"You have one week, Weasley," the man said threateningly, cracking his knuckles. Arthur, not usually one to be intimidated, was pale. He knew what refusing this man's demands would mean.

And it wasn't anything good.

It wasn't the man that Arthur feared, although the man was a bit frightening, it was who he represented. He had been sent by the Ministry of Magic to bully Arthur into paying his taxes. Arthur believed that the taxes were unfair, and had said as much to leaders of the council that regulated such things. Needless to say, that didn't go over very well. It had, in fact, led to his taxes being raised and the Ministry sending bullies to hound him for what they called his 'debt to the Wizarding world'. (This happened to many wizards that opposed the Ministry.)

Upon seeing that he had successfully intimidated Arthur, the man Apparated out of Arthur's kitchen. Arthur sighed and sat down hard onto one of the wooden chairs that were set around the table. He put his elbow on the table and his head in his hand, wondering how on earth he was going to come up with the money- or goods- to meet the Ministry's demands.

If it had been a normal year, Arthur would have given the Ministry a large part of his vegetables grown that year. But the Ministry's demands were higher this year, and his garden hadn't produced the amount of food that it normally did every year.

Arthur sighed again. And then there were his children and his wife. How would he tell them?

"Arthur?" Molly's voice asked questioningly from the doorway. He turned and looked at his pudgy wife. She wore a look of concern on her face.

"Yes, Molly?" he asked, trying to pretend as if there were nothing wrong. Molly was never fooled by such displays, though, so his attempt was futile. She walked into the room and sat at a chair across the table from him.

"What is it, Arthur? Did they come again?" She asked.

Damn. There was no fooling the woman.

"Yes, Molly. This year they're asking for four baskets. And the baskets are bigger this year!" He complained to his wife. She took his had and looked at him.

"How big, Arthur?" She asked, as if it were nothing. In truth, the size of the baskets mattered.

"Four by four by four." Arthur said. Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Feet."

Molly's eyes widened in shock. That was almost twice as much as they normally had to give. It would have been a miracle if they were able to give them three of the baskets that they usually did, and four was asking a bit much.

"Oh, Arthur, how will we...?" She asked, looking to him. He sighed, and shook his head.

"I don't know, Molly. I don't."

He sat wallowing in his misery for some time. He only looked up when his twelve-year-old daughter came in the room.

"Dad, Ron says that I don't have any friends and am annoying!" she said with tears falling down her cheeks. He looked over to Molly, flustered. Arthur didn't know what to say to that!

"Ginny, dear," Molly said soothingly. "Why don't you come out and help me pick the vegetables? Leave Ron alone if he's being mean."

"But, Mother..." Ginny began as she walked out of the room behind Molly.

Arthur ran his fingers through his hair and muttered darkly for several minutes. Seeing that he was getting nowhere, Arthur decided to sleep on it.

--

The next day, Arthur Weasley woke up to another pop! downstairs. Rushing down the stairs to make sure no one was robbing him, Arthur tripped. He rolled down the final five steps to land with a crash on the landing. It was then that he realized that even if someone was robbing him, they wouldn't find anything to steal.

"Arthur! Are you all right?" A concerned voice asked from the kitchen.

"Yes, I'm fine." Arthur said, standing up and wincing as his head began to pound. Molly come out of the kitchen and looked at him.

"What were you thinking, rushing down the stairs like that?!" She shrieked, once she was sure he was fine.

"I thought... oh, never mind." Arthur said, blushing slightly. She rolled her eyes and looked up the stairs.

"Oh, look. Now the kids are awake."

"Oh joy." He muttered sarcastically.

Then he hit on an idea.

Maybe he could put some of his eckeltricity plugs in the bottom of the baskets! Running out to the shed behind the house, he grabbed all of his plugs. He really hated to see them go, but...

"What are you doing, Weasley?" a snobby voice asked from the doorway. Arthur whipped around, dropping several plugs as he did so.

"Just cleaning out my shed. Coming to tell me there's a law against that now, too?" He asked, his voice oozing sarcasm. The man gave him a look before saying,

"Just reminding you that you have six days. Have a nice day!" He said cheerfully.

Arthur groaned.

--

The plug idea having failed, Arthur spent the next five days trying to think of some way to cheat the government. And then he finally hit upon the perfect idea.

He'd set Ginny in one of the baskets. No one would ever know. And, once they found her, they'd probably just send her to live with one of the more well-to-do families, and he would be...

Oh, but what about Molly? There was no way Molly would agree to this. To tell the truth, if Arthur were in his right mind, he wouldn't even think about it either. But people backed into a corner never think rationally. Just as Arthur wasn't now.

So now came the time to explain his plan. And to carry it out.

--

Whee... I have started a new story! Woot! And, no, I haven't fixed the last few chapters of Missing. Someone should remind me.

Well, some background on this story:
It is based on the fairytale "The Little Pear Girl". It is set in modern-ish times, and Arthur is really not an evil villain. I'm sorry if I've made him out to be. And he won't really be much in this story, except for in the next chapter or so.
I don't know what else to say. Oh, yes. I don't own ::takes a deep breath:: Harry, Ginny, Draco, Lucius, Arthur, Molly, Ron, etc. etc. etc.
This story is AU.
I like to eat pickled pig's feet.
Just kidding. Wanted to see if you were reading.
I'm going to go now. I'll write more if there is interest in this story.

Lili