Disclaimer: Harry Potter, associated characters and setting belong to JK Rowling and whoever she chooses to share the rights with, which does not include me. This is for entertainment purposes only, with no copyright infringement intended, or profit made.

Chapter 3: Destination

"MUS-kip-u-lae." "Heavy on the Mus." "It's an old mousetrap spell." "It stuns and summons a mouse to a container." "We thought you'd like, it, Hermione, dear." "Darling." "Cutest General of the Weasley Army..."

The twins, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron were at the Burrow kitchen table once again. The twins had decided to only open for a half day on Mondays, making their mother's shopping day into the official meeting and plotting day.

Harry looked like a fanatical ping pong spectator, grinning heavily with his head on a pivot. Hermione was taking notes "Spell it, and pronounce it a few more times, please?"

"Sure, but you can look it up. It's in good-old pretty-boy Lockhart's book on household charms."

"That's in the attic, has been since the end on my first year." Ginny winced, and stood to retrieve the book from its exile in the attic.

Ron moved an arm to stop her. "Oi, do we really need that git's useless book?"

Hermione looked up. "The full description will be useful, to see if it can be modified and combined with the transfiguration. Fred, George, what color is it when cast?"

"Yellow, which is not good, we know." "But it does have a lovely rushing sound." "Which according to our memories of not-Moody's DADA class, is a good thing."

Hermione hummed. "Spell colors can be modified with Arithmancy or Runic additions. I'm more worried about merging the transfiguration into the mousetrap."

She looked up at the twins, and smiled. "Fred, talk to me about canary creams, since they don't seem to follow the rules of the books you bought for me."

"Ah, well, the books will tell you that humans transfiguration is done with an incantation and a wand wave. We use a time delayed spell infused into a potion. The transfiguration took a bit of work, but we weren't changing the person's size, so that made it easier. The potion made it wear off soon enough, too."

George nodded when his brother looked at him. "For your purposes, since you want them small, and you want them to stay mice, you want the original transfiguration, wand waving and all."

"Like not-Moody did with the Amazing Bouncing Ferret!" Ron smiled as he remembered that moment.

"Indeed, ickle Ronnikins."

"He didn't incant aloud. Does that help?" Ron was fondly remembering that day, with a slightly glazed look in his eye.

Hermione answered. "It does help. With the transfiguration possible silent, we can add a rune to-" she checked her notes "- muskilulae to make it green, instead of trying to merge the transfiguration incantation into it..."

Harry nodded, then started to shake his head. "It's still going to be a really hard piece of magic."

"You can do it, Harry. With enough practice and a good enough reason, you can learn anything. You don't have to learn all human transfiguration right now, just a mouse. Remember summoning charms, fourth year. We'll practice it until we all can cast it."

"Or you'll find a dragon to threaten me with until I can turn it into a mouse?" Harry laughed.

Hermione tilted her head. "Do you think the Room of Requirements could produce one for us?"

Harry sat up quickly, and opened his mouth, then stopped.

George laughed at the sight. "Bad Hermione. No Harry torture."

Hermione shrugged. "I do wonder about the capabilities of that room."

ooo

Harry's birthday brought an influx of packages to the Burrow. Most went down to the living room, to wait until there was cake, however Fred and George snuck a few directly up into Ron's room.

"Cloaks,two, short and red, as agreed upon." Fred slid a package under Ron's bed.

"Cloaks, long, for disillusionment, five. All lightweight, so we may get cold if we're not dodging fast enough. They're all tall enough for us, so they'll fit Ronnikins even if he keeps doing his weed impression." George slid another brown paper package under Harry's camp-bed.

Fred raised an eyebrow. "He's a growing boy."

George looked back at his twin. "That explains his eating habits."

Fred smiled. "Don't weeds like fertilizer?"

George looked back at his twin. "That explains his eating habits."

"Oi, prats." Ron started motioning the twins out of his room.

ooo

Hermione plopped down next to Ron on the couch. "Hi, are we safe to talk?"

"Hi, Hermione, nice to see you too, how have you been?" Ron muttered under his breath.

Hermione ignored the muttering and looked around. "I've been just great in the last 3 hours since we talked at lunch."

"Fine, what's on your mind?"

"I don't want to bring up bad memories, but I wanted to ask you a few questions. How did you go about caring for Scabbers? Did you keep him in a cage?"

"Ugg, Scabbers. -Umm, can we just call him Percy's rat for this conversation? He was free roaming, but spent most of his time in a box up in my room."

"That's not going to work for our mice. I guess we could get one cage at the Magical Menagerie in Diagon ally, and transfigure a bunch of outer things into cages, but..."

"But you worry that our transfigurations wouldn't last, or be as secure."

"Exactly."

They both stopped to think.

"Fred and George were breeding little pink... things last I heard. I bet those live in cages. Ask them."

" I feel bad making the twins do so much work..."

"As soon as we set foot on the train, we can help, until then, they'll be glad to help. It's not like Mum'll let us floo off to the Alley for a stroll when we feel like it."

"True."

They both fell silent, again.

"Hermione," Ron asked, "Now that we've thought of cages, what about mouse food, and where are we going to keep them. Twenty or thirty mice are not going to fly under the radar at Hogwarts..."

"Damn. Where's my list?"

ooo

"Harry..." Hermione and Harry were lying on their backs watching clouds fluff by. "Harry, I know you hate it, but you're a symbol." She rolled slightly so she could see his reaction.

"Yes, so I've been told." Harry flopped his head towards her. He was in a post Quidditch energy lull, hence agreeing to cloud-watching.

"Well, if you're an effective symbol, you need to be seen."

"One would assume."

"That means, Harry, that you can't always be running around in a cloak with a permanent sticking charm."

Harry sat up. "Bollocks! I'm... Hermione, I'm not going to ask anyone to do anything I can't do, and you're telling me I can't do this plan."

"Harry, I'm telling you you're more strategically useful in another part of the plan. And you're not asking us, we're volunteering."

Harry looked at her hard. "Who? Who would be playing target?"

"Fred and I both volunteered, once we got to that point in the conversation. George and Ron both think they're better shielders. Ginny wants to be a hexer. We can train for more then one spot, and trade based on who's feeling better..."

Harry's face lost it's angry edge, his eyes moving towards sad. "And my job? Useless figurehead?"

"Either a symbol to split their fire, or a hexer, since you can duel. You're not useless Harry. We're in this together."

ooo

Thursday evening brought an unofficial Order gathering in the Burrow kitchen. Since the teens had been displaced, they had an impromptu fashion show in Harry and Ron's room. They played exploding snap loudly, and Mrs. Weasley walked past the open door once, before avoiding the ruckus.

The cloaks to be charmed for disillusion were tried on first. Ginny's had to be pinned up three times, leading to Ron calling her a runt, and Ginny bribing George with a chocolate frog to bat-bogey him. Ron's was long enough, and Harry's only needed one fold at the hands and hem.

Harry smiling sadly, handed a red cloak to Fred, who put it on equally somberly. The ritual silence lasted for ten seconds, before everyone realized Fred was wearing a teen witches cloak. It was too tight in the shoulders, loose where he lacked a bust, and the hem ended at mid thigh, not to mention the red clashed with his hair. It was, in a word, ridiculous.

The whole group laughed hysterically for ages, and was finally managing to settle down, with Ron complaining about his cheeks hurting, and Ginny griping about lack of breath, when they heard the noise from the door.

Tonks was leaning on the doorjamb, her hair red to match the cloak. "Wotcher, Fred. I don't want to know, do I?"

They all looked at each other. "He lost a bet." Ginny piped up, to cover them. "He had to try on Hermione's new Quidditch Fan cloak and say the lines from this muggle bedtime story - 'Mini red riding cloak' I think it was."

Tonks laughed. "Little Red Riding Hood. My dad told me that one. Fred, watch out for cross-dressing wolves, and you should be fine."

Fred's face turned a little green at that comment, but he wasn't a Gryffindor for nothing. "Anything I should know about Remus, then, before I get this silly thing off?"

Tonks' hair went from Red to violet as she sputtered. The teens all started laughing again, and Fred took off the cloak. When she finally recovered, Tonks smiled. "Good one, Fred. I was sent off to tell all you lovely kiddies to go to bed, or at least stop making enough noise that we can talk in peace in the kitchen. So... who hasn't finished their homework?"

ooo

A.N. I apologize for the last chapter lacking section breaks when it was first posted. I've fixed that (and ten other typos) and now know what Fanfiction will allow, and what it likes to cut out. Sorry for the Noob mistake.