A/N: I hope you enjoy this fun little story, everyone!

House: Ravenclaw

Category: Themed

Prompts: House Elf

Word count: 1, 312

"That's the last of it," Fred said and handed his younger brother a cup of Butterbeer.

"Why is he getting the rest of it?" Ginny complained, crossing her arms and glaring at the other redheads.

Ron shrugged, grinned at her, and emptied his cup. Fred and George had decided that Harry needed a bit of cheering up after the disastrous end of the Triwizard Tournament. Not that Harry especially wanted a party in the Common Room, but the twins had insisted on it.

"Since he drank the rest of it, he's in charge of procuring new beers, am I right Fred?" George quipped and winked at Ron.

"How right you are, brother of mine," his twin answered. "Get a move on, Ronnikins. Down to the kitchens!"

"And bring some more of these crisps while you're at it," George added, waving an empty bag at him.

Ron stared at his brothers, who seemed to be deadly serious about it, then let his gaze wander to his sister, who smirked smugly. Hermione was rolling her eyes and Harry stared moodily into his empty Butterbeer bottle. Nobody jumped to his defence, though.

"Fine," he grumbled. It was nearly curfew for the fourth years, so he had to hurry. Now he wished he had given Ginny the last sip of the Butterbeer. In fact, it had even tasted a bit … off.

Cursing himself, he stomped down the stairs until he reached the kitchens on the ground floor. Still swearing, he tickled the pear and entered. The house elves were helpful as usual.

However, when he started stuffing the bottles and crisps into a large bag, his vision suddenly became blurred and he felt a little dizzy for a split second. Brushing it off as low blood sugar – he was already hungry again – he put the last bottle into the bag and looked up to thank the tiny house elves. But instead of Tinky, the elf who had helped him, something big and black stared back at him. The monster had eight hairy legs and six eerily glittering eyes, and its teeth were dripping with poison. It was a spider nearly as large as the Acrumantulas in the forest!

Ron let out a blood-curdling scream, dropped the bag with the butterbeer bottles, and raced out of the room, ignoring the confused chattering of the house elves.

A spider – one of the most deadly predators – inside the castle!

Why exactly had he been the one to get more Butterbeer?! Ron thought bitterly and ducked into an alcove. Why spiders?!

Still panting, he peered around the corner and froze in horror. The spider had followed him! It clumsily moved along the narrow corridor, its fangs clicking with every step. Adrenaline poured into his veins, and he knew he had to move or the bloodthirsty creature would have him cornered.

Luckily, he had experience running from spiders, otherwise his fear would have paralyzed him and rooted him to the spot. His heart beat loudly in his ears as he dashed around the corner, just narrowly escaping one of the spider's legs.

There!

The stairs!

Ron nearly sighed in relief when he reached the wide stair well. Spiders couldn't climb stairs, could they? Having reached the first floor, he turned around to look at the dastardly monster. However, the tarantula was gone!

"Ha!" Ron exclaimed with a triumphant grin and turned around sweepingly.

Two sharp, pointy fangs snapped at his face – missing him by a hair's breadth. Gasping, he stumbled backwards. He didn't even waste time to contemplate how the spider had got there but drew his wand.

"Arania Exumai!"

But the wand didn't produce the beam of blue-white light he expected but instead turned into a rubber chicken! A Trick Wand! Naturally, the spider seemed completely unimpressed.

Cursing under his breath, Ron dodged a hit from one of its legs and sprinted down the stairs towards the other stairwell. The spider, though, was tirelessly following him and nearly impossible to escape from.

Finally, he managed to squeeze through one of the secret passageways where the creature couldn't follow. White-faced and panting, he eventually reached the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Are you alright, Ron?" Hermione asked immediately.

"Still afraid of ghosts, Ronnikins?" Fred teased.

"N-no. There was –" He took a deep breath. "There was –" Before he could finish his sentence, the spider appeared with a loud plop in the middle of the room.

"Ah!" Ron let out a scream and dove behind one of the armchairs. "The spider! The spider! Do something!"

Panic-stricken, he looked at Harry and Hermione. They didn't appear scared or alarmed at all. He knew his friends didn't fear spiders as much as he did, but their relaxed reaction irritated him.

"The what?" Hermione repeated, looking dumbfounded.

"Spider!" he screamed and peered over the back of the armchair. The monster seemed even larger than before, filling half of the Common Room with its massive black body. Desperately, he fired another Spider Repelling curse at it, but all he'd achieved was throwing a tin parrot at it. Where was his real wand?

"There's no spider, Ron," Hermione said in her lecturing voice.

"Are you blind?" he snapped and glanced around the room.

It was his older brothers' reaction which gave it away. They weren't hiding from the venomous creature, either, but rather snickered and whispered to each other.

"There really is no spider, Ron!" Harry confirmed Hermione's statement. Frowning, his green eyes wandered from the trembling redheaded boy to the chuckling twins. "What did you do?"

"No s-spider?" Ron mouthed as the truth slowly dawned on him. Fred and George! They surely had something to do with it!

The twins broke into howling laughter, clapping each other on the back. "Good one, George. That fear concoction is absolutely brilliant!"

"Fear concoction?" Ron repeated, infuriated, and stood up. Now that he thought about it, his Butterbeer had really tasted funny. He should know better than to drink anything the twins offered him.

He looked again at the spider, which was just as scary as before, but now he noticed his bag of Butterbeer bottles and crisps dangling from its fangs.

"This is not funny!" Hermione hissed. "Give him the antidote at once!"

"Come on, Hermione. Don't be such a spoilsport!" Fred muttered.

"You have to admit it was a tiny bit funny!" George added, rummaging around in his school bag. "Ah, here!" He took out a little phial and threw it casually over to his younger brother.

Hermione clenched her jaw and then looked at Ron, who still looked very nervous and cautiously glanced at the spider. Suddenly, a chuckle escaped her lips. In fact, it had been very funny how Ron had stared in horror at the little house elf – whom he'd mistaken for a spider – and fidgeted with the Trick Wand Fred or George had somehow slipped to him. Harry was laughing with Hermione, and even Ginny shook with silent giggles.

Ron, who quickly gulped the foul tasting liquid down, now stared at Tinky in shock. A house elf! It had only been a blasted house elf!

"Are yous all right, Mister?" the tiny creature asked cautiously. "Yous forgot the bag."

"Thank you, Tinky," Fred murmured and took the bag from the elf, who promptly disapparated.

"George!" Ron exploded and threw a cushion after his brother. "How could you do that? You scared the living daylights out of me!"

George only chuckled nonchalantly, sidestepping the flying object.

"We thought it would cheer Harry up," Fred said, grinning. "And we needed someone –"

"… to test our new product on," George finished his sentence.

"Gits!" Ron snarled, but he accepted the Butterbeer that George offered him anyway. The twins were right. Harry did look much less gloomy.

And if he was honest, being chased by a house elf through Hogwarts was maybe a wee bit funny

Thanks to my buddy 0WolfMoon0 and our Prefect Alixx Black for betaing!