Molly Weasley gazed at the children in dismay. They were a stinky, sticky mess. Fred, George, and James hadn't been unarmed when they were ambushed and it showed.

Lily was, of course, covered head to toe in the sticky red jelly that had thickened to a snot-like consistency soon after she was hit. It had protected her from the bulbadox powder, James and George had gotten the worst of that boil inducing stuff, but the jelly had trapped lots of sticks, grass, and dirt. Her gryffindor red face matched her temper. She needed a bath.

James was half covered in boils and he kept tripping over the invisible silk twined around his ankles. Worst of all he had ooze in his hair, which would leave it sticky even after he washed it, and Lily had thrown some of the jelly at him as well so he had streaky red spots wherever it touched him. His eyes danced with spots from a firework mishap and his nose was refusing to smell anything after all those dungbombs. It had been a good day.

Al had pink powder in his hair, ooze on his shirt, and his hands were tingly from electric shock. He was also grinning so broadly that not even his grandma's angry voice could dent it. He had finally gotten off better in a prank fight than James had.

Ginny's shirt was a bit charred from a misfired firework, her hair had who knows what caught in it, and the smell of fish radiated from a purple starfish stuck to her shoulder. She also had a few stray boils but those were surprisingly soothed by the the globs of ooze dripping from her hair. She really had to talk to Ron about improving his aim.

Fred, ignoring his boils, scorch marks, and a smell of dung that clung like a second skin, had somehow ended up with mismatched eyes and a large mustache. He wasn't sure how but he was certainly going to find out. The new kids were definitely interesting, even if they were younger, and he couldn't wait to maximize their potential.

George had the most boils. He had covered his face before the powder hit but his arms looked like they were wrapped in red bubble wrap. Luckily they didn't hurt nearly as much as normal boils. He also had his fair share of colored splotches and his hair was missing patches. He wondered how the others had found he and Fred's stash. The new kids were certainly a mystery.

Ron was even happier than Al. He had gotten in some truly tremendous attacks and it was worth the collection of mud, ooze, scratches, sparkles, bitemarks, and stripes of color that littered his body. He also stunk the worst because the older boys, although supplied with plenty of other weapons, had made liberal use of their dungbombs.

Altogether Mrs. Weasley was having a hard time picking out which of colorful stinky mud monsters were her's.

"What happened?" said Molly.

The children traded glances, wondering who was going to step up first.

"We were... uh... playing?" offered Fred.

Then they all broke out at once.

"They started the it, not us." said James. "We were ambushed-".

"You dungbombed us!" said Ron.

"There was a battle," said Ginny, "and we-"

"They used our stuff!" said George.

"We had to." said Al. "You had most of ours!"

"I want a bath." said Lily.

"Alright!" shouted Mrs. Weasley. "That is enough. You have all made a mess of the yard and yourselves. Spray off with the hose and then I'll decide what to do with you."

The children did as they were told. Most of the glop dissolved and Ginny's starfish detached and fell to the ground, but the hose couldn't fix the red stain that James's jelly bomb had left. In the end, they didn't look much better than when they had started.

Mrs. Weasley looked at the bedraggled children and she had to hide a smile. She had long ago memorized the spell to take the sting out of bulbadox boils and she quickly applied it to each of the children. Then the remnants of the powder floated up and into the fire, unlike poison ivy it was burnable, and she applied some salve to the boils. They would linger awhile longer, but by tomorrow afternoon all the boils should have faded. Then she addressed the problem of the new children.

"What will your parents think," Mrs. Weasley worried aloud, "if you come home like this."

"What if they stayed here tonight?" asked George, thinking fast.

"That way they could get cleaned up and their parents won't be so shocked." said Fred. "Everyone knows seeing the aftermath is worse than just hearing about it."

"That's not always true." muttered Al, thinking of some of James's exaggerations, but luckily he was ignored.

"Please Mum?" said Ginny.

"You've only just met them," said Mrs. Weasley. "I hardly think they'd let their children stay with strangers."

"James, Al, Lily," said Fred, turning to each as he said their name. "This is our Mum, Molly Weasley."

"She is a mum extraordinaire. She's the best cook in Ottery St. Catchpole and manages to take care of all seven of us with the help of our Dad, Arthur Weasley." said George.

"Nice to meet you." said James with a grin.

"See Mum, now we're not strangers." said Fred.

"I meant strangers to their parents." said Mrs. Weasley. "And introducing yourself does not mean you know someone."

"Actually," said James, "My Mum thinks very highly of you."

"Do I know her?" asked Mrs. Weasley. She was more than a little confused. Who were these children? She was sure she didn't know them.

"Yeah." said Al. "But we can't say any more than that."

Mrs. Weasley looked oddly at Al and James sent an exasperated look toward his brother.

"Can I use the floo? I think an owl would take to long but this way I can get permission." asked James. "If you'll still let us that is. Al just likes being dramatic."

His siblings were a little confused about who exactly James was going to see, but they trusted their brother and didn't say anything. The Weasley children pleaded on their behalf. They liked the new kids and they were all curious.

Finally Mrs. Weasley relented.

"If you can get permission." said Mrs. Weasley. "And I would like to meet your parent's as soon as possible."

The children shouted their approval.

She decided that asking why James wanted to use the floo could wait. Although it was odd that their house wasn't within walking distance, the war had been over for years and there was no reason to be so suspicious. They were only children. Before James left she did insist that he get cleaned up. He suffered through the various wet clothes, detangling, and one extra strength boil healing potion (something the rest of the children refused to drink because of the horrendous taste) before he was cleared to go.

However he bided his time, waiting until his grandmother was distracted, before he took a handful of floo powder and tossed it into the flames, saying clearly, "Dumbledore's office, Sir Freddie Hopkins."

Albus Dumbledore was finishing up some of his work before he had to go to the ministry. Minister Bagnold had insisted he attend a Wizengamot council. He was busy, the end of term was in two days after all, but Millicent was a friend and he did owe her a favor. Then a boy stepped out of the floo.

Albus was startled, although he hid it well. How had the boy gotten in? The floo was supposed to be secured against unscheduled intrusions and the boy look to young to be a student, let alone someone entrusted with the password.

"Professor Dumbledore," said the boy, "I need your help."

"What is your name?" asked Dumbledore. "Where are your parents?"

"You'll understand once you let me unlock your memories." said the boy as he took a necklace from around his neck.

"My memories? Do I know you?"

"Yes. Although by rights you shouldn't."

James was enjoying confusing the old man who so often confused everybody else. He felt like a real man of mystery.

"I see." said Dumbledore. "May I have proof?"

"You could look in my head." said James. "Or use Veritasium if you really want to, but you did all of that last time. You also said something about a mark on the disk?"

Dumbledore looked closely at the metal disk and saw that it had one of his marks engraved upon it. One of his most secret marks in fact. He tested it with his magic and, from the rather brilliantly colored reaction, found that the boy was telling the truth. He had put his mark on the disk along with those for memory, travel, safety, and time. After a more careful examination he decided that the disk did what the boy had said.

"Very well." said Dumbledore.

James pressed the key to Dumbledore's forehead and muttered, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

The old man sucked in a breath as his memories returned. "I see you didn't listen to my advice."

James shrugged.

"You've been making use of the dungbombs Sirius gave you." Dumbledore observed. He had suspected the reason for the smell before his memories returned but hadn't wanted to make a comment. "Since I may assume you were not the only victim, watch closely."

He cast a specialized odar dissipation spell, and breathed deeply in relief.

James sniffed and his face started to match his red spots, "Oh, sorry. I forgot about that."

"It's perfectly alright." asked Dumbledore. He made James repeat the words of the spell several times and showed him the wand movement until he was confident James could show whoever was looking after his siblings. "What do you need help with? Should I cancel my plans for the evening?"

"I don't think so." said James. "I really only need proof of some sort of permission to stay the night at Grandma Weasley's house. It would help if it pretended to come from a parent. I really don't want to explain everything tonight."

"Very well." said Dumbledore, not at all surprised by James's news. "What will you tell Molly tomorrow?"

"The truth." said James. "I was hoping you could help me with that. I don't think would take it very well from just us kids."

"I will." said Dumbledore. "What does Molly know about your parents?"

"She knows that our mum likes her." said James. "Al said some stuff about how Grandma couldn't know anything else though."

Dumbledore searched his office records for several minutes until he found what he was looking for.

"Perfect." said Dumbledore. "Until tomorrow you will be James Newcast. Mrs. Newcast, formerly Miss Hunley, attended Hogwarts at about the same time as your Grandmother. She is now an Unspeakable so that should provide you a nice smokescreen."

He began penning a letter to Mrs. Weasley.

"How do you know she's an unspeakable?" asked James.

"There are ways of telling for those who look." said Dumbledore, thinking of a project she helped him with some years back. "Now take this to Molly and rest. I'm afraid I'm rather late for a council meeting."

And with that he ushered James through the floo.

"You two are being very mysterious." said Molly. The children had grown on her despite their refusal to say anything about their parents.

"James made us promise to not to say anything until he got back." said Al. Lily nodded, then winced as the motion caused the hair to be pulled. Ginny was helping her get rid of all the big twigs while Mrs. Weasley tried to remove the smell of dungbombs from the boys.

"What did you do to those bombs?" asked Mrs. Weasley as her spell failed to make a dent in the noxious fumes. "Honestly I don't think I'll be able to fix this before your father gets home."

Fred and George stayed silent. They knew better than to break the first rule of pranking: You don't nark on your partners.

"I'm back." called James as he stepped from the floo and presented a letter to his grandmother. "You lot smell awful."

She took the letter and read it immediately. "Oh, now I understand. The department of mysteries, of course. Not to high up she can't tell old friends though? That's nice. I'm ashamed to say we haven't spoken in years. But never mind that. I have plenty of pajamas for you three, unless you brought some back with you James?"

James nodded.

"Then you may want to take a dip in the tub and change." said Molly. "It might help with that awful smell, and it won't be the first time someone in the family had to wear pajamas to dinner."

"I brought some extra clothes too." said James, thinking of their bottomless packs.

Molly beamed at him. "You've thought of everything haven't you? You don't even smell like one of those dung bomb anymore. How did you manage that?"

"There's a spell, fugite fimun putre, and I think the movement is waving your wand like this." James copied what Dumbledore had shown him.

Molly did as he said and the room cleared. "Thank goodness." said Molly. "Why don't you boys clean up upstairs while I help the girls with their hair?"

It was a scramble at first but everyone was eventually washed, dried, and dressed. Although dinner was late, Arthur was too, and soon everyone was introduced and eating heartily.

Hello wonderful readers! Please review and tell me what you liked and what you didn't. Questions, criticism, or encouragement, all are welcome. Including grammar and spelling nazis (spellcheck doesn't catch everything). Seriously, I'm desperate. -Mythgirllily

P.S. A thousand thanks to those who have reviewed so far.