Written for Quidditch League, Season 9

Kenmare Kestrels Seeker

Prompt: write about a magical invention that doesn't work as intended

Thanks to my captain for beta'ing!

Title taken from the old 90s comedies like "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids"

Lucy looked hesitant. Roxanne supposed she couldn't really blame her cousin's doubt. By now, Roxanne had dragged Lucy through disaster after disaster, all in the name of proving herself worthy of being her father's daughter.

Not that it mattered. Not really. Roxanne knew her dad loved her, and it didn't matter if she was a talented inventor or not. Even so, Roxanne's head was full of ideas, and she dreamt of her father looking at her with pride in his eyes as her products lined the shelves of the joke shop.

Unfortunately, so far her attempts all ended with smoke, tears, screaming, and the occasional injury.

Not this time. Roxanne could feel it in her bones. This was the one, the product that she would finally be able to show her dad that she was ready to help him beyond stocking shelves or running the till.

"Roxy? Hey, Roxy? You zoned out a bit there."

Roxanned blinked rapidly, forcing herself back to the present moment. She offered Lucy an apologetic smile. "Sorry. Let myself fly away," she muttered.

Lucy shrugged. "So, what have you got this time? Not another killer yo-yo, I hope."

Roxanne snorted and waved a dismissive hand, trying to pretend it didn't bother her. Really, that was the worst of her failures. The yo-yo was supposed to do tricks on its own, but somehow seemed to only want to strangle anyone nearby. Against her better judgement, Roxanne had gone to her mother for help, and she was, technically speaking, forbidden from inventing and experimenting until she finished her studies at Hogwarts.

"No. Not another bloody killer yo-yo." Roxanne scowled and shoved her hand into her pocket, retrieving a bar of chocolate. "Feast your eyes on this!"

"What's this? It isn't even from Honeydukes," Lucy said, her expression falling. "I thought you invented something."

"I did." Roxanne shook the chocolate bar for emphasis. "This."

Lucy rolled her eyes. "You've given up pranks and decided to try your hand at making sweets?"

Roxanne took a deep breath. She loved Lucy dearly, but her cousin could be a real pain in the ass. Of course, she knew Uncle Percy could be the same way sometimes, just a bit too pompous. Roxanne often had to overlook it and remind herself that Lucy was her best friend.

"No, stupid. Dad and Uncle Fred started out pushing their sweets in the common room," she explained. "So, I started thinking, and maybe I was too ambitious, jumping straight into inventing things that were too complex for me. But this? Lucy, this is something Dad probably never even dreamed of."

Her cousin's bored expression was wiped away in an instant, replaced by the return of her hesitation, mixed with the faintest hint of intrigue. "Yeah? What is it?"

Roxanne beamed, puffing her chest out ever so slightly. It was something she noticed Uncle Percy do sometimes whenever he thought he was being particularly impressive. "This," she said, bouncing on the balls of her feet, "is the Shrunken Head Chocolate Bar!"

There was a stretch of silence that was just a little too tense to be comfortable. Lucy shifted her weight from foot to foot, eyeing the chocolate with apprehension. "That sounds dangerous."

"Rubbish. Just a little bit of a potion mixed into the chocolate. It'll be fine!"

Lucy pursed her lips and shook her head. "Then why don't you eat it?"

"Because I'm the one who invented it," Roxanne answered, giving her cousin a how are you in Ravenclaw? sort of look. "That means if anything goes wrong—which it won't!—I know everything that's in it, so I will be better suited for answering questions!"

A moment passed, and Lucy didn't look so convinced. She wrung her hands together, staring at the chocolate bar like it had personally threatened her entire family. This was nothing new. Lucy was probably the most logical of all the Weasley-Potter kids, and even the smallest decisions usually meant she had to debate with herself to determine the choice with the best possible outcome.

Finally, making a sour expression, she grabbed the bar from Roxanne's hands and muttered, "I hate you."

"You don't," Roxanne said with a smirk, positively pleased with herself.

She didn't have long to gloat over her tiny victory. As Lucy peeled away the wrapper, Roxanne grabbed her journal and quill, quickly flipping to the last entry of notes. "Ready?"

"Not at all," Lucy said, but she still broke off a piece of the chocolate and popped it into her mouth. "Definitely need to add some sort of flavouring. That is foul!"

Roxanne didn't care too much about the flavour. There would be time to tweak the taste later. Right now, she was far more interested in how the chocolate worked.

For a few seconds, there was nothing. Roxanne deflated, prepared to write it off as another failure, when Lucy squeaked, catching her attention once again.

Roxanne watched in amazement as her cousin's head began to shrink. Judging by Lucy's expression, it didn't seem painful, only startling. Roxanne scribbled down a reminder to ask about any discomfort once the effects wore off.

But it didn't stop there. Lucy's body began to compress, all of her becoming smaller and smaller, bit by bit.

"Roxy?!"

"Hang on, Luce!"

Roxanne swore under her breath. This was not good. She didn't have some clever plan to fix this because it wasn't supposed to happen. All she could do was watch, baffled and useless, as her cousin became smaller and smaller, shrinking until Roxanne could barely see her at all.

Lucy, maybe an inch tall now, was nearly lost in the carpet, and Roxanne had to take extra care as she knelt and searched for her too-small cousin. "I am so sorry!" Roxanne cried as she carefully managed to grab Lucy's arm between her thumb and index finger. "I am screwed…"

Lucy made a sound, but it sounded like little more than shrill squeaks. Roxanne had the feeling Lucy was lecturing her, and she would never hear the end of this.

"Mum will kill me," she murmured. "I guess I have no choice."

X

"Hey, kiddo," her dad called, appearing from behind a row of shelves. He beamed at her, smiling that bright smile of his. Roxanne had a feeling he wouldn't be smiling for long. "I thought Lucy would be with you. Your mum said she was visiting."

Roxanne cleared her throat, anxiously looking around the crowded joke shop. "Oh, Lucy is here," she said, cheeks burning. "Er… Dad, can I speak to you in private? It's really important."

Her dad nodded. "Verity, have you got it up here?"

"Of course, Mr. Weasley!"

With that, Roxanne allowed her dad to take her by the hand and lead her to the back of the shop where his office was. He closed the door behind them and sat down behind his desk, gesturing for Roxanne to take a seat as well.

Roxanne did, reaching in her pocket. "Er… I… Dad, I shrunk Lucy." She set the small potion vial (no cork attached, because she didn't want her cousin to suffocate) onto the desk.

Lucy glared up at her from behind the glass. Even as small as she was, Roxanne could see the pure loathing in that expression.

"Ah." Her dad carefully plucked the vial tilted it, depositing Lucy onto the desk. "What exactly happened?"

Head hanging and face on fire, Roxanned exhaled deeply. There was no getting out of this, so she told him the truth, explaining her determination to be just as good as him at inventing joke products.

"I guess… Well, things didn't go as planned," Roxanne finished, looking at the too-small girl who was now using her dad's thumb as a chair.

"Head Shrinking Chocolate?" Her dad nodded, using his free hand to scratch his chin. "Not a bad idea, actually. I'd say you used a little too much potion, and it would need a few buffer spells to help focus the effects to a specific target."

Roxanne blinked slowly, shaking her head. He wasn't mad? She had expected him to at least tell her off. Was he really giving her pointers?

"Hold on, Luce," her dad said, setting the girl back onto the desk. "One thing Fred and I learned quickly was that these things backfire a lot. It's important to keep solutions and antidotes on hand at all times. Mind, the potion would eventually wear off, but it looks like you were a bit heavy-handed with it."

"Oops."

Her dad laughed and retrieved a second vial, this one filled with a honey-brown liquid. He poured a bit into a nearby bottle cap and set it in front of Lucy. Within seconds of drinking it, the girl began to grow once again, until she was full-sized, and her long legs were dangling from the edge of the desk.

Lucy turned to Roxanne, brows raised. "Don't get me wrong. That was pretty wicked," she said, her voice surprisingly calm and level. "But please don't ever ask me to do that again."

"I don't think you'll have to worry about that," her dad said, climbing to his feet and moving closer to Roxanne. He rested a hand on her shoulder. "I think it's about time Roxy becomes my apprentice."

Roxanne looked up at him with wide eyes, hardly able to believe what she was hearing. "You mean it?"

With a chuckle, he ruffled her hair, nodding. "Absolutely. Even your mum's warning didn't stop you from inventing," he told her. "You've got heart, not just a few crazy ideas. You remind me a lot of myself and Fred when we were your age."

Roxanne could hardly believe it. The chocolate hadn't done what it was supposed to, but that hardly mattered now. For once, her failure had the potential to lead to her greatest achievement.