A/N: This is my entry for a challenge posted by BeautifulStruggle in the Writers Anonymous forums.

Challenge: Write a story with the given eleven random statements woven into the storyline. I'll not list them down here; when they appear in the story, the statements will be italized.

Silver Eggs

"I don't care if it takes an hour to get there, we are not going to play Truth or Dare on the way, absolutely not!" Angelina Johnson refused, continuing to walk along the forest path, past a pair of redheaded twins and a girl with shoulder-length brown hair.

One of the twins grinned and hurried after her. "Why not?" Fred Weasley asked. "I'm looking forward to asking you to take off all your clothes and burn them, now!"

Angelina stopped short and hit him hard. "That's why I don't want to play, idiot." Behind her, both Katie Bell and George Weasley were snickering.

It was the summer holidays before the twins' final year at Hogwarts. Just a day ago Fred and George had managed to convince Katie and Angelina to come with them on their "enlightening, gold-spinning expedition" (George's words). Mundungus Fletcher, local crook and member of the Order of the Phoenix, had just recently told the twins about a creature that lay eggs whose shells were made of pure silver.

"Pure silver?" Fred had asked sceptically.

"Yep," Dung had answered, puffing on his great old pipe. Smoke had engulfed him as he continued, "Occamy's eggs. Dangerous creatures, 'specially when they're guarding their own, see? But this one 'ere that I found, 'er eggs are almost 'atching, and once they do she's gonna be off takin' care of 'em, and that's when we can get those eggs!"

This was why Fred and George were now in a forest just a mile away from Angelina's home, arguing about playing Truth or Dare as they went deeper into the tangle of trees. "Just follow the path," Mundungus has told them. "You'll see the clearing soon enough. Better go soon, or someone'll grab those eggshells before you do."

At the moment Fred was still trying to convince Angelina to play. "Come on, just tell me: Truth or Dare?"

The tall black girl shook her head, her long braids inadvertently hitting Fred as she did so. "No, I – do you hear that?" She stopped suddenly.

George laughed. "Oh, come off it, Angel. Trying to distract us by pretending to hear a creepy sound in the creepy old forest? I really, really thought you could do better than that. I'm disappointed."

"Shut up, George, I really did hear something."

The four of them stopped walking and listened hard. Fred caught the sound of the trees whispering and a few animal calls; all natural sounds of the forest. "I don't hear anything unusual, Angel –"

"Shh!"

Fred stopped speaking and gave his twin a silent, "oh, brother" look. Then he heard a cough and what sounded like a curse.

"Damn stupid forest," a low, hoarse voice was saying. "Curse me in here, would you, wait till I find the lousy bastard who did this…"

The voice grew louder and then its owner appeared on the forest path. It was a creature that resembled an overgrown ferret. Fred gave George another look, this one clearly saying that the creature was not dangerous at all.

"Hello," he said pleasantly to it.

The jarvey looked up at them. "What is it, ugly?"

"My, aren't we cheerful and polite this afternoon," George supplied, ignoring the elbow Katie had shoved at him.

The creature scowled. "Shut your trap. Have you got spattergroit or something? You're the most diseased-looking thing I've ever met." It managed to look George up and down before continuing. "Stupid, too, I'll bet."

Fred pretended to look surprised. "Really? I've always felt like he's a better version of me." And then he snickered.

"What, you mean more stupid?" George punched his twin. An idea seemed to occur to him then. "Say, how far do you think this jarvey can fly?"

Both girls made generally incoherent, indignant noises, while the jarvey sounded apoplectic as he prepared, hastily, to turn around and leave. George caught the phrases "You can't do that to the poor creature –" and "I'm not getting smacked around by you jack asses, I've had enough from the other bastard –" before Fred, who looked like he'd been considering George's idea, interrupted the jarvey.

"The other bastard?" he asked.

The jarvey snapped its jaws irritably, pausing just for moment to say, "If you didn't hear it the first time around, that's too bad. It's not my fault you can't understand simple English." Then it scuttled into the dense trees.

"Oh, hey, come on!" George called after it. "Tell me the part where you get smacked around again, that never gets old!"

"George!" both Angelina and Katie began fiercely, but Fred managed to cut in before either of them started on a tirade.

"It's just a jarvey, all those creatures do is insult and be rude to everybody," the redhead said.

"Yes, but still," Katie insisted, as they began walking again. "Thinking of throwing it…!"

"Nah, we weren't really going to see how far it could fly," Fred said, before whispering audibly into George's ear. "Not when the girls were looking, anyway."

Katie rolled her eyes.

"Hmm," George said some time later, coming to a stop. Angelina peered over his shoulder and found herself looking into trees instead of a clear path ahead. She remembered noticing that the path had been dwindling in size for some time.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?"

The Weasley twin looked indecisive. "He did say follow the path."

"This Dung is trustworthy, isn't he?" Angelina looked dubious. "I mean, he wasn't pulling your leg about all this?"

" 'Better go soon, or someone'll grab those eggshells before you do. Get some for me, too.' " Fred quoted. "Of course, we'll be selling them back to him for a reduced fee," he continued happily.

"Why's he sending you instead of joining you or going himself? This is an Occamy we're going to be dealing with here."

"Well, he says the eggs have hatched, hasn't he?" Fred said. "The Occamy won't bother about the empty eggshells even if it is nearby. It'll be too busy taking care of its Occamylings or whatever they're called."

"And Dung got wind of an even more profitable deal, so he's off negotiating that one," George explained. "Look, Dung wouldn't send us into a dangerous situation. Mum'd kill him, for sure." He looked around. "I don't think the Occamy laid eggs on the path. We'll just have to do a bit of exploring."

Fred was studying Katie's and Angelina's faces. They didn't look very convinced. "Look, are you sure you feel up to this? Because George and I can go on, get the eggshells and then come back here."

"And let you boys have all the fun? As if," Angelina huffed. "I'm game."

"Me too." Katie nodded. "Where's the fun without the risk? Just as long as it's not, you know, lethal," she added in afterthought.

"That's the spirit," Fred cheered. "Come on, then."

They could see the creature through the thin bushes; it was beautiful, serpentine, curled in the middle of the clearing. A pair of wings flapped gently against it and two feet were tucked underneath. The Occamy was plumed, as well; feathers of blue and gold against the green scales of its body.

"Er…wow…just…wow," Angelina breathed.

Katie agreed. "It's beautiful and yet entirely alien at the same time, isn't it?"

"I need a plume like that," Fred said dreamily. "Sometimes I just want to be noticed."

"You get noticed plenty, Weasley," Angelina snorted. Then she turned slightly pink as she realised what her words might be interpreted as. Fred didn't seem to notice that or her blush, however; his eyes were still on the Occamy.

"We've got a problem, people." George pointed out the glimmer of eggs beneath the Occamy. They were clearly still not hatched.

"Damn."

"Oh, yes. What were you saying about Dung not putting you in mortal danger?" Katie said sarcastically.

"Maybe Dung meant, almost hatched," George suggested.

A loud crack! rent the air and Mundungus Fletcher appeared, looking slightly dishevelled. The Occamy turned its head towards them and began getting up. Angelina tugged on Fred's robes worriedly – it was hissing loudly.

"The deal's off," Dung announced, smelling very strongly of tobacco pipe. The he peered at the Occamy in alarm. "What in bloody blazes…?"

"Yes, apparently the eggs aren't hatched yet," Fred said conversationally, as the creature reared up.

Dung goggled at it. Angelina, fortunately, had the sense to perform a Shield Charm before poking the man hard in the chest. "You told them there wasn't much danger!"

"What? No, I swear I wasn't expecting this!" Dung insisted, now slowly backing away from the snakelike creature as Angelina's shield shimmered and vanished.

The creature struck suddenly, rearing down upon them. George just managed to push himself and Katie out of the way – they'd been nearer to the clearing, and thus to the Occamy, than the others. Dung gave a shout and aimed a jinx at the Occamy; a jet of red light hit its body and the creature's wings flapped as it gave out a roar of anger.

"You know, a little help would be appreciated!" Dung shouted as he backed away, firing another jinx at it.

"Oh, you don't need any help!" George roared at him, picking Katie up from where she'd fallen. He backed away from the Occamy, eyes blazing. "You're making it so much angrier, just by yourself."

Meanwhile, Angelina had managed to catch both Katie's and Fred's attentions. Together, they cast a Shield Charm that momentarily stopped the creature. The Occamy snapped and bit at the solid, half-transparent white wall. It wouldn't take long before the shield disappeared.

"Right." Fred straightened up. "You know, I've always said that if you'll stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. Never stop fighting, you know the lot. But in this case –" and he looked round at them before continuing very quickly – "there is no shame in running; in fact I would highly recommend it."

Then he grabbed Angelina and shot back down the path, the rest hot on his heels. There was a shatter as the shield broke – and then the Occamy was after them, hissing and spitting. Dung threw another spell at it, which, while making it angrier, at least managed to slow it down somewhat.

Much to their surprise, the Occamy stopped chasing them once they were out of sight of the clearing. George slowed down as the Occamy disappeared. "I guess it was just protecting its eggs," the redhead panted.

"Right, whatever. Let's just go," Angelina said, preparing to Disapparate.

They arrived at Angelina's house, Dung apologising profusely for the mistake he'd made. "I thought those eggs were 'atched, miss, 'onest!"

Fred was grinning as he arranged his robes. A glint of silver shone slightly and George's eyes widened. Dung, busy placating a furious Angelina, didn't notice. It was only after the petty criminal had left that Fred took out a rather large piece of broken silver eggshell.

Katie gasped. "How did you get that?"

George was punching Fred on the arm. "You dirty rotten thief! Wait, why an eggshell?"

"It doesn't belong to the Occamy we met," Fred explained, looking smug. "It's from an older nest." He considered the eggshell thoughtfully. "You know, Flitwick doesn't get enough credit for teaching us 'Accio'."

- END -

A/N: Hmm, what did you think? I have to say now I'm not very happy with this, it didn't turn out the way I wanted to. Oh well.