It's Better If You Do

“You need to give me that back, right now!” Bellamy exclaimed as she chased a small boy around the shop. She was nervous that George was going to be back and realize that she had turned her back for a moment, letting the boy find the opportunity to steal his wand. Then again, she didn’t know how George expected her to run the shop for as long as he had been away. The boy’s footsteps were deft, quiet, and quick whilst Bellamy’s were loud, clumsy, and rather slow in her heels. The boy, who was holding George’s wand, cackled loudly and turned, pointing the wand at the French woman. Then, with a large vulgar sound and a bright white light, a thick, yet translucent green slime had shot from the tip of George’s wand and covered her head to toe.

The children and the few parents that had been watching laughed raucously at the woman who appeared to have just emerged from a swamp. She stopped chasing the boy, breathing heavily, as she wiped away the green sludge that had slid into her eyes. She was too angry to be appalled at the fact that her outfit had been ruined and she could have throttled both Fred and Rose for neglecting their jobs for whatever they had been doing. A small clearing had formed, spanning from where Bellamy had stopped, dripping with the mixture of slime and sludge, and from where the little boy was staring at her with a wily, wicked grin, waiting for her next move.

“You think this is funny, do you?” She asked exasperatedly, feeling all the blood rush to her cheeks out of sheer anger. The boy merely giggled, only infuriating Bellamy even more. “I have been chasing you for ten minutes,” she said sounding much calmer than she appeared to be, pursing her lips as she managed to get past all the slime and sludge to find her wand in her dress’ pocket. “And I’ve had enough,” she nodded, wiping away the slime from her eyes once more and flicking it to the side, “now, give me the wand, or I will resort to magic.” The boy merely grinned wider, slowly shaking his head as Bellamy looked mad enough to have steam shooting from her ears. She lifted her wand, meaning to put the boy in a leg-locker jinx so he wouldn’t be able to run and quickly take George’s wand back.

“Locomotor Mortis,” she hissed. But instead of the boy’s legs binding themselves together, there was a great whooshing and whistling sound, like air being slowly let out of a balloon and her wand turned into a rubber chicken within her grasp. She knew she was bad at magic, but never bad enough to turn her wand into a chicken. Her eyes then connected with the display of prank wands and it all became very clear. Letting out a loud scoff, she flung the chicken to the ground, amidst the sound of wild, hysterical laughter.

“Looking for this?” A small voice chimed behind her and she turned, seeing a little girl holding her wand as she grinned widely. Bellamy let out a heavy sigh and let her arms fall to her sides, slapping against the slime with a satisfying squelch which only caused the people around her to laugh harder. She stared at the little girl darkly before turning back to the little boy, who was still pointing the wand at her. He gave it a gentle flick and soon she found herself covered in bright blue feathers. Bellamy looked down at herself, amidst even louder laughter, and looked up at the boy. She drew in a deep breath, her eyes wide and almost scary looking, but before she got her chance to yell at the boy, someone else had stepped in for her.

“I’ll take this back, thank you,” George chirped from behind the boy as he easily plucked it from the younger boy’s fingers, inciting some laughter at his charred and crazy appearance as Rose snuck up behind the girl and took her sister’s wand from her without making a sound. Bellamy let out a sharp sigh and scowled at George, though it lost it’s potency through the slime and bright blue feathers. Rose stepped over to her furious looking sister as Fred shooed the crowds away, hiding his humor for the whole situation well. He did, however, notice that most of the crowd flocked over to the fake wands.

Bellamy snatched her wand angrily from Rose, turning her glare to her sister. The blonde plucked a feather from her hair, as if it would make and difference from the many feathers that made Bellamy look like a large fowl.

“I’ll deal with you and Fred later,” she said in a low voice, slowly walking away from her sister, her feet slipping and sliding as the slime has covered the bottom of her shoes. Rose’s eyes followed her for a moment before she turned to George, who seemed to have been watching the whole exchange between the siblings because he was watching them worriedly. Rose let out a sigh and shot him a wide-eyed look before nodding to Bellamy and mouthing, “Go help her.”

George sprung into action and stepped around the children, quickly making his way to Bellamy’s side as she took slow, wobbling steps toward the backroom and leaving a trail of slimy footprints and a few feathers than had managed to free themselves from the muck that covered the poor girl. Just as George stopped beside her, she slipped forward and he managed to reach out catch her elbow, keeping her from falling completely. She shot him a dark look as she continued to walk, allowing George to guide her into the back room.

“I am so sorry, Bellamy,” he apologized once they got to the back room, just in case Bellamy decided to yell and curse at him. “I didn’t know I’d be that long and then…stuff happened.” She turned and stared at him, looking absolutely enraged, but once she got a good look at his appearance, her expression slowly turned into one of pure joy. She outright laughed at him, slipping a bit as they began to slowly walked up the stairs.

“What happened to you?” She asked through her giggles. George, who would have gotten mad at her for laughing, found the fact that she didn’t yell at him for leaving her all alone in the shop refreshing. He chose to ignore her laughing at his misfortune for the moment. He didn’t want her to get angry at him for using Rose’s wand, but he knew she’d find out eventually.

“Well…Rose and Fred were sleeping the morning away, so I decided that I’d wake them up rudely. I couldn’t find my wand…so I decided to use Rose’s instead,” he explained as he carefully guided Bellamy up the stairs. He paused, noticing that instead of glaring at him like he thought she would, she merely continued laugh. “And I was going to do a Bat-Bogey Hex on Fred, but…this happened.”

By the time they had reached the flat, Bellamy had nearly doubled over with laughter, feathers falling out of the slimy concoction that had started to dry on her skin.

“You are such an idiot, George,” she exclaimed through her laughter, shaking her head slowly. He merely looked over at her with an unenthusiastic expression, which only caused her to laugh even harder. “You should know better than to use someone else’s wand, especially foreign wands.”

“Well, I know that now, don’t I?” He asked grumpily, crossing his arms over his chest as he let go of Bellamy. She slipped and plopped down on her backside with a thud, still laughing heartily. “Rose thought that you could brew me a hair replenishing potion before lunch.” Bellamy tried to stem her laughter as she stayed on her spot in the floor, staring up at George and looking like a great big, blue bird. She merely nodded, her bottom lip quivering with laughter.

“Could you help me pick out some clothes, George?” She asked him politely, her voice quivering slightly as she tried to control her laughter. “I’d do it myself but I’m covered in a feathery goop at the moment and it‘d ruin the rest of my clothes.” George had half a mind to tell her to find a way to help herself, but he needed that hair replenishing potion and figured that being mean to her was no way to get a favor. He let out a heavy sigh and crouched down in front of her trunk.

“What do you want me to pick out?” He asked as he pulled open the lid. Bellamy let out a heavy sigh and thought through what outfit she wanted to change into.

“I want my yellow, polka dotted dress, my white and gold belt, and my white flats,” she said softly, staring at him as he picked through her things. He blushed a deep red as he found a few pair of her knickers in the clothes and Bellamy bit her bottom lip to keep from laughing but didn’t say a word. Thankfully, Bellamy had most of her clothes organized by color, so it didn’t take him that long to find her requested items of clothing and regroup from seeing her undergarments. He gently took her clothes in his hands and straightened up, looking over at her expectantly. “If you would place them in the bathroom for me, please,” she said softly, “and after I‘m done getting all this icky stuff off of me, I‘ll help you look normal again. Well...as normal as possible.” George merely shot her a look as she snickered quietly from her spot on the floor.

He nodded and walked into the bathroom, placing her dress and belt on the side of the sink and her flats on the ground. Bellamy took the time to pull off her heels, a loud slurping noise emitted from each shoe as she pulled them off to see that her feet were covered in green slime as well. Wrinkling her nose, she looked over at George, who was standing in the doorway of the bathroom; his face was still nearly blackened completely and his vivid red hair standing on end, spare a few bald spots. He stared down at her; her prim and proper posture slouched beneath the weight of the thick green sludge and the thick layer of bright blue feathers that covered her.

George gave her a tightlipped grin as he fought off the inclination to laugh causing Bellamy to do just the same. She lifted her arms toward him, like a child that wanted to be picked up, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth.

“Help me up,” she asked nicely before they both burst into laughter at their strange appearances, even by their standards.