DISCLAIMER: The game of Wizard Cluedo was inspired by both the game Clue and Jumanji. Anything else you recognize is all Jo Rowling's.
Ginny, Fred, George, and Ron were gathered around a board in the middle of the living
room floor in the Burrow. The fire flickered eerily, and the wind whistled outside the
rattling windows.
Molly had shrugged the game off, clearly expressing her disdain for such pettiness. But
Hermione and Harry were expressly interested, and so watched the game intensely.
Each Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny picked a colorful game piece and looked
expectantly at Ron.
"Er..." he said into the silence. "This is a game of Wizard Cluedo Dad found in the
chicken coop... it looks really easy, you just move around the house and try to find the killer and
sabotage the other players." He pulled out a yellowed dice. "I'll go first."
Harry and Ginny exchanged confused glances, but said nothing. Hermione simply munched on
her s'more, which was ending up more on her face than in her mouth.
Ron rolled, and moved a few spaces and drew a card that said "clue" on the back. He read
it, not sharing what it said with other players. It said:
"Weapon: lead pipe, found in living room."
Ron shrugged, set the card aside, and passed the dice to Fred.
POP
A large, slightly rusty lead pipe appeared on the living room floor, sitting right next to
Ron.
"Oh my God," said Hermione, whose face was white.
Harry, Ron, Fred, George and Ginny simply shrugged it off as being part of the game. It was, after all,
wizard's game, however sinister.
Fred rolled the dice, and moved his jaunty yellow piece. The card he drew said "clue" also.
He furrowed his brow as he read "Clue: phone line in kitchen cut."
Nothing happened this time, and Hermione breathed easier. But she was still highly suspicious
of the game.
George rolled next. His peacock blue piece moved a few squares, and George drew a card.
It, like the others, said "clue" on the back.
George read to himself. "Weapon: Rope, found in study."
As George read the card, Molly came clomping down the stairs, looking confused.
"Fred, George, do you know where this rope came from?" she held up a very thick, heavy rope.
Hermione fainted on the couch from the sheer horror. She was most definitely not used to
this sort of thing.
Fred and George chuckled loudly, until Molly shushed them. "Your father's in bed!" she
whispered fiercely at them. They finally fell silent, still sniggering at Hermione, who
Mrs. Weasley carried into the kitchen to revive. Fred and George exchanged glances and shook
their heads, still silently laughing.
However, the atmosphere in the room had become chilled. Everyone, even Fred and George, was
slightly on edge now. This game was more than a little creepy.
Ginny reached forward and grabbed the dice, tired of waiting for someone to hand it to her.
She rolled and moved her jade green piece five spaces.
This time, the card she drew read "Death".
Shakily Ginny turned the card over, her heart flittering around in her chest like the wings
of a desperate bird trapped under the paw of a lurking cat.
She read: "A dead body has been found in the kitchen."
A shriek. A blood chilling, earsplitting shriek. And it came from the kitchen.
Ginny stood up and rushed for the kitchen. Her mother stood, eyes wide with horror, over
the dead body of Hermione.
"I don't know how it happened, I-I turned around and she was laying there! D-Dead!" cried
Molly hysterically.
Arthur, nightcap askew, came bounding down the stairs, nearly tripping over his slippers.
"What's going on? What's happened?" he cried, surveying the kitchen with a look of startled
panic on his face. His eyes fell on Hermione. Stabbed in the middle of the kitchen floor,
crimson blood seeping through her hair.
He gulped for air, like a fish out of water, leaning on a chair for support.
"Good Lord..." he breathed.
Ron fell forward with a strangled cry, kneeling next to the body. Anguished tears ran down
his face in rivers.
Harry reached forward and gently pulled Ron to his feet, hugging him close. "It'll be okay,"
he whispered.
The ring of people stood, hardly believing what had happened. After an age, Molly broke the
silence.
"We'll have to call in the Ministry. Why don't you keep playing that game of yours?"
The group numbly agreed and headed back to the game, hearts heavy with grief and eyes
full of tears.
Ron took the dice back, not really feeling it. No one was feeling it. Something sinister was
happening here.
He rolled. He moved. The air chilled suddenly, and the lights flickered. A collective shiver
passed through the semi-darkness of the living room.
Another card, another horror.
It said: "Sabotage..."
CRASH
The old and rusty chandelier, attached to the ceiling of the dining room, fell with a loud
clanging noise that rang throughout the silent house.
Everyone froze. All that could be heard was the ticking of the Weasley's clock, the one
that showed the position of all the family members.
Slowly, almost compulsively, Ginny turned to look at it, and gasped, a violent sucking in
of what seemed like too little air.
Seeing the horror in her eyes, slowly the others turned to look too.
12. Mortal peril. All of the tarnished bronze hands pointed to mortal peril.
The room seemed to spin around them. No one dared to breathe.
Hand shaking, Ron passed the dice to Fred.
Yet another roll, yet another move. Yet another card.
This time the card read "Clue: Blood found in bedroom"
The group waited and trembled, hoping against hope that nothing would happen.
Nothing did happen. Fred was just about to pass the dice to George when a
small, dark stain appeared at the top of the wall. It grew quickly, a sticky liquid dripping
horribly down the wallpaper, unnoticed.
Ignorance is bliss.
They could not stop playing. Roll, move, card. Horror. Roll, move, card. Horror.
Ginny's head was swimming, a feeling of desperate claustrophobia closing in.
She rolled the dice. The beating of her heart sounded like the ticking of a clock in her ears,
counting down to death.She moved. Sweat trickled down off her forehead. The small stack of cards looked menacing
in the darkness. The card on the top was the card she was to take. She forced herself to look.
An ivory white skull leered at her from the top.
Her violently shaking hand reached for it.
Before she even grabbed the card, Ron moaned slightly and fell face forward onto the playing board.
An icicle penetrated his back, melting slowly, the water mixing with the scarlet of his blood.
Ginny looked wildly around, sure the killer would be right behind her, poised to kill her too.
But the room was empty, devoid of motion. No one was there.
But directly behind Ron's body, the Weasley clock chimed the hour of midnight, and one hand
disappeared from the clock. The rest were still ensnared in mortal peril.
Harry leaped up, sobbing. "No... Ron! Ron! Wake up!" He shook his friend desperately. Ron's
head lolled sickeningly, his only response to Harry's pleas.
"At least he'll be with Hermione now," whispered George. "He really did love her, you know."
Harry snapped. "That isn't enough! I loved him too!"
Ginny's eyes filled with tears. "But..." she whispered. No one heard.
Fred reached across Ron and grabbed the dice.
"You're going to keep playing?" hissed George "after what happened to Ron and Hermione? You're
nuts!"
Fred looked helplessly at his brother as his hand rolled the dice.
They died. All of them. The last to go was Harry. How I love his green eyes. I could give
them anything, anything in the world. Anything but mercy.
Fred. I tortured him, tortured him to his last breath, his dying breath. George. I slit his
throat. Mum. Bludgeoned with a lead pipe. Dad. Strangled.
It was I, Ginny Weasley. My hands are covered with the blood of my family. Of my friends.
And soon to be covered with my own. I am drowning in blood. I am the killer. Drowning...
It is my time to go.