"FRED WEASLEY!"
Fred blanched, looking over at his twin. George grinned. "That's the good thing about being the twin whose name starts later," he said in mock thoughtfulness. "They always seem to blame you first."
"GEORGE WEASLEY!"
George blanched, and Fred let out a barking laugh, quickly turned into a cough as their father burst into the room.
"Boys." His voice was deathly soft, and the pair strained to hear him. "I would go downstairs if I were you. Your mother is not happy. Neither are the two Ministry officials in our kitchen."
Fred and George shared a frightened glance before slinking out of the room, metaphorical tails between their legs. Mr. Weasley shook his head at his two twelve-year olds. They were far above their peers in Potions, Transfiguration, and Charms; they simply didn't have the patience to sit for the entire exam. He had considered getting a Muggle remedy for their focus issues, but he figured it would resolve itself in the end. A mugleborn healer told him that their case of something the Muggles called AHDA, or something like that, was very mild and would fade away in the coming years. Still, it did affect their grades, and certainly their listening skills and patience at home. Arthur watched as his boys made their way down the stairs slowly, realizing that this was the first time he'd seen them walking in years. The two couldn't even play hide and seek because of their lack of patience. He put a hand to his head when he realized that the two had been somewhat hidden all morning. He should have realized that they were working on something awful; they couldn't stay out of the way for five minutes if they didn't have something to do.
Another screech broke Arthur out of his reverie. "HOW DARE YOU BREAK SCHOOL RULES? YOU KNOW YOU CAN'T DO MAGIC OUTSIDE SCHOOL!"
"We didn't know, mum!" one of them pled. "Honest!" squeaked the other.
Their faces were beat red, framed by even redder ears. Their hair looked blond in comparison to the scarlet that covered their freckled skin. Eyes wide, the two betrayed no sign of letting tears flow, though Arthur assumed they were probably too shocked to cry. Mrs. Weasley apparently thought their fright warranted more verbal punishment, "AND DO YOU KNOW WHY THE OWLS COULDN'T REACH US? YOUR 'EXPERIMENTS' SET A BUBBLE AROUND OUR HOUSE THAT REPELLED OWLS!"
"It worked?" George asked, a spark lighting in his eyes.
"THAT IS NOT THE POINT!" Mrs. Weasley's voice rose in tempo and pitch. She took a deep breath, steeling herself for another diatribe. Arthur put a hand on his shoulders. "Molly, I think they've had enough with the yelling, and the poor Ministry officials don't need to hear this."
Molly let out her breath in a huff, and the Ministry officials lowered their hands cautiously from their ears. One mouthed a silent thank you to Arthur when he thought the banshee-wife wasn't looking.
"Now," began Arthur, "what seems to be the problem here? Exactly what did my boys do?"
"Nothing harmful," one of the officials said quickly, glancing at molly as he did so. "They're simply not allowed to use magic outside school, and they performed a number of small charms, a Disillusionment charm being one of them, and a Point Me charm being another, though our scans picked up something corrupted about the Point Me charm."
"Corrupted?" Mr. Weasley asked before his wife could start screaming.
"Yes. Apparently, we can tell that the words Point Me were uttered, and that there was an effect similar to the Point Me charm, but we also see that the effect of this Point Me charm was to direct everything away from your house. Point Me is only used as a compass, so this development is rather interesting. I assme your boys have no idea how they did what they did?" he asked with some hopein his tone.
Fred and George shook their heads and shrugged. When they thought no one could see, they shared a look of unadulterated glee.
"Of course, we removed the charms on the house, but their work was very interesting. Apparently, they were charming a pillow, and the charm happened to spread to the entire house. If it weren't for the disillusionment charm they had placed on another pillow earlier, I would never have known to come over here, since their charm kept the Trace from picking up their magical signatures."
Mr. Weasley did his best not to look suitably impressed, and instead followed his wife's example by glaring at his sons. Mrs. Weasley tried her hardest not to scream, and instead chose a whisper not so different from her husband's earlier. "What will happen to them for using magic outside school?"
"As this is the first time, and they weren't in the presence of Muggles, your sons will be given a warning. The second time, if not in the presence of a Muggle, they will be given a week's in-school suspension. If, the second time, they are in the presence of a Muggle or if they break the rules a third time, they will be expelled. Their wands may be broken depending on how severe the spell was."
Arthur's shoulders sank in a release of tension he didn't know he held. The twins exchanged a grin. "That's really—" one began. "Brilliant of you," finished the other. "It's nice that we have such an understanding justice system," the first one said with as little sarcasm as he could manage.
Mr. Weasley turned to his sons. "It won't be just a warning in this house, boys. No supper tonight, and I want you in your room until tomorrow morning. I also want to see it spotless by tomorrow. Go."
Without a backward glance, the two scampered away from the room and up to their bedroom. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Gred?"
"Of course, Feorge. How could I not be?"
"We are after all—"
"Two halves of the same person."
"Well, practically. I mean we split when we were just a ball of cells—"
"According to that stuck up Ravenclaw in our year," one reminded the other.
"Ah, but she's probably right, and that would explain why our brains are so—"
"Brilliant," one decided.
"I was going to say uncannily similar, but your answer is just as accurate, though only half as relevant."
"Now my dear brother, what is it we were thinking of again?"
"Let's cast that charm, but try to contain it just to the room. After all, we don't get any owls up here anyway."
"But why would we ever want to do magic just after getting a warning from the Ministry?" one asked the other with mock innocence.
"We'll lbe able to do magic all summer every summer up here, if what the guy said is true. Just think of it! All the potions we'll make. And ickle Ronniekins… so many pranks. And think, Percy the Prat will have such fun on his birthday this year, courtesy of—"
"The Twins," one declared, with an air that decided Twins would always remain capitalized in the transcript of their thoughts.
"Here, try naming the place after it our charm. That was the spell will know something to focus on," George said after a couple minutes of thinking.
Fred set his wand on the floor, with the tip pointing towards him, the opposite of the original Point Me spell. Leaving it like this would make him point south. That was practically useless, but it also told the spell to expect something oppositional about this casting, which was important. Magic needed to be reasoned with, especially in the reaction of new spells. Saying the words sarcastically negated the original effect, because it told his magic that it was stupid to try to believe he wanted a compass out of his wand. The magic would balk at that, or pretend to at least, and point him away from everything and everything away from him. It almost seemed to say, "You really think you can get any directions out of me? Try this on for size, stupid kid." Fred smirked as he said the incantation, and George prayed to Merlin that neither his parents nor the Ministry officials would come up in the next couple minutes. "Point me," Fred said with sarcasm dripping from his tone. He nearly added a Snape-ish sneer at the end for good measure. Unlike he Point Me spell.
The wand spun in two circles, and ended facing Fred again. He could see the fading aray of sparks that flew from the wand, in every color imaginable. He quickly stuffed the wand under his bed, and George did the same. They pulled out a jigsaw puzzle, with pictures that moved (that only made the picture harder to put together), and pretended to work on it. They had approximately ten minutes before the Ministry discovered their magic, if they ever did. And if they didn't… Fred and George would be working on a lot of pranks this summer, to say the least.
"And just think, Feorge my good man,"
"What?"
"Mom and dad won't be able to blame us for magical pranks because they'll think the Ministry should have come if they were magical!"
"We're pretty much home free, my wonderful Gred."
"Indeed, Feorge, indeed."
"Though we won't be able to—"
"Stop them from thinking we did the pranks in the first place."
"Where would be the fun in that anyway?"
Breakfast ended rather interestingly the next morning. The toast and kipers were vanishing from plates as quickly as Ron could try to snatch them up. Al the good ones had been claimed by his brothers, but he still managed a couple decent helpings amidst all the ravenous boys. The only ones who ever got as much as they wanted were Bill and Ginny. Bill because he was the strongest and Ginny because she was Bill's favorite and didn't need as much food as the rest of them. A few minutes into picking at the last of their breakfasts, Mrs. Weasley let out a cacophonous shriek."FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY!"
"Mum, we're right here—"
"No need to shout."
"YOU TURN YOUR BROTHER'S EARS BACK TO NORMAL THIS INSTANT!"
Fred and George tried not to laugh at the donkey ears atop Percy's head. They were gray, covered with fur, and sticking upwards at a rather comical angle. Fred and George leaned back in their chairs, pretending to take Muggle photographs with their fingers to ostensibly make fun of this recent development that neither could have possibly expected.
"He really does look rather smashing, wouldn't you say George?" Fred began, an evil glint in his eye.
"Oh absolutely, Fred. And it's a shame we can't use magic in this house to fix him. Actually, I'm wondering how his ears could have gotten like that in the first place, since we're not allowed to use magic."
Mr. Weasley tried to stifle a chuckle as he transfigured Percy's ears back to normal. He stormed from the rom. A few seconds later, the eight remaining Weasleys heard a slamming sound a couple floors above them.
"You're going to have to teach me how you did that," Ron attempted to whisper.
"No can do, ickle Ronnikins," one began.
"We couldn't have done this one. No magic outside school, see?"
"Yes, and we would never want to break the rules."