House: Gryffindor
Position: Prefect 2
Category: Drabble 2
Prompt: [First Line] (Your birth month) was off to a great start.
Word Count: 487 – excludes header, title, and A/N
Beta: Shay and Tigger
A/N: This was written for The Houses Competition, Y2R9.
That Damn Sweater
December was off to a great start.
Mum had sent their sweaters early and he knew he was going to have to wear the itchy thing every weekend for the next month. He hated the idea of sitting at Sunday family dinners wearing that wool monstrosity.
The sweater was ruining everything.
Hermione and he had just had a row about the bloody things. He wanted to put it in the Muggle devices that she liked to use to wash and dry their clothes. He knew it had some magic abilities to shrink stuff. He would just tell his mum that Hermione had accidentally washed it and now it was too small for him to wear, but Hermione said she wouldn't take the blame for him. She had told him that she would teach him how to use the machines and he could shrink it himself but she was certainly not going to help him lie to his mum.
Ron huffed down the stairs, exasperated at his current predicament.
He entered the laundry room and stared at the knobs. He itched his head trying to remember what he'd seen Hermione do.
He opened the lid and threw the bloody sweater in the opening and slammed the lid shut. He then looked at the dials and began to fidget with them.
Cold. He definitely wanted cold water. He definitely didn't want a gentle wash cycle... heavy. Perfect. Maybe the giant machine would tear it to shreds.
He went to push start before the blue container on the shelf caught his eye. He shifted for a second before he grabbed the heavy bottle from the shelf. He was sure he'd seen Hermione put this stuff in the washer before.
He opened the lid and poured the liquid in. He wasn't really sure how much he needed but he figured more was safer than less. He emptied the container and threw it in the trash next to the machine. He pushed start and grinned, satisfied when the machine began to hum.
"Ronald Weasley! Get down here right this minute!"
He rushed downstairs, worried about Hermione's panicked tone.
He had made it halfway down the stairs when he began to realize that bubbles were engulfing the bottom two steps. He cautiously walked through them.
Hermione was holding up the empty blue bottle accusingly at him surrounded by suds that came up to her knees.
"I told you I would teach you how to use these things! Look at this mess!"
She sighed and began to wave her wand around, the bubbles slowly disappearing.
"Ronald!" Hermione squealed through clenched teeth, "I am not even going to teach you how to use the washer and dryer now! You are going to wear that damn sweater and you are going to like it!" She shot him a nasty look and Ron knew he couldn't argue.
Yup, December was off to a bloody great start.