THC, Round 6, Gryffindor, Potions, Drabble.

Prompt: [Dialogue] "It's just a little bit of rain. How bad could it get?" (Tense can change)

Word Count: 719

Beta(s): Mumka, turanga4

Notes: Post-War. Fred lived.

Fred Weasley gently bit his lip as he carefully inserted a small ball into a clear cylinder. He couldn't afford another error because if he had one, the ball would expel pink confetti everywhere. He knew because this was his third attempt.

"Wow," a low voice murmured.

Fred released the ball. After a second, he let out his breath and shuffled backwards to look at his brother, Charlie. "What are you doing here?"

"Checking out the shop."

"You mean snooping on our new inventions," Fred corrected him with a playful roll of his eyes.

Charlie grinned; his white teeth proudly on display. "Isn't that what I said?"

Fred sealed the cylinder tightly with a wave of his wand. The shadow of his brother loomed over him. Quickly, Fred moved his product to the side and turned around.

"Not much is ready for the shelves. It's all very experimental and usually, not very functional."

"I'm guessing that's why you have pink confetti everywhere. Ginny's wedding?"

Fred nodded.

Fred and George, in general, didn't like anybody in their stores, however, when it came to certain family members, they didn't mind. Bill and Charlie, in particular, had been the ones who helped fuel their desire to create as Fred and Geroge grew up. And whether it was intentional or not, they still did inspire them.

"Is there anything I definitely shouldn't touch, and anything you want me to touch?" Charlie asked, his hand gliding over many different ball shapes on the shelf. They tended to lean towards a sphere shape to practice new inventions - it gave them a baseline. They could incorporate them into other things, such as toys.

Fred wracked his brain as though there was anything that would be permanently damaging. "I think you could play with any of the balls - just don't touch the hourglasses."

They both looked at the three hourglasses in the corner, which were magically taped off. Had it been Ron visiting, the temptation to tamper with the merchandise would have been too high, but thankfully, Charlie always had a higher restraint.

"Okay then," Charlieuttered before picking up a relatively small aqua blue ball.

Nothing happened.

"Well, that's anticlimactic."

"Huh." Fred walked over to his brother and examined it. "I'm sure that one was touch activated."

Charlie pointed to the label that confirmed that. "Hence why I picked it up."

Fred took it from Charlie's hands and examined it.

"How strange." The seams were all intact, no signs of damage.

Before Fred had finished his examination, Charlie had barely laid a finger on a white and blue 'cloud-like' sphere, and instantly, rain began to pour over them.

"You could've waited!" Fred exclaimed.

"It's just a little bit of rain. How bad could it get?"

The orb began to weigh Fred's hand as if by cue.

"What's it doing?"

"This is one of George's inventions…" Fred drifted off. His hands began to get increasingly wet, and not because of the intense rain from the makeshift cloud.

"I remember," he muttered.

Charlie and Fred connected their eyes for a split second before water overflowed uncontrollably from the ball.

"It's supposed to fill a small ball in seconds… however, it actually fills the space it's in. This whole place is going to flood with water!"

Charlie, without missing a beat, grabbed the orb. "I have another idea!"

Fred blinked at the popping sound as Charlie Disapparated. He slid out his wand and tried to summon the cloud back into the sphere. That was another one that let out too much water. But it wouldn't work.

Fred had veered away from them in the meantime.

By the time Charlie had Apparated back, the rain had eased but not stopped.

"Where'd you take it?"

"There's a drought in Romania right now and the dragons aren't getting enough water. That should definitely help though!"

Fred shook his head and laughed. "Maybe I should've let you take the rain cloud one!"

"Nah! The water pool one is definitely the worst one!" Charlie chuckled. "I love when your inventions go wrong."

Fred shook his head with a laugh. "If you love it so much, want to help me clear up?"

"Sure."

Perhaps Fred should ban anybody in the workshop, or at least, restrict what they have access to.