It all started early one morning. Ron was taking too long in the Griffindor boys' bathroom – so long, in fact, that Harry was becoming rather annoyed.
"Hurry up with your bath, Ron! I'm starving!"
"Just a few more minutes," Ron sounded rather worried despite being muffled by the door.
"What's wrong?" asked George, walking up behind Harry. "Oh man. Come on – it's girls who spend too long in the bathroom, not boys."
"Yeah, come out already - or we'll tell everyone that you've decided to be a good role model, like mum told us to for Ginny, by behaving more like a girl." added Fred.
"FINE!" shouted Ron, exasperated.
As he started to open the door, small multi-coloured bubbles drifted out into the common room. Harry's eyes opened wide in surprise. With the door fully opened, he could see what had kept Ron busy for so long.
The room was filled with multi-coloured bubbles, so thick that everything looked oddly magnified like a Dali painting, through the puffy fog.
"What's with all the bubbles? Too much bath oil? Wow! You really ARE trying to be a role model for Ginny, aren't you?" exclaimed Fred grinning.
"Shut up and go to breakfast!" shouted Ron, his ears getting redder and redder by the minute.
Chortling, Fred and George headed towards the Great Hall, bursting into loud peals of laughter at regular intervals.
"What really happened?" Hermione asked a disgruntled Ron, who was waving his arms around like a windmill, trying to clear the room of all the bubbles.
"Happened? My stupid malfunctioning wand, that's what happened."
"Huh?" Asked Harry.
"I dropped. My wand. Into. The bath." He said this slowly and loudly – enunciating every syllable as if he was speaking English to someone from a different planet. "When. I slipped. On. The soap."
"Ok…"
"Oh, come on. Even though they're wood, it's not like wands soak up potential spells like a sponge," Hermione commented, exasperated.
"Then…"Ron said the next piece in a rush, like he was trying to get over a very unpleasant ordeal as fast as possible... "When I tried to clean up the soap spill using one of my mum's cleaning spells, this happened. And it won't stop."
"Here, I'll do it." Trying to look sympathetic, Hermione covered her mouth to suppress a small giggle, as she nudged Ron out of the way. Stepping through the door as she pulled her wand out of her sleeve, she waved her wand. It was hard for Harry to hear what she'd said as a loud whooshing sound filled the room, as the bubbles began swirling around as a small cyclone. Then with a loud pop, they all burst, leaving the room looking like a showroom for new housing estates.
"Hello, you three. Why aren't you at breakfast?" Percy's pompous voice came suddenly from behind them.
"Hi, Percy. Hermione was just teaching Ron how to use cleaning spells properly," said Harry with a grin.
"Yes. Unfortunately he's still got a long way to go, don't you think so Harry?" added Hermione, muffling her giggles behind her hand.
"Excellent! Mum's been trying to convince us to help her more around the house. She'll be glad to hear about this, after that dreadful incident with the Whomping Willow…might make that thing with a Howler a thing of the past, eh?" pushing his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose, Percy turned and headed out of the portrait hole. He didn't notice the small rainbow-coloured bubbles that followed him out into the corridor.
Ron glared at Harry and Hermione.
"Look," he said. ''It's bad enough what I can't get a new wand. They really don't need to know that I can't do any magic with the thing either..."
The tips of his ears were getting redder and redder.
Hermione looked at him sympathetically, shaking her head, as Harry said in a bid to cheer him up,
"No problem. Let's go to breakfast. I feel like a full Continental..."
"Bacon and fried toast..." Ron grinned.
Harry and Ron climbed out of the portrait hole, discussing the merits of fried vs toasted bread.
Behind them, Hermione trailed, rolling her eyes and shaking her head as she muttered.
"Boys..."