Poltergeist
Pairing: Harry/Ginny, Ron/Hermione
Summary: Harry and Ginny expected a nice, quiet night by the fire, but something is lurking by. And what the hell does cupcakes have to do with it?
A/N: I was watching Casper and got a little inspired (a young Devon Shawa doesn't hurt, too! ;)
Rated: T/ slightly M
The newly dusted fireplace crackled, emanating the room with a warm orange glow. Two sets of concentrated eyes are glued to an old chess board, before the girl sighed exasperatedly and flicked her hair as her king was claimed.
"Let's finish icing the liquorice cupcakes! You know if you let them too long, the cake will get soggy"
Glancing up, Harry regarded her sudden expertise in baking with a rise of an eyebrow.
"We ran out of it so Ron and Hermione went to Diagon Alley to fetch the last batch, didn't you remember?"
Ginny's mouth was ready to retort, but she found herself agreeing. Damn him.
"Well we could turn on the radio and wait for the Melbourne match instead? I got to pick some pointers and witness the fall of the Aussies"
"That isn't until tomorrow"
"Damn it! Why do they always play by their own bloody rules?"
As he watched his girlfriend give more colourful opinions of the down under, he started to suspect that there actually is something going on down under.
"Uh, wasn't it last week?"
She stops mid-rant and eyed him dangerously.
"The announcement, I mean! They just announced the Thunderlarra-Falmouth match, I mean…" he falters, before quickly switching the subject. "Is it the chess game, babe? I thought you would love it, you're always so crazy competitive at the field, and we never really played when we were in Hogwarts and…"
Her demeanour softened, before placing a finger on his rambling mouth. "That's sweet, but I was expecting a good old fashioned Exploding Snap, I had enough of wrecking my brains in class"
He chuckles lightly, the touch from her freckled hand blazed more than the roaring fire. "Well I guess, it only looks cute on Ron and Hermione. He sometimes even let her win, and I heard they also do it naked"
Ginny didn't know if she should retch for the image or the casual way Harry said it. It was her turn to divert his attention from board games and his best friends' nightly rituals.
"Well they shouldn't be the only one having fun; I bet those prats just took a stop at the Flourish and Blotts' restricted section"
She pushed the table and chess set away, resulting to cries of protests from the tiny figurines. Climbing onto his lap, she grabbed his face and together their tongues fought for dominance.
CREEK!
Tilting her head, Ginny glanced curiously at the ceiling. Harry, mistaken by her action, started to give quick, loud kisses all over neck.
"Did you.. ooh, hear that?"
Harry's answer was a non-committal grunt as his grip around her waist tightened.
Crr…EEEK!
"Is that Kreacher? Why is he making such a racket?"
"Mmm… dunno, love"
She frowned, but went back to kiss him, even adding a little gyration which earned her a moan of approval.
CRASH!
"Fucking hell!"
She jumped out of his lap, nearly tripping him backwards on his chair.
"What the fuck was that? Harry, did you put the protective charms properly?", she whispered harshly.
Still in a bit of a trance, he shook his head before fixing his askew glasses and messy hair. "I always did… Hermione just renewed it 2 days ago"
"Well I've had enough of this creepy shit in fourth year, I don't want them back"
"Ginny, calm down. It's an old house, it creaks sometimes"
"That was quite of a loud crash we've just heard!"
"Really? I wasn't paying attention…"
She rolled her eyes, and grabbed her wand from the discarded table, "we better see it ourselves"
With the blue light illuminating the dark, the two figures trekked their way down the ancient hall.
"Did Kreacher forgot to light up the candles? That seems unlikely"
They stopped at one nearly melted wax encased by a rusty sconce. "Incendio," she whispered, the tip of the wand producing a flicker of flame.
SCREEEEEECH!
They gasped audibly as their wands instantly dimmed. With a quick Lumos, Harry quickly touched the wallpaper where he felt the noise came from. It was now silent, but he kept sliding his hand along the pattern, waiting with bated breath.
Thud. Thud.
Ginny is grabbing his sleeve now with a shaky hand. He continues to trace, each step taken seem to synchronised with the eerie, slow thud.
"I swear to god if Kreacher brings Peeves over…"
"That's impossible. Ghosts and poltergeists are confined in one place, no?"
"Well it must be something more terrifying given the history of this house"
He mulled over her words until cobwebbed surfaces and House Elf decorations turned to Sirius; his bright face welcoming him down the threshold with open arms…
"It stops"
They are now in front of a heavy oak door, presumably one of the Black kids'. They stared at it, waiting for another sound.
After a minute, she nudged him. "Well? Open it!"
"I… The noise has stopped, let's just–"
BANG!
What sounded like a heavy metal object dropping to the floor surprised them, until…
"Did I just hear someone… Weeping?"
"Oh god, it's getting louder now!"
"Oh for crying out–"
With a shout of 'Bombarda', the steady door was blasted to pieces, as screams of horror echoed.
Rushing in the room, clouds of smoke puffed. As they regained their vision, they could catch a glimpse of a sufficiently lit room, not the pitch black they were expecting. It is similar to the fireplace downstairs that Harry thought this was some twisted apparating room…
Until he saw stacks of yellowed books and cobwebbed-coated antiquities, one of them is a big rectangular table where two alarmed and half-dressed figures lied upon, discarded pieces of candy scattered around.
"Well, what do we have here?" Ginny sneered "looks like we've caught our poltergeists, Harry"
Ron gaped profusely as he tries to grab his jeans. His girlfriend screamed wordlessly at him to pick up hers, but under the pressure, grabbed a dusty white linen instead.
"Shit! Sorry, Hermione! Um, here…"
The flushed couple dressed quickly, knocking down some wrappers in the process.
"Um… Sorry for that, we got… distracted after we've arrived home"
"I can understand, you just can't deny the sensuality old, haunted rooms can offer" Ginny answered teasingly, clearly amused with her friend's attempt at maintaining composure whilst being surrounded by a sweaty boyfriend and disorganised furniture.
Her knight in shining armour, or rather, an incorrectly-buttoned white shirt, jumped to her defence as per usual, "Oi, leave her alone. I miscalculated when we side-Apparated that we bloody transported here instead"
"Ronald", she scoffed, but with a tiny smile. "I thought you've learned after the eyebrow fiasco"
"Well you should have distracted me a little later on, don't you?"
He puts a finger on a black smudge near the corner of her mouth, sliding it in her mouth. She accepted with an appreciative hum around his large pointer, sultry fixed upon him.
"Ugh… You already ran late with the liquorice and scared us shitless, do you have to continue being embarrassing?"
At the word liquorice, Ron perked up and released his finger to Hermione's disappointment. "Oh yeah! About those, we didn't find any at the usual store so I suggested WWW instead"
"A perfect alternative for baking condiments, don't you think?" Hermione added, jumping off to stand next to him with hands on the hips and playful sarcasm. "Well, love, you were surprised yourself that the products we made actually involved intricate ingredients"
"Doesn't mean they're edible!"
"Alright, as lovely this is, this place isn't an ideal place for your foreplay… with no regards to previous events" Harry sighed, before the two continues.
"Harry's right, just grab the stuff we needed. And preferably with actual decent clothing!"
"Alright, so this is the new product line George came up with, he's testing waters into food"
Ginny stares at him with narrowed eyes. "Am I hearing this correctly? You willingly took a prototype for yourself? Did you check him after, Hermione?"
Hermione giggled as she tucks herself underneath the blanket. Ginny reclined back on the sofa "great, he got her too. And I thought our problems are over tonight"
"No, Ginny.. We assure you we're quite sober, conscious, whichever terms you prefer, when we purchased these" she surveyed the swirls of dark purple cream decorating the cupcakes in front of them. "I was naturally skeptical at first, especially when George mentioned that it's called Liquorice Courage.."
Harry raised his eyebrows. "How creative"
"But hey, they're not as strong as Firewhiskey, so I convinced Hermione; what better way than to give a nice, responsible adult twist to your regular cupcakes?"
Hermione snorted into her hot cocoa. "That was a pretty good reasoning, love. You should stop by my department sometimes"
"But don't I always?" he replied with a wink.
"Alright," Harry intervenes, before the poor coffee table in front of him became their second round. "So I guess you horny prats downed too much of them before you reached the door, eh?"
Ron shrugged "At least we still left plenty, mate"
Ginny clapped her hands together and bring the conversation to a stop. "Well, we've had enough of adventure for tonight; let's enjoy our cupcakes before I have to bloody heat them again"
As the four reached to the tray, they stopped in shock.
The neatly rowed, 7 cupcakes had turned into crumbles right under their nose.
A/N: So… was there actually a poltergeist? Is it Sirius' ghost? Or maybe Voldemort tries to create Horcrux out of cupcakes. We may never know…