Molly felt as if she were going to pull her hair out as she set the food down on the kitchen table. Bill quietly helped Molly set the table, placing glasses of milk at each seat at the table as Molly pulled the garlic bread out of the oven. Charlie, who was now more interested in playing with the chickens than he was eating, was hollering from the kitchen door.
"Mum, can I not eat? Please? Can I please not eat?" He hollered, causing the room to fill up with more chaos as the twins started beating on the table with their plastic fork and knife.
"Food! Food! Food! Food!" They holler in unison as if they were starving kings from a medieval time. "Food! Food! Food! Food!"
"STOP!" Percy screams out, trying to make his voice carry over theirs, "That's enough! Stop!"
Molly couldn't help but feel overwhelmed as amongst all this, her ickle Ronniekins cried from his high chair, a mere six months old, begging to be held and loved on by Molly. She couldn't argue the fact that it was her fault Ronniekins had grown so fond of her affection, he was after all, the youngest of her boys and her and Arthur had agreed at that point, that with the Burrow complete, each boy having his own room minus Fred and George, that they were done trying. A realization had filled Molly not with Bill or Charlie, but after having Percy, Fred, George, and Ronniekins that she would never have the baby girl she had always wanted and she was tired of each time, picking out the most beautiful of girl names and then being let down by having another boy. So, one night not long after Ronniekins was born, Molly had sat Arthur down and told him that her heart couldn't take it anymore and that they needed to simply be happy with the six boys. Arthur told her to think about it before rolling over and going to bed, not agreeing or disagreeing with his wife either way, knowing how easy it was for women to change their minds and confronted her the following morning when she had stuck with her original plan. They were done having babies.
"That's enough!" She hollers out into the kitchen, trying to get her boys to calm down. She didn't realize as she said it that the twins were in the mimicking stage who in return started screaming "Nuff! Nuff! Nuff! Nuff!"
"Nuff! Nuff! Nuff! Nuff!"
"You heard mum!" Percy hollers back, trying to get the twin boys to stop screaming.
"Nuff! Nuff! Nuff! Nuff!"
"Bill, grab the stuffed snitch! Give it to Ronniekins!" Molly barked, frustrated over the screaming, hollering, and crying in her kitchen.
"Can I mum? Can I? Mum? Mum?" Charlie hollered from the doorway, holding up a chicken, half in and half out of the kitchen. The chicken, terrified that it was going to be what was for dinner, clucked and squawked as it flapped it's wings in the kitchen, putting feathers all over the floor.
"Charlie!" Molly hollered as the living room door opens up, Arthur walking into the house.
Almost instantly, everything stops. The twins drop their forks and knives as they stare at their father, Ronniekins stops crying as Bill hands him the snitch, Percy glares at the twins, giving them a 'You're in for it now' stare, Charlie quietens down and even the chicken makes a single cluck as it turns it's head, trying to see Arthur walk in the door.
"Daddy!" Fred and George scream out in unison, getting up from their spots at the table and running over to Arthur to hug him while Percy stands up quietly and slowly walks over. Ronniekins smiles big at his father, a string of drool falling from his toothless mouth as he does. Bill went back to setting the table quietly, looking over at Charlie.
"Put the chicken down and help me." He says, his voice calm as if he were talking to his best friend instead of his little brother. Softly, Charlie nods, setting the chicken in the grass at the back door and helps Bill by grabbing some plates from the cabinet.
"Won't it be so much easier when we can do this with magic?" Charlie asks, looking at his nearly ten year old brother.
"I don't know." Bill grumbles, thinking about it. "Mum couldn't have had me two months early so that I could go to Hogwarts at the same time as all the other kids my age. Have to be the oldest in my class."
"Could always be worse." Charlie reminds him, "You could be a squib."
"True," Bill answers, thinking about it. "I guess I didn't really see it like that."
"Besides," Charlie says, thinking about it. "You are the oldest so mum and dad have to buy all new stuff for you. You get new books, a new cauldron, you already have a broom you can take. Me and the others, we all get your hand-me-downs."
"Didn't really think about it that way." Bill answers, "I guess it is kind of nice then. And by then Ronniekins will be older."
"Exactly," Charlie says, as if he had been the one to point that out to Bill. "So mum will be done buying silly baby stuff for him. She will have galleons saved up so that she can buy you books. Maybe you'll even get to bring a pet."
"Leave it to you to mention an animal in all this." Bill laughs, shaking his head at his younger brother. "Although my own cat would be nice. Never had a cat before."
"Cat?" Charlie asks, staring at him "You wouldn't want an owl? Like a snow owl? They are so smart."
"No," Bill answers, tilting his head slightly as they finished setting the table. "Just a cat."
Dinner was chaotic as usual, food getting passed as Arthur explained his day at the office. He had just been promoted to the head of the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office and was now talking about it every day whenever he got home to anyone who would listen. Molly tried to listen to her husband but was oftentimes too busy feeding Ronniekins or telling Fred to stop trying to see how many peas he could stick up George's nose to pay close attention to what Arthur was telling her. Percy listened with the most satisfaction, not even caring about the muggle artifacts, but the thought of being in a room as big as what Arthur explained the main entrance to be. He imagined the windows upon windows lining the walls that appeared to go on for miles, the owls that flew from room to room as messengers and the fountains that spit out water. The departments and order of it all, the strictness. He knew there were no kids running around like mad men there, no screaming and crying constantly. Somewhere in the four-year-old's mind, Percy had found a safe haven in the thought of the ministry. It was his place to get away from kids like Fred and George.
Bill and Charlie usually sat there talking amongst themselves during dinner, usually discussing Hogwarts, magical creatures, or Quidditch. Normally it was a topic the boys shared similar interest in but even if they didn't, they talked just to talk. Their friendship had grown over the years and was now to the point to where, after Molly and Arthur tucked all the boys in and went to bed, Charlie would sneak out of bed and sneak across the hall into Bill's room. They would sit up and talk in the light of the full moon until the wee hours of the morning, normally both of them passing out on Bill's bed, one at the head of the bed and the other at the foot. Molly, upon walking in the next morning, couldn't help but shake her head thankful that the boys got along so well. She couldn't help but wonder how Charlie was going to take to Bill being gone for his first year at Hogwarts.
Suddenly, Arthur said something that stopped the entire family from their conversations at the table. "I brought something home." He says, causing Molly to glare at him before she stood up and started to clear off the table. She had warned him the first time after he brought home a toaster that there were to be no more muggle artifacts in the house. She couldn't handle the fact that the bread she placed inside of there was thrown out into the air merely minutes later, giving her just enough time to forget about it before she heard the pop and had to drop to the floor to keep from getting hit.
"I thought I said no more." Molly stated firmly as she placed the dishes in the sink and with a twist of her wrist with her wand, the empty gloves turned on the water and started scrubbing the first plate.
"I promise Molly," Arthur tells her softly, trying to keep her calm. "This one won't attack you. Just look at it." With that, he used his own wand to flick at the front door, causing it to open as a grandfather clock appeared. Molly stared at the item, it's height being of slight intimidation.
"And what is that?" She asked, watching the pendulum move back and forth.
"It is a muggle clock." Arthur answers, "but I figured we can find some sort of use out of it. I mean, look at it." He stands up showing Molly as he moved the hands on the clock from number to number. "It's how they keep time and it dings every half-hour. Tell me this isn't amazing."
The boys stood around as they stared at the clock, all of them afraid to touch it after he had brought home the jack-in-the-box, an evil little block that if you turned the knob enough times, a giant clown popping out and into the child's face. It had given Percy nightmares for weeks afterwards, him oftentimes wetting the bed right as he pictured the clown's smile jumping at him.
"It's fine boys," Arthur reminded them. "No surprises this time. Now Molly, what do you say we do with it?" He asks, looking at his wife.
"I say you take it right back to the ministry where it belongs Arthur Weasley." Molly answered, putting her hands on her hips.
"I have an idea." Percy whispered softly, staring at the clock in awe. "To keep all of us out of trouble."
"And what would that be, my boy?" Arthur asked, picking the four-year-old up with a groan so he could see the clock better.
"What if here-" Percy starts, pointing at the one. "You put bed. And on this one-" he says, pointing at the two "You put school." He went around the numbers, on each one listing something different such as work, garden, danger, and prison. He glared at the twins as he said the word prison, causing Fred to stick his tongue out at him while George snarled his nose.
"That's a great idea Percy!" Arthur says with pride as he puts the boy down and pats him on the back. "And we can give the clock more arrows, that way we know where everyone is. None of the boys will ever come up missing again." He says with a smile. "Nothing like your situation with the closet, huh Percy?!" he says with a laugh.
Percy flushed with embarrassment momentarily before walking off, smiling at the twins with a corrupted, evil smile as he did. "Serves you two right." He says in satisfaction as he holds his head high.
The twins look at each other before looking at the back of Percy's head, each twin only saying one word under his breath.
"Evil"
"Twit."