Written for:
Writing Bingo: Lily Luna Potter.
Ultimate Chocolate Frog Cards Club: Alberic Grunnion - Incorporate a prank or prankster.
200 Characters in 200 Days: Lily Luna Potter.
684 words.
Glitter
She'd only meant to scare him. She was his little sister, after all, and her Mum said that it was her job as a little sister to be as irritating as possible. The best time to annoy Albus had always been early in the morning, so that bit was easy, but Lily had been clever about the other parts. Lily had watched her brother and she'd learned he grew more annoyed when normal things acted in unexpected ways than when completely unexpected things happened.
Now, the one room in the house Albus was the most familiar with, where he knew how things worked and exactly what to expect, was the kitchen, mainly because of Albus' love of food. Every morning, after mum and dad had their breakfasts, Lily, Albus and James would eat theirs. James always had his favourite cereal, and Lily often had toast, while Albus had a little bit of both. Breakfast was always cooked the muggle way in the Potter household, too, because mum and dad wanted their children to be somewhat competent in the way the world worked for most of its inhabitants. They said it wasn't healthy for them to rely on magic for everything, and understanding breathed respect, or something of the sort. Lily wasn't quite sure she understood them, but she tried to at least.
So that morning, Lily made sure she was up early that morning, to use the toaster first, and set it up. She'd already cut open the packet with her craft scissors that morning, so all she had to do was take her toast out and pour it in without anyone noticing. No one did notice, of course. Her dad was out in the garden with his coffee, looking at the weeds that had begun to take over the flower patch and her mum was idly flicking through the newspaper at the table. Perfect. Now, all she had to do was wait.
She buttered her toast as best as she could and sat at the table to eat. She'd barely taken her first bite before Albus sauntered into the room, yawning as he stretched, his old pyjamas hanging loosely on his torso. He grabbed a slice of bread and jammed it into the toaster without even looking, before taking a bowl out of the cupboard and pouring in some cornflakes. Mum smiled through a good morning, which he grumbled back as he added the milk, and walked over with his cereal to take a spoon out of the drawer and check on his toast.
That was when it had all gone wrong. Lily was only nine years old and while she thought it was a brilliant idea, the plan she had, she hadn't exactly thought it through. What she should have thought about was a little thing called How The Toaster Works, but she was too excited by the apparent genius of her idea that it completely slipped her mind. What she'd decided was a good idea to pour into the toaster was, in fact, glitter. She had visions of it popping up out of the toaster with his toast and Albus getting covered in the stuff. It would be funny, and clever, and she'd have had a very successful morning. But the realities of putting a fistful of tiny bits of metal into a device meant to heat things up don't work the way Lily intended. As Albus leant over the counter to open the drawer, the toast in the toaster got a little too, well, toasted, and the whole thing burst into flames. Albus jumped back in shock, the room began to fill with smoke and mum smashed a glass in her rush to take her wand out.
Lily didn't say a word as she took in the mess, hoping she wouldn't be found out. She looked at the shock on her brother's face, noticing that his eyebrows no longer existed, and his fringe was looking a little frazzled. Mum examined the toaster, wondering what on earth had gone wrong.
"What's that? Is that… Lily, did you put glitter in here?"