Author's Note: I originally planned on doing a Christmas chapter for "Strange Bedfellows," but I decided to instead take up the Twin Exchange's December challenge! Hope you like it! Not Rowling.
.
.
.
The twins' favorite holiday tradition was pranking each member of the family. They had always stretched the pranking across Christmas Eve day through Christmas itself and switched up the order of attack so no one knew when they were going to be the victim. This was going to be George's first Christmas spearheading this mission on his own, and it was turning out to be a rather daunting task. The only thing he had known for sure was that he wanted to theme it around the idea of the Twelve Days of Christmas. He had been planning for the entire month what to do for each person, and some, like Percy, were easier than others, like Bill or Harry, but he was at a complete loss for how to prank Hermione. He stared at a picture of him and Fred from their fifth year at Hogwarts and wished he could talk to Fred. Surely he would have an idea, but unfortunately, he was just going to have to figure this out on his own. He checked his bag full of presents and pranks for the fifth time before checking his watch.
It was time.
With a grin and a crack, he spun on his heel and was in front of the Burrow's front door an instant later.
…
TWELVE
George smiled as he handed his father the box of Christmas tree ornaments. "Thanks, son," Mr. Weasley said. George sat back on the sofa and silently sipped his mug of warm butterbeer as he waited for the fun to begin.
"Why did you guys wait so long to get a tree this year?" asked Ginny as she bent down to pick up a sparkly red globe and threaded it with a wire before hanging it on the tree.
"You know, we were just so busy and after the craziness of last year, getting a tree didn't really seem to be the most important thing," said Mr. Weasley thoughtfully.
"Makes perfect sense to me," said Bill from the armchair, where he sat rocking baby Victoire. "Last year was not much of a Christmas for anyone, really. We were all too focused on staying ali-"
BANG!
Bill's morose words were cut off as the green ornament Ginny had just hung up exploded, its shattered remains turning into confetti, which began to litter the floor. Everyone ran in from the other rooms to see what was going on and, as if timed to start once the whole family had entered the room, eleven more ornaments blew up, some exploding like a firework, others soaring off the tree and into the middle of the room before exploding into confetti or turning into little birds that began twittering and zooming around the room. The room filled with laughter as everyone watched the display and Charlie went to go help his father up, as Mr. Weasley had toppled over in shock. A few people applauded or made comments towards George as they left, but Hermione caught George's glance as it roved around the room. She had been quietly smiling as the ornaments had exploded and when they had finished, she looked directly at him and brought her hands together a couple times. He grinned back and raised his glass in a silent salute before his attention was jerked away by Ginny, who was pestering him to help re-decorate the tree.
…
ELEVEN
George whispered a charm while Ginny was distracted with pulling out the garlands from their box. Suddenly, the garlands jumped out of the box and, as Ginny began trying to drape them around the Christmas tree, began to drape themselves around her.
"What the-?" his little sister cried as seven of the garlands began tying her arms to her torso. He couldn't help it – he began to laugh, dropping the garlands he had been holding. The four discarded garlands began to twist, snakelike, around his legs and hers until the two of them were completely trapped. "You are such a-" Ginny began to cry, but as soon as she moved to threaten her brother, she knocked into him and the two of them fell to the ground, a loud thunk announcing their hard meeting with the ground.
Two people began to laugh somewhere to George's right, and he turned his head to see Harry and Hermione walking towards to help. "Didn't think you'd get caught by your own trap, now did you?" said Hermione with a small smile as she freed George's hands from the silver tinsel that was binding them tightly together.
…
TEN
"Harry, I think you should be the one to put the final ornament on the tree this year," said Mrs. Weasley after hugging her surrogate son.
"Wow, really, Mrs. Weasley?" asked Harry, blushing a little with shock and pleasure.
"Of course, dear! You're part of the family! And I keep telling you – it's Molly," she said with a smile, ruffling his raven hair.
He grinned and looked around. "So where is it?" His eyes fell on a small felt box that was open in George's hand. "Yeah right. Like I'm going to take that from you," he said with a grin.
"What?" asked George innocently. "Here," he said, picking up the small golden snitch that hung from a thin golden string. "See? It's harmless."
Harry shot George another distrustful look before picking it up. In an instant, the snitch split into ten snitches that all burst to life and began to zoom around Harry's head. "George!" cried Harry as he rushed around the room, trying to swat away the snitches that were now buzzing around his head like a cloud of midges. "Call 'em off! Call 'em off!"
…
NINE
"George, dear, would you come help me for a minute?" Mrs. Weasley called from the kitchen.
"Sure, Mum," George called back, excusing himself from his conversation with Charlie and heading to help his mom. He took the platter from her, on which nine mugs of hot butterbeer were precariously balanced, and started back into the sitting room, where the rest of the family was mingling. Without paying much attention to who was handing out the drinks, Ron grabbed a mug.
"Excellent! I finished my last one a few minutes ago!" He took a big swig and smiled before draining the cup. "Butterbeer has to be one of my fav-" Suddenly his voice cut out, but Ron continued to talk, his mouth moving happily, until the end of the sentence, when he finally seemed to realize no sound was accompanying his words. What happened to my voice he mouthed. His face reddening and his eyes widening, he spun around and hurriedly shook Harry's shoulder. Can you hear me? Harry? Can you hear me? Harry looked at him blankly before the light bulb seemed to flick on and Ron whirled around. YOU DID THIS! YOU GIT! GIVE ME BACK MY VOICE! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY VOICE!
As Ron rushed around the room, silently asking for help, George laughed and looked at his watch. "How long will this last?" asked an amused voice behind him.
"Nine minutes," he replied with a grin, not bothering to turn around and see who had asked the question, as his time was being taken up with watching Ron slowly turning purple with frustration.
…
EIGHT
Just then, Fleur began to make noises that sounded like small screams. "My 'ead! My 'ead! Eet feels like eet ees burning!"
Bill rushed over, handing off Victoire to Mrs. Weasley, and checked his wife's head hurriedly. "What the-?" he exclaimed. Fleur's roots had changed to flaming red and it was spreading quickly to her tips. In less than a minute, she was completely redheaded and, despite the lack of freckles, looked as if she could have been Ginny's older sister.
"Now you're officially a Weasley!" cried George happily. Fleur glared at him, but the rest of the family burst into laughter.
Bill wrapped his arms around his wife and kissed her lightly. "You're even beautiful as a redhead," he said softly, making her smile.
"Oh and don't worry," said George with a grin. "It'll only last for eight."
"Eight minutes? Fantastique!" replied Fleur, relieved.
"Nope. Eight hours." George ducked quickly as he saw Fleur make an angry swipe at him.
…
SEVEN
Everyone was sitting around the room, waiting patiently as Ginny passed out presents that Christmas morning. The first ones everyone opened were their Weasley sweaters, and they pulled them on, like the good sports they were. Everyone was so busy pulling on sweaters and throwing balled-up wrapping paper at each other that no one seemed to notice the words that were subtly writing themselves across Percy's sweater, using the huge "P" as their starting letter.
Pretentious. Purblind. Prosaic. Pungent. Pompous. Pedantic. Pushy.
George looked up from balling his wrapping paper to see Hermione watching Percy's sweater, a smile tugging at the corner of the full bottom lip she was biting in order to keep from laughing. Her eyes met his and she grinned conspiratorially. He chucked the ball of paper at her and she laughed, batting it away as it almost hit her face. He closed his eyes while he laughed and was surprised when he felt something smack against his face. He opened his eyes to see a ball of paper in his lap and a smirking Hermione talking to Ginny.
…
SIX
"And this one is for Bill," said Ginny, handing over a large and rather heavy box.
"Thanks Gin," he said with a smile. He undid the wrapping paper and came face to face with a solid wooden box fastened with a bolt lock. He looked over at George and raised an eyebrow. "I'm guessing this one's from you." George grinned in reply. Bill undid the bolt pulled off the top to reveal a smaller metal box. He pulled it out and used the key that was sitting at the bottom of the wooden box to undo the padlock. He pulled out the lock and flipped open the top to reveal a glass box, in which another box could be seen. After searching for an opening to no avail, Bill set the glass box back in the wooden one and used the metal one to shatter the glass. He pulled out the sturdy tin box and, once he opened that, was faced with a cardboard box that revealed a small knitted bag. Bill sighed with relief and opened the bag, but all his searching fingers found was a note. He opened it and read it aloud.
Now that was fun, wasn't it?
Bill looked up and gave George a half-amused, half-exasperated look before leaning over and ruffling his hair in a brotherly fashioned.
…
FIVE
When Ginny touched her gift, it began to vibrate slightly and emitted a humming noise. "Oh god, it's not going to blow up, is it?" she asked nervously.
"Have you no faith in me?" George joked as the family laughed.
She pursed her lips and shot him a look before setting to unwrapping the present. A high pitched squeal of happiness pierced the ears of everyone in the room as Ginny launched herself across the pile of presents and into George's arms. She tackled him and hugged him tightly, despite his breathless pleas for her to let go so he could regain his breath. In a sizeable cage lined with fluffy wood shavings and brilliant green clover that seemed to be growing inside the cage were five pygmy puffs, each a different brilliant color the rainbow. The pygmy puffs squeaked happily, rolling around their cage and purring as people stuck their fingers in to pet them.
…
FOUR
As Charlie moved to untie the shimmering gold ribbon that encircled his present, a burst of flame shot from the knot and he pulled his hand back with his lightning-fast reflexes. His brow furrowed but a smile playing around his lips, his hands shot to and from the box, trying to unwrap it all the while avoiding the flames that kept erupting from random places on the box. Grinning at his challenge, he tugged here and sliced with his pocketknife there, completely forgetting his wand as he worked the present open. Once the top was off, four miniatures of dragons were revealed to be rushing around the box, snarling and fighting with each other, spouts of flame shooting from their nostrils as they charged at their opponent.
…
THREE
The last gift of the day was from George to little Teddy, who had been happily playing with the empty boxes, his stack of unwrapped presents lying unloved and forgotten by the armchair. "Tedster! Hey, Tedster!" called George. He carefully pulled the cardboard box from off of the one-year-old's head and smiled. "You have one more present left!" He lifted up the toddler and carefully carried him over to Harry. He happily sat in Harry's lap and clapped his little hands as George brought over something wrapped loosely in tissue paper. His little fingers tore excitedly at the paper and revealed a soft doll. It was a person, a man with sandy brown felt hair, blue button eyes, and a black felt cloak. Teddy kissed the doll and it changed into a doll of a young man, still with sandy brown hair and blue buttons for eyes, but in a Hogwarts uniform. Teddy giggled happily and kissed it once more. It changed a third time, this time into a shaggy grey and black wolf with blue button eyes, a pink tongue hanging from his felt mouth. Teddy squealed with glee and hugged the toy wolf to his chest while Harry hugged his godson tightly, pressing a kiss into his messy turquoise hair. Harry looked over at George with eyes sparkling with unshed tears and mouthed thank you. George smiled and mouthed you're welcome before turning his eyes back onto the happy toddler.
…
TWO
Everyone enjoyed Christmas dinner, even with the food that was flung by Teddy, who was just getting the hang of the spoon, and everyone was just in the midst of helping clear the table when two BANG!s shook the room. The bread pudding and the pie exploded, showering everyone with custard-y bread and cinnamon-sugared apples. Shrieks and yells bounced off the walls and rung in everyone's ears as arms were flung over faces and heads. Once the flying food had finally landed and the air had cleared, there, in the middle of the table, sat the bread pudding and the pie innocently, looking completely untouched. After a few wands were waved and a few choice words were said, the mess was cleared and Mrs. Weasley took that time to walk over and smack George on the back of the head.
"Honestly…" she muttered as George chuckled and rubbed his head.
…
ONE
Everyone was finally tiring out. George looked around the sitting room and realized the only person missing was Hermione. He quietly slipped out of the room while everyone else was occupied and made his way to the backdoor, which led out to the porch. He grabbed a coat off the rack and pulled it on as he silently opened the door, stepped out, and closed it behind him. There she was, just like he expected, standing at the edge of the porch, looking out into the star-spangled night. He had been worrying over how to prank her for the past month and, as he watched the cold night breeze blow her curls around, making them dance behind her, it finally occurred to him. He waved his wand silently and conjured a small bunch of greenery, which he held safely in his left hand. He walked up to her as silently as he could, but she whirled around as soon as he was about a meter apart from her.
"Like I didn't know you were coming out here," she said with a small smirk, her eyebrow cocked and her arms folded across her chest. "I figured out what you're up to."
"Oh yeah," he said with a small smile, moving forward, "and what am I up to?"
"You're pranking everyone in the family, and each one has had a number attached to it. It's been from twelve to one, in order. It was the 12 Days of Christmas, or, in your case, the 12 Pranks of Christmas."
He beamed at her and moved closer, until he was only about thirty centimeters away from her. "Very astute, Hermione."
"And, I know I'm the only one who hasn't been pranked yet. So what is it, George? You've already exploded and set fire to things. What's next?"
"No explosions," he said with a soft smile. Just this." He held up the small bunch of mistletoe for Hermione to look at. "One bunch of mistletoe and one Christmas kiss." He leaned forward and wrapped his free arm around Hermione's waist, pulling her close. He kissed her softly, carefully, his lips brushing against hers for only a few seconds before he pulled away. He opened his eyes and smiled as he saw hers were still closed. They fluttered open and she smiled at him mischievously.
"Oh George, you just can't get anything right, can you?"
"Wha-?" he started, confused and affronted, but she cut him off.
"And I thought you could count," she said with a grin and, before he had time to respond or question, she pulled the front of his jacket towards her and she kissed him full on the mouth, without hesitation or trepidation. He smiled into the kiss before chucking the mistletoe away and wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, deepening the kiss. They broke apart a minute or so later and grinned at each other.
"Now what are you going to do?" asked Hermione, her brandy eyes sparkling. "You don't have a 'one' for your pattern."
"Oh yes I do," said George happily. "One marvelous trickster."