Written for: The Golden Snitch.

Hogwarts, Hufflepuff.

Challenge: Where am I? What is that? What are you doing with your wand?

Prompts: Location: Cave where Hagrid sees the giants; Object: Howler; spell: Furnunculus;

Word count: 2578

Note: the story takes place the summer after Harry's fourth year and instead of the ritual from Goblet of Fire, Voldemort has gone to look allies elsewhere.

The Cave, the Howler and the Fourth Unforgivable

Fred pushed himself through the opening into the cave and looked around before turning back to his brother George. "Are you really sure about this? I mean, it is a pretty extreme."

"I fear not as extreme as that howler. You heard what Ginny said. This is the big one. She's really lost it." George shook his head, "I'm telling you, it's best if we lay low here for a while, before we even think about showing our faces to her again!"

"Alright, brother, if you really think we'll be safe here."

"Reasonably sure about that. I'm willing to bet Errol won't make it all the way to Ural Mountains." George took a deep breath. "Let's see then, what kind of a place this is." He surveyed the small cave and nodded, seemingly content with what he saw. "It's no luxury hotel, but it's warm and dry and I've packed us some food too. I hope you brought the sleeping bags?"

Fred nodded and began unshrinking their bags. After a moment of silence he pressed again: "Are you really sure we need to go through all this trouble? I mean, the woman might be unable to take a joke but she is our mother. She won't do anything too horrible, surely."

George shook his head: "Ron said he heard some of her discarded howlers. He claims he is temporarily deaf in one ear!" He unfolded his sleeping bag and lay down. "I fear, dear brother, that this time we might have gone one step too far. What with the llama and the fireworks and the cotton candy…"

Fred chuckled lightly. "It was pretty epic though, wasn't it? I mean, did you see Snape? He was so angry I thought his head might explode!"

"Yeah, it was pretty neat. I bet whoever those Marauders were, they can't hold a candle to a prank this awesome!" They both laughed and George reached for his bag of snacks.

From the depths of the cave came a sharp creak. Fred turned sharply, his wand already in his hands. Two figures approached. "Who is they?" demanded a loud voice.

"Giants!" whispered George as he drew his own wand.

"Oh yes, what happened to "we'll be perfectly safe in this cave"?" Fred hissed back.

"Silence!" demanded the other giant. "You is coming with us! Now!"

"What are we going to do, Gred?"

"Better go with them Forge. They seem to mean business!"

The twins shared a look, then slowly lowered their wands and got up. "Where are you taking us?" George asked.

"Silence, you is going to see the boss. He decides what is to happen." The giants were now standing close enough to the light that the twins could see they were wearing some sort of an armor and weapons on their belts. One of them motioned for the two boys to follow and the other stayed to walk behind them.

George hastened his step to get next to his brother and whispered quietly: "I'm getting a bad vibe off of these guys."

"Just keep your mind sharp and your wand within reach." replied Fred. Giants were a sort of a gray area. He remembered vaguely from his history books that they were of some intelligence, with a rich culture and with very little patience. They'd taken no sides in the Wizarding wars and kept to themselves as much as possible. They certainly seemed to have little care for blood purity squabbles between wizards and witches. He was fairly sure they didn't eat humans either. Fairly sure.

The cave narrowed and they slipped through a passage, where there was plenty of room for humans but giants barely fit through. The giant in the front paused and then stepped away, the passage flooding with light and temporarily blinding George, who was in the lead. It took a few seconds for him to get used to it, then he blinked and looked around. They were standing in a large hall, in the center of which was a large throne of stone. The throne was mostly obscured from view by another group of giants standing guard around it.

The twins, who had paused to stare, were shoved forward roughly and they nearly fell over. Then the giants at the throne parted, revealing fully the seated figure. He was as tall as the shorter giants but unusally thin and unlike most giants, he was wearing a long beige trench coat that reached almost his ankles. Overall he looked more like an out of proportion human than a giant and George almost commented on it, before his brother elbowed him hard in the side and bowed from the waist. George got his message and followed his lead.

The figure on the throne stood and for some reason the motion reminded George of someone unfolding a sheet of paper, swaying slightly on his long thin feet that flashed from under the coat. "Who are these pathetic humans?" he demanded loudly and stepped into the light to reveal that he had a handsome, if a bit cruel, face, framed by black hair.

One of the giants, who had escorted the twins, stepped forward. "We found them, Gurg, in the eastern most entrance, taking shelter for the night!"

The figure addressed as Gurg frowned. "They are muggles?"

"We are wizards." stated Fred, still bowing slightly.

"Wizards?" The tall man stepped closer, "What brings wizards to visit the Gurg of the last tribe of giants?"

"It is as he spoke," Fred motioned at the giant, who had spoken before, "We were merely taking shelter for the night. We did not mean to intrude upon you!" He cursed inwardly, first his brother and then himself, for the predicament. He'd rather have faced the damn howler than try to remember proper customs to address the Gurg of a tribe of giants.

"How interesting. Tell me, boy, what are your names?"

"Eh…we are Fr-" Fred hesitated, then corrected himself, "I am Gred and this is my brother Forge, Gred and Forge Bosley!"

"Bosley. I haven't heard of it before-" the Gurg seemed to catch himself, before and quickly shook his head, "Not that I've kept up with wizarding affairs."

"We are from the States. A very private family!"

"Ah, is that so? Well, how interesting to meet you then. I am Darkling the Great, Gurg of this tribe!" he walked back and sat down, folding his body back on the throne. "Either way, I have no use for two little wizards." He motioned with his hand at the two nearest giants, "Take them away and do what you like with them!"

Fred felt a stab of fear and his fingers gripped his wand so hard that he nearly snapped it in half. "Gred?"

"On three, Forge!"

Unfortunately on three Fred's mind went completely blank and as George downed a giant with a stupefy he fired off the first spell he could think of: "Furnunculus!"

What followed was an ear-piercing shriek as the giant clutched his face, from where a row of large pimples had sprouted. Fred blinked and tried to gather his thoughts, to find any spell to use. In the time he took, the Gurg had stood again and cast a quick expelliarmus and two wands flew through the air into his hand. Fred felt cold inside as the man looked down at him with an oddly piercing glare of pitch black eyes and the sudden thought about giants normally not being that great at wand magic.

"What have you done to him?" demanded the silky voice. Fred blinked. Then he shook his head. "That? That was only-"

"Only one of the most dangerous spells known in our time. My brother here has just cursed your subordinate with a powerful plague curse!" stated George, cutting in sharpely. Fred glared at him and opened his mouth to say something but George sent him a silencing glare. Shut up, I got this! Well, he hadn't actually gotten this, but he had to do something to keep them alive. "Some might even say, it is the fourth unforgivable!"

The giant perked up with interest in his eyes. "The fourth unforgivable? I have heard of no such thing."

"That's because it is a very new thing. You see, the spell was previously thought to only be a simple pimple curse but it was modified to a point where this-" he gestured vaguely at the giant, who's face had become covered in boils, "-is what you get! Without cure the disease will spread from him to the other giants and slowly you shall all die!"

The giant examined him as if to determine if he was lying. George inhaled, trying to project with every single cell in his body, that he was telling the truth. For good measure he focused meticulously on the thought that it was real. There's something to be said about being paranoid while at the mercy of giants. Finally the Gurg nodded. "You shall reverse it!"

"If you allow us to go free."

The giant ignored him. "You shall reverse it and then you shall teach us how to cast that curse!"

George stared at him. "But you're not wizards!" he blurted out.

The man grinned evilly and withdrew a wand. "You shall teach me!" he stated once more. "And if I find out that you're trying to trick me, I shall let my giants tear the meat from your bones and eat it!"

George's face flashed with panic. Behind him, Fred was muttering angrily: "Great going, brother, what next? How will you teach him the dreaded plague curse Furnunculus?"

"Shut up, Gred Bosley, unless you have a better idea." George hissed back. His fingers clutched the wand and he felt his palms sweating.

"The Furnunculus spell is difficult. It will take time for you to learn it. Some never do-"

"I will!" there was a hungry flame in the giants eyes and he took a step forward, "I have demonstrated, have I not, that I can use a wand adequately. Now reverse the spell and demonstrate it again!"

George had gone pale as he raised his wand and shakily cast the counter curse, speaking as quietly as he could. Then he cleared his throat and aimed his wand at the giant again. "Furnunculus!" his wand moved in a swift motion. The curse struck the giant in the chest and pimples errupted across his face.

The Gurg glanced at him, examining the results carefully. "These look like simple pimples for me. I think you are trying to…trick me!"

"No, I am not. I am just a bit nervous! Let me try again!" George's mind was racing trying to come up with anything. A spell perhaps that he could combain with the pimple jinx, a simple boil curse, anything. Oh, Fred, why could you not have blurted out some more useful curse.

"Well, do it again. But I am warning you, I am running out of patience and I think you're lying to me!" He straightened himself, looking absolutely terrifying despite his thin form and the weird beige trench coat.

"Yes, sir. I mean, Gurg!" George raised his wand again and in the one moment the trickster had completely run out of ideas, prayed to what ever god was out there listening for a miracle. Any kind of miracle that would make it possible that despite everything, the jinx would cause anything at least a little worse than pimples to burst from the giant's face. He closed his eyes and yelled: "FURNUNCULUS!"

There was a loud thump and a screech. Then a sound as if someone was taking a deep breath. George opened one of his eyes very carefully and felt his heart jumped into his throat.

The cause of the thump lay in an exhausted pile of feathers as the red envelope unfolded itself carefully to reveal a row of white paper teeth and a red paper tongue. "FRED AND GEORGE WEASLEY!" it started and the twins backed away, their faces pale as chalk.

The giant in the trench coat turned, his eyes cold, his wand ready. "Weasleys? Dirty, traitorous, muggle-loving Weasleys?"

Even if Fred and George had not been completely stunned by the arrival of Errol, now they were staring at the giant who was all of a sudden spouting Death Eater rhetoric. They were both for once in their life stunned into silence even as the Gurg raised his wand, a spell already on his lips: Cruc-"

"SHRIEEEEEEEEEEEEK!" the howler emitted a high-pitched scream as loud as a roar and the giants all around the room clutched their ears as they were assaulted by Molly Weasley's powerful, fury-filled lungs. Even the Gurg went for his ears but he was a bit too hasty about it and in doing so, lost his careful balance on his high boots and swayed from side to side dangerously. Fred had just enough time to grab his brother and pull him out of the way, as the giant fell, the trench coat ripping in half and the figure inexplicably comping apart into four different pieces.

It seemed that the Weasely matriarch had finally emptied his lungs because for the next minute the howler could only pant noisly before launching into a monologue on all the sins the twins had committed. Unfortunately no one was listening because the giants were slowly getting back to their feet and even the four separate Gurg pieces each got up, revealing themselves as about average size humans.

"You absolute idiot!" hissed the human, who's head had evidently been the Gurg's head, at one of the other men. "You were supposed to keep us balanced, not sway like a drunkard!"

"I can't keep balance if you wave your hands like a windmill!" the other shot back.

"How dare you address me in such a manner?" the head piece of Gurg shook with fury and Fred nearly choked as he recognized why the Gurg had seemed vaguely familiar. But it couldn't be, it simply couldn't be!

"I am lord Voldemort and you'll respect me!" he looked around for his wand and located it just soon enough to hear the crunch and snap. One of the giants had crushed it under his foot.

"Humans impersonating a Gurg?" the giant boomed loudly. "How dare you?" the other giants began closing in on the too, their eyes burning with the kind of rage one would expect of a tricked giant. The one still with pimples across his face, produced a large club from somewhere.

"Get them!" the first giant ordered.

George tugged at his brother's sleeve, "I think this is our clue to scram!"

Fred nodded and quickly scooped up the pile of Errol, then in a second they were off running, not looking back at the scene that had began to unfold or the screams and thumps that might have been a giant club coming down on someone's head. They did not stop until they were at the entrance of the cave where they started rapidly firing off spells, sloppily packing their bags, shrinking them and stuffing them in their pockets. Then Fred grabbed onto George and as he felt the tug of apparating, Fred turned at his brother and cracked a smile. "Well, now we know two things. One, you can't outrun mom's howlers. And two, it takes four Death Eaters in a trench coat to make one giant!"

Author's Note: Voldemort was in a trench coat because a trench coat is a magical thing that can transform three raccoons into a human and four humans into a giant. Also, it's slightly AU because giants did in fact fight on Voldemort's side in the first Wizarding world. In this story Voldemort could not convince them as a wizard so he tried masquerading as their leader. Finally, the cave with giants is inspired by J.R.R. Tolkien's "Hobbit" and mountain-trolls.