Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes and Whatnot

It was finally Christmas Eve, and we were all sitting in the living room. I had helped Ginny decorate, but we had gone a little overboard and now it looked like a paper chain explosion. There was a big tree in the corner, and none of the adults had noticed yet that the angel on top was actually a gnome that had bitten Fred. He had stupefied it, painted it gold, and stuffed it in a tutu. It was the ugliest angel I’d ever seen, with rather hairy feet.

We were supposed to be listening to Celestina Warbeck, Mrs. Weasley’s favorite singer, but Fleur, who found Celestina very dull was talking very loudly in the corner. Mrs. Weasley kept pointing her wand at the volume dial on the radio. Under cover of a song called “A Cauldron Full of Hot, Strong Love,” Fred, George, Ginny, and I had started a game of Exploding Snap. Ginny was currently winning.

Finally, Celestina ended her last song with a very long, high-pitched note and applause echoed from the radio, which Mrs. Weasley joined in with.

“Eez eet over?” said Fleur loudly. “Thank goodness, what an ‘orrible – “

“Shall we have a nightcap, then?” asked Mr. Weasley loudly, jumping up. “Who wants eggnog?”

I went into the kitchen a few minutes later to get a glass of water. As I was standing at the sink, looking out the window at all the snow, I felt a pair of hands snake around my waist. I jumped about a foot and gave a little squeak as I turned around.

“Did I scare you?” George chuckled.

“Don’t sneak up on me like that!” I hit his arm.

“I’m sorry,” he said, still grinning, and pulling me against him.

He leaned down and kissed me softly.

“I don’t think you really are”

“Yes I am” he kissed me softly again.

“I’m really, really, really sorry” he said, kissing my neck between each word.

“George” I sighed.

“What?” he asked, still kissing my neck.

“We can’t do this here”

“Why not?”

“Well, maybe because everyone else is right in the other room”

“So?”

“Someone’s going to walk in”

“At this point, I really don’t care”

He kissed my lips and backed me against the sink, then I felt him smirk.

“And I know with a little persuasion, you won’t either”

“Oh yeah?” I smirked too, “What kind of persuasion?”

He pressed his lips against mine again and my hand tangled in his hair as I felt his tongue run along my bottom lip.

Well he was right about not caring anymore.

I don’t know how long it was, but I’m guessing not quite ten minutes later, we heard someone clear their throat behind us. George turned around and I immediately blushed the color of his hair when we saw Mr. Weasley standing there awkwardly, holding empty glasses. Of all the people to walk in on us.

George just grinned and said, “Evening Dad”

“Hey Mr. Weasley” I said nervously.

“Uh – hi, just came to refill some drinks” he said, proceeding to do that.

As he left, he said, “Well, uh – carry on, or – cheers, I mean…”

George turned back to me and basically started where we’d left off.

“George” I said, pushing him away.

“What? You heard him,” he said, grinning.

“Yes, but I don’t think he literally meant ‘carry on.’”

“He wouldn’t have said it if he didn’t mean it”

I rolled my eyes, “I think we better get back”

He groaned, “Please? I don’t want to be around them”

I laughed, “They’re your family”

“Exactly”

“Come on” I said, kissing him once more and pulling him back to the living room.

I noticed Fred smirking when we came back in, but did my best to ignore it. Nobody else seemed to have been too bothered by our absence, and I doubted Mr. Weasley was going to start talking about it because he had seemed as embarrassed as I had been. So I just sat down next to George and started up a conversation with Ginny.

Not too long after, Fleur had started an imitation of Celestina’s singing, which we all took, after seeing Mrs. Weasley’s expression, as a cue to go to bed.

“Don’t leave me with her again” I whined to George, holding onto his arm and tilting my head towards Fleur.

He glanced over to where she was talking giddily to Bill. She’d only been here a week or so, but she always talked till all hours of the night and her accent became extremely annoying at around one in the morning.

“Sorry, love, but there’s not really anything I can do” he shrugged, then whispered “I would tell you to sneak into our room, but I don’t think you’ll be able with Bill in there, too”

“Maybe if we pretend to be asleep when she comes in, she won’t talk” I muttered, pouting.

George chuckled, “Yeah good luck with that”

He kissed me goodnight and Ginny and I went to her room. Unfortunately, Fleur either knew we were pretending to be asleep, or simply didn’t care because she just babbled endlessly as she got ready for bed and then for quite a while as she lay in bed. I covered my head with my pillow and noticed Ginny plugging her ears.

I woke up fairly early the next morning for not getting much sleep that night. I took a quick look through the stocking at the foot of my bed. It included, of course, one of Mrs. Weasley’s homemade sweaters and a box of Weasleys’ Wizard Wheezes products along with other things. From George, I also got a charm bracelet with a key and lock on it. I put it on, then tiptoed out of the room since Ginny and Fleur were still sleeping before running up to Fred and George’s room.

“Morning Bill” I said cheerily as I accidentally tripped over him.

He grunted in response and turned over. I hopped onto George’s bed, waking him up in the process.

“Merry Christmas” I kissed him and he pulled me down next to him.

“Merry Christmas, love” he grinned.

“I love the bracelet,” I smiled, holding up my wrist.

“Good, I was hoping you would. Know why it has a key on it?”

“Cause I hold the key to your heart?”

“Indeed you do”

I grinned, “That’s so cheesy…but I love it anyways. Did you see my gift?”

“Well, since you just woke me up, that would be a no”

I sat up and dug through his stocking to find the package. I handed it to him and waited impatiently as he opened it.

“That’s a nice wallet,” he examined it.

“Well, you’re a business man now, so I thought you should have a nice one, and…” I
pointed to the inside of the wallet, “a picture of us, so even when I’m not here, you can still gaze at my beauty, or your own if you’re without a mirror”

He laughed, “Great, thanks”

“I brought you these, too” I handed him a box.

“Chocolate Cauldrons? You’re the greatest” he kissed me again.

“I know”

“Can you please not be so cutesy this early in the morning, it’s making me nauseous,” Fred grumbled.

“Oh, Fred, don’t worry, I brought you some too” I tossed him the box.

He sat up quickly, “Nice! You are the greatest!”

I laughed and George wrapped an arm around my waist, kissing my cheek.

Everyone was wearing new sweaters at Christmas lunch. Well, everyone except Fleur, who I’m guessing Mrs. Weasley didn’t want to waste one on. Mrs. Weasley, herself, was wearing a new midnight-blue hat and a pretty golden necklace.

“Fred and George gave them to me! Aren’t they beautiful?”

“Well, we find we appreciate you more and more, Mum, now we’re washing our own socks,” said George.

I smiled, thinking back to when they had first tried doing their own laundry and turned everything in the wash brown. It took me nearly half an hour to turn everything back to its original color.

About halfway through lunch, Mrs. Weasley suddenly rose from her chair, “Arthur!”

She was staring out the window, “Arthur – It’s Percy!”

“What?”

Mr. Weasley looked around and we all strained to see out the window. There, indeed, was Percy, walking across the yard, but he was not alone.

“Arthur, he’s – he’s with the Minister!”

The back door opened and Percy stood there for a moment’s awkward silence before saying “Merry Christmas, Mother.”

“Oh, Percy!” cried Mrs. Weasley, throwing herself into his arms.

Rufus Scrimgeour stood in the doorway, leaning on his walking stick and smiling at the touching scene before him.

“You must forgive the intrusion,” he said to Mrs. Weasley. “Percy and I were in the vicinity – working, you know – and he couldn’t resist dropping in and seeing you all.”

In my opinion, Percy did not look at all as if he wanted to be there. He stood there, straight-faced and staring over all of our heads. Mr. Weasley, Fred, and George were all watching him stonily.

“Please, come in, sit down, Minister!” said Mrs. Weasley. “Have a little purkey, or some tooding…I mean – “

“No, no, my dear Molly,” Scrimgeour said. “I don’t want to intrude, wouldn’t be here at all if Percy hadn’t wanted to see you all so badly…”

“Oh, Perce!” Mrs. Weasley cried again, reaching up to kiss him.

“…We’ve only looked in for five minutes, so I’ll have a stroll around the yard while you catch up with Percy. No, no, I assure you I don’t want to butt in! Well, if anybody cared to show me your charming garden…Ah, that young man’s finished, why doesn’t he take a stroll with me?”

The atmosphere in the room changed drastically. We all looked from Scrimgeour to Harry. Silly man with his transparent plot. How stupid did he think we were?

“Yeah, all right” Harry broke the silence.

I noticed Lupin begin to rise from his chair and Mr. Weasley looked about ready to say something.

“It’s fine” Harry assured them, “Fine”

“Wonderful!” exclaimed Scrimgeour. “We’ll just take a turn around the garden, and Percy and I’ll be off. Carry on, everyone!”

There was more silence after Harry and the Minister stepped outside. Then, Mrs. Weasley began blubbering and fussing over Percy, asking if he wanted anything to eat, how he was doing at the Ministry, etc. He just stood there, silently, barely taking notice of it all. Fred and George were still watching him, angrily, but it was actually Ginny who flung the first spoonful of mashed parsnip. It didn’t take much longer for Fred and George to join in. Shortly after, Percy stormed from the house, his glasses smeared in the stuff and Mrs. Weasley burst into tears as he left.