Summary: Fred learns to control his magic and pulls his first prank. One-shot. My entry for Round 5 on The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition forum.

A/N: Thank for clicking on this story! Please enjoy!

This is my entry for Round 5 on The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition forum. The challenge was to write a fic between 1000 and 3000 words about Fred Weasley, using the prompts radio, shadow and winter.

Thanks to colorful swirls for beta'ing this! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.

Spider

"Oh Fred, did you drop the bowl again?" Mum demanded angrily, quickly repairing the bowl with a spell.

"No, I didn't! Ron let me trip! It's his fault!" I said defensively, pointing at my younger brother.

Mum shook her head. "Fred, Ron is three. He isn't able to do something like that. Don't lie to me."

"I'm not lying! I swear, it's his fault, he did it on purpose!" I almost yelled.

"Fred..." Mum said threateningly, and I closed my mouth, glaring at the smaller redheaded boy. As soon as Mum had left the room with the newly repaired bowl, he gave me a grin.

"You totally did it on purpose!" I hissed at him.

"Nwot true!" Ron said. "It was an accident!"

"Liar!" I yelled. I was angry, angry for dropping the bowl again, angry for Mum being angry at me, angry for her not believing me and I was especially angry at Ron.

When he stuck out his tongue at me, it was the last straw. I screamed and felt a wave of magic leaving my body, throwing the smaller boy in front of my against the bookcase.

In shock, I stared at Ron lying in a heap on the ground, crying, and a few books laying on top of him. I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but nothing came out. I had used magic to hurt someone. I had used magic to hurt my own brother!

Horrified, I ran for the door, tears forming in my eyes. The door flew out of its hinges as another wave of uncontrollable magic left me, and I ran outside, into the snow. The winter air was cold and I immediately shivered as I plunged forward through the knee-high snow.

After what felt like forever, I reached an old oak tree and curled up against the trunk on one of the snowless places, perfectly hidden in the shadow of the tree.

My head rested on my knees as I sniffled, thinking about what had happened. I would never be able to go home again, never ever again. How many times had Mum and Dad told me to control my magic? And now I had hurt Ron too... They would hate me, forever and ever.

I should've known better! I was already five, I should've been able to control my magic! Even George, who was younger, didn't have these things, these explosions anymore. He just caused the occasional small thing breaking or changing, but even Percy still did that.

Maybe I was just stupid. Percy used to say it often enough, even though Mum told him not to. I should've practiced harder! Now, everything went bad and I couldn't go home again. Never ever again...

Tightening my arms around my knees, I felt more tears escaping. I was all alone, forever and ever. Alone in this cold, wintery world, all alone-

A big arm around my shoulder pulled me out of my thoughts, and without looking up I knew it was Dad. Still crying, I buried my head in his chest, and felt his arms around me, like they were protecting me from everything bad in the world.

"It was an accident Dad, I swear," I sniffled, looking at him with teary eyes. For a moment he looked confused, before smiling a bit and ruffling my hair.

"Of course it was an accident, don't worry about it, boy," he said softly.

"Really?" I asked, a bit angry at myself for worrying about nothing.

"Really Fred, it's okay." Dad smiled. "Ron is okay, we can repair the door and bookcase, so no harm done."

I wasn't convinced. Was it really that easy?

"Fred, it's completely normal that you can't control your magic yet. That has to be practiced and that takes time. Don't worry about it," Dad said, looking me in the eyes.

"I will be able to control it one time, right Dad? I mean, it doesn't happen that someone is uh... too, erm, dumb to do it, right?" I asked, trying to hide my insecurity.

"Of course not! Every wizard or witch will be able to control their magic at one point in their life, and whether they manage to do it before they go to Hogwarts or not, that doesn't matter. And as soon as you go to Hogwarts, you'll learn to control it perfectly fine, so there's no need to worry."

When Dad gave me another smile, I felt my confidence growing. Of course I'll be able to control my magic, I don't have to worry about that.

"C'mon Fred, let's head back inside," Dad said, and I smiled as he lifted me up and carried me back to the house.

No. Oh no oh no oh no oh no. No. Just no. I couldn't believe, just couldn't believe it. No no no, this couldn't be happening, this couldn't be real. No no no no.

"I'm really, really sorry Fred. Really," Ron said, staring up to me fearfully. There were tears in his eyes, his lower lip was trembling and his hands clutched his teddy bear desperately. But I didn't feel sorry for my younger brother, not at all. I only felt the sinking feeling in my stomach as I realised that those pieces of wood on the floor, those broken chunks, were all what was left of my toy broomstick.

My toy broomstick. My favourite toy. My most favourite, favourite toy. Broken.

I stared at Ron, who was still muttering apologies and I could see my twin brother taking a hesitant step towards me. Tears were burning in my eyes and I clenched my fists, wanting nothing more than to do something, to hit something, to scream, to cry, to break things and to slam doors.

Take a deep breath Fred, count to ten, don't make things explode. Control yourself, control your magic. You can do it, just... calm down.

Surprisingly, it worked. I felt myself calming down, not a lot, but still, I felt calmer, more focused. I closed my eyes for a second, suddenly highly aware of everything happening around me. The radio softly playing, the floor creaking, Ron's mumbling, George's presence on my left...

I opened my eyes, knowing that whatever I would see first would be the thing I would release my magic on.

Teddy bear.

Good, Ron's teddy bear. Yes, that should work. Don't make it explode, do something else, something different...

Change it.

Yes, yes, change it, in what? My eyes flickered to the corner of the room, where a small black spider had managed to escape Mum's cleaning rage.

Spider.

This all shot through my mind in less than a second, and then it happened. I didn't say anything, didn't raise my hands, didn't feel something special, it just... happened.

One moment Ron was holding his teddy bear, the next a huge, hairy, black spider. He didn't notice it at first, but then stared down at it, his mouth falling open, and stood like that for a moment, frozen in horror.

Then he screamed, tears started streaming down his face as he threw the big spider on the ground. George said something, but I didn't hear it. Instead, I was completely focused on the victorious feeling in my stomach, the fact that I had finally managed to control my magic.

A huge grin spread on my face as I watched how the spider quickly hid under the couch, and I was about to say something to George about my success, when Mum finally ran into the room.

"What's going on - Oh!" she stopped as she took in the scene. I smiled brightly at her, proudly puffing out my chest, but her reaction was not as I had hoped.

"Oh Ron, dear, are you okay?" Mum said worriedly to her youngest son, before glaring at me and hissing, "Fred, the corner, now!"

"But - " I started, wanting to protest, but the look in her eyes and another angry "Now!" stopped me.

Sulking, I went to the corner, glaring at the wall. It was always cute Ron and sweet Ginny, or smart Percy, or big Charlie and Bill, doing so well at Hogwarts. It was never George and me. I had just learned how to control my magic, and I get sent to the corner!

When everything was calm again – Mum had changed the spider back to Ron's teddy bear, but the little baby had refused to hold it – George approached me.

He looked at me, earnestly and even a little bit sad. "Mum says you're not getting a new toy broomstick."

I sighed and my shoulders slumped. I should've expected it. Of course I wouldn't get a new toy broomstick, I never got anything new, except for Christmas and my birthday. And even then I sometimes would get something second-hand!

George eyes suddenly started shining and grinned at me. "You know, what you just did, that was really cool!"

"Really?" I said, before quickly adding, "Yeah, I mean, it was pretty cool, eh?"

"Yes! Ron deserved it, plus Mum always takes his side anyway. Now you got your revenge!" He was still grinning.

"Yes, yes you're right." I started to feel more confident about it. Ron had indeed deserved it.

"It was really funny too! You think you can teach me?" George looked at me expectantly.

"Maybe..." I said, my grin getting bigger every second. "We could do more things like this, uh, prank people! Ron and Percy, they're perfect victims."

My brother's eyes shone in a way they always did when he had an idea. "Yes, we could-"

"George! Get away from Fred, he should think about what he did. Alone!" Mum's voice came angrily from the kitchen, and George jumped away from me. He turned away from me, but not before giving me a quick thumbs up.

Grinning, I turned back to the wall, and I knew: This is going to be great.

A/N: Thank you very much for reading! I hope you liked it :) Please leave me a review on your way out!
Thanks again!