Chain Link

Summary: During a magical mishap, Cedric and Cordelia accidentally become chained together, and for some reason not even their wands can break the chains. They'll have to work together to figure out how to undo whatever spell they've placed on themselves—if they don't drive each other crazy first. *Inspired by Iwish2remainNameless*

Disclaimer: I own nothing, as usual!

A/N: This is SO random! I promise you! Lol. Basically, Iwish2remainNameless and I were having a pretty normal conversation when we got onto a topic about some of the older writing prompts from way back in the day: the blanket scenario, trapped in an elevator together, etc. And then I remembered one about people getting stuck in handcuffs together. (That was always one of my favorite episodes on Three's Company too, because it was so funny with Jack and Chrissy stuck together.) Well, we got to talking and thought, what if Cedric and Cordelia get stuck together? We need some more of the sibling bonding time, right? What better way to do it than to force them to be stuck with each other and have to work together to be set free? :D So in true AquaTurquoise fashion, I've released this story today, on Independence Day…when the story is about not being free. Because that's how I roll… 😉 Anyway, thank you again, IW2RN (your new abbreviation, haha)! You rock! You all rock! Thanks for humoring me (literally). 😊 Enjoy!

PS: Yes. I am hyper. I apologize…sort of. :p

*Story*

"Sofia, can you pass me that beaker please?" Cedric asked as he kept his eyes trained on whatever he was brewing in his cauldron.

"The one with the green liquid or the blue liquid?" she responded, holding up two different potions.

"The blue." He smiled appreciatively as she passed him the beaker, and he then slowly began pouring it into the mixture with one hand while he gently mixed the brew with a large paddle in the other. "Now, if we succeed with this experiment, you and I will have made a very powerful and highly beneficial resting potion."

Sofia stood next to him as she watched his movements. "What's the difference between a resting potion and a sleeping potion?"

Cedric chuckled. "I figured you might ask that." He set aside the empty beaker and resumed mixing with both hands now. "You know as well as I that a sleeping potion does just that: puts people to sleep, for some measurable timeframe, typically. A resting potion is a bit different. It won't cause you to sleep; instead, it helps you calm down either physically or mentally—and often times, both." Seeing the confused expression on the girl's face, he explained, "It's for people who can't relax as easily as they would like to. Either their mind is plagued with too many thoughts to process, or perhaps their body insists on being in motion constantly. This gives the person a bit of a break."

"Ooh, I see." She placed her hands alongside the cauldron as she peered inside at the bubbling solution. "Sometimes, I feel like I might need some of this."

"I won't say you're too young for it, because I know the amount of stress you're under more often than not… But I do hesitate to give too much to the younger patients." He finished mixing the liquids together and turned to his apprentice. "I need the big ladle and one of the clear containers."

Sofia nodded and searched through the various pantries before she found both. She placed the container on the work table before passing him the ladle.

"Thank you." It took a bit of precision and patience (after all, there was a surprisingly small amount of potion in such a huge cauldron by the time he was finished), but ultimately, he had the powder-blue potion stored into the clear container. Cedric capped it on top, magically sealing it, and then created a label for the side of it that read Resting Potion. He picked up the container, ready to place it somewhere secure. "Now, once I get this situated, the next thing on the list—"

"Cedric!"

Cedric jumped and nearly dropped the newly-developed potion, but luckily Sofia rushed over and helped steady both him and the container of liquid. He sighed in relief and thanked her before turning to the door, glaring at his grinning sister. "Cordelia! What's the big idea? I nearly dropped this resting potion because of you!"

"Oh, stop whining," she retorted with a scoff as she entered, Calista following behind her and hurrying to sit on one of Cedric's chairs. "That's a simple potion to brew."

"Not if you only have just enough of the required ingredients," Cedric reminded her. "And after today's batch, I'm completely out of lavender dust." Before anything else could possibly happen to his precious potion, Cedric quickly stored it away in one of his pantries, shutting it inside. He then turned back to his visitors. "Now, what do you need, Cordelia? Sofia and I were in the middle of working, in case you hadn't noticed."

Calista perked up with a smile. "Mummy and I were wondering if you and Sofia would like to go shopping with us!"

The sorcerer blinked once, trying to process the request. "Shopp…ing?"

"Yes, Cedric," Cordelia replied with a smirk. "Shopping is when you get out of your daunting tower and go into the world with people—you do remember what people look like, I take it—and ponder over a possibility of purchasing something."

He scoffed. "I know what shopping is, Cordelia. I'm not daft." He gestured toward all the items laid out on his table and around the room. "In case you've not figured it out yet, though, I actually have a job to do, and Sofia has graciously offered to help me as my apprentice, so while I appreciate the offer, I can't just abandon all of our responsibilities to go ogle things I don't need."

Calista smiled in understanding. "I think you've been working too hard lately, Uncle Ceddy. You're grumpier than usual."

He calmed a bit as he offered his niece a soft smile. "I'm not grumpy, Calista… I'm just a bit stressed to meet some deadlines." He glared at a snickering Cordelia. "Something your mother is not all that familiar with."

"I could do this job easily," the sorceress bragged. "You know that as well as I do."

"Oh, really?" he challenged, smirking. "You could be at the king's beck and call twenty-four hours a day, read up on new spells and potions, attend seminars, assist in magic-related homework and activities, perform magical feats at parties and balls, and stave off the need for sleep just to get the job done, eh?" He folded his arms. "I'd like to see that."

"And perhaps one day you will," she giggled, turning and smacking him in the face with her long hair and making him sputter. She grinned. "But I promised my little Angel Face that we were going shopping, and I keep my promises, dear brother."

Calista hopped down from her seat and walked over to Sofia, who was watching the two siblings in boredom. "They're at it again," she murmured quietly to her friend.

"I know," Sofia groaned, placing her hands on her hips. "You'd think they'd get tired of arguing by now. I thought they'd put their differences aside."

The younger girl shrugged. "Well, I don't know anything about having siblings, but from what I've noticed, even if you love each other and get along sometimes… There are still going to be those times that you bicker for whatever reason."

"Yeah, but Mr. Cedric and Ms. Cordelia sometimes take it to a whole other level." Her eyes widened as the arguing siblings suddenly raised their wands. "Like now… Um, Mr. Cedric? Ms. Cordelia? What are you doing?"

"Ceddy here thinks I'm no match for him in magic," the brown-haired woman laughed, a look of pure mirth on her face. "I fail to see his reasoning. But I love a challenge as much as anyone, so bring it on, Ceddy."

Cedric smirked at her, twirling his wand once before gripping it. "As you wish, Cordy."

Before either Sofia or Calista could stop them, Cordelia called out something none of them saw coming.

"In Catena!" She laughed as a chain extended from the tip of her wand, the end of it clamping onto Cedric's wrist.

Cedric shook his right arm, attempting to loosen the shackle, and sighed in annoyance. "Very funny, Cordelia. Now take it off!"

"Hmm, I think I'll hold off for a while." She chuckled as he growled in frustration, attempting to slide the chain from his wrist. "Besides, if you're all tied up—or chained up, if you prefer—then maybe it will actually be a good time for me to step in and show you just what a master sorceress can do." She winked before turning and beginning to walk off, only to realize she couldn't. She blinked and glanced down at her left wrist, noticing that she appeared to have her own chained shackle clasped there. "What the…?" She began frantically shaking it, the sound of the chain links clinking together frustrating her even more. "Why am I chained up too?!"

"That's what you get for being overconfident and acting like such a brat, Cordelia," Cedric insisted with his own smirk now. "I'm sure though, since you are such a 'master sorceress,' that you can figure out a way to get us out of this situation."

"Of course I can! I can do anything!" She aimed her wand at the center of the chain spanned between them. "Abscindo!" Nothing. It was like her magic had no effect on the chain whatsoever. She growled and tried a few more spells: "Occillo! Lacero! Rumpo!" Even after each spell she called, not one of them did a thing to that chain. She glared at her laughing brother. "Fine, Cedric. If you think you can do better, by all means!"

Cedric repeated the same spells she had, and he yielded the same results: that is, no results. He sighed before glaring at his sister. "This is all your fault, Cordelia."

"My fault?" She scoffed. "You're the one who insisted that I could never do the same job you do."

"I said no such thing. I said, and I quote, 'I'd like to see that.' Not once did I insinuate that you couldn't handle my job." He then grinned as he folded his arms, accidentally causing the other magic wielder to stumble forward as a result. "Of course, now that I'm seeing that you can cast a spell yet not undo it, maybe I'll retract my statement."

"How are you guys supposed to get unchained then?" Sofia wondered as she looked back and forth between Cedric and Cordelia.

"Clearly, there's a specific spell we're not privy to that will free us," Cordelia responded with a brief air of wisdom. "Perhaps Father will have a proper spell for us. Meanwhile, Cedric…" She yanked on the chain, causing her brother to fall forward onto the floor, just barely managing to catch himself with his hands and knees.

Cedric glared up at her. "HEY!"

"I still promised my little girl that I would go shopping with her, and as I stated earlier, I always keep my promises. So let's go."

The royal sorcerer balked at the suggestion as he stood to his feet. "We can't go out like this! I'd rather not answer any questions about how this happened."

The woman just grinned. "I have a simple solution. I'll just tell them that you're under arrest. It wouldn't be the first time."

Calista and Sofia both gasped at the low blow, but they were even more surprised to see Cedric just calmly smiling… It was sort of unnerving.

"Good one, Cordelia," Cedric remarked simply, shrugging. "You got me. And maybe I should return the favor and declare to the world that you were the cause for your own premature balding and the need for, perhaps, the most atrocious wigs the world has ever seen."

She gaped at him in shock. "You take that back!"

"I will not!"

"My wigs were the finest quality-!"

"Oh, you mean from a horse's rear end?" He smirked as she gasped sharply. "Yes, you must have been proud of that purchase."

"Why, you-!"

"Enough!" Sofia insisted as she pressed forward and stood between the feuding siblings, her arms extended to each. "Fighting is not going to solve this problem. We have to get to the bottom of it, or you'll be chained up for longer." She sighed and placed one hand to her head. "And honestly, I don't think that will be good for any of us…"

"You're right, Sofia," Cedric admitted with a long sigh. "We need to work together to fix this."

"And I suppose I can put our shopping trip on hold for the time being," Cordelia relented, smiling apologetically toward her daughter. "I'm sorry, Calista. Maybe we can go later."

The young girl nodded. "It's all right, Mummy. I'd rather help you and Uncle Ceddy get unchained first."

"Is there any other spell you guys know of that could break this chain?" the princess inquired as she grasped onto it. It felt like a normal, everyday chain. She didn't understand why even magic couldn't break it.

"I don't know," Cordelia sighed, shaking her head. "The spell was simple enough. I don't understand why it won't break. It's just a chain…"

Cedric stared at his sister for a moment before glancing down at the brown wand clutched in her left hand. "Cordy, where is your normal wand?" Typically, his sister would have used her green wand with the flowing and matching green ribbons, along with the golden stars—the one she dominated many spells with. To be seen without it was highly unusual.

"Oh, um…" She shrugged. "I might have…gotten a little frustrated this morning and…tossed it out the window." She smiled sheepishly as she held up the brown wand. "This is my back up."

"You threw your wand out the window?" Cedric's mouth dropped open. "Well, where is it now?"

"How should I know?! I tried looking for it afterward, and I couldn't find it."

Sofia frowned thoughtfully before holding out her hand to Cordelia. "May I see it for just a minute?" She smiled as the woman nodded and passed it over to her. She held out one arm as Calista approached, keeping her back just in case. "Let's try something simple and see if I'm right about this…" She aimed the wand toward one of Cedric's stray books. "Bounciglius!"

Rather than bouncing like it normally would have, the book levitated a few feet from the floor before steadily floating downward, and then bouncing upward in slow motion. Seriously, the action was so slow that the quartet grew bored just watching it. Just to test, Sofia again said the spell for a different book, and it repeated the action.

"Okay, I think it's safe to say that this wand is faulty, Ms. Cordelia." She handed it back to the sorceress. "Mr. Cedric, would any wand undo this spell? Uh, any working wand?"

He shrugged. "It should." He then sighed heavily. "Well, apparently not… My wand wouldn't even break the chain earlier, remember?"

"You mean to tell me that, because my spare wand is defective, no wand can undo this spell?" Cordelia growled in frustration. "This is stupid. Magic is so dumb sometimes." She angrily shook the brown wand. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!"

Cedric rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm sure that is going to solve all of our problems." He put one hand on his hip as she glared daggers at him. "How about let's resolve this rather than yelling at an inanimate object?"

"You know," Calista reasoned with a grin as the other three turned toward her, "just because a spell was the cause of this problem, it doesn't mean we'll have to use a spell to undo it. Perhaps there's a potion that can do the trick instead?"

Cordelia brightened instantly. "Darling, you're a genius!" She beamed toward Cedric. "You have a dissolving potion a few drawers up."

He gave her a perplexed stare. "Why do you know that?" He shook his head before turning to Sofia. "Never mind. Can you girls retrieve the potion?"

"We can do it," the mini sorceress replied enthusiastically as she grabbed a chair and began climbing up toward the drawers in question. She glanced down as she noticed Sofia holding onto the chair to ensure that it was steady for when she chose to climb back down. After checking a few drawers, she finally found a bottle with pink liquid inside. On the glass read the words Dissolving Potion. "I've got it!"

"Be careful, Calista," Cedric warned his niece. "That potion is highly potent and can really hurt you if you're not careful."

"I've got it, Uncle Ceddy." She turned and extended the bottle to Sofia, who took it and placed it off to the side in a secure place. She then clambered down and, again with the princess's help, hopped down to the floor, safe and sound. "What do we do with the potion?"

"Uncork it and pour a small amount onto the center of the chain," Cordelia instructed. "However, be careful not to let it splash on you."

"Even if the potion dissolves the middle of the chain," Sofia started thoughtfully as she collected the bottle, "you'll still have the shackles around your wrists."

"That will take more precision," her mentor advised her. "I'll handle it personally. Let's just get this first bit taken care of…cautiously, Sofia."

"Okay, Mr. Cedric." She ushered Calista over to her mother before kneeling down where the center of the chain met the floor. With judicious and precise movements, she opened the top of the bottle and poured a very small amount onto the chain. She slid backwards a bit and capped the bottle when she heard a hissing sound and saw that the potion seemed to be eating away at the chain. "It's working!"

The chain snapped, releasing the siblings from each other.

"Ah, yes!" Cordelia cheered, twirling around happily and laughing. "I could wear this ridiculous thing all year long and not even care. As long as I don't have to be attached to my brother anymore."

"You sure know how to issue those insults, Cordelia," Cedric said pointedly as Sofia handed him the potion. A small mischievous smile appeared on his face as his sister smirked at him. "So I'm guessing you won't want any of this potion to remove your shackle then."

She gaped at him. "I most certainly do!"

"You just said you wouldn't care if you had to wear the chain all year, as long as it wasn't attached to me." He grinned and shrugged as she grumbled. "I mean, I aim to please, sister." With one quick and careful motion, he set a measured amount of potion onto his own shackle, which easily fell away. "Well, then, that's done. I suppose now we should get back to work, Sofia."

The princess laughed and shook her head, watching Calista grab her mother's arm before she could rush forward to possibly attack Cedric. "Mr. Cedric, just help Ms. Cordelia."

"Yes, Ceddy," the woman cooed threateningly, "or else I'll pester you day and night. I'll move your things, I'll sit a little too close for comfort, I'll tell all your embarrassing secrets—"

"You don't have anything on me," Cedric remarked proudly.

"Two words: wizard undergarments."

The sorcerer blushed fiercely as the two younger girls present blinked in confusion. "Cordelia!" He huffed and grabbed the chain attached to his sister, pulling her forward and glaring at her smug look. "You don't play fair."

"I suppose it runs in the family." She smiled triumphantly as he mimicked his previous movements and released her from her own shackle before setting the dangerous potion aside. "Much better!" She patted Cedric's cheek. "Thanks, Ceddy. Calista, come along, darling. I still have a shopping trip to take you on."

"Coming, Mummy!" She hugged Cedric and Sofia before grabbing her mother's hand and leaving with her.

Cedric groaned and slumped onto his stool, pressing his hands to his face. "Thank Merlin…"

"Speaking of Merlin," Sofia began mischievously, nudging her friend playfully and garnering his attention, "what was Ms. Cordelia talking about, wizard undergarments?" She giggled as he flushed more, lowering his head again. She smiled and patted his head gently. "Never mind."

"It's a good thing we made a batch of that resting potion," Cedric remarked a few moments later. "With only a short amount of time spent with my sister, I'll need about a week's worth to make it worth my while."

Sofia laughed. "Oh, Mr. Cedric…" She held out her hands and pulled him to his feet. "Let's take a little break. What do you say?"

He chuckled as he squeezed her hands gently. "I say that you're good for my health, Sofia." He readily returned her swift hug before feeling himself being tugged out of the workshop. "And where exactly are we going?"

She smiled back at him. "Wherever you want."

"In that case, let's take our 'break' in the kitchen. It's my understanding that Chef Andre was supposed to be making a boysenberry pie today." He grinned.

Sofia giggled. "You've got it, Mr. Cedric."

The end