Hogwarts (Challenges and Assignments).
Assignment 5 — Charms — washing up charm — write about someone trying to clean up a mess they made, figuratively or literally; they can or cannot succeed
March Event: Mother's Day — write about making a card for your mum/receiving a card from your child
The Golden Snitch; Canopus, Aurora Academy.
Through the Universe — 51 — double star — (characters) Fred and George Weasley
HPFC.
Greek and Roman Mythology — Apollo — write about someone creating a piece of art
"Forge." Fred pokes his twin on the arm. George is still sleeping, which Fred cannot let happen on the most important day of the year — to their mum, at least.
It's Mother's Day, and the twins are finally old enough to be trusted with making a card for their mum. Fred has been up since dawn, thinking of how to make it the best card she will ever get or already has gotten. He wants it to be better than his older brothers' cards, so they can show their mum that they're not just mischief-makers — that they actually do care.
George mumbles sleepily and swats at his brother. "G'way," he mutters, and proceeds to bury his face in one pillow and cover his head with another.
"Forge!" Fred shakes George. "We have to get up and make a card!"
This time, George punches Fred on the arm. He packs a hard wallop considering that he's not quite seven yet.
"Ow!" Fred clutches his arm and then rips the blankets away from his brother's body. He bolts upright with a fearsome glare directed at Fred.
"Give me my blanket back," he demands furiously.
"No," retorts Fred stubbornly. "Forge, guess what day it is!"
"I don't care," grumbled George. He snatches for his blanket, which Fred holds out of his reach, and he slumps back down, pouting.
"It's Mother's Day!"
That does it. George sits up the fastest Fred has ever seen him move and jumps out of bed, hopping around the room in his pajamas.
"We have to make a card!" he exclaims.
Fred rolls his eyes, a habit he'd picked up from Bill and a sight that looks completely out of place in his still-chubby face. "Let's hurry."
The problem isn't the card. It's early in the morning, but their father was up already and showed them how to use the Muggle cutting instruments that are apparently called 'scissors.'
No, the card-making goes fine. They manage to cut it into a rectangle with the scissors without lopping off a finger, then decorate it meticulously with stickers of flower bouquets and hearts, and Fred — the artistic one — draws a stick picture of the entire family: there was their mum hand in hand with their dad and Ginny in her arms, Bill, Charlie (clutching a blob that sort of resembled a dragon if you squinted), Percy, Fred and George (off to the side and holding a teddy-bear-turned-spider), and ickle Ronnikins (upon whom Fred draws a horrified and scared face).
The problem was that Fred talked George into making breakfast for their mum. They got the toast into the oven just fine, broke some eggs into a bowl and stirred it, and tried to read the instructions on the coffeemaker.
That's where it goes wrong.
Some of the shell gets into the egg bowl, which George tries to pick out with grubby fingers, and then when he stirs it, half of it splashes over the edge and onto the floor. Fred fiddles with the coffee machine that Arthur insists on keeping in the kitchen and finds out that boiled water was hot. While George mops up the yellow mess on the floor and Fred runs cold water over his fingers, an acrid smell wafts up from the toaster and over to them.
Molly Weasley descends the stairs and spots the twin boys gazing around the messy kitchen forlornly. The smell of burnt toast permeates the air. She stood around the corner, out of sight of the twins, and leans against a wall and laughs silently to herself, shoulders shaking.
She clears her throat and steps into the kitchen. "Just what do you think you're doing?" she asks.
The boys jump. "N-nothing, mum!" they chorus. But their faces are so guilty, though they quickly turn their expressions innocent, that Molly bursts into laughter again — but this time she doesn't hold back. The twins just stare, and everyone else comes downstairs. Arthur holds Ginny, and the other three boys descend the stairs slowly. Ron can sleep through an attack, so no one is surprised to see that the toddler isn't with them.
Molly glances around the room. Eggs on the floor, burnt toast in the oven that is slowly filling with smoke, and one of the poor twins has blistered fingers. Not to mention that the table is covered with scraps of leftover craft paper. She shakes her head and chuckles again.
"Come on," she says. "Let's clean up."
George and Fred go to bed that night very relieved. Mum hadn't been very mad, and everyone had a good time cleaning up the mess that the twins had made. (Well, Ron didn't help at all, but no one really expected him to.) Molly made a wonderful breakfast: pancakes and sausage and unburnt toast and lots of other yummy things.
The day is mostly spent relaxing, and they play outside with a Muggle flying object called a 'Frisbee.' Even Percy, who despite his young age is the most uptight of the bunch, participates. Their dad mostly stares at the Frisbee and wonders aloud how it flies without magic, while the kids ran around ignoring him completely.
Fred brushes his teeth and climbs into bed, whispering a "good night" to his twin. Molly comes in a bit later to find the light already turned off and the boys sound asleep. She smiles and shuts the door softly.
It's only the next morning that they realize they hadn't given the card they'd spent so much time making to their mum.