Discovering Fan Fiction
Aurora de la Noche
Chapter 8
Code Name: Cow
A/N: Longer than I'd meant for this to take to be out, but less than a week, so we should all be happy. Except me. Michigan calls in less than a week. Please give me ideas so I can get these out faster! I need help! (In more ways than one, but we won't talk about those all now...)
Disclaimer: Hmm. It's normally above my A/N. *ahem* Still not mine.
"You don't think she saw the books, do you?" Ron asked an equally sleepless Harry. Neither boy had been able to fall asleep when they'd left Hermione's room, although Fred's snores would make anyone passing by the room think an army just returned from battle had collapsed within.
"No, I... Hold on." Harry replied, taking a moment to stick a small, lacy pillow in Fred's open frog-mouth. "Anyway, even if she did, what could she do? We know she's an Animagus and all."
"Like that'd stop her."
"True, true."
"We should hide the books."
"Now?"
"Yeah!"
"She doesn't strike me as the type to... go to sleep right away, especially if she did see the books."
"All the more reason to go in."
"What are we going to do, go in there, and if she's awake say 'Oh, hi Rita. I think I left my fuzzy bunny in here, and I can't sleep without it, so I'll just be a minute. Fuzz may have slipped into one of these books. Let's take these 24, eh Ron, so we can sort through them to see if Fuzz got in there'?"
"Could work."
~*~
"Oh, hi Rita. I think I left my fuzzy bunny in here, and I can't sleep without it, so I'll just be a minute. Fuzz may have slipped into one of these books. Let's take these 24, eh, Ron, so we can sort through them to see if Fuzz got in there." Harry said while stepping over the half-awake Rita Skeeter.
"Mfmglishnef. Just get it quietly..." Were the 'coherent' words that she managed before slipping back to dreamland. "Stan! Stan! That's the way... yeah, drive that *bus* honey!"
"You don't think she means that guy who drives the Knight Bus, do you?" Ron asked Harry, disgusted.
"Ugh... If she has read the books, we can use that against her, return blackmail? She wouldn't want *that* to get out any more than we want these (bleeping) books to get out."
"That'd be enough to silence anyone, I think." Had Harry been able to see Ron's face, it would have been very green.
Gathering up the books as quietly and as painstakingly as possible, being sure to have all 24, and recounting a few times, they tiptoed cautiously back to the bathroom door. They'd nearly made it when
"Ron! Is that you?" Ginny whispered violently.
"Yeah, what, Gin?" Ron asked, holding his toe (which had just hit the post of Ginny's bed with an audible thwack) and picking up the three books he'd just dropped. Leaning over to pick those up, he dropped four more, and when he leant farther over, the rest of the books in his hands fell out, some onto Ginny's bed and some onto the floor.
Ginny picked up a book and read the cover. Before she could ask her brother what he was doing with 'Harry's' books, Harry reappeared in the bathroom door.
"Ron!" he hissed, seeing the books scattered about. "C'mon, we've got to get these out of here! ...Oh, hi, Gin."
"Harry? Ron? What are you guys doing?"
"We think Rita saw the books, so we're trying to get them all out of here. Trying," Harry wheezed, "being the operative word."
"Here, I'll help." Ginny picked up some of the books, got out of bed (untangling some sheets that had wound around her, pinning her nightdress to her legs) and lugged them over to the bathroom door. Harry didn't move to get out of the doorway.
"Harry? Can I get through, please?"
Harry made no response. Ron, though, yelped.
"Ginny! Is that what you sleep in?"
"Oh..." A noise of understanding, a heap of books (and some in the air), and a thump later, and Ginny was back in bed, under her covers with not even her head showing.
Ron picked up the books again and knocked Harry on the arm, forcing him back into the bathroom and then into the guestroom.
"Yech! That's what my little sister sleeps in!"
"It sure is..."
"Oops, musta slipped. Sorry..." Ron said as Harry picked "Prices on Harry Potter Collectibles" off his face.
"Yeah."
"Yeah!" Fred yelled suddenly, chucking multitudes of water balloons at both Harry and Ron.
"Fred!" Came two simultaneous yells, then at the same time:
"I thought you were asleep!"
"Where'd you get water balloons?"
"I was, and I made them earlier."
"You realize, Fred, that you have to sleep in the same bed as I? And now, thanks, I'm soaking?" Harry said deliberately.
"Oh, yeah.... Dam...p... Oh wait! Ha! I don't!" Fred jerked out of bed and skipped merrily into the bathroom, lightly slamming the door behind him.
"The girls' room?" Ron asked.
"The bathroom?" Harry asked.
"Let's check..." Cautiously from both, at more or less the same time.
When they got into the bathroom, they saw Fred's leg sticking out from the shower curtain. Silently pulling it back, the rest of Fred was exposed. His head was resting on a large lacy pillow under the faucet, one of his legs was over the side of the bathtub, and his other leg was hugged to his chest by both arms. Combining that all with the fact that his mouth was wide open and he was snoring, and the end result was something less than flattering. Silent agreement again. Ron and Harry looked at each other, nodded once, and were back in the guest room, each rifling through his belongings. At the same time, they straightened up, each holding his prize: a camera.
Back in the bathroom, a silent countdown had begun. Holding up three fingers, Harry looked to Ron for the nod. It came. Two fingers, one. Flash! Amazingly, Fred didn't wake up. Harry had a Polaroid, and Ron was astounded to see the picture come out. Harry quickly took four more pictures and shoved them all into the pocket of his pyjamas. One more nod, and Ron's hand lay on a metal tap with a large "C" on it.
After one large turn and a quick yank of a pillow on Harry's part, Fred was once again awake. Awake, drenched, laughing, and angry. Dangerous combination on the part of a Weasley, especially one of the twins. The only things more dangerous were both twins that way or Ginny alone that way.
The sight that followed was thankfully gone unnoticed by any other occupants of the house, save Crookshanks. Three soaking boys, two with ginger heads, one with pitch, chasing about the house, seemingly even they unaware of who was leading the chase any more. Three minutes gave way to eight, and fifteen followed with all occupants of the house blissfully unaware of how long this mayhem lasted. Eventually, somewhere near three-thirty in the morning, three dry boys, two with carrot heads, one with jet, were sound asleep in various stages across the carpet of the guest room at Chez Granger. One carrot haired boy lay sprawled across the floor with one foot somehow propped up on the large bed that dominated the room. Another foot (nearly impossible to figure out whose) was half in the bathroom. A hand with a small cut across the palm lay open on a cot. Snores punctuated the silence.
~*~
"Where are they!?" Hermione screeched quietly to Ginny.
"What? The books?"
"No. My wand and quill... Yes, the books!"
"Oh. Harry and Ron took them last night. They reckoned that she" jabbing a finger towards the sleeping figure of Rita Skeeter "saw them. Thought it'd be safer to hide them somewhere where she wasn't sleeping."
"Good."
"Just tell Ernie you're busy!" Rita screamed and sat up suddenly, eyes bugging out all over. She looked around at the two girls as though she'd never seen anything quite like them.
"Ernie?" Ginny asked, arching an eyebrow significantly (and impressively).
"Must have just been a dream... Yes, a dream. Now, dear, could we get some breakfast? That would be lovely!"
"You stay up here, Ms. Skeeter. My family still doesn't know you're here. It would be best not to shock them anymore, especially right now. Why don't you take a shower? You know how Muggle showers work, I assume?" Hermione used a voice somewhere between bossy and respect that she always used with adults. Some annoyance and patronizing were thrown into the mix too, for good measure.
"I do know. Do you happen to have any robes that would fit me?"
"Actually, all of mine are being laundered presently. You'll have to wear Muggle clothes, for now at least."
"Muggle... Me? Rita Skeeter, dress like a Muggle?" At a look from Hermione, she quelled a bit. "I suppose if the Boy Who Lived can wear Muggle clothes, they can't be too bad. And you, dears..."
The rest of whatever tirade or speech she'd been beginning was left to be heard by the empty room and the now closed door as Hermione and Ginny made their way across the bathroom to get the boys up. Ginny stopped dead a few feet before the door, halted by a foot stretched leisurely across the threshold. Hermione almost knocked into her friend's back, but stopped herself just in time.
"What...happened?" Hermione managed.
"I..." Words escaped Ginny as she surveyed the scene. There seemed to be water spots randomly across the floor, and a large circle of water that had dried into a stain on the wall next to the headboard of the bed. The boys were in the exact same positions they'd been in when they'd fallen asleep, but the girls couldn't have known that. The 24 Harry Potter books were, luckily, stacked between the cot and the wall, and seemed unaffected by any water damage.
Kicking Fred's foot out of her way, Ginny walked into the room, followed by Hermione. Pushing Ron's foot unceremoniously off the bed, Ginny sat and looked at the scene. A full minute passed before she began laughing. Hermione was struck by the ridiculous nature of the scene a minute after, and joined in giggling.
Ron was the first to wake. Whether it was by the giggling or his foot falling on top of his other foot, it didn't matter.
"Oy, Harry, Fred, gerrup!" Ron called to them, as the girls were both lying on the bed now, giggling and unable to speak.
"What?" Harry asked, awake at once. As he reached down to pick his glasses up from where they'd fallen next to the cot his hand was resting on, his pocket rustled. A smile crept its way onto his face, and in a flash he was next to Ron, halting the water balloon in his hand that was to wake Fred. Ron got the picture (A/N: yes, that's bad, but sorry :)) at once. In Harry's hand were five pictures, all of Fred in his angel's repose in the bathtub.
Holding them like a poker hand, and making a poker face, he said solemnly, "pick a card, any card, I won't look."
Ginny, Hermione, and Ron each took one and laughed for a good five minutes. That woke Fred up, but no one would let him see why.
The sounds of the door closing and the shower starting closed Fred's mouth. He looked toward the bathroom and mouthed, 'Rita?' Three nods answered him.
"Let's go get George then."
"I think I'll stay up here a minute," Harry whispered, suddenly suspicious of the instantaneous shower and door. It was too fast; no one could get into the shower so quickly. With Rita Skeeter, every action was suspicious and most fears were not unfounded.
The others nodded, and Hermione tossed him a smile and a "we'll be right back" over her shoulder. He nodded and waved them out of the room.
The door had barely clicked shut when the bathroom door was whipped open. Rita stood there, still dressed in her stanky robes from the day before, a look of shock on her face. Harry waved merrily at her.
"I thought the clothes Hermione gave you were in the other room?"
"I...thought this door led to her room. I got so turned around in there... Why don't I just go now?"
"Sure."
With one last evil look exchanged between Rita and Harry, she left again. While he sat on the bed, contemplating what could happen if she read the books, the other door reopened and his friends reappeared, this time with George. By the look on George's face, all had been explained to him.
"We need to do something about Rita. We can't read book two, or any of them, while she's still here." Harry cut right to the chase.
"We could report her to the Ministry."
"They don't know she's an Animagus."
"Dumbledore might!"
"Hey..."
Five more minutes of debate, and it was agreed that they would owl Professor Dumbledore on what to do about Rita Skeeter.
Another twenty minutes, and they were watching Hedwig flying out over roofs towards Hogwarts.
"Hey, I feel just like the Mad Muggle!" Ron said for the ninth time in as many minutes, alluding to his favorite comic book.
"Shut up, Ron!" George said, yet again.
"I know!" Ron went on, ignoring his brother's interruption, "We'll call it Code Name: Cow. Get rid of Rita Skeeter!"
"Operation Cow?" Fred asked with a funny expression.
"I like it!" George said, taking his cue from his twin, wearing the same expression.
"Agreed. Code Name: Cow is now operating!" Ginny said after a nod from Hermione.
A/N: Short. Sorry. I need to finish this! Ahh, they're not even on book two yet! Next time, next time. Might even be today, but don't count on it. Have fun everyone, and please review... I need ideas. (The spontaneous water balloons came from my friend's graduation party I went to yesterday :))
(-:
Aurora de la Noche
Chapter 8
Code Name: Cow
A/N: Longer than I'd meant for this to take to be out, but less than a week, so we should all be happy. Except me. Michigan calls in less than a week. Please give me ideas so I can get these out faster! I need help! (In more ways than one, but we won't talk about those all now...)
Disclaimer: Hmm. It's normally above my A/N. *ahem* Still not mine.
"You don't think she saw the books, do you?" Ron asked an equally sleepless Harry. Neither boy had been able to fall asleep when they'd left Hermione's room, although Fred's snores would make anyone passing by the room think an army just returned from battle had collapsed within.
"No, I... Hold on." Harry replied, taking a moment to stick a small, lacy pillow in Fred's open frog-mouth. "Anyway, even if she did, what could she do? We know she's an Animagus and all."
"Like that'd stop her."
"True, true."
"We should hide the books."
"Now?"
"Yeah!"
"She doesn't strike me as the type to... go to sleep right away, especially if she did see the books."
"All the more reason to go in."
"What are we going to do, go in there, and if she's awake say 'Oh, hi Rita. I think I left my fuzzy bunny in here, and I can't sleep without it, so I'll just be a minute. Fuzz may have slipped into one of these books. Let's take these 24, eh Ron, so we can sort through them to see if Fuzz got in there'?"
"Could work."
~*~
"Oh, hi Rita. I think I left my fuzzy bunny in here, and I can't sleep without it, so I'll just be a minute. Fuzz may have slipped into one of these books. Let's take these 24, eh, Ron, so we can sort through them to see if Fuzz got in there." Harry said while stepping over the half-awake Rita Skeeter.
"Mfmglishnef. Just get it quietly..." Were the 'coherent' words that she managed before slipping back to dreamland. "Stan! Stan! That's the way... yeah, drive that *bus* honey!"
"You don't think she means that guy who drives the Knight Bus, do you?" Ron asked Harry, disgusted.
"Ugh... If she has read the books, we can use that against her, return blackmail? She wouldn't want *that* to get out any more than we want these (bleeping) books to get out."
"That'd be enough to silence anyone, I think." Had Harry been able to see Ron's face, it would have been very green.
Gathering up the books as quietly and as painstakingly as possible, being sure to have all 24, and recounting a few times, they tiptoed cautiously back to the bathroom door. They'd nearly made it when
"Ron! Is that you?" Ginny whispered violently.
"Yeah, what, Gin?" Ron asked, holding his toe (which had just hit the post of Ginny's bed with an audible thwack) and picking up the three books he'd just dropped. Leaning over to pick those up, he dropped four more, and when he leant farther over, the rest of the books in his hands fell out, some onto Ginny's bed and some onto the floor.
Ginny picked up a book and read the cover. Before she could ask her brother what he was doing with 'Harry's' books, Harry reappeared in the bathroom door.
"Ron!" he hissed, seeing the books scattered about. "C'mon, we've got to get these out of here! ...Oh, hi, Gin."
"Harry? Ron? What are you guys doing?"
"We think Rita saw the books, so we're trying to get them all out of here. Trying," Harry wheezed, "being the operative word."
"Here, I'll help." Ginny picked up some of the books, got out of bed (untangling some sheets that had wound around her, pinning her nightdress to her legs) and lugged them over to the bathroom door. Harry didn't move to get out of the doorway.
"Harry? Can I get through, please?"
Harry made no response. Ron, though, yelped.
"Ginny! Is that what you sleep in?"
"Oh..." A noise of understanding, a heap of books (and some in the air), and a thump later, and Ginny was back in bed, under her covers with not even her head showing.
Ron picked up the books again and knocked Harry on the arm, forcing him back into the bathroom and then into the guestroom.
"Yech! That's what my little sister sleeps in!"
"It sure is..."
"Oops, musta slipped. Sorry..." Ron said as Harry picked "Prices on Harry Potter Collectibles" off his face.
"Yeah."
"Yeah!" Fred yelled suddenly, chucking multitudes of water balloons at both Harry and Ron.
"Fred!" Came two simultaneous yells, then at the same time:
"I thought you were asleep!"
"Where'd you get water balloons?"
"I was, and I made them earlier."
"You realize, Fred, that you have to sleep in the same bed as I? And now, thanks, I'm soaking?" Harry said deliberately.
"Oh, yeah.... Dam...p... Oh wait! Ha! I don't!" Fred jerked out of bed and skipped merrily into the bathroom, lightly slamming the door behind him.
"The girls' room?" Ron asked.
"The bathroom?" Harry asked.
"Let's check..." Cautiously from both, at more or less the same time.
When they got into the bathroom, they saw Fred's leg sticking out from the shower curtain. Silently pulling it back, the rest of Fred was exposed. His head was resting on a large lacy pillow under the faucet, one of his legs was over the side of the bathtub, and his other leg was hugged to his chest by both arms. Combining that all with the fact that his mouth was wide open and he was snoring, and the end result was something less than flattering. Silent agreement again. Ron and Harry looked at each other, nodded once, and were back in the guest room, each rifling through his belongings. At the same time, they straightened up, each holding his prize: a camera.
Back in the bathroom, a silent countdown had begun. Holding up three fingers, Harry looked to Ron for the nod. It came. Two fingers, one. Flash! Amazingly, Fred didn't wake up. Harry had a Polaroid, and Ron was astounded to see the picture come out. Harry quickly took four more pictures and shoved them all into the pocket of his pyjamas. One more nod, and Ron's hand lay on a metal tap with a large "C" on it.
After one large turn and a quick yank of a pillow on Harry's part, Fred was once again awake. Awake, drenched, laughing, and angry. Dangerous combination on the part of a Weasley, especially one of the twins. The only things more dangerous were both twins that way or Ginny alone that way.
The sight that followed was thankfully gone unnoticed by any other occupants of the house, save Crookshanks. Three soaking boys, two with ginger heads, one with pitch, chasing about the house, seemingly even they unaware of who was leading the chase any more. Three minutes gave way to eight, and fifteen followed with all occupants of the house blissfully unaware of how long this mayhem lasted. Eventually, somewhere near three-thirty in the morning, three dry boys, two with carrot heads, one with jet, were sound asleep in various stages across the carpet of the guest room at Chez Granger. One carrot haired boy lay sprawled across the floor with one foot somehow propped up on the large bed that dominated the room. Another foot (nearly impossible to figure out whose) was half in the bathroom. A hand with a small cut across the palm lay open on a cot. Snores punctuated the silence.
~*~
"Where are they!?" Hermione screeched quietly to Ginny.
"What? The books?"
"No. My wand and quill... Yes, the books!"
"Oh. Harry and Ron took them last night. They reckoned that she" jabbing a finger towards the sleeping figure of Rita Skeeter "saw them. Thought it'd be safer to hide them somewhere where she wasn't sleeping."
"Good."
"Just tell Ernie you're busy!" Rita screamed and sat up suddenly, eyes bugging out all over. She looked around at the two girls as though she'd never seen anything quite like them.
"Ernie?" Ginny asked, arching an eyebrow significantly (and impressively).
"Must have just been a dream... Yes, a dream. Now, dear, could we get some breakfast? That would be lovely!"
"You stay up here, Ms. Skeeter. My family still doesn't know you're here. It would be best not to shock them anymore, especially right now. Why don't you take a shower? You know how Muggle showers work, I assume?" Hermione used a voice somewhere between bossy and respect that she always used with adults. Some annoyance and patronizing were thrown into the mix too, for good measure.
"I do know. Do you happen to have any robes that would fit me?"
"Actually, all of mine are being laundered presently. You'll have to wear Muggle clothes, for now at least."
"Muggle... Me? Rita Skeeter, dress like a Muggle?" At a look from Hermione, she quelled a bit. "I suppose if the Boy Who Lived can wear Muggle clothes, they can't be too bad. And you, dears..."
The rest of whatever tirade or speech she'd been beginning was left to be heard by the empty room and the now closed door as Hermione and Ginny made their way across the bathroom to get the boys up. Ginny stopped dead a few feet before the door, halted by a foot stretched leisurely across the threshold. Hermione almost knocked into her friend's back, but stopped herself just in time.
"What...happened?" Hermione managed.
"I..." Words escaped Ginny as she surveyed the scene. There seemed to be water spots randomly across the floor, and a large circle of water that had dried into a stain on the wall next to the headboard of the bed. The boys were in the exact same positions they'd been in when they'd fallen asleep, but the girls couldn't have known that. The 24 Harry Potter books were, luckily, stacked between the cot and the wall, and seemed unaffected by any water damage.
Kicking Fred's foot out of her way, Ginny walked into the room, followed by Hermione. Pushing Ron's foot unceremoniously off the bed, Ginny sat and looked at the scene. A full minute passed before she began laughing. Hermione was struck by the ridiculous nature of the scene a minute after, and joined in giggling.
Ron was the first to wake. Whether it was by the giggling or his foot falling on top of his other foot, it didn't matter.
"Oy, Harry, Fred, gerrup!" Ron called to them, as the girls were both lying on the bed now, giggling and unable to speak.
"What?" Harry asked, awake at once. As he reached down to pick his glasses up from where they'd fallen next to the cot his hand was resting on, his pocket rustled. A smile crept its way onto his face, and in a flash he was next to Ron, halting the water balloon in his hand that was to wake Fred. Ron got the picture (A/N: yes, that's bad, but sorry :)) at once. In Harry's hand were five pictures, all of Fred in his angel's repose in the bathtub.
Holding them like a poker hand, and making a poker face, he said solemnly, "pick a card, any card, I won't look."
Ginny, Hermione, and Ron each took one and laughed for a good five minutes. That woke Fred up, but no one would let him see why.
The sounds of the door closing and the shower starting closed Fred's mouth. He looked toward the bathroom and mouthed, 'Rita?' Three nods answered him.
"Let's go get George then."
"I think I'll stay up here a minute," Harry whispered, suddenly suspicious of the instantaneous shower and door. It was too fast; no one could get into the shower so quickly. With Rita Skeeter, every action was suspicious and most fears were not unfounded.
The others nodded, and Hermione tossed him a smile and a "we'll be right back" over her shoulder. He nodded and waved them out of the room.
The door had barely clicked shut when the bathroom door was whipped open. Rita stood there, still dressed in her stanky robes from the day before, a look of shock on her face. Harry waved merrily at her.
"I thought the clothes Hermione gave you were in the other room?"
"I...thought this door led to her room. I got so turned around in there... Why don't I just go now?"
"Sure."
With one last evil look exchanged between Rita and Harry, she left again. While he sat on the bed, contemplating what could happen if she read the books, the other door reopened and his friends reappeared, this time with George. By the look on George's face, all had been explained to him.
"We need to do something about Rita. We can't read book two, or any of them, while she's still here." Harry cut right to the chase.
"We could report her to the Ministry."
"They don't know she's an Animagus."
"Dumbledore might!"
"Hey..."
Five more minutes of debate, and it was agreed that they would owl Professor Dumbledore on what to do about Rita Skeeter.
Another twenty minutes, and they were watching Hedwig flying out over roofs towards Hogwarts.
"Hey, I feel just like the Mad Muggle!" Ron said for the ninth time in as many minutes, alluding to his favorite comic book.
"Shut up, Ron!" George said, yet again.
"I know!" Ron went on, ignoring his brother's interruption, "We'll call it Code Name: Cow. Get rid of Rita Skeeter!"
"Operation Cow?" Fred asked with a funny expression.
"I like it!" George said, taking his cue from his twin, wearing the same expression.
"Agreed. Code Name: Cow is now operating!" Ginny said after a nod from Hermione.
A/N: Short. Sorry. I need to finish this! Ahh, they're not even on book two yet! Next time, next time. Might even be today, but don't count on it. Have fun everyone, and please review... I need ideas. (The spontaneous water balloons came from my friend's graduation party I went to yesterday :))
(-: