Ginny! Mum, what's happened? What is all that?!" Ron was instantly moved to panic out of love for his little sister and closest sibling.

"We're going to put a stop to this right now! Percy, go to my room and get the black bag from the top left shelf in the closet. Ron, get the healers kit and my potions book out of the back of the pantry. Move! Both of you!" Both boys sprinted out of the room.

Molly turned to Charlie just in time to see an almost frightening glint in his narrowed eyes. "This time they've gone way too far!" Charlie hissed as he stormed from the room.

Molly could only wonder where he was headed. Her immediate concern was for the small sobbing girl in her arms. She lifted Ginny in a hug and carried her downstairs where the other boys were already waiting.

Molly quickly applied an anti-inflammatory cream to Ginny's face, neck and upper chest, and began reviewing cures for boils and other skin diseases in her Household Remedies and Healing Potions. The trouble was, she wasn't quite certain about the cause of this malady.

As she began gathering ingredients to brew one of the more potent boil-curing salves, Fred and George shuffled hesitantly into the kitchen from the back yard. Ron and Percy immediately closed-in on the guilty-looking twins, and Molly actually drew her wand on them! Needless to say, this froze everyone in their tracks as they had never witnessed this level of matronly wrath before. The twins had gone noticeably pale, and Ron and Percy took a few cautious steps back.

"You two have a lot of explaining to do." The deathly cold tone in her voice instantly told the twins that they had gone well beyond the usual level of trouble that invariably provoked their mother to high-decibel rants.

"You two will tell me exactly what you've done, what combination of spells and potions you used to achieve this disaster and then you will help un-do it all," Molly continued in the same icy monotone. "Once that's done, your father and I will discuss the best way to impress on you the seriousness of your actions. I've come to expect some high jinks and a bit of deviltry from you boys, and your first two pranks this morning seemed to be right up your alley. But to cause this kind of pain and physical harm on your baby sister… I've half-a-mind to revive an old muggle custom called 'switching' on the both of you!"

Neither of the boys liked the sound of that at all. They knew that there would be hell to pay for their pranks this morning, but the thought of muggle-based corporal punishment dropped icy chips of fear into both of their stomachs. They already felt terrible that the prank on Ginny had gone so wrong, but this…

"Mum, we're really- "

"- really sorry," Fred finished George's apology. "We only wanted to turn her hair black and cause a little itchy, red rash. I'm not sure what went wrong."

"We can show you all the potion ingredients we used."

"And the combination of charms and hexes that bound them all together."

"Ginny," both boys said in unison, "we really are very sorry."

George knelt in front of his little sister. "You know we'd never try to do anything we thought would actually hurt you."

Joining his twin, Fred continued. "We love you too much to ever want to hurt you. Our prank just got away from us."

"We are so sorry…"

Over the course of the next thirty minutes, Molly, Fred and George, and Charlie when he re-joined them, went over the exact steps the twins had taken to produce the potion they had slipped into Ginny's pumpkin juice at breakfast. It was soon discovered that they had mislabeled one of their ingredients, accidentally using distilled bobertuber pus, instead of the flobber worm juice they thought they'd used.

It took another forty five minutes for Molly to get a suitable antidote prepared. She'd even had to floo directly to Diagon Alley to the Apothecary to get some of the ingredients and a pre-prepared ointment.

During this time, the twins had been banished to their room with dire warnings not to so much as touch the doorknob without permission. Their trunks, wands and other school supplies were already carted downstairs so they could leave for London as soon as Ginny had been treated and the rest of the family was ready.

The trip to London had been unusually quiet. Molly hadn't raised her voice to the twins; in fact, she'd hardly spoken to them. That coupled with the hurt, dejected look on Ginny's face whenever she glanced their way just twisted the knives deeper in their hearts.

Molly had been able to reverse most of the effects of the potion the twins concocted, but Ginny was left with what amounted to a bad case of sun burn. The boils, swelling and pain had all gone, but the red, itchy skin would last another day or two.

Remorse had overcome the boys, and they had tried to apologize earnestly for all the trouble they'd caused. Percy had just rolled his eyes and then proceeded to ignore them the rest of the way to London. Ron had the smoldering look that foretold of a long grudge in the making.

Charlie was something of an enigma. Whenever either of the twins looked his way, they were sure that they saw a tiny smirk on his lips, and the twinkle in his eye gave them a distinct feeling of uneasiness.

Once they had all gotten on to platform nine and three-quarters at Kings Cross Station, Molly pulled Fred and George aside.

"Now, you boys listen to me and listen well. Your father and I have already been in touch with Professors McGonagall and Dumbledore. They've agreed to uphold your punishment and see to it that you comply."

George started to make his complaint about that, but Molly cut him off straight away. "Ah. There will be no back-talk from either of you. Your wands have been stored in your trunks, and the trunks have been charmed not to open until tonight, after you're safely in your dormitory. Professor McGonagall will be having you in detention every Saturday for the first month you're at school."

Both boys looked crest-fallen, but knew that they deserved this discipline. They were secretly pleased that their punishment wasn't more severe. While they were genuinely sorry for the failed prank on Ginny (they really did love her too much to ever want to inflict that on her), they were only kinda' sorry that they had frightened Ron as badly as they had, and felt no remorse at all for Percy's prank with the glasses.

As the twins and Percy boarded the train, Ron and Ginny hovered near to where Molly and Charlie were watching and conversing in low tones.

"I have to admit, son, that I really wanted to lay into those two far more severely. You're a lot like your father you know, convincing me to back down like that," Molly complimented her second-eldest. "Do you think it'll work?"

"No worries, Mum," Charlie said, smiling at his mother's praise. "I've actually used similar charms in other situations."

As the train slowly began pulling out, he explained to his two youngest siblings who had turned and looked at him curiously:

"I hexed all of the twins' boxers. For the next two weeks, if either of them even think of pulling a prank of any sort on anyone at all, they'll get a really nasty sting in the arse!"

Ron and Ginny looked delighted at this prospect, and as the train picked up speed, their grins grew wider still as two distinct yelps could be heard coming from one of the cars.

~ Fin