First Annual Sugar Quill Fanfic Tournament Entry
***
Disclaimer: the characters places etc are J.K Rowling's except for Jasmine
and 'The Sweetest Thing Sugarquills' but they're only mine by a technicality
so that doesn't count. Oh and the 'Sweetanie' curse is mine.
Prologue:
Sizzling, bubbling, foaming at the edges. Two identical redheads standing
above a cauldron with anxiously excited hopeful looks adorning their faces.
Suddenly a 'BANG!' like a firecracker went off and the two twins peered
into the cauldron then reach they're hands in greedily to see how their
latest invention has turned out.
Standing up with the delicate item between them, the twins stared
in awe. There it was. Their baby project. Both standing in the firelight,
hair glinting from the reflections of the fire heating the cauldron, mad
grins plastered on their faces; it was a truly eerie sight.
"We've done it!"
"Of course we have! You didn't doubt our genius did you?"
"Why dear brother of course not!"
"Good. Now all we need to do is test it!"
The devilish grins the twins now wore over shadowed the ones they
wore previously and if anyone were to see them they would hope beyond
hope they were not to be the victims of Fred and George Weasley's latest
invention.
Though for this item some might want to be the victim…
***
Christmas holidays had just begun. Harry, Ron, Hermione and the rest
of the Weasley's still attending Hogwarts were sitting in the common room
instead of at The Burrow as previously arranged. Because of the heightened
danger of an attack by Lord Voldemort; two thoughts that had brought down
the spirits of everyone especially an emerald eyed boy.
His hands were cold but my skin burned. I looked deep into his eyes
and was lost in deep pools of his engaging eyes; the windows to his soul.
I could read them perfectly or I thought I could, but my brain was so
muddled I wouldn't be surprised if I was wrong. Every nerve was on fire
and his touch was magnified ten-fold. I could feel his body pressed against
mine, felt his warm breath on my cheek, his hands running through my hair,
but all I could look at was his eyes. He started to lean in-
"ERRR!" Ginny Weasley threw down her quill in frustration.
She was depressed and writing this did not help her mood one bit, but
she couldn't help it, she loved to write and this seemed to be the only
thing that could possibly enter her brain. She felt like an idiot, a 'scarlet
woman' as her mother called them. She looked up and scanned the room her
eyes resting on the raven-haired boy.
How much he has changed over the five years she had known of him. Of
course she had known of him before, everyone had. But not known
him like her brother and Hermione did. The events of last year had changed
him, but he was slowly getting over it. His eyes were no longer etched
with pain, sadness and worry but now back to the way they were. He is
more cautious than he was before. And his marks now beat Hermione's in
Defense against the Dark Arts class. As he has (lets say) more of a motivation
to study the subject and could probably rival a seventh year in knowledge
about hexes, curse, blocking spells and the affects of dark arts spells
among many other things. A fact that has Hermione trying to get her grade
even higher than it is now. Though it is his physical appearance that
has changed the most. For starters his hair once jet-black, now has a
few flecks of brown in it. He is now taller than Ron; a feat thought impossible
by most people. It makes Hermione look like a bug in comparison. He has
a smile that makes girls swoon on the spot and I am no longer the only
girl who stutters in his presence. He has become the school heartthrob;
a fact he is oblivious to. He moved, I diverted my eyes to scan the rest
of the room.
There on opposite ends of a couch are Ron and Hermione glaring at each
other; neither has apologized over the row they had this morning and it
may take awhile before it all simmers down; Fred and George have a bet
on who will apologize first. The row is about something so trivial that
it makes me laugh. It's all about Hermione's hair of all the stupid things.
See, she worked on it for hours trying to make it all silky and smooth.
Even though Ron and Hermione have been going out since the summer, he
still forgets she is a girl and occasionally likes to pamper herself.
Well she comes down stairs and he's all like "what'd you change your
hair for?" and of course Hermione says, "What's wrong with it,
don't you like it?" "Of course I do, it's gorgeous." "
Are you saying you didn't like it before?" "No, I'm just saying…"
and so on and so forth and now they aren't talking to each other.
Their glares and occasional snide comments are giving me a headache,
so I turned to look at Fred and George to see them looking straight back
at me with peculiar expressions on their faces. I'm a little suspicious
because you never know what could be happening with those two.
I look back down at my unfinished story. I don't know whom it's about
(though I have a pretty good idea) only what it's about. I don't know
what else to write, I pick up my quill and suck on it pondering what to
write.
'Hmm" I think 'that's rather good,' low and behold I can't stop
sucking on it. I panic. Suddenly there is a hoot from Fred and George.
They start laughing saying, "it worked! It worked!" I had fallen
for one of their pranks! They must have switched my quill! I wonder what
this is. I've never heard of a quill a person can't stop sucking on.
They come over to me. "Hey Gin! Whatcha up to?"
I open my mouth, try to pull out the quill but am unable to. I try to
talk, but all that comes out is, "fkgsh dgfiue."
More laughter, Oh I'm going to kill them!
Ron, Harry and Hermione come to see what's wrong. Harry asks, "what's
wrong with Ginny?"
In-between peals of laughter the twins explain their latest invention.
"As you can see our darling sister has a 'Sweetest Things Sugarquill
stuck in her mouth."
"A what?"
"It's our new invention. We created them in the summer and we've
been waiting for someone to test this on. We were thinking of giving one
to Hermione to try but she might lose her temper and hex us. Anyway the
sugarquills never run out and you can't stop sucking on them until you've
found your own 'sweetest thing' and taste it. Each person's is different
so it's a mystery that has to be solved-"
"I've heard of this sort of thing, it's a variation of the 'Sweetanie'
curse. You have to try many sweet things until-"
"You've found the one for you and then you can stop sucking on it;
it's the only way to remove it. Good idea eh, thought of it myself."
"And I thought of using it with suqarquills!"
Ron started laughing and Harry couldn't help but crack a reluctant smile.
Hermione didn't laugh. She got mad and started yelling at the twins;
a fact that made me happy because I couldn't do so myself, but the twins
could rest assured that they would get it worse from me.
"So brainiacs did you think through how your going to get Ginny
to taste sweet stuff if there is a quill stuck in her mouth?"
"That's the beauty of it. The quill will allow itself to be removed
from the person's mouth just long enough for the sweet thing to be tested.
But if it's any consolation, they taste good and they won't make you sick."
Smoke was practically emanating from Hermione's ears. "And how would
you know, have you tried them?!"
Fred and George shuffled from one foot to the other, "not really,
no."
"Exactly, so how would you know what they taste like?"
An argument was started, insults were hurled back and forth while I still
had this thing in my mouth.
Harry was fed up, he could tell Ginny was too; a fact which made him
angry indeed. "Enough! Lets just get that out of Ginny's mouth, the
longer it's in the more mad she'll get."
"Your right Harry," Hermione said.
Fred, George and Ron suddenly had identical looks of glee on their faces.
"Your right of course, how about we try a Canary Cream? You like
them don't you Gin?"
She shook her head "no" but Fred raced upstairs to get his
and George's private stores.
George took out a Canary Cream and sent it towards Ginny's mouth. The
quill flew out then right back in and with a 'pop' where once sat Ginny
Weasley was a gorgeous angry canary with a sugarquill stuck in its beak.
More things were shoved in her mouth and she got more and more frustrated
with every candy much to the hilarity of her brothers. She was forced
to eat Toothflossing Stringmints ("hey Gin at least your teeth will
be cleaned, they really could use it they're getting kinda gross!"
That remark caused George to get a kick in the pants.). Exploding Bon
Bons (a repayment for the kick). Levitating Sherbet Balls, Pepper Imps
(a bonus because she set George's hair on fire), Ice Mice, Peppermint
Creams, Peppermint Humbugs, Treacle Tart, Treacle Fudge, Droobles Best
Blowing Gum, and because of Hermione an assortment of chocolate
and toffees. It was after a few nasty flavors of Bertie Botts Every Flavor
Beans, Cockroach Clusters and just as Ron was about to give an angrily,
crying Ginny a Bloodpop Harry told everyone to stop.
"…and I mean it! This is ridiculous, look at her. You're just making
it worse. She's a good person I'd say, 'have at 'er' if it was Malfoy
but it's not. This is Ginny: your smart, attractive little sister!"
Realizing he had said too much he went very red (as did Ginny) and said…
"What I mean is, now that you've had your fun and it's time to sit
down and think: what is it that Ginny would consider 'sweet?' Hermione
you're a girl you should know."
It wasn't enough to stop the eventual teasing but it worked for now,
though it did wined Hermione up.
"So you think that just because I'm a girl I would know these thing?
It may come as a shock to you but-"
Harry who didn't want to fight with Hermione at the present time decided
to rephrase what he said.
"What I meant was that the sweetest thing I've ever tasted was victory
but girls may think differently about these things. I wasn't trying to
be chauvinistic. Could you tell us what the sweetest thing you ever tasted
was? It might give us an idea as to what might help Ginny."
Hermione went red, "It was um…"
"You know what detective Harry? I bet" George shuddered,"
that it was our dear little brother's lips," he said teasingly.
Both Ron and Hermione flushed, "as a matter of fact your right."
Said Hermione with as much dignity as she could muster.
"Really?"
"Yes Ron, really," she said not looking at him.
Ron tipped her face up so that she was forced to look him in the eye.
"You're the sweetest thing I've tasted too and I'm sorry about earlier,
it's just your always beautiful to me no matter what your hair looks like"
"Oh Ron," she kissed him.
Everyone went, "ewww," except for Fred who exclaimed, "that's
five galleons you owe me George! I said Ron would apologize fir-"
I stamped my foot, I still after all had a sugarquill stuck in my mouth.
"Oh my god!!! I just remembered something!"
"Wow! Give her a medal Fred." George said sarcasticly.
"Shut up!" Ron said defensively.
"Shut up the both of you! This is important! Did you guys read the
fine print when you decided to use this curse?!" Hermione was practically
in tears of worry.
"No Herm, why? What's wrong? Calm down."
"Oh my! That's it! You can never use these quills again!"
"Why not? It was a good invention!"
"Because, if you don't find out what that person's 'sweetest thing'
is there are horrible after affects such as forever being unable to be
happy and if we can't get the quill out of her mouth soon it will be there
till she dies!"
"What?! That can't be, I mean… well how long have we got?"
"At most five hours!"
I sat down, I couldn't think properly: stuck like this forever? I started
to cry.
"Don't worry Gin, we'll find something," Fred looked to his
twin for help.
"Ya! And Gin just imagine you'd be the talk of the school!"
I started crying harder.
"You idiot! Don't worry Gin, we're going to scourer the school,
we still have three and a half hours left!"
So everyone but Ginny left the common room in search for candy.
***
Half an hour till deadline:
They had all come back with armloads of sweets but none worked we
all felt defeated and Fred and George were feeling incredibly guilty.
"You know what guys? I don't think its candy that a person considers
they're 'sweetest thing'.
"So do you reckon someone should kiss Ginny?" Said George too
innocently.
"Of course dear brother, but who?" said Fred with mock innocence.
"Don't look at me! She's my sister!" Ron said, holding Hermione
in his arms with a goofy grin on his face.
"Well count us out, we're her brothers too."
"That only leaves Harry."
I went instantly red. Kiss Harry? I couldn't! I mean that was Harry
Potter! He wouldn't kiss me!
"But Fred I can't! I mean it's Ginny-"
I thought you wanted to cure Ginny?" cut in George.
"I do. But we're not sure it will work anyway." He was now
starting to look very nervous and uncomfortable.
"We still have to try, it's our only hope. Plus Gin has a crush
on you, she wont mind." He added the last part nastily, the bugger!
I blushed, so did Harry. Oh I am going to kill my brothers, I'll never
live this down. Harry doesn't want to kiss me and if he does kiss me it
will be from obligation not because he want-"
"Okay I'll do it."
Oh god he's going to kiss me, what if he thinks I'm bad? I hope it's
just a peck. Wait! No I don't! I've been dreaming of him kissing me for
four years. Of course I never thought that these would be the circumstances
but well - oh god here he comes.
He was standing right in front me and his head was leaning in. I closed
my eyes; I couldn't look.
"Oh and Harry?"
"Yes?" his breath was no longer on my cheek as he had pulled
his head up. God why is my heart racing?
"There is nothing sweeter than a kiss with tongue, hands
and bodies all in the mix."
I chanced a look at him, he was redder than a radish. Ron and Hermione
were giggling/laughing I'm sure I looked like my head was on fire. Kiss
Harry like that? He turned his head and looked at me. My breath caught
in my chest as our eyes met, I truly saw him for the first time. I swelled
with love. I knew I'd never be the same again. We were speaking a secret
language. Then his head lowered, I closed my eyes and gasped with pleasure
as his lips touched mine, I could feel the energy surge through me like
electricity, I could feel his heart beating wildly through his shirt.
His kiss was gentle but grew in intensity. Our lips parted searching for
more. Like one being we stood there, I had long ago dropped the quill
and draped my arms around his neck. It was bliss; Harry and I kissing
in a room filled with bluebell coloured bubbles. My stomach was hopping
though I don't think it was from the Peppermint Creams, we were like that
for eternity which in actuality was only a few minutes when I started
hearing the words, "Ginny, oh Ginny," being chanted. Oh please
let this not be a dream. I slowly opened my eyes not wanting to in case
I was seeing Jasmine in my room, shaking me awake. It wasn't a dream.
There was Harry grinning at me, I was still in his arms and I realized
it was George calling my name.
"What?" I asked breathlessly. I along with Harry was panting.
"Oh nothing important. I just realized there was a Harry on your
face and I though you'd like to know.
Harry looked murderous. I had never wanted to truly hurt one of my brothers
until now. I de-tangled myself from Harry's arms and jumped at George.
Just as I was about to beat him up, I suddenly heard…
"Miss. Weasley?" It was McGonagle. "What are you doing?"
"Nothing professor."
"Don't lie. I just came in here to tell you that you all missed
lunch. And I find you wrestling with your brother! What were you doing
during lunch and right now?"
Fred, George and Ron burst out laughing.
"It's not funny!" Harry and I both insisted.
McGonagle gave us a knowing look. "Well it doesn't really matter;
just don't miss dinner. Though by the looks of things," she looked
disdainfully around the candy-littered common room, "you'll spoil
your dinner and not want it anyway. Good day to you all." With that
she left.
"Professor McGonagle is right, we should eat a proper dinner."
"Look Herm, none of us heard her say anything about having a proper
dinner. Did you George?"
"Nope."
"Didn't think so," with that Fred grabbed a chocolate frog
and popped it in his mouth.
Ron clearly not thinking said, "hey guys I didn't know you had sugarquills!
Are these chocolate flavored?"
"No Ron! Don't!"
It was too late, Ron had put a 'Sweetest Thing Sugarquill' in
his mouth.
"ghfkjhgl hfildhrlih!"
Everyone but Ron burst out laughing and in the midst of the laughter
Ginny grabbed a cockroach cluster and said, "looks like payback time,
eh Ronnikins?"
The End!
A/N How was that for my first post at the Sugarquill (my favorite site)?
I don't think this was that good but could you tell me what you think?
Thanks!- Steph
