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Part four, guys! And one more chapter to go! Will Hermione be able to get control of those kids finally?

Lesson 4: End time for Playtime

"I was just…I didn't.." Barrin stopped his stammering and made to run, but Hermione caught his arm.

"Oh no you don't!"

She pulled the struggling child over to a couch, and regardless of the fact that everyone was watching, she pulled him across her lap.

"You can't!" he screamed. "My mommy and daddy will—"

"Thank me," Hermione finished as she pulled down his pants and proceeded to spank him. Barrin cried out with each swat Hermione gave him, while the others just watched. In-between cries, Barrin shouted out for the others to come to his aide, but no one made a move to do so. They stayed back, slightly fearful of Hermione in this moment.

When she was done, tears were streaming down Barrin's cheeks.

"Now then. I want you to wait in a corner while I fix lunch for everyone else. Go on."

He sauntered over to a corner and sat, then Hermione turned to the others.

"Let that be a lesson to you. You behave yourselves, we'll get along fine, and you won't be punished. Now, into the kitchen."

No one argued. They made their way without any smiles or giggles. A few tossed curious glances at Barrin who was giving Hermione a dark look.

Luckily for Hermione, lunch went along well, which left Hermione under the impression that the previous day didn't contain accidents, but intentional set-ups. But with today's incident, she briefly wondered why Ministry officials didn't descend upon the house due to under aged magic use. Her greater concern, however, was handling the kids until they did show up. They had become reserved since witnessing Barrin's punishment, so much so, that Aggy didn't come skipping up to her for something. Instead she raised her hand.

"We're done now, can we go play?"

They all looked at her expectantly. The last thing Hermione wanted to do was become the bad guy. She smiled softly.

"As long as it doesn't involve my wand. Sure. And tell Barrin to come in here."

They quickly left the room.

"Hey Barrin, Hermione wants you," said Lori.

"Did it hurt?" Benjamin asked.

Barrin was frowning as he wiped his eyes. "No. But that's not the end of this."

"What are you gonna do?" Sammy whispered.

"You guys just…play," he said as he headed into the kitchen.

Hermione stood before the counter as he came in. Her arms were crossed and his head was hung.

"First of all, that was a very dangerous thing to do."

"I know. Sorry," he said quietly.

"After I specifically said—"

"Dad says I'm not a good wizard!" he suddenly blurted out. Hermione stared as she hadn't expected it. "They say I'm a bad wizard!" He pointed out the kitchen door, toward the other kids. "I had to show em. Had to."

Now Hermione was starting to feel bad, especially when Barrin started to shake and bring forth tears. She knelt down to his level.

"It's alright. I know what it can be like when people expects a lot, but that's not an excuse to break rules okay?"

Barrin nodded. "Can I have a hug?"

"Of course."

Hermione pulled him into her embrace. But such a move only caused her to miss the devilish grin spreading across his features. The sound of a crash from the living room pulled her out of it.

"What the…"

She trailed off as she left the kitchen and Barrin behind. In the living room, the kids were indeed playing, but with something she had not seen before. Large green bubbles were floating around, provided by some kind of bubble machine. They didn't look light like normal fragile bubbles. They were solid and thick looking, and the kids were volleying them back and forth with rackets of some sort. Not one of them popped.

"Hey! What's going on here! What are you doing?"

"Playing!" Lori cried.

"You said we could," said Benjamin.

"Only with approved toys. I've never seen that," Hermione argued.

"We found it!" Sammy explained.

"No," Hermione decided as she moved closer. A few of the bubbles were being volleyed into each other to make an even bigger bubble, but Hermione wasn't paying attention to that. She crossed over to the bubble machine to turn it off. "I'll have to talk to Ms. Stats about this first."

Lori looked over at Torics, who passed a look at Sammy, then to Aggy and so on. From the kitchen, Barrin watched eagerly. The kids volleyed the now one gigantic bubble, straight towards Hermione.

"How do you turn this off?" she asked as she flipped around with the buttons.

"Ah, Ms. Hermione?" Lori called innocently.

She looked up just in time as the enormous slimy green bubble shot her way. She had no time to reach for her wand or get out of the way. It slammed hard into her body, and practically absorbed her within it's bubbly confines, then crashed onto the floor.

There was a moment of anticipation as the kids stood still, watching, and waiting. It was as if the bubble had eaten Hermione as it had become so still. Then all of a sudden in popped into a sticky mess. The kids were saved from it, except for Hermione who looked like the equivalent of the Thing or some other slimy, sticky, green sea monster. It was as thick as molasses and as wet as algae. Hermione kicked out and struggled to her feet. The substance was slippery and as sticky, if not stickier than glue. She took a few awkward steps forward and tried her best to wipe the mess from her eyes and mouth. Then her gaze settled on the group before her, which was quiet. They quickly broke into laughter.

Hermione didn't stay to yell at them. She simply struggled up the stairs towards the bathroom. Every step was an effort because her feet kept getting stuck to the stairs. When she was out of ear shot, the kids congratulated one another.

"Great job!"

"We showed her."

"Did you see how green she got!"

Barrin walked into the room looking pleased.

"You got her. That'll show her for…you know.." he dropped his hand down to his backside and rubbed it lightly.

"What now?" Lori asked.

They all just smiled.

After two hours of serious scrubbing, Hermione was finally able to remove all the greenery from her person. Not once did she think about the fact that she had left the children unattended. Her anger out-weighed her concern for the moment. But as soon as she was cleaned up, she made her way to confront them. Apart of her told her to contact Ms. Stats, but a stronger part told her she was capable of gaining control.

Hermione paused at the top of the steps as she regained her breathing. There was no child in sight. Only string, strung all around the front room. She proceeded on, seeing no harm in it. The kid's creativity was more like a giant web of nuisance.

"Very nice!" she called out to the seemingly empty house. "Now come out!" There was no response. "Alright."

She continued her journey through the tangle of string. Turns out it wasn't as easy as Hermione predicted. Within five minutes, she was getting in quite a tangle. In frustration, she pulled at one of the strings harshly. Instantly she felt something cold and wet douse her on the head. Hermione gasped in surprise. The thing that had struck her was still sitting on her head.

When she reached up for it, she found it was a piece of a balloon, and the wetness was simply water. She scoffed.

"Must be running out of ideas," she decided. She continued trying to barrel her way through the strings toward the kitchen area. By then, she was so tangled, she was paying more attention to the string, completely missing the trip wire that had been placed across the bottom of the door.

She tripped on it and fell to the floor. Hermione froze and noticed what her foot was caught on. Nothing had gone off as her foot was still holding down the wire, and apparently holding back whatever gag was rigged to it. She realized she had to get out of it very carefully.

"Why aren't sixteen years olds allowed to do magic yet," she hissed as she carefully began to pull the string off her without setting off the trap. Then, walking into the front room was Miles, Aggy and Barrin. They, of course, were grinning.

"You guys are so dead," she muttered.

"Careful Ms. Hermione," said Aggy. "You could hurt yourself."

"You don't know the meaning of hurt!" Hermione cried as she quickly pulled herself to her feet.

The wire was let go, and it released a hidden wire lined up on the outside of the doorway. Swinging down faster than she could catch, came a large red quaffle that struck her square in the face. She had practically no time to react as the strike knocked her down, as well as knocked her out.

The group of three signaled for the rest to come in and gather around her unconscious form.

"Look, our sitter fell asleep," said Torics.

"Yeah, she's out for a nap," said Sammy.

"What now?" Benjamin asked the group.

Barrin moved closer and undid a roll of super strong spell-o-tape.

"Time to learn about nature," he answered.

"What do you mean?" Lori asked.

Barrin didn't answer. Instead he started passing out more rolls of the tape.

"I mean, our sitter's going to go for a change, like a butterfly."

All right guys, one more chapter to go! Stay tuned. Really tuned!