Home Alone
By Poppy P
A/N: I took the title from that other
little Chris Columbus film. I borrowed a line from Disney’s “The Aristocats”
and I got inspired by “The Goonies”. Just another one of those silly, little
missing time scenes. Enjoy!
“They’re up to something!” announced six-year-old
Ginny in a singsong voice. She skipped into the living room, red pigtails bouncing,
and stopped in front of her brother Ron. The seven-year-old boy was sitting
on the couch pouring over the latest Martin Miggs Comic.
“Who is?” asked Ron without bothering
to look up from his book.
“Fred and George!” said Ginny with savage
triumph. She brought her redheaded rag doll level to her face. “Aren’t they
Mrs Gabby?” she asked the little scarlet-robed figure.
“Fred and George are up to something,”
declared the doll woodenly. Their father had recently charmed Ginny’s doll to
talk. She mostly repeated sentences she had heard.
“What are they doing?” asked Ron disinterestedly.
Their nine-year-old twin brothers were almost always ‘up to something’.
“They’re going through Bill and Charlie’s
school trunks!” Ginny’s voice trembled with indignation.
Bill, their oldest brother, had recently
finished his seventh and final year at Hogwarts. Charlie would be starting his
sixth the following year. Their school trunks had been sitting in their bedroom,
unpacked, for over a week.
“George found some disgusting magazine
in Bill’s trunk. It’s full of naked girls!” said Ginny, outraged.
Ron looked up suddenly. “Ewww! Who’d want
to look at girls anyway? I hate girls!”
“I’m a girl,” said Ginny, lower lip quavering.
“Don’t you like me?”
“You’re not a girl!” contested Ron hotly.
“You’re just a sister!”
“Anyway,” continued Ginny in a business-like
manner, “now they found some sweets in Charlie’s trunk and they’re sneaking
them all out.”
“So go and tell,” said Ron lazily, returning
to his book.
“I can’t. Mum took Percy to get his new
glasses. Dad’s at work. Bill’s in charge, but he’s out playing Quidditch with
Charlie. There’s nobody to tell! Don’t they know that children should be supersized?”
she asked, placing her hands on her hips.
“Supervised, stupid,” said Ron with a
snort.
“That’s what I meant,” said Ginny with
a stamp of her foot.
Ron flipped a page in his book. “Don’t
worry. Charlie’ll pound them when he finds out.”
“But it may be too late by then,” said
Ginny, swinging her doll around by a cloth arm. “They’ll have eaten all of Charlie’s
sweets.”
Ron shrugged.
“Well, if you’re not going to do anything
about it, then I suppose I’ll have to. Mum’s not here, so that makes me the
woman of the house.” Ginny squared her shoulders and headed for the stairs.
“Suit yourself,” said Ron, absorbed in
his comic.
Ginny had not been gone ten minutes when
Ron heard her loud cries. He jumped to his feet and sprinted up the stairs.
Ginny was annoying, but that didn’t mean he’d allow Fred and George to torture
her.
He ran into his brothers’ room where he
found Fred holding Mrs Gabby above Ginny’s head. Ginny was crying as she tried
to reach her. George was laughing as Fred twisted the cloth doll’s little arm
around her back.
“Give her the doll,” commanded Ron.
Ron’s sudden appearance startled Fred
into dropping the doll. Ginny quickly snatched her up and ran to stand behind
Ron. “You’re going to get it now,” she sniffled, patting her doll back into
shape.
The battered doll answered in its usual
monotone. “You’re going to get it now.”
“Is ickle Ronniekins going to try and
stop us as well?” asked Fred in a mocking tone.
“I don’t care what you do,” said Ron,
edging his way towards the door. “I just want you to leave her alone.”
“She said she was going to tell on us,”
said George indignantly.
Ron turned back towards his sister who
was nodded furiously. “I’m telling.”
“Come on Ginnypoo,” wheedled George. “We’ll
share some of the sweets with you if you keep quiet.”
“Can Ronny have some too?” asked Ginny.
Ron looked at his sister admiringly. Apparently her moral sense of outrage did
not prevent her from partaking in the stolen sweets.
“Of course he can,” said Fred suddenly.
“See?” He shoved a lollipop towards Ron.
Ron took the acid-green sweet in Fred’s
hand and shrugged. “Seems fair,” he said, peeling the wrapper off and popping
it into his mouth.
The instant the lollipop touched his tongue,
Ron felt a horrible burning sensation. His tongue was on fire! He spat the pop
out but it kept burning. He ran around the room, trying to scream with his tongue
hanging out.
“Blimey!” cried George, “That burnt a
hole right through his tongue! What was that?”
“Acid pop!” said Fred, with a note of
panic in his voice. “I didn’t know they would burn that badly.”
Ron was still running around, fanning
his tongue with his hand. Ginny was wailing and trying to help by waving Mrs
Gabby in front of him. “Poor Ronny! Poor Ronny!”
“What’s all this racket? And what are
you doing in our room?”
Bill and Charlie walked in on the chaotic
scene. Bill caught sight of Ron’s perforated tongue and pulled out his wand.
“Extinguo!” he cried, pointing his wand at Ron.
Ron felt the pain lesson immediately,
however he still had a large, raw hole in the middle of his tongue. He tried
to speak, but his words came out quite garbled.
“Fed id it,” said Ron, pointing a finger
at Fred accusingly.
Charlie stooped down to pick up the discarded
wrapper from the floor. “Acid pop,” he said, showing the wrapper to Bill.
Bill turned on the twins furiously. “You
idiots gave him an acid pop? Didn’t you read the wrapper? It says they’re not
fit for human consumption!”
“I just wanted to see what would happen,”
said Fred, shoving his hands in his pockets and scraping his worn sneakers on
the carpet.
“He didn’t know it would burn a hole like
that,” said George standing next to his twin.
“Mum’s going to kill us all!” moaned Bill.
“But I didn’t do anything!” cried Ginny.
Fred pointed an accusing finger at her.
“This is all your fault, you little snitch!”
“You’re the idiot who gave him the thing!”
stormed Charlie.
“Ah ha a ho in ma pong!” said Ron awkwardly.
George stepped closer to Ron and peered
intently at his tongue. “Do you think Mum will notice?” he asked.
Everyone stopped talking at once and looked
at him incredulously. “Of course she’ll notice, you great, stupid prat! He’s
got a bloody hole in his tongue!” shouted Bill.
He ran a hand through his bright hair causing
it to stand up in spikes. “Charlie and I will get it because we’re the oldest.
Tweedledum and Tweedlestupid,” he pointed at the twins, “will get it for giving
him the damn thing. Even Ginny will catch it for not telling someone sooner.”
Ginny burst into loud wails, Mrs Gabby
sobbing along with her.
Charlie paced the room anxiously. “Can’t
you heal it Bill? I mean, you are a qualified wizard now.”
Bill looked slightly embarrassed. “No.
I didn’t take any classes in magical healing. That’s why all I did was stop
the hole from getting bigger. If I tried to repair it, I might end up taking
his whole tongue out.”
Ron’s eyes widened with horror and he shook
his head frantically.
“Dad can fix it!” said George suddenly.
“If we can just hold on until Dad gets home, we’ll tell him it was an accident.”
Fred burst into an eager grin. “That’s
right! Dad won’t go all mad on us like Mum. We’ll just explain to him that it
was an accident.”
“But Mum will be home first, that means
we have to keep this from her until Dad’s home and we can speak to him privately,”
said Charlie. “Can you keep your mouth shut Ron?”
They all turned to Ron. Fred threw an arm
around him. “Come on Ronny. I swear,” he indicated George, “we’ll never pull
a prank like this on you again.”
Ron looked at them skeptically. Then he
crossed his eyes to look at his protruding tongue. “Ah don no…”
“Please Ron,” said Ginny, throwing her
arms around him. “I don’t want to catch it!”
Ron relented immediately. “Ohay,” he agreed.
As if on cue, they heard a door slam downstairs.
“Children! We’re home!” their mother’s voice called up to them.
Seconds later, their eleven-year-old brother
Percy, walked into the room. “Mother wants you all downstairs. She’s fixing
us a snack.” His eyes narrowed suspiciously behind his new, horned-rimmed glasses.
“What have you lot been doing?” he asked.
“We’ve been helping Bill and Charlie to
unpack,” said Fred quickly.
“Well, you haven’t done a very good job,
have you?” Percy surveyed the room critically.
“Sod off Perce,” said Charlie, heading
for the door. “Come on, let’s go and see what Mum has for us.”
“It’s biscuits and lemonade,” answered
Percy.
Ron whimpered.
Molly greeted them cheerfully as she set
out the cups. “Hello dears! I thought we’d have a snack to tide us over until
dinner. Dad owled me to say he’s going to work late tonight. So I thought we’d
wait to have dinner with him.”
They sat around the wooden table, cheerfully
answering their mother’s inquiries.
“Did Fred and George de-gnome the garden
like I asked?”
“Did Ginny clean her room?”
“Did you boys unpack your trunks?”
Mrs Weasley turned suddenly to Ron. “Why
aren’t you eating, dear?”
Ron clamped his lips shut and shrugged.
“Are you sick?” asked Mrs Weasley with
concern.
Bill, Charlie, the twins and Ginny, shared
a guilty look.
“What’s wrong with Ron?” asked Mrs Weasley,
staring around the table at her children.
“He…he had a snack earlier,” said Charlie
tentatively. “Maybe he’s just not hungry.”
“Is this true Ron?” Mrs Weasley asked.
Ron nodded vigorously.
“Has a kneazle got your tongue? Answer
me with your mouth, Ronald,” demanded Mrs Weasley.
“Yeth,” he said carefully.
“Why does he sound funny?” asked Percy.
He jumped suddenly. “Ouch! Mum, George just kicked me under the table!”
Bill kicked George who hissed in pain.
Charlie started humming an odd, strained little tune. Fred was on the verge
of hyperventilating. Ginny placed Mrs Gabby on her shoulder and popped her thumb
in her mouth.
“What’s going on?” demanded Mrs Weasley
in her sternest voice.
Mrs Gabby suddenly wriggled off of Ginny’s
shoulder and hopped onto the middle of the table. “I’ve had enough of this!”
she cried in a squeaky, outraged voice.
“Mrs Gabby,” gasped Ginny. The rest of
the table gaped at the doll, open-mouthed. Only Mrs Weasley remained nonplussed.
“This one,” cried Mrs Gaby, pointing a
rag arm at Fred, “gave that one a very dangerous sweet! It burned a hole right
through his tongue. The rest of them are covering up for him because they think
they’ll be in trouble as well. But it’s not right for the little one to go around
with a hole in his tongue. I’ve tried to be a good companion to your daughter,
but this is a mad house! Not only did he burn a hole in his brother’s tongue,
he twisted my arm as well! Look at it! My seams are coming undone and everything!”
She hopped up and down, shaking her tiny, rag fists. “I’ll not stay here a moment
longer!” The jumped off the table, landed on the floor and ran out the door.
Nobody moved to stop her.
Mrs Gabby never came back inside
the Burrow. The children would spy her occasionally in the garden, running around
with the gnomes. Weasley legend stated that she became some sort of leader for
them.
Mrs Weasley sprang at Ron and pried his
mouth open. “Oh my goodness!” she cried at the sight of her youngest son’s tongue.
“Bill, hand me my wand.” Within seconds, Ron’s tongue was whole again. Stiff,
but whole. “Bill,” said Mrs Weasley quietly, “take Ron into the living room
and let him lie down. The rest of you lot, leave Fred and I alone.”
Fred gulped audibly as his mother reached
for her broom. George gave his twin one last, desperate look. He hung back until
Charlie pulled him out of the room.
It wasn’t long after they heard the swish
and thud of their mum’s broom that Fred’s cries started. George clenched his
eyes shut and covered his ears. Even Bill and Charlie winced in sympathy. Every
single one of them, with the exception of Ginny and Percy, had been on the receiving
end of their mother’s broom at one time or another.
After a few minutes, Fred emerged from
the kitchen, sniveling and rubbing his bottom. He glanced briefly at his wide-eyed
siblings before heading up the stairs. George ran after him immediately.
“He deserved it,” said Percy smugly.
Ron shot him a look of disgust. “Come
on,” he said, leading everyone except Percy up the stairs towards the twins’
room.
They found George sitting next to Fred
on his bed and patting his back consolingly. Fred was lying on his stomach.
“Did it hurt?” asked Ginny in a very small
voice.
“What do you think?” said George savagely.
“He’ll live,” said Charlie wisely. He
sat on George’s bed and pulled Ginny onto his lap. “But he won’t be able to
sit for a week.”
Bill plopped himself down on the floor.
“That was pretty stupid, Fred.”
“I’m sorry about your tongue Ron,” said
Fred weakly.
“And I’m sorry you got walloped. Who knew
Ginny’s doll would rat us out like that, eh?” Ron sat down next to George.
“I guess Dad’s Animate Charm is
more powerful that he knows,” mused Bill. “I wonder if he can charm anything
bigger than a doll?”
Ron turned to Fred who was still rubbing
his bottom. “Just don’t do anything like that to me again, okay?”
“Truce,” said Fred.
“Here,” Ron reached inside his pocket.
“I’ll even let you borrow Petey.” Petey was Ron’s Puffskein. The twins were
always trying to get Ron to let it sleep with them at night. “You’ll take good
care of him, won’t you?”
Fred exchanged an evil grin with George
behind Ron’s back before answering, “Of course I will Ron.”
